The Moon's Apprentice

by Forthwith

First published 12th of June, 2014

Twilight Sparkle failed her entrance exams for Celestia’s school. Worse, she is a danger to both herself and others, resulting in her magic being suppressed. Dreams crushed and now one of the weakest unicorns, a nightmare comes to her.

Twilight Sparkle has too much magic, and it will take her decades to learn to control it. Her spectacular loss of control during her entrance exam only proves that fact. She is a danger to herself and others.

After Sunset Shimmer’s disappearance, Princess Celestia needs a new student to bear The Element of Magic to defeat Nightmare Moon. With all of Equestria at stake, Twilight Sparkle…is not the pony she needs.

Princess Celestia seals Twilight Sparkle’s magic with the distant promise of one day teaching her.

But there are two diarchs of Equestria. Amidst a lucid dream, an offer is made.

“Hello, Twilight. Would you like to be my student?”

---

Cover art provided by Lafiir.

Original Oneshot/Prelude - A Dream Fulfilled

“Here’s your tea, Your Majesty.”

Celestia looked up from her paperwork with a start. She had entirely missed the maid’s entrance.

The maid quickly apologized. “I’m terribly sorry for surprising you.”

“Do not worry. It was entirely my fault. I have been ruminating on…some affairs of state recently.” Taking the proffered tea, Celestia continued, “Thank you for your hard work…Dusty, right?”

Blushing and nodding her head vigorously, Dusty said, “Y-yes, Your Majesty! I can’t believe you know my name.”

Celestia smiled and sighed internally. That reaction was cute at first, but after a dozen centuries, it has begun to get a little trying.

Dismissing the maid, Celestia returned to her paperwork. She barely made it past one sip of tea and the introduction of a new tax law when a knock came at the door.

“Enter.”

The door creaked open – I need to talk to maintenance; that is the third squeaky door today alone – to reveal a young, pink-coated alicorn princess.

“Ah, Cadance. Excellent. Do come in, and please close the door behind you.”

Cadance closed the door with her hooves and walked across the room to take a seat opposite Celestia.

Once they had made their greetings, Celestia asked, “No magic?”

Blushing, Cadance replied, “I’m still getting used to having a horn, Princess. I sometimes completely forget.”

“I was just as hopeless with my wings for the first few years. Give it time – and a lot of reminders – and you shall find it completely natural.”

“If you say so,” Cadance sighed. “Anyway, you wanted to see me?”

Nodding, Celestia said, “I was wondering about your opinion of Twilight Sparkle.”

“I figured as much. Well, besides my confusion over why you set me up with a foalsitting job, I’ve been having a lovely time with her. She’s a really sweet filly and a delight to be around. Really shy, but she warmed up to me quickly enough. Although, just between you and me, I’m more interested in her older brother.”

Laughing as Cadance licked her lips, Celestia teased, “We do have that one grand hall we never use this century if you want to hold a wedding.”

“N-n-no, t-that’s okay. One s-step at a – at a time.”

“It was just a thought, Cadance. No need to take it so seriously. Unless, of course–”

“No!”

Chuckling, Celestia said, “Very well. Now then, as you were saying…”

“Um… Twilight… Yeah… Just – just one sec.” Cadance performed a few rounds of the Traditional Royal Breathing Exercises and continued, “So, she reads a lot. And when I say a lot, I mean more than I have in my entire life. Mostly about magic, but sometimes we read adventure books together.”

A hoof rose to Cadance’s muzzle in thought. “Let’s see… She really likes cookies. Particularly butterscotch and the ones I make; the ones Sunset begged me to make, you know. Still a blank flank. Hmm… Lavender…”

“Okay, Cadance. I think you reached the bottom of the barrel. I was more interested in her magical aptitude.”

Cadance winced.

“Oh dear. What happened?”

“Well…it’s not that she’s untalented…”

“Twilight!” Cadance called out from the bathroom. “Your bath is ready!”

When no response came, Cadance called out once more. Still getting no response, she set out to investigate. In all likelihood, Twilight would be in her room, just where Cadance had left her.

After walking down the hallway, Cadance entered Twilight’s bedroom and, sure enough, the filly was still lying on the floor with her doll, Miss Smartypants, completely oblivious to the world as she read a book. She grabbed a page with her magic and slowly flipped it over as if it were the greatest and most delicate treasure in the world.

“Twilight, it’s time for your bath.”

Looking up briefly, Twilight said, “No way.”

“Yes way.” Cadance scooped Twilight up with her own magic and said, “Now come along quietly or I will have to take drastic measures.”

Plucking a loose feather from her wing, Cadance suspended it before her and wiggled it threateningly.

“Nu-uh,” Twilight said, shaking her head. Her horn lit up to a blinding level and both broke her out of Cadance’s magic and tore the feather to shreds. She then took the opportunity she had made to slip out the door past Cadance with the book she had been reading.

Ow…my horn… That’s one new experience I could have gone without…

“Twilight? Where are you? Twilight?”

No response.

“Twilight, you can’t get out of taking a bath! Wherever you are, I’ll find you! And when I do, it’s two baths for you unless you come back here right now!”

Still no response.

Cadance sighed. Oh, Twilight. Why must you be such a wingful?

Walking downstairs, Cadance began her long search in the kitchen. There were dozens of tiny corners and cabinets a filly could hide in and only one way in or out. Despite that, after an exhaustive search, Twilight was nowhere to be found in the kitchen, so Cadance moved on to the next room.

Fortunately, the house was laid out such that Cadance would be able to close doors behind her and not give Twilight a chance to slip between unchecked rooms and checked ones. Still, even then, there was an awful lot of space to cover.

Twilight was not in the dining room. She was not in the living room. She was not in the study. She was not in the foyer. She was not in the master bedroom nor the adjoining bathroom. For the last two rooms, Cadance had to barricade the staircase to prevent Twilight from potentially running from upstairs to another room.

Now removing the piles of furniture she had placed in front of the stairs, Cadance ascended to the second level and began her search once more. The hallway was clear. Twilight’s bedroom was empty. The closet was empty. That only left one room.

Whistling innocently, Cadance pushed open the door to Shining Armor’s room.

“Ehem… I’m just looking for Twilight who I know is in this room. Yep. Just that. And if I should happen to find something else while I’m at it, well, who could blame me?”

Cadance’s first target was underneath the bed. Sure, no filly would be able to fit under it, even one as small as Twilight, but a mare had to make sure after all. Disappointingly, she did not find anything of interest. Or Twilight. With a sudden spark of genius, she decided to lift the mattress and investigate underneath it.

“Drat. Nothing. I mean, I guess Twilight wasn’t under there. I suppose I’ll just have to try the closet next.”

Half slamming the doors open, Cadance was less than surprised to find the absence of Twilight at this point. Digging through everything else, she did not find a single embarrassing thing.

“Where in Equestria does he keep the stuff he doesn’t want ponies to find?” Cadance mumbled.

Eying the desk across the room suspiciously, Cadance opened all of the drawers at once and stubbornly riffled through them and found nothing. Nothing of interest. Not a single thing.

“Ugh… I give up. And where’s Twilight? I hope she didn’t go outside at night…” Wait, there is one room I haven’t checked yet.

Replacing everything just the way she had found it and closing the door behind her, Cadance left Shining Armor’s room and headed down the hall to the very last room in the building: the bathroom.

And there Twilight was. She was not even bothering to hide as she read her book.

“You have got to be kidding me,” Cadance complained with a facehoof to compliment her words. “Okay, Twilight. You’ve had your fun messing with me. Now it’s time for you to… Really?”

Twilight did not look up or even stop reading, but Cadance could see the smile on her grow.

She froze the bathtub…

“Again, I’m so sorry, Velvet,” Cadance apologized as she bowed.

“Cadance, you’re the princess here,” responded Twilight Velvet. “If anypony should be bowing, it’s me.”

“But I–”

“You spooked Twilight, and she reacted poorly. It’s happened before. Several times. Don’t worry about it.”

“But still, I shouldn’t have–”

“It’s fine, Cadance. Really, it is. If you insist on being scolded, just tell me what you’ve learned from this.”

“Um…”

Cadance looked out at the half-destroyed wall in front of her and the destruction around it. A shattered door lay in pieces everywhere across the living room. Broken glass was buried within the carpet and was likely mingling with ceramic pieces from a vase that was missing, presumed dead. The couch had mostly survived but was upturned with several rips.

“Never surprise Twilight with a scary illusion spell that you’ve just learned. And if you absolutely must, be sure Shining Armor is around to make sure you don’t die.”

Cadance stopped for a moment and then idly mused, “Or get severely wounded. I’m not really sure if I can die anymore.”

Shaking her stray thoughts away, Cadance finished, “Anyway, I’m pretty sure that’s the lesson I should take away from this.”

“It’s a pretty good lesson. Shining learned a similar one for himself a year ago when Twilight’s magic first started growing stronger.”

“I see… How bad was it?”

“About twice as bad as this.”

“Yikes.”

“Yeah… But we all learn from our mistakes and move on. At least it was only one wall this time.”

“Well…I have a lesson you can take away from this.”

Velvet raised her eyebrows. “And that is?”

“A princess always pay her debts.”

“Cadance, you don’t have to do that.”

“I insist. This is my fault.”

“Cadance–”

“Just let me do it. I have plenty of bits burning holes in my saddlebags as a princess and nothing to spend them on.”

“But–”

“No buts,” Cadance said, using her best stern voice she had learned from foalsitting Twilight. “As you said earlier, I’m the princess here. And when a princess decides to toss a bag of gold at you, you say thank you, not throw it right back.”

“Very well,” Velvet eventually conceded. “But I want to make this up to you somehow.”

“You don’t–” Cadance broke off to actually consider the offer. “Well, if you really feel that way” – she leaned in to whisper into Velvet’s ear – “you could always give me Shining Armor.”

Giggling like a filly, Velvet whisper back, “Like, to keep?”

“Oh, no. Of course not. Slavery is illegal.”

“For males.”

“Plausible deniability is the name of the game, Velvet. They’re not our slaves. They’re coltfriends.”

“And husbands.”

“Let’s just stick with coltfriends for now.”

“…and that’s more or less where she is with magic.” Cadance licked her rather dry lips after concluding her story. “I could give a bunch of other examples besides those two, but I think I’ve made my point. She’s very strong but lacks any true control to speak of.”

“I see…” She might be a Flare, just like Sunset Shimmer was. I should love to have a Flare to bear the Element of Magic, but it’s too late. Nightmare Moon will return before I could teach one to control her magic. I need somepony…lesser, I suppose is the way to put it. The last thing I want is a repeat of last time.

Celestia sighed inwardly. Only time will tell. I shall know for sure when she grows a little more. In the meantime, I need to increase my watch on other potential bearers. Trixie Lulamoon was a good second pick. I hope she develops well in the year between now and her entrance exams. Moondancer was also–

“Princess Celestia?”

From the expression on her face, Cadance obviously had been trying to get Celestia’s attention for some time now.

“Yes?”

“Why are you so interested in Twilight? I mean, I trust you, but…things tend to get complicated when you get involved.”

“Oh, it is nothing so serious. I am merely looking for a new student. It has been several years since Sunset disappeared. That is as good of a resignation as any other, I fear.”

Heaving a sigh of relief, Cadance said, “Alright then. I can say without a doubt that Twilight is the strongest unicorn I’ve ever met, so she gets my recommendation.”

“And of course there would not be a single hint of any other biases in that recommendation.”

“Of course not.” Cadance hesitated under Celestia’s smile. “You know. Probably.”

“Very well. It will be some time yet before I make a decision, but your opinion is noted. Speaking of, I was hoping to get your opinion on a few matters later. Would you care to take supper with me?”

“Sounds great,” Cadance said with a nod and a smile. “But Princess?”

“Hmm?”

“Please don’t give up on Sunset. I miss her, too.”

Celestia’s smile faltered for a fraction of a second, but she nodded. Maybe someday Sunset would return on her own; for all her immense power, nothing Celestia had tried had managed to find the mare.

“What if I can’t do what they tell me to?” Twilight asked her mother. “What if… What if they ask me to turn somepony into a plant? I don’t know how to do that.”

“Twilight,” Mom reassured, “they will ask you to do the same thing as every other unicorn, or something very similar. Entrance exams would not be fair if they tested prospective students on obscure magic they couldn’t possibly know yet.”

“But what if they do? Or what if there’s some spell that every unicorn should know by my age that I haven’t learned yet?”

“You’ll do just fine, Sweetie,” Dad said. “Shining went through the entrance exams, too, and passed with flying colors. All he had to do was lift something heavy. In fact, I think the exams have something to do with telekinesis every year. Something you excel at.”

“For certain definitions of excel…” Like breaking half the things I use mine on… “What if I break everything and they ship me away to prison to work off my debt to society?”

“Okay, now your fears are becoming completely ungrounded, young filly,” Mom said with a facehoof. “Just do your best. You wouldn’t want the proctors to get impatient waiting for you, would you?”

Twilight gasped before bolting off into the exam room to the cry of, “Dear Celestia, you’re right!”

The room was a large lecture hall with a dozen rows of chairs, and at the very front, halfway between the front row and the chalkboard, was a wooden cart with a large egg upon it. At the very back of the room, Twilight spied five ponies wielding clipboards with sour looks on their faces.

Oh no! I’m already too late! They’re going to fail me for wasting their time! Why, oh why didn’t I just come straight in here?

“Twilight Sparkle?”

Twilight snapped to attention upon hearing her name and said, “I’m so sorry I was late. Please don’t fail me. I promise not to do it again.”

Of the five ponies in the back, the middle one raised an eyebrow. Then she said, “Um… You’re not late, but I appreciate your punctual fervor.”

Twilight blushed and looked away.

“Anyway, your exam is very simple. You need only lift the egg in front of you with your telekinesis and suspend it in the air for as long as you can.”

Bitting her lip, Twilight took a quick glance at her parents who had entered the room behind her. They gave her a reassuring look, and Twilight turned back to the proctors.

“But – but what if I break it? I don’t want to – to kill a baby…whatever is inside this egg.”

The proctors gave Twilight what she hoped was an approving look.

“Don’t worry about that, Twilight. That egg is very durable. Even Princess Celestia would have to deliberately try to break it in order to do so. Just do your best.”

With a gulp and a weak nod, Twilight turned to the egg.

Okay, Twilight. You can do this. This is the most important day of your life. Your entire future will be affected by the outcome of this day. Don’t blow this.

Twilight reached out to the egg with her magic with the faintest touch she could possibly manage only to feel her magic sputter out in small sparks.

Wha… Did that egg just reject my magic?

Trying again, Twilight got the same result. The feeling was like the magical equivalent of having a door slammed in one’s face.

Once more, Twilight reached out with her magic, but this time she tried to increase how much strength she put into it without letting her magic go out of control. However, she only met the same result. Again and again she tried, each time increasing the amount of magic she used as much as she dared. She even tried a few poses like she had seen that filly Trixie make in the waiting room earlier. Surely she had had a reason for making them.

Whatever secrets Trixie had, however, they were not helping Twilight, and she had reached her limit. Any more and she knew she risked causing major damage to not just the egg, but the room as a whole.

Twilight collapsed on the ground on the verge of tears.

“I’m so sorry for wasting your time,” she whispered.

Suddenly, a deafening boom echoed through the room. It was followed soon after by a burst of magical energy. When it struck Twilight’s horn, she yelped. And then the worst thing ever happened: she lost control.

Choking back a scream from the pain, Twilight threw as much of her magical output at the egg as she could, hoping to salvage the disaster. Somehow.

To her surprise, the egg hatched under the influence of her magic and revealed a baby dragon. Unable to cut the flow, Twilight gave more and more magic to the dragon, and it absorbed each and every bit, quickly growing large enough to burst through the walls and ceiling.

Startled by the dragon’s growth, Twilight’s magic grew even stronger, and she lost her feeble influence on its direction. Random bursts of magic flew through the room and the area had become so saturated with it that a field of magic was actually visible around her.

But to Twilight, the world was pain.

Through her screaming, Twilight saw her magic turn her parents into plants out of the corner of her eye. She had the vague impression that something had happened to the proctors as well, but they were too far in her peripheral vision to know for sure, and she had other things occupying her attention.

Somehow, Twilight’s magic even managed to conjure an illusion of Princess Celestia in front of her. The princess had some sort of metal ring with her, and for some reason she put it over Twilight’s horn.

Once the ring was affixed, Twilight’s magic abruptly cut off as if it had been severed from her with a knife. She fell roughly to the floor, hit her head, and welcomed her failing senses as she fell unconscious.

Celestia wanted to sigh as she took her seat. There were plenty of times she wanted to sigh. Open court was perhaps where her sighing most threatened to overtake her, but her current situation was a close second.

Twilight Velvet and Night Light sat across from her. On a nearby pile of pillows that Celestia had conjured slept Twilight Sparkle. The magic suppressor she had prepared just in case was still on the filly’s horn.

How do I tell these ponies that I have too little time to help their filly? Sunset took twenty-three years to get her magic under control, and she was one of the most talented unicorns I have had the pleasure to teach. Nightmare Moon returns in half as many years. I just cannot use Twilight Sparkle.

Celestia took a guilty glance at Twilight Sparkle’s haunch and the pink and white stars on it.

She just had to get a cutie mark in every field of magic, just like Sunset. She even loves butterscotch, too…

“Princess Celestia,” Night Light said, “is Twilight going to be okay?”

Fighting back her urge to sigh and frown, Celestia kept a neutral face. “Physically, yes. She is quite well and shall be on her hooves again after a full day’s rest. Magically, however, is an entirely different matter.”

Celestia paused to let herself feel as bad as she deserved as Twilight Sparkle’s parents’ faces went from hopeful to frantic.

“Your filly is something called a Flare. It is a very rare magical…not affliction, per say, but you could think of it as such.”

“Is there a cure?” Twilight Velvet asked, her voice cracking.

Shaking her head, Celestia answered, “There is not. Flares are normal in every way except in their magic. They are born with an extraordinary amount far beyond their ability to control. With strict discipline throughout their entire lives, Flares are capable of learning both how to wield their power as well as how to reign it in if it begins to flare – hence the name – as you witnessed earlier today.

“Unfortunately, that is a long, difficult, and dangerous journey. Because Flares rarely appear more than twice a century, I usually make it my business to oversee their training. If Cadance were significantly older, I could entrust her with the task. However, as the world stands today, I am the only pony capable of mentoring your daughter.”

Celestia let her words hang in the air, hoping that the implication was clear enough. It was not.

“So – so you’ll teach her?” Twilight Velvet asked. “You’ll help her with her magic? I – it’s funny, really. She always kept going on and on about wanting to raise the sun. She even imagined she could feel it at times. We didn’t have the heart to tell her she’d never be able to. But this is a good substitute.”

This time Celestia did frown, and both parents knew exactly what it meant.

“I am sorry,” whispered Celestia. “I truly am. I am in a desperate time crunch right now, and not a political or personal one. I would not be able to give her all the attention she would require.”

Surprisingly to Celestia, it was Night Light who quietly sobbed. Twilight Velvet, on the other hoof, choose to shout.

“How can you do that? She needs you more than anypony else, and you won’t help her! Just look at her! She has a cutie mark in magic now! What do you think will happen to her when we tell her that she’ll never be able to use magic again?”

Celestia took a deep breath without showing it and said, “She shall not be completely without magic. She is too powerful for the suppressor to completely counteract her. A little bit of her strength shall seep out and allow her a few weak spells like telekinesis. She will be one of the weakest unicorns, but she her magic shall remain available to her.”

“So what? Do you know what we ground her for? For studying magic hours after her bedtime! Magic she’ll never be able to cast again because you won’t help her!”

Night Light interrupted his wife’s tirade with a hug. That was all she needed to fall into tears herself. No more angry words were flung, but the tension in the room only worsened.

Celestia turned her attention to Twilight Sparkle and away from the filly’s parents. “She is still young, and she shall grow stronger with age. With a little luck, she may grow strong enough to reach average levels even with the suppressor on. After…a long time…I shall try my hardest and then some to teach her.

“However, I offer an advance warning. Flares not taught from a young age generally are unable to learn control without resorting to extreme measures. I have only heard tale of one Flare to overcome such a barrier.”

“Who?”

“The ‘Father of Magic’, Star Swirl the Bearded. It could be just a legend, though. He lived long before I was born. I do not want to unnecessarily raise your hopes.”

“Not when you could so easily fix everything right now,” snapped Twilight Velvet.

Celestia did not flinch – she never flinched – but it did take her a second to find her voice again.

“If Twilight Sparkle ever finds herself in need of anything, ask Cadance to inform me, and she shall have it. You are welcome to stay in the castle for as long as you wish while she recovers. I know Cadance will gladly show you where everything is, and I expect she should be overjoyed to share a room with you. I shall send her to you shortly.”

Before anything else could be said, Celestia teleported away and reappeared in her bedroom.

Finally free to sigh, Celestia thought, That went about as well as expected.

“Twilight? What’s wrong?”

Snuggled against Princess Celestia, Twilight was reading a book about magic and silently crying. The book only held things she already knew, but it was always good to review.

“It’s nothing, Princess.” Twilight touched her horn with a hoof where there was not a ring of pure evil. “I’m just sad this is only a dream. Again… For the thirty-ninth time… A-And this time I know it’s a dream, and that makes it s-so much worse.”

The princess pulled Twilight forward with her wing and nuzzled her affectionately.

“My dear faithful student, this isn’t a dream.”

“Yes it is!” Twilight sank into the princess’s soft coat and repeated, “Yes it is…”

“Shh… Dear Twilight, you’re not in a dream. This is real. You’re my student. We spend lots of time together, and everyday you learn a new spell. And, of course, you get to stay up late without getting yelled at. I know how much of a night owl you are. I understand how much it exhausts you to sleep through the night.”

“Stop it,” Twilight cried. “Please… Please, I can’t take it anymore.”

Twilight phased through the wing that bound her as if it were an illusion and ran out of the room, trailing tears behind her. She ran endlessly through the bizarre geometry of Canterlot Castle in her dream, never growing tired or even short of breath.

Finally, her mind had decided she had run enough, and her legs gave out in an empty bedroom. With the last of her energy, Twilight commanded a blanket to come to her without magic, and she cocooned herself in it so she could cry in peace.

Minutes, or perhaps hours, passed without Twilight being disturbed. She never left her cocoon once the entire time.

Why? Why can’t I at least enjoy my dreams? They’re – they’re all I have left…

Twilight felt herself be picked up in somepony’s magic. Or at least the blankets were. For all she knew, she might have just been along for the ride.

“Go away! I don’t want to see you!”

Whatever figment of her imagination that was bothering her beyond her covers paid her no heed and continued unwrapping her. Irritated, Twilight tried disposing of that part of her dream to no avail.

“I said go away…” Twilight murmured. “Please just leave me alone.”

Once the blanket was fully unwound, Twilight nearly plopped to the floor, but she was caught with the same magic that had been manipulating the blanket. She was then gently placed on the ground facing somepony she had never seen before.

Somepony with the same stunning, regal beauty that Princess Celestia had.

Somepony with a pure black coat and an æthereal mane and tail that held the stars themselves.

Somepony with wings and a horn.

Somepony of incredible stature that dwarfed Twilight’s meager height and rivaled even the princess.

And her eyes, they were turquoise, and her pupils were familiar. Twilight could never forget any moment, any sense, any agony – both mental and physical – of her exam. This alicorn’s eyes were just like the eyes of the dragon she had hatched: long and narrow slits that seemed to peer into a pony’s very essence, both terrifying and mesmerizing, and yet strangely appealing.

When she spoke, it was with the same song-like quality as Princess Celestia.

“Hello, Twilight.”

Nearly petrified, Twilight stammered, “W-who are y-you?”

The alicorn smiled and said, “I have many names, my dear Twilight, but I believe you would wish to know me as Luna. Or the forgotten diarch of Equestria, if you are interested in history.”

Her curiosity overcoming her more primitive instincts, Twilight asked, “Diarch? As in…a princess? Why would I dream about you? What are you exactly? Where did you come from? Or I guess rather what memories do I have that led me to dream about you? Are you just some sort of coping device for” – Twilight felt herself mentally stumble as she tried to put words to her situation – “my life…”

Luna smiled and sat down, beckoning Twilight to come closer.

“I am no mere denizen of your dreams, Twilight. I am a dreamwalker; I am a real pony who has come to visit you as you sleep. And yes, I am a princess. But with you, I would much prefer to be informal, just like how you are with my adopted niece, Cadenza.”

“Cadance? Niece? But wouldn’t that mean you’re the princess’s sister?”

Nodding, Luna said, “Indeed I am.”

Flying into full panic, Twilight backed off and fell into a deep bow. “I’m so sorry I shouted at you. And for treating the princess in my dreams so poorly earlier. And for being so inf–”

Luna put a hoof to Twilight’s mouth. “It is quite alright, Twilight. My sister and I are…not on particularly good terms. Feel free to vent your frustrations with her as much as you wish. I, at least, shall understand completely.

“And unlike her, I would not see your talent be as a curse to you.”

Twilight’s eyes went wide. “You mean…” she began, not daring to finish her sentence lest she unnecessarily raise her own hopes.

“Twilight Sparkle, unicorn Flare and perhaps the strongest one to appear in millennia, I would ask you to be my student in the art of magic.”

Before even an instant had passed, Twilight shouted, “Yes!” Then bouncing around in a circle around Luna, she continued shouting, “Yes,” over and over.

In the meanwhile, Luna had enjoyed a dignified laugh at Twilight’s antics. After the third lap, she said, “Okay, Twilight, I think I know what your answer is by now.”

Ending her bouncing and blushing, Twilight said, “Oh, um, thank you so much, Pri – er, L-Luna?” Getting a smile and a nod, Twilight managed to smile back.

Amidst Twilight’s nervous fidgeting, Luna asked, “Do you have a question? Or a request? You can say or ask anything you wish.”

“Oh, um… Well… I was just wondering how this is going to work. I mean, I’ve never actually heard of you before, and I don’t think anypony else has, either. Where are you in real life? Will I have to leave Canterlot?”

“I’m afraid that I cannot be with you outside of your dreams, or at least not for many years. I currently reside on the moon, in a sense, and it will be over a decade before the stars align to allow me to return to Equestria.” Twilight’s head drooped, but Luna raised it back up with a hoof. “However, I will spend each and every moment of your unwaking hours with you.”

“Really?”

“Really really. Although, I’ve heard that you are quite the little trouble maker in that regard.”

“Well, now that I have a real reason to get to sleep, I’ll sleep all night!”

Luna shook her head. “Not all night. All day perhaps, but not all night.”

“Huh?” Twilight said as she cocked her head to the side.

“I’d much prefer if we could meet during the day. I have many other ponies vying for my attention at night, and I do not want even a moment of our time together to be interrupted.”

Hesitantly, each word feeling like a death sentence, Twilight said, “I don’t think my parents would let me do that…”

With a mischievous smile, Luna said, “Don’t worry about them. I’ve already spoken with your mother and father, and they were more than happy to oblige my request. They’ll also be homeschooling you from now on so you can practice magic in a more comfortable environment.”

“But I have a magic suppressor on my horn. I can’t even turn a book page anymore.”

“It’s not glued on, though. You can take it off whenever you wish.”

“But Princess Celestia said that I could flare again…”

“Unfortunately, she is correct in that regard. We will do as much practical work in your dreams as we can and as much reading in the real world as possible, but we cannot avoid working with magic outside of dreams as well. That is why we will have to rush.”

“Rush?”

Luna nodded. “We will have to rush to teach you fine control over how much magic you use. Your flares are still weak enough that they will not destroy the suppressor you possess, but there’s no telling how many years we have until that is no longer true. You will likely have to move to a more rural area later in your life.”

Interrupting Twilight before she could object, Luna said, “I have also spoken with your parents about that as well. They did not outright reject the idea – after your brother graduates – and even expressed an old interest in moving to Ponyville.”

“Is there…” Twilight began. It was terribly rude to Princess Celestia to even think about asking the question running through her mind.

“Yes, Twilight?”

“Ah. Um… Is – is there any way I can get rid of my flares completely?”

“N–”

Luna abruptly cut off. She obviously had been about to say no but seemed to reconsider.

There is a way! Princess Celestia lied! Twilight stopped to consider what she had just realized. Princess Celestia lied…

Before Twilight could process that any further, Luna said, “There is one way for you to be truly rid of your flares. But before I say anything, I need you to promise me two things.”

“Anything!”

“First, I need you to keep my teaching you and my existence a secret from everypony except your parents.”

“Even Cadance and Shining?”

“Especially those two,” Luna said firmly.

“O-okay. Sure.” Then with more confidence, Twilight added, “I can do that. What’s the other thing?”

“If I tell you how to rid yourself of your flares, you will not speak of it to anypony, including your parents. You will not even idly speculate about it aloud when you think you are alone. And you will absolutely not under any circumstances ever write it down. Understood?”

Twilight nodded eagerly. As far as she was concerned, magical secrets were the best kind of secrets, and this sounded like the biggest of them all.

“Very well. In that case, please tell me about your foalsitter.”

Caught completely off guard, Twilight said, “Cadance?”

Luna nodded.

“Well, she’s really nice. And she reads with me once in a while. And we sometimes go to the park to play. And she sometimes teaches…taught me magic.” Perking up again quickly, Twilight added, “She even let me ride on her back while she flew once!”

“Oh? How was it?”

“Exhilarating! But terrifying.”

Luna chuckled, “Yes, that about sums up my first time flying as well. So then what is she?”

That sounded so much like a trick question. Hesitantly, Twilight guessed “A princess?”

“No, no. I mean, what species is she?”

“Oh, she’s an alicorn, of course! Right? I mean, she has wings and a horn, and she’s super strong. At least, my brother says she is. It’s not like I get into hoof fights with her or anything.”

Raising an eyebrow, Luna said, “Yes, I have no doubt that he knows exactly how strong she is. Now, has she ever told you about her past?”

“Yeah! She’s told me lots of stories about her filly years and about that evil love stealing pony she beat up. I think her name was Prismia.”

“Beat up? That’s not exactly how I heard the story, but that I suppose the spirit is there. So how did she do it?”

“Well, she didn’t have her magic, so she had to steal the necklace that Prismia was using to steal love with her cunning and guile. First what she did was–”

Luna held up a hoof. “As much as I would love to hear you tell the story, Twilight, we are discussing another topic, and you’ve already stumbled onto the important point. Why didn’t she have her magic?”

“Because she was just a pegasus th–”

Twilight froze both physically and mentally as she connected the dots.

“Yes, she ascended to become an alicorn and surpassed the magical limits of all three pony species.” Luna gave Twilight a suggestive look. “Doing so is deceptively difficult as there are only two steps. First, you must become extraordinarily skilled in your special talent.

“Your cutie mark is in magic, so naturally that is what you must work on. Of course, with me teaching you, you should have no trouble clearing that requirement if you prove truly dedicated. And you will have to be to survive.” Luna’s gaze softened as she added, “I will not sugarcoat your predicament; learning magic without me physically with you will be dangerous.

“Now the second step is less achievable from a hard work perspective. Did my niece tell you what happened to the necklace?”

After finally realizing that Luna was waiting for her to answer, Twilight said, “She said it blew up in their final battle and was destroyed.”

“Technically correct. That is the next step. You need to find a large enough source of magical energy to fuel your ascension. They are precious and far between. Worse, they are always destroyed after use, and if you select one too weak, you die in the attempt.

“That was supposedly how Star Swirl the Bearded met his end in his old age: in a giant magical explosion. Most likely, he was attempting to shed his mortal coil and did so in the wrong way.

“Anyway, there is only one set of artifacts that I can think of that are both safe and are singularly reusable, if only rarely. I give you this task as homework, Twilight Sparkle. In your waking hours, you must track down and recover the Elements of Harmony, wherever they are, before I return to Equestria.”

Twilight wanted to say she could not do it, that there was no way she could find a legendary set of magical artifacts she had never heard of whose location was obviously not known to Luna herself. But the h word had been invoked, and Twilight was not about to admit she could not do her homework.

“The Elements of Harmony,” Twilight repeated to help her memorize the name. “Do I need to keep them secret, too?”

“Hmm… I do not think it necessary, but your interest in them could draw unwanted attention upon yourself. I would urge you to err on the side of caution and avoid discussing them with anypony likely to come into direct contact with my sister.

“Perhaps… Yes, I think so. I believe it would benefit your education if I spent some time teaching you the art of deception over our years together.”

A bit off-put, Twilight asked, “You mean like lying?”

“There is a time and a place for lying, Twilight, but lies are like an open wound. They fester and grow the more important they are, and they often become difficult to manage. While they do have their place, it is far better to rely on ponies making their own ill-formed conclusions from the truth.

“But there are many other means of misdirecting ponies, including a few tricks of the female persuasion I will not teach you until you are much older.”

Hurrying along, Luna said, “But that is neither here nor now. As much as I would love to begin our lessons immediately, I’m afraid that I am quite unprepared. It has been a long time since I have taught anypony, and I will need to get myself organized.”

“Are – are you going to leave? I know you said you have other ponies waiting for you… I know, but…but I really don’t want to go back to my dreams. I don’t want to worry that this isn’t real, even for a second. I – I just–”

Luna scooped Twilight up with her hooves and pulled her in for a hug.

“My dear Twilight, I will stay with you until you awaken anytime you wish. Your dreams – sweet or otherwise – will never be able to torture you again.”

“Thank you,” Twilight whispered. “Thank you so much.”

Luna said nothing, choosing instead to tighten her hug and rub Twilight’s mane.

“It’ll all be okay, Twilight. I’ll never leave you to twist in the winds as my sister would.”

And unbeknownst to Twilight, Luna’s face and grin could be described only as exultant.

Author's Notes:

Hey, not dead (9/13/17). I've read through this entire story and performed minor edits now that it's finished (I say without having posted the last chapter) to make it all fit together better. The earlier chapters have more significant deltas, but overall, the story is largely unchanged for it. There were a few chapters I wanted to edit more extensively, but what's done is done and cannot be undone.

Well, there is the backspace key...

Anyway, if things look slightly different, it's the world that's wrong, not you. You know, probably.

Chapter One - The First Clue

“Hey, mom?” I asked between bites of my breakfast and my parents’ supper.

They’d never managed to adapt to my sleep schedule, unfortunately, although I couldn’t really expect them to. They’d taken me to a doctor once, and she’d said I was legitimately nocturnal, not diurnal. She’d said it was sometimes possible to fix that, but I’d never understood why anypony would want to sleep at night.

And besides, Luna was nocturnal, too, so it worked out perfectly.

Anyway, Mom, Dad, and I were nearly finished eating, and asking for favors worked best just after meals. Or so Luna claimed. I didn’t have enough data yet to draw my own conclusion, but it seemed likely. I knew I was always more amenable on a full stomach.

“Do you think I could go visit the archives tonight?”

My mom looked to Dad for some sort of direction, but he didn’t really seem to care one way or another. That was good news, and even though it was what I’d expected, I had to fight down a squeal of glee. A lot of what Luna had taught me worked far better on one pony than on two.

Mom was always more strict with rules than dad, which is why I’d asked her. If I started with dad, he’d inevitably drag mom into the conversation, and then I’d have had to deal with two ponies.

“I don’t know, Twilight. It’s awfully late already, and Nighty and I are going to go to bed soon.”

“I can go on my own,” I suggested.

I practically knew the way to the archives by heart by this point. Cadance had gotten me permission to use them a season after my first flare, although she’d looked pretty upset when I’d asked. She had said she hadn’t been upset with me, for whatever that was worth.

Anyway, I’d spent so much time in the archives, and I’d had gone there and back so many times, I could probably draw a map completely to scale. But if I took a single wrong turn, even the slightest bit, I had an absurd tendency to get myself hopelessly lost in the castle. I swore that Canterlot Castle had some twisted geometry inside it. Still, there were guards posted everywhere, so it wasn’t like I’d die or anything.

I tilted my head to the side ever so slightly and asked as innocently as I possibly could, “So can I?”

The face my mom made as she struggled against my cute attack was priceless. There were times when I wanted to stay a filly forever. Well, only until I remembered that foals were treated as second-class citizens just because we were a bit younger.

“Maybe…” Mom said hesitantly. “How long were you going to be there?”

“Until you wake up and come get me,” I answered. There was no way I’d ever convince my parents to let me wander dark streets alone, even if we did live in the safest part of Canterlot.

It was silly, really. I knew how to defend myself better than my parents. Luna had taught me a few simple ways to subdue ponies without much magic. There was this place just underneath a pony’s spine where a gentle nudge would induce paralysis until a doctor fixed them who knew how long later. Supposedly it didn’t hurt after the first couple seconds, but I’d never had anypony try to hurt me, so I didn’t really know.

But Mom and Dad didn’t think that mattered at all. Still, I could get them to agree if I stayed in the archives all night. I was sure of it.

“No way, Twilight,” Mom replied. “You’re only eleven. That’s way too young to spend an entire night alone and unsupervised anywhere other than safe at home.”

“Don’t you trust Big Brother?” Okay. Calling Shining ‘Big Brother’ felt really weird, but it was a big plus on the cuteness factor. Mom looked almost as if she’d been struck by my adorableness. Guilt attack successful!

Whenever I was in the castle, I always had somepony looking after me. Whether that be Shining, Cadance, or just a regular guard. The guards were the best because they never bothered me while I was reading, and Cadance and Shining always forgot to tell them not to give me snacks. The kitchens at the castle had everything.

“You can even walk me over, if you want,” I added while Mom was busy mulling it over. “The castle isn’t very far away, and you can leave right after we get there.”

Relenting with a sigh, Mom agreed to take me. Finally, I could spend a whole night in the archives! It was almost pure bliss. That place was magical.

“Thank you so much!” I devoured what little remained of my food, eager to get going, and said, “I’ll go pack what I need!”

Before I could slip out the door, Mom called out, “Don’t forget those books you borrowed last time. The archivists will be wanting them back.”

I nodded and continued my half-mad dash upstairs to my bedroom. The archives technically weren’t a library, but you could take documents out short term if you had permission.

In my excitement, I put a little…well, way too much force into my telekinesis and ripped my closet door right off its hinges. Again.

After checking myself over to make sure I wasn’t going to be in the way of any of the wood shards that had splintered off from the door – I’d once learned the hard way that repair spells take the shortest path to realign the pieces – I cast the spell. The door reassembled back in its proper shape and place, practically brand new.

I tested the door – cautiously this time – swinging it back and forth until I was satisfied that I hadn’t messed up fixing it. Once I was sure everything was functioning properly, I gave a big smile and delved inside my closet. There was nothing quite like fixing something with your own magic, even if what you were fixing was something you’d broken to begin with.

Anyway, I grabbed my saddlebags and took the stairs down two flights to the basement. It was a pretty innocent room with a lot of boxes full of my parents’ random knick-knacks.

I’d once found a box with some outrageous clothing and asked my parents to model them for me. I’d never seen anything so funny, but they’d kept protesting and saying that those clothes had been the cool things to wear when they had been Shining’s age.

I wasn’t that gullible anymore.

Shuffling my way past a few narrow corridors made of boxes, I made it to the back corner of the basement. With a simple spell to sculpt stone – well, it wasn’t actually simple, but it was simple compared to everything else Luna taught me; having magic as my special talent didn’t hurt either – I opened a secret passageway that led straight into the heart of the Canterhorn, the mountain Canterlot was built on.

One of Luna’s first lessons had been the stone sculpting spell so that I could dig my way to the abandoned crystal caverns inside the mountain. It’d taken some time and a lot of guesswork, but I’d eventually broken into one of the tunnels. From then on, I’d done all of my practicing inside the caverns. When things went wrong in there – and they had gone wrong many times – nopony would notice me flaring, and I wouldn’t hurt anypony.

That was why we hadn’t moved to Ponyville quite yet, although, Mom and Dad were looking for a country house. I was still weak enough that Celestia wouldn’t notice me flaring inside the mountain, and the ring still sufficed to suppress my flares. Learning to continuously balance the ring over my horn with telekinesis while practicing magic normally was perhaps the most difficult thing I’d ever been asked to do.

Well, it was the hardest thing besides tracking down the Elements of Harmony. I’d found a few scattered references, but it was suspiciously like somepony had purged the archives of any real information. Honestly, I’d found many more mentions of Luna, but they were all stupid propaganda pieces that made her out to be some terrible, foal-eating monster. Celestia’s work for sure.

I just couldn’t imagine doing something like that to my brother, not even because he keeps distracting Cadance from me somehow. I guess she just likes him more… I’d bet if I were grown up, too, that wouldn’t be the case. Cadance would be all over me.

‘Oh, Twilight. You’re so much more interesting than your brother. I don’t know what I ever saw in him. Let’s go play and maybe even eat a whole cake the size of you for dinner. And then for desert, cookies! We’ve got butterscotch, your favorite.’

Okay, I supposed I felt pretty bad for imaginary Shining. He could have a cookie, too. But just one.

Reaching the bottom of my extremely long inclined plane, I reached the main room – or what I called the main room – of the crystal caves. I’d built rows upon rows of stone bookcases from the walls and floor of the room, most of which were sadly still waiting for actual books. It was almost heartbreaking to see them so wanting.

At least the front fourteen were filled with the books Mom and Dad had bought me. Ever since Luna had become my mentor, Mom and Dad would just buy me any book I asked for my own copy of. In a strange case of reverse tuition, Luna didn’t seem to have any limit on my educational funding. She was, without question, the nicest teacher ever.

I cantered past the filled bookshelves and came to the one that had only a wingful of books on it at any given time. This was the where I put things I borrowed from the archives. Right now there were eight books on it. Half were just books about magic that Luna had said I should read. They were dull and lifeless compared to Luna’s lessons.

Still decent reads, I supposed.

The other half were books I’d hoped to find information about the elements in; they had old legends and myths in them. I’d been hesitant in looking for facts in those kinds of tales, but when I’d asked Luna if I should, she’d rubbed my mane – something I secretly enjoyed more than butterscotch cookies and sometimes even more than magic – and then she’d said I should keep up the good work.

As an added bonus, Cadance would sometimes read those old stories to me, and everything would be just like it’d been before my first flare – everything except that horrid thing I had to wear on my horn in public.

With my saddlebags packed full of the archives’ books, I turned my attention to collecting the magic suppressor Celestia had forced upon me. I never brought it into the house when I could help it. Shining and Cadance always let us know in advance when they were coming over, so I just left it down here to rot when I wasn’t outside or practicing difficult magic.

If I had to choose something in the world that I could never like, it would be magic suppressors, and this one in particular. I looked forward to destroying it in the coming year as a special birthday present from Celestia to me. Some might say I was positively giddy about it.

I grabbed the infernal torus – the most sinister name I’d yet devised for it – and suffered the long march back upstairs. After I exited the barely adult-sized tunnel, I sealed it up behind me and made sure the floor betrayed no sign of the change.

Next was the horrible part. I always wished I could gently place the thing on my horn, but as soon as it went over the tip, the suppressor cut off my telekinesis every time. And my hoof coordination was nowhere near up to the task. That was all dark earth pony sorcery. Luna said I should get used to the idea of being able to use my hooves for things, but it was just so…weird. And apparently earth ponies got tactile feedback, too. Ugh.

Anyway, I could have asked my parents to do this for me, but there was something about somepony else putting my suppressor on me that made the experience infinitely worse, no matter how gently and apologetically it was placed.

I took a few deep breaths to build up my courage. No matter how many times I did this, it always terrified me. The ring passed over the tip of my horn and then clanked down the rest of the way.

And again, as every other time, it felt like a part of me had died. And not just a small part, either, but my very core. It probably wouldn’t have been so bad on somepony like Mom whose special talent had nothing whatsoever to do with magic.

At least I didn’t scream anymore. Maybe I was getting used to it. Just a bit.

Once I was calm again, I made my way upstairs. Mom was already waiting for me at the front door.

“You ready?” she asked.

I nodded, and she opened the door.

I banged my head on the desk I was reading at. I’d been here all night, and I had nothing. This was my biggest research binge ever, and I hadn’t found anything related to the elements. Not even a footnote or a passing reference. I’d even come in with a few leads to follow up on, and I got nothing.

Life just wasn’t fair sometimes. Cadance had been with me early on, but she’d retired to bed and left me in the care of a guard long ago. With the pathetic amount of telekinesis I had access to, I scooted a chocolate chip cookie across the desk and into my mouth.

Some comfort food that turned out to be. I suspected it actually managed to make me more frustrated just from having to work my jaws to chew it.

As much as I hated to admit it, I was tired and worn down, and the sun hadn’t even been raised yet.

But it wasn’t like I had anything else to do. After I swallowed my latest snack – there were well over three dozen more waiting – I hopped onto just my hindhooves and leaned against the table. That put the top of a stack of books I’d had Cadance fetch from the shelves just within my reach.

I knocked the top book off the stack and unsurprisingly let it slip between my hooves. It fell roughly onto the tabletop, breaking the enforced quiet of the archives. I sighed as I got shushed by an archivist from all the way at the entrance while I was near the back.

I cracked open the book I’d dropped to the first page with a hoof. The actual pages I could turn with telekinesis, if only a few at a time, but hardcover books were nightmares to both open and keep open.

I made it to the first page, and what little enthusiasm I had left drained immediately when I saw what it was. How on Equus did I manage to mistake a picture book for a useful reference?

Oh, whatever. There was nothing for it. This was time for cookies. I spent the next twenty minutes in a mindless mush, idly eating cookie after cookie. I was just about to finish off a baker’s dozen when an entirely unexpected voice from behind froze me.

“Hello, my little pony,” Celestia said. “What are you doing here so early in the morning? And with so many cookies, too.”

It sounded like she hadn’t recognized me yet, but I didn’t have a clue how I could possibly escape before she noticed who I was. Luna always told me to work on playing innocent because I was terrible at it, so that wasn’t an option either.

I’d been caught red-hoofed researching the elements. I still hadn’t figured out why Luna thought Celestia wouldn’t want me looking for them, but I was certain I didn’t want to find out what she’d do to me this time if she did.

“J-just reading stories,” I said as calmly as I could, which was not that much under my current circumstances.

“Twilight Sparkle?” Celestia asked. She was not happy I was here. Sure, she didn’t sound like it to a regular pony, but Luna had drilled me too many times in recognizing tiny changes in inflection for me to not notice. I would’ve imagined she’d be better at hiding those changes, but maybe she was letting her guard down around a filly.

“Yes!” I squeaked and turned around in my chair far too quickly. “Hello.”

“Hello,” Celestia echoed back. “What kind of stories are you reading?”

“Oh, um… Just… Fables and myths and stuff.” Oh, Twilight, Luna was right. You really were terrible at this.

“Really?”

Oh, no. Here it came. I was going to be banished. It was probably going to hurt. From what little I knew of the spell, it forcefully broke a pony down into magic and sealed them away somewhere. Not fun!

Maybe she’d send me to the moon to be with Luna. That wouldn’t be so bad.

Finally, the silence broke. “Are you afraid of me?”

What? That was not in the list of things Celestia was allowed to say right now. My brain shut down as it tried to comprehend what it’d just heard, and that certainly wasn’t helping.

Taking my silence as an answer, Celestia said, “I understand. There is no way I can be forgiven for–”

No, no, no. Of all the possible things she could say, this was the last thing I wanted to hear from Celestia. If I were to try my hoof at a metaphor, it’d be like an orphan’s parent coming by to apologize for abandoning her with the orphan’s sibling resting happily at home by the fireplace. And with no intention of taking the orphan home, either.

Interrupting with the only thing my panicking mind could think of, I asked, “Would you read this to me?”

A second passed. All was silent. I opened one eye ever so slightly and saw that Celestia actually looked off balance for once. Celestia. The perfect princess that was always calm and smiling to everypony.

I couldn’t help sighing with relief when Celestia finally answered.

“If that is your wish, I shall happily oblige.” No sooner had Celestia picked up the book I’d opened earlier than her tone had changed entirely. To me, at least. “Twilight Sparkle, would you perhaps care for a different story?”

I would have if you hadn’t said anything. “Why?”

“This one is a picture book. I would assume you prefer more sophisticated books.”

That was just about the best answer I could’ve asked for. It was the most obvious deflection I’d ever heard. Even in my very first lesson from Luna in noticing them, they were never this pathetic. It was insulting, and that was just what I needed. Fear and worry were not emotions I had much control over, but anger, well, anger was another story. Luna knew a lot about anger. How to recognize it. How to control it. How to let it drive you. How to notice when you were losing yourself to it.

As Luna’s apprentice, it was only natural for me to know all that, too.

I puffed out my cheeks and tried to sound as offended as I felt. “So what if I like picture books? Everypony always says a picture is worth a thousand words. So in a way, picture books have more words in them than any other book.”

Her smile genuinely back, Celestia laughed in an overly dignified manner and teased, “You are wise beyond your years, Twilight Sparkle. Maybe we should commission a book of philosophy from you for our archives.”

This time I didn’t have to fake my pout; I wasn’t going to be baited into wasting my time on writing such a book, nor was I so easily distracted. Whatever was in this book was something Celestia didn’t want me to read, and that meant I had to read it. I was about as excited to dig into it now as Shining was around Cadance.

“Can we just start reading?” I asked impatiently.

There was just the slightest hesitation before Celestia agreed. Having no chair around her size, she made one on the spot and sat down next to me. I really didn’t know what she could possibly have been thinking by doing that. If Luna weren’t teaching me, such blatant use of magic probably would’ve hurt me deeply.

Trying my best to pretend like I was pretending not to be hurt – which was really awkward – I turned my chair around to face away from the desk and toward where Celestia had suspended the book between our chairs.

“Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there were two regal sisters who ruled together and created harmony for all the land.”

Oh. So that was why she didn’t want me to read it. Talk about unsubtle. Whoever wrote this wasn’t exactly trying to hide the fact that they were talking about Luna and Celestia. Why not just use their names?

“To do this, the eldest used her unicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn; the younger brought out the moon to begin the night.”

And they also set the sun and moon. That’s a pretty important detail to just skip over. It would be pretty wacky if they just kept raising new suns and moons everyday and left millions of both in the sky. And that part about unicorn powers was just plain false.

“Thus, the two sisters maintained balance for their kingdom and their subjects, all the different types of ponies.”

What about the rest of the world? Does this author think only Equestria mattered or something? Luna had told me she’d managed most foreign relations, which at the time mostly meant, well, war.

“But as time went on, the younger sister became resentful. The ponies relished and played in the day her elder sister brought forth but shunned and slept through her beautiful night.”

That was sort of skipping a few minor details, no?

“One fateful day, the younger unicorn refused to lower the moon to make way for the dawn.”

Unicorn? Those pictures are clearly of alicorns. How dumb was this author? Who wrote this book?

“The elder sister tried to reason with her–”

Yeah, right. Celestia didn’t try to reason with ponies. She always had everything her way.

“–but the bitterness in the young one’s heart had transformed her into a wicked mare of darkness: Nightmare Moon.”

It took everything I had not to explode at that. Luna was not wicked! There was nothing wicked about her at all! Fortunately, Celestia was too preoccupied with the story to notice me scowling next to her.

“She vowed that she would shroud the land in eternal night. Reluctantly, the elder sister harnessed the most powerful magic known to ponydom: the Elements of Harmony.”

My jaw practically dropped off in surprise. That one sentence explained a lot, and it’d come from an awful picture book written by somepony with a mean streak out to get Luna. Terrible. Absolutely terrible.

“Using the magic of the Elements of Harmony, she defeated her younger sister and banished her permanently in the moon. The elder–”

Luna, forgive me. I couldn’t sit there and say nothing anymore.

“Permanently?” my chilly voice said. A filly’s pitch wasn’t exactly good for serious indignity, but I thought I did a decent job.

“Yes, Twilight. That is what it says.” Celestia was obviously confused.

“Isn’t that a bit of an overreaction? I mean, forever? Forever is a long time. What kind of pony would sentence somepony else to an eternal punishment over a temper tantrum? If I were the younger unicorn, I’d be upset, too!”

Celestia tried to interrupt me, but I wasn’t going to let her. I was burning with a righteous fury, and it was blazing out of control.

“Would it really have been so bad to just try it for a week? Let the younger unicorn calm down and then try to reason with her? Would it really have been so bad?”

I was crying by this point, but I barely noticed it as the hair on my face became soaked. I may have been letting some of my own feelings for Celestia slip in…

“The world wouldn’t have ended just from showing the tiniest bit of concern! Did she ever stop to consider how long the younger unicorn must’ve been nursing those feelings? That kind of bitterness doesn’t just flip on and off on command! And – and I don’t think that those other ponies were the real problem, either!”

I got another shush from the archivists and noticed that Celestia had disappeared at some point. Good riddance! She’d even left the book behind. I should have hopped right out of my chair and ran off with it. I really should have. Maybe if I disappeared fast enough, Celestia wouldn’t banish me as well for yelling at her, let alone for defending Luna.

If I were lucky, she’d even think I was just talking about the two of us. If I were lucky.

But nothing was working right. The only thing I could get my muscles to do was to curl me up into a ball and to let me cry myself to sleep with what little comfort my chair could offer.

I awoke to a chaotic haze of emotions about me. The world lacked any real definition other than myself and the comforting wing wrapped around me. Luna didn’t say anything to me. She didn’t ask anything of me. She was just there for me. In my dream, she was softer and warmer than anypony had any right to be. I blocked out the part of my brain rejecting that logical problem and just focused on trying to pull myself together as I collapsed into Luna’s side.

I had no idea how long I sat there. Maybe minutes. Maybe hours. Despite Luna’s best efforts, I’d never managed to figure out how to keep track of time in a dream like I could so intuitively in the real world. Even lessons from her didn’t help much to mark the passing of time. Long or short, I always got so absorbed in them that time flew by unnoticed.

When I was finally stable enough to speak, I apologized, “I-I’m so sorry, Luna.”

“Twilight, I know your dreams, and your emotions are spilling out all over the place. This is not the sadness of a mistake. Somepony hurt you. What happened?”

“I – I had a run in with Celestia…”

Luna pulled me a little closer with her wing. It was moments like this that made me want to be with her in the real world more than anything else; I couldn’t fall asleep like this in a dream, no matter how nice it would be, or even get to that hazy, blissful state in-between.

“One more grievance I must take up with sister dearest,” Luna said venomously. “What did she do to you?”

“I…”

Telling Luna that I’d asked Celestia to read me a book was really uncomfortable, even if it’d made sense in context.

“I was in the archives. She ran into me, and she…said some things. I needed to change the topic, but the only thing I could think of was to ask her to read a book to me.”

“Not terribly appropriate if she knew you – which she does not – but considering your age, a good choice. You don’t need to apologize for that, Twilight.”

I let out a long sigh. I hadn’t realized how nervous I’d been. Reading books with somepony was pretty intimate, and I didn’t want Luna to think I’d forgiven Celestia. For my wounds or for hers.

“That wasn’t it,” I clarified. Then doubling back on myself, I hastily added, “But I didn’t enjoy that at all, either!”

After calming down with a few affection brushes from Luna’s magic helping me, I continued, “It was what was in the book that bothered me. It was the next one I was going to read. It was about you and Celestia and your banishment.”

“Really? I can’t believe my sister would leave such evidence of her duplicity in the archives. But I suppose she has demonstrated an ability to miss things before. Perhaps this is no different. Either way, good work, Twilight. Did you get her to read the entire thing to you?”

I smiled at the praise and nodded, temporarily forgetting my guilt, anger, and sadness. Technically, Celestia hadn’t read the last page, but it probably just said something along the lines of everypony lived happily ever after. A trivially false statement, even if you didn’t like Luna.

Luna couldn’t see my nod, but her wing felt it.

“And did you learn anything interesting?”

“Yeah…” I said. That you were banished by the elements. I couldn’t help but feel that finding that out on my own was some sort of test. “I need to reread a couple books, but I think I finally have a solid lead on finding the elements.”

Luna pulled me out from under her wing with her magic somewhere between gently and forcibly and held me aloft in front of her. She had a huge smile on her face that showed off her strange, sharp teeth. Even I thought Luna should visit a dentist. Ponies weren’t supposed to have teeth like that, and I couldn’t imagine they made it easy to eat.

Luna pet my head just the way I liked it – she’d gotten that down to a science – and said, “Twilight, I cannot express just how proud of you I am. I honestly expected I would need to give you some clues when you were old enough to take trips on your own.”

Yep. It definitely was a test. Or a distraction to keep me from dwelling on being a Flare; I was pretty depressed when we first met, and finding the elements did keep me busy. Either way was fine if I got this kind of praise from Luna.

Just to make sure, I asked, “Do you have any idea where they are?”

Luna’s smile only grew bigger. “The last I saw them was when my sister used them to banish me in the old castle. I have no idea exactly where they went after that.”

“Oh.”

I wasn’t sure if I should be disappointed because Luna didn’t know or happy that my homework hadn’t been taken from me.

Bopping me on the nose, Luna said, “I see you’ve learned your lesson about trusting me – or anypony else – implicitly. Ask questions, Twilight. When you don’t know something, or when somepony seems to be holding out on you, be relentless. Don’t ever forget that, or you’ll turn into my sister: a pony so sure she’s right and so sure she can do no wrong that she can’t even notice her own sister suffering. Or brother, in your case.”

“What? I’m not making Shining suffer, am I?”

Luna hummed to herself and said, “I could have worded that better. I have no evidence to suggest that you’re hurting your brother, Twilight. It was only a general warning.”

I nearly let myself relax from the panic I’d built up, but then I remembered that I’d been apologizing while Luna had been cheering me up. I didn’t want all her effort to be wasted, but I had to say my piece.

“I’m sorry, Luna.”

“There’s that apology again. What ever could it possibly be for?”

Being tickled by magic was making it hard to be as solemn and serious as I should be for an apology.

Laughing uncontrollably under Luna’s attack, I managed to say, “I let my anger get the better of me.” The tickling stopped. “I got so mad at what Celestia was reading to me that I started taking it out on her and defended you.” Mumbling, I added, “And maybe myself a little bit, too.”

“Just that?”

Luna’s face was perfectly neutral. We sometimes made a game of guessing what the other was thinking just from context. Luna only ever had a blank expression when we played that game. As unbelievable as it was, she couldn’t be upset if she was playing with me. Or so I hoped.

“You’re forgiving me? But you said not to–”

Luna gently put a hoof to my mouth and said, “You have every right to be angry with my sister and are old enough to know better than to yell at a tyrant directly. Trust me when I tell you that she has read into whatever you said in exactly the wrong way. Do you know where you were when I entered your dream?”

I rolled my eyes. Even if I was feeling guilty, that question deserved no other response since asking it at all implied I’d been moved.

Luna laughed and said, “All right, I suppose I deserve that. You were in my niece’s company on your way back home. You are safe, sound, and you have done nothing wrong. Even I have times when my anger overcomes me and I make mistakes. That is how I got banished, after all.”

It was at that point that I made the connection and my eyes went wide.

After Luna had told me she’d been banished by Celestia, I’d always assumed that Celestia would want to do it again. The book had only reinforced that thought. I also sometimes worried that this wasn’t Luna’s first attempt to come home after her latest thousand years of banishment, but I never had the courage to ask.

But that was just Celestia being evil. It was the status quo. Nothing at all compared to what I’d just realized.

“She banished you with the elements…” I said dumbly.

Luna’s smile waned, but her eyes suggested I continue.

“And – and you want me to find them before you get back.” There was only one question simple enough for me to make coherent as my mind went at full gallop into a brick wall. “Why?”

“Why? Because you asked for me to help you get rid of your flares. And because of all the ponies I could ask, I should think the one I felt worthy for me to teach would be able and would want to be the one to do so.”

No, that couldn’t be all of it. Not with what Luna had just said about asking questions.

I couldn’t actually make myself mad at Luna, especially considering how long she’d been unfairly jailed, but I had to try to appear to be. Because…Luna would be disappointed if I didn’t.

“So, you’re using me?”

“Exactly!” That wasn’t at all the response I’d expected, cheery or otherwise. “But only in ways that make you stronger.”

I admit I had no idea what the proper response was to that or if there was one at all. I didn’t even know if I was expected to be mad or not. It was just so…different from how Cadance, or Shining, or Mom, or Dad would’ve responded.

On one hoof, Luna had been teaching me. And fantastically, too! But on the other hoof, Luna wasn’t the kind of pony who’d bother pretending to like somepony when she could just find somepony else she did like or who would make a deal with her.

…Huh. It seemed I didn’t have any objections.

I crossed the short distance between the two of us and nuzzled Luna. Even with her sitting down, it was hard to make the act meaningful with our height difference, but I got a loving nuzzle in return anyway.

“Twilight,” Luna whispered without breaking the moment, “I have a voice in Equestria, and that is usually enough, but I will need somepony to be my wings and my magic before long.”

There was only one answer to that in my heart, and I blurted it out without even thinking about the responsibilities before Luna could even ask.

“I’ll do it! I’ll do anything. I want you back so much. I want to go stargazing with you and see the real stars for once, to be able to see you without going to sleep first. It’s lonely in the real world. Books just aren’t enough company, and – and nopony else is awake at night.”

Luna gave me one of the sweetest smiles I’ve ever seen from her. “Thank you, Twilight. You’re the best thing that’s happened to me in far longer than I care to recall.”

After a long hug, one so long that it was actually kind of uncomfortable at the end, we finally broke apart.

“Now then, I believe we last left off on the rudimentary aspects of building electrical charges and controlling their flow, but I think after tonight, a special topic is in order.”

“Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! What is it? Is it the temporary wing spell?”

Luna shook her head and said, “No. I wouldn’t suggest you learn that spell either; it has critical flaws. There are better, similar spells that do full transformations, as well as one that performs general changes. The breezie transformation is pretty easy to learn, but that’s for some other time.”

Argh! Luna was teasing me by dangling interesting spells in front of me! I hated it when she did that! Apparently, I’m ‘cute’ when I’m frustrated and pouting. Maybe if I finally learned to control my expressions around new magic, she’d give it up. Not that I was going to manage that anytime soon.

“Hmm…” Luna hummed. “How about a hint? It’s something I’ve been led to believe you’ve always wanted to be able to do but have not asked me to teach you yet.”

Well that narrowed it down quite a bit. I wasn’t exactly subtle about spells I wanted to learn. But if I was going to guess randomly, I figured I might as well go for broke.

“How to raise the moon?”

If only Luna had been drinking something. I would’ve had the single most hilarious spit take in the history of Equestria.

“Um… That’s…not quite what I had in mind. That’s very flattering, though. Thank you. When I’m released from my banishment, I’d be happy to give you my blessing to do so, but only my sister can control the moon until then.”

“Huh? Why?”

Luna rubbed the back of her head as if she of all ponies didn’t know the answer.

“Well, it’s hard to explain in a meaningful sense to somepony who’s not an alicorn. A lot gets lost in translation. Hmm… Okay. What do you think the answer would be if you asked a random unicorn if it were possible for that unicorn to raise the moon?”

“They’d probably just say it’s impossible,” I answered, confused and unsure of where Luna was going with this.

“No doubt. That’s because they’ve grown up with one alicorn doing it the entire time. Ponies are a product of their times, and right now it’s common knowledge that unicorns cannot raise the moon. But you should be able point to a contradiction in the current culture.”

Luna dropped her explanation there, intending for me to find the answer on my own. She always said a good memory was even more important than raw magical talent, and I was inclined to agree. I couldn’t imagine how much time I would waste if I had to look up spells I hadn’t used in a while or if I had to reread books I’d already gone through once.

Still, having wracked my brains thoroughly for any relevant information, I came out the other end frustrated and with nothing.

But maybe I was going about it the wrong way. Luna said it was a problem with the culture, and that left me with very little to search through. Most of my waking hours were spent in the company of the written remnants of ponies long dead, not with modern culture.

Still, I didn’t think of anything particularly…

There was no response to foolishness quite like a facehoof, and this one deserved a double facehoof. I had completely overlooked the Hearth’s Warming Eve story, the only celebration of the night that didn’t involve monsters in one form or another, the celebration of the winter solstice when the night was longest.

I felt like the biggest fool in Equestria for taking so long to figure it out.

“The canonical story of Equestria’s founding,” I began, “is based on the premise that unicorns brought forth the day and night.”

“Exactly, Twilight. It was once common knowledge that unicorns were the ponies who brought about day and night. Then Discord came, and for the longest time, life became…chaotic, to say the least.

“My special talent was, well, not raising the moon exactly, but I was one of the unicorns responsible for attempting to maintain a sane day-night cycle at the end of Discord’s reign. My sister was on the team responsible for the sun.

“One particularly unpleasant…” Luna sighed. “Saying day or night does not mean much during those times, but I believe the moon was out when we first found the elements and ascended. From then on, the moon was mine and other ponies required…permission…in a sense, to move it. My sister and Discord could still interfere, because they – their magic is…”

Luna sighed again. Even though I was hanging onto her every word, and I was sure I was showing it, too, she said, “There are no words in Equestrian or any other language that would do the explanation justice. It’s not exactly something mortal ponies can relate to, but I promise it will make sense after you ascend. The whole process will be much less magical for you if I give you a half-baked explanation now.”

That pun did not even deserve a facehoof. Putting on my best stiff upper lip – my upper class Canterlot accent was, of course, natural – I said, “The future Alicorn of Magic is not amused.”

“Oh, I do say,” Luna hammed with a ridiculous attempt at a modern Canterlot accent. “Begging your pardon, Your Majesty. I meant no offense.”

Darn it! Luna was too good at this. But I supposed that was why I was the student. I cracked first in our stare down and laughed so hard I could feel the effects spilling over onto my real body. Hopefully, nopony was around to see that, but sometimes Mom or Dad would watch me sleep because it was, quote, ‘entertaining and adorable’.

Soon after my defeat, Luna joined me in laughing. When we were finished, she asked, “So what’s your next guess?”

Oh right! Luna was going to teach me something special! Besides moving the moon, there was something else I really wanted to learn.

“Teleportation?” I hazarded. Luna had made it clear early on what she thought of teaching me spells I could easily kill myself with.

“Right in two.”

“Really! Oh my gosh, yes! Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!”

Before I could properly launch myself into my excitement, Luna said, “Whoa, Twilight. Cool your wings. We’re starting with safety. The spell comes after.”

“Aw…” It was a long shot, but maybe–

“That doesn’t work on me. I taught it to you.”

Horseapples.

“Until you can reflexively answer questions about teleport safety, I will not teach you so much as a fragment of the actual spell.”

“Fine,” I huffed.

I didn’t know why I was so upset when I should have been ecstatic to be learning teleportation at all. Oh well. Pouting was probably ‘cute’, anyway; that would probably help me get to the actual spell faster.

Author's Notes:

Yes, I removed the footnotes¹. If you didn't like them, maybe you can be my meat shield against those that did.

¹You can still find them here if you wish.

Chapter Two - A Kindred Spirit

“No, means no, Cadance,” I chided. My parents were out for the evening as a sort of farewell to Canterlot. Cadance was foalsitting me tonight, and if she got her way, tomorrow night, too.

“I’m not accepting a no this time, Twilight.” Cadance picked me up in her magic as I tried to retreat upstairs to my room. “You have been in an absolutely terrible mood all week, and this will be good for you. You spend all day every day–”

“Every night,” I corrected. If she was going to hold me against my will and force me to listen to this, she could at least use the proper terminology.

Rolling her eyes, Cadance continued, “You spend all night every night cooped up at home or in the archives. You need to get out more. Meet some ponies your age. Socialize. Develop a foalhood crush, or deepen one you already have. And above all else” – Cadance levitated me closer and looked me dead in the eyes – “we need to do something about that frown plastered on your face.”

Cadance looked at me as though she actually thought I would agree. Naturally, I deadpanned, “No.”

“Fine. I didn’t want to do this, but you leave me no choice, Twilight.”

I fell somewhat roughly to the ground. Cadance was still learning magic herself, and she was not exactly talented at it. Her fine control of heavy objects – such as fillies – especially left much to be desired.

“Twilight Sparkle, I am giving you a royal, princess, foalsitter, adult, alicorn order. You will go out with me tomorrow night, and you will try to enjoy yourself.”

A moment passed in utter silence. I couldn’t believe my ears. Did she really just do that?

“You’re going to pull rank on this?” I asked, still flabbergasted.

Cadance nodded. “It would seem that’s the only way I’m going to get you to agree.”

I still couldn’t believe it. “Really?”

“Really really,” Cadance replied unmoving.

After a short stare down, I sighed. There really was nothing else for it if she was going to go that far out of her way, and I certainly wasn’t going to go complain to the only pony who could overrule Cadance. Well, at least the only pony currently in Equestria. I also wasn’t going to run to Luna and have her reveal herself just to get out of this.

Despite how annoyed I was, Tartarus would freeze solid before I let myself lash out at Cadance like I had at Celestia. Not that I was anywhere near that upset. Cadance was my friend, and even if she was doing it all wrong, she was trying to cheer me up.

And besides, I knew this was the worst holiday to raise an unusually large fuss over. Sure, I didn’t like socializing, but this wouldn’t be any worse than any other of Cadance’s attempts to get me to make friends and to stop binge reading. I couldn’t very well claim I was scared, since I’d demonstrated otherwise from age four to seven. Nor could I believably claim I didn’t want the free candy.

Still, I was so totally going to remember this, and my revenge would be cruel and without mercy.

“Very well, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza,” I said as formally as I could, eliciting a twitch halfway to a gag from Cadance, “you win. I am your humble servant.”

Cadance suddenly wasn’t looking so enthusiastic as she tried to deny what she had just done. “Twilight, I didn’t mean–”

“Yes, you did, Princess” I said with a facehoof. Sometimes Cadance could be really thick. “You’ve given the order, so I’ll try to eke out whatever amount of fun I can from tomorrow night. Now can I go back to reading? I have some stuff from the archives I really want to get through. My move to Ponyville is just next week.”

I nodded toward the study where I could just make out the books related to the elements I’d taken from the archives. From where Cadance stood, she would no doubt be able to see them too if she turned around. I’d fetched them from the mines before Cadance had arrived, since I couldn’t very well get them after. Even waiting until she was asleep was a risky venture, considering how light of a sleeper she was.

Cadance looked over at the books and stared for a moment. She then had some sort of painful internal debate with herself, and it showed so clearly on her face that even eight-year-old Twilight would have noticed.

Not good. I nearly lost control of myself and paled, but I managed to bottle up my panic before it grew out of control for once.

There was no way anypony could know what I was really searching for in the archives. My choices were too littered with failures and dead ends to deduce anything without having at least one thing I considered a success first pointed out. Those were the magic words I repeated to myself as if they were a spell.

“No, not yet,” Cadance finally replied. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about your reading material for…a while now, but I kept putting it off. And with the move and all… I – I need to know. Do you think that…that what you’re doing is…right?”

My eyes went wide, and I stared like I was facing my death, which I very well could be. Filtering out everything but Cadance, I wondered if I could break my suppressor if I deliberately tried to flare. She was obviously trying to figure out where my loyalties lay and – and – I didn’t…

But wait. Even alicorns had approximately equine anatomy. I didn’t have to flare. Cadance was a pushover in a fight. She’d be down and out in less than a second.

No. No, that way held madness. Cadance was my friend, and I was sure I was hers. I could talk her around, even if she was Celestia’s pawn right now.

No. No, that was still wrong. A little voice in the back of my head was telling me I was overreacting again and I had once again blown my chance to play innocent in whatever line of inquiry Cadance was really going to press.

Um… Or Cadance could press our bodies together into a hug. That was certainly a speech substitute, although I didn’t really think it counted as an interrogation.

I had two guesses for why she was hugging me, and they required very different reactions. On the one hoof, if this was about learning magic, I had to be strong but sad. If this was about Luna, I had to both act subtly scared of my mentor and be defensive of her while letting my anger toward Celestia seep out.

Whatever Cadance had meant, I had a terrible feeling I was about to lose access to the archives if I messed up even the tiniest bit. For now, I kept quiet and didn’t return her hug. That was the only truly neutral action I could think of.

“Twilight, I – I really don’t know how to talk about this with you. I know you’ve been reading books about magic.”

Cadance, that was the worst place to stop. That told me essentially nothing about what you were really talking about. You could be tricking me into responding wrongly for all I knew, even if it was out of character for you.

“And?” I asked, probing for more information. A bit of my anxiety accidentally came out in my voice, but that was okay in either case.

“I’ve known for a long time, actually. Princess Celestia always told me what the archivists reported to her. I’m worried about you.”

I sighed internally. If Cadance said she was worried about me, then this was about magic, not Luna. Luna would have been worded more along the lines of ‘I’m scared for you’, or something like that.

Not that Cadance hadn’t just – likely unwittingly – confessed something unpleasant to me. It went without saying that Celestia was going to have my activities in the archives monitored, but I hadn’t imagined she would be doing it herself.

But what really bothered me about that was I didn’t have a clue why she bothered, not unless she knew about Luna and me. But if that were so, she would have…taken care of me long before now, so that couldn’t be it.

She could be treating me as a case study in what a pony would do to cope after having their special talent denied to them. That’s probably what I’d do if I were in her position, old, mean, and bored. I’d have to look into that in the future and correct any published mistakes.

Still, whatever the reasoning behind it, I was safe from Cadance, at least. I liked to think I knew her well enough to know she was bad at wordplay and to know her speech patterns. She said worried, so this was about magic.

Now I liked to think of myself as a pretty logical filly, but Cadance would probably treat that as a symptom of depression or something if I tried to reason with her that way. I had to communicate with the Princess of Love on a very emotional and foalish level if I wanted to properly get through to her.

This…might be harder than I originally thought.

“It’s rude to snoop, Cadance,” I pouted.

“I know that,” Cadance half-shouted. “I know that better than anypony, Twilight. I – I’m not supposed to tell you this, but…I – I’m the Alicorn of Love.”

“I am aware–”

The realization sank in. Luna had given me the pieces, but I’d never put them together. Luna was the Alicorn of the Moon, or the night, or something like that. Celestia was her opposite with the day. They both had an iron grip on the moon and the sun.

So what did Cadance control? Thinking back, she’d once show me some of her magic when she patched up an argument between two ponies with a flash of her horn.

My eyes did not go wide. Cadance didn’t know I had enough information to realize what she was about to say, and I couldn’t let on that I did. But I couldn’t help shivering a bit. Not that she noticed.

“You see, I have certain…powers, as an alicorn. You remember when I showed you one of them, right? Spreading love?”

I nodded, albeit weakly.

“Spreading was not the right word. I don’t spread it, I…control it. In a sense. Among other things.”

That was all I needed her to say. “Cadance, have you ever–”

“No.” Cadance put her whole heart into that rejection and nearly deafened me with its intensity. “I have never, ever messed with your emotions, or Shining’s, or your parents’. I don’t change anypony’s unless I really need to. The only exceptions was when I demonstrated it to you, and even that was only a temporary change; I didn’t tamper with any permanent feelings. Just the ones of the moment.”

“Okay,” I said. Cadance desperately looked like she needed the acceptance right now. Besides, she was obviously not lying. “I believe you. But I need you to promise me you never will, no matter what. Not even if I ask or beg you or if I turn into a supervillain.”

Cadance managed a flimsy smile and a short chuckle. “You? A supervillain? Twilight, I hate to tell you this, but you just don’t have it in you.”

“Villainy is a matter of perspective,” I explained, unable to let that point go. I then said, “But Cadance, promise me. I don’t think I can be comfortable around you otherwise. I’ll constantly be fretting over whether I should be ignoring my emotions or not.”

Smile turning to frown, Cadance replied, “I promise you on my honor as an alicorn, a princess, a foalsitter, and a friend, I shall never manipulate your emotions.”

“I’m so sorry, Cadance,” I said as I went in to give her a much needed hug, “but I really needed that. Thank you.”

Returning my hug, Cadance whispered, “I understand. Even I worry about myself sometimes.” And then a second later, her voice returned to normal. “But right now we’re talking about you.”

Horseapples! She remembered.

“Part of what I can do is…well, see isn’t the right word either. Feel, maybe? Yes, I can feel how ponies feel about each other. Twilight, you have a lot of hate in you.”

Oh no. “I–”

“Wait. Let me finish. I don’t blame you for that at all. I – I know I don’t have any idea what life must be like for you; my talents aren’t exactly something I use much, but I do get to use them. But…I have to ask. Are you studying for revenge? To prove Princess Celestia wrong? Or – or is it how you cope? I don’t want to see you waste your life, Twilight. Or k – injure yourself in a flare if you do something foolish.”

I thought back to how miserable I felt before I met Luna and managed to get the waterworks going. I needed to have a few tears and a sniffle to make this believable.

“Cadance, my special talent is magic! What would you possibly have me do instead? Even if I can never cast a spell again, I can at least learn the theory! Maybe even invent new spells!

“In some of those stories I’ve read, Smart Cookie was said to help Clover the Clever on her spellwork sometimes. I can be like Smart Cookie…” I trailed off into a whisper and finished, “Just a boring earth pony with a brain and an extra appendage. Twilight Sparkle…the earth pony.”

I got shivers from just thinking about it: a pale reflection of what my life could have been if not for Luna. Unintentional shivers – and I did take a second to berate myself for the lapse in control – but ones helpful for the act nonetheless.

Cadance scooped me up into another hug, and from the sound of it, she’d started crying, too, but was trying to hold it in.

“And that makes you happy?”

I whispered, “Happy enough,” and Cadance squeezed me tighter.

“You don’t know what a relief that is to hear. I’ve been so, so worried about you.”

“Thank you for worrying, Cadance,” I whispered. This was coming straight from the heart without my interfering. “You’re the best foalsitter and friend I could ask for.”

We spent at least a minute in that hug. Cadance didn’t seem to understand that I had to breathe – maybe she didn’t have to – but I made do. Setting me down, Cadance brushed away a tear with her wing and smiled.

“Still,” began Cadance, “you need to find something else in your life besides magic.”

Oh, not that again. She hadn’t revoked my access to the archives, but I still didn’t want to deal with her meddling right now. Or ever, really. Cadance was such a busybody.

“Come on, Cadance! We just had a heart-to-heart conversation, and you’re still going to force me to participate in Nightmare Night?”

“Yes. Nothing has changed. You need to learn how to make friends your own age before you slip out of my grasp. And maybe go through a crush or two…” Cadance trailed off suggestively.

“H-hey!” I nervously shouted. Apparently, her alicorn powers were letting her know I had a strong relationship but not that it was with Luna. I’d really dodged a bolt there. But then again, Luna probably already knew that was how Cadance worked somehow.

“Oh, Twilight. You can’t hide love from me.”

I groaned.

“Oh, don’t be like that, Twilight. This’ll be fun! Start sharing!”

“Can’t we just work on a costume?” I found it hard to believe that I actually preferred preparing for the worst holiday ever, but Cadance had managed to find something even more troublesome.

The mare in question waved a forehoof dismissively. “Oh, pish posh. We can spend all afternoon tomorrow designing one, and then I’ll just put an illusion on you. If you’re comfortable with that.”

“If I said no, would you drop the love talk?”

“Nope.”

“Then that’s fine,” I sighed. “Unless you’ve managed to learn one of the polymorph spells?”

“Um…no. That’s still way too advanced for me.” Cadance sunk into thought for a moment before she snapped back to attention and said, “Nice try, but you’re not getting off that easily. So start talking. Tell me everything.”

“Cadance,” I sighed, “it’s not what you think.”

“Oh, but it is! Whoever this handsome colt is you have your–”

“Mare.” I hoped the interruption would shut down Cadance’s line of inquiry, or at least redirect it away from romance.

“That’s–” gasped Cadance. “I’m so sorry for assuming. But how old is she?”

Falling on my rump, I rubbed my temples with my forehooves. Cadance could be so annoying when her love flag was triggered. “I told you it’s not like that.”

“Don’t even try, Twilight. You have so much love for this mystery mare of yours that she must be on your mind all the time.”

“Well, I admit that’s true. But in a what would she do or think sense. I really look up to her as a mentor.”

“You have a crush on a teacher,” squealed Cadance. “That’s so cute! Is she somepony from before you started homeschooling? Or did your parents hire a tutor? Oh! Or is she somepony you had a moonlit encounter with where she passed down some amazing advice to you? Or – hey! Are you even paying attention?”

It seemed that Cadance finally noticed that I’d busied myself with the book I had been reading before this whole horrible conversation started. I answered her question by not answering it.

“Twiliiiiight. You can’t do this to me. I have to know.”

I turned a page, embarrassingly fumbling with it for a few seconds with my weak magic.

“Twilight. Twilight. Twiiiiiliiiiight.” Cadance moved closer and whispered in my ear, “Twilight.”

I didn’t so much as turn my head to acknowledge her. She would pounce on the first sign of weakness. If I kept quiet until she got bored, she’d fill in the details herself however she wanted. That was one of Luna’s first lessons for me: give a pony just enough information to let them do your lying for you.

Cadance closed my book, and I made a quick note of exactly where I was cut off.

“Twilight,” Cadance whined, “pay attention to me.”

I opted to lay down and rest my head on the floor. It was late enough that I might be able to get a short nap in despite the mild discomfort of the floor. Luna might even notice and visit me.

My respite was denied to me by constant prods from one of Cadance’s hooves.

“Hey, Cadance,” I mumbled as if I were deathly tired. “Do you know where the flyswatter is? I think there are some mosquitoes in here.”

“Wha… I’m not a mosquito!”

I laughed inwardly and yawned, “Sorry, I’m afraid I couldn’t tell the difference.”

“Urgh! How rude! I don’t remember raising you to say things like that.”

I yawned again.

I looked at myself in my bedroom mirror. I’d resisted the urge to dress up as Luna and give candy to foals, but wings still looked pretty good on me despite being a filly’s underdeveloped version. I barely believed I’d never thought to put an alicorn illusion on myself before. Still, there was one problem.

“I said I wouldn’t accept frills, Cadance.”

“But, Twilight, you look so adorable like this.”

“No, I don’t.”

Even with my limited knowledge of fashion, I knew that frills did not mesh well with the wise mage look I preferred when I absolutely had to put on clothes. Although, the warrior princess look that Luna sported was an okay second choice.

“Your idea was ridiculous, Twilight. You don’t want to be seen in public like that. This is much better.”

Alright, Cadance was being really annoying now. One simply did not insult the most important spell caster of the Pre-Classical Era.

“Star Swirl the Bearded had exquisite taste in clothing that perfectly merged the beauty of the night sky right into his cloak and hat. It’s not my fault if you can’t get your illusion to replicate them perfectly.”

Cadance mumbled something incoherent.

“I’m not going outside like this, and if you float me out, then I won’t cooperate in any way.”

“Fine,” huffed Cadance, her horn glowing as she reworked her illusion.

She wasn’t good enough with the spell to change everything at once, so watching the changes in the mirror was an odd experience of sudden patchwork modifications morphing my dress into a star-studded cloak. Lastly, the tiara on my brow changed into a floppy wizard hat with bells dangling from the brim.

It looked pretty good overall, even if the stars on the cloak and hat were static and unrealistic. A little awkward around the wings, but Cadance had done her best. However, she had forgotten one important thing.

“What about the beard?”

“Not happening,” Cadance answered. “You look ridiculous enough without adding a beard to it. Putting aside the fact that you are both female and a foal, when was the last time you saw a pony with a beard?”

“Never,” I grumbled.

“And that’s exactly how often I am going to put a beard beneath your muzzle.”

I thought about protesting, but the wings, my size, and my gender were inaccurate anyway, so arguing for historical accuracy was a moot point. And I would have a hard time explaining how I knew Star Swirl had tried to ascend, if I was being such a stickler for fine historical details.

Instead, I put my saddlebags over my back and sighed, “Let’s just get this over with.”

As Cadance led me out of my bedroom door and down the stairs, she said, “Turn that frown upside down, young filly. Tonight is about fun and meeting new ponies. Nopony is going to like you if you’re nothing but mopey.”

I plastered a huge, obviously fake smile onto my face. Just because Cadance was forcing me outside didn’t mean I had to make it easy on her.

“Hmm… Better, I guess…”

As we passed through the foyer, my dad met us at the door and gave me a somewhat sympathetic look. Out of Cadance’s line of sight, he dropped a bag of cookies into my saddlebags and winked. No doubt they were a reserve treat in case I lost my temper tonight.

I was so glad Cadance hadn’t insisted my parents participate in this wretched holiday as well. I would not have been amused, to say the least.

Dad gave me a quick hug and said, “Do try to have some fun, Twilight.”

“Alright, Dad. I’ll see you tomorrow morning for dinner.”

“Just don’t eat too many sweets before then.”

“We’ll see.” I giggled as Cadance led me out the door. Even if I didn’t like the holiday, it would be a waste to throw all the free snacks away.

As the two of us walked through the streets, Cadance explained what she intended to do tonight. Apparently, she’d found a group of fillies within Celestia’s School for the Uncriminally Gifted who lived on campus, each of which was supposedly some variation of socially awkward to complement my semi-misanthropy.

Oh, Cadance, you could just color me every kind of excited right now. This was going to be one big disaster.

As we arrived at the dorms and Cadance finished explaining her ‘grand plan’ for the night, I mumbled, “I want to go home already.”

The inside of the dormitory lacked any particular interest. Just the same white stone with gold and blue trim as everywhere else in Canterlot. A few other colors made appearances in furniture in what I assumed was a common room, considering the games, bookshelves, and selection of variously aged ponies spread throughout it.

Cadance left me to wait by the door as she had a few words with the dorm mistress. Looking out at the crowd gathered in the common room, I guessed that I’d have four ‘friends’ with me tonight. There were more ponies in costume, but only four that were near my age. Honestly, I’d prefer the older foals, but Cadance wouldn’t share my opinion.

After deducing that and growing sufficiently bored, the one filly I didn’t want to see came charging in through the door. She was fully dressed in a Clover the Clever costume complimented with saddlebags which had her staff-shaped cutie mark embroidered on them.

“Princess Cadance!” Trixie shouted. “Can I come, too?”

This night just went from unpleasant to miserable. There was no way the ever-loving Cadance would be able to reject somepony as persistent as Trixie without my backup, and I despised playing the poor little crippled filly card.

Really, I didn’t blame Trixie for being Trixie, but she was naturally annoying – and by that I meant she never shut up – on the rare occasions when I saw her in the archives. Not that I ever approached her myself; I left that privilege to the archivists. Her being Celestia’s precious student certainly didn’t make me any more inclined to like her, although I did try hard not to hold that against her; it was something completely outside of her control. At least she wasn’t speaking in the third person yet.

Cadance bit her lip and looked nervously in my direction. I sighed and waved my hoof, reluctantly accepting this unpleasant twist of fate. At least I got a small laugh out of Cadance’s surprise.

Once Cadance had nodded and had pointed in my direction, Trixie came to join me.

“Greetings! I am the Great and Powerful Trixie.”

The trial had begun. I could have just told her I already knew who she was and thus could’ve skipped the inevitable ramble that followed – which I tuned out – but I wasn’t eager to inflate her ego anymore than it already was.

I took the entryway being quiet again as my cue to reply. “I’m Twilight Sparkle.”

“Hmm…” Trixie eyed me up and down. “You seem familiar, but I don’t recognize you from this school. Have we met before?”

“Not really. I use the archives a lot, and I’ve seen you there sometimes.”

Technically, we had seen each other much closer before then at our exams, but I didn’t want to help Trixie remember. I doubted that little fact would come to her mind unprompted.

“You have access to the archives? How does that work?”

The Great and Powerful Trixie was clearly not impressed with me – which was just fine – but she was obviously intrigued. I’d much prefer if she just didn’t talk to me tonight – or ever again – so a simple, boring answer would be best. The kind of answer a young noble would give.

With a faintly haughty voice, I said, “I am homeschooled with some family connections. That’s all.”

“Oh,” Trixie said flatly, clearly less interested than before. I didn’t know what she could possibly have been expecting.

Thankfully, Cadance appeared at the lull in the conversation with the other fillies before Trixie could say anything else. No more alone time with Trixie! I was nearly ready to get down on my knees and praise Cadance for her divine favor like the goddess she was, but that would have been grossly inappropriate, especially coming from an aspiring goddess.

“All right, fillies, let’s do some introductions. I’ll go first. I’m Princess Cadance.”

Oh yes, like there was anypony in Equestria that didn’t know that. It wasn’t like princesses just appeared out of nowhere.

Trixie decided to go next and introduced herself. This time she fortunately kept her monologuing to a minimum. It did, however, set a bad precedent that the other fillies picked up on. I thought I saw Cadance cringe, but I wasn’t paying much attention to her.

The filly wrapped in a toilet paper mummy costume went next. “I’m Minuette. My special talent is dentistry, just like my mom’s.”

Fantastic, I needed to come up with a fake special talent. Also, I had no idea what part of her seemed ‘socially awkward’ to Cadance.

Hmm… Now that it was brought to the front of my mind, Trixie was all kinds of socially awkward herself. Perhaps she did belong here.

Next went the…well, I didn’t really know what her costume was supposed to be. She’d turned her coat black and put what I could – with my magic and magical senses sealed – only hope were illusions of holes in her mane, tail, and legs.

“Lemon Hearts. My special talent is empathy magic.”

I took a half step away from her at the expense of moving closer to Trixie. The distance wouldn’t actually help if she cast anything on me, but it felt appropriate. I could definitely see how a pony would have social problems with that as their special talent.

On another note, I decided to go with astronomy as my special talent. I had stars for a cutie mark, and Luna had taught me more than enough to fake my way through any questions that might come up during the night.

“Oh, oh! Me next! I’m Lyra Heartstrings, but everypony just calls me Lyra.”

She was not exactly selling herself as a social misanthrope.

“My special talent is playing the lyre, but I’m way more interested in humans.”

The other three fillies from the school groaned, and the pieces fell into place. Like Trixie, Lyra must drive everypony away with her personality, rather than having issues with ponies herself. Although with that said, I did find myself curious as to what a human was, but I knew better than to ask now. I’d ask Luna later. I’d probably ask her about Lemon Hearts’s costume, too.

Last before my turn came the pirate. She interrupted quickly before Lyra could say anything else.

“I’m Twinkleshine,” the pirate half-whispered. “My special talent is astronomy.”

Oh stars. I couldn’t go with astronomy now. Twinkleshine would want to talk shop – which I’d probably enjoy – all night, and there was no way she wouldn’t see through the lie.

“I’m Twilight Sparkle, or just Twilight for short. My special talent is…magical theory.”

“What?” chorused Trixie and Lemon Hearts. Leave it to the two with magic based talents to call me out.

Rather awkwardly injecting herself into the middle of the group, Cadance ushered us towards the door and said, “Okay, we’ve finished introductions. Time to hit the streets.”

And we did just that with some gentle nudging from Cadance’s magic to hurry us along. As we walked away from the school and castle and back toward the residential area, the seven of us fell into a few distinct groups.

At the front was Cadance with Lyra and Minuette. The three of them were engaged in some sort of small talk. Near me, yet a fair distance off, were Trixie and Lemon Hearts. From the occasional glances they threw my way, I would guess they were talking about me and probably would be talking to me if I weren’t fending them off with Twinkleshine.

After much prodding and some application of my own knowledge, I’d managed to get Twinkleshine to open up about her interest in astronomy. It would seem that she was the shy one of this group. And as much as I would hate admitting it to Cadance, she was actually enjoyable to talk to.

And yet it seemed that Twinkleshine was not as effective of a Trixie repellent as I’d hoped. We’d visited only a single house for candy before Trixie and Lemon Hearts interrupted us and quieted Twinkleshine.

“So,” Trixie began as we walked, “you only know magical theory.”

“Yes,” I sighed.

“Well, that explains the sloppy work on the illusion,” Lemon Hearts commented.

“Not really. This is her work,” I said, pointing at Cadance. Lemon Hearts looked a bit sheepish. I probably would have laughed if Trixie hadn’t spoken up.

“Then you can’t cast your own illusions?”

“Yes.”

“That’s so sad,” Trixie said and set my teeth to grinding. There was something about the way she said it that put me on edge. “What can you do?”

Asking like that was not getting you any friendship points.

“Research.”

Lemon Hearts asked, “Just that?”

“Yes.”

“Boring,” said Trixie. “But I suppose not everypony can be as interesting as Trixie.”

Interrupted by another round of free candy, everypony’s attention was drawn away from me, and I facehoofed. Did Trixie really just say that? It was like talking to a five-year-old. And not in the way that Cadance claimed was fun.

I collected my candy and returned to the back with Twinkleshine. It seemed Trixie and Lemon Hearts had lost interest in me and were leaving the two of us to ourselves.

“So, where were we?” I asked Twinkleshine. I’d actually forgotten due to those two annoyances.

Twinkleshine’s face did a complete tone shift from a bit scared to full-on excitement.

“We were talking about comets!”

“Oh, right. Did you get to see Shimmer’s Comet a half season ago? It was absolutely beautiful.”

“I wish! That’s one of the few comets we can see at night! The dorm mistress wouldn’t let me stay up that late, though.”

Now that it came up, I wondered how many comets we’d be able to see if the sun went away forever. Well, that was a thought for another time. Right now, I had a sad filly to deal with.

Having seen Twinkleshine eye my latest candied good, I tossed it over to her, and she caught it with her magic.

Her eyes lit up as she asked, “You’re giving this to me?”

“No, I just want you to hold it for me for no reason.” I rolled my eyes at how serious Twinkleshine took me. “I’m joking. Yes, it’s yours. Cheer up. You can see the comet yourself in a couple years.”

“Two years, one season, six weeks, and nine days to be precise.”

“Wow, you really want to see that comet.”

Twinkleshine blushed and said, “Well, it is my special talent.”

I didn’t really have anything to say to that. I had an incredible memory for magic myself. Not that it was any worse for anything else.

Except for languages, unfortunately. Luna had tried to teach me the minotaur language so I could dig into their engineering books, but that hadn’t panned out. Despite that, and although nowhere near as fluent as Luna, I did manage to pick up quite a bit of Old Equestrian.

“You’re right, you know.”

I paused for a few seconds to stare blankly skyward. Canterlot’s light pollution hid much of the beauty of the night sky, but it was still nice to look at.

“You should just put your hoof down and tell that mare to let you stay up next time. Your special talent is important to you, and she has no right to shut you down over society’s preferred sleep cycle.”

Twinkleshine sighed and said, “I tried something like that once. It…didn’t work out.”

“I could just get Cadance to get the dorm mistress to back off, if you want,” I said without thinking. I’d been trying to avoid letting everypony know how close I was to Cadance, lest I bring any unwanted attention to myself, but it seemed I’d slipped in my frustration with the world’s insistence on being diurnal.

“Princess Cadance? Do you really think she would do that for me?” Twinkleshine asked, completely ignoring my informality. I kept forgetting that fillies didn’t notice that kind of stuff.

“Yep. She’s a very nice princess and really likes foals.”

“Oh! So that’s why she’s taking us out tonight.”

Not really, but I wasn’t going to correct Twinkleshine.

“Um… Would you…” Twinkleshine began.

“Yes, I’ll ask her for you later tonight.”

Twinkleshine shook her head vigorously. “Would you watch the comet with me?”

My jaw fell nearly halfway down before I regained my composure. I…did actually like Twinkleshine on the whole astronomy level. And I probably would watch the comet anyway if I remembered. I’d certainly have teleporting down by then, too, so I could go to and from Canterlot on my own. Or I could just spend the night with Shining or Cadance and take the train home.

“If you don’t want to–”

“No, no. I’d be happy to. I was just thinking. I’m moving out of Canterlot soon–”

“There’s one during the day in two weeks and one day,” Twinkleshine said as fast as she could.

“–but I’m going to visit frequently for the archives…” Well, this was just a little bit awkward. “Ehem. My parents are moving early next week, but I can probably convince them to let me stay with my brother a little–”

I received a hug of opportunity. Yep, awkward. And it was only getting more so.

“Twinkleshine…we’re kind of being left behind.”

“Oh, sorry,” she said, releasing me from her grip. We trotted to catch up with the others. “There’s just nopony around that I can really talk to about this stuff.”

I rolled my eyes and said, “We are in the capital city of Celestia the sun goddess. It’s not really the ideal place to meet ponies that like stargazing.”

Twinkleshine giggled a bit and said, “True. So how often would you be visiting?”

“Canterlot?” I got a nod. “Honestly, not that often, I’d imagine. I have permission to raid the archives and take stuff, so I probably wouldn’t stay long, either.” Then since I was sure it was why she was asking, I added, “But I could spare a few minutes to say hi when I do.”

“That’d be so much fun! We could have a sleepover and stay up till midnight watching the stars and stuff.” Mumbling, Twinkleshine added, “And maybe help each other with our homework…”

I just pretended I hadn’t heard that last part. Or the part before that. Although, I did suspect a ‘sleepover’ would be a little fun if I was worn out mentally and needed a break.

Much like tonight. I had to admit, it was nice to wind down with somepony who knew less than me for once. I loved spending time with Luna, but on very rare occasions, that whole ‘I’m over a hundred times older than you’ thing got a little annoying. Even Cadance ultimately knew more than me in most matters apart from magic.

Regardless, I was just going to let tonight run its course, ignore Cadance’s I told you sos, and get back to reading about a devious little compulsion spell. Some might say I wanted it and I needed it.

Chapter Three - Growing Up

“Don’t expect too much,” Twinkleshine said. “And it’s a bit messy. I share my room with–”

“It’s fine,” I said, resisting the urge to growl the words. I’d been feeling a little off since last afternoon, and all of the little things had been irritating me more than usual. “Just open the door, and let’s get set up.”

Nodding, Twinkleshine opened the door with her mulberry magic, which was only a shade or two off from my own. Inside was, as forewarned, quite the mess. I didn’t know if the dorms made fillies do their own laundry, but from the giant piles of clothes scattered around – some personal, but from a casual glance, mostly for school purposes – I wouldn’t bet otherwise.

But that was just the regular, innocent part of the mess, the kind of mess that foals and adults alike produced. No, the inexcusable part was lying perfectly in the center of the room so as to deliver the maximum possible insult.

“Who did this to this poor book?” I shouted, rushing over and unbending the hardcover spine which had been cruelly shaped to make the covers meet. Stars! The book was even a two-century-old first edition of Mirdin’s treatise on elemental magic. The poor thing would never be the same again.

Well, not without magic. But it was the spirit of the problem that mattered.

I whirled back towards Twinkleshine with the book held protectively in my foreleg. I demanded my answer silently with the sheer force of my gaze.

“M-Moondancer!” Twinkleshine eeped.

“Where is she.”

“P-probably a-at classes.”

I would have liked nothing better than to track down this Moondancer to give her a piece of my mind, but Twinkleshine had said something even more unforgivable.

“You’re skipping classes?” I hissed.

I could feel my magic building up withing me, wanting to lash out at the world as if it had a mind of its own, only for it to be dammed by the suppressor I wore for the last day. And yet I knew it was trickling out all the same as it swirled and grew within me. What little that escaped instinctively reached for magic outside of me to supplement itself in a way I’d never been able to replicate purposefully.

Before I could say anything else or calm myself, Twinkleshine shook her head vigorously as she took a step away from me.

I demanded, “Explain,” with the same anger in my voice. However, seeing Twinkleshine practically faint under the sheer pressure I was exerting on her was like being thrown into a pool of cold water. There weren’t many foals that were mentally equipped to deal with a raging Twilight Sparkle, and I knew for a fact that Twinkleshine wasn’t among them.

All my irritation and rage vanished as quickly as it’d come. My magic was still begging to be released, but it had stopped expanding wildly and unchecked as the suppressor finally managed to keep pace with me.

Unfortunately, I didn’t quite stop in time to avoid getting at least a cubic meter of water dumped on me.

Sighing, I looked down at the book I held. It was slightly charred in places and waterlogged to the point of practically falling apart. I’d caused it more damage in less than a minute than anything Moondancer had done.

“I’m sorry,” I said, half to the book as I gently lowered it to the soggy carpet and half to Twinkleshine.

The water having knocked her down, Twinkleshine shakily returned to her hooves. The next words out of her mouth spoke wonders to her character.

“Are you okay, Twilight? The campus hospital isn’t far from here. Are you able to move? Or maybe we shouldn’t move you. Or–”

“I’m fine, Twinkleshine,” I said. I held no illusion that she would drop the issue there, but it was an automatic response, the kind that got drilled into a pony’s head from a very early age.

“But you were on fire! And your coat is pure whi – well, a bit more purple now. It’s fading. But it was snow white!”

I sighed again. I just couldn’t help it. Was it really too much to ask just to watch a comet in peace, Life?

“Listen, Twinkleshine, I really am fine. And sorry for getting mad. I can explain, but if I do, then I want you to promise me not to tell anypony.”

Without hesitation, Twinkleshine said, “I promise.”

With a small smile, I said, “Okay, the first thing to understand is you won’t get in trouble for knowing this or if you tell anypony else. It’s just…very personal for me, and I’d rather it not become common knowledge.”

After Twinkleshine nodded, I continued, “My special talent isn’t magical theory. It’s just magic.”

“What kind of magic?” Twinkleshine interrupted.

I managed a laugh at Twinkleshine’s confusion. “Just magic.”

Eyes wide, Twinkleshine asked, “You – you mean all of it?”

I nodded.

“That’s – I mean, Moondancer is – and Trixie–”

Knowing that she wasn’t getting anywhere fast, I stepped in. “That wasn’t the main point, just a clarification so the rest makes sense. Do you remember there being an incident at the exams three-ish years ago?”

“My parents said something about that, but we’d already left. We – wait! Did something happen to you then?”

“Other way around,” I said with more good humor than I was expecting. “I happened to Canterlot.”

Enjoying another good laugh at Twinkleshine’s expression, I added, “I’m a Flare: a pony with access to huge, outrageous amounts of magic. And I keep getting stronger as I grow. Sometimes it gets overwhelming, and I lose control. That was the incident. I caused a lot of damage that day.

“Anyway, Ce–” Catching myself before I spat her name, I restarted my sentence. “Princess Celestia put this ring on my horn which keeps my magic in check. Mostly. I’m strong enough right now to leak out enough power to turn a couple of pages in a book, and my flares die down quickly with it on, but not before leaking out some semi-wild magic. It usually takes cues from my mood or intentions, but only cues.

“Hence why I was on fire. Angry flares are the most predictable and tend to last until I calm down. I’m rarely not on fire when I flare while mad. Not that I flare every time I’m upset, just that if I flare and am upset, then I usually turn white and fiery and pull in additional magic to supplement my own, which is why the ring doesn’t do it’s job as well when I’m mad.”

I licked my dry lips and caught my breath. I’d been talking far too much today.

I was about to ask for questions when Twinkleshine said, “I’m really not skipping classes, Twilight. Moondancer is just in more advanced ones than me. I’m…not that good at magic.”

Befuddled was too strong a word to describe me. I just didn’t do befuddlement. Baffled was too strong as well, but it was a step in the right direction. I didn’t see the connection at all between what I’d said and what Twinkleshine had said.

Unless…she thought I was upset because she thought I thought she was wasting her good fortune to be in school instead of my being upset because classes were not to be skipped.

Ugh, that thought needed revising.

I took a cold, squishy step and remembered that I’d caused the dorm’s fire alarm to flood the room.

“Does anypony come to clean this up and repair damages?” I asked, letting the issue before go.

Twinkleshine nodded. “Eventually. Definitely before bedtime, but I don’t know when they’ll show up.”

“I see. Perhaps we should take our business elsewhere, then,” I said, looking towards the fortunately undamaged telescope near the window. “You’re not going to get in trouble for this, are you?”

“No, this kind of stuff happens here all the time,” Twinkleshine laughed. She actually laughed. Not just her weak giggle, but a real laugh. It was really endearing in the strangest way.

Regardless, we quickly packed up Twinkleshine’s telescope and saddlebags and then made our way outside. The school campus was remarkably large and roomy for the tightly packed city of Canterlot, and Twinkleshine claimed to know all of the best hiding places to sit and watch the celestial bodies.

Along the way, we enjoyed some small talk over constellations and eventually got sidetracked with discussing star beasts. I’d once asked Luna what they were, but she’d said they were older than both her and Discord. In particular, she’d said that any wild theories I came up with were as good as any of her own and then had regaled me with what it was like to be eaten by an ursa major. I probably would’ve had nightmares after that story if Luna hadn’t been around to deal with them.

Anyway, after sneaking into a restricted area – a surprisingly bold move on Twinkleshine’s part – we reached our destination. We were at the top floor of the clock tower where all of the bells hung directly above. There was no physical railing, but Twinkleshine assured me there were enchantments in place in case anypony fell off. Aside from the bells, then, it was no more than a large, elevated platform with a roof. No good for lying down and gazing up, but perfect for using a telescope.

Twinkleshine quickly reassembled her telescope with her magic. She was so fast at it that I almost suspected she’d developed a spell specifically to do the task, but the telltale signs of telekinesis were obvious to me.

After she finished, Twinkleshine lit up her horn one last time and placed a nifty illusion on the telescope to make it project what it was looking at onto the floor.

Seeing Twinkleshine practically begging for a compliment, even if she was trying to hide it, I said, “Interesting spellwork. You’re not as bad as you claimed.”

“T-thanks. But it’s not really that great.” Twinkleshine’s voice soured. “Moondancer took one look at it and figured out how to cast it herself.”

Ouch, that must have hurt. Something similar happened between Shining and I when I was four. I drove him to near desperation when he was trying to make amends with me. Of course, Twinkleshine didn’t need an overture of apologies right now. She needed a heavy dose of confidence.

“Ink and parchment,” I said. To Twinkleshine’s confusion, I added, “You brought some with, right?”

With a nod, Twinkleshine retrieved a notebook – fortunately the kind that would stay open without effort – a stoppered vial of ink, and a quill. She then placed the implements in front of me and stood back.

And now I found myself in a rather embarrassing position. I’d been given a stoppered vial of ink. I wasn’t going to be able to fix that anytime soon without taking the suppressor off. Well, I might have been able to with two steady hooves and my mouth, but I’d just as likely end up with ink on my face as not.

But to both my relief and indignation, Twinkleshine noticed my distress and solved the problem for me without a word. In the end, I decided to pretend the entire thing had never happened.

Forgoing the quill, which I wasn’t sure I could pick up and didn’t want to try, I pulled a small amount of ink from the vial and formed it into effectively the same shape it would’ve had in the quill. This was a very early trick I’d learned when developing my telekinetic control to surgical precision, and it still made me smile every time a pony saw me doing it, even if it required far more focus than simply using an especially light quill.

As I started writing, I noticed Twinkleshine staring at me. I knew she’d been impressed when I told her what my special talent really was, but I also knew she hadn’t really appreciated what that meant. Not until now, that was.

Still writing, I said, “You can learn to do this, too, Twinkleshine.”

Incoherent stuttering was all the reply I received.

“Not that I would recommend it. This is a very low power substitute for a quill or for simply magicking words onto parchment.”

“I don’t think–”

“Why do you like astronomy?” I interrupted. I didn’t need Twinkleshine losing even more self-confidence before my surprise was done, and astronomy was the only thing I knew that was sure to distract her.

“What?”

“Why do you like astronomy?” I repeated. “What initially drew your interest?”

“Oh. Um… I don’t really know. Sorry. It’s just…fun. And everything… It’s all so beautiful. Almost as if it were a painting ready to come to life at the slightest touch. If – if that makes any sense.”

It made more sense than you knew. I stopped writing for a few seconds to look up at her and nod. I doubted she noticed, though. She was in her own little world.

“Sometimes… Sometimes I gaze up at the night sky and… I don’t know. I feel like it’s gazing back. But not like those horror stories of seaponies and the depths. It’s…gentle and loving. Like getting lost and finally finding your mother after crying your heart out. And–”

Twinkleshine blushed and tried to hid her face behind her hooves. “Oh, Celestia, that was the most foalish thing I’ve ever said.”

“Maybe you’re right,” I said, barely keeping the jealousy out of my voice.

I had no real evidence and only a vague notion of how alicorns worked to go on, but just listening to Twinkleshine talk made it sound like she did have some special connection to Luna that I’d never have or even understand. Her special talent was astronomy, after all, and the stars fell under Luna’s domain just as much as the moon did.

What would happen if she ascended? Would Twinkleshine rip a part of Luna away from her? Maybe the two would fuse somehow. Perhaps Twinkleshine would get the short end of the stick and get nothing. Maybe they would share control of the stars.

Too many questions and too little information.

I noticed I’d stopped writing at some point and started up again before Twinkleshine also noticed. At least I hadn’t let the ink drop all over the parchment.

Not pursuing the matter, Twinkleshine returned my own question back to me, “So why do you like astronomy?”

“Well, I didn’t used to like it so much. I liked the night more in general. It was quiet, and I really liked the low levels of light and lying down with a book illuminated by my magic. I was always a night owl, and my parents constantly fought me on it until…external factors came into play.

“I don’t really have much appreciation for art, but even then I had to admit the stars were a wonderful backdrop to the world. Canterlot lighting ruins the effect, though. But what really made me interested was meeting somepony who…really liked stargazing. Now when I look up at the stars, I think of her and get a warm feeling inside.”

I sighed and noticed that I’d stopped writing once again. I really shouldn’t have said that. All I wanted to do now was go to sleep.

“That’s really sweet,” said Twinkleshine. Unless I was hearing things, I thought I heard a tinge of disappointment in her words.

Letting her remark pass unchallenged as she had mine, I put the final touches on my work and returned the remaining ink to its vial. I resisted the urge to proofread it a couple times for grammar and typography issues, then gestured for Twinkleshine to take a look.

“I’m pretty sure this will work as intended, but there may be a few bugs you’ll have to find yourself.”

Barely into the first page, Twinkleshine said, “This – Twilight, this is brilliant! Where did you learn this?”

“I cobbled it together just now from a double application of the classic mirror scrying spell and a simple illusion spell that’s probably very similar to the one you just used. If I spent more time on it, I could come up with a much more elegant solution, and I’m sure professional astronomers have something higher quality already, but this will probably be a lot easier for you to learn. I’ll leave it to you to make the improvements.”

Apparently, it took Twinkleshine this long to figure out that I gave her the spell for her to learn, use, and improve, as she said, “I can’t do this, Twilight. This is too–”

“Yes you can,” I asserted. “This kind of magic is right up your alley. If you have trouble, try learning the regular and the mirror scrying spell first in that order.”

“But the range–”

“Is petty. Look, I understand what it’s like to not have an endless supply of magic. I really do. But scrying is a low power spell, as are illusions. Sure, you probably can’t sustain this spell indefinitely without building up your magical reserves, but you can keep it going for at least few minutes.

“And just think about what you’ll get to see! The stars completely unfiltered by lights or by the atmosphere. You could be making original discoveries and be heralded as a prodigy if you’d only have more confidence in yourself.”

The bait was set, and I waited with bated breath to see if Twinkleshine would take it and reach for greatness.

“I…”

That didn’t bode well, but I didn’t give up. I kept up the most expecting yet supportive face I could and hoped it would be enough.

“I – I suppose outer space isn’t that far…”

I let out the breath I’d been holding. It wasn’t exactly a shout of passion to the heavens, but Twinkleshine had taken a small step forward, and that was enough for now.

And I had to admit, I felt pretty good for the part I’d played in that step. Perhaps this was how Luna felt when she’d pulled me out of the gutter. Maybe when I’m one- or two-hundred years old, I would enjoy having a proper student of my own.

For now, though, it seemed I’d walked into tutoring Twinkleshine all on my own – cantered, really, if not galloped.

“It’s really not. Ponies scry across the world, which is hundreds of times farther than space. I’ll come see how you’re doing when I visit Canterlot, and if you’re having problems, I can help you work them out. Okay?”

Twinkleshine nodded and smiled.

“Great. Now let’s actually do what we came here to do.”

The deafening sound of the train’s whistle echoed through Canterlot Station. The Ponyville Express was making its last call for passengers and was set to leave in less than a minute.

And with that call, Cadance released me from her hug. “I’m really going to miss you, Twilight.”

“Me, too. But I’ll come visit often, I promise.”

Cadance smiled and pushed me toward Shining, who was waiting for me at the train door. “I’ll hold you to that. And I’m sure Shining will want to see you, too.” Then whispering in my ear, Cadance said, “And Twinkleshine as well.”

“I swear, if you say ‘I told you so’ one more time, I won’t be held responsible for what happens.”

Completely ignoring me, Cadance said, “I told you so.”

Seething, I stomped away from her and jumped onto the train. I briefly turned around and blew a raspberry at her. I left before she could respond. Super foalish, yes. But Cadance was being just as foalish herself.

The Ponyville Express whistled once more and suddenly lurched forward before settling into a slow pace as it left the station. Shining joined me as soon as the car we were in pulled out of sight of the platform.

“That was pretty rude, you know,” Shining said as we walked. We were heading toward the very last car in the train: the royal box. Cadance had given us permission to use it whenever we wanted.

Well, except when it was occupied during a state of war, but Equestria was never at war anymore. Nopony was stupid enough to attack the only known being who could cycle day and night, and even that disregarded the overwhelming power she could bring to bear against her foes.

“Cadance started it.”

Laughing, Shining said, “Yes, I can certainly imagine she did. But you could have tried being the bigger pony.”

“Maybe next time,” I mumbled.

We arrived at the royal box, and Shining took out one of the key copies Cadance had given us to unlock the door. Inside was not exactly what I had expected. Sure, there were the trappings of office and a number of luxuries, including a large cloud bed, but it didn’t scream, ‘This is the property of immortal goddess royals, and you are lucky to be given the briefest of glimpses’ the way I’d thought it would. I could imagine Cadance having a hoof in that.

“So how was your visit with Twinkleshine?”

“Oh, not you, too, Shining,” I moaned. And I’d just found a comfortable spot on a chair that wasn’t made of clouds. “Please, Cadance was bad enough.”

“How so?” Shining asked. His face showed that his confusion was honest. Maybe Cadance hadn’t shared her opinions with him. If that was the case…

“Nevermind. It was fun. And I got to experience a new side of myself.” Not that I had any plans to do any real teaching for a long time, especially considering I was very much still a student myself.

Shining nodded approvingly. “I’m glad you’re finally making friends, even if they’re kind of out-of-the-way.”

“No, no, no. Just stop there. I don’t need or want to hear Cadance’s lecture again coming from you.” I paused for a moment, then giving Shining the benefit of the doubt, I added, “Whether she’s putting you up to it or not.”

Having the sheer gall to laugh, Shining said, “Very well, Twily. But please promise me you’ll make friends in Ponyville. Cadance and I won’t be able to be there for you like we were in Canterlot.”

Just to put an end to the conversation – hopefully a permanent end with a gruesome death – I said, “Fine, I will.”

To pass the time, I thought about reading one of the books I’d picked up from the archives between visiting Twinkleshine and catching the train, but I thought better of it. I wasn’t going to see Shining as often anymore, so I asked him to play a game of poker with me.

Long ago, Shining had initially been very mad when one of his fellow guards had taught me the game, but after I’d given him a humiliating defeat, he’d quickly changed his tune.

It was one of the saddest, yet funniest, things. Shining had some sort of stallion pride thing going on that made him unable to refuse my invitations despite my continuous winning streak. Honestly, we’d lost track of how many games I’d won, but we both knew Shining was sitting at solid zero. Still, it was good practice for me.

I could read Shining like a book. And as for his point of view, well, Luna’s lessons had a lot of mundane, practical uses, too. Really, he should’ve given up trying to read me and played as statistically as possible long ago, but I wasn’t going to point that out.

“All in,” Shining bluffed. It looked like he’d been practicing, but it was still obvious he had nothing.

I turned over my measly pair of twos, and Shining let his head fall onto the table in defeat.

“Ugh, why are you so good at this?” Shining moaned. “Has dad been coaching you? Or one of my friends? I could see them doing that.”

“Both wrong,” I answered. Then to rub salt in the wound as usual, I said, “Perhaps you’d like some coaching yourself?”

To my great surprise, Shining whispered, “Yes. Teach me your ways.”

Ha! Shining had finally truly admitted defeat! As for teaching him, well, nopony could say I wasn’t generous in my own way.

“Alright, protip one. If your opponent is easy to frustrate” – I gave Shining a knowing look – “disrespect her at every opportunity underneath a calm, dignified manner.”

“That’s horrible! Who taught you that?”

“It’s not horrible, Shining. It’s how you play the game. Poker is stupid and boring until you pay attention to the ponies playing. That’s where the game really takes place. Ponies are very stupid when they’re upset, and it makes it very easy to win. As a soldier, that’s something you should really work on, unless you want to get yourself injured.”

After a moment, I whispered, “Or worse,” letting my own worries for him slip out.

Shining let his head fall back onto the table and buried it under his hooves. “Great, now my little sister is telling me how to do my job.”

“Speaking of, did you ever look at that list of spells I gave you?”

“Briefly.”

I waited for Shining to add something, but apparently that was all he had to report.

“And? Did you start learning any of them?”

Shaking his head, Shining said, “I don’t see the point. If a unicorn strong enough to cast something actually requiring that level of defense wanted me dead, I’d be dead one way or another.”

I sighed. Shining just didn’t understand. I didn’t really have a tactful way to put it, either, so I decided to say it as bluntly as possible.

“Shining, guards are like…like wallpaper. You remember the point I made last season, right?”

Face contorting in disgust, Shining said, “Yes.” I really couldn’t blame him. It wasn’t every night a filly with essentially no magic dropped a fellow guard and a friend in less than a second. Despite the squick of the incident, it’d been a necessary flaw I’d had to point out to the guard. You just didn’t send in unwarded ponies against a unicorn regardless of how cute and innocent she appeared.

Although, I mostly had been trying to make a point to Mom and Dad about letting me walk the streets at night alone, as well as making sure I was doing what Luna had taught me correctly. Not that Mom or Dad accepted the argument when they heard about it.

“You all have an important job,” I continued. “You keep order. You don’t need to protect alicorns. That’s a job for the ancient, romanticised idea of a knight. You’re just not equipped to deal with the really serious problems, and those problems know that. If you survive the room clearing attack meant to remove annoyances, you’ll be just fine if you don’t do anything stupid and let somepony like Celestia deal with whatever is happening.”

“Hiding behind my princess isn’t why I joined the guard, Twilight.”

“Neither is getting yourself killed for no reason!” I countered. I really wished I had all of the evidence I wanted to throw at him right now, but I didn’t generally carry around history books even I thought were dry.

“Shining, I mean this in the least offensive way when I say this, but history doesn’t lie. If you read through all of the records of major incidents in Equestrian history, it’s always Celestia or some great heroine who solves the problem. If you dig a little deeper, you can find a list of” – I had to hold back a sniff after imagining Shining’s name among them – “of names. All dead guards who died for nothing.”

My hooves slammed on the table as well as I could make them. “Nothing, Shining! They didn’t hold the line or save the day by delaying their foe. They just died senselessly. Please don’t add your name to those lists. Mom and Dad would be heartbroken. Cadance would be heartbroken.” Whispering once more, I finished, “I’d be heartbroken.”

I felt Shining pick me up with his magic and float me over for a hug. I struggled a bit, but he wasn’t going to let go.

I didn’t want a hug. I wanted him to promise me he wasn’t going to get himself killed. It would be all too easy to happen by accident if Luna or I didn’t realize he’d gotten in our way.

“I’m not going to die so easily, Twily. You don’t have to worry so much.”

“You don’t understand. It’s not just me. We’re all worried about you. Your special talent is protecting ponies, and you sometimes take that too far. No. You often take that too far. We’re terrified that with only Cadance around, you’ll do something crazy.” Crazy like trying over and over to beat up Luna; even her patience had its limits.

This was the point where I wanted to stare Shining down silently, but his hugging was getting in the way of that.

“Even Cadance?” Shining finally asked.

That was a stupid question. Of course Cadance was worried, too, and I told him as much.

“And you know what?” I asked. “I was going to have you buy me a bag of treats from a new bakery I heard of in Ponyville for my winnings this time. Instead, I’m going to force you to actually try learning every spell on that list I gave you. And you have to really try. No halfhearted attempts.”

“I…” Shining hesitated for a moment, but in the end, he said the words Cadance, Mom, Dad, and I all wanted to hear. “I promise I will.”

“Good.” This time I managed to struggle out of his hug and returned to my side of the table. “Now, if memory serves, you’ve finally humbled yourself enough to ask your little sister for help.”

I laughed as Shining’s face flipped from terribly serious to foalishly indignant in an instant. Still, he didn’t object, and I spent the rest of the train ride giving him a few pointers. Some he didn’t approve of, but considering the game was based on lying to begin with, he didn’t really have any valid arguments against them. It was oh so delicious to watch him squirm, because he knew it, too.

Eventually, the train finally pulled into Ponyville. From the windows, I could make out a huge number of thatched roof cottages and some sort of crazy tree home. Although, it looked like there was a balcony on top for star gazing, so whoever lived in that tree couldn’t be completely crazy.

I didn’t get a better view once we were off the train. Rather than heading into town, we veered off immediately for the countryside. We passed by several farms, as we were taking a path in-between them. The largest one by far was an apple orchard, but there were also flower fields and a wheat field. In the distance, I spied an apiary and made a note either to give it a wide berth or to put up a shield in the future.

So far, I was rather unimpressed with Ponyville. But really, that was the point of moving here. I needed to be somewhere uninteresting and inconvenient, but not somewhere crazy like inside a volcano. Although…it would be pretty cool and magically challenging to make that work. Maybe that could be something to do in the future.

Finally, we arrived at a short winding road that led to a sizable estate somewhat near the Everfree Forest. In Canterlot, ponies would look at a grassy yard half the size of the attached house and consider it prime real estate. But if the open field behind our house were anything to judge by, I had to come up with a new standard for what it meant to be a large backyard.

Shining whistled. “I knew our parents were well-off, but I never knew they had this kind of money to throw around.”

I was vaguely aware of that myself, but considering we had kept our Canterlot home, I wondered if we had dipped – legitimately, since this move was for my education – into Luna’s money. It was possible Cadance had lent a bit or two as well, but I considered that less likely.

The house itself was a rather impressive two story building. Although it was made of wood with a thatched roof, it at least looked as sturdy as the stone and brick buildings of Canterlot. It probably had to be, too. The wild weather of the Everfree was well-known across Equestria, and it was painfully obvious we were going to be on intimate terms with it in the coming years.

Stepping inside, the first and only word that come to mind was boxes. There were so many boxes. Unpacking apparently either had not been an easy process or had been low priority. My guess was on the latter. Mom and Dad would almost certainly be getting to know the town and its residents first.

Not that they weren’t home to welcome Shining and I. We barely made it one step inside before both of us were pulled into a group hug with Mom.

“Oh, I’ve missed you both so much! How was the train ride?”

A bit lacking in air, I answered, “I beat Shining at poker again.”

From the back of the house we heard a large thump and a laugh from Dad. Apparently sound carried well in here. Very good to know.

Mom frowned a bit but didn’t say anything. She didn’t think it was proper for a filly to play such games, but she also never tried to put a stop to it. Anything to get me to be a little more social, probably, even if that usually meant playing games with ponies two or three decades my senior.

“Anyway, how was spending time with Twinkleshine?”

“Um…” Shining said. Apparently he hadn’t picked up on the fact that I was fine talking about making friends so long as I wasn’t being lectured about it. Kind of annoying. I wasn’t exactly being subtle about it. Whatever.

Before Shining could say anything else, I told Mom the same thing I’d told him.

“That’s great, Twilight! I imagine you’ll be wanting to visit her on archive runs, right?”

I nodded. “I did promise to help her with something. I’m not really sure how long the visits would last, though.”

“That’s perfectly fine,” Dad said as he entered the room and gave us both his own hug. “Velvet and I have occasional business in Canterlot that will require overnight visits.”

“That’ll make Cadance happy,” Shining commented and gave me an annoying nudge.

“Ah, but what are we standing around for?” Mom asked. She had a smile that said mischief, and everypony knew it. After all, I’d inherited most of her looks and mannerisms. “There’s a lot of work to be done here, and we’ve saved both of you your fair shares.”

I got a small laugh seeing Shining gulp and take a step back. “I – Uh… I need to be getting back to Canterlot. Twilight wants me to do some stuff.”

“I’m afraid not, my little knight in shining armor.”

Shining groaned at Mom’s, quite frankly, horrible pun.

“You arrived on the last train to or from Ponyville today. There won’t be another until tomorrow morning when Canterlot’s next produce shipment leaves.”

“Oh,” Shining said weakly.

“Yes, we have a lot of very heavy things that need moving. Do come along. The sooner we finish, the sooner we can get you supper.”

Head hung low in defeat, Shining sighed, “Yes, Mom.”

After those two had left, Dad and I gave each other a knowing glance. Mostly likely we were thinking the same thing: where was the evil laugh?

“He’s been kind of busy with his work lately…” Dad mused. It was true. Mom might have just been missing Shining more than either of us had thought. “Anyway, I’ll show you to your new room.”

My room! I’d completely forgotten. This was going to be fantastic! With Shining grown and in Canterlot, I was going to be treated to all the comforts of an only foal, and that meant a huge room with all the associated amenities, like my own bathroom.

Dad led me upstairs and opened a door. My parents had not let me down. Even buried in unopened boxes, it was obvious my room was huge. Probably three times the size of the one I had in Canterlot.

But there was one thing troubling me. My eyes scanned the room for the most important of my belongings, but I couldn’t find hide nor hair of them.

“Dad, where are–”

As I looked up at my dad’s face, he had a smile no less mischievous than Mom’s and motioned for me to follow. He led me down the hall to the next room over and said in a corny stage voice, “Prepare yourself for the unveiling of secrets not meant for mortal eyes.”

The anticipation was killing me, and he was purposefully delaying even longer. Equally irritated and eager, I took matters into my own hoof and pushed open the knobless door.

Now I know I had one before in the abandoned mine, but having one properly in my own home and right next to my room was just the best thing ever.

“Oh. My. Gosh!” I shouted as I ran into the library. Words failed me as I explored the shelves. I didn’t even recognize half the titles present. My parents must’ve added an enormous number of books to my already substantial collection.

“After the basics for us to live,” Dad began, “this was the first thing we unpacked. Consider it an early Hearth’s–”

Dad didn’t get another word out as I tackled him with a hug. In addition to the best thing ever, this was the best present ever.

Whispering the first word, Dad said, “Luna suggested a few titles herself. We put those” – he gestured towards a half-filled shelf of books next to the door – “right there. She said you might want to take a look at the ones about tracking and magical signatures in particular. She didn’t say why, though.”

The reason was obvious enough knowing what I was looking for. “I think I know why. But all this, I just – I don’t know what to say. This is just so amazing! Thank you so much!”

I squeezed Dad a little too tightly and forced the air out of him, sending him into a bout of coughing.

“I’m glad you like it,” wheezed Dad, “but not so tight, please, Sweetie.” After embarrassingly loosening my grip, he added, “Be sure to thank Velvet, too. Just…maybe not so passionately.”

“I’ll try.”

I giggled as I headed out the door to do just that.

Having lessons in my dream gave me certain advantages over Luna, advantages which I just plain wouldn’t have in the real world. To put it simply, she never saw me coming as I knocked her down.

“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”

Recovering from her daze, Luna wrapped a wing around me and returned my nuzzle. “I take it you arrived in Ponyville last night.”

“Uh-huh. Your book picks were wonderful.”

“I actually have another dozen or so to give you, but they’re currently stored in my – at the old castle in the Everfree. I imagine you’ll be taking a trip there once you master teleporting. Let me know before you do, and I’ll tell you how to find them.”

Still sitting on top of Luna’s barrel, I broke my embrace and looked her in the eyes. With barely contained enthusiasm, I asked, “What are they about?”

“Well,” Luna said playfully, “so far we’ve been working solely with regular magic, but I think it’s time for you to begin your study on dark magic.”

I nearly gasped. There was a lot of propaganda against dark magic in the world. But so far as I knew, it was just that: propaganda. I, and everypony I knew except Luna, knew about as much about dark magic as the common pony knew about Luna. If Luna thought it was safe, then it was safe.

And besides, even if Luna thought it was dangerous and that I shouldn’t study it, I probably wouldn’t listen. My curiosity would’ve gotten the better of me sooner or later.

“The books I want to give you are actually my own personal notes on the subject.”

This time I did gasp. That was like giving somepony not just a first edition, signed copy of the first Daring Do book, but the original manuscript and multiplied by a million. It was a good thing I was sleeping, or I probably would’ve fainted on the spot.

“I – thank you. I mean, what can I possibly say?”

“Thank you more than suffices, Twilight. I have little need for them anymore myself. Oh, and how was spending time with Twinkleshine?”

“It was fun. The comet was nice, but I had more fun putting together a real star gazing spell for her to learn and work on. I’m definitely not ready yet, but someday I think I’d like to try teaching for real and not just tutoring.”

“It is a rather pleasant experience,” Luna said, probably with a smile, if her tone were anything to go by. I was still curled up comfortably on her barrel with her face was out of sight. “To be honest, teaching was always more my sister’s thing.” Rubbing my mane, she added, “But I completely understand why she does it now.”

After an indefinite silence, Luna asked, “Has everything else been going well for you?”

“Ye – yes.”

“Hmm? Why the hesitation?”

“It’s nothing important,” I said, not wanting to spoil the mood.

“Well, now I have to ask if you put it like that.”

“What? Why?” I said it was nothing important. How in Equus does that make it high priority?

“Twilight, it’s the little things that cause the biggest problems. Just tell me what’s wrong.”

“It’s really nothing. I’ve just been a little moody lately.”

“Moody?” Luna asked, clearly a bit confused. She hummed thoughtfully and asked, “Has this happened before? Perhaps just before or just after Nightmare Night?”

I thought back a couple weeks. Was I moody? I was definitely not happy, but I was unenthused around Nightmare Night every year.

Hmm… I may have been a bit more sulky this year, but there was too much noise to really draw a meaningful conclusion. How annoying.

“Maybe?” I answered. “I’d put slightly more probability on yes than no, but not by much.”

“Excellent!” Luna exclaimed, getting up and sending me tumbling off her. “I was so hoping to catch this before your parents did, and it would seem luck is on my side.”

“Catch what?” I asked. I was a bit worried now despite how benign Luna made whatever my problem was sound. I wasn’t prone to illness – I’d never even gotten the standard once-in-a-lifetime foalhood diseases – but when I got sick, I got sick. It was always something doctors didn’t know how to cure instantly. And seriously, high fevers were the worst.

“In due time, Twilight. In due time. First, I need to gather my thoughts a bit. I only get one chance to expose you to this the right way. It’s really unfortunate that you get moody from it though. It’s not exactly a rare side-effect, but it’s not common either. Either way, I’ll direct you to some spells that will get rid of your mood swings for you later.”

Leaving my question unanswered and my curiosity unsated, Luna plunged deep into her own thoughts. After several excruciating minutes, she finally spoke, although, what she said wasn’t particularly helpful.

“Congratulations. You’re a mare, Twilight.”

I sat staring at Luna with a blank look. After a few moments to recover from the sheer unhelpfulness of her response, I deadpanned, “What?”

“You’ve had your first two – perhaps more – estrus cycles. It’s not unusual for a mare to not notice for quite a while. The most common way a mare finds out is when a colt does something incredibly stupid around her when her parents are nearby.”

That didn’t exactly help either, Luna. “And that means…”

“Well, from a purely academic perspective, it means you are now capable of both intercourse and conceiving a foal of your own. The former is, of course, the process by which the latter is performed.”

“Um… I don’t really want a foal,” I hazarded. Luna seemed really psyched about this for some reason, and I didn’t want to let her down, but I simply wasn’t interested in being a mom.

“Nor should you. You are far too young to pursue either option right now. But you are now able to understand intercourse, and as it is a fundamentally important part of nightly culture, so much so that even my sister partakes in it, I want to make sure you are introduced to it from the right perspective.”

I cocked my head to the side and asked, “As opposed to?” Luna still hadn’t explained what intercourse was, but I was sure that she’d get to it in her own sweet time, regardless of how much or little I inquired or whined.

“Society’s,” Luna answered, her disdain not well-hidden. “You see, ponies – and everyone else in the world – have a tendency to view sex–” Luna stopped to explain that was another word for intercourse before I could ask. “They have a tendency to view sex as something shameful and prop it up as something that should only be done between married couples or lovers in steady relationships.

“And before you ask, a steady relationship essentially means married without the paperwork, considering how easy divorce is. And I suppose you now want to know what divorce is.”

I nodded.

“It just means a married couple going their separate ways, usually permanently, although they may remain friends.

“Anyway, as paragons of the night and as its greatest supporters, we are under no such delusions. We embrace our feelings and passions but do not let the flames grow out of control. For us, sex is not something we dance around or shackle to odd traditions. It is an expression of deep friendship and trust, as well as pleasure.”

Luna shivered as though she were cold and said, “And believe me when I say that it is pleasurable, Twilight. Even my prudish sister cannot resist its call, though she has the world believe she does.” Sighing, Luna said, “Ah, it has been so long since I had a partner.”

“I–”

Luna cut me off before I started my second word. “I already said you are too young, Twilight. Both physically and emotionally.”

I couldn’t help but be upset at that. Luna was the only pony that didn’t truly treat me like a filly, and I hated that she was now. Doubly so given that she’d just said I was a mare now.

Still, as grating as it was, this was obviously a lesson, and Luna always knew when I was ready for something and when I wasn’t. I’d just have to trust her judgment on this one.

“Just because you can,” Luna continued, “doesn’t mean you should. Experiment on your own when you’re a few years older, and wait until you really understand what you’re getting into before you ask anypony to lay with you. Understood?”

I nodded, and Luna made me promise that I wouldn’t try anything until I was at least fourteen, and preferably not until sixteen or later with another pony.

“One other thing to mention,” Luna began. “I said that few, if any, ponies will be coming from the same cultural viewpoint as us on this subject. It is incredibly important that you explain our perspective first, or you risk causing serious emotional damage to your partner. Jealousy and betrayal are not feelings to be taken lightly. Understood?”

I nodded again and idly wondered if Shining and Cadance were having sex. They did seem awfully close, and Luna would approve of their ages. I made a note to ask Shining this evening after I woke up. If not, I might be able to push them into it. If it was really everything Luna made it sound like, I didn’t see why they wouldn’t want to.

“Alright. Now that we’ve covered the significantly more important cultural aspect – and don’t let anypony tell you otherwise, not even your parents or Cadance – let’s move on to anatomy and mechanics, beginning with the female side of things.”

Almost as an afterthought, Luna added, “I will warn you in advance that this might seem gross and make you squeamish until you get comfortable with the ideas.”

“I’m sure I’ll be fine,” I huffed. Luna just smirked.

“Now it all begins with the estrus cycle. There are two main phases you want to be concerned with: the estrus phase and the diestrus phase. The former usually lasts half a week to a week, and the latter is fairly predictable at about a week and a half. The two repeat one after another endlessly for much of your life – or forever for us. Remind me afterward to direct you to a few spells that will force your body to remain in the diestrus phase. That will deal with your moodiness.

“The estrus phase is when a mare is capable of conceiving a foal. It’s also when you may experience unpleasant side effects. In your case, this would be moodiness. Stallions are usually able to tell when you’re in this phase, and it leads to…some pretty stupid behavior on their end if they find you attractive.”

I laughed as I remembered some really dumb things Shining had done around Cadance. In hindsight, they made a lot more sense to me now.

“There are rumors that sex is more pleasurable for females during this phase, but it’s complete nonsense.

“On a historical note, since I know you love them” – Luna got a smile out of me; I did love trivia – “there is a third important phase called the anestrus phase. In the distant past, in the later half of fall and all through winter, mares would enter this phase and be unable to conceive a foal. In the present day, entering this phase is often surprising and scary for a mare. The biological mechanism for entering this phase is quite simple: reduced exposure to light.”

“But we have so much artificial lighting now that it’s irrelevant,” I finished for Luna and got a brief rub of my mane for the trouble.

“Exactly. Now stallions, on the other hoof, are able to reproduce all year, regardless of external circumstances. By the way, this is where things might get awkward for you.”

“I’m fine,” I reassured Luna again. Whatever she was going to say couldn’t be so weird that she needed to warn me so much.

“First, I should mention that there’s no reason for sex to be restricted to male on female, especially not when shapeshifters like myself – or you in perhaps four years or so – get involved. However, we’re just considering this from the academic standpoint and how the biology works, so we’ll discuss that some other time.

“Anyway, I’m sure you’ve seen a penis before, even with the prepuce concealing them. Stallions don’t exactly make a strong attempt to hide them in pony culture, and at your height, you have a rather low view. Now at it’s simplest, intercourse is performed by…”

As Luna went on, I blushed hard enough and then some for my cheeks to appear red through my coat. Things got awkward.

Author's Notes:

A minor note: I am using the same calender in this story as I do in Seeking Power, so that means ten days to the week.

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Read all about it! Another problem with eternal night, experts believe. Is your mare staring at a light long enough each night? Get all the facts in the Manehattan Times.

Chapter Four - A Small Problem

It was a lovely summer night on the edge of the Everfree Forest. Or at least it was as nice as nights get on the edge of the Everfree.

“Okay, calm down, Twilight,” I said, my voice the exact opposite of nice, lovely, serene, and all those other pleasant words. On my horn was an imitation suppressor, one enchanted to be unnoticeable to touch on the inside so I could wear it all night, every night without tearing it off and destroying it. I nervously kicked a rock into one of the craters my flares had made that I hadn’t bothered to clean up yet.

“You’ve put this off for far too many seasons now. You know how to teleport, you’ve extracted your horrible vengeance against your suppressor, Luna’s waiting on standby, you’ve calculated a minuscule probability of flaring if you make a lot of short, quick jumps. And even if you do, you’re so desensitized to the pain that your flare should scare everything off long enough for you recover enough to flee for your presently mortal life.

“You can do this. There’s only horrible pony-eating, magic-resistant beasts of unstoppable terror and impenetrable stealth that tear through shields like butter lurking in these woods. Nothing you can’t manage.”

Oh Luna, what was I doing? I was going to die, and my family wouldn’t even know where my corpse would end up as fertilizer. I didn’t want to become fertilizer! Maybe I should go back. I should go back and reevaluate the necessity of this whole excursion.

No. I shook my head and turned to face the forest again. I couldn’t go back home. This trip to the old castle was too important. I had to do it. Even if I weren’t picking up part of Luna’s Hearth’s Warming present to me two seasons late, I had to follow up on my only real lead on the elements.

If only the Everfree didn’t make my legs quiver at the very thought of entering.

But what did I need legs for? I was going to teleport! I promptly sat myself down on the ground and felt somewhat emboldened for the small victory of steadying my legs.

Riding off that courage, I closed my eyes, cast a light spell on myself, and set off my first teleport. Embarrassingly, I altered my destination at the last second to a mere meter past the tree line. Still, it was another small victory. I was inside the Everfree Forest.

I regretted opening my eyes immediately. The light spell I’d cast on myself was making the most terrifying shadows that falsely hinted at the presence of some terrible beast that’d wandered to the edge of the forest. Thankfully, I had the good fortune to be seated, or I probably would’ve stumbled over my legs fleeing as I sent off another teleport out of the forest.

Okay, new plan. I cast a cloud walking enchantment on myself and ripped a cloud from the sky with my telekinesis, silently apologizing to the Ponyville weather team. I then hopped on top of the cloud, made myself comfortable, and teleported far, far above the trees.

The next step was to cast a warming spell on myself, because it was freezing this high in the sky. I then checked the cloud for any degradation it might have been undergoing from the added heat, but fortunately, I found none.

Sighing, I looked down over the edge of the cloud and found myself more glad that I wasn’t afraid of heights than ever before in my life. Sure, I’d be a lot more vulnerable to the forest’s flying predators, but at least this way I wouldn’t be in the forest. It’d be much easier to dodge if something came at me, too.

Ugh… But what if I flared? I could bring my cloud lower; I could survive a shorter drop with branches to break my fall. But that was just asking for something hungry to notice me.

“Who.”

“Oh my gosh, don’t eat me!” I shouted as I teleported myself and my cloud away from whatever had snuck up on me. I then did what I should’ve done long ago and snuffed out my light spell. I had no need of it in the sky, and it would only draw attention.

Teleporting semi-randomly, I tried to locate whatever was assaulting me.

“Who,” the creature called again. I turned my attention towards the sound and found something I did not expect: an owlet.

I sighed as I let my next teleport spell fizzle, but the owlet had already noticed the glow of my horn and flew to join me. It landed on my back as if it were the most natural thing in the world and made itself comfortable.

“Well, this is…odd.”

“Who.”

Did I just randomly gain a pet?

“Um… Do you want to come visit some ruins with me?” I asked.

Unsurprisingly, the only answer I got was another, “Who.”

“Yeah… Right… I guess I’ll call you… Hmm… How about, Owlowiscious?”

“Who.”

Wow, this was awkward.

Anyway, I had a task to accomplish. If Owlowiscious flew away from teleport shock, then it flew away. Surprisingly feeling braver with the mere presence of the owl, I fired off the first of many teleports tonight. Owlowiscious didn’t fly away or even get up from where it rested.

Huh. Maybe it’d already been domesticated by somepony. Although that raised the question of how it’d ended up with me and who it belonged to. But those were questions for another time. I fired off another teleport.

And another.

And another.

And another, all in an near endless stream of pink, magical blinks with half-second pauses between. Fortunately, nothing noticed me so high up – or maybe nothing wanted to bother flying so high up to eat me – and I made it to my destination after well over two-hundred teleports and some questionable use of navigational skills.

I wasn’t anywhere near out of magic, but that’d still been exhausting on my horn. I collapsed onto my side on the cloud for some well-earned rest. Owlowiscious fluttered and landed on top of me again, this time nestling on my flank.

I lifted my head briefly to glance at the owlet. “You better not be leading momma owl here to eat me.”

Turning its head around one-hundred-eighty degrees to look at me, Owlowiscious said, “Who.”

Shivers ran through my body. That was creepy. Perhaps the creepiest thing I’d ever seen.

Sighing, I got to my hooves – with Owlowiscious now hitching a ride on my back – and teleported the two of us down to the front gate – if I could even call it that anymore – of the old castle. The large, wooden doors certainly blocked passage, but they were heavily damaged, and the vines growing along the walls had ruined the stonework and wedged the doors together. They’d probably fall down or crumble to pieces before they ever swung open again.

After a precautionary scry on the other side of the doors – I didn’t want to end up inside of a wall or something worse – I teleported inside. Time certainly hadn’t been any kinder inside the castle. The twin tapestries hung in the hall bearing Luna’s and Celestia’s cutie marks were still mostly intact, so they were probably enchanted, but everything else in the entryway gave the distinct impression of a ruin.

Ignoring the fallen sections of roof littering the ground, I took the last of three staircases on my left. It led down into the dark.

I recast my light spell to the slight annoyance of Owlowiscious and prepared a teleport to take me high into the sky at the first sign of anything living. At the end of the stairs, my hoofsteps echoed loudly through the corridor I’d landed in.

The echoes were worrying at first. Who knew what they would attract? But on the other hoof, I should be able to hear anything trying to sneak up on me long before it arrived. Still, there was no point in inviting trouble, so I cast a silencing spell on my hooves. It didn’t prevent the clattering of stray debris I knocked up, but my journey was much quieter for it.

Following Luna’s directions, I slowly made my way down the hallway, occasionally taking a turn when it split. I soon found myself at a second set of stairs leading deeper underground. I ventured down them and entered the second room on the right. The door was long gone along with whatever furniture that’d previously occupied this space.

All that remained were three marble bookcases lined with perfectly preserved books. Passing up the other tomes through sheer force of will, I located the innocent looking journals Luna had gifted me one by one until I had the full set of eleven suspended in my magic.

It was incredibly tempting to simply take all the books with me. Sure, they were all in Old Equestrian, would’ve taken forever to read, and probably didn’t have anything interesting in them that I couldn’t get from a modern book, but they were books. They might even be the last of their kind!

I reached out for one that caught my eye. If I was translating right, it was called The Wonderful Magic of Storm Chaser. A minute or two of reading couldn’t hurt. I’d just read the abstract and the first few pages.

“Who.”

I sighed and put the book back. Owlowiscious was right. I should get back to what I came here to do.

Wait… Did I just pretend Owlowiscious was talking to me?

I strained my head to get a look at the owlet on my back. It was as small and innocent looking as ever. All it did in return was stare at me and offer, “Who.”

“Owls…” I said dismissively.

I forced myself to leave without looking back at the alluring presence behind me and shaped the stone walls shut for good measure. I did leave a note engraved into the stone that read, “This was a door,” in case anypony else ever came down here.

Anyway, now eleven books heavier, I made my way back upstairs to the entryway more quickly and confidently than I’d gone down. From what I’d seen of the castle so far, I doubted there was anything living inside of it. There hadn’t been any signs of an oft-walked path through the dust and debris, or even any disturbances at all. Nor had there been any damage to the castle that clearly wasn’t the work of plants and weather. Both were strong indicators of an empty ruin.

Thankfully, I also hadn’t spotted any bones, nor did I stumble upon anything worse, like a half-eaten pony struggling to reach a door, leaving a trail of blood behind her as she–

Bad imagination! This was not the time for that.

Taking one of Cadance’s trademark, deep, calming breaths, I emerged on top of the original staircase I’d taken and turned away from the main gates. Only a dozen or so steps ahead of me was a grand staircase that lead directly to the throne room where Celestia had last used the elements. If luck held out, their overwhelming magic would’ve left traces of itself in the area.

Well, to be fair, Luna and I weren’t actually holding out for luck. That level of magic almost always left traces. Really, it would be unlucky if I didn’t find something to work with, even after a thousand years.

Skipping the frankly ridiculous number of stairs, I teleported to the doorway at the top. Like most of the internal doors, the ones to the throne room were missing, although I could see what looked like half of one of them inside the throne room, as if somepony a little too eager to see Luna had knocked a bit too hard.

There was also a large boulder blocking most of the door, but I moved it aside easily enough. Looking around inside, the throne room was definitely the site of a battle. There was some strange pedestal…thing…that was remarkably untouched, but everything else had seen serious damage. The floor especially was scorched with missed attacks, and some spots on the carpeting – also intact like the tapestries – had conspicuous stains that were probably from blood.

Now came the long, boring part of tonight. I walked to the very center of the room and made myself comfortable. Even without prodding the ambient magic in detail, it was obvious there was an assortment of random spells present. There was sure to be a lot of background noise, though, like the spells preserving the tapestries. It was going to take a while to filter out all the junk.

At least an hour later, I’d proven myself right. There was so much noise in the background magic. I was even beginning to worry if I’d be able to succeed at all.

When I was a little over halfway done chewing on a vine for a snack – which I’d foolishly discovered I did not need to break out medical spells for – I finally caught a hint of unusual magic. Following it, its source was from above me, right out through the most damaged part of the glass ceiling.

Spotting a free roaming cloud in the sky, I teleported it down and myself up. Life was so much simpler with clouds. I couldn’t remember how I ever got by without them.

I was exposed to the open air now, but I had yet to hear a single hint of an animal while I was in the castle, so I kept my paranoia to an appropriate medium level as I worked.

And finally, finally, I found what I was looking for. Probably.

The magic I was poking at was the strangest mixture of warm and comforting. Of course, that wasn’t a strange mixture all on its own, but magic wasn’t supposed to feel like anything.

But, I thought to myself, if there were anything that would break the rules, it would be the strongest known magical artifacts. Knowing that they were called the Elements of Harmony sort of made it easier to accept that at face value, too. Not that I wouldn’t be experimenting on them once I finally got my hooves on them. This was just one more question to add to the list.

Anyway, I fired off a tracking spell now that I had the appropriate signature to look for. The elements were more than powerful enough for me to pick up on their magic from any reasonable distance, as well as any unreasonable distance.

I sighed when I felt the direction of the pull. Of course Celestia would be rude enough to hide the elements on the opposite side of the world. That wasn’t even within her sphere of control! The minotaurs lived there!

Well actually, that was a pretty good objection. Celestia wouldn’t put the elements somewhere were somepony random could stumble upon them.

I teleported a short ways into the forest on the opposite side of the castle from the throne room. When I’d cast the tracking spell, I’d felt the pull slightly in that direction, though mostly downward, and if my hunch was right, I should get a very different result where I was now.

I cast the spell again and grinned at my cleverness. Celestia had buried the elements beneath the castle!

Within a second I was on the ground and digging out a large corridor, shoving the ground out of the way into densely packed walls like a maddened mole. I’d just cast a fresh air spell – an important precaution Luna gave me back when I dug into the Canterlot mines – when I realized that I needed to be more careful.

Not because of the tunnel’s structural integrity. That was certainly a concern, too, but I knew how to deal with that.

No, the problem was magical. There was no way Celestia would leave the elements lying around without putting her centuries of experience to work protecting them from thieves with the best wards available to her. No doubt including many of her own invention that hadn’t been made public.

Yes, this would have to be a painstakingly slow process.

I spent the next fifteen or so minutes poking at the magic around me, checking, double checking, and triple checking for the slightest trace, the slightest hint, the slightest tiny disturbance of an enchantment or a ward in the immediate vicinity.

I paid special attention to finding teleport wards and made several inspections specifically for uncovering them. Teleport wards were the absolute worst, and I’d be as good as dead if I got caught in one.

Finding nothing, I dug straight towards my target – which was not straight down – another few dozen hooves and repeated the process.

Nothing. I dug some more. Still nothing. Again, and again I repeated the process, each time coming up with nothing.

A cold sweat soaked my coat. Had I missed something? Was Celestia so much better than me at magic that she could stitch her spells into the background magic and not leave a single inkling of their existence? Was she already on her way here with the entire royal guard, Shining included?

My breath turned raspy. I didn’t want to be banished for a thousand years! I didn’t even know if I could survive that!

Or worse, I could be flat out killed and have my entire family condemned for treason along with me!

And Cadance would be banished like Luna. Or – or locked inside a vat of acid forever with a tiny glimmer of hope for escape that would be crushed every time she tried until she was utterly broken inside.

And – and – and–

“Who.”

–and who! Who?

My mind scrambled for answers as to the question of who until I collapsed to the tunnel floor. In a moment of clarity at the point of exhaustion, I remembered Owlowiscious and let out a deep breath.

Now that I was too tired to spin in circles, I recognized my panic attack for what it was. There was no way Celestia could be that good. I was Twilight Sparkle. My special talent was magic. I was the future Alicorn of Magic. If I couldn’t find a hint of a spell at such a snail-like pace, then there was no spell to be found.

Confident, yet still cautious, I continued my descent.

Eventually, my patience was rewarded. I stumbled upon one – no, two spells.

I fell to my haunches. Now that I’d actually found something, I made a point to remove all of the sticky, unpleasant sweat from my body that I’d built up. And while I was at it, I gave myself a quick magical cleaning. Even I was offended by how I smelled after sweating so much and playing in the dirt.

Now then, I was very suspicious that there were only two spells; I’d have thought there would be a lot more. I made an extra long sweep for spells one last time but found nothing new.

I was strangely disappointed, and even a little insulted. This was a pretty flimsy defense that even a moderately competent ward breaker could deal with. Well, at least if she found the second spell first. I had to admit that one had been extraordinarily well-hidden, not that the first had been suspiciously obvious. Rather, the opposite was true; it’d been unsuspiciously difficult to find.

Anyway, first I had to carefully pick apart the second spell. It was set up to send a signal the moment the first spell, a proximity alarm, failed.

It would’ve been better to have the signal be continuous so I would have to trick the second spell into thinking I wasn’t messing with the first, but I could easily imagine listening to it constantly getting old after the first day or two, let alone after a millennium. I couldn’t blame Celestia for that oversight.

But she could have double cast the spell to have both watch the first spell and each other. Simultaneous deconstruction of both would have been a serious challenge that even I might not have been up to.

And really, there was no reason to stop at two. Why not three? Or four? Or a thousand? Well, maybe not a thousand. At some point she wouldn’t have been able to hide them so well, but my point stood. This spellwork was lazy and uninspiring for what it was guarding.

Oh well. I’d just think of this as the elements being gift wrapped and hoofed over to me with a silver bow on top.

With one last æthereal slice of magic, I dispelled the second spell. It wasn’t anywhere near my record time, but that was perfectly okay. I would be more concerned if I were taking this so lightly that I came close to finishing so quickly.

The hard part done, I quickly and easily scrubbed away the proximity alarm and returned to my digging, perhaps proceeding a little too quickly in my anticipation.

And at long last, after a full night of hard work, I broke into a small cavern. At first, I didn’t notice the faint blue glow emanating into my tunnel, since I, myself, was glowing, but that quickly changed.

I almost teleported away on reflex when I finally noticed, but I knew I should be fine. There weren’t any more actual spells inside, and I hadn’t been killed by some mechanical trap yet. If there were poison gases or the like, it’d be filtered out by my fresh air spell, too, so that wasn’t a problem.

Owlowiscious was quite eager to fly inside, but I grabbed it in my magic and pinned it to the ground. It wasn’t that I was jealous and wanted to be the first to see the elements. Definitely not. I just didn’t want it accidentally triggering something.

I cast a shield over myself, knowing that it would deflect anything that might be thrown at me. Then far less cautiously than I probably should’ve been, I stuck my head into the cavern.

On the floor there were some weird, semi-hallow, stalagmite-like, rock things on the ground filled with water. Floating on top of a few were lily pads with pink, glowing blossoms, or maybe they were lotuses. I’d never learned to tell the difference, and neither ever agreed with my stomach, so I didn’t particularly care to.

I also noticed a few stray, large, purple crystals much like the ones found in the mines in Canterlot. It would be interesting to follow up on the connection sometime later, but I let the mystery drop for now.

What I failed to see were the elements. I turned to examine the other half of the room.

My jaw fell to the floor.

It wasn’t the elements, but a glowing, blue tree made entirely of crystal with strange, ornament-like leaves hanging from its branches. The six-pointed star that symbolized magic and adorned my haunch was emblazoned in the center of the branches on the trunk. Below that, the tree bore Luna’s and Celestia’s cutie marks, although those two looked like they’d been carved into the tree, and rather crudely so at that.

On the end of five of the branches were large, blue crystals that practically oozed those spherical leaves, which, now that I looked closer, were glowing as brightly as the main part of tree. On each crystal was a small indentation that reminded me of the rupees dragons used as currency. When they weren’t eating them, that was.

But taking the entire tree in at once, if ever something were to be universally pointed to as beautiful, this tree would be it.

Grabbing myself with telekinesis, I floated down to the floor of the cavern and explored it in more earnest.

The chamber was small and sealed off to the world. Much to my disappointment, there was nothing interesting at the bottom of the pools of water. And the tree was as stunning from the back as it was from the front, although with less decoration.

But there were no Elements of Harmony. The tracking spell consistently pointed to the tree, no matter which direction I cast it from.

Getting pedantic about it, I tried to pinpoint exactly where on the tree I was being pulled to, and the spell sent me to an empty space between branches. If I were to make a hasty guess, I’d say that empty space was the circumcenter of the five rupee-shaped crystals.

Now as interested in investigating the tree as I was, I needed more information. I set an alarm spell for five minutes and cast a sleep spell on myself.

The next instant – from my perspective at least – Luna was standing in front of me.

“Complications?” she asked, to which I nodded my head.

“Everything went smoothly until the end. I found the magical signature of the elements, and I had time to follow it to the source, but all I found was a tree. It had your cutie mark on it, so I figured you’d know something.”

“Hmm, that’s unfortunate,” Luna said. “It seems you’ve been led to the Tree of Harmony. It’s where the elements came from.”

I raised an eyebrow. “So where did the tree come from?”

Luna shrugged.

“Well, somepony must have made it. Magical artifacts with a useful purpose – and multiple purposes, too – don’t just randomly appear. I wonder if we can make another one.”

“Perhaps, but I’d imagine you have a more pressing question right now.”

Oh right. I looked at the non-existent ground of my empty dream with a blush. It was amazing how quickly I could get off-topic.

“So do you have any suggestions for finding the actual elements? Time might be a factor. I had to destroy a couple of spells in the area to get to the tree, and I don’t know how often Celestia checks or recasts them, if ever.”

Luna bit her lip for just an instant, but she soon said, “I think I know how we can solve this problem. The elements are born from the tree, true, but individually, they possess most of the magic. You could think of the elements as the fruit of the tree; they possess an unusually large amount of energy compared to the rest of the tree from whence they spring. If you can filter out the magical signature of just one of those fruits, you should be able to overcome the bias for the tracing spell to fix on the much closer tree.”

That made sense, at least to some degree. Luna had always treated the elements as a set, but they also each had their own name. Maybe it was more appropriate to think of the elements as six artifacts that were designed to work together instead of as six pieces of one artifact.

“If that doesn’t work,” Luna began, a prod of her hoof knocking me out of my train of thought as usual, “you can try tracing the flow of magic between the tree and the elements. That would, however, likely be significantly more difficult.

“Either way, why don’t you call it a night? You can try again tomorrow after taking your mind off it and getting a refreshing morning’s rest.”

It didn’t take me long to agree. It was getting pretty late, and my parents would be waking up soon from the magical sleep I’d put them in. I’d only done that as insurance in case one of them would have woken up for a midnight snack or something and decided to have a chat with me.

And besides, I was tired, and I was probably going to regret waking up in less than a minute.

I moaned as I felt all the stress I’d left behind again. Yep, I was not happy about waking up. I teleported high into the sky, bypassing the tunnel I’d made. Then remembering Owlowiscious, I teleported to my previous location instead of to the ground. I then teleported into the tunnel I’d made and recovered my still bound owlet.

“Sorry about leaving you behind, Owlowiscious. I don’t usually have somepony else with me on this kind of stuff.”

“Who.”

“Now let’s go see what Mom and Dad think of keeping you. Then I think both of us need to go to sleep.”

Frustrated beyond belief, I moved on to the last element: Magic. Every time I tried to attune to one of the others, I felt it squirm out of the way. I didn’t think it was impossible to succeed, it was just…frustrating. It was like trying to work a quill without magic.

I blew my frazzled mane out of my eyes and reached out with my magic.

Closer.

Almost there.

And…success!

“Finally!” I huffed. “What a pain in the flank!”

I let out a few angry breaths and tried to calm down with mixed results. At the very least, I had the Element of Magic’s magical signature available. It wasn’t much different from when I was tracking the elements as a whole, but there was definitely subtle quirks to find.

And find them I would! No matter how much it squirmed and protested, the element’s signature was mine now. All mine!

Oh, horseapples. Talk about a textbook example of a mad scientist. For crying out loud, the element wasn’t even alive.

Well…probably. There was a Tree of Harmony, but I didn’t know if was actually alive or not. I would guess not, but it was always a bad idea to make assumptions when dealing with ancient magical artifacts. I didn’t actually have any other experience with such things, but it seemed like one of those prudent common sense things.

Anyway, not wanting to deal with getting the Element of Magic’s signature ever again, I decided to get creative. Hopefully, this would work.

I turned my attention back toward the tunnel I’d walked in from again and pulled out a slab of stone. Another application of the stone sculpting spell, and the slab was crushed into sand.

The next step was rather simple. Just add heat. Lots and lots of heat.

Keeping my project far away from me on the other side of the room, I overloaded a heating charm to extraordinary levels. I had no idea how hot I needed the sand to be to melt it, but a few thousand degrees seemed to do the trick.

Interestingly enough, the molten ball still qualified as stone, so I kept using that specialized spell to save myself from jumping through the mental hoops I’d have to go through with telekinesis.

Utilizing half of the molten glass, I shaped it into a hollow sphere with a shell thick enough to allow it to be dropped without breaking. If I were doing this right. I vaguely remembered some step about…something or other that prevented glass from becoming brittle in the smelting process.

Whatever. If I messed up too badly, I could always copy the spell later onto something nicer.

Finally, I flash cooled the sphere and was rewarded with an ear piercing squeal as it shattered.

Well, that was nothing a quick repair spell couldn’t fix.

After the pieces reassembled back into their sphere shape, I was left with a fine example of the reason why I wasn’t a professional glass maker. The end result was, to put it simply, a mess. Oh, it had the right shape, and it was transparent…ish, but I’d clearly forgotten something important along the way, or I’d used the wrong ingredients, or something.

“Blegh.” I gagged just looking at my finished work up close. “I’ll buy something nice later or learn how to actually do this myself.”

I cast an illusion on the sphere. Even though it naturally looked like trash, that didn’t mean I had to put up with it. It now looked like a proper clear glass ball. For the next two steps, I removed all the air inside it and then teleported a flower petal from one of those glowing plants inside.

Lastly, I made a minor change to the tracking spell to make the pull kinetic instead of mental, and I cast it on the petal.

Satisfied with my work, I stared at the petal as it rose from the bottom with a smile. It settled against the glass mostly upward and a little bit to my left and backward.

It was perfect!

The elements, or at least the Element of Magic, were likely close by, too. Judging from the direction, they were somewhere in the castle.

Noticing the remains of my foray into glass making, I shifted some earth a few hooves beneath me and teleported it all inside where it would never to see the light of night or day again.

Now ready to go, I teleported myself back into my tunnel and eagerly cantered out, closing it behind me as I went. Just because I’d knocked out the spells that’d once been there, it didn’t mean I had to go leaving obvious clues as to my entry. If I were lucky, Celestia would think her spells just failed due to environmental factors. Or even better, she just wouldn’t come here at all between now and Luna’s return.

But those were pretty optimistic thoughts. I certainly wasn’t going to count on her not noticing eventually, and I doubted Luna would either.

Although, successfully stealing the elements would draw far more attention than a missing spell or two. Right now, all I really wanted to do was find them and keep an eye on their location. I wanted to filch them at the last possible moment. That way, Celestia would be distracted by Luna’s imminent return, and I’d have the highest chance of ascending on the spot, thus rendering the elements useless for ‘a while’, where a while meant something along the line of decades.

Anyway, I made it outside and sealed up the tunnel entrance. I frowned at the lack of grass, but it would grow back quickly enough. I was in the Everfree Forest, after all. For now, I just threw some leaves on the bare patch of dirt and looked at my shiny new compass…and frowned.

The petal had had a distressing dearth of movement from when I was right next to the Tree of Harmony.

I suspended the sphere such that my line-of-sight matched up perfectly with the petal.

Yep. I wasn’t crazy. It was pointing straight up into the sky.

That was sort of a neat trick. Get your enemies to search desperately on the ground for the elements, but have them floating around in the upper atmosphere all along. It certainly wouldn’t have been on the top of my list of hiding places to check.

Still, I double checked my tracking spell for problems, just to be sure.

When the spell turned out to be functioning properly, I summoned a cloud to me and hopped on, only to rethink my strategy moments later. The petal itself hadn’t moved despite my having moved a considerable distance. That meant the elements had to be pretty far up there, and I was not going to take the distance a dozen hooves at a time tonight. That would take seasons, and all I wanted to do tonight was to case the joint.

I couldn’t help but giggle. I’d been having a little too much fun with the dictionary recently.

All right, all right. I had my laugh, now back to the math.

“Pft… Heh…” I tried suppressing the second bout of laughter, but I was still too high from the previous one to resist. It was long before I recovered.

Settling into an occasional giggle at my unintentional near-rhyme, I marked the petal’s location with an illusion and teleported myself and my cloud roughly a kilometer toward home in two short jumps.

To my growing horror, when I looked at the compass, the petal hadn’t moved. It probably hadn’t moved even an angstrom.

“That’s – that’s a skinny right triangle. Let’s…um…go a bit farther…”

As I traveled back to Ponyville, I stared at the compass the whole way, paying no heed to the dangers of the Everfree.

“Oh please, oh please, little petal. Please won’t you move?”

I made it home without so much as a change in the petal’s location. I’d disturbed it’s position with every teleport with minor fluxes in my telekinesis, but every time it moved back to the exact same spot.

Abandoning my faithful cloud, I teleported to the front door and ripped it off its hinges. I dashed upstairs to my library and ripped that door off its hinges as well. I forced myself to slow down and focus my magic as I pulled an atlas off the shelves. I opened it to a map of Equestria and pulled out a piece of parchment and a quill at the same time.

I had to blow my mane out of my eyes again as I turned the pages of the atlas and calculated the multiplicative inverse of the tangent of point one degree at the same time. Eventually, I came to the page I needed: a scale map of Equestria.

Ponyville to the old castle was at least one-hundred kilometers.

My quill scribbled more furiously than ever as I turned my full attention back to the math I was doing. I had a number for the tangent. I rounded it off to a solid six-hundred. Then doing the multiplication…

Dear Luna, the elements were at least sixty-thousand kilometers off of the planet’s surface and probably several orders of magnitude farther than even that.

“No, no, no, no. This isn’t fair. This is completely unfair. This is cheating!” My quill snapped. “You can’t put the elements in space!”

I knocked myself out, barely remembering to set a wakeup call.

“Luna!” I shouted, eye twitching. “They’re – the elements–”

“Twilight, calm–”

“I’m perfectly calm! The el–”

“Twilight Sparkle,” boomed Luna at the traditional royal level, causing me to take a step back from both the intimidation and the intensity. “Calm down.”

“I – they–” I sniffed once or twice and felt tears at the corners of my eyes. This was not how it was supposed to be.

Luna wrapped me in her wings, rubbed my mane, and cooed, “It’s okay, Twilight. Just tell me what’s wrong.”

“H-how…how f-far can Celestia t-teleport?”

“Oh, Twilight,” said Luna, obviously worried, “you didn’t get caught, did you?”

I shook my head. “I-I’m fine. And safe. Just…how f-far?”

“Well, I’m not sure of the exact distance, and we’ve never pushed ourselves to our limits, but we have both made trips from our celestial body to Equus when it was the opposite period of the night-day cycle. So to answer your question, unnecessarily far. Why do–”

Luna’s face turned to a frown in an instant. “Oh,” she said flatly. Then squeezing me tighter, she continued, “Oh, Twilight, I’m sorry for pushing this on you. Now that you mention it, it is a rather obvious hiding place. But all hope is not lost. We merely need to reevaluate our options.”

I looked up at Luna, wanting to believe. She had a small smile like everything would be alright, but it seemed so hopeless.

“First, we should identify the primary concerns. Or just the concern, in this case.”

Luna looked at me expectantly, and I gave a weak smile in return. It was just like her to turn this into a lesson.

“Celestia wants to banish you again with the elements.”

“Not quite,” Luna said.

It was rubbing salt in the wound, but getting a question wrong was a familiar hurt, one I was used to and could bear.

“The problem is not, ‘Sister wants to banish me with the elements,’ but rather, ‘Sister wants to banish me,’ an important distinction to make. I do not believe she could do it alone without the elements, but…”

But what? Who else could possibly wield that kind of power? I certainly wasn’t going to be forcibly ascended and conscripted to the cause.

Trixie? Please. Trixie was a decent enough mage, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon.

Discord? That – that would just be insane. Even Celestia wouldn’t purposefully release Discord. Then who–

I would’ve facehoofed, but Luna still had me in her wings. “Luna, Cadance is awful at magic. And I mean that in the nicest possible way, but she’s just abysmal. There’s no other word for it.”

“Too true,” Luna chuckled. “But she works perfectly well as an alicorn-grade battery. Keep that in mind for future discussion.”

“So…I just need to keep Cadance out of the way? I might be able to…”

“We do need to keep my sister from ganging up on me two versus one, but you won’t be able to prevent her from abducting my niece when the time comes. You do not have the raw power, and my niece does not have the skill, so it is a fruitless effort.

“This limits our options significantly. We either need the working elements ourselves or a second alicorn.” Luna turned her gentle petting into a gentle noogie. “And the second option sort of makes the first redundant, doesn’t it?”

“So,” I began, “I need to find some other way to ascend? And we ignore the elements?”

“No. Whatever else happens, we cannot ignore the Elements of Harmony. Even if my sister were not the one to wield them, they are what you might call a game breaker. If we are forced to fight against them directly, we will lose. It is as simple as that.

“As for finding another way to ascend, I still highly recommend against that. It is extremely dangerous. I didn’t want to tell you this, but my niece was incredibly lucky. I know of at least fifty other ponies who failed to ascend before her and died in the process.”

A shiver crawled up my body. Ascend only with the elements. Very good to know.

“Then between now and the final confrontation,” I said, getting my mind off self-destructing, “I need to steal the elements, right?”

Luna nodded. “The closer to the fight, the better. I have no doubt you can find a way to make the elements hard for my sister to track while they are in your possession, but that is a risky venture. Ideally, you would simply ascend as soon as you entered their presence. You could then fly away, never so much as touching them. Not that you couldn’t also move them somewhere else and make my sister’s life miserable as she tries to hunt them down.

“So, Twilight, what are your options for obtaining the elements?”

“Hmm… Well, if somepony else can wield them” – I looked up to Luna for a direct answer and got a nod – “then I guess it would be Trixie that would wind up with them. If she had them in her possession for any significant length of time, I could probably steal at least one from her. Assuming Celestia didn’t watch them like a hawk. Stealing one would be enough, right?”

“Not quite, Twilight. But that is a good point to raise. The elements are only truly useful as a whole. However…” Luna trailed off, expecting me to finish. And for once, the answer was obvious to me.

“However the chances of Celestia not watching them like a hawk are essentially zero. And that doesn’t resolve the two alicorn problem.”

Of course, that was all under the assumption that Trixie would wind up with the elements, which seemed unlikely. Anypony else could be substituted into Trixie’s place without changing the argument. Anypony except–

“And if Celestia’s wielding them,” I said, “then she’d no doubt have them constantly at hoof until the battle was over. I’d never get a chance to steal any of them from her. So really, I have to obtain them before Celestia goes to retrieve them if we’re to have any chance at winning.”

I got a sinking feeling in my stomach as what I just said sank in. That was the whole reason I’d run crying to Luna to begin with.

“That is pretty much what it comes down to,” Luna agreed. “The question you need to ask, then, is how.”

How indeed. Luna must have had an idea, or she wouldn’t have led me down this whole train of logic. She must have been railroading me into something. If only I could figure out what.

Well, when in doubt, start with identifying the deadline.

“If Celestia has hidden them this long,” I began, “she’ll probably delay picking them up until the last possible moment.”

“I would agree with that. That means you have a time limit of roughly six-and-a-half years.”

That was a long time. And yet on the astronomical scale, it was so short. What could I possibly do in that amount of time? Think, Twilight. Think.

Despite my command to think, my brain was not producing ideas.

Argh! There had to be an answer! Luna wouldn’t be sitting here comforting me so easily if there weren’t.

Frustrated, I reconsidered the problem from the very beginning.

What resources did I have?

There was myself, the strongest – but semi-unreliable – unicorn in the world. Not exactly a resource I didn’t consider very often in my plans.

I had an essentially unlimited amount of bits from Luna. That translated to any material resources I might need, but it wasn’t much of a solution on its own.

I had lots of contacts through my family and through Luna, as well as the ear of–

That was one more time I had wanted to facehoof but had found myself blocked by Luna’s wings, and for the same reason, too! Still, I had objections.

“Even if I managed to convince or to trick her, Cadance is untalented at magic. She won’t be able to learn teleportation in six years. And if my flares are a valid point of comparison, trying to funnel her power through me would fry my horn long before I made it to the moon or anywhere else.”

Luna just smiled down at me.

What was I missing? Surely she didn’t want me to try tricking Celestia. That had no chance of working. I might be able to fool her for a second, but she was too powerful. She could take care of me with pure brute force if I tried anything. She could probably kill me in the process of ascending, too.

Chuckling, Luna hinted, “I used to have a rather silly nickname: Sailor Moon.”

What? That didn’t make any sense. It was total cryptic nonsense. Well, it was the kind of nonsense a pony would expect from her ancient, wizened, magic teacher. But that wasn’t the point! Cryptic nonsense was…was…

Hmm… Something I’d once told Twinkleshine came back to me. Technically, without gravity holding one down, it wasn’t that far from the Equus to space.

“Luna, how fast do you think I could get a…a spaceship moving with magic?”

“Very fast, Twilight. Very fast indeed.”

Author's Notes:

“Mom, I need to take a field trip.”

Chapter Five - Navigator

This time for sure. This time I was practically going to sweep her off her hooves. I was going to pull out all the stops, all the dirty tricks. I needed a navigator, and by Star Swirl’s beard, I was going to have a trustworthy one, even if I had to stoop to questionably moral acts to get her.

No more memory spells to erase mistakes. Everything was going to be perfect this time. And if she still refused, well, I’d have to find somepony else.

Finally, the door opened, and I made my move, only to abruptly abort when I realized Moondancer had been the one to open the door. A minor setback, but at least I’d stopped quickly enough that I didn’t have to contrive a reason to bring her and Twinkleshine outside the school’s wards so I could erase their memory of the event.

“If you’re looking for Twinkleshine,” Moondancer said, despite the redundancy of the prompt, “she went to the bathroom. Coming inside?”

I shook my head. No, this evening was not going to be spent within the stifling the confines of this school’s tiny campus.

Moondancer said, “Suit yourself,” and closed the door behind her.

I, on the other hoof, waited down the hallway, just around the corner. If everything went right, Twinkleshine would walk right past me without noticing, and then I could surprise her properly.

A few minutes later, Twinkleshine did just that. I put on the friendliest smile I had in me and called out, “Twinkleshine.”

The mare in question, for she was definitely a mare by now, spun around to face me. “Twilight!”

Before she could move in for a hug – I’d managed to get her to come completely out of her shell around me over the past year – I swooped in and gave her a kiss on the cheek. I had to suppress a laugh and keep my face locked on ‘warm and friendly’ as I watched Twinkleshine blush and struggle with feelings she didn’t really understand. It wouldn’t do to distract her from this evening’s main purpose too much.

In hindsight, a lot of things made so much more sense after Luna had given me the sex talk. Shining’s more awkward moments around Cadance, which had once been mysterious and idiotic, were obviously attempts at flirting now. Mom and Dad had some weird flirty quirks, too.

And then there was Twinkleshine. It was quite obvious she was attracted to me, although she was too young to really understand why, and I doubted anypony had explained it all to her yet at this school.

I did feel a wee bit guilty using her budding feelings against her, but it wasn’t like I wouldn’t be willing to reciprocate when we were older. She was a dear friend and fairly easy on the eyes. And if I had my way, we’d be spending the next several years together.

Anyway, it was time for action. “Twinkleshine, you haven’t eaten yet, have you?”

I got a nervous shake of her head and a deeper blush in answer.

“Good. In that case, let’s head over to my house.”

“I’m not sup–”

“I got Cadance’s permission for you to come home with me tonight.” And that came with a noticeable lack of stipulation on which home, not that I was limited by what Cadance let me do.

“How did you–”

I waved away Twinkleshine’s question as we walked. “Cadance was my foalsitter. Well, she still is, technically, but my parents are more okay with letting me stay home alone lately. They’re both in town this time, so you’ll finally get to meet my mom after we eat, and my dad will have time to be around, too.”

It took a few seconds, but I noticed Twinkleshine had stopped walking.

“Princess Cadance was your foalsitter?”

I nodded and explained, “She’s dating my brother. That’s probably supposed to be a secret, so please don’t tell anypony.”

“I – that – you–”

Turning away from Twinkleshine, I resumed walking and called back, “Come along, Twinkleshine. We don’t want our food to get cold.”

Not that I couldn’t heat it back up with magic, but I wanted to keep Twinkleshine on the tips of her hooves. The stunned respect was all according to plan – it helped immensely that I knew how Twinkleshine would react to certain pieces of information ahead of time – but it ran the risk of making this about Cadance if I let Twinkleshine dwell on it too long.

“So how has your magic been coming along since I last visited?”

Stumbling over her words, Twinkleshine answered, “Great. I mean, you’re an excellent teacher, Twilight. And a genius.”

My smile grew just a little bit wider. One of the biggest things I had to convince Twinkleshine of, not necessarily today, but soon, was that I could finish her education for her. From the sound of it, that wouldn’t be very hard.

I spent the rest of the walk home keeping Twinkleshine from asking any untoward questions by asking my own questions about her spellwork and other little things.

When we reached my house, Twinkleshine had worked herself up into a little ball of energy about to burst. The whole surprise library thing had overshadowed my own excitement in investigating my Ponyville home, but I couldn’t say I didn’t understand the feeling somewhat.

We’d only taken a single step inside before Twinkleshine threatened to run off to every corner of the house.

“Hey, Twinkleshine,” I said, reining her in before she could dash off. “There’s another secret I need to tell you, but this one is a lot more important. I need you to promise me ahead of time that you won’t tell anypony.”

Twinkleshine’s attention shifted completely over to me remarkably quickly. “I promise.”

“No. Don’t make a snap decision like that,” I said, trying to make Twinkleshine understand the importance of this. She was young, and she’d never been trusted with anything of real importance, but I could at least try to impress how important this was upon her. “This is the kind of secret that could ruin my life if it got out, Twinkleshine. I need you to truly think about whether or not you can keep it and make a vow to yourself and to me to do so. I cannot stress how important this is.”

I looked nervous, but I certainly wasn’t. I knew how this conversation played out. Shy as she was, like most foals, Twinkleshine couldn’t resist when I phrased it like that. Every time I said this to her, I made it sound as mysterious and adventurous as possible without going too far and making it comedic. And every time, she said…

“I promise, Twilight. I, Twinkleshine, shall neither repeat nor record a single word you say here without your express permission.”

It was almost eerie that she said that exact sentence every time, even to slightly different prompts. I could only assume it was a quote she was particularly fond of with her name substituted in. Probably from some foals’ adventure novel, if I considered the sheer number of loopholes I could point out.

But Twinkleshine wasn’t the kind of pony to take advantage of them, so I let her promise pass unchallenged as I did every time.

With that done, it was time to reveal the first surprise. I floated off my fake suppressor ring and received a gasp from Twinkleshine.

Clearly nervous, Twinkleshine asked, “Twilight…you’re…you’re not going to blow up or anything, are you?”

I raised a single eyebrow, “Why would I do that?”

“Well, I did some reading in the school library about Flares. The last one suddenly went missing a decade ago…”

“Ah, I see. Well, I won’t comment on whatever you’ve read, but the likelihood of me flaring is quite low if I don’t strain myself magically or emotionally, and it’s essentially zero if I’m not using magic at all.” Remembering my exam and wishing for completeness, I added, “Unless a strong external source of magic sparks the process, which is also a rare event.

“And even if I did flare,” I continued, “I have enough control before my magic goes completely wild to ensure everypony around me is safe.” That was something I was rather proud of, in truth. I wasn’t supposed to be able to do that; prevention was supposed to be my temporary cure, not control. Even Luna was beyond impressed with my natural talent, and at her age, she’d seen it all.

“I see…” Twinkleshine said, her fear retreating from her face. “So this is your secret? You take off that ring when you’re alone?”

“Part of it. And it is just as important that you keep that secret as the other part. I have no idea how much trouble I would be in with Princess Celestia if she found out, but banishment comes to mind.”

“B-banishment!” Twinkleshine stuttered.

I nodded solemnly. “I hope you understand now how much I’m trusting you.”

“I-I-I do. I don’t know what to say, Twilight. I’m flattered.”

I made my best wistful smile. “As much as I hate to admit it, I’m mostly telling you for myself, not because you’re my friend. You see, I have an…opportunity and a request for you. A gargantuan, life-changing opportunity and request.”

“You need my help? Anything, Twilight.”

I nearly sighed. She said that every time, and the answer was always no. But this time, this time would be different. Everything was going right.

“You shouldn’t promise to help before you know what you’re promising,” I said reproachfully. I held up a hoof to silence Twinkleshine’s oncoming expression of undying loyalty, or at least the foal equivalent of it. Next, I floated over the blindfold from a nearby table that I’d prepared in advance.

“Teleportation” – Twinkleshine’s jaw dropped at the word – “can cause a bit of bodily discomfort for new teleporters. If you wear this, the effects should be diminished. You and I would both regret it if what I’m about to show you was ruined by your gag reflex.”

Her magic was shaky, but Twinkleshine took the blindfold without question and placed it over her eyes.

“Ready?” I asked. Twinkleshine nodded. As I cast the necessary protective spells, I explained, “We’re going to be making several thousand jumps in rapid succession.”

“Thousand!” squeaked Twinkleshine.

I placed a comforting leg across her withers. “Yes, thousands. If I try to span the distance in anything less, I run a very high risk of flaring.” Now petting Twinkleshine’s mane to calm her down the same way Luna did for me, I added, “But don’t worry about that. Even if I do flare, we can ride the surge to safety before I lose control. And yes, that does come from both theory and experience.”

What I didn’t tell Twinkleshine was that experience was very scary, terrifying experience. I had done the math first, and I did do several tests on the ground – which had caused a lot of environmental damage that I’d had to clean up – but the first time I had to jump from space to the ground while flaring was the most frightening experience of my life. If I’d made the slightest error, then I would’ve died of asphyxiation, from burning up in the atmosphere, from splatting on the ground, or any number of other problems.

It all had a way of making a pony nervous, but I hid it well. I had no intention of burdening Twinkleshine, too, with those worries.

“O-okay. I trust you, Twilight.”

“Thank you. The teleportation part of our trip will take about a half-hour. I have a picnic basket prepared for our dinner after that, during which time I’ll be carrying us the rest of the way with telekinesis for another half-hour or so. And before you ask, it’s going to be way different than being picked up by telekinesis, so it’s not going to interfere with dinner.”

Getting a nod, I finished, “If at any time you start feeling sick, let me know, and we’ll take a rest and go slower.”

I didn’t know how Twinkleshine would react to teleporting. Really, it was probably something I should’ve checked on a previous attempt, but oh well. I was sure it’d be fine.

“Then if you have no objections” – Twinkleshine shook her head – “I’ll make our first teleport in three” – I brought our picnic basket to me – “two” – I built up the steady stream of power – “one.”

I teleported us straight up, high above the airspace of Canterlot. My other spells, anchored to myself, were doing their job. We were at a constant temperature, we had plenty of oxygen, we were covered in a highly-reflective shield to keep the sun from blinding us, my gravity spell was ready to go, and Twinkleshine hadn’t vomited.

We were good to go.

After the first minute of nervously clinging to me, Twinkleshine eased up and said, “This isn’t so bad.”

“That’s good,” I said, finding it a little difficult to speak while teleporting. “Teleportation sickness is usually caused from rapid changes in imagery. Some ponies respond poorly anyway.”

Over the next few minutes, Twinkleshine and I shared some idle conversation, although much of it was apologies on my end for being unable to form a coherent response.

After approximately ten minutes of travel, Twinkleshine asked, “Am I supposed to be feeling…lighter, I guess?”

“Ah, sorry. I’ve gotten used to that.” I adjusted the gravity spell to be a little stronger. Apparently I’d fallen a bit short of Equus’s level. “Better?”

“Yeah. How are you doing that?”

I chuckled before answering, “It’s a surprise for later.”

A few minutes before we arrived at the halfway point of our journey, I watched the sun disappear and the moon take its place. The stars never left this part of the universe – whatever Luna had meant by that – so they slowly faded into view as the sun departed, starting with the brightest.

I also made my shield non-reflective to better see the stars. There was no sense in creating the same blinding effect as Equus’s atmosphere at night in space.

“Drat,” I whispered.

“Hmm?”

“Oh, nothing.”

It seemed I was running a few minutes late. Moonrise was far more magical in space than on Equus, and I’d really wanted to show it to Twinkleshine. Even the astronomy spells she’d been developing didn’t compare to having a proper panoramic view.

Shrugging off the disappointment, I finished the first stage of our journey and quickly set about preparing for the second.

First, I spread out the picnic blanket and pulled it tight from all four corners. Satisfied that the blanket was as flat as I was going to get it, I modified my shield from spherical to a hemisphere and re-anchored it to be centered just below the blanket’s centroid. Now all I had to do was move the blanket to move the shield.

For safety purposes, I didn’t re-anchor the spell providing us with oxygen or the spell maintaining the temperature away from me, but I did make the gravity spell relative to the blanket instead of to an arbitrary point below me. With that, our weight would feel natural now without interfering with our trip.

Twinkleshine let out a small eep when her hooves touched the ‘solid land’ of the blanket resting on my shield. Once she’d gotten over her initial surprise, she asked, “Can I take this blindfold off now?”

“In a minute,” I said, casting a tracking spell to find a signal I’d left for myself. “Just let me get us at a stable speed first.”

I grabbed the blanket with my magic and pushed. With the lack of any appreciable gravity fighting me and absent the drag from Equus’s atmosphere, I relaxed and enjoyed the easy task of accelerating us forward.

The only thing I had left to do was fine tune the fake gravitational acceleration I’d put on us to play nice with the telekinetic acceleration. It was just adding two vectors together, so it was a simple enough task that I finished in seconds.

When I was satisfied we wouldn’t be dragged back toward Equus if I accidentally stopped pushing us away, I shoved my ongoing telekinesis to the back of my mind and let it do its work without my constant attention.

A giggle escaped me; I couldn’t help it. Short astronomical distances were so easy to travel once you were actually in space. I could probably pick any grown unicorn off the street, and they’d have no problem powering the telekinesis for this.

Of course, longer distances were an entirely different matter. I couldn’t make us go faster than light like this, so traveling to other suns and planets would need a less brute force solution.

Well, I’d have to ask Twinkleshine to know for sure; Luna had probably left a few stars only a few dozen light years away from Equus, which wasn’t too far away.

“What’s so funny?” Twinkleshine asked. Her voice was a mix of excitement and caution. “You didn’t just set up some kind of prank, did you?”

“No, no. Just thinking about how foolishly I’d acted back in summer. It’s nothing. Anyway, you can take your blindfold off now.”

Twinkleshine happily complied. “So what…” Rubbing her eyes, Twinkleshine asked, “Is – is this an – an – an…”

“It’s real, Twinkleshine,” I said with the utmost seriousness. I sidled up next to her but slightly behind so as not to block her view. Placing a hoof on her shoulder, I added, “I did say this would be life-changing.”

“Life-changing…” The whisper came so quiet I wasn’t even sure if I’d heard Twinkleshine correctly. “This… This isn’t…”

I floated out a napkin from the picnic basket and held it up to her. She snatched it from my grasp and blew her nose.

Twinkleshine whispered, “It’s so beautiful.”

“Heh. I give a whole new meaning to dinner under the stars, don’t I?” I joked.

My jest only receive a few weak laughs. If I didn’t know better, I would’ve guessed them to be pity laughs.

“You’re spoiling the moment, Twilight,” Twinkleshine said between sniffs.

A warm smile grew on my face. “Take as long as you need. But your dinner will get cold if you just stand there all night. I brought spaghetti and garlic bread. I even managed to snag some leftover Apple family cider.”

“Hey, Twilight?”

“Hmm?”

Both of us had finished our meal now, but I’d finished in a bit of a rush. We were approaching our destination, and I had to slow us down just right or risk either overshooting or undershooting a few thousand kilometers. That would be terribly awkward. If only teleporting didn’t preserve momentum…

Still staring out into the stars, Twinkleshine asked, “Not that this hasn’t been the best day of my life, but where are we going?”

“We’re going to an arbitrary point in space that happens to lie on a radial line from Equus through Equestria.”

“Okaaaaay.” I didn’t look, but Twinkleshine was probably rolling her eyes. “So what’s at where were going?”

“Space junk.”

“Space junk?”

I nodded. “Space junk.”

“Um…”

“Yes?”

“What kind of ‘space junk’?”

“The kind that used to be terrestrial junk.”

“So stuff you’ve brought up here?”

“For the most part. I think I picked up a meteoroid at some point, but I can’t track the bugger” – Twinkleshine snickered – “down. What?”

“‘Bugger’. That’s just so…so not a word I’d expect you to use.”

I paid that comment no attention, just as it deserved. “Anyway, we’re almost there.”

Twinkleshine looked around in a frenzy of head movements. Before long, her mane was a giant pink mess. “I don’t see anything.” Her head moved back and forth between me and the direction we were headed, her face reminding me of an excited puppy.

“Of course you don’t. Of all ponies, you should know better than me how big space is. We’ve barely even left Equus behind.”

I glanced over my shoulder to see the planet behind me. I had to admit, it looked better during the day, but it wasn’t a sight to write off at night either. There were so many magical lights on Equus; it almost looked like a second night sky, one entirely separate from the one Luna had created.

“When I say, ‘we’re almost there’, I mean we’re traveling at a mostly sane speed again, and we’ll be there in a couple minutes.”

Twinkleshine sat back down in a huff and leaned against me. She kept silent until we finally arrived and reached approximately zero velocity. Approximately, because Equus was still close enough to slowly drag things back toward it. I gave everything I left here a little nudge radially outward every day, lest anything fall back to Equus.

“I can see…metal cubes and…is that dirt?”

“Silica sand, too,” I said. “I looked up how to make glass, and that was the primary ingredient. Other ones were aesthetically optional.”

“Glass?”

“Glass.” I was having way too much fun teasing Twinkleshine, especially when I was trying to recruit her as a navigator, but it was irresistible. “You wouldn’t believe how much work it was to get all this up here. Even I have limits.

“Although one time – which I couldn’t replicate – I was bringing up a huge pile of dirt. I flared, but I actually managed to output all of my magic into teleports. That was my quickest trip yet.” I did later scold myself for being so suicidally foolish, but no one needed to know that.

Twinkleshine looked to me. She was utterly lost at this point. Deciding I’d received more than my share of fun, I gestured upward with my head.

Looking up, Twinkleshine’s eyes went wide, and she leaned back to get a better look. Deciding that wasn’t good enough, she got up on two hooves to allow her head to lean back further. Within seconds, she toppled over herself for her trouble. Still, she kept staring.

“Impressive, isn’t it?”

My question added yet another weak nod to my growing collection of them today.

Following Twinkleshine’s eyes, she seemed to be looking at the bridge of my spaceship, which was the only part I’d finished so far, minus the interior design. It was a simple hemisphere with a thick glass dome and an appreciably thick metal base.

I could see my seven significantly improved – I’d made them much larger and had used a smaller needle to get heightened accuracy – compasses held in place in a septagon and appropriately tinted to its element, but I doubted Twinkleshine was paying them any attention as her eyes buzzed around.

I’d gone back to the Tree of Harmony for the other five elements when I got sufficiently bored transporting cargo. Each had been a huge, monumental pain to make a compass for, but I’d managed to do it for each and every one in the end. The seventh and last one was a compass for the elements as a group, just in case.

Besides the seven housed on the bridge, I was also probably going to make spares and secretly stash them in storage somewhere safe, again, just in case. I wasn’t going to let one little accident, or stars forbid, one case of sabotage ruin my entire journey. I was fairly sure I’d made them durable enough and placed enough wards on them that they wouldn’t break by accident, but it never hurt to take precautions.

But the real work I’d put into the bridge, the work I was proud of, was the spellwork. We were close enough to Equus that I just managed to power them with the planet’s ambient magic. But as soon as the ship departed, I’d have to power everything myself. I’d done the math, and I was sure I could do it, but I might have to gather up the crew for some downtime on occasion to depower everything nonessential.

“Shall we go inside?”

Twinkleshine wasted no time answering. “Yes, please.”

I obliged with a teleport, forgetting to momentarily blind Twinkleshine, but she seemed no worse for the dimensional disjunction, running eagerly toward the compass for the Element of Loyalty.

“What’s this?” she shouted, not knowing I’d teleported to her side. “Oh, sorry. What’s this?”

“It’s a compass.”

“Are all the others–”

“Yes, they’re all compasses, too. They probably all point to the same position – except the one that obviously doesn’t – but I’m not entirely sure of that.”

“So you’re trying to find something? In space?” Twinkleshine asked.

I liked the eagerness in Twinkleshine’s voice, and I had to take an awkward moment to calm myself. At this rate, I was probably going to be successful in getting her to be my navigator this time, but I couldn’t rush it. She was in a state of overwhelming passion, and I needed to make that stick in the right way.

“Yes, I am. I’m looking for–”

“Can I come, too!” Twinkleshine interrupted. “Please, please, oh please, can I?”

I didn’t snark at her request. It was entirely reasonable that I’d brought Twinkleshine up here for some other reason. And after some of the many embarrassing things I’d said to Luna over the past four years, I could completely understand where she was coming from; excitement could make it hard to see the obvious.

“Yes, you can, Twinkleshine.” Once her excitement and hugging died back down, I continued, “I brought you up here to ask to be my navigator. You know far more about astronomy than I do, and I’m looking for a very small set of objects in space. I have a compass that points straight to them, yes, but there are a lot of mechanical problems that I don’t know how to properly address. I don’t particularly fancy overshooting and undershooting my target for years, especially as I’m on a time limit.”

“A time limit?” Twinkleshine’s head cocked to the side. “How long?”

I gestured Twinkleshine to follow me and walked her over to the edge of the bridge. There we could get an unimpeded view of Equus. I wanted to put a hoof on her shoulder, or over her withers, or hug her, or something, but I would give away just how much I was sweating right now.

“Twinkleshine, how far do you think we are from Equus right now? A rough estimate?”

“Um…” Absorbed in thought, Twinkleshine adorably bit her lip as she crunched numbers. “Maybe…fifty-thousand kilometers. Oh Celestia! That’s so far! I didn’t even think about how far we are from home.”

“And yet,” I said, pausing for dramatic effect, “we have gone nowhere. It took us an hour to get nowhere, Twinkleshine. What I seek–”

I paused again for dramatic effect as I rotated the bridge about the axis parallel to one of Equus’s tangents. The planet slowly disappeared from sight as we turned, and the stars flooded our view.

“–is out there. That is the price you must pay for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. You won’t see home again for many years. This ship will become your home; its crew, your family; me, your teacher.”

Twinkleshine fell silent. I waited as long as I could bear before turning to her.

“I have a lot of work remaining before I can leave; you don’t have to decide right away. But remember, you promised to keep this to yourself, utterly and absolutely. If you must discuss your options with somepony else, ask me first, and I will go with you.”

I quickly recast my shield and oxygen spell and teleported back into space. I truly did have a lot of work to do, and Twinkleshine needed some alone time to sift through her thoughts. I was fairly sure that if I just left her alone for a while, she’d decide to come with.

For now, I turned my attention toward my greenhouse-in-progress, the second most important part of the ship after the bridge. Luna had suggested the shell of this part be made completely out of glass to avoid any mysterious rusting or maintenance issues, and I’d voiced no objections. Silica sand was a lot cheaper and a lot easier to buy in bulk than steel was.

What Luna and I did debate over was whether to use traditional farming methods or hydroponics, the latter being something Luna had never heard of, which wasn’t that surprising. Hydroponics wasn’t exactly a new idea, but it hadn’t really seen any use outside of a wingful of random scientists’ labs until recently.

In the end, Luna had made the better, far simpler argument: I wasn’t going to be the one growing anything. Rather than unnecessarily narrowing my pool of candidates to earth ponies with a specialized style of farming, I should just suck it up and make old fashioned fields of various soil depths and climates.

The biggest issue was deciding how to manage proper irrigation. We’d spent a whole week working out the kinks there. Our solution was…somewhat lacking, but we were trying to minimize the magical burden placed on myself. All we were going to do was have the water drain into a tub at the bottom and have the water pumped up into an artificial pond. We’d chalked the rest up as ‘a pegasus’s problem’.

We’d also decided on bees as our pollinators very reluctantly on my part. I liked honey, but…well…they were bees.

Anyway, I also needed to acquire a bunch of chickens and to find somepony that knew how to cook and bake from true scratch. There was no way I was going five to six years without eating a cookie.

And while I was at it, I needed to stuff the library with missing parts of my own collection: cook books, pegasus magic, earth pony magic, husbandry books, a wider selection of entertainment books, et cetera.

Picking up trees – particularly cacao trees – flower seeds, wheat seeds, grass seeds, whatever sugar was made from, and anything else that came to mind was also high priority on the list of things to do. I wanted to get the greenhouse up and running as soon as possible. That meant recruiting a farmer as soon as possible, though, and I was dragging my hooves on that.

Urgh. There was so much work that needed doing that I was beginning to worry I’d start making obsessive compulsive checklists again. Luna would kill me if I relapsed after all the work we did to weed that behavior out of me.

Well, she wouldn’t literally kill me, but it wouldn’t be a pleasant experience. I didn’t want to go back to that, nor did I want to fall back into a bundle of frayed nerves anytime I was around authority. Or let myself be pedantically tidy and organized again. Or…a lot of other mental issues I’d had. There’d really been something wrong with young me.

I let out a long sigh. Maybe I could teach Twinkleshine enough to do some of the construction for the ship and ease my burden. That would probably help.

Speaking of whom, I’d left Twinkleshine alone for quite a while now – about forty minutes – while working. I probably should take her home before it got too late in case Cadance came over looking for…us…

Horseapples! I left my fake suppressor back at home. But rushing back wasn’t an option, either; I was still in the midst of my recruitment scheme. I could always wipe Twinkleshine’s memories of today, but I always moped about for days after feeling guilty and got nothing done. And then there’d also be the delay of redoing my entire pitch.

What were the chances that Cadance would come over?

Knowing her, pretty high, actually. So what were the chances that Mom or Dad wasn’t home yet to keep her out of the house or to at least distract her?

Um… Where were they going tonight? A play? No, that was four weeks ago. An opera? No, that wasn’t right either. It wasn’t work, I remember that. Stars, I couldn’t remember. Well, I’d just assume they are at home with medium probability.

So I’m only in trouble if Cadance came over, barged in past my parents or found the house empty and barged in anyway – for some reason – and then had the good fortune to notice the ring which I’d left…somewhere in the living room. That was much less of a risk than I’d originally thought.

Still, it was best not to tempt fate. We needed to head home as soon as possible, if for no other reason than to keep good on my promise to introduce Twinkleshine to Mom.

I turned back toward the bridge to find Twinkleshine had been watching me work. It took her a few seconds, but eventually she noticed my gaze and waved a friendly hoof. I waved back and then teleported to her side, causing her to start.

“Wondering what I’m making?” I asked, successfully containing my sense of urgency.

“Just a little bit.” What an understatement. Absolutely nothing about Twinkleshine’s posture or her expression said ‘a little bit’.

“It’s going to be a greenhouse. Although the lighting will be artificial once we leave Equus behind, so I guess that’s not exactly the right word for it. Hmm… Well anyway, it’s going to be the biggest part of the ship.”

We fell into silence for a few moments before Twinkleshine asked, “You’re not going to have us do the gardening, are you?”

“No way. It’s better to get ponies suited to the task. I know a little bit about earth pony magic, enough to know the soil won’t undergo degradation, but that’s as far as I go on the whole nature thing. I’m going to recruit a pegasus or two and a few earth ponies to–”

Twinkleshine’s words finally clicked. I asked, “Does that mean you’re coming with?”

Turning to me, Twinkleshine nodded. “You were right. This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance, and even if I ended up miserable out there” – Twinkleshine gestured toward the stars – “for whatever reason – which I’m sure I won’t – I would be a wreck at home.”

Wow, way to unintentionally throw memory erasing guilt in my face, Twinkleshine. You wouldn’t be a wreck. You wouldn’t even remember.

“Please don’t make your decision for those reasons.”

“Oh, I’m not.” Twinkleshine beamed, looking happier than I’d ever seen her. “I just know you well enough. You won’t let me come unless you think I’ve thought about the worst possible scenario.”

I chuckled. “Very true.”

“But I do have one question.”

“Fire away, Navigator Twinkleshine.”

“Yes, Captain Twilight.” Giggling, Twinkleshine asked, “Or would that be Captain Sparkle?”

“I think I like Captain Sparkle better,” I mused, rubbing my jaw. “It has more of a…a ring to it.”

“Heh. Okay, Captain Sparkle. How are we going to keep this a secret if a bunch of ponies suddenly disappear?”

Well first of all, everypony wouldn’t move here all at the same time. It would be much better to leave one at a time at random intervals. But Twinkleshine was not a master schemer or an apprentice schemer, so I didn’t bother lecturing her on that point.

Besides, there was a much better option which Luna had agreed with when I’d suggested it.

“Oh, that’s easy. Nopony is going to disappear.”

I got another one of Twinkleshine’s adorable confused faces. Oh, what fun it was to be vague and confusing! I could easily see why old mentors had a reputation for being so.

Still, it wouldn’t do to not explain.

“Remember when we first met? There was…um…Lemon Hearts, I think was her name. The filly with empathy magic. Anyway, I had no idea what her costume was, and I have a feeling it was lost on everypony else, too.”

Twinkleshine nodded. “I forgot about that. I was way too shy back then to ask. I probably still am, too…”

Giving Twinkleshine an encouraging pat on the shoulder, I said, “You’re doing much better now, and I’m sure this trip will do wonders for you.”

“Thanks,” mumbled Twinkleshine.

“But back to the point. I asked a friend what her costume was. It turns out it was a changeling, which are apparently pony-like beings that are not myths. As the name implies, they can change their appearance at will, so I’m going to make a deal with a few to offer up our places while we’re gone.”

“You mean…I’ll be replaced?”

Twinkleshine’s will was wavering. It was obvious in the droop in her smile. It was time to be blunt.

“Yes. And it’s better that way. Imagine if you weren’t. Your friends and family would be worried sick and would eventually move on. You’d never be able to reclaim your life on Equus. At least not ever like it was.

“Even if you told them where you were going, that would still leave them the troubling task of explaining your absence. Knowing Celestia, they’d probably have to flee from justice for a crime they didn’t commit. If nothing else, there’d be the eternal presence of suspicion, and that can be even worse.

“And I doubt you’d get permission to fly off into the stars with me, even if I turned myself into an adult and acted prim and proper. That would leave me with the troubling task of making sure your parents didn’t start talking.”

Wow, I had no idea how I did it, but I’d actually managed to make that not sound like a threat. Twinkleshine lacked her previous cheer, but she wasn’t hollering bloody murder either, so she probably didn’t take it as one, thankfully.

I let out a sigh. “On a more positive note, you’ll be able to pick up your life exactly where you left it when you get back, even though you’ll have missed some of it. There’s also the fact that you’ll have somepony approaching a long-lost twin sister to bond with on your return.”

“When you put it like that,” Twinkleshine said, a bit of a jesting tone creeping into her voice, “it almost sounds like you think everypony should take some time off from their life.”

Well, I’d certainly heard stories of ponies that really did need time off. And maybe Luna and I could create some sort of witness protection scheme later. Ooh! Espionage was a big, open option. And–

And I was getting off topic.

Going with an eye roll, I replied, “I can understand if you want to back out.”

“No,” Twinkleshine said, firmly and decisively. “It’s just…weird. It’s going to take a while before I really wrap my head around it and accept it.”

I nodded, though I didn’t think Twinkleshine noticed, and set about preparing for the journey home. I hadn’t planned to tell Twinkleshine about her replacement until after I’d actually found one, but it’d worked out better than I had ever dared to hope.

Sure, my parents had been accepting of my being replaced, but they knew the whole story. And we’d already argued for days just about my leaving before I’d even mentioned the idea. I didn’t know if they were just tired and sad or if they were happy to have a pale imitation of me to hold them over until my return at that point, but they had accepted the idea without further argument.

“Twinkleshine” – I regained her attention – “I’m going to teleport us outside now. We need to start heading home. The return trip is faster, but we don’t want you to be out too late. We can talk more on the way; it’s still a long trip.”

Author's Notes:

The Dragon obtained one Trusted Lieutenant!

Chapter Six - An Unexpected Surprise

“Space,” Twinkleshine said from behind me. We were both on the bridge of our ship. She was taking measurements, and I was reviewing my speech for, hopefully, tomorrow night.

It’d been a little over half a season since I’d first brought Twinkleshine up here, and much of Equus was now covered in snow, transforming it from a beautiful tapestry of color to a dull white. Growing up in Canterlot, we never had much snow, and I’d loved it on the rare occasion when we did.

Now having lived through several weeks of winter in Ponyville, I officially hated snow. Maybe I could convince Luna to take it out of the weather cycle.

“The final frontier,” Twinkleshine continued. Curious, I turned around and found her working at the desk I’d brought up from Equus for the bridge. She hadn’t moved since she’d last checked a compass, but she had mumbled nonsense from time to time.

“These are the voyages of… Hey, Twilight,” Twinkleshine said, looking up from her work. She jumped when she saw I’d walked over to join her at the desk. I swore she tuned out the world even more than I did when she worked.

“What have you been mumbling this whole time?” I asked.

“Oh, just a quote from a sci-fi book I’ve been reading. I wanted to get in the mood, I guess. Visiting other planets, meeting new species, having crazy adventures, breaking all the rules. It sounds like so much fun! I mean, I’ve never broken the rules before, at least not in any significant way.”

I facehoofed. “Twinkleshine,” I said with as much patience as I could manage, “you know this isn’t going to be like that, right? Teleportation is faster than light, but I don’t have the power” – yet – “to cover any useful distances with it. Other than leaving the surface, that is. We’re not going to be battling giant monsters, or sightseeing, or – or whatever. We’re probably not even going to see a single asteroid!”

Twinkleshine gestured toward the star charts and calculations she had littering the desk. Her face said everything for her. In hindsight, it was fairly obvious she knew that.

“So anyway,” I said, changing the topic about as gracefully as an rampaging ursa major changed direction, “have you figured out what happened last time?”

“Yeah!” Twinkleshine’s smile faded a bit as she continued, “Well, probably. It’s hard to know for sure when we can only orbit Equus. I’ll be able to say for sure once we actually leave.”

“Yes, yes,” I interrupted, getting impatient. “I understand the math. Get on with it.”

“Oh, um, right. Sorry, Twilight. I didn’t–”

Sighing first, I said, “Don’t worry, Twinkleshine. I shouldn’t have snapped at you. This is just really important to me.” With an almost sickeningly sweet smile, I asked, “Forgive me?”

Twinkleshine blushed and turned away, stammering, “O-of c-course, Twilight.”

Oh, Twinkleshine, you were just so much fun to tease. Stars, I was turning into Cadance.

“A-anyway, I’m pretty sure whatever” – Twinkleshine was still upset I wouldn’t tell her about the elements until after we left – “we’re retrieving is moving, and fast.”

“Astronomically fast, or normal fast?”

“Astronomically fast. I’m not sure if it’s not on an escape velocity yet, but at the very least, it’ll be centuries before it returns to Equus.”

An idea struck me. “Any chance it’s on–”

“A comet?” Twinkleshine finished, grinning from ear to ear. I couldn’t help smiling, too, taking a strange sense of pride in her. “I have to admit, what you told me didn’t make much sense. I assumed that somepony had to have put whatever you’re looking for out here” – I smiled a little brighter; she really was learning – “but all these compasses point to the same spot. At least roughly.

“But that’s the weird part. If somepony wanted lose a bunch of stuff forever and couldn’t just destroy them for some reason, there’d be no reason to keep them together. Or not to give them a definite escape velocity or not to throw them in the sun, but that’s not the point. The point is, they’re supposed to be findable. Just…not for a while.”

Ruffling Twinkleshine’s mane like Luna did mine, I said, “Nice work. You’re right, but you never mentioned the time limit.”

I barely stifled a laugh at the look Twinkleshine gave me. She looked as if she were about to die.

“Oh, cheer up, Twinkleshine. Even I’m not a natural; I just have a good teacher.”

Twinkleshine looked at me, eyebrows raised. I suppose I would’ve been just as confused before I met Luna if somepony told me they had somepony teaching them how to plot.

“So we’re chasing a comet, then?”

“Probably,” Twinkleshine finally said after a large pause. “It’s in the right area to be Mona, at least. Period unobserved because of Discord, if it even has one. Went by a little less than one-thousand years ago.”

I could have guessed that one myself.

“A day comet. Kind of boring, really. The only interesting part about it is that its tail is a particular shade of green, so it probably has some copper on it, oddly enough.”

“Copper? Any thoughts on why?”

“I have no idea, but I’m not a real expert yet. I’m only thirteen.”

I rolled my eyes at Twinkleshine. I wasn’t at Luna’s level, but I could probably compete with most magic teachers – if not the researchers – and I was only twelve. Still, if Twinkleshine thought the comet was strange, that was not a good sign. It could be benign, or it could be a deathtrap.

“Do you know if Mona always had a green trail?” I asked. With a thousand years, Celestia certainly had enough time to make any edits she wanted, but if she hadn’t bothered and the comet had gone on record as suddenly burning green, that would give me a clue.

Unfortunately, Twinkleshine shrugged. “The charts don’t go back that far.”

Why was I not surprised?

“As I said,” Twinkleshine began, “we don’t even know if it’s a periodic comet. Your guess would be as good as mine. Why do you ask?”

“Just wondering if somepony left a nasty surprise for me.”

“Oh,” Twinkleshine said. It took her a few seconds to realize what I’d really said. “Oh! You don’t think there’s…”

“A trap?”

“Or maybe even a civilization? I mean, what if whoever put whatever it is you’re after never left!”

“I highly doubt that.” Celestia, at least, certainly didn’t live there. “From what I know, that sounds much more like a possibility than a probability.”

“Hmm… Alright. Anyway, this is good news, though! We can shave some time off of the end of our journey since we won’t have to slow to a stop or reverse direction.”

That was actually a really good point. I barely believed I hadn’t thought of that. “Any idea how much time we’ll save?”

“No. I haven’t done the math yet” – Twinkleshine turned to her notes and scribbled a few numbers – “but it’ll probably be a lot. Maybe a whole year or more! Your promise to take a shortcut back is still good, right?”

I nodded.

“Great, because otherwise it wouldn’t matter at all.”

“If…” I began. This was a really bad idea, but it was too good to pass up. Besides, Twinkleshine was already on the edge of her seat, waiting for whatever I had to say. I couldn’t not say this now. “If we do have a bunch of extra time, would you – would you pencil in a quick stop at the moon? Please?”

Twinkleshine dropped her quill. A huge splotch of ink seeped through several of her calculations.

“O-of course! Twilight, I would love to go to the moon! But are you sure? We might need that time if we mess up.”

“I know. I know it’s a bad idea, but…but I really want to. It’s stupid, and I’m not going to get what I really want out of it, but…”

I sighed as Twinkleshine hugged me. She was definitely not the pony I wanted right now, yet she would do. We broke apart some unknown time later.

“Did something happen, Twilight?”

“N – sort of. A long time ago. Please don’t worry about it.”

“If you say so,” Twinkleshine said, her face the picture of worry, but only until she suddenly remembered something. “So back to what I was thinking earlier. These are the voyages of…what? What’s our ship called?”

“Do we really have to–”

“Yes.” There was no uncertainty in Twinkleshine’s answer, to say the least. “You’ve been putting this off for forever. The ship is pretty much done now, too.”

“If by ‘pretty much’, you mean ‘an empty shell with some dirt’, then yeah.”

Twinkleshine just stared at me.

“Fine,” I sighed. “Just – just pick a name.”

“Hmm… How about the HMS Beagle?”

“No. Look, first of all, we’re not naming our ship after another one. Second, we are not having HMS in the name. Absolutely forbidden. Understand?”

Twinkleshine managed a tight nod. I hadn’t, strictly speaking, lost my temper, but Luna would be disappointed in me all the same.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean – well, I did, but… I’m sorry.” I really needed to deal with my temper flaring whenever Celestia was mentioned; it was a huge weakness somepony could exploit. “Please, though. Pick a different name.”

“Alright,” said Twinkleshine, recovering. Still rather warily, though, she added, “Your coat was turning white.”

I mumbled a curse. Maybe I had lost my temper just a little bit. I really, really needed to work on that.

“How about the Nebulous?” Twinkleshine suggested, taking my mind off of my issues with Celestia. “It’s spacey and mysterious.”

“It sounds wonderful.”

“Great! Then these are the voyages of the starship Nebulous. Its…some-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to–”

“Are you going to do this the whole time?”

“No,” pouted Twinkleshine. “Just this once. I promise.”

“Go ahead,” I sighed.

“To…um… Hmm… Oh! To seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no pony has gone before.” Finished, Twinkleshine leaned back with a smile.

“Do you finally have it all out of your system?”

“Well…”

“Twinkleshine,” I scolded.

“Fine, fine. I just wish I could make a map or something as we go. I mean, I can only write ‘nothing here’ so many times before I get bored and start writing ‘here be dragons’.”

“It’d probably be an improvement,” I said, chuckling. “Maybe you could keep a log. Not really a space log, but more of a diary, I guess.”

“Maybe,” Twinkleshine pondered.

“Just one thing, though.”

“What?”

“Please, please, if you do, don’t use stardates.”

Mom and I had walked Twinkleshine home to the dorms and had returned to our Canterlot home. I still had things to do at the school that required my attention, but I didn’t want either Mom or Twinkleshine to know what I was doing. In all likelihood, I would have to get…aggressive.

So under cover of darkness, once everypony was asleep, I made my way back to the school, teleporting most of the way. I didn’t know if the school had wards against teleportation, and I didn’t care to find out. No doubt I’d set off an alarm so close to Celestia’s seat of power if I tried teleporting in.

But there was one interesting tidbit I’d managed to extract from a teacher off-campus. Apparently, some magic was so unknown, so forgotten, nopony felt the need to ward against it anymore.

The first step was to get inside the dorms. It should have been hard, but the dorm mistress recognized me as one of her own by now, so all I had to do was spin a short story about leaving something important – and embarrassing – behind. And explaining where my parents where, but that was simple enough. It was still early enough that some stores somewhat nearby were still open, although not the kind I would be allowed into.

That done, I found my way to Lemon Hearts’s room. I was never so glad before for adults’ utter disregard for foals’ rights. I opened the door – the lockless door – and found Lemon Hearts in bed nearby. It seemed she and whoever her roommate was favored bunk beds, and she ended up with the bottom.

Now…now came the hard part.

First things first, though. I cast a spell Luna had taught me to detect changelings. Honestly, I didn’t know if I was surprised or disappointed when the results came back negative. It would seem awfully foolish to set up a fake identity here, after all.

Still, Lemon Hearts obviously knew one. I couldn’t find a single scrap of information on changelings in the archives, and Twinkleshine took the same classes and didn’t know about changelings. The odds of Lemon Hearts not knowing a changeling were pretty small.

And besides, it wasn’t like I had any other leads. I might have time with Twinkleshine’s good news to hunt one down more directly, but I didn’t want to take that chance unless I absolutely had to.

And it wasn’t as if Lemon Hearts would remember anything. Or that I could afford to let her remember anything.

And – and I was just stalling. I had to do this.

The first step was to place a sleeping spell on both fillies; fillies had a bad tendency to scream. This way, they’d wake up either when I found it appropriate or sometime long after breakfast. There was, of course, no school tomorrow. I was not inequine, after all.

Next, I placed an illusion on myself of myself. The magic I was going to use was not exactly subtle, and I couldn’t walk out of here looking, well, evil. That was probably the real reason dark magic was shunned. Not because of what you could do with it, but because of its admittedly sinister appearance.

And it sort of required a certain feeling, one I unfortunately had in abundance.

I focused on my hatred of Celestia, on what she had done to me, on what she had done to Luna. It only took a second; it never took long, and I’d only been getting better at it.

I could feel the sheer raw power of dark magic welling up within me, waiting to lash out at my slightest whim. It was no wonder Luna was so controlled and why she wanted me to be. The slightest slip, and I could find myself killing a pony by accident.

Taking a deep breath, I cleared my mind – not at peace, just clear, calm, controlled.

It was time. I cast the first spell both Luna and I had learned in this branch of magic. My mane bulged and grew, moving of its own accord, or at least it did underneath my illusion. Once the spell had settled, I reached out with my mane and seized Lemon Hearts with it, imprisoning her inside in a dimensional subspace.

The dimensional prison spell didn’t have to be anchored on a pony’s mane, but Luna said it was something of a tradition. It also wasn’t very difficult to escape if the pony trapped in it knew how to teleport, although it did take some effort.

With my prize claimed, I headed back to the entrance and left the building, giving a nod and a blush to the dorm mistress when I saw her.

As soon as I was far enough away, I bolted into a gallop to leave campus as quickly as possible. I didn’t see anypony along the way, and I slipped out the front gate without trouble. Sneaking down a few alleys, I teleported to my old practice room in the crystal mines.

Immediately after I arrived, I collapsed and threw Lemon Hearts roughly from my mane as I did. Once she was out safely, I ended the spell and rested.

I didn’t know how long I laid there, but I was sure it would never be long enough. Even now, long after I had caught my breath, my heart was still racing. Foalnapping did that to a pony, even if she intended to give the foal back the next morning no worse for the wear.

I reworked my illusion and went through a few rounds of the royal breathing exercises. I was not feeling up to any detail work right now, so I only made a few changes: coat color, mane and tail color, eye color, and size – scaling up of course. I still had the proportions of a filly, but I doubted Lemon Hearts would notice. She would be…preoccupied.

I changed my manecut, too, mostly by ruffling it up. I’d never seen another pony with my manecut before; I was probably the only pony in the world who played up to the librarian look without a bun. It wouldn’t do to give Lemon Hearts any chance of identifying me.

“Wake up,” I said coldly as I cast the relevant spell.

Lemon Hearts jerked awake with a snort, her eyes lazily opening. “Huh? I’m not ready to wake up. Just a little longer.” She groped about for something, probably a pillow and blanket, but found nothing.

“Wake up,” I repeated, forcing her to her hooves. That did the trick.

“Wha? Where am I?” she shouted. “Who are you?”

Ignoring her question, I asked, “Where can I find a changeling?” A word or two in, I realized I’d forgotten to disguise my voice with magic. Berating myself for the oversight, I did the best I could without.

“What are you talking about?” she protested, but her face told another story. Underneath the fear and panic, there was just the slightest momentary widening of her eyes. I was right.

“I will ask you one more time. Where can I find a changeling? I know you know at least one.”

“I-I don’t know.”

I didn’t know whether her tears were real or not, but I would guess not. It was too early. Whatever relationship she had with the changelings, she was not up to their level in acting.

“I warn you, I have no patience tonight.”

Lemon Hearts tried to creep away, but I pinned her to the ground with magic.

“Very well,” I said, my voice as cold and empty as possible. “In that case, I will force you to speak.”

I called forth my anger and hate again, but made no attempt to hide the effects. My eyes glowed a sickly green color, and a blue and black flame flared from the sides. The glow of my magic shared the color but also boiled as if it were a liquid.

I took one measured step forward. My hoofstep echoed throughout the room. I dimmed the lights – my own spellwork years ago – for effect.

Now, yes. Now those tears were real.

“W-w-w-wait! I’ll talk!”

“Too late,” I said, uncaring. I took another step forward.

“M-my s-sister! She’s a changeling! Replaced at birth! Stillborn! Please, please don’t kill me! Please!”

I stood still, silently asking for more.

“Her name’s Amethyst Star! S-she lives h-here in Canterlot!”

“What makes you think we are in Canterlot?” Ever so slightly, I pulled up the corner of my lips. Not enough to suggest I was happy or would enjoy whatever I would do next. No. Only enough to suggest I held the barest hint of amusement.

I crossed the remaining distance between us as slowly as ever and brought our faces close.

“Where?” I whispered. I narrowed my eyes when I felt something wet against my hooves. “Where?” I repeated.

“S-sunflower S-street,” she squeaked, her voice even quieter than mine. “S-six seventeeeeen.”

“Thank you,” I said, knocking Lemon Hearts out again. “I promise you won’t remember this nightmare in the morning.”

The next night, just after sunset, I stood on Sunflower Street. I’d slipped into the dorm early in the morning and had returned Lemon Hearts to her bed. I’d spent the next few hours with Twinkleshine exhausted, quiet, and pretending I’d been enjoying myself instead of wanting to collapse.

This morning, Luna had had little to say when I’d told her about my little escapade. Proud but worried would have described her well enough – that, and a comforting hoof. She’d spent the rest of the morning with me reviewing my role and speech tonight. It had been terribly distracting from last night.

Now waiting just outside the home of Amethyst Star, whom I’d confirmed earlier to be a changeling, I wished I could feel as excited as I should be. It wasn’t often a pony got to be an ambassador, after all.

An ambassador that practically tortured one of their citizens first…

No. No, worst case, I would’ve cast a geas on Lemon Hearts to make her talk. She was young and too inexperienced to resist dark magic at all, so there wouldn’t have been any permanent or even temporary damage done. It wasn’t my fault she was so scared of ponies that only looked scary.

And Lemon Hearts wasn’t a changeling, so she wasn’t a citizen either, regardless of her claimed sisterly relation with Amethyst Star.

And it wasn’t like Lemon Hearts would’ve told me where to find a changeling otherwise. An entire civilization couldn’t manage to extirpate itself from every record and mind – barring Luna and Celestia – without first having tight lips.

Shaking my head, I swapped out my moral contemplation face for my goodwill face and knocked on the door. As funny as it would be in a history book, having first contact be a philosophical debate wasn’t exactly the kind of message Luna and I wanted to send.

The door swung open. Amethyst Star – real name or otherwise – had the form of a light purple coat not much different from my own shade. Her mane and tail were purple as well with a purple stripe, both darker than her coat. Her eyes were purple, too.

Now that I thought about it, she looked an awful lot like me, just bigger and lighter in hue. She probably wouldn’t even need shapeshifting powers to pass as an older version of myself in the right light. Well, except for the three diamond cutie mark. That was a bit of a dead giveaway.

“Hel…lo?”

“Ehem. Down here.” I waved a hoof to help attract Amethyst Star’s attention.

“Oh! Sorry, I completely missed you. Are you one of Lemon’s friends?”

“No, but I am aware of her existence.” Before Amethyst Star could invite me inside – I doubted she would immediately attack in public – I said, “I am here to extend a hoof in friendship from my princess to your queen.”

“I see,” Amethyst Star smiled and nodded. “What a delightful imagination you have. Why don’t you come inside? I just put on a fresh kettle of tea.”

“I’m afraid I must decline until you either take me seriously or promise to neither poison me nor attack me as a matter of course. It would be inappropriate to begin relations with violence.”

Amethyst Star’s jaw hung low. She didn’t say a single word and gave me only an expression of shock and disgust. This, this was the acting quality I expected from a changeling.

“Why? Why would you say such things? I – I would never – how could you – where are your parents?”

I fought off the urge to sigh and said, “If you wish, I can explain to you in great detail how to detect and how to reveal changelings. I could also simply reveal you here and now, but neither of us desire that.”

The only thing that betrayed Amethyst Star was her eyes. They were flying to and fro, no doubt analyzing my face for the slightest hint of uncertainty or deception. Of course, there was none to be found.

Finally, Amethyst Star said, “Come in.”

“May I assume that is a promise to exchange words civilly?”

Naturally, Amethyst Star would say yes either way, so when she turned back, I turned up the scary just a bit. I let my eyes glow green with half-empowered darkness, forgoing fully accessing my dark magic to avoid the flames.

Amethyst Star paused. It was the first true break in her act. The words of her answer were as obvious as the necessity of inviting me inside, but she actually took the time to think before she answered.

“Yes, little miss hatred.”

Oh, right. I forgot about the empathy sense.

“My apologies,” I said, returning to normal. “Naturally, that was not directed at you or your species.”

“Naturally,” Amethyst Star echoed as she directed me to a couch in her living room. “Would you care for tea?”

“Yes please,” I said, taking my seat. I would have loved to have said that as a pure gesture of good faith, but I didn’t know enough about changelings, so I watched her with a scrying spell until she returned. Even Luna only knew Changeling 101, so I had no idea what she could do to the tea.

Amethyst Star hoofed off a cuppa into my magic, and I took a sip. I never really understood the whole tea thing, but I wasn’t going to say no to sugar and caffeine.

“Thank you, it’s delicious. Shall we get started, then?”

A moment of silence passed.

“Yes. How did you find out about me?”

“A detection spell,” I lied, although technically I had cast one on her earlier in the day. “It was only a matter of time.”

“Then where did you learn that spell?”

“From the rightful princess of Equestria, Princess Luna.”

A second or two went by before Amethyst Star choked on her tea. Recovering, she rapidly asked, “How do you know that mad mare?”

“She is understandably upset, not insane,” I corrected, not bothering to check my tone or my emotions. “I am her apprentice. How do you know her?”

Nearly a full minute came and went without a word. Obviously, there was a secret to uncover here.

“Celestia was not able to purge our records,” Amethyst Star answered. I was pretty sure that was not the secret.

Still, it was an answer. I’d half-expected – well, mostly expected – Amethyst Star to ignore my question or to give an obvious lie. Perhaps this was a peace offering. Especially since she hadn’t affixed princess to Celestia’s name, although I didn’t know enough about her to know if that was what she wanted me to think. Or if she wanted me to think that. Or…

Right. Moving on. There was an easy way to test if what Amethyst Star had said was true. I didn’t expect her to have any on hoof, but her reply could tell me something of her thoughts.

“I would love to read your historical texts. I’ve never had a chance to read an uncensored version of world history.”

“Why not just ask Ni – Lu – Princess Luna?”

Unable to decide between a smile and a frown, I said, “I don’t know about you, but I would not want to try passing on thousands of years of history orally in any appreciable detail.”

Amethyst Star’s mouth hung slightly open as she failed to find the right words. Eventually, she settled on, “Fair. So…friendship.”

“Ah! Yes, so I was talking with Princess Luna, and neither of us could see any reason why changelings couldn’t live openly in Equestria. There’s so much we could do for each other, and your magic is fascinating. I have to resort to dark magic to do much of what you can, and I still haven’t puzzled out that empathy sense of yours. I really, really want to take a closer look at that sometime. Unicorns have some similar magic, but nothing like your passive magic. Oh! And I promise not to go all mad scientist on my research subject, too. Luna scolded me for days the last time that happened, and I–”

“Ehem,” Amethyst Star interrupted. “Not that you’re not delicious right now, but Queen Chrysalis would prefer to continue this face to face.”

“Ah… Good. That’s – that’s good,” I said, blushing and turning away. “Um, how do you know that? You’re not going to say something really cheesy like, ‘I am Queen Chrysalis,’ are you?”

“Oh, no. I’ve just been speaking for her.”

“Oh, right. Changeling. Sorry.” I had no idea what Amethyst Star was talking about. “If you don’t mind, I’m sort of curious how that works.” I really hoped she – or maybe it was they? – took the bait. I was far more curious what ‘that’ was at all than how ‘that’ works right now.

“You won’t be studying any of our magic, especially not the hive mind, for a long time, if ever.”

Hive mind. Right. I tucked that name away to bring up later. If I said just the right things, I could pretend like I’d known about it all along.

“I – I mean me, me, not the queen – will find you tomorrow and take you to meet Queen Chrysalis.”

“He’s growing up,” Cadance said from the kitchen, “very slowly, but surely.”

I was upstairs in my bedroom listening in with magic and fairly miffed Mom and Cadance had told me they wanted to talk in private. This was hardly the first time I’d heard a conversation like this, but I still didn’t know what I wanted to do about it.

“He finally said his first word a week or so ago, you know. We need to make a final decision now. Twilight is technically his mother, and regardless of her age, the law is very clear that she has to make and sign off on the decision.”

“Why do you even have those laws?” Mom half-shouted. “They’re nonsense!”

“They’re there so nobles can’t do to their foals what we’re doing to Twilight in more reasonable circumstances. You have no idea how many mothers and foals have been kept together because of them. The nobles have been looking for an excuse to remove those laws for centuries, and my breaking it here would be the perfect opportunity. I know Twilight is young, but we can’t even risk letting this law be repealed. It’s been hard enough ‘foalsitting’ him at the castle these past four years.”

“You know what she’s going to say!”

“Twilight will understand if we just talk to her, Velvet. You’re being paranoid.”

I gave a light buck to one of the columns on my old bed. I really wished they would talk about this with me, but it might be for the best that they didn’t. I really didn’t know what to do, and I might have said something I’d regret if Cadance had pressured me into making a decision right away.

On one hoof, I had no idea what I’d do with a wyrmling. I wasn’t anywhere near old enough to try being a mother, even if I was more mature than most fillies my age. And now there was the whole leaving for space thing, too. I probably wouldn’t be a good mother, either.

And yet the idea wasn’t something I could just ignore. I was going to live forever. Forever was a long time. I knew dragons were mortal, but they didn’t die of old age. The more people who could accompany me into eternity, the better.

Also, I wasn’t going to delude myself enough to think I’d never want to be a mother. I probably wouldn’t really be interested for…I didn’t even know. A long time, at least. But eventually, I’d want to give it a try. I could always adopt a dragon later, but I was sure I’d feel terrible about it.

And really, behind it all, I didn’t know if I could bring myself to abandon Spike like Celestia had abandoned me. The thought of it was repellent, if not necessarily logically so. These were very different situations.

A knock came at the front door.

“Tomorrow night,” Mom grumbled. “We’ll talk to her then.”

“It’s always tomorrow, Velvet. You have to mean it this time.”

“I…do. Twilight’s going to a…sleepover tonight, I guess.”

Ha! I chuckled on my way down the stairs as I dismissed my spell. I was spending the night at Queen Chrysalis’s, but it certainly wasn’t for a sleepover.

Mom and Cadance joined me in the foyer, and I held my breath as I opened the door. I didn’t know if Cadance could spot changelings on sight – seriously, what did it even mean to eat love? – but I was about to find out.

I carefully watched Cadance’s reaction to Amethyst Star. Raised eyebrows came, but no signs of shock, horror, et cetera. Excellent. Last night and tonight would be pointless if she could recognize changelings with a casual glance.

I turned to find Amethyst Star waiting on the other side – and drooling. That explained the raised eyebrows. It only took me a second to figure out why.

Stepping forward, I whispered, “Please don’t mind the Princess of Food. She’s not coming with and doesn’t know.”

“Ah,” Amethyst Star said, wiping away the drool. “Right. Um…”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Amethyst Star,” Mom said. “Twilight can be quite a wingful, so please be careful with her tonight.”

“Mom,” I groaned, only half-faking it. I knew she meant it as a threat, not as a careless embarrassing comment. Still, I could make my own threats.

“Oh, Twilight. Your mother means well,” Cadance said as if she hadn’t been fighting with Mom only moments ago. “It’s good to meet you. Might I ask how you know Twilight?”

Amethyst Star was staring blankly at Cadance again. I gave her a sharp kick while Cadance wasn’t looking. Was it really so hard to just ignore a feast? Honestly.

“Yes! Good to meet you, Princess. I uh, oh. Uh, I’m Lemon Hearts’s big sister.”

“Ah, I remember her.” Cadance turned to address me and said, “I wasn’t aware you were hanging out with her.”

Ugh, Cadance was such a pain to work around. At least she hadn’t confronted me about Twinkleshine’s feelings yet.

“It’s complicated filly stuff,” I said, going with sarcasm and disdain over haughtiness. Cadance would never buy it if I debased myself enough to act like a normal teenage filly. If she stuck her muzzle any deeper into this, Amethyst Star and I had a consistent explanation – an overly dramatic one, just for Cadance – for why we were spending the night together without Lemon Hearts. And without any love between us, too, because I was positive Cadance could tell.

“Oh, I’m sure,” Cadance said. If I had to guess, I would say she’d lost interest, but for once, I had no idea what she was thinking. “My foalhood wasn’t so long ago for me either, although the whole princess thing made the latter half weird.”

After humming to herself, Cadance added, “Anyway, have a good time. Your mother and I still have things to talk about.”

I said my goodbyes and headed outside. Amethyst Star followed shortly after. We made our way through Canterlot in silence until we arrived at her house. Directly inside were two unicorns, or rather two changelings disguised as unicorns.

All three changelings said nothing, but their faces clearly showed conversation taking place. I was fairly certain the hive mind Amethyst Star had mentioned allowed them to talk to each other telepathically – which sounded awfully convenient – but I wanted to know what else it could do. Talking was just an exchange of information, so in theory, they should be able to share any random information. In theory. It might not be as simple as sending an image or a string of neuron states – okay, it almost certainly wasn’t that simple, but the potential applications were still astounding.

My very irrelevant train of thought was interrupted when one of the unicorns turned himself into me. I gave him a quick once-over. The transformation was flawless. It wouldn’t fool Cadance, but on the off-chance anypony else came looking for me, it should deceive their casual glance.

With a few nods amongst the changelings – I felt a strange sense of exclusion – the other unicorn-changeling built up power for a teleport. A ring of fire flared up around me, and he and I sank into the ground. It was an odd experience, to say the least: clunky, slow, and…unsmooth. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it was a rough or turbulent ride, but it completely lacked the grace of my own teleports.

It was, however, a respectable display of power. We found ourselves at the base of the Canterhorn. That wasn’t anywhere near my max range – with or without risking a flare – but it was far more power than most unicorns could muster.

We went through a series of teleports before I was hoofed off to another changeling who continued the journey. After one more hoof off, I found myself – ironically – in the Everfree Forest, a ring of changelings encircling me and one very big one in front of me. If my knowledge of the flora was right, we weren’t very far in, and considering the direction we’d come from, we were probably close to Ponyville.

The circle was rather warm for winter, but a bit cool for summer. The snow had melted long ago, as the ground was only slightly muddy. I made a mental note to ask Luna to add muddy terrain to my sparring lessons.

“Well met, Twilight Sparkle,” the big changeling said. She was almost certainly Queen Chrysalis or another changeling taking her form. If I were her, I would be one of the guards right now. Probably one of the ones behind the big changeling but slightly to the side to watch my expressions.

Or even better, she could be somewhere else entirely, and all this was just to see what I would do when I met her in person. Either way, I was almost certainly speaking with the real queen.

“Queen Chrysalis, I presume,” I said, not betraying my suspicions more than looking at, but behind, the alleged queen more often. None of the changelings behind her looked suspicious, but if anypony besides Luna could notice my suspicions and keep herself hidden, it would be the queen of the changelings.

“Indeed. I must admit, your sudden appearance has caught me off guard, which is quite the rare event. Imagine my surprise when a filly threatened one of my nymphs enough to make her contact me directly.”

I see, so we were going to play that game. “I trust you understand why that was necessary. After all, a filly could.” Ugh. Clumsy, Twilight. Very clumsy. You could do far better than that.

Queen Chrysalis sneered. “Oh, quite. Now if I may ask, where is the princess?”

“Still banished, unfortunately, but it is common knowledge in certain circles that she will return soon.”

“Interesting, and here I believed she was permanently dealt with like Discord. I take it she’s visiting dreams?”

If I just wanted to read changeling records before, now I would kill to read them. Queen Chrysalis had more information than just an unbiased account of history.

Nodding, I said, “She spends all morning, every morning with me.”

“Ah, yes. You are her little apprentice, the little Flare that Celestia abandoned and Mi Amore adores.”

Okay, note to self: never, ever underestimate the changeling information network.

A silence settled, and Queen Chrysalis looked as if she were thinking of what to say, but I wasn’t buying it. There was no way she’d entered this conversation without planning it out.

“I have one question to ask you before I lend you my changelings.”

Queen Chrysalis paused, no doubt expecting that to have shocked me, but it was an obvious guess. Why approach the changelings now instead of any other time the past thousand years? We needed something. And what did changelings have that nopony else did? An expertise in disguise, acting, and espionage.

There probably were some other outlier reasons, but that was by far the most probable motivation I could think of.

“I am sure a smart little filly such as yourself realizes that with Princess Luna’s attention on me, my hoof is now forced. I must pick a side, and it must be the winning side. Why yours?”

Alright. Luna and I had worked out all the details, and I’d practiced this for several days, and now it was time for that effort to pay off.

“Long ago in the days of old, Celestia required the Elements of Harmony to defeat Princess Luna. She alone cannot defeat Princess Luna, and–”

“Celestia has Mi Amore,” Queen Chrysalis countered, interrupting me, but that was fine. If she wanted to make this a back and forth, point and counterpoint, I had no complaints. Or at least I had none beyond a frustrated ripping up of parchment in my mind.

“Cadance is useless in combat–”

“Except as a power source,” Queen Chrysalis interrupted again. “Our records are very clear that Princess Luna had to fight with all her strength to win.”

“As you said, Cadance adores me. I can–”

“Celestia would never allow it. Even then, what of the elements?”

I gritted my teeth, and Queen Chrysalis waited silently. I was sure I’d already given away that we had a plan by virtue of not answering, but it really hit me now just how much of a do or die situation I was in. There were at least two changelings waiting in Canterlot to rush to Celestia if I failed here, and then the elements would be beyond my reach forever. And that was ignoring the certain banishment or execution that would be waiting for me.

“Celestia has hidden the elements. I’m leaving to recover them and render them useless. That is why–”

“You need replacements. Interesting. Where are the elements, then?”

“They are on Mona, a comet. I will be gone for a long time.”

“Ha! And how do you plan to get there? Wings will only carry you so far, so fast, little apprentice.”

Using the spell I’d cobbled together for Twinkleshine oh so long ago, I gave Queen Chrysalis a view of the Nebulous. Satisfyingly, she actually appeared lost for words, although again, that could just be a changeling posing as her being lost for words.

“I have been busy the last approximately two seasons. Space is not that hard to get to, when you know what you are doing. The math is done. I will catch up to the comet, and I will retrieve the elements. However, Cadance will want to see me while I’m gone.” I let the implication hang in the air.

“Twilight Sparkle, I am…impressed. However, you have not addressed how you expect Princess Luna to overcome both Celestia and Mi Amore.”

We assumed I would have to reveal this, but I still hesitated. “I’m going to ascend.”

“You say that with such…certainty.”

“There are two historical precedents for ascension using the elements.”

“I will take your word for that. Now be honest, how likely do you believe your plan is to succeed?”

“It w–” Queen Chrysalis’s stare cut me off. Fine. Her constant interruptions and quick questions were annoying, but if she wanted a real answer, I’d give her a real answer.

“With ninety-nine percent probability, I will be able to reach Mona. Princess Luna and I agree that I will be able to make it before Celestia can bother her royal rear to fetch the elements, but if you want a pessimistic estimate, I would say I have an eighty percent chance of success there.

“In Princess Luna’s opinion, based on many past attempts, I will be able to ascend when I arrive, although I may have to kick-start the process with a ritual. I have no idea how likely Cadance would be to spot my replacement; that is all on you.”

I wished I hadn’t emphasized that last word, but it was done. “The risky part is the final confrontation. Celestia and Princess Luna can crush Cadance and I, but I can easily defeat Cadance. Pessimistically, I would put our side at a seventy percent chance of victory.

“So,” I concluded, “worse case, I estimate we are more likely to succeed than to fail.”

Queen Chrysalis smiled and relaxed her wings. “And thus you conclude that I should wager on Princess Luna.”

I nodded.

A second passed in silence, which Queen Chrysalis would normally have filled with an instant response.

“No.”

My jaw dropped before I could help it. “What do you mean no?” I shouted.

“You are overconfident, and your scheme requires too many things to go right,” Queen Chrysalis said, walking to me and forcing me to strain my head up. “You are going to fail. This is not your best plan; this is your only plan. You two are desperate and out of options.”

“That is not–”

“It is the truth!” Queen Chrysalis shouted, stomping her hoof. “Besides which, this is the perfect chance to gain, as you called her, the Princess of Food’s favor. Why would we ever risk her displeasure? She could eradicate us, should she be so inclined. Do not think I do not know the secrets of alicorns!”

“No! Cadance would never do that! She’s a huge softie! I know she will come around if Princess Luna and I win.”

“If. Ifs are all you have. We are done here.”

“Wait!” I shouted. I couldn’t let the conversation end. Queen Chrysalis would send her minions to Celestia as quickly as possible, preempting any story I might come up with.

I tried forming words while Queen Chrysalis stared at me, but I couldn’t think of anything. I had nothing. Luna and I had gambled everything and lost. It was all over. My head fell to the ground.

No! I snapped back to attention, dark flames pouring from my eyes. If Queen Chrysalis really was here, I could place a geas on her. I just needed to do it before she could send out a warning or a request for aid.

I readied myself to attack, and I could see the guards responding, but Queen Chrysalis stood unmoving. And then a thought struck me. I could use the geas spell without actually using it, in a sense.

Relaxing my stance, I tried one last attempt, my manners and grace completely forgotten and my breathing ragged.

“Chrysalis, I know dark magic. There’s a spell that allows me to override the will of others. I could place a harmless, unrelated one on you, and if Luna and I are defeated, you can reveal that you were under a magical compulsion to help us. You can play both sides! You don’t have to pick!”

Silence descended.

The guards were ready to pounce at a moment’s notice.

Queen Chrysalis’s face was blank.

I…I had a teleport spell ready on a hairpin trigger, ready to run for my life and nearly in tears. Cadance was alone and vulnerable. If I could get to her first, I might be able to make a geas stick. Then… Then something.

I waited; that was all I could do. My heart was beating so hard, I could feel all of my veins pulsing. That wasn’t helping.

“Twilight Sparkle.” Queen Chrysalis broke the silence and waited, saying nothing more. Finally, she continued, “I have two conditions.”

I nearly fell to the ground and cried. Knocking myself out was a second option, although I’d almost had that choice taken out of my hooves. I’d never fainted before, but I’d never been closer.

“Name them.” I could barely hear myself, but I thought I managed to speak clearly through the euphoria.

“First, if you and Princess Luna succeed, you will see to it that Mi Amore becomes a friend to changelings.”

“Done,” I agreed immediately. I then spewed an explanation as quickly as possible. “You said you know alicorn secrets. Then you know that Cadance will be able to spot a fake me if there isn’t mutual love between the fake and her. She won’t let go of that love, and if she likes one of you, she’ll like you all in general. Maybe not specific instances, like you for betraying Celestia - I don’t really know – but she won’t condemn your entire species, and she wouldn’t kill its queen.”

“Very well, but you still will be responsible for ensuring she will always be there for us. Forever. Understood?”

“Yes! Completely!”

“Good. Second, I will be coming with.”

I cocked my head to the side. Coming with where?

“To retrieve the elements,” Queen Chrysalis added. “I will not risk accepting a geas unless it becomes absolutely necessary. This precludes me from leaving your presence during your trip. Unless you have another dark mage on your…team?”

I opened my mouth and shut it. “Not…that I know of. I can ask Princess Luna, but I think she and I are the only ones. But what about your hive?”

“They can manage without my physical presence.”

“Oh, okay.”

Wait. That didn’t sound right. “What do you mean?”

“I shall simply rule completely over the hive mind. I have had weeks where I did not get out of bed. This will simply be a bit longer.”

“You…do realize space is big, right? You will probably be out of range within a day.”

“Do not worry. So far as we can tell, the hive mind is rangeless, or rather it has no range.”

“Alright then,” I said, smiling. Then the implications sank in. “What?”

Amethyst Star dropped me off at home the next afternoon to keep up appearances, and Mom received me with a frown. Besides a few words with Luna last night, the whole matter with Spike had gone completely out of my mind. Although it was possible Mom could just be worried about me instead. I might be a fake, after all.

Regardless, I was far too excited to be dragged down by Mom’s mood.

“Mom, I have something really important to tell you!” When I saw Cadance come outside, I added, “In private.” Then I remembered to say the codeword ‘synecdoche’ – correctly pronounced, of course – and Mom relaxed a little bit.

It wasn’t exactly the best Turning test to identify me as Twilight Sparkle, but it was enough to ease Mom’s worries, and Luna would know or would quickly find out if I wasn’t who I said I was.

“Could it wait, Twilight? Cadance and I have something we need to talk to you about.”

“No, it can’t wait. It’s really, really important. I’ll meet you up in my room.”

I bolted off after quickly greeting Cadance and headed up to my room. I cast a few privacy spells. They weren’t anything that would stop the dedicated eavesdropper, but they were both subtle enough Cadance wouldn’t notice them and good enough to prevent her from listening in.

Finally, Mom entered my room, and I beckoned her over.

“Mom!” I whispered. It wasn’t necessary, but I couldn’t help myself. I was too excited. “I found a way to stay in touch while I’m gone!”

Mom’s eyes went wide, and she hugged me with all her might.

“Can’t…breathe…”

“Sorry. Please hold out a moment longer.”

Several seconds later, Mom released me, and I took a huge gasp of air. When I moved back enough to see her face, I could see tears at the corner of her eyes.

“You don’t know how much that means to me and your father, Twilight. Thank you. Just – thank you.”

Squirming out of her affections and fixing my mane, I said, “Okay, okay. I get it. I love you, too. Now let’s go have that talk with Cadance.”

I ran out of the room, leaving Mom behind, and headed for the living room. Cadance was waiting for me, well, us, on the couch. I took a seat across from her, and Mom joined us soon after, sitting down next to Cadance. In the interim, Mom had managed to compose herself and had returned to her ‘I have something terribly serious to discuss’ face.

Cadance had the same expression.

Mom tried to speak a few times, but failed. After the third time, Cadance said, “Twilight, do you remember–”

“Spike?” I interrupted. I was in far too good a mood to play along with the obvious weighty matters script.

Both Mom and Cadance wore their shock on their face, but Mom’s faded soon after. She sighed and said, “Eavesdropping is a very bad habit, Twilight.”

I smiled, not bothering to comment. Keeping secrets from the pony they concerned was just as bad of a habit.

“Still,” Mom began, “I guess this makes things easier. How much did you overhear?”

“Pretty much everything.”

“Twilight!” Cadance scolded.

Nope. Still in too good a mood. I just chuckled.

“This is a serious matter, Twilight.”

“Why? All you want me to do is sign some papers to give up somepony I’ve never really met who’s never really met me.” It really was that simple.

Cadance gaped at me, looking much like I’d just slapped her. Mom, on the other hoof, couldn’t seem to decide what face to make.

“Is that what you…” Cadance looked away and floated a small stack of parchment onto the table with a vial of ink. “Here. We need your signature next to your mother’s everywhere it appears.”

“No.”

Ah, I knew that would be worth it. Both of them were so easy to get worked up.

“Honey…” Mom began, but Cadance interrupted her.

“Twilight, Spike is a dragon. He’ll still be a foal when you…”

I had little doubt the next word was supposed to be ‘die’. Cadance hadn’t really thought very hard about that in advance, had she?

Mom tried to say something to Cadance, but ultimately, she didn’t, or perhaps couldn’t. Instead, she bit her lip and looked away. When Luna told my parents exactly why I needed to go to space to make sure they didn’t do anything stupid, she’d forced them to make the same promise I had when Luna first told me of ascension.

“When you’re grown, and married, and your own foals have grown,” Cadance finished rather lamely. “You won’t be able to treat him like a brother. You won’t be able to treat him like a son.”

“Cadance, believe me when I say I don’t care about that. You’ve been arguing with Mom over this for half a season now. I’ve had plenty of time to think about it and to discuss it with an older friend.”

And if that wasn’t completely true, Cadance didn’t need to know. I still wasn’t sure if I wanted to do this, but Luna had recommended I try it for a few years to see how things went if I were undecided, which I was. And who could possibly give me better advice? Celestia and Cadance were the only two with comparable lifespans, and only Celestia was as old, but I couldn’t talk to either of them.

Well, technically, there was also Discord, but he was legitimately a monster. Nopony should go to him for advice.

“I – Twilight – argh!”

Sigh. Now I felt a little bad. Just a little. I really shouldn’t try to purposefully frustrate Cadance like this.

And she was understandably frustrated. There was very little Cadance could do to oppose my choice, even on a trivial level. If I didn’t give up Spike, then her efforts were wasted.

On the other hoof, there was an entirely different problem. If I gave up Spike, I was almost certainly going to be dragged into court, administered a zebra truth serum, and forced to reveal everything relevant Cadance, Mom, and Dad had said to me about the matter. If Cadance said anything against my decision here and I changed my mind, that would come spilling out, which would be disastrous for her little legal problem.

Mom whispered aside to Cadance, “As I said.”

Cadance shot Mom a dirty look.

Ignoring the look, Mom asked, “Twilight, Honey, are you sure about this?”

“Velvet? What are you–”

Mom shushed Cadance. “This won’t be like taking in Owlowiscious. You will have a lot of help, I know, maybe more than you can manage. But I also know you’ll feel miserable if he becomes too much for you, to say nothing of how poor Spike would feel.”

Smiling, I said, “I’m sure, Mom. I know the first decade will be rough, but I think I have a chance at something…something magical, and I would regret it forever if I ignored this chance.”

Well, I would get over it eventually in the same sense that Spike would die eventually, but there was no telling how long that would be. And that wasn’t a very good approach to immortality. It was singularly bad, actually. It was the perfect mindset to become an all-powerful bystander, and I wanted no part of that nonsense. Ultimately, in all honesty, I thought the deciding factor for me was that I just didn’t want to be like Celestia.

Mom gave me a weak smile. That was something, at least. Cadance, on the other hoof, was scowling and grumbling to herself.

“So?” I asked. “When can I expect Spike?”

Making a sound somewhere between a sigh and a growl, Cadance bit her lip. She said, “Tomorrow afternoon,” got up, and left.

I watched Cadance leave, sad to see her go. I’d expected this to upset her, but I hadn’t expected her to leave. Turning back to Mom, I found she was still smiling. At least one of us was.

“Later,” Mom began, crossing the gap between us. She hugged me and continued, “When we’re with your father – and nopony else – we need to have a long talk about this. I think I understand, but I want to hear everything from you directly.”

I nodded and returned Mom’s hug.

Author's Notes:

The Dragon negotiated one Telephone!

The Dragon adopted one…Dragon?

Next chapter, Twilight recruits a farmer. Hint: it is not an Apple.

Chapter Seven - The Town Drunk

Having learned a harsh lesson, I collapsed to the ground and moaned. The snow was cold, but the warming enchantment I’d cast kept me comfortable. I was halfway back to Ponyville proper, but I just couldn’t summon the strength to finish the trudge or to teleport.

Rule number one of living in Ponyville: never agree to let the Apple family feed you.

I rolled over onto my back and then rubbed my stomach, futilely trying to comfort it.

“Sooooo much foooood,” I groaned. “So many apples.”

Ungracefully belching, I reviewed my list of potential agricultural engineers, as Twinkleshine would put it, or more colloquially, my list of potential farmers.

The Apple family in general was a no-go despite being my first choice. They were outrageously influential in Equestrian agriculture; there was at least one branch of the family in every city, town, village, and countryside. It would be great to have one of them on the crew, especially one of the main branch, like Big Macintosh.

Well, on second thought, his younger sister, Applejack, instead, not him. I buried my head under the snow to hide my blush. I now knew exactly what it meant to say ‘a whole lot of stallion.’ I was pretty sure we wouldn’t find each other interesting on a personal level, but he just – he was just so distracting.

Ehem. Anyway…the family was so tightly knit, I’d have to take them all, and that probably included all of the extended family, too. And even if I did, they were so – so earth ponies. Even before I’d made my observations, it was obvious they would never leave Sweet Apple Acres. In hindsight, I didn’t know why I’d bothered.

So they were now officially off the list of candidates. That was no big deal. There were more than enough farmers in Ponyville. I was sure I could find two or three who would be interested, preferably ponies I could like. Luna could manage the politics of keeping Equestria fed just fine on her own.

I’d gone through a lot of ponies now with no success. I had tried convincing a few to join my crew, but I’d failed and erased their memory of the event. Ponyville ponies just didn’t have the spirit of adventure in them. I needed a new approach, or at least a different type of farmer.

But that left the question of how or who. Not to sound tribalist or anything, but all of these earth ponies seemed to want the same thing: the simple life. But then that would explain why they lived in Ponyville rather than in a city.

That meant I needed a new approach. And now that I thought about it, I had a good idea who I should try–

“Hello!” shouted a cheery voice. “You know, if you’re not careful, you’re going to end up with pneumonia or something. I mean, being half-buried in snow looks super duper fun and all, but it’s not good for your health. Or” – the voice gasped – “what if somepony stepped on you or ran you over with a wagon?”

She – it did sound like a she – had a point, although she spoke way too fast and too cheerily for my tastes.

I shifted back out from underneath the snow and stood up. The mare in front of me was pink. There really was no better way to describe her. She was pink incarnate. Sure, she was older than me by several years and had three balloons for a cutie mark, but those were incidental details.

“Hello! My name’s Pinkie Pie!” the mare said, grabbing my hoof and shaking it up and down. Earth pony grip magic officially felt as weird when used on a pony as I imagined it would be to use.

“I just got into town. I’m a traveling party pony, going where I’m needed most. I’ve been following my Pinkie Sense for some time now, moving from city to city and helping sad ponies in need of a party. And now it’s led me to Ponyville.”

Oh. My. Gosh. Did she tell her life story to every pony she met?

“That’s nice, but–”

“Anyway, I think I’ve finally found the pony I needed to find here,” she finished, looking straight into my eyes.

Well this was awkward. It wasn’t very often a random pony walked up to you and told you you were so depressed you needed a special party.

“I’m not sad.” Well, maybe I was just a little bit, but that was background noise in my emotions from Luna being banished.

“Hmm…perhaps not. But my ears are twitching, and my tail is swirling, so I know you need a party of some kind. Ooh! Ooh! Let me guess! Hmm… Is it a birthday party?”

“Completely wrong half of the year,” I answered. She might just go away if I said nothing, but I had this sneaking suspicion that was not the case.

“Oh! Then it must be your half-birthday!”

After some quick subtraction, I said, “That was twenty-three days ago.” The Equestrian calender was so much nicer than other ones, especially that crazy thing the Griffins did with months. What could be better than four seasons with a hundred days each?

“Aw, you should have told me.”

What – I didn’t – whatever. I wasn’t going to fight the crazy.

“Maaaaaybe it’s somepony special’s birthday?”

“It’s not anypony’s birthday!”

Ignoring my outburst, Pinkie Pie fell to her haunch and tapped her jaw with her hoof. “So it’s not anypony’s birthday… Is it an anniversary?”

“No. I’m reasonably sure that there’s nothing special about today at all to me or anypony I know.”

“Well, then we’ll just have to make it special!”

“I don’t need a party,” I said.

Wait a second… Something was on the tip of my tongue, something Shining had said sometime. A party. A. Party. Oh, no. Adventuring party.

I facehoofed.

“Ooh, ooh, ooh! You thought of something, didn’t you? Didn’t you?”

“I guess…”

Pinkie Pie stood perfectly still, obviously expecting me to elaborate. It was rather unsettling to see her not moving after how much energy she’d displayed.

“Look, I’ll just ask you a few questions, and if you say no to all of them, will you go away?”

Getting a nod from Pinkie Pie, I asked, “Do you know how to farm?”

“I totally learned how to farm rocks when I was a filly!”

It took my brain a few seconds to process ‘rock farmer’ into ‘miner’. What kind of parents would make a filly learn how to mine? Mining was dangerous work, even with the highest standards of magical safety.

I shook my head and asked my next question. “So that was a no. How about animal care? Do you know anything about that?”

“Hmm… Weeeeell.” Pinkie Pie pulled an alligator out of her mane. “This is my pet alligator, Gummy! Say hello, Gummy!”

Gummy blinked at me, his eyelids noticeably out-of-sync. For some reason, he had no teeth.

“Right… Um… Anyway, that’s also a no. Do you know how to cook from scratch?”

“Cook and bake!” Pinkie Pie made some motions that vaguely left me with the impression of cooking.

“Just to be clear, by scratch I mean from raw ingredients plucked from the ground.”

“Yepperoony!”

“Can you make butterscotch cookies?” Okay, I had to admit that was a really petty question.

“Of course! I know how to make all kinds of sweets.”

“Would you be interested in joining an adventuring party?”

“Ooooooh. I’ve never been in an adventuring party. That sounds like some serious jollification.”

“Great. Come back in a couple days” – after I got a background check and figured out which asylum you’d escaped from – “and I’ll talk to you some more about it.”

“Alright,” Pinkie Pie sang. “I’m gonna go introduce myself to everypony in Ponyville for now, then. See ya!”

I watched Pinkie Pie skip off toward town for a minute or two before remembering I was headed there, too. After a few steps, it occurred to me to wonder something.

What just happened?

Okay, so I probably had a cook now. Fortuitous, but extremely confusing. She could be a spy, but there were far better ways to spy on a pony with magic. I’d think if Celestia wanted to send somepony to check up on me, she’d just do it herself. Or she’d at least pick somepony less obtrusive.

Still, Pinkie Pie was definitely going to be put through a background check. Her appearance was just so…random. Not that she’d given me the impression of being anything less. Anyway, I had more important matters to attend to right now.

Berryshine, or Berry Punch as she was more commonly known, was mid-meeting with somepony named Filthy Rich. Not exactly a subtle name, but the more I observed the ponies of Ponyville, the more I realized that this town didn’t understand subtlety.

Regardless, Berry Punch was purple, and purple, and more purple. What was it about ponies lately and purple? Purple was a great color and all, but there seemed to be a statistically larger number of purple ponies than any single other color.

Anyway, Berry Punch had grapes and a strawberry for a cutie mark, which was rather fitting considering she was the town drunk. I’d had to cast an illusion to make myself look older to get somepony to tell me that a couple weeks ago, annoyingly enough. It wasn’t like she was being subtle about it. She’d been taking drinks at every opportunity all afternoon. Anypony with half a brain could have figured it out after a little shadowing, although she held her liquor well enough that she could fool a casual observer.

More interestingly, despite that, Berry Punch managed to be a reasonably affluent farmer. Her most prominent crop was – who would have guessed – grapes, which was rather impressive in itself. Ponyville wasn’t scheduled for the ideal climate for growing grapes. Not that it was untenable, per se, but it was her magic that made it work.

I’d had some of them, of course. Pretty much everything I ate in Ponyville was grown in Ponyville, after all, and those grapes were pretty good. There must have been something in the soil…or some other plausible farming explanation. Okay, I had no clue. The point was, Berry Punch was good at what she did.

As far as I could tell, she only had one friend in town, the dentist, Colgate, and that relationship was quite strained if what other ponies had told me was accurate. But Berry Punch didn’t strike me as asocial.

On the other hoof, Berry Punch’s daughter, Berry Pinch, had had nothing but praise for her mother. At least, I thought so; it was kind of hard to understand Berry Pinch at her age.

Something was up. Something I could work with.

While I was flipping through my notebook, Berry Punch and Filthy Rich rose and bumped hooves. The conversation they’d had didn’t sound relevant, so I disregarded the latter when he left and continued pursuing Berry Punch invisibly. Unfortunately, I didn’t know the proper invisibility spell – I had more interesting spells to learn – but I was making do with a few fancy illusions. It wasn’t like anypony in town would notice them.

As she walked, Berry Punch continued to drink from the bottle of wine she’d stashed in her saddle bags, keeping in line with her behavior the rest of the day. I would say I disapproved of this, but she was never overtly drunk. She probably had a constant – what was the word – buzz, and while I found the act rather…disturbing, I didn’t see anything fundamentally wrong with it.

Arriving at the dentist’s office, I slipped inside just after Berry Punch opened the door. It was late in the day, and the only ponies present were Colgate and Berry Pinch, both in the lobby playing a game of make believe. I think Berry Pinch was supposed to be a dragon and Colgate a royal knight.

I tried ignoring the play fight, but it made me feel…awkward. Unable to look away, I watched Colgate’s dramatic death, honestly unable to figure out if I should be cheering or not.

Berry Punch scooped up her daughter into a hug. “That’s my little Blossom! So strong and fierce!”

‘Blossom’ giggled, but that was as far as she got before Colgate spoke.

“You’re late, Berry.”

“Sorry. Rich keep dragging on and on in legal speak. I kept having to ask him to translate.”

“Yeah. Imagine that.” Colgate was frowning, and her tone was clearly frustrated, but Berry Punch either didn’t notice or didn’t care. My bet was on the former, given the attention Berry Punch was giving her daughter.

When mother and daughter were done with their displays of affection that I had zero inclination to repeat with Spike, Berry Punch said, “Thanks for watching Pinch for me today.”

Sighing, Colgate said, “It’s fine.” She walked over to her desk and pulled out a few papers. “I only had a few appointments today, and I needed to give Pinch her checkup, anyway.”

“Oh? How was that, Pinch?”

“Terrible.”

“Heh. No kidding. How much do I owe you?”

“You could–” Colgate rubbed her head with her hoof. “Nevermind. It’s on the house.”

“Cool. Thanks, Colgate. See ya tomorrow.”

“Yeah. See ya.”

I briefly wrestled with deciding who I should follow. In the end, I decided to stick with Colgate in her office for the moment. After a couple minutes of her doing nothing but paperwork with a huge frown, it was clear she wasn’t going to give me any useful information.

I ran up to a window and peered outside. Nopony was around, so I teleported directly outside the window and checked to make sure I hadn’t missed a pony. An instant later, my illusion spells caught up to the discontinuous change in scenery, hiding me once more. I then began the walk to Berry Punch’s house.

So far, I hadn’t picked up anything new today. Berry Punch’s friendship with Colgate was definitely strained, but I wasn’t ready to blame it on the alcohol. While that was certainly a part of it, I had a feeling it was a symptom of a different problem. If not, then why wouldn’t Colgate have pressed the issue already? She clearly expressed her dislike of something about Berry Punch, even in front of Berry Pinch. If she was already that frustrated, she would have confronted Berry Punch by now if the problem was something as simple as alcoholism. There had to be some deeper explanation, a bigger trouble.

Well, there didn’t have to be, but I found it more probable given the information I had.

Anyway, I arrived at Berry Punch’s house and peered in a window as I had back at Colgate’s business slash home. Seeing nopony nearby, I teleported in and headed toward the kitchen. There, Berry Punch was busy making a light dinner for her and Berry Pinch, the latter of whom had made a mess of both herself and the counter with strawberry jam.

I left a scrying spell to listen in – they were both giggling like fillies and doing nothing important – and left to explore the house.

Now I knew I did not have a normal life, what with Luna, politics, intrigue, magic, flaring, a princess foalsitter, et cetera, but I’d never actually taken the time to investigate a more ordinary home. I figured it would be boring and disillusioning, and I could at least pretend other ponies secretly led exciting lives that way.

But wow, was this house mundane. It was like my own little slice of Tartarus brought up to Equestria. Paradoxically, it reminded me just how glad I was that my life had played out like it had. Past Twilight might not have minded a simple life like this, but Present Twilight certainly would. I would go out of my mind with boredom.

That didn’t mean I didn’t still hate Celestia, but I did feel a certain sort of grudging gratitude for ripping my heart out.

I sighed and returned to my hunt for clues. Clues Berry Punch certainly wasn’t going to give me, if the nonsense I was hearing through my scrying spell was any hint. I didn’t know what just happened with that jam, nor did I want to know.

Jumping onto the living room sofa, I sat down and thought over what I’d seen: some books, but mostly books about how to raise a unicorn; no signs of abuse in either direction, nor from an outside party; plenty of pictures of Colgate and Berry Punch when they were younger, and even more of Berry Punch and Berry Pinch plus or minus Colgate.

All of the alcohol was locked securely in the basement so far as I could tell. The house was clean, but not too clean, although Berry Pinch’s room could qualify for disaster relief funding. I suspected nopony would notice that I’d knocked a few toys around when I’d tripped on them.

Berry Punch’s room, on the other hoof, was rather tidy. Her closet was the only exception, as it was stuffed with the random junk a pony collected throughout her life. Some of it had been in boxes. Most of it had not.

I rubbed the tip of my horn, remembering that unpleasant surprise.

Nothing in particular jumped out at me, but there was something off about the house. I just couldn’t figure out what.

“Argh!” I whispered, rubbing my mane vigorously. Why couldn’t I figure this out? There had to be something. Ponyville struck me as the kind of town that wouldn’t just sit back and let Berry Punch drug herself like this without a reason. It was just populated by too nice of ponies for that.

I needed…

I needed to meet sober Berry Punch.

The next morning – I’d magicked myself asleep during the night – I rose bright and early, rushing to Berry Punch’s house with only a few daffodils for breakfast. I was only a few minutes early, but that was enough.

Berry Punch had her bottle of wine in her saddlebags, both lying unprotected on her couch. She had gone upstairs, probably to check on Berry Pinch. It was winter vacation for the normal foals, so she was likely still asleep.

I teleported myself and the wine bottle to the kitchen sink, subsequently teleporting most of the wine into the sink and letting it flow down the drain. I left just enough to leave the right flavor behind after I watered it down. I then put the diluted wine back and began the world’s worst game: the waiting game.

Berry Punch went about her business as usual – shopping today, it would seem – and it wasn’t until an hour later that she obviously noticed something was wrong. She’d been twitching for a good ten minutes now, and the last five had had double takes. It was as if she were terrified of something, and the added haste in her step was not a good sign.

Her eyes widened, and she pulled out her wine. She took a sip and washed it around in her mouth, spitting it out soon after. Her eyes grew even wider, and she bolted off toward her home, taking the most direct route available.

As bad as I felt about this, I couldn’t let her ruin this now. Berry Punch turned down an alley – what she’d thought would be a shortcut, no doubt – and I cast a spell from my growing pool of dark magic, trapping her in an endless alleyway. At least, that was how it worked for her. It was rather disconcerting to watch the space warp from the outside.

It took Berry Punch a whole minute to realize she wasn’t going anywhere. A look of panic shot through her face, and she turned. She turned on a wall and proceeded to break it down. Little good that did her.

After bursting through a few more walls, she finally gave up and fell to the ground, sobbing uncontrollably. I heard her whisper the name Noteworthy, and something occurred to me. I had no idea who Berry Pinch’s father was. That hadn’t even registered with me when I’d been investigating.

Alright, so based on how she’d whispered that name, he was probably well-loved and dead. But would Berry Punch really go through all this just over the death of a loved one?

It was possible, but that would make her such a statistical outlier that the thought wasn’t even worth entertaining without evidence. No, there had to be something else at work here, especially considering her pure terror. That wasn’t the kind of fear a pony showed with a normal death.

I took a deep breath to steady my nerves; I had a sneaking suspicion that I wasn’t going to like what I would hear. I teleported silently a couple meters behind Berry Punch and placed a new illusion on myself. Going with a classic, I made myself look like a filly sized, pink elephant only a few shades away from Berry Punch’s coat color. My voice was, naturally, disguised as well.

“Hello,” I said.

As soon as I’d made a sound, Berry Punch scrambled to get away from me. I waited patiently until the warped space we were in sent her back to me. Hearing her hooves screech to a halt behind me, I turned around slowly with a smile.

“Berry Punch, dear, please listen to me.”

“W-who are you?” she shouted.

“I’m the rational part of you that you’ve kept locked away. You’re going through alcohol withdraw and hallucinating.” I had no idea how frequent that symptom was or how quickly it set in, but I knew that it was a symptom. I hoped sober Berry Punch bought it.

“A-a hallucination? Oh, thank Celestia!”

Rather proud of myself, I didn’t so much as twitch, much less turn white or burst into flames.

“Yes,” I began, “but I’m afraid we won’t be of much use to anypony until I disappear, so I thought this would be a lovely time to chat.”

“Chat?” Berry Punch echoed the word, eyes widening. “No! Never! I need to–”

“No.” I said, my voice amplified tenfold with magic. “I have been locked away for forever, and you will talk to me.”

Backpedaling, Berry Punch tripped over her own hooves in tears again. I crossed the distance between us and put a hoof on her withers.

“Let’s start at the beginning,” I said, softly and sweetly, my magic giving my voice a loving singsong quality. “Talk to me. Tell me about the good times.”

“I – I…” Her head falling, Berry Punch whispered, “Okay.”

I caressed Berry Punch’s mane for her as she recovered enough to talk. She was shivering no less now than before, but her twitching had died down. Well, it mostly had.

“The day Pinch was born was the happiest of my…our…” – Berry Punch looked to me, and shrugging, I smiled – “my life. Well, besides my wedding night.”

“No doubt. That Noteworthy, right?”

Berry Punch actually managed a weak laugh. “Yeah. Practically zero experience, but he was so passionate.”

“He was. He was. There’ll never be a better stallion.”

“Mmm… I could never forget his kindness, or his crazy love of music, or his warmth next to me, or…anything about him.”

“If only Pinch could’ve known him,” I said, hoping the conversation would move along.

“Yeah… I almost think he was even happier about her than I was. Neither of us expected a unicorn, but I suppose our parents didn’t expect earth ponies, either. Genetics are crazy like that. And let me tell you…err…tell me. My mom had it easy. Earth ponies? Psh, no problem. Unicorns? Ow. That horn hurts like Tartarus and gets caught on all the wrong spots.”

Note to self: never give birth. Stick with adopting dragons.

“You know, now that I think about it, that was what brought us together to begin with: two earth ponies born to unicorn parents. They had no idea what they were doing, and Noteworthy and I always felt like outsiders in our own families.”

Berry Pinch sighed. “I know I’m going to be just as bad with Pinch, even with Colgate helping, and that drives me mad. And that new teacher, Cheerilee, down at Ponyville Elementary. She’s great at what she does, but she doesn’t have the first clue about how to teach unicorns. I don’t know what I’m going to do…”

Aha! Now here was something I could work with. “Let’s just get her a good tutor.”

“What? In Ponyville? There’s nopony here that can do that.”

“What? Did the alcohol keep those memories from getting past the hippocampus?”

“The hippowhat now?”

Drat. “Remember back in the day? No, the alcohol probably took that away, too. The hippocampus does the heavy lifting in moving memories from short-term to long-term storage.”

“Ah. Right. Of course I remember that. I’m not dumber than me.”

I had to put all my willpower into not rolling my eyes or laughing. Tell somepony they’re hallucinating you, and they’d believe anything, apparently.

“Don’t you remember meeting Twilight Sparkle?” I asked, knowing full well what the answer would be.

“Yeeeees. But why don’t you remind me?”

This time I did roll my eyes. I could see even Berry Punch wanted to herself.

“She met Pinch yesterday, and you two talked for a little bit while Pinch was distracted. She’s one of the most knowledgeable unicorns we’ve ever heard of.”

“Really?” Berry Punch put a hoof to her forehead and massaged it a bit, as if that could make her memory work better or something. “I can’t believe I forgot that. What else am I forgetting?”

I shrugged. “Probably a lot. I’m afraid I’m just a halluciiiiination,” I said, barely remembering in time to keep my vocab in check. I was going to say ‘hallucinatory construct,’ and as great as that would be, I didn’t want to raise any more red flags.

“I can only remember what you could remember,” I added.

“I see… Oh, well. I’ll just have to go about remembering Twilight Sparkle the hard way, then.”

“I’m proud of you,” I said, patting Berry Punch on the withers. “That’s a good first step. Pinch deserves so much more than we’ve been able to be.”

Sighing, Berry Punch said, “I know. I don’t understand how she can love me, but I’d be an even worse wreck without her.”

“It’s probably because we act pretty foalish when we’re drunk. She probably sees us as a playmate as much as a mother. Maybe more.”

Berry Punch bit her lip. “Rational me, why do you have to be so…honest?”

“Comes with being rational, I’m afraid. We can’t be rational unless we’re willing to face the truth, whatever it is.”

“The truth…” Berry Punch’s eyes went wide, and she threw me off her. “Oh, Dear Celestia, no! No! Not again!” She fetched her saddlebags and pulled out her wine bottle, only to remember it was useless at the last second.

I walked up to her and locked eyes. I had to hold her head steady in my hooves as she weakly tried to squirm away.

“Hey! Don’t revert now! We’re making progress. Just a little more. Just a little more, and we can move on. We can move on once and for all and be everything Pinch deserves!”

“No! No, I can’t! Not again. Please, no! Not the Everfree again!”

Oh no. This wasn’t going to be good.

“We have to do this,” I whispered, moving as close to Berry Punch’s face as I dared. “For Pinch.”

Berry Punch threw me off again and stared at her trembling forehooves.

“S-so m-much b-b-blood. I could hear him. I could hear him! The screaming. It only lasted a few seconds, but I could hear.”

I forced Berry Punch to look me in the eyes again.

“Listen. I’m here for you. Pinch is here for you. Colgate is here for you. Buck, I’m sure even Twilight Sparkle would be there for you if you just asked. You don’t need to bottle it up anymore.”

I wheezed as Berry Punch squeezed the air out of me, but I didn’t say anything. Hallucinations didn’t need to breathe, after all, and she needed this hug.

“Oh, Celestia. It ate him. It ate Noteworthy! It didn’t even do it whole! It didn’t even kill him first! It tore him in half and swallowed him alive. Those screams still haunt my nightmares.”

I froze. I had expected something bad, but stars above, that was horrifying. If Luna hadn’t told me a similar story of her own experience with an ursa major, I would’ve teleported away and vomited just thinking about it. Even now, I was still struggling. And Berry Punch had lived it.

“I can’t even imagine a worse way to die,” Berry Punch continued. “Alone. Dark. Eaten. His last word to me was ‘run.’ And I did. I never even looked back. I could hear his bones snapping, but I didn’t even look! That monster wasn’t even interested in me anymore, and I still ran. It was full!”

I hugged Berry Punch as tight as I could, which wasn’t much at all right now.

“It was all my fault. I wanted to get a rare flower for Pinch’s birthday. ‘It’s a short trip,’ I said. ‘It’s not far,’ I said. ‘The scary things live deeper in,’ I said.

“And when I got back, nopony blamed me. Nopony! Not a single pony! I can’t deal with this. I can’t. I – I need to get home. I–”

I slapped Berry Punch.

“You do not need to go home. You do not need to go to our cellar. You do not need to drown the memories.” I paused, waiting for Berry Punch to turn back to me. When she did, I smiled as kindly as I could. “You need your friend. You need your daughter. You need” – I felt a bit guilty about this, but it was true – “to get away from this accursed forest.”

Berry Punch remained quiet, a thoughtful expression on her face underneath the twitching and anxiety.

“Where would I go? What would I do? My whole life is in Ponyville.”

“I – ah…”

I pretended to notice something, and Berry Punch turned her head to look the same way I was. When she saw nothing – there was nothing to see – she turned back.

“What?”

“Nothing,” I said, smiling. It was time to end this conversation. “I’m sure something will come up soon. For now, just be better for Pinch.”

I cast my usual sleeping spell, but let it take effect slowly instead of instantaneously.

“And remember,” I began, “just because I was a hallucination doesn’t make this any less real. I hope we never meet again.”

After another second or two, Berry Punch collapsed onto the ground. She’d wake up in a couple minutes, so I quickly swapped out my elephant illusion for the invisibility illusions and dismantled this warped space. We were back in a regular old alley again, and I teleported on top of a roof; alleys were rather narrow, and I didn’t need Berry Punch bumping into me.

When she woke up, Berry Punch did it with a moan. She struggled to her hooves, still trembling. She didn’t rush to them, but she did go to her saddlebags. I frowned when she pulled out her wine bottle. If she didn’t learn anything from…that, I was going to throw in the towel and pretend she didn’t exist.

Leaning forward, I watched with eyes wide as she turned the bottle to the side, but then she said, “Oh, right. It’s mostly water.” She then promptly drank the whole mixture.

Well, symbolism averted, but she did learn something, and that was what counted. I watched her for another minute as she walked away into town.

Into town toward Colgate’s house.

I smiled and teleported home.

I looked up from my book when somepony triggered my ward. I squeed when I looked out my window and saw Berry Punch walking this way. I had a good feeling this time. Soon, so soon, I would have my first farmer. Walking downstairs, I was nearly to the door when the knock came.

“I’ve got it!” I called out with barely suppressed glee.

I stood on the inside of the door and did a short dance to get all the excitement out of my system. With one last deep breath, I opened the door, smiling warmly.

“Um…hello,” Berry Punch said. If the slight blush weren’t enough, she was also rubbing her foreleg with her other forehoof. It would seem somepony was embarrassed – or nervous, perhaps – about getting her life back on track. She still twitched, and her eyes still wandered, but it was great to see her relatively peaceful.

“Hello, Berry Punch! It’s good to see you again.”

“Yeah… I was hoping to talk to Twilight Sparkle. I heard she lives here.”

I made a slightly hurt expression and said, “Sure. Would you like to come in?”

Berry Punch nodded. “If I could.”

I smiled again and teleported the two of us onto couches in the living room. Berry Punch was understandably confused, but for the wrong reason.

“Oh Celestia,” she said. “Did I just blank out for a while? Have…have we been talking?”

Hmm… This was a rather unfortunate unintended consequence, but it shouldn’t take too long for Berry Punch to trust her memory again.

“No, I teleported us here. I’m kind of lazy.” Well, I was, but I’d really done it to quickly demonstrate competency. Berry Punch didn’t recognize me when she showed up, so I assumed she didn’t find out how old Twilight Sparkle was when she tracked me down.

“You did? You…teleported us?”

I nodded. “So what was it that you wanted with me?”

Yep, she’d definitely never bothered to ask how old I was; Berry Punch’s face was more of an open book than most ponies’. That, or she’d asked Berry Pinch and had gotten an unhelpful answer like ‘she’s super old’.

“Excuse me, but you’re Twilight Sparkle?”

Just loud enough for her to hear, I whispered, “I guess you forgot me.”

“I – I think I made a mistake.” Berry Punch moved to get to her hooves. “Sorry.”

“I see…” I made a sad smile and looked to the floor. “I don’t get to meet many ponies with my sleep schedule.” I sighed and let the invitation hang in the air.

Berry Punch bit her lip, looking about the room somewhere between anxiously and embarrassingly, before sitting back down and fidgeting with her hooves.

“So,” I asked again, “what did you need me for? Is it about what we talked abou – no, you forgot me.” I sighed again before smiling. “It must be about magic, then!”

“Ah…yeah.”

I giggled a bit. I’d always wanted to try the traveling salespony voice but had never found the right moment before now. “Have a problem with a tough spell? Need some insight on which direction to go? A magical disaster on the horizon? Look no further than Twilight Sparkle to cure all your spellcraft related woes and…uh…goals.”

Wow, I’d felt so confident going into that rhyme, but it just fell flat on its face. Oh well. At least Berry Punch was amused.

“Seriously, though. What do you need?”

“Ah, well…” Berry Punch played with her forehooves nervously and avoided my eyes. “I was, at the time, hoping you could help tutor Pinch, but–”

“Sure,” I answered, not letting her make excuses. If she never actually said them, they weren’t real. Stupid, yes, but Luna said most ponies gave a lot more weight to their thoughts once they’d actually said them to another pony.

Berry Punch looked straight at me and blinked a couple times. “Really? Can you? Just like that?”

“Yes, yes, and no, I’m afraid.”

“Oh! I wasn’t asking you to do it for free!”

I waved a hoof dismissively. “No, don’t worry about that. I have all the funding I could ever need.”

“Funding?” Berry Punch echoed quietly.

I smirked – just a little bit to let her know I’d heard – and continued, “I’m willing to do it for free, but I won’t be in Ponyville during Berry Pinch’s early education, which is probably the most important part to get right.”

“I un–”

I held up a hoof. “However, that doesn’t mean you two can’t be with me. I’m leaving in a season or two on a jaunty, peaceful adventure with a group of ponies, and you two would be welcome to tag along if you help us.”

“I don’t…” began Berry Punch, but she quickly lost her enthusiasm. Her brows scrunched up, and she descended into a silent contemplation. Eventually, she asked, “Could you tell me more?”

“Certainly! Although I would much prefer to show you when you have a free night instead. You could bring Berry Pinch with, too. In fact, I’d recommend it.” Of course, that recommendation came from knowing somepony Berry Pinch’s age would beg to go on a space adventure.

“I suppose it couldn’t hurt. I’m free tomorrow night, if that would work.”

“Tomorrow it is, then.”

It took me longer than I had hoped to convince Berry Punch that she was, in fact, not hallucinating. Berry Pinch, on the other hoof, was predictably excited and running about the ship. I didn’t know what she could have found interesting about a mostly empty glass and metal shell, but we were in space, and that made everything better. Unfortunately, the novelty of space had worn off for me.

There were the doors, though. Those were pretty cool. At Twinkleshine’s…request, I’d made the airlocks between rooms open and close automatically and split at the middle rather than swinging open like a normal door. I’d drawn the line at ‘spacey sound effects’, but still.

Speaking of whom, Twinkleshine was in the library ‘looking busy’. I’d brought her up earlier in the afternoon with a load of bookshelves, books, and miscellaneous furnishings and had asked her to get to work. Mostly I just wanted the ship to seem more alive for Berry Punch’s first impression, but also, the work just needed doing.

Of course, I wasn’t making Twinkleshine do a bunch of heavy lifting; she still didn’t have the magic for that. She was instead directing a small swarm of changelings – all disguised as ponies – in the construction of the library.

And I had to say, I’d been impressed with how effective changelings were with group tasks. In retrospect, that should have been obvious, but it was quite the sight to watch them throw books around fast enough to qualify the exchanges as a flow of books.

“Twilight Sparkle,” Berry Punch began. Her voice was distant and her eyes were wandering. “Who–”

“Again, just ‘Twilight’, please.” I had nothing against my full name, but it was a bit of a mouthful, and it wasn’t called for here.

“Who are you really? Whose…thing is this? Where are you going?”

“Well, I’m still the one and only Twilight Sparkle, but I suppose you meant that in a more political sense. If you must know, I have connections to three…well, four royals, and one of them commissioned the construction of this spaceship.”

“Wait, wait. Four Royals?” Berry Punch asked, punctuating each word. “You know the entire royal family?”

“Ah, no. That’s an easy mistake to make. I don’t know Prince Blueblood or his mother, but it’s not like they’re real royalty, anyway. Cadance, that is Mi Amore Cadenza never has anything good to say about those two. Well, not anymore. Blueblood was apparently much nicer when Sunset Shimmer was around to keep him in line. Anyway, there are other royals in this world than just Cadance and” – I nearly spat the name – “Celestia.”

I giggled at Berry Punch’s gape. Ponies weren’t used to Cadance and Celestia – especially Celestia – being addressed so informally.

“Moving on, I built this ship–”

“You built this? I don’t – how could – I can’t believe that. You’re only, what, eleven? Twelve? Thirteen?”

“Twelve-and-a-half, but I started construction at twelve proper. And I’m the pony that brought you and Berry Pinch here.” I exaggerated a sigh and locked eyes with Berry Punch.

“I’m not a filly, whatever my biological age might have you believe. Twinkleshine is.” I gestured off toward the filly in question. “She tries. She really does. But she doesn’t have the experiences or the responsibilities that make a pony an adult. But I do.”

I frowned, narrowed my brows, and turned away to gaze out into space. I didn’t actually want to talk about myself that much at the moment. Instead, I simply said, “We’ll have plenty of time to get to know one another if you decide to join us, but I don’t have the time or interest to spin sob stories right now.”

When the silence was just about to become overbearing, I sighed and turned back purposefully slowly.

“Anyway, to answer your last question, we’re going to recover one of Equestria’s long-lost artifacts, which we believe was placed on a comet centuries ago. Given that this hasn’t been announced to the public, I trust you realize that this is a secret, and should not be discussed with anypony.”

After a sufficiently long stare down, Berry Punch said, “I promise. Ah, what about Pinch?”

I waved a hoof dismissively. “Nopony will take anything she says seriously, so don’t worry.” And I was going to have both of you watched until you moved up here permanently. Or until you lost your memory of this. I loved having changeling minions so much. They made life so much simpler.

“I… When you said I had to help, what did you mean?”

“Oh, not much. This will be a multi-year journey, so we need to produce our own food. We also need earth ponies to do it, because my magic doesn’t mix well with growing things. The closest I can get with any ease is conjuring air and water. There’d probably be some other miscellaneous tasks, but your main responsibility would be farming – something I hear you are very good at.”

“Ah, well, maybe.” Berry Punch’s gaze dropped to her hooves, and I could make out just the faintest blush.

“So what do you think? Would you like to get away from Ponyville for a few years and see things practically nopony else ever has? We’re even going to make a stop at the moon, if Twinkleshine can figure out the technical difficulties.” Difficulties like the sun incinerating us if we stuck around past moonset.

Biting her lip, Berry Punch said, “Maybe. I…would like to get away from Ponyville for a while.”

“Oh, before I forget,” I interrupted, “as this is a crown-sponsored, secret mission, we’d have a pair of agents take care of your property and make sure nopony knows you’re missing.”

“Nopony?” Berry Punch asked. “Not even my family or a close friend?”

“Not even–”

Now that I thought of it, I’d never updated that policy to account for the hive mind. Luna was a slow and clunky means of communication who didn’t want to act as such and had no idea what her max range was in banishment. The changelings were none of those things, although Queen Chrysalis might share in the ‘not wanting to do it’ aspect.

Twinkleshine’s case was still an open and shut book. I probably could convince her parents to let her come without cheating eventually, but I wasn’t going to waste my time doing so. And changeling surveillance was good, but not perfect. The more potential leaks – especially ones that would march straight to open court if given the chance – the more likely this mission was to fail.

And Queen Chrysalis might get moody if I asked too much from her or induced too many risks into this operation.

However, Berry Punch’s case was different. Her parents…were still questionable choices. Parents in general had this sense of duty to protect their foals, and that was an unnecessary risk.

But if she told Colgate, it would probably be okay. The replacements would be spending a lot of time with Colgate already anyway, so it wouldn’t be asking for much more from them to keep an eye on her. Although that might interfere with the love they would otherwise get from her.

And yet the replacements could work to get love that was intended for them instead of for Berry Punch and Berry Pinch. I didn’t know if that made any difference in the love’s nutritional value, but it made sense on an intuitive level that it would.

“Twilight?” Berry Punch called.

And now I realized I’d zoned out for several minutes. How awkward.

“Sorry. Anyway, you might be allowed to tell one particularly close friend who’s not a family member. I’d have to consult a couple ponies first. But no matter whom, you would have to keep the exact details of this mission secret.

“Well, only until we get back, that is. We’ll let you know when you’re free to talk about this adventure, but I’d imagine it wouldn’t be too long after we return to Equus that you’d be free to speak of it.”

A thought struck me. “Or you can not talk about it and ask to have your participation kept quiet, if you wish. Either way, the crown would be in your debt.”

Another idea came to me. I laughed and added, “Berry Pinch would be in your debt, too. She seems quite taken with space, after all.”

Looking into the farm area from one of the adjoining rooms, I saw Berry Pinch cannon ball into the pond after pushing one of the changelings into it. Hopefully she wouldn’t roll around in the dirt afterward and track mud everywhere, but I was under few illusions about that.

Berry Punch turned to look the same way I was and watched Berry Pinch for a minute or two. I idly wished Spike would be as enthusiastic about water. It would make baths so much easier.

Sigh. Maybe I should switch the bathwater to lava. I wouldn’t even have to use soap that way.

“Do I have to decide right now?” Berry Punch finally asked.

“No, but I do need a prompt answer from you especially. We have a nonnegotiable deadline to meet, and we need to get our food supply going before we can leave.”

After a few seconds, Berry Punch asked, “Why aren’t you just using government employees like you are for unpacking right now?”

I was so glad I’d asked Cadance for a legitimate answer to that in advance.

“We employ a number of very talented gardeners, but no proper farmers. Part of why I moved to Ponyville was to scout for ponies who could both do the job and keep a secret. That’s why I asked your daughter a few questions about you a number of days ago.”

Turning my head toward Berry Punch, I continued, “She was very informative. You’re lucky to have her.”

It took her a few seconds, but her eyes widened when she fully processed that I had been investigating her. “Wait. Did you–”

“No,” I interrupted. “But I was watching. When I couldn’t bear it anymore, I cast a sleep spell on you. After you woke up, you looked…better, so I left. I was actually going to offer you this job tonight, but you came to me yesterday, instead.”

A silence fell, and when I felt it was right, I asked, “Do you want to get away from the Everfree?”

Berry Punch’s head fell to the ground. “Yes,” she whispered.

There was just enough space between Berry Punch and the wall for me to walk in front of her and hold out a hoof. Holding my breath in anticipation, I waited.

And then I smiled.

“Welcome aboard.”

Author's Notes:

The Dragon had one Random Encounter!

The Dragon induced one Hallucination!

Next chapter, Twilight discovers the true meaning of Hearth’s Warming.

Chapter Eight - The Longest Night - Part One

“From what Berry Punch has told me, Queen Chrysalis, we should be ready to leave in early to mid summer,” I said over the roar of the Canterlot Main Square fountain. Even in winter, Canterlot radiated a summer vibe. We were, as tradition dictated, scheduled for snow tonight in time for Hearth’s Warming Eve and the winter solstice in two days.

“The exact date depends on how quickly I can find another earth pony to help her. And if I wait to give my parents one more of my birthdays… Anyway, she’ll be moving up permanently with Berry Pinch two weeks after Hearth’s Warming, so we’ll need to get her replacements ready before then.”

“Speaking of which,” said Amethyst Star, relaying our conversation for Queen Chrysalis, “your replacement is of far greater importance, and to a lesser degree, Spike’s as well.”

Harrumphing, I said, “I know. I won’t get in the way of the plan.”

“Says the little filly with an underdeveloped, emotional brain.”

“Oh, yes. Ha, ha. Pick on my age. That’s always an easy one.”

Amethyst Star gave me a meaningful stare for Queen Chrysalis. Obviously, she did not feel reassured. I couldn’t really blame her, but it was still annoying.

“Look,” I began, “I realize that I’m taking a non-trivial risk of breaking my relationship with Cadance for years. But remember, if that does happen, I won’t care. Well, I will in the sense that I’ll remember I lost something wonderful, but I won’t feel the loss, so it won’t be hard to follow the plan. Satisfied?”

Amethyst Star laughed – had she really needed to repeat that? – and said, “So young. No, I am not concerned about that. I’m concerned you shall interrupt the plan the next morning.”

It took me a half-second to make the connection. In my best indignant voice, I said, “I’m not so petty as to be overcome by some simple jealousy.”

Snickering, Amethyst Star asked, “You are quite forgetting the precedent, are you not?”

“Huh? What are you talking about?” I wasn’t playing dumb. I really had no clue what Queen Chrysalis was alluding to. I might have some problems, but they’d never stemmed from jealousy of all things.

Looking at me like I was an idiot, Amethyst Star replied, “Your mentor.”

“Oh,” I deadpanned. I had to admit she had a fairly reasonable concern there, given whatever information was available to her, even if it was a rather insulting concern. Luna wouldn’t ruin this, either. “I don’t have any evidence to submit to allay your fears there. However, I can promise to sleep through the solstice and Hearth’s Warming. You can even have one of your changelings cast the sleeping spell if you want. After that, you know it would cost too much to interfere.”

That was true if by ‘too much’, I instead meant ‘everything’. There was no way I was going to drag a changeling version of me in front of Cadance to show what had really happened. That would require too much explanation, and then Celestia would inevitably become involved, and then it would all be over.

“Very well, although I believe we have some of your evidence descending upon us. I shall take my leave and observe this little comedy from afar.”

“Wha…”

Completely ignoring my confusion, Amethyst Star left and took her privacy wards with her, quickly disappearing into the crowd of ponies in Main Square. I hated it when ponies did the whole cryptic exit thing. Although, I admittedly enjoyed doing it myself…

Anyway, there was no use puzzling over Queen Chrysalis’s words without first finding out more. The way she’d phrased it made it sound like I just needed to wait for something to happen.

Turning behind me, I said, “Spike… Spike?” Great, now Spike was missing. I could easily find him with magic, but I took the easier option and scanned the crowd first. How hard could it be to spot a baby dragon in Canterlot?

Oh, horseapples. The answer was not hard at all, especially not if said baby dragon were playing with a filly wearing a ridiculous hat and cape. I facehoofed for good measure before fixing a smile onto my face and walking over to the pair.

“Hello, Trixie,” I said. I moved over to stand beside Spike and rubbed his head gently, saying, “You’re not supposed to wander off, you know.”

Spike looked at me. His confusion was obvious. Sighing, I reminded myself that Spike was too young to parse most syntax.

“Don’t wander off, Spike.”

“Sorry,” he replied, settling – presumably comfortably – into my hooves.

Looking up from Spike, I turned my attention to Trixie. She looked away as I looked to her and fidgeted on her hooves. For a half-second, her muscles twitched to allow her to bolt, but she stopped herself with visible effort.

“Hello, Twilight… Long time no see.”

“Not since last year’s Nightmare Night.”

“Yeah…”

Silence fell between us, although the square had a lot of background noise, and Spike was not exactly quiet himself. So why was Trixie here?

Well, that could be any number of reasons. I doubted she’d actually been looking for me; Spike had probably run into her instead. So rather than asking why was she here, I should ask why she felt so awkward around me this time. Or if I were feeling bold, I could just actually ask her instead of trying to puzzle it out. Trixie had never left me with the impression of being uninterested in talking about herself.

“What’s wrong, Trixie?”

Still fidgeting on her hooves, Trixie replied, “I was – well, I just – Spike – I hadn’t seen him in a while, and I…um…I missed him.”

Wow, talk about obviously lying – lying about that being why she felt awkward. From the little interaction between them that I’d seen, Trixie did appear to like Spike. That wasn’t terribly surprising, considering Cadance had kept him at the castle for four years.

“Okay, Trixie, you might have fooled me when I was – I don’t know – four. What’s really wrong?”

“I…uh…” Trixie’s withers fell, and she slumped down to her haunches, clamming up.

Sighing, I said, “Well, if you have nothing to say, we should–”

“Wait!” shouted Trixie, lifting a hoof. Somehow, I couldn’t help but think she had thought I’d been further away. “Er…wait. I…have something I need to ask you.”

After a long enough silence for Spike to actually fall asleep on us, I asked, “Well?”

“Just give Trixie – me a minute to prepare myself.”

I rolled my eyes but waited anyway on the off-chance I could learn something useful from Trixie’s question. That, and because I had no idea how I was supposed to score points with Queen Chrysalis here other than not blowing up at Trixie – for whatever reason – but walking away probably wasn’t the right answer. Maybe Queen Chrysalis didn’t know that I held no particular dislike for Trixie.

But I still found her annoying in a Celestia-independent manner.

Finally, Trixie asked, “Why do Princess Cadance and Princess Celestia get all weird when you come up in conversation?”

“What, did they not tell you?” I asked on instinct. “No, stupid question. I need to stop doing that. Rather, did you not ask them?”

Trixie frowned. “They won’t tell me anything.”

“Ah. Well, have you tried asking anypony else? I’m sure there are a lot of ponies on staff at the castle that could tell you enough for you to force Cadance or Celestia to tell you the rest.”

On second thought, maybe not Celestia. I had few doubts about the number of ponies she took into her confidence. If what she’d done to history were any indication, she did not like sharing information. She was probably trigger happy with memory spells, too. I at least tried to minimize how many I absolutely had to use.

“Trixie is asking you!” Trixie half-shouted, stomping her hoof. “I mean…I’m asking you. This sounds like a private kind of thing.”

I sighed. “Look, I’m not very comfortable talking about this.” Mostly because I didn’t know why Celestia would feel awkward, but also since Trixie didn’t already know, I assumed Celestia didn’t want her to know, and I wasn’t going to bring Celestia’s wrath down on me by giving Trixie information to guess with.

Still, Trixie had given me some interesting information. Celestia and awkward were two words that rarely went together. Maybe I could get Trixie to find out the details for me if I pushed exactly the right buttons.

“I–” Trixie began in what have no doubt been a very blunt manner before calming down. “I…I’m sorry. I’ll just go, then.”

“Trixie, wait,” I said. “You’re always welcome to come visit Spike when we’re in town.”

“I, uh, sure. Thanks. But maybe some other time.”

Trixie turned to leave, and as she took her first steps away, I said just loud enough for her to hear, “Cadance can’t keep secrets. Catch her alone.”

Ears twitching, Trixie walked a little faster.

I chuckled as I lifted Spike gently onto my back. Cadance was going to be mad. I couldn’t remember ever seeing her mad before. Maybe she never had been.

Oh, this was going to be fun.

Cadance getting mad was also good for the replacement plan, and I might learn something interesting from this, but I knew those were mostly just rationalizations. Anger and Cadance were just so conceptually far from each other: I was curious.

However, excuse or otherwise, I wasn’t going to pass up a perfect opportunity to say those four magical words.

“All according to plan.”

Luna pulled me closer with a hoof and lowered her voice so that only I could hear. Not that there was anypony around but me to hear.

“Pay close attention, Twilight. This will be one of the most complex, critical, confounding spells I can teach you, and perhaps the single most important spell of all time. But first I need you to stabilize your dream into an outdoor area.”

I nodded and focused on rearranging the world from a cozy little starlit room to a generic wide open park. Just for good measure, I dotted the landscape in the distance with the occasional tree.

Pausing momentarily for a deep breath, Luna made good on her promise. I felt the spell grow and weave together in unexpected ways around us. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. The sheer intricacies involved were baffling.

Finally, when the spell finished, the brilliant cyan and violet light of Luna’s magic died down. In its place was a waffle cone with one scoop of strawberry and one of rocky road.

My jaw dropped. That was what that spell did? It summoned ice cream?

Luna took a sizable bite out of the strawberry and presumably swallowed it whole. She shivered next to me and asked, “Want some? It’s quite good.”

The alicorn-sized ice cream held up to me, I took a small, awkward bite out of the rocky road. It was good.

After a few more dazed samples of the ice cream, I finally asked, “Is…is that it?”

Luna took a while to break away from her snack. “What could possibly be more important than ice cream?”

“Wha… Oh, I get it. The ice cream is a distraction. Whatever the spell really did,” I continued, looking around with both my eyes and my horn to find some obvious spell effect, “the ice cream was just to get my attention away from it.”

After another large bite and a quiet squeal of delight, Luna said, “Well, there is an art to misdirection while casting spells, especially in theater and combat. You’re picking that up slowly in our little sparring matches well enough. But I’m afraid all I did was make some ice cream.” Aborting a lick halfway through, Luna asked, “Oh, did you want another flavor?”

“I… No, I like rocky road just fine. Strawberry is okay, too, I guess.”

“Twilight!” Luna gasped. “Our friendship is over. Strawberry is clearly the best flavor.”

“What?” I shouted. “How can you say that? Strawberry pales in comparison to butterscotch!”

“Eurgh. I don’t understand how you can stomach that stuff, let alone be so obsessed with it. Something must’ve gone wrong when you were being born. I swear, your sweet tooth is worse than S…”

Luna briefly looked like she would finish her sentence before she frowned and took another bite of strawberry. An extra large one that she paid for with a bout of brain freeze.

“Ha,” I laughed weakly. “Strawberry always betrays you in the end.”

“Yes,” whispered Luna, frowning, “yes it does.”

Putting the flavor debate on hold, I crossed the already short distance between us and gave her an obviously much needed nuzzle. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing, Twilight. I just get sentimental around the winter solstice.”

Well duh. Luna got like this every year, but she was never this bad. Something extra troubling must’ve been on her mind this year.

Hmm, maybe…

“I spoke with Queen Chrysalis this afternoon,” I said. Luna turned to look at me slowly, her eyes inviting me to continue. “She was concerned I’d do something stupid, so I promised that I’d sleep through the solstice and Hearth’s Warming. Do you think we could spend them together this year?”

“I–” Luna began.

She sounded like she was going to say no again, so I put on my best pleading face, exaggerating my sad pout and widening my eyes. I might even have accidentally added a sparkle to my gaze by virtue of being in my dream.

“That doesn’t work on me, Twilight,” Luna said, a faint smile creeping up on her face. “The most that’ll get you is another ice cream.”

“Aw…”

“But I would enjoy spending Hearth’s Warming with you.”

Did Luna really say what I’d just heard? “Are – are you sure? Do you really mean it?”

“Yes, I have…” Luna sighed. “I could really use the company.”

Nearly skipping, I moved to Luna’s side and snuggled comfortably into her. This would be the best Hearth’s Warming ever! A few minutes of simply enjoying each other’s presence later, I remembered something else important that had happened.

“Hey. I also ran into Trixie today, and she said something strange.”

Laughing weakly, Luna said, “I was under the impression everything she said was strange.”

“More strange than usual,” I replied, rolling my eyes and nudging Luna in her side. “She said that when I come up in conversation, Cadance and Celestia ‘get all weird’. She was acting weird, too.”

“Oh? How so?”

“Prepare yourself, because this is shocking,” I joked. “She was making a deliberate effort to avoid illeisms.”

“Ha! Do you take me for a fool?” Luna asked, smirking and obviously holding in more laughter. It was a big change from her earlier melancholy, and I was ecstatic to be the pony that had cheered her up; Luna almost always had to pull herself out of her funks despite my best efforts.

“It’s true!” I insisted. “She was also clearly uncomfortable around me, and I really don’t know what to make of it.”

“Well, let’s try to puzzle it out. Maybe if we line up enough facts, something will jump out at us.”

“Okay,” I said, bringing a large chalkboard into existence. Holding a piece of chalk in my magic, I asked, “So what’s first?”

“Hmm… I believe we can ignore my niece’s part in this for the moment. Her behavior is quite straightforward.”

Talk about an understatement.

“So we should focus on the relationships between you, Trixie, and my sister. What are your thoughts there?”

“Well, I haven’t so much as seen Celestia since…last time, and it’s been a while since I’ve seen Trixie. I would assume Trixie is fond of Celestia, which means the feeling is likely returned to some degree.”

“Yes,” Luna said, “I can vouch that my sister usually enjoys her student’s company to some degree, although she teaches because she enjoys teaching rather than for her student’s sake.” When I’d finished writing that information down, Luna continued, “You should add Trixie’s odd behavior to the list as well. How did she think of you before?”

“Um…indifference? We never really talked much.”

“Fair enough. That’s five directions down, but what about that last one between my sister and you?”

Ugh. I was so very tempted to just write down uncaring and be done with it, but Luna would just scold me and tell me to try again.

Sighing, I said, “Well…Cadance once told us Celestia has the treasury open to me, if I ever needed it, and I think we may have taken a bit or two to make us look less suspicious for the bits you’ve given us for stuff. But I’d chalk that up to Cadance pressuring Celestia into making that concession as some sort of pathetic compensation.”

“And…” Luna trailed off suggestively.

I grumbled, remembering that terrible but helpful morning, “And that one time she paid lip service to all that guilt she must be feeling which must keep her up late at night tossing and turning over how not sorry she is.”

Luna held me tight with a wing and gently said, “Yes, exactly. She probably feels some sense of obligatory guilt, but she doesn’t truly care. If she did, she would have at least tried to help you where it really counts.”

I relished in my seething for a moment before getting around to calming myself with a few deep breaths. Luna’s cuddling helped a lot, too.

“I have a key piece of information to add myself,” Luna said once I was calm again. “I doubt you ever would have been presented with an opportunity to learn it, and I never saw the need to upset you with it.”

My first thought should have been that Luna’s wording made it clear that she already knew why Trixie was acting weird. Instead, I found myself distracted by the relative triviality of bad news on the horizon.

“My sister’s previous student, Sunset Shimmer, you’ll recall, was a Flare.”

“What?” I exploded. “I don’t – I – that’s – argh!”

“Yes. She knows exactly how to teach Flares, and she is quite good at it. She always made it her business to see to the education of every Flare herself. She would certainly be a better teacher than I if she didn’t have that terrible habit of letting her students flounder alone without direction or purpose.”

Shaking her head, Luna quietly added, “I simply cannot understand why she can’t learn from her mistakes.”

“Anyway,” Luna continued, “Sunset Shimmer mysteriously disappeared some years ago and was never heard from again. I believe you would have been two at the time.”

“I don’t…” I started, but the realization hit. What if Celestia…

Oh no, oh no. I needed to leave as soon as possible. I couldn’t give my parents those extra weeks. And what if Celestia decided it was time to take care of me after I’d left? She’d discover I’d been replaced, and what then? My parents couldn’t act to save their lives, and they’d need to. They were only two or three steps lower than Cadance on the loose lips scale. I–

“Twilight!” Luna shouted directly into my ears. I hadn’t even noticed she’d moved me to face her. “I know where your thoughts are going, but I promise that my sister doesn’t terminate even the most unruly foals unless she has absolutely no other choice. Even she has standards.”

“I – my family’s safe?”

“Yes, Twilight,” Luna said, hugging me. “They’ll be fine. Truthfully, I do not know what happened to Sunset Shimmer, but unlike my sister, I made an actual effort to find her. All I know is she was nowhere to be found.”

That – that still sounded really bad. Everypony’s dreams were open to Luna’s inspection, if the dreamer were alive. Luna should have been able to find Sunset Shimmer, but why look for her at all?

I’d bet Sunset Shimmer was a fully trained Flare, but regardless of whatever Celestia had done to her, there was no way she could be trustworthy. Ponies had this terrible habit of forgiving the unforgivable in moments of dramatic tension. Using Sunset Shimmer for anything would be a huge risk in general and a plain old liability if she came into contact with Celestia.

But then again, Queen Chrysalis’s words had been harsh, yet they rang with truth. Did Luna have any other option at the time? There weren’t many ponies that could deal with whatever magic Celestia had placed to protect the elements, and adding in that dreadful requirement that they would was extraordinarily problematic.

“Was…” I began. I didn’t have to ask this question. It was just a mere curiosity. Not that I’d ever demonstrated I could resist such things… “Was I a plan B?”

Luna laughed. It was a full, nearly maniacal laugh. Once she finally settled down, she said, “That, that was exactly my reaction when you were brought to my attention. You were not a plan B. You were an incredible stroke of luck.”

Nestling me in between her hooves and petting my mane, Luna continued, “You, a filly who desperately needed my help. Who it wasn’t too late to help. Who – to my great surprise – was charming and adorkable with an inspiring passion to learn everything.”

“Adorkable?”

“Ah, it’s a term I heard from somepony else recently: a portmanteau of dork and adorable. It means you’re adorable in a really nerdy way.”

Blushing and sinking further into Luna’s chest, I stammered, “I – um – uh – t-thank you. I t-think.”

“You see?” Luna asked, giggling. “That’s exactly what makes you adorkable.”

“Well, anyway,” I said, changing the topic not very subtly, “what were you getting at before?”

“Oh, yes. My point was my sister always puts a few decades between her students unless the appearance of a Flare forces her otherwise, and yet she has taken on a new one already. A new one who’s not difficult to teach, but who’s still reasonably talented.”

I nearly facehoofed as I realized exactly what Luna was trying to say. “Celestia has some use for Trixie, some important use.”

“And…” Luna trailed off suggestively again.

And… And what? That was incredibly important all on its own. What use could Celestia possibly have for Trixie?

Humming with a faint touch of disappointment, Luna asked, “What question were we originally trying to answer, Twilight?”

“Oh,” I said. Luna had every right to be disappointed in me there. “Trixie was acting strange, and she said Celestia ‘gets weird’ when I’m mentioned. I…don’t see the connection to me, but what if Trixie found out that she’s being used? That could explain her behavior.”

“No, I wouldn’t put much stock in that. I’m sure she would be happy to hear my sister has some grand plan for her. Her students always are when she does, although their initial reaction varies. You have anecdotal evidence yourself.”

“I suppose so,” I said, a bizarre mix of happiness at the reminder and disappointment at getting a question wrong warring within me. It was nice to be able to do something actually useful for Luna. Trixie would probably feel the same way toward Celestia.

So what could… This time I did facehoof. Trixie’s problem was exactly the same as the question I had asked Luna but a few minutes ago.

“Trixie found out she’s a replacement for Sunset Shimmer!” I said triumphantly, awkwardly straining my neck to look up at Luna, who was smiling down at me.

“Very close, but not quite. As I tell you every time we do math together, stop skipping steps.”

Skipping steps? I looked at the chalkboard, which I’d mostly forgotten to write anything down on. Cocking my head to the side, I added the information I’d learned from Luna about Sunset Shimmer and Celestia. I sincerely doubted that was what she had meant by skipping steps, but they were steps I had skipped.

And I still didn’t see what was wrong, even after staring at the board for who knew how long.

Luna sighed. “Twilight, you have grown up accustomed to many things most ponies can only dream of, so I can at least understand why you’re having such trouble here.”

“Hey!”

“Who was your foalsitter?”

“Cadance,” I answered indignantly. I even wrote it up on the chalkboard for emphasis.

Luna said nothing as we stared at the chalkboard. Still nestled between her hooves, I could only imagine what her face looked like. Probably something along the lines of wry amusement. It always was at times like this.

Then the realization struck me, and I felt a little sick to my stomach from the implications. I erased Cadance’s name and rewrote it as Princess Mi Amore Cadenza.

“Trixie isn’t Sunset Shimmer’s replacement. She’s mine.”

“And you were Sunset Shimmer’s replacement until your first flare.”

“I–” I was hyperventilating, and Luna wasn’t going to calm me down this time. “She abandoned me twice!” I think I deafened myself and maybe Luna, too. “And she had the nerve to tell me it was for my own safety that she tried to ruin my life. Because I wasn’t useful.”

I blew the chalkboard to pieces on pure impulse, as if doing so would…I didn’t even know. Make me feel better? Bah! Make it less true? What did I care? I already knew Celestia was horrible.

“Luna,” I growled through my stupid tears, “I’m useful, right?”

“I wouldn’t have taught you if you weren’t,” she answered, her voice so wonderfully full of concern.

“What if I lost all my magic?”

“I’d help you get it back.”

“What if I couldn’t?”

“You’d still be incredibly intelligent.”

“What if I suffered a brain injury?”

“I’d heal you.”

“What if you couldn’t?”

“You’d be dead.”

“What if – what if I was dead?”

“Twilight, I’m not omnipotent…” Whispering, Luna added, “Please don’t die.”

“Y-you’re not going anywhere, right? You won’t l-leave me alone?”

Luna didn’t answer right away, and I looked up nervously. She was biting her lip, but that was all I could see of her face.

“L-Luna?”

I felt Luna wince as her horn glowed. She still hadn’t said anything, but she put something in my mane and fussed over it with her hooves.

“Hey. What are you doing?”

“Well, you…needed some tidying up before it would stay put. My feathers are a little too big for you.”

Huh? “Um…thank you?”

“I promise I’ll give you a real one when I return to Equus, and hopefully you can give me one of yours when I do.”

Oh, now I understood. “Of course!” I replied, wiping the rest of my tears away. “Thank you for…for everything.”

I rose to my hooves, turned around, and hugged Luna, an act which she returned with her wings.

“You are more than welcome, Twilight.”

Some time later, disturbing the pure bliss and tranquility that had been lingering, I mumbled, “Hey, Luna? Do you know what Celestia wants Trix – what she wanted me to do?”

“Hmm? Oh. No, I don’t know. I dare not touch my sister’s or my niece’s dreams, and Trixie remains in the dark so far as I can tell. I do believe that once she is sure she is a substitute, her pride will force her to pursue the truth. I may get lucky and see something useful in her dreams.”

“Or,” I began, suppressing a laugh but not my smile, “maybe I’ll find out soon. I told Trixie to go pester Cadance for answers. Hopefully one of the two will be mad enough to accidentally tell me.”

A second passed in silence before Luna withdrew her wings. Tousling my mane – somehow not knocking out her feather – she said, “Why you devious little rascal.”

A knock came at my bedroom door. I probably groaned, “Come in,” but it was still too early in the afternoon for me really to know or to care. Whether I did or not, whoever was at my door entered and crossed the distance from the door to my bed.

Thump, thump, thump, came the annoying sound of hooves. I could sleep through just about anything, but that blissful state between sleep and waking didn’t benefit from that little perk. I definitely grunted as a substitute for a ‘good afternoon’ while shoving my head underneath my pillow.

“Twily, are you awake?”

“Nooooo,” I groaned.

“Ah. I see. Talking in your sleep again, are you?”

Even underneath a pillow and a few blankets, I winced when whoever it was magicked open my curtains from beside my bed. Why, oh why did ponies always feel the need to open curtains when other ponies were still in bed?

“Twily, you need to get up. Cadance is in princess mode for some reason, and she’s been sitting on the couch all morning waiting for you without saying a word.”

“Wha…princess mode…” Grunting from the exertion, I unburied myself and pried my eyes open. After I had sufficiently rubbed the rheum from them, I blinked a couple of times and saw Shining next to me. I supposed I should have known it was him from the ‘Twily’, but my brain probably couldn’t add one and one together at the moment.

“And you should clean yourself up, too. You’re quite the sight right now, and you look like you had a pretty awful nightmare.”

“Not a nightmare…” I mumbled, crawling back underneath my blankets.

“Come on, you lazy filly. Out of bed.”

I felt myself be picked up with magic, my nice, warm blankets sliding off me in the process. My legs dangled limply underneath me, and if the slight breeze wasn’t my imagination, I was probably being carried somewhere.

Suddenly, my hooves touched something freezing cold, and my eyes shot open just in time for me to see a wave of hot water oncoming.

“Shining!” I shouted from my shower, soaked and awake. “You’re not my BBBFF anymore!”

“I love you, too,” he said as the bathroom door closed.

“Humbug!” I muttered.

Well, at least the water was warm, even if it wasn’t the same comforting warmth of blankets.

So what had Shining said? Cadance was here? And something about a mode? Whatever. Cadance was here, and that was relevant, so it probably wasn’t to decorate for Hearth’s Warming. Her business must concern Trixie.

Or she came bearing gifts, but that seemed unlikely.

I spent way too long in the shower, but every minute had been filled with the dread of losing the warmth it provided. Perhaps I was old enough now that Shining wouldn’t question it if I cast a warming enchantment on myself.

I sighed. “Probably not…” Somewhere in the deepest, darkest part of my mind, I regretted destroying my suppressor, because I had no idea how much more magic I was allowed to use as I grew. Still, the act had been immensely satisfying, an ecstasy certainly worth more than the costs.

Shivering as I stepped out of the shower, I gave myself a quick drying off and brushed my mane out of my eyes. Perfect! I looked every bit like the upper class Canterlot unicorn I was.

I held my laughter in for a couple seconds before breaking down into quiet snickering. I looked like a mess.

“Never did figure out how to shower without magic. Oh well.”

Shining had left a holiday themed sweater for me, so I put it on and made my way toward the living room. On my way down the stairs, I spotted Cadance on the couch facing away from me and Shining sitting across from her. I didn’t see anypony else, oddly enough. Disregarding Mom, Dad, and Spike, we had a number of extended relatives over for a family reunion. Yawning, I asked, “Where is everypony?”

Shining was the first to respond. “They’re out for lunch and to go shopping for Hearth’s Warming dinner. Cadance was nice enough to treat them.”

“So it’s just us?” I asked pointlessly. Cadance must have sent everypony else away so she could yell at me properly. How helpful of her.

That said, it was kind of weird how Cadance twitched when I spoke. I’d dismissed the first time as her being surprised by my appearance, but the second one was odd. Then again, I had a feeling I was going to see a lot of odd behavior from Cadance this afternoon.

But before I could, there was still one mitigating factor hanging around.

“Hey, Shining, could you get me something sweet? I’m still feeling pretty tired.”

“Sure, Twi–” Shining started, getting to his hooves, but Cadance interrupted him.

“No! I mean, please stay. I need a gu – some supp – magic… Just stay, Lieutenant.”

What? I halted on the last step of the stairs. That had not been anywhere near normal for Cadance. And if I looked closely, she was trembling.

“Cadance, is something wrong?” I asked, walking around to sit next to Shining.

“N-no. I’ve just been thinking about…things. I’ve had too much time to think.”

I frowned. Something was off.

“You haven’t stayed up all night reading horror stories again, have you?” I asked.

“What do you mean by again, Twily?” Shining asked. No doubt he was hoping for information to tease Cadance with.

“I only did that twice!” Cadance shrieked.

Okay, she was probably not a changeling; that information was completely arbitrary and irrelevant to a successful cover. And as a bonus, that test had amused Shining and embarrassed Cadance. A true win-win.

“A-anyway, what did you s-say to Trixie?”

This…was not a mad Cadance. This was a scared Cadance, but scared of whom?

Me? It would make sense with the timing, but why would she be scared of me?

Celestia? She could be threatening Cadance somehow over this, and she could even be watching us right now. That wouldn’t explain why she wanted Shining to stay, though. He was useless against Celestia. He could be moral support. Maybe.

Perhaps Cadance’s fear wasn’t directly related. Something important could have been taken from her, or she could be being blackmailed.

Hmm… I needed to answer her question no matter what her problem was. Attempts to make her mad were probably going to be counterproductive right now – which was irking – but a proper reconciliation…of some sort…was out, too. I needed Cadance to be upsettable tomorrow night. Turning the responsibility for the conversation back to her could work; it was a neutral action. Especially since I didn’t know what her problem was.

“Nothing much,” I answered. “Why? Did she say something to you?”

“I – yes. She found out…t-things she’s not supposed to know. And we couldn’t figure out how. And Ce – you were brought up as a p-possib-bility. And Trixie had mentioned that she’d seen you. And you – you hate–”

“Cadance,” I interrupted. It was time to make a choice.

I could claim responsibility and try to fumble my way through this conversation blindly. That never worked when I practiced that with Luna, but Cadance was orders of magnitude less experienced at matters of subtly. On the other hoof, I had no idea what I would be claiming credit for; I could be inviting a lot of trouble onto myself.

The safe option was to just tell Cadance the truth, but I would risk her ending the conversation there…and possibly her ordering Shining to erase my memory of this event. I hadn’t learned anything useful yet so that wouldn’t be much of a loss.

Now that I thought of it, it was possible I was misinterpreting nervousness as fear considering how strongly they correlated. I could easily see Cadance reacting this strongly if she had to order my brother to erase my memory.

Okay, so quick judgment call. The dangerous option could give me some important, possibly essential, information, but it bore a nontrivial risk of being ruinous. The safe option might let me learn something useful and would cost me nothing.

Right. Safe option it was.

After an awkwardly long pause, I said, “All I said to Trixie was that you can’t keep secrets. She came to ask me about me – which is public information, even if it was kept quiet, and she has every right to know – so I told her to go pester you.”

“O-oh. I – um – thank you, Twilight. Yes, t-thank you.”

“Are you going to tell me what she found out?”

“Twily,” Shining scolded, “don’t ask for state secrets.”

“Why not?” I asked innocently. “I know plenty of other stuff already, and Cadance suggested I already know the secret.”

Shining gave me a disapproving frown and stare. I ignored him and turned to look pleadingly at Cadance.

“N-no. Sorry, Twilight. It’s secret st-stuff. And I w-will keep this one.”

Ominous. I really needed to work out some way to let myself know when I’ve had my memories erased. A thought which occurred to me only now that I was on the other side of the spell. And would soon forget. Hmm…

“A-anyway, Twilight, tomorrow’s Hearth’s Warming Eve, and there are r-romantic associations with it.”

What? That was a…sudden change in topic. Did anything seem discontinuous in my memory?

Not that I could tell. Was Cadance not interested in preserving state secrets? Or maybe she was trying to get more information out of me now and needed me to have the current context. It would certainly explain her clunky attempt at a deflection.

Cadance gulped, and that settled it. She was definitely after something. “Have you had any thoughts about w-who you might like to spend it with?”

“Cadance,” I said, halfway to a whine, “I’m not even thirteen. I don’t have anypony to spend the solstice with. Are we really going to have the same discussion as last year again?”

“O-of course, Twilight. I am the Alicorn of Love, after all.”

I think I heard Shining whisper something next to me, but I missed it while I was focusing on Cadance. It was hard to tell – her coat hid it well – but she appeared to be sweating.

That her whole body wasn’t squirming from her nerves at this point surprised me. Her princess training must have been paying off right now. Don’t let the commoners know how nervous you are and all that. Of course, it would seem Cadance had only learned enough to make it work at a distance.

“How about Twinkleshine?” Cadance suggested.

“Twinkleshine?” Shining echoed before I could make a proper reply. “Cadance, are you saying–”

“If you must know,” I interrupted, glaring at Cadance and eliciting quite the cringe from her. I didn’t really care if Shining knew I had no preference, but she had been careless and not acting mad would have been odd. I was going to avoid acting odd – beyond the normal level for me – until I knew what Cadance was fishing for lest I give something away.

I sighed. “If you must know, I’m pansexual. Yes, I’m old enough to know what that means, and yes, Cadance has known for a long time. I can’t exactly hide that from her.”

“Twilight,” Cadance hissed. Nearly instantly after, her eyes widened, and she collapsed back into her chair as if she had just given a speech in front of all of Canterlot.

“What? You gave away one of my secrets. I can at least hint at one of yours.”

Shining looked from me to Cadance. “What is she talking about?”

Letting out a ragged sigh, Cadance replied, “W-we can talk about it l-later, Shining.”

“Cady,” Shining said, his frown obvious in his tone, “are you alright? Please be honest.”

Aw, how cute. Shining had a pet name for Cadance. Maybe they’d finally make their relationship public. Or maybe they’d at least bother to tell the rest of the family, as if we didn’t know.

“Yes,” Cadance insisted, her voice at least one octave higher than normal. Neither Shining nor I were fooled. “B-besides, d-don’t you have something to say to Twilight?”

“What? Oh. Oh! Twily, I–”

I interrupted Shining with a hug. I really didn’t want the conversation to derail right now.

“It’s fine, Shining. The fact that you forgot so quickly tells me plenty. I love you, too, even if you throw me into showers to wake me up.”

It took Shining several seconds to regain his wits and to return my hug.

“I had to do it, Twily. You looked terrible.”

I released my grip and squirmed out of Shining’s. Sitting back down, I looked up at him and asked, “What do you mean?”

“You must have had a nightmare or something. Your mane and tail were a mess and your coat was tear-stained.”

My eyes widened just the tiniest bit, and I slowly, calmly turned back toward Cadance.

Jumping to conclusions was bad when the stakes were this high.

Lashing out at potential threats made them into definite threats.

The probability of Cadance having heard me mumble something troubling in my sleep was low.

Surely she was fishing for some other piece of information.

There was no way Celestia would even tell Cadance Luna’s real name.

I laughed off Shining’s comment. “I guess so, but I can never remember my dreams, so it doesn’t really matter.” Technically true. Luna overrode them with her presence.

“Twily, just because you don’t remember something doesn’t mean it can’t affect you.”

Very, very true, but in a very, very different sense. Erased memories could be some of the most important ones of your life, otherwise nopony would have bothered to remove them to begin with.

“I guess. So anyway,” I said, now fishing for information by getting Cadance to fish for information, “no, I’m not going to spend the solstice with Twinkleshine. I have more important ponies to spend it with.”

“Aw, Twily,” said Shining, scooping me up with one foreleg and giving me a soft noogie with his other forehoof. When he was done, he held me up facing him and flatly said, “But either way, you’re too young to date.”

Rolling my eyes, I said, “I know, Shining. Please give me some trust that I know what I’m doing socially.”

“Alright. So long as you understand.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I said as Shining set me back down on the couch. I was pretty sure I caught the tail end of one of Cadance’s breathing exercises, but I’d seen too little to know for sure.

“What about that mentor of yours?” Cadance asked. “I still haven’t met her, but you seem to like her a lot. Would you want to spend Hearth’s Warming Eve with her?”

I took a deep breath. It was officially conclusion jumping to time.

“Mentor? Twily, when did Mom and Dad get you a proper tutor?”

I knew what I had to do.

“They didn’t,” I answered. “She found me a few years ago.”

I could only hope Celestia wasn’t eavesdropping.

“Somepony teaching you, eh? She must be really impressive to manage that. Who is it?”

I had to make this morning not have happened.

“I’d like t-to know, too,” Cadance added.

One last deep breath. Shining first. He could run away and was easier.

I had to do this, and if I had to do it, I would make it dramatic.

“My teacher” – my horn lit up – “is Princess Luna, Alicorn of the Night.”

I turned and hit Shining with a sleep spell in full force.

His eyes were already wide, but they were even wider now. I – I saw fear in them, and I nearly teleported away from the shock.

Shining’s horn surged with magic for some combat spell, still too primitive to tell what it would do. But that was okay; he never had a chance. I felt his resistance fail as I overpowered him.

And myself.

I could feel it coming.

I didn’t have much time.

I fired off a panicked memory erasing spell on Shining. It was a sloppy job, but it shouldn’t destroy too many extra ones.

I vaporised my fake suppressor ring. As long as I got to Cadance first, I could pass this off as an accident.

A heavy thump filled the room. I turned to see Cadance tumbling on the ground behind her couch.

Earth pony strength had backfired this time, it would seem.

Cadance stared at Shining in horror. There were already tears in her eyes.

Even given the circumstances, I couldn’t help but feel hurt that she thought I would actually hurt my BBBFF.

I teleported directly in front of Cadance, burning off a tiny piece of my excess magic and buying me a precious fraction of a second.

Holding nothing back, I poured every bit of magic I had in me into a memory spell with the sheer audacity of hoping to overpower an alicorn’s magic.

Cadance was untrained.

It would work.

It had to work.

I could sense her clumsily trying to bring her magic to bear against mine.

She failed.

The battle of wills lasted less than a second, and I won.

I won!

For good measure, I blasted Cadance through a few walls with a raw burst of magic.

She was immortal; she’d get over it.

And that was the least of what she might have suffered had she been so close to me.

I tried to be more gentle with Shining, but from the sound of it, I ended up sending him crashing through the front door.

My last properly coherent thought was my hope that I hadn’t given him a real concussion.

Finally, a scant few seconds after the flare had begun, I lost control.

Chapter Nine - The Longest Night - Part Two

“Ugh…”

I felt lightheaded and sick to my stomach. There were so many spells on me that I could feel them without even trying.

“She’s waking up,” came a muffled voice. Well, the voice probably wasn’t muffled itself; my ears felt weird.

In fact, pretty much every part of me felt weird, and a lot of it felt wet. Some parts felt stiff. And there were other ponies’ magic on me, too. This all needed to be fixed.

“Stop her!”

“How?”

“Wake up Princes Mi Amore!”

Ignoring the voices, I brute force countered every spell nearby as I did every time after a flare since destroying my suppressor.

Wait, something about that sounded…

Oh no! My eyes snapped open, and I tried to jump to my hooves, but something was holding me down. “Cadance! Shining!”

Frantically examining the room, I found Cadance being awoken by a nurse. She was slumped over on an uncomfortable looking hospital bed nearby, which Shining was sleeping in.

I gave a sigh of relief and only then noticed that there were several doctors pinning me down. Before I could freak out, I noticed that I was in pretty bad shape and relaxed. With my minor adrenaline rush wearing off, I could feel every ache and pain in my body, and there were a lot.

My rear hind leg was placed in a temporary cast, as was my barrel, and most of my body was covered in bandages of varying levels of tightness from useless to suffocating.

Aaaand now I had wounds reopening. Great. I’d normally just patch myself up right away through sheer brute force, but I couldn’t with so many witnesses around that expected the doctors to do it.

Gritting my teeth, I asked, “What happened?”

Seeing that I’d settled down, the doctors released me. One said, “Please stay still.”

I nodded once and was rewarded with a skull-piercing surge of pain and a sharp look from the same doctor.

“Ehem,” he said. “You appear to have instinctively removed all of the spells affecting you at once, which has caused a number of complications. Now if you’d kindly stay put, we’ll have you back to normal just as soon as each specialist can see to you.”

Twitching as something healed on my skull, I said, “That’s not–”

“What part of stay put, don’t you understand? That includes talking.”

I closed my mouth. Taking my silence as consent, the doctor lit his horn and returned to work. Every so often, I’d start when a particularly painful wound was patched up and get a stern, annoying, and unnecessary reprimand.

Meanwhile, Cadance was waiting off to the side out of everypony’s way, awkwardly shuffling on her hooves and stealing glances at me when she probably thought I wasn’t looking.

So Cadance felt awkward around me. Was that a sign that I needed to leave post haste, or was that because of some other reason? Hmm, probably the latter. I’m positive that I made the memory spell work for at least a whole day. And I was sure she would find it hard to let Shining be in the same room as me after I’d demonstrated I was willing to use force to keep my secrets…

I sighed inwardly as a pale substitute for a real sigh; that doctor had quite the mean glare.

A few nerve wracking minutes later, I noticed Shining had awoken as well and was watching me – no, watching the doctors carefully. I took a deep breath and flushed that thought out of my mind; he was still my BBBFF. Anything else could wait.

Leaning into the bed properly, I let my body fully relax for the moment. At the very least, it seemed I wasn’t in immediate danger.

I didn’t know how long it took – it felt like hours – but the doctors finally finished with me. That one doctor, on his way out, said to Cadance, “Don’t let her move at all or talk much. She still has several broken bones, muscle damage, and injuries to a number of organs. There’s quite a line for the first two, but Twilight is next on the list for the latter.”

Okay, maybe I wouldn’t have patched myself up quite so easily. I’ve never had injures that severe before. That certainly explained why my entire body felt like it was on fire. You know, without actually being on fire.

When Cadance didn’t respond, the doctor turned to Shining and made the same request. Shining agreed as soon as he could bring himself to look away from Cadance.

Once the door closed – and presumably once that doctor was out of earshot – I asked, “What happened?”

Cadance was unresponsive, so Shining answered for her.

“Our house fell on you, Twily, and–”

Finally returning to life, if for but a moment, Cadance shot Shining a sharp glare, and he sank back into his own bed under the pressure like he was a turtle retreating into his shell.

“Ah…sorry. It’s probably better to wait until you’re better.”

Frowning, I said, “Shining, my magic is unrestricted right now, and I have a number of spells I’ve been desperate to try, including some scrying spells…”

“Twily, don’t!”

I lit up my horn, not forming a proper spell but holding just enough power to make it look like I was.

“Fine!” Shining shouted, concern and distress at war in his voice. “We’ll tell you! Just please stop.”

“Great!” I sang cheerfully, only to be reminded why I wasn’t supposed to do that. “Ugh… Remember the doctor told me not to talk much, so don’t force me to keep asking questions.”

Shining made a frustrated hum. “Do you remember what happened yesterday?”

“Yesterday? Is it Hearth’s Warming Eve?” Had I missed my date with Luna?

“As of about four hours ago, yes.”

Whew. I hadn’t even missed my normal time with Luna yet.

“But more importantly,” Shining continued, “do you remember? Cadance can’t remember anything from after autumn, and I’m missing the last couple weeks.”

Thank you very much for volunteering that information Shining. You’ve been officially upgraded from big brother best friend forever to big brother bestest friend forever.

You also had my deepest apologies for how much extra time I had taken from you. Hopefully nothing too important had happened then, but I had my doubts given the time of year and his relationship with Cadance. I silently promised I’d make this up to him when I could.

“Not really,” I answered. “I remember waking up and showering, but that’s about it.”

It was true that I seemed to be having a memory lapse myself; however, that was only a little distressing. I could recall up to the beginning of my flare, but no further. If Shining hadn’t been exaggerating, houses falling on a pony were probably prone to doing that.

“Well, we weren’t expecting anything less, really. Cadance and Princess Celestia talked, and they think you flared under extreme emotional distress, that you wanted to forget something. Was that how you put it, Cadance?”

Cadance turned to look at me for a moment before turning away. Now that I got a good look, I noticed that her face was the one that looked guilty in this room. I could only guess as to why. The most likely reasoning which occurred to me was that Cadance had relearned that she had come to yell at me about Trixie, which would make her think she was responsible for this.

Ugh. I was going to have a lot of apologies to keep track of before this was all over. Maybe I should make a list to keep – no, Twilight. Lists were bad. That way led back to checklists for checklists, back to weird obsessive compulsive habits.

“Cadance,” I said, “this wasn’t your fault. I shouldn’t have told Trixie to pester you.”

She turned to me for a moment, tears in her eyes. She winced over and over again just trying to look at me.

“Cadance,” I repeated, my voice faltering. That was as far as I got before she flew from the room, bursting through the door and not bothering to close it.

The idea of teleporting her back and telling her the truth – some of it, at least – momentarily crept into my mind, but I dismissed it just as quickly. It would just make her feel a whole new kind of terrible. And it would put a legitimate charge of treason on me.

“It’s not her fault,” I whispered. “It’s mine.”

“Twily, it’s nopony’s fault. It was an accident.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but no words came out. Instead, I said, “Please continue what you were saying, Shining.”

“Right… Well, anyway, what happened is the house fell on you. The random effects of your flare are probably what – what saved you, but not before you saved my life and…prevented complications for Cadance.”

“I – what? That’s not – you wouldn’t–”

Interrupting me on the verge of tears, Shining said, “Numerous eyewitnesses reported Cadance being thrown far from our home. The same was true for me, but with…less gusto. Thanks for remembering I’m not immortal, Twily.”

Powering through my body’s objections, I managed to turn my head to get a full and proper view of Shining. His face held such genuine gratitude in his smile while he lay suffering slash recovering from who knew what. I – I couldn’t deal with this right now.

I turned my head away from Shining – thoroughly ignoring his protests for me to stop moving – so I could cry in peace.

“What else did I do, Shining?” I asked, my tone just barely below accusatory.

“What else happened, but not what you did, was…well…unfortunate. You know how Canterlot is built on top of the Canterhorn, right?”

Oh no…

“Well, a few of the main supports were damaged, and part of the city…fell.”

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Hastily, Shining added, “But it took a while. The Royal Guard was able to evacuate everypony in time. With some help from the pegasi caught up in the accident. There were…injuries, but nopony died.”

‘There’s quite a line for the first two.’ Those words echoed in my mind. Just how many ponies had I hurt today? How many families had I almost broken? How many friends had I almost torn apart forever?

I wanted to curl up into a little ball and to pretend none of this had happened, but that wasn’t a possibility, not for a number of reasons.

Hesitantly, I asked the question I dreaded the answer to. The only thing that would distract me right now. “How did I escape?”

I knew how. There was only one pony on Equus besides myself who could pull me out of a pile of wreckage while I was flaring in a disaster area. And based on my memory loss, I was unconscious at the time.

“Princess Celestia saved you.”

Nooooo…

“I’m still impressed with how quickly she responded; she must have teleported in as soon as she heard the first ‘crack of doom’, or so the ponies are calling it already. A good thing, too. Canterlot would’ve been in deep trouble if anymore damage to the foundation had occurred before she took you away.”

Aha! Proving that you’d earned that upgrade to bestest already, Shining! Celestia was just saving her capital.

Of course that was what she was doing.

And Luna had said she wouldn’t just kill a foal. Even if it would’ve looked like an accident. It would have been, too. I would’ve gone down with the rest of Canterlot and would’ve been buried there, and it would’ve been nopony’s fault but my own.

No. Just, no. I – this was too much right now.

“Shining, could – could you put me to sleep?”

No answer came for a while, but it wasn’t long before the sweet embrace of sleep took hold of me.

I lay curled in a tight ball, shivering and stroking my tail. If I dropped it, it would need to be wrung out.

I’d tried removing my ears, but it hadn’t helped. Nothing helped. The voices came all the same. There were so many. They never stopped.

“You destroyed our lives.”

“Where will we go now?”

“My mother nearly died.”

“You owe me your life.”

“We have no hearth to warm anymore.”

“You took our homes.”

“Why couldn’t you be normal?”

“Daddy? Daddy? Daddy!”

“Thank you for saving us.”

“Traitor! Treason!”

“How did this happen?”

“You.”

“It’s my fault.”

“Why don’t you just go live on the moon?”

“Her? She’s ancient!”

“Why did I ever love you?”

“She deserves nothing less than execution!”

“Don’t look at her, Dear.”

“Best laid plans, Twilight…”

“Dear Celestia, no!”

“Honey? Honey, where are you?”

“No! Please, no!”

“You’re useless.”

“Enough.”

The chatter of voices died off with a scream: of pain or terror, I couldn’t tell. Maybe it was both. Maybe it was neither. It didn’t matter.

Black wings and black hooves enveloped me and held me tight. I – I made an absolute mess of their owner.

Luna said nothing.

I said nothing.

As I awoke, I couldn’t help but notice everything felt nicer. The world, that was. I felt horrible in every sense of the word, but with a huge emphasis on physically right now.

But the world, it felt soft like the moon – er, like Luna. Awkward. The moon wasn’t soft. But the moon was Luna’s, and Luna was soft, and – and I wasn’t making sense anymore, not even to myself.

I knew I was not an afternoon pony, but this was a rather different kind of mental haze.

“You do not have to tell her, but you do have to talk to her.”

That sounded a lot like Celestia. That…did not bode well.

“I – I know. But I broke my promise. Twice.”

And that sounded like–

“Cadance?” I moaned, sitting up. I froze and opened my eyes when I properly remembered the condition I’d been in when I’d gone to sleep.

Cadance and Celestia were both in front of me at the base of my bed. It would seem I’d been moved to a new room without Shining. This looked much more like a proper bedroom than a hospital room. The simple fact that I was in a four-poster bed was enough to jump to that conclusion, but the rest of the room radiated the same vibe.

Far more importantly, my injuries had been healed while I’d slept. I still felt awfully sore – which I attributed to muscle pain and the aftereffects of healing magic – but this was a major improvement.

“G-good afternoon, Twilight,” Cadance said. She was nowhere near as nervous or scared as before, but she still refused to meet my eyes. “How are you feeling?”

“I–” My eyes flashed toward Celestia for the briefest of moments, an act which I was pretty sure did not pass unnoticed. “Pretty terrible. But great.”

At the very least, I was all cried out. My face felt soaked, so I gently removed the sweat, tears, mucus, and whatever else that was there with the fine telekinetic precision I had developed so long ago. Cadance looked half-terrified and half-guilty while watching me, and Celestia…had that same stupid smile she always wore.

If the background pain were good for anything, it was for dulling my sense of panic, or urgency, or danger, or – or something. Whatever. I was feeling a little loopy right now, but I had most of my cognitive facilities – faculties working.

I sent the slimy, green ball in my magic flying into a trash can and asked, “How is everypony? Is Shining okay?”

Cadance frowned for just an instant before pulling herself into an obviously strained smile. “He’s fine. He just got hurt a little more than you did. He’ll be up in time for Hearth’s Warming. Your parents are with him right now during…”

Fantastic. I hurt Shining badly enough that the doctors were having difficulty fixing him. That’s just what I needed to make everything better.

“If you are wondering where Spike is,” Celestia continued, picking up the conversation with a decent distraction, “he is sleeping right here” – she gestured directly in front of my bed – “on a number of stolen pillows. Would you like me to wake him?”

“No, I–” I sighed. “I want to know what you’re going to do with me.”

“Do?”

Interrupting Celestia, Cadance rattled off, “It wasn’t your fault!” like it was a litany. Maybe everypony thought if they said it enough, it’d become the truth.

“Yes it was. Let’s just get this over with; I don’t want any nasty surprises waiting for me.”

Cadance looked away from me so quickly, I momentarily thought she’d snap her neck. Was Shining really in such a bad state? He sounded fine earlier.

“Twilight,” she half-whispered, “it really is my fault. I’m so, so sorry. I don’t know what I was thinking… Literally…”

“Whatever,” I huffed. If Cadance was going to be stubborn right now, she could be stubborn.

“Please, please don’t blame yourself, Twilight,” Cadance begged – begged – looking straight at me again. “Please.”

“O-okay,” I stammered. Why was Cadance acting like this? She seemed desperate for…something. Approval? Forgiveness? Neither of those made any sense. There was no way she could reasonably take this much blame upon herself for yelling at me about Trixie.

But then again, the result was…disastrous. Maybe those weren’t so far-fetched of a hypothesis.

Celestia put a hoof on Cadance’s withers, causing her to jump in surprise.

“Cadance, go to Lieutenant Armor. You are not ready for this.”

Rising to argue, Cadance wilted under Celestia’s gaze. Trudging – it was definitely a trudge – she left the room, silently closing the door behind her.

Leaving me alone with Celestia.

“Twilight Sparkle,” Celestia began. Her smile hadn’t faltered in slightest, but her tone was stiff and all business underneath that pretense of concern. I – I could deal with business right now. “I shall answer your questions honestly if you but do the same for mine. If this is not agreeable to you, I shall take my leave and send your family to you.”

It was my turn to wilt under Celestia’s gaze. Could I say no here? What would Celestia take that to mean?

“I promise,” I replied a little too abruptly, barely managing to keep myself from stammering. I was absolutely certain that my panic was showing through on my face, too.

This was going to be a second disaster worse – no…not worse than the first.

“Very well,” said Celestia. I braced for the worst. “When, and how, did you learn dark magic?”

That – that wasn’t the worst question Celestia could’ve asked, but it was pretty darn close.

“W-what do you mean?” I couldn’t believe I held back a gulp. Not that what I had said had been convincing. Even Spike would call me on it.

“Goodbye, Twilight Sparkle.” Celestia turned to leave.

“Wait,” I squeaked. Celestia stopped and turned her head back. “P-Ponyville. About a year ago. By experiment. It’s…efficient and efficacious.” Celestia turned fully back, and I sighed inwardly. “H-how did you know?”

“Traces of dark magic appeared in your medical examination. That type of magical residue is built up slowly over time rather than from a single burst of wild magic.”

“I – I see… Do anypo – does anypony else know?”

Celestia shook her head. “Just the nurse and doctor who performed the initial tests, and they did not realise what they were looking at. You are walking a dangerous path, Twilight Sparkle, and I would see you leave it behind. There is a reason nopony uses dark magic anymore.”

Of course there was; you scoured every collection of books for the subject and removed them.

I turned my head away, and when it was clear I wasn’t going to say anything, Celestia sighed.

“I shall ask your brother to observe you while he is in recovery. We can continue this particular discussion afterward.”

Recovery? That – “What happened to Shining?”

Celestia paused. She’d lost her smile. Her mouth made tiny movements as she mulled over how to respond.

“Let me be perfectly clear. You saved your brother’s life.”

From myself.

“However, during the…descent, he was gravely injured, as were many others. It shall take some number of seasons and dedicated care, but he will regain his rear leg.”

My eyes widened, and I dry heaved. Apparently, I had nothing in my stomach to give up…

“I – I need a drink.” So I could cry again. I couldn’t – no, I could believe I hadn’t noticed earlier.

A glass of water appeared in front of me, and I gratefully accepted it without question or comment.

In between refills – I hadn’t realized how thirsty I was until I started drinking – I asked, “How?”

“Lieutenant Armor was unconscious in an area that was falling apart quite near your home. A large chunk of rubble fell on him. If it makes you feel better, he does not remember any of it.”

No, no it did not make me feel any better.

After my third glass, while I was guzzling down a fourth, Celestia asked, “How much do you know about my sister?”

I did a spit-take, much to my regret. Now I was wet and in deep water.

Okay, okay. If I just calmed down, I could get through this. For some reason, Celestia knew I knew about Luna. No, not ‘some reason’, she’d read me the book that had told me about the elements, and it’d explicitly described the two of them as sisters. Obviously I knew about Luna in the narrative sense.

And Celestia knew I was smart. She knew I would’ve understood the connection, if perhaps not right away. She was just probing to find out how much else I hypothetically had managed to pull from semi-historical texts. If I just made a small concession of information, Celestia might lose interest and continue to leave me alone.

“E-enough to know her real name.” I silently cursed myself for the stammer. It hadn’t been intentional, although it probably helped me seem less threatening.

One of Celestia’s eyebrows rose just the slightest bit before she brought it back down. “I see. And how much did you tell Trixie?”

“Wha – nothing! I didn’t tell Trixie anything. Just that Cadance was – is bad at keeping secrets when she’s alone.”

“Is that all?”

“Yes! Well, I also told her she could visit Spike when I was in town and that she could ask the castle staff for answers, but that’s it. Honest!”

“Then what about…” A frown overtook Celestia, and she changed her question. “Do you remember me?”

What? Of course I did. It was kind of hard to forget the pony you hated most in the world. Not that I understood the point of the question. Well, unless she was hoping that I’d forgotten all about everything she’d not done for me for some reason.

A knock came at the door.

Celestia let out a little breath of air which I took as a sigh. “Nevermind. It’s too late to matter. Come in!”

The door opened to reveal a nurse holding a clipboard in her green magic. When she looked up from it and saw the princess, her magic flickered, and she nearly dropped her notes.

“Ah! G-good afternoon, Princess Celestia.”

“Good afternoon, Nurse Redcross. Do you require something?”

“Uh, yes, I think. This is Twilight Sparkle’s room, correct?”

Celestia gestured toward me with her head.

“Ah, good. I’ve been authorized to share some information with her that she would probably like to hear. But if this is a bad time, I can come back later.”

“No, it is quite fine,” Celestia said. “I need to check up on my niece, anyway.” Turning back to me one last time before leaving, she sent the strangest look my way. I really had no idea what it meant, but I didn’t want it to continue. Finally, there was a singular sense of solemnity as she said “Farewell, Twilight Sparkle,” and departed.

Nurse Redcross and I watched Celestia leave, and as soon as the door closed, I breathed a sigh of relief. That could have gone better, but it also could have been much, much worse.

Chuckling, Nurse Redcross said, “The princess can be quite intimidating at times, can’t she?”

“You have no idea.”

Her horn glowing a little brighter, Nurse Redcross looked down at her clipboard. “Anyway, are you aware of your brother’s condition?” I nodded. “Well then, we have good news for you. He’s expected to make a full recovery sometime shortly after the fall equinox.”

Nurse Redcross’s magic dimmed again, and she smiled. And then slapped me across the face with her clipboard hard enough that I felt a tooth loosening.

“You unbelievable moron! What part of ‘get Mi Amore drunk enough on the solstice and goad her into doing something so horrendously stupid, she’d never want to talk to me again’ sounds like ‘destroy half of Canterlot’ to you? What part of ‘I won’t get in the way of the plan’ did you not understand?

“It was so simple! Her biology won’t let her lose her memory from alcohol poisoning, so we create a scene she would legitimately regret forever to the point that she believably might even remove the love between you two immediately afterward just to bear it. Was that too complex for your insect-sized brain to comprehend?”

Rubbing my muzzle, I asked, “Queen Chrysalis?”

“Of course not. I’m just some other incredibly talented mistress of intrigue that just turned your absolute disaster into a pure, undiluted magnum opus of espionage. When we next meet, you are going to get on your knees, kiss my hooves, and thank me for salvaging this train wreck of a plot you call a scheme.

“Argh! Do you understand how hard it is for my changelings to infiltrate the medical profession? Do you understand how hard it is for my changelings to infiltrate Canterlot Castle? Do you understand how hard it is for my changelings to do both at the same time? Right under the nose of Celestia? They worked their chitin off for this, and you are going to personally thank each and every one of them before we leave on your little trip in space.

“Understood?”

My jaw hung loose.

“I said, understood?”

Barely out of my stupefaction, I nodded. It was a tiny but definite act.

“Good. Now listen for once in your life so you don’t buck this up. Your replacement, my dear little heir, Pupa, volunteered to take on the same spells and injuries that were afflicting you to make this work. You are going to love her, feed her, and make her fat yourself for the rest of her life, or so help me, I’ll kill you myself.”

“Y-yes, o-o-of c-course.”

“That wasn’t a request, so shut up and listen. We swapped you and her just long enough to feed Mi Amore misinformation about your condition and for her to ‘correct’ it. Now guess who has to learn to love her mother all over again? Can’t figure it out? It’s Pupa.”

Nurse Redcross slapped me even harder than last time for Queen Chrysalis. I took the blow without complaint, but I did rotate with it to avoid losing any teeth. That would be hard to explain. And really, the blows were more sort of a dull throb above the rest of my aches than anything else, which was probably not a good sign.

As for Pupa. Wow. Just – wow. I’d never met her, but at this point, I really wanted to.

And Cadance’s behavior made a lot more sense now. I completely understood why she’d blame herself for everything if that’s what she thought had happened. I could easily see her thinking I’d flip out and flare if she took my love…and hate, and everything in-between and stirred it all up until it became unrecognizable.

It was possible that I might have, too, if I were in that situation. There was no telling how I’d react to that kind of stress. I wonder how Pupa–

“Pupa’s in her room right now, crying her heart out. Not from the pain. Oh no. She’s crying because she can’t figure out if she regrets her decision because she can only remember who she was and why she made it to begin with.”

This time Nurse Redcross took a swipe at my horn. I grit my teeth just in time to suppress a scream. That I could still feel in full force.

At least my question had been answered.

“She now looks approximately exactly like you to Mi Amore, who took it upon herself to ‘fix’ everything that had gone wrong. My daughter now has a venomous hatred of Celestia and an outrageous love for Luna.”

That – that would be the expected outcome. I hadn’t spent enough time with Spike to properly sympathize, but I understood Queen Chrysalis’s loss a little bit.

“You owe us everything that goes right in your life from now on, and when it comes time to return the favor, you are going to return it tenfold!”

“I – of course I–”

After snorting, Nurse Redcross continued, “I’m done here. If you mess this up, I’m finished with you. I’ll sell you and Luna out and get my daughter back, regardless of her wishes.”

Her wishes? Was that a Twilight-ified Pupa who loved Luna talking, or was the normal one really willing to take all that upon herself?

For me? For Luna? No. No that felt utterly wrong.

For the hive? Did she really think Luna and I could do that much for her? For them? That’s…

I – I silently promised myself not to let her down. Not that I’d planned to let anypony down before, but…but I–

I called upon Cadance’s royal breathing exercises. It was strange how the deep breaths and the cold burning from stretching my muscles were actually calming instead of…literally anything else.

Meanwhile, Nurse Redcross had fallen silent and hadn’t moved an inch. Almost as if she were expecting some–

“Thank you,” I said. “Thank you so much for what you’ve done…”

“Chzix,” Nurse Redcross said. Okay, I had no idea how to go about pronouncing that, even having heard it, but I tried my best.

“Thank you, Chzix. What can I do to make this up to you?”

Chzix’s horn glowed, and I felt…strange. Not bad, per se, but definitely strange.

“I’ll just take your gratitude for now, Twilight Sparkle. However, Princess Pupa is well-loved within the hive; prepare yourself for some changelings who will be less…reasonable.”

I could understand that completely if what she had done for them today – or was it yesterday? – if what Pupa had sacrificed were her normal behavior.

“I…thank you. Just thank you.”

Faintly smiling, Chzix said, “You are welcome. Please do not make me regret that.”

I stumbled into Shining’s hospital room; I’d underestimated how many injuries I still possessed when I’d snuck out of mine. Still, my magic didn’t falter, so Spike remained undisturbed in his nap. That was something.

And the pain was also a great distraction from all of the problems that I’d caused. It was hard to think properly when you were interrupted every few seconds by a feeling equivalent to being struck by lightning when you had the pure hubris to bend a leg the wrong way or when you had the audacity to twitch an ear.

Dad was missing – I’d probably missed him coming to my room – but Mom, Shining, and Cadance were all here and crowded around Shining’s bed.

Wow, my thoughts just really jumped there, hadn’t they? Horseapples.

Anyway, Shining was, naturally, the first to respond. Nothing ever slowed him down, it seemed, not even losing a leg. No wonder he was a lieutenant already. It seemed like only yesterday he was just a wee little cadet.

“Twily!” he shouted, the distress in his voice obvious. He unnecessarily supported me with his magic. It was a nice gesture, at least.

Okay, I probably needed it, but I needed the distraction of walking through fire more.

I set Spike down and looked between the three other ponies in the room. Which part of my mess did I have to address first? Who had it the worst?

Cadance still wouldn’t look at me. I sighed. She was as good a place to start as any.

Hobbling across the room, shrugging off Shining’s magic trying to pick me up, and ignoring Mom’s attempt to help me physically, I made my way to Cadance. She backed away from me as I approached and made me walk further. I just grinned and bore it. I deserved the extra distance and the effort that came with it.

Once I had Cadance backed into a corner, she tried to take flight. Before she could, I summoned a short burst of energy to jump on her in a hug.

“Cadance,” I said, hoping to finish before she decided to throw me off and flee, “Celestia didn’t tell me, but I figured out what happened. It’s not your fault; I’m sure I was being mean given the context. Either way, even though there’s nothing to forgive, you have my forgiveness all the same. And my apologies.”

Some large amount of time passed as Cadance trembled in my hooves. I really wished I had more to say, but that was about as much as I had planned out. I would’ve polished that teeny, tiny speech into something decent, but I was working with limited mental resources, and I had three other ponies to deal with.

“How?” Cadance whispered.

“How can I forgive you?” I finished. It wasn’t hard to guess what Cadance had wanted to say. At least I could do that much for her. “Because I love you. Even if I didn’t feel it, I’d still know I love you.”

I couldn’t help myself from realizing that I had evidence proving I was right. Pupa wouldn’t be having such a hard time right now if it – if I weren’t right.

“I’m a logical pony, remember? I listen to my brain more than my heart, and that’s where my memories are.”

Cadance fell to her haunches and into quiet sobs. It made it all the easier to give her a proper hug.

Eventually, Shining disturbed our moment by asking, “Twily, Cady, what are you talking about?”

“It’s complicated filly stuff,” I answered for the both of us. I smiled at the weak laugh I got from Cadance. “You wouldn’t understand, Shining.”

Well, that was one pony down. It hadn’t made me feel any less guilty, but Cadance looked better. A little bit. Okay, at least she was looking at me so I could tell she didn’t look any better. That was all that mattered.

I turned toward Mom next. She should be fairly quick to deal with. She met me barely one step into my journey to her, scooping me up into a light hug as if she were afraid I would break, which I was willing to admit might be possible a outcome of a real hug at the moment.

Returning the affection, I whispered, “I’m okay, Mom. But you see why I absolutely have to?” I left the last word unsaid; we both knew what it was. “I’m unstable and dangerous to everypony like this.”

Mom didn’t say a word, which I took as acceptance – hopefully. Either way, neither she nor Dad had done anything silly like tell Celestia about Luna in a panic. I knew I couldn’t ask much more from them right now.

“Do you think you could find Dad before he raises a panic when he finds Spike and me missing?” No response. “Mom?”

“Shh…”

Mom kept the hug up for a very awkward, very uncomfortable length of time, but I didn’t say anything. I…might have needed the support myself, if I were being honest.

After breaking apart and kissing my forehead, Mom said, “Right now, I’m just glad everypony is alive. I’ll go find your father.”

I shivered as Mom left. She’d really driven home that I’d nearly died. That…wasn’t something I wanted to think about right now. If I just made it a paltry few more years, I’d only ever have to worry about philosophical deaths.

Last, but far from least, I turned to my BBBFF. “Shining, I–”

“Twily, I don’t know how many times we’re going to have to tell you this, but it’s not your fault.”

At least once more forever, Shining, because it was my fault.

“I can do without a leg for the better part of a year. You know how good I am with magic. I’ll be just fine. Besides, it’s a paid vacation, since I was technically injured in the line of duty. Nothing better, right?”

Making a weird face that might have been a frown, but also possibly a smile, Shining added, “And Cadance has…er…volunteered” – Cadance gave a single dry laugh – “volunteered to help nurse me back to health, so we’ll all get to spend more time together.”

Maybe for a few weeks…but how wonderful it would have been. I unfortunately had a tight schedule to keep, and I’d be leaving Pupa in my place more often than not until I left.

“That reminds me,” I began. I certainly wasn’t embarrassed or feeling guilty about this, but I couldn’t imagine Shining or Cadance taking this well. “Celestia…found out about…something, and she’s going to order you” – I pointed to Shining – “to keep an eye on me.”

“What?” Cadance and Shining chorused. After an awkward look at each other, Shining continued, “What are you talking about, Twily?”

“Would you two please promise not to freak out in advance?”

Shining frowned but gave his word. Cadance, on the other hoof, looked all too eager to agree. I didn’t know how I felt about that. It was…good that she was being amiable, but this semi-desperation to earn my forgiveness could – would make things even worse between us when Cadance found out I was Luna’s apprentice.

I was so tempted to say oh well and take it as punishment, but I knew Luna would tell me I was being stupid. I had made a mistake – a big one – but I’d also learned…was in the process of learning from that mistake. Punishments were there to make ponies learn from their mistakes when they wouldn’t themselves.

Still, I didn’t know what I could do short of telling her the truth to get Cadance to stop. Well, I’d figure it out later.

“So you two both know I’ve been studying magic, right?”

I got a sad smile from Cadance and an eye-roll from Shining.

“Yes, well, anyway, I’ve been dabbling in pretty much every branch of magic, because it’s, you know, my special talent.”

“Twily, you can skip all this.”

I sighed. “Okay. Just, you two have no idea what it’s like to live with so little magic. I found a branch that’s…very efficient in how much magic it consumes.”

“Twily, please get on with it.”

“Fine.” Abandoning all sense of grace – or poise, or…something – I said, “I’ve been studying dark magic.”

Silence fell. For Cadance’s part, her face was frozen with her jaw dropped. Shining…not so much.

“Pfft. Heh. Oh, good one, Twily. And here you had us all worried. Imagine you learning dark magic. Oh wow. That’s just what I needed right now. Thanks.”

With an exasperated sigh and an eye-roll of my own, I brought forth my inner darkness. “Slap yourself.”

The sound of a slap echoed throughout the room. Afterward, Shining mumbled, “Ow,” while rubbing his cheek.

“Twilight…why?”

“I already told you why. And you promised not to freak out.”

“I don’t understand,” Cadance began, “do you really…”

Hate Celestia enough to use it to fuel dark magic? Most other negative emotions worked well enough, too, but I knew what Cadance meant. “Yes, Cadance. But it gets easier over time. It…takes less. Just more control.”

“Would you two please stop doing the cryptic conversation stuff?” Shining asked. “I’d like to think my opinion on this matters.”

Taking a deep breath and preparing for the worst, I said, “Shining, I don’t really know how to put this nicely, so I’ll just put it bluntly. It doesn’t. I know far more about the field than you – that is to say anything at all – and uninformed opinions are worse than useless.”

“Twily, just listen to yourself.”

I facehoofed. The pain was worth the gesture. I knew he was injured, and I really didn’t want to stress him like this, but this kind of stuff really bothered me.

“Shining, do I really need to remind you of every other time you’ve said that to me?”

“No,” he grumbled. “But this is–”

“Exactly the same as every other time I’ve been right. Look, you haven’t said that to me since before I started…dabbling. Compare my behavior between then and now. Is it really that different?”

Shining opened his mouth in the right shape to say no, but the word never passed his lips. I probably should’ve turned off the dark fire flaring from the corners of my eyes, but I was trying to make a point.

“No,” Cadance answered for him, “but if we’re going to address your flaws, you could work on your sharp tongue and tendency toward condescension.”

I turned toward Cadance. “Those…aren’t the first ones I’d address, but duly noted.”

A knock came at the door, and Mom and Dad entered without waiting for permission. Dad made a beeline to me and absorbed me into the same awkwardly long hug Mom had given me.

“Did you two know Twily has been practicing dark magic?” Shining asked.

I couldn’t see his face – I was buried in blue fur – but his tone was accusatory. I really wanted to say something, but I was sure Shining was smart enough to realize the problem with my testimony. And maybe he’d figure out why asking Mom and Dad was also pointless.

“Aah,” Mom and Dad said together, equally flatly.

“Twilight asked us not to say anything,” said Dad.

“Asked,” Shining began, “or commanded?”

Well, he was halfway there to realizing why asking them was pointless.

Both of them half-shouted, “Asked,” together.

“How do you know that? What if she’s made you say–”

Cadance put a hoof on his wither, and they shared a short look of some significance. Well, at least he realized that if he was suspicious to begin with, asking anypony he was suspicious of being under my control to some degree was pointless. Hopefully.

“I’m sorry, Twily.”

Squirming my head out of Dad’s grasp, I looked to Shining, genuinely smiling. “It’s okay. It’s not everyday your little sister tells you she’s a dark mage. In addition to every other type of mage, of course.”

“Yeah… The only thing stranger would be if Princess Celestia came in and said she knew how to use dark magic.”

Cadance coughed. “That would be strange.”

Wow, not very subtle Cadance. But it was very good to know for sure that Celestia could cast dark magic, too, not that it was very surprising.

Sigh. I really should help Cadance out before anypony else noticed that she had just validated the joke.

“Shining, you still want to learn how to detect dark magic, right?” I asked. His face said everything I needed to know. “It’s okay. I don’t blame you. I did totally abuse it for an extra dessert once.”

“Hey!” Mom said. “Are you talking about that time you ate a whole–”

“Ehem. And you could get yourself a niche specialty in the field in the guard. I don’t think anypony else really bothers learning anything about dark magic anymore – defensive or otherwise.”

Shining chuckled. “Twily, I know you’re an academic, but we don’t need niche specialties in the royal guard.”

“Ugh! I know! You’re wasting your resources by having everypony learn everything.”

Seriously. Besides the automatic…niche-ifying…that occurred with ponies’ special talents, it was just plain impossible to learn everything about everything. Even an alicorn would have trouble. It probably wasn’t even possible anymore, given the rate new information was generated now compared to, say, when Equestria was first founded.

“Coming from you,” Cadance said, “that’s not a very convincing argument.”

Now that was hitting below the dock. And ad…uh…homi – homm – homini…whatever wasn’t even a valid argument. Oh well, I’d just let Cadance have this victory. She desperately needed the win to ‘even out’ the score.

Heh. Even out. Please.

Even as I thought that, another thought came to mind, something I remembered I needed to ask about.

“Hey, Cadance? Remember how I said that this was my fault and not yours?”

Hesitantly, Cadance replied, “Yeeeees…”

“What did Shining really mean when he said you volunteered to help him?”

Chapter Ten - The Longest Night - Part Three

This time there was no dream waiting for me. The moment before, I’d been awake, and the next, I was asleep but conscious. That only ever happened when Luna was waiting for me to fall asleep. She usually just checked every once in a while.

Luna was probably just eager to talk, but I’d take it as a Hearth’s Warming present nonetheless. My subconscious wouldn’t have a chance to torment me this time.

“Twilight,” Luna said. I turned toward her voice and saw her walking and fading into view. “Are you ready to talk about what happened?”

“I am.” There was no point in putting this off, and I really did need somepony I could really talk to, somepony I could tell the entire truth to.

“Good. First, let me state the obvious so you won’t run your head in circles like you usually do.”

How rude…but true.

“I am not going to abandon you over this. I still care for you as I always have. That said, there are a lot of ponies rather upset with, and I quote, my baby pet monster. Telling them that I don’t know what happened hasn’t exactly helped matters. I didn’t want to do this to you tonight, but–”

“It’s okay, Luna.” It really was. That she still both wanted to and could spend the solstice with me was plenty already, even if we had to fill some or all of it with business.

“Have you talked with any of the changelings yet?” I asked.

Luna made a face like I’d just forced her to eat festering hay. “No, and I do not care to ever visit another one of their dreams ever again. The hive mind – let’s just say that their dreamscapes are distasteful and leave it at that. One star.”

I cocked my head to the side. “How many stars is that out of? One? Two?”

“As many stars as there are in the sky, Twilight. And that one star is Saiph, the star I put in the wrong place and forgot to fix.”

Luna had managed to keep a straight face throughout her answer and for a short time after. I had not. The way she had managed to say that as if she were explaining the simplest thing in the world to me was just so – so – Equestrian lacked the perfect word. Comedy magic could approximate it, perhaps.

Recovering much quicker, Luna said, “Anyway, I’ve managed to piece together a general idea of what happened–”

Well duh. Even if I wasn’t quite…all there at the time, Luna had just spent a morning comforting me. That sort of implied she knew something of the events.

“–and I have several guesses, but I would like to hear the full story from you directly. We can discuss what you did wrong while we go, too.”

I gave Luna a faint smile in thanks. Finally, a pony who would tell me to my face that this was my fault without…verbal or physical assault. I’d managed to run into a few changelings vacating the castle while on a food run who had been less understanding than Chzix.

Although, Queen Chrysalis at least, I couldn’t blame at all for getting emotional.

“Where do you want me to start?”

“At the beginning.” What an unhelpful answer. When I opened my mouth, Luna added, “Whatever you think is the beginning.”

Nodding, I took a deep breath and began the story. “So going over what you already know quickly, Queen Chrysalis and I had our plan to get Cadance – what’s the term – wasted at my family’s Hearth’s Warming Eve party.

“We were going to…you know…wreck my friendship with her. We just had to get her mad and drunk, which isn’t that hard during those kinds of parties when you’re trying. Cadance wouldn’t have been able to put herself in the same room as me – or my replacement – for years.”

On a less professional note, I was glad we didn’t have to do that anymore. Disregarding the other problems I’d caused, Cadance had a completely different kind of guilt, which while no easier on her, at least left us as friends. She’d even have the chance to move past it while I was gone with Pupa being able to spend time with her.

It was possible we might not even have to tell her the truth ever. Well maybe not ever ever, since eternity, but it was possible I might not have to tell her I’d ever left for a long time.

No, on second thought…just no. That wouldn’t work out. Ignoring the promises I’d made to Queen Chrysalis to get Cadance to help them prosper – even Cadance could put two and two together given enough time and information as she’d demonstrated yesterday – Pupa deserved the recognition.

“Twilight,” Luna called, bringing me out of my thoughts. “Do try not to get absorbed in your thoughts while you’re telling a story.”

“Ah, sorry.”

Smiling, Luna said, “It’s fine. You have more than enough talents at your age. We can work on bard, skald, jester–”

“I get the point,” I interrupted, much to Luna’s apparent amusement. “Anyway, I tried getting a head start using Trixie–”

“Which was a good idea,” Luna interjected. “Do not let the results tell you otherwise.”

“Right, well, apparently Cadance and Celestia identified me as a suspect for giving Trixie information. And I still don’t know exactly what she found out.”

Luna added, “Neither do I.”

“So Cadance came over to have a discussion about it with me and caught me after or during my…episode concerning Sunset Shimmer.”

Holding up a hoof, Luna took a minute or two to think about something. Perhaps she was updating her guesses on what happened. Eventually, she merely said, “Continue.”

I sighed. “The exact details are lost to time. I don’t know if it was bad timing, or if Cadance was shocked by my appearance and couldn’t figure out what to do, or if she was deciding whether or not to wake me up, or whatever, but she must have overheard me mumble something important.

“When I did wake up, her behavior was obviously off. It took me a while to figure out why, but as soon as I was sure, I…flew into a panic. The flare was an accident, even if it was a predictable one. I tried to make the best of the situation and erased their memories.”

Uttering what could only be described as a long-suffering sigh, Luna asked, “Did you bother to find out if either of them had sent a message to my sister?”

“I…” I buried my face in my hooves. “No. I didn’t. I don’t think she did–”

Interrupting, Luna said without hesitation, “She did. The probability she didn’t is astronomically low.”

“But Celestia didn’t–”

Luna gave me a glare that said, ‘Stop being stupid.’

Had I admitted to more than I thought when I spoke with Celestia? But she hadn’t thrown me into the dungeon, and she had saved me instead of just throwing me off the Canterhorn.

No, no. Celestia didn’t kill foals.

But she had assigned Shining as my parole officer. She’d worded it nicely enough, but that described the situation perfectly. And Cadance would be spending a lot of time around me – well, Pupa – too.

But if Celestia already knew about me, then Pupa’s sacrifice was pointless. She’d just go retrieve the elements immediately and never let them out of her sight.

“Luna, have we lost?”

“No, Twilight.” Luna was obviously losing her patience with me. “Try again.”

That – something I believed was wrong. Luna asserted that Cadance had sent the message, so that wasn’t it. I didn’t see how we could possibly win if Celestia knew about our connection, so that couldn’t be it either. The only fact stringing them together was–

I facehoofed. “I think I owe Queen Chrysalis too much.”

“Yes, you do. Be sure to thank her for intercepting that message for us.”

She didn’t say them, but the two worst words in Equestrian were hanging in the air: I’m disappointed.

“I, uh…anyway,” I said, not really caring how gracefully I moved the conversation on so long as it moved on, “after that–”

“We’re not done yet, Twilight. What did you plan to do after you erased their memories?”

“I – I don’t know,” I mumbled, unable to look Luna in the eye.

“What was that?”

“I don’t know! I wasn’t thinking! But I would’ve had hours to come up with something.”

“You would’ve had hours,” Luna repeated. “Did you take that into account at the time, or are you just justifying your actions now in hindsight?”

Huh? What did that matter? “I…probably knew it at the time – perhaps in the background of my other thoughts. I was pretty distracted.”

Luna sighed, and I took a quick glance at her out of the corner of my eye. She caught me looking and gave me a small smile.

“Why don’t we declare your decision to immediately pounce neutral for now. If you really did think at least a little bit ahead, that is.”

“R-really? It wasn’t stupid?”

“Oh, no. It was stupid, but it was understandably stupid. However, you didn’t hesitate to do what you had to when your hoof was forced. That’s something, at least.”

Ugh. Way to build my hopes up and knock them down. Understandably stupid was still stupid, regardless of whatever virtue it had incidentally displayed.

“What should I have done?” I asked. More of my disappointment in myself leaked out than I’d expected, and Luna’s smile faded with it.

“I suppose I’ll have to ask for your forgiveness here, Twilight.”

What? What, what, what?

“You absorb theory and learn so quickly that I’ve forgotten how much you need raw experience. All the knowledge in the world won’t help you if you don’t know how to apply it.”

Oh. This was an ‘I’m over a hundred times older than you’ kind of thing.

Luna was completely right, though; I needed more hooves-on application slash practical experience. I’ve been improvising well, but now that she’d pointed it out, it was obvious that was really the only thing I knew how to do when I didn’t have hours or days to plan things out.

“I’ll take a week or two to revise your lesson plan accordingly so we can instill some decent instincts in you,” Luna continued, “but for now, why not ask yourself why you didn’t utilize a place you specifically built to flare in.”

Stars above, I was an idiot.

I had an entire cave system below Canterlot that I knew how to teleport into, a cave system which Shining and Cadance had no idea how to leave. I would’ve had all the time in the world to deal with them. I might’ve even been able to avoid flaring, although it wouldn’t really have mattered down there if I did.

Even if I didn’t have the crystal mine available, I could have teleported the three of us literally anywhere else in the world. Shining might have been able to counter my teleports after the first half-dozen or so, but he probably would’ve been too surprised to do it. And by then, I would’ve had them at the base of the Canterhorn where I could also work in peace.

Ugh, I was so stupid. I could have avoided…avoided destroying a large chunk of Canterlot if I had just stopped to think. Thinking was supposed to be what I did best!

A hoof rubbing my mane broke me out of my thoughts.

“Try not to blame yourself too much, Twilight. It’s unhealthy, and you’re learning.”

Sighing, I took a moment to lean into the affection. I really didn’t deserve it, but it was an irresistible siren call.

“We can move on now, Twilight. What happened next?”

“Well, I was unconscious for a while, so I’m working from the…emotionally charged version of events that I got from Queen Chrysalis. Everypony else’s story supported hers, though. Cadance in particular–”

“Twilight, while I am thrilled you have taken the time to cite sources and to analyze their biases, that will only distract you from the goal of this retelling. Please skip it.”

“Fine,” I grumbled. “My flare destroyed my house and… Horseapples! I never closed off the tunnel from my house to the mines. If anypony finds it–” I looked up at Luna, who looked unconcerned. “It’s…buried in rubble, isn’t it?”

“Probably. If not, it would be a very small hole set in a rugged mountainside that somepony important who had nothing better to do would have to notice. I wouldn’t imagine there are a large number of such ponies.”

“Right… Sorry for overreacting. Would you remind me to deal with that after I escape the castle?”

Luna shrugged that special way that said, ‘Sure, why not?’

Now that I’d noticed one of them, I knew I needed to spend a few hours thinking over all the little problems. I didn’t know how closely Celestia would be keeping her eye on me, but I couldn’t afford to leave any small clues lying around in the aftermath of the disaster.

Speaking of which, it was a good thing I didn’t have anything irreplaceable – like Luna’s research books – in my house yesterday. I doubted anything would’ve survived the fall.

“Thanks, Luna. So anyway, my house…fell on me. Obviously, I survived.”

Hmm… Luna had explicitly asked me not to die the morning before. What irony. I couldn’t help wondering what her initial reaction to this was. Disappointment? Concern?

I didn’t know which I’d prefer. Disappointment sort of implied she believed in me enough to naturally think I couldn’t have died, but it was still disappointment.

Well, whatever it was, Luna didn’t seem interested in sharing anything beyond a frown.

Skipping over how I survived, I said, “My flare apparently hit some of the main supporting structures of Canterlot. I made a quick trip to the archives, and…well, I kind of have a hard time believing something like this hasn’t happened before. I know it’s still my fault, and I don’t know what I would’ve done if anypony had actually” – I gulped – “died…but Canterlot isn’t very difficult to destroy. Not even the parts that rest directly on the cliff face.”

“And what would you recommend, Twilight?”

In no uncertain terms, I said, “Move the capital.”

Luna smiled. “That’s great to hear. I feared you might protest on sentimental grounds.”

“What? You are planning to move it? Where to? Certainly not back to the old castle, right?”

Waving her hoof dismissively, Luna said, “No, no. The old castle is finished. That is something my sister and I are in full agreement on. Rather, a few decades ago, a delightful little town named Hollow Shades was founded, and I quite fancy the atmosphere.”

Hollow Shades? I’d never heard of… Wait, wasn’t that the place in that forest? “Did it just recently get a connection to the Equestrian Railway?”

“Indeed. It’s west of Manehattan in the…” Luna’s eyes lit up in recognition, and she giggled for a moment. “Wow, I can’t believe I never made the connection.”

Oh, great. Here it came.

“I suppose I’ve just demonstrated that even I can miss things once in a while.”

Ugh! Just get on with it!

“Anyway, it’s west of Manehattan in the” – Luna snickered – “Twilight Forest.”

“Ugggggh! Not you, too. Please.”

“Oh?” Luna said, eyebrow raised. “While I would love to hear the story behind your distress, we should return to our primary topic.”

I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. “Where were we?”

“You were casually destroying Canterlot.”

Oh. Right. That. I blushed and turned away. “So…I ended up in the castle hospital with Cadance and Shining. Cadance recovered quickly. Shining…didn’t. There were a lot of other ponies injured, too. Shining said nopony died, but…but I really hope he wasn’t lying to me. He didn’t look like it, but he’d tell me the same thing whether or no–”

“Twilight. Facts. Chronological order.”

“Sorry, I just–” Falling to my haunch, I continued, “Nevermind. Just before Cadance got back on her hooves, Queen Chrysalis swapped Pupa and me. From my understanding of it, she told Cadance whatever the doctors would have told her and that ‘I’ was suffering from some other magical problem they couldn’t quite identify.”

“Which my niece,” Luna interjected, “interpreted as you having none of the emotional bonds she expected to find. Very clever. Please pass on my compliments. I assume she did not take it well.”

Sighing, I half-whispered, “The words distraught and hysterical came up when I talked to Squama – the changeling who actually made the swaps.”

“That’s not surprising. She is young for a pony and even younger for an alicorn.” After humming to herself, Luna continued, “I believe I can make a comparison you could fully appreciate.

“Post-ascension, I have no doubt you’ll be able to ‘see’ the magic in ponies. Suppose you ran into a pony who had no magic. Not suppressed, but simply not present.”

I shivered, knowing more or less that what Luna was going to say next would be horrifying. Not that having zero magic wasn’t already a horrifying thought.

“Now imagine you were the one that caused that…wrongness in the pony. That you had reached inside them, had torn their magic to shreds, and had simply erased it. That they’d lost something that you’d come to view as a core, defining part of what it means to be a pony. Something which a pony cannot be without and which cannot be without a pony. And you couldn’t even remember why you had done it. To a loved one, no less.”

Wow…

Wow.

That was such a different way of looking at it. I’d been thinking of Cadance’s powers in moral and existential terms. The way Luna presented them, it sounded like Cadance believed she had…what? Killed me and brought me back? It wasn’t a perfect comparison, but it was close. To Cadance, I was Twilight iff I had Twilight’s emotional attachments.

What was I supposed to do with that? Just how traumatized was Cadance over this? Over something she hadn’t even done?

Very, obviously. I’d seen just how horribly lost she’d been – and still was – firsthoof.

“Luna…” The question died on my lips.

“Yes, Twilight?”

I dared to look Luna in her eyes and ended up trapped. They said so much for her. I had to ask the question.

“Are we – are we bad ponies?”

Luna sighed.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “This isn’t how I wanted to spend the solstice with you.”

“I know, Twilight. But we can still have fun after we finish this. To answer your question, disregarding recent events, do you believe we are evil or in the wrong?”

“No.” That much I was sure of. I’d had to perform some somewhat morally questionable acts, but I hadn’t had much of a choice, considering how much time was at my disposal. And nopony ever got hurt. And ultimately, I’d even helped a bunch of ponies, too!

“Good. Now I assume you’ve played chess before–”

“No. Chess is stupid. It’s all about who can memorize the most board positions.”

Luna suppressed a laugh and said, “Oh dear, somepony here is a sore loser, I believe.”

“It’s true!” Luna did not appear convinced. Sighing, I conceded, “I know how to play the game.”

“Then you know what a forced move is, correct?”

I nodded. I probably knew where Luna was going with this, but I wasn’t sure how to feel about it as an argument.

“The thing about forced moves, Twilight, is that you have to make them if you want to keep playing. You made some mistakes today which led us into a few forced moves, and we chose to continue the game. Think of it this way: if we did not, you would be dead right now.”

“But you said Celestia–”

“Yes, but you would be out of the game and stuck mortal. I won’t go so far as to say mortals are all already dead – something doesn’t have to last forever to have meaning – but you would die. Or do you believe my sister would ever agree to let you ascend?”

That was a simple question that needed no answer.

“Better to let your dear foalsitter have a finite depression – no matter how long – than for you to give up eternity. She will forgive and forget eventually, and she will be ecstatic that you are with her when she does.”

Something about that sounded – eyes widening, I asked “Does that mean you will – eventually – forgive–”

Luna’s scowl could’ve curdled milk.

“Yes, Twilight. You will, too. But the keyword is eventually.” With a snort of pure anger – or perhaps pure frustration – Luna readopted a smile. It was a small thing, but it was a smile. “Would you mind if we moved on?”

“No, that’s – that’s fine. So Cadance did her thing, and now Pupa is a perfect substitute for me.” And was going through an identity crisis. “After that, Pupa and I were swapped back.

“Next, I think Cadance and Celestia shared information with each other. Or maybe it was before. I don’t know for sure, and it didn’t seem important enough to ask about. I slept for a while, woke up, talked about what happened a bit, and then went back to sleep. Nothing important, really.”

Now, had anything important happened between then and when I next woke up?

Hmm… Not that I knew of. That may have been when Cadance ‘volunteered’ to help Shining recover, but that would be better discussed when I found out, rather than when it occurred.

“I next woke up to Cadance and Celestia.”

“Just to be clear,” Luna began, “you mean they were in the room together with you?”

I nodded, although I didn’t really get why that mattered.

“Please keep that to an absolute minimum. Pass that advice on to Pupa as well.”

“Um…sorry if this is a stupid question, but why?”

“I’m unsure of the exact details of how my niece interacts with her domain, but the more often you are in the same room as my sister, the more likely she will be to notice that you know me on a very personal level.”

“Oh,” I said flatly. “Yes, I’ll do that. That sounds very important.”

“It is. You might be able to pass it off as pining for somepony to defeat my sister for you–”

Especially if only gullible old Cadance were involved.

“–but that is, of course, a last resort.”

No doubt. Cadance was gullible, but even she was only willing to believe so much. Although it was a great desperation plan. There were plenty of stories of ponies falling in love with perfect, idealized versions of other ponies they’d built up in their imagination. It was hard to believe, but not impossible.

The worst part was I wasn’t even sure if it was easier or more difficult to believe that of somepony like myself. I did tend to get caught up in my imagination. Oh well.

“I’ll tell Pupa that, too,” I said. “But after I woke up, Cadance left the room posthaste. Once she was gone, the interrogation began. Celestia had found out I’ve been using dark magic from my medical examination. I guess Queen Chrysalis either didn’t know about it, had an incomplete examination to tell Cadance, was pressed for time–”

Seeing Luna’s recently very familiar ‘get on with it’ face, I said, “Ehem. Queen Chrysalis didn’t manage to intercept that information for me. That questioning ended with Shining – and Cadance to some degree – becoming my parole officer. More or less. With the promise of some future conversation after Shining heals…

“I don’t envy Pupa my life.”

Ignoring the snickering, I continued, “After that, and in the context of Trixie, Celestia asked me how much I knew about…you.”

After a terrible silence, one far longer than Luna had ever stopped to think before, she finally said, “Interesting…”

“You’re not mad?”

“I am annoyed that my sister was reminded that you know about me. You will need to be careful to see that she isn’t spying on you in the coming weeks before you depart Equus. Still, that, at least, is not your fault. Rather, I’m far more interested in what exactly Trixie knows.”

“If anything anymore,” I commented.

It wasn’t beyond the realm of possibility that Celestia would let Trixie stay in the know, but it seemed unlikely. She probably only let me go free because she’d have to erase over a year of my memory, and because Cadance certainly wouldn’t be happy about that.

“Quite,” Luna mumbled. “But if she does know part of my sister’s plans now, we have quite an opportunity laid before us.”

“I’ll get right on it!”

After all, Trixie was in the castle. I was in the castle. Why, it would be simply improbable if we didn’t bump into each other and have a heart-to-heart conversation after everything that had happened. Unbelievable even.

So long as Celestia hadn’t told Trixie to stay away from me, that was. That could prove problematic, although I could claim ignorance of such a command.

“And by right on it, I meant after I wake up.”

Nodding, Luna asked, “So was that everything important?”

“Except for one thing, yes. At some point, Cadance decided to take the entire blame upon herself, which I understand why more now. She’s effectively being sent back to – well, she never actually attended it before, being a former pegasus and all. She’s basically being sent to magic kindergarten. Among other things.”

“Oh my,” Luna said, eyes wide. “And at her age. How embarrassing.”

“I know, right?” It was my fault, but I still couldn’t help but laugh. “It sounds like a nightmare.”

Luna dramatically looked from side to side and sidled up to me. “I heard her parents were neglectful,” she whispered.

I gasped. “No way! You’re saying–”

“They never taught her unicorn magic.”

“Oh, the scandal! What kind of world do we live in these days where fillies are so uneducated?”

“A truly terrible one. Why if I didn’t know better, I’d think you’d never had the chance to learn how to preen.”

Oh, stars. That had certainly been one of our more intimate moments. Luna had caught me in the midst of a dream about flying, and one thing had led to another. Preening had turned out to be a really personal act.

Chuckling at my embarrassment, Luna said, “Well, it is true that she needs to learn more non-pegasus, non-alicorn magic.”

“It must be pretty embarrassing being a goddess without knowing how to smite ponies,” I said, recovering enough to keep the joke going.

“Not that somepony of her temperament has much smiting to get in.”

“To be fair, she’s known to make ponies smitten on occasion.”

“I thought the only pony she’d smote was herself with your brother.”

“Hey! That conjugation doesn’t work!”

“Oh? I say it does.”

“Does not!”

“And just who is the authority figure here?”

I suppressed a laugh as I watched Luna fall to the ground, now filly-sized and looking absolutely ridiculous.

“I believe that would be me,” I answered. “It is my dream, after all.”

Luna rose to her hooves with a grunt. “I think you’re looking to be smote yourself.”

“Maaaaaybe, but” – I teleported directly in front of Luna and bopped her on the nose – “you’ll have to catch me first. You’re it.”

Jumping into the air, I materialized a pair of wings for myself and flew off.

After a few seconds, I turned my head back to see how closely Luna was following; she was by far my senior in flying. I slowed down when I found her missing. And then grunted when I bumped into her.

“You’re it,” Luna said, her voice barely recognizable as a filly. She promptly disappeared in a flash of magic.

“Wha…” It took a half-second for what had happened to click in my mind. “Lunaaaaa! Teleporting is cheating!”

I heard a giggle from…nowhere. Or maybe it was everywhere. “Apparently not. It is your dream, after all.”

Rolling my eyes, I changed my dream’s logic to disallow unicorn magic. It only took me a second to spot Luna flailing around above me and to my right. It would seem I’d just knocked her out of an interesting spell that I’d have to ask about later.

I dashed toward her before she could recover.

And ran into a dark gray storm cloud.

As I coughed up water and struggled out of the cloud, Luna bucked it back out of existence, thus sending me tumbling downward, still soaked.

“You’ve got a lot to learn about pegasus magic, Twilight.”

I spread my wings and pulled out of a nosedive with more stress than I would’ve liked. My wings probably weren’t big enough for the really crazy tricks, but that meant Luna’s weren’t either. Then again, she had infinitely more experience than me.

This might be difficult.

Luna wasn’t even bothering to fly anymore as I pursued her. Instead, she hopped from cloud to cloud, each one forming at her hooves at the base of her jump. It was definitely slower than flying.

“And more maneuverable,” I grumbled as I flew right past Luna. She had simply stopped fleeing and, very casually, had sidestepped me, evading my outstretched hoof by the tiniest distance.

I turned back around and found Luna lazing around on a particularly large cloud, feigning disinterest. I made a beeline toward her, but kept my speed slow enough so I’d be able to make a sharp turn this time.

And as I suspected, when I got close enough, Luna let herself fall into the cloud. The last time she had disappeared, it had been to my right, so I gambled on her doing that again and veered right and down. A moment later, I got lucky and ran straight into Luna. Well, maybe it was a bit unlucky; we bumped heads and wings, which sent us spinning off through the air in a tangled mess.

We landed on a cloud – Luna must have made it – and tumbled head over tail once or twice.

Dazed, I mumbled, “You’re it.”

A hoof gently nudged me; Luna had recovered annoyingly quickly.

“You’re it.”

I lifted my head to find Luna. She wasn’t very far away. I could probably reach out and touch her, although she’d likely just dodge. Collapsing back onto the cloud, my breathing ragged, I said, “You win.”

“Ah ha! And with that I score a double victory!”

“‘Had smote’ is still incorrect.”

Tickling me with her wings, Luna asked, “What was that?”

“‘H-had s-smote’ is s-still wr-wr–”

I lost it as Luna redoubled her efforts to tickle me into submission. And it worked.

“I give! I give!”

As I struggled to catch my breath, Luna said, “As it should be! Try again in a couple centuries, and maybe you’ll have a chance.”

“Well, sorry,” I said, rolling my eyes. “I didn’t – didn’t know you spent so much time practicing tag.”

Luna smirked and stretched out her wings again menacingly.

“Wait, wait! I’m sorry! Just let me – let me catch my breath first.”

Giggling herself, Luna said, “Very well. I shall grant you your reprieve.” Sighing, she continued, “Oh, how long has it been since I last played tag? I must have been less than two centuries old. That was so long ago. Perhaps we should make something of a tradition of the game in place of the Summer Sun Festival.”

Sitting up – just barely – I asked, “How so? Alicorns against Equestria?”

“Or maybe Equestria against Alicorns. It’d be a lot fairer for us if we didn’t have to hunt down every last Equestrian to win.”

“But it’s not really fair to them if we just make a one AU jump off-planet.”

“Well, perhaps we could have some sort of strange abstract concept thing that limits what actions are available to us. But what ever could we possibly call that mysterious phenomenon of self-restriction?”

“Blegh,” I said, collapsing again. I was done with that conversation.

“Still, you surprised me, Twilight. I didn’t know you had such an energetic side to you.”

“I guess.” It’d just felt like it’d be fun. And it had been. Maybe I was subconsciously just trying to forget my problems and move on for the moment, but whatever. I was in too good of a mood to wax melancholic right now.

“But I don’t think I’d make this an everyday kind of thing. Sparring is already more than enough exercise for me, even if it’s all just in my mind.”

“Oh, Twilight,” Luna said. “You’re so lazy.”

“Humph! I prefer the term ‘sedentary’.”

“Heh. I don’t believe that’s any more flattering a word.”

“Wanna bet?” I asked, instantly regretting my words. I’d just invited round two upon myself.

Luna flew past me, tagging me with her hoof.

“You’re it.”

Chapter Eleven - The Longest Night - Part Four

Yet again, I stepped aside as a doctor barreled past me through the castle hallways. This was, unfortunately, an alarmingly frequent occurrence as I wandered about, looking for wherever Trixie had disappeared to.

As I explored, it because increasingly clear that the entire castle had been converted into a hospital – excepting the archives, kitchen, and dining hall – and that there were thousands of ponies who had lost everything. Cadance had told me that the crown would reimburse everypony, but a stack of bits wouldn’t be a good replacement for home.

Paradoxically, it seemed that the ponies not caught up in the disaster were alternately ecstatic about the sudden rise in property values – from the increased scarcity – and worried that public perception of danger might cause them to crash.

“Ponies,” I mumbled.

Feeling a pair of eyes on me, I turned around quickly, nearly throwing Spike off my back. Nopony was there, but Spike was giggling from the brief excitement. Maybe I was just being paranoid, but I would swear somepony had been watching me for at least a half-hour now. It could be one of Celestia’s goons, but it didn’t feel like that kind of stalking.

Sighing, I directed my gaze out a window as I walked by. The sky was practically littered with pegasi working round-the-clock to bring summer to Canterlot. As much as ponies emotionally needed a regular Hearth’s Warming right now, Canterlot as a whole needed warm temperatures more with the mass influx of homeless ponies.

I paused a moment to watch one strange pegasus flitter about, leaving a rainbow colored contrail in its wake. It was a vaguely entertaining singular spectacle. Luna was right, as always; I had a lot to learn about pegasus magic. The Wonderbolts did their little lightning cloud thing, but I’d had no clue pegasi could trail rainbows.

Oh well. There’d be time for that in the future; I’d have to be at least passingly familiar with pegasus magic to ascend.

A few minutes later, that feeling of being watched resurfaced. It was time to consider my options.

I could simply scry behind me. If there was anypony there, I’d be able to find them without any problem. Unless they were warded. If they were, it’d have to be a changeling or one of Celestia’s spies. I could live with the former seeing me use complex magic, but not the latter.

Sure, I could always erase a memory, but so long as Celestia wasn’t a gibbering idiot – which she wasn’t – she’d check for memory loss when her spy reported back.

Ugh. I couldn’t take the risk.

On the other hoof, maybe I could make this work to my advantage. If I were watched while talking to Trixie, I could potentially make it seem like I knew less than I did. Then again, if this persisted beyond my stay in Canterlot Castle, I’d need to deal with my stalker on a more permanent basis.

I heard a clatter behind me. It could have been some of the other many ponies walking past bumping into each other, or something, but I hadn’t seen anypony carrying anything that would make such a racket. It had to be the stalker, then, and clearly it was probably not a professional.

Spinning around, I found a butterscotch colored pegasus mare buried under a small pile of medical…stuff.

“Hello?” I hazarded.

No response. Whoever this was, she didn’t seem interested in talking. Or meeting my eyes. Or looking at anything, really; she had her wings and forehooves covering her face.

This was like Twinkleshine all over again, but multiplied a hundred times over. Did I want to deal with this? No, not at all. Did I have time to deal with this? Nope. Could I resist my curiosity? Unfortunately, also no.

Using my magic, I quickly stacked the spilled implements off to the side. “Hello,” I repeated, hoping to get any kind of response out of the pegasus.

There was none; however, when Spike echoed my greeting, the pegasus’s head snapped up. I took a half-step back, and her head moved with me – no, with Spike. Her eyes were focused on him; it was as if I weren’t even here.

“Oh my. You can talk already? But you’re so young. My name’s Fluttershy. What’s yours?”

And like that, I had lost interest. Still, at least this Fluttershy was interested in Spike the dragon instead of the dragon, Spike. Hopefully she wouldn’t tell me to put him on a leash, send him away, or otherwise treat him as a feral animal.

Even if he did bite in his sleep.

“Spike!” Spike answered.

“Hello?” I said yet again, once more getting no response.

Completely ignoring me, Fluttershy asked, “How old are you, Spike?”

After some embarrassingly long time – not fair, Twilight, he was one, maybe two, in pony years – Spike replied, “Four!”

Sighing, I turned so that Spike was completely out of Fluttershy’s line of sight and tried one last time. If this didn’t work, I was just going to walk away.

“Hello, Fluttershy,” I said. “What do you want?”

Fluttershy moved backward in a flurry of wings and hooves, crashing into the wall and getting a few scowls from ponies she had nearly bumped into.

“H-h-hi,” she replied, barely audible over the noise of the hallway. Rolling my eyes, I cast a quick spell to improve my hearing. I’d like to amend my previous statement. This was nothing like Twinkleshine; she had at least talked to ponies before I got her to open up.

Smiling this time, I asked, “You didn’t get hurt when you fell, did you?”

“No,” she whispered.

“That’s good. Would you like to play with Spike some more?”

In what was definitely not a whisper, Fluttershy said, “More than anything.” Blushing and turning away, she added, “If – if you don’t mind, that is.”

“It’s fine with me. Spike, would you like to play with Fluttershy?”

Happy giggling meant yes. Then the only question was should I ditch Spike now or tell Fluttershy to come back later? I was kind of hoping to use him as a buffer between Trixie and myself, but I would only be fooling myself if I said I expected that to help.

I should probably just let Spike have his fun. But then again, Fluttershy was probably in the midst of…

Ha! No. I had felt somepony – probably Fluttershy the whole time – watching me for a good while now; whatever purpose Fluttershy had for those miscellaneous medical supplies was likely over and done with long ago. Nothing in the pile looked terribly important, so hopefully she hadn’t caused anypony any real trouble.

Speaking of which, was there really such a labor shortage that random civilians were being recruited? Fluttershy looked about the same age as Pinkie Pie – maybe older – but I couldn’t see her as a doctor or nurse at her age, her temperament ignored.

“Well, Fluttershy, if you want, I can leave you and Spike with my parents. I have somepony I have to find right now.”

“Oh, yes. That would be wonderful.”

“Alright, follow me, then.” As we walked, I asked, “So, do you live” – maybe lived, now – “in Canterlot? Fluttershy?” I turned my head back and found Spike and Fluttershy making faces at each other.

Sighing, I slowed my pace to bring myself abreast of Fluttershy. I wasn’t sure if I should be surprised that she didn’t notice.

“Fluttershy,” I tried again. This time I got a response.

“Oh, um, I’m terribly sorry. Did you say something?”

My eye not so much as twitching, I said, “I just asked if you were from Canterlot or not.”

“Oh. Oh, no. I live in Cloudsdale with my family right now.”

“Right now?”

“I, uh, didn’t mean right now, right now” – facing forward away from Fluttershy, I rolled my eyes for good measure – “but I usually do, for, um, for now. Not that they’re pressuring me to move out; they’re such nice ponies to have raised me and everything, and I wish I could’ve been a pony they could be proud of.” Whispering lower than normal hearing could pick up, she added, “I’m only graduating this spring.”

Oh, goody. I’d gotten myself involved with an idiot.

Sigh. That wasn’t fair. For all I knew, Fluttershy had gone through some horrible illness which magic couldn’t cure or something. She certainly fit the part: lanky, apparently behind in her education, shy as if she had spent a lot of time alone in a hospital, et cetera.

“So what brings you to Canterlot?” I couldn’t imagine somepony as shy as Fluttershy voluntarily rushing here to help ponies, but apparently dragons were a-okay. Not that there were any other dragons in Equestria outside of the migration routes.

“I’m here to help…” Fluttershy’s eyes widened. It was sort of impressive that it took her this long to realize she’d abandoned her post, whatever it was. “Oh dear, oh dear. I’m supposed to be helping my dad.”

Her dad, eh? Odd. Considering she lived in Cloudsdale, he was probably a pegasus.

Then again, pegasus doctors weren’t unheard of, but medicine was a pretty heavily unicorn dominated field for good reason. Zebras were, of course, second in number with their potions, but even they accounted for at most ten percent.

In the end, the probability of him being a unicorn given doctor and Cloudsdale was probably higher than him being a pegasus.

Shaking my head free of that triviality, I said, “You’re free to go back to what you were doing, if you wish.”

“Oh, but I – well, maybe – I should, but – but Spike, and…oh dear. I’m so sorry. Could I – could I come back later?”

So much for letting Spike have his fun right away.

“That’s fine. Just ask the guards to direct you to Twilight Sparkle. They all know me.”

Ear twitching, I giggled like a madmare to myself. Finally, finally, I had found Trixie. I’d had to tear apart practically the entire castle to do it, but here she was in a secluded corner of the archives of all places. This was almost literally the last place I’d expected to find her.

Okay, Twilight, pull yourself together. It wasn’t like Trixie had intentionally forced me to walk the entire castle from top to bottom and get lost a dozen times in the castle’s foul geometry that didn’t obey the rules. Deep breaths, Twilight. Deep breaths. In, and out.

Right then. Spike still on my back, I made my approach.

“Hello again, Trixie.”

Trixie’s head shot up from the table, her face the perfect picture of shock and…guilt? What?

“I – uh – hello, Twilight. Hey, Spike.” Trixie smiled, her previous mood all but forgotten. There was still the tiniest downward curve at the ends of her mouth, but nothing more. At this point, I made sure I wasn’t in a dream.

Spike, completely oblivious, hopped off my back and ran over to Trixie. Now that I got a better look at her as she hugged Spike, her eyes were well-past bloodshot. That was something she couldn’t hide. Not without magic, at least, and she hadn’t used any.

A sad Trixie, now that made sense. I didn’t exactly take the revelation that I was a replacement well, and I didn’t even like Celestia. Trixie probably took it much worse, assuming Luna’s and my guesses were right.

But I knew Trixie felt guilty. Her eyes had widened for an instant after the initial surprise had worn off; she refused to meet my eyes, even as she looked at me; and if I hadn’t misheard, she’d aborted a soft gasp when I’d first spoken.

The only thing I could think of for Trixie to feel guilty about was being my replacement, but that was almost an incomprehensible idea to me. I would probably feel a little guilty if I had taken somepony’s place – if I weren’t the better choice – but I would mostly be absorbed in my own sense of inadequacy.

And Trixie, I knew how ponies like her worked; it had been one of Luna’s classic examples. Trixie craved attention. She would push herself to be the best and pretend she was, even if she weren’t. She should be very upset with me, or at the very least, she should be trying to prove herself the better pony, even if she didn’t consciously realize that was what she was doing.

Something wasn’t adding up.

“Trixie, would you be willing to talk?”

“Of – of course. Trixie is always willing to talk to intelligent ponies.”

Oddly enough, I couldn’t tell if Trixie’s heart was in her words. The flattery aside – which weakly implied she had learned a great deal about me in addition to whatever else – it sounded as if she weren’t sure if she wanted to talk to me or not. Not that I would accept no as an answer.

“Thank you,” I said, seating myself directly across from Trixie. “Given…the given, I take it you learned what you wanted to know?”

“I… Yes. I did.”

I waited, hoping Trixie would say something without prompting, but it seemed she had fallen into her own little world. It sounded like she still had her memories – whatever they consisted of – but I wasn’t sure yet. Still, I did have to stop myself from leaning forward in anticipation.

And either way, Spike was the one to move the conversation along, literally shaking Trixie out of her rumination.

“I–” Trixie shouted. She calmed herself down quickly enough, but she had briefly shown me that guilty face again. “What is it, Spike?”

“Don’t be sad,” he said, hugging her.

On a completely unrelated note, Spike was adorable. He was high-maintenance, troublesome, and expensive to feed – usually – but adopting him was definitely the right choice. Even now, he managed to bring an inappropriate smile to my face.

“Trixie is not sad,” asserted Trixie.

I raised an eyebrow suggestively. Luna had said a raised eyebrow could say more than most speeches, and I was inclined to agree.

Still refusing to meet my gaze, Trixie asked, “What did you want to talk about, Twilight?”

“I was hoping you’d tell me what you found out.”

“I… I’m not supposed to talk about it. Sorry.”

I sighed dramatically. “That’s troubling, because I don’t know how much you know.”

Trixie finally looked me in the eye.

“But you know I at least know there’s a secret,” I continued, “and I know you at least know there’s a secret. That’s really all that matters. We are, after all, intelligent ponies. I was hoping we might share information with each other. And keep the exchange secret, if we can. Cadance and Celestia were not happy when they thought I’d fed you information.”

Holding my gaze for some time, Trixie finally asked, “Why?”

I said with my best wistful smile, “Would it make sense to you if I said I wanted closure?” Trixie nodded. “Great. I’ve found my own little slice of happiness, and I want to put the past behind me, starting with learning exactly what it is I’ve lost.”

It wasn’t a lie. I did want to ‘put the past behind me’. The only catch was the process of doing so ended rather unpleasantly for Celestia.

“I – I’m not supposed to,” Trixie mumbled. I briefly considered the possibility of her being under a geas but discarded the idea when she continued. “Do you… How should I put it? Do you know what’s wrong with the royal family?”

“It’s missing an alicorn,” I answered immediately. “Do you know her name?”

Head cocked to the side, Trixie said, “Nightmare Moon. But…”

I smiled. It appeared Trixie was smart after all, or at least smart enough to sniff out hidden meanings in questions. “Her real name is Luna.”

Nodding, Trixie asked, “What does S.S. stand for?”

“Sunset Shimmer. Do you know what a Flare is?”

“Yes,” Trixie answered, looking away from me completely. Not even bothering to phrase it cryptically, she asked, “Do you know about the Elements of Harmony?”

“I do. I think we both have enough base knowledge to talk freely. Do you agree?”

“Yes, I – oh. What about Spike?”

Both of us looked over to him. He had gotten bored and had taken to playing with books as if they were building blocks.

“He’s young.” It was answer enough for both of us as we turned back to each other.

“So,” Trixie began, “you said Nightmare Moon’s real name is Luna?”

I sighed inwardly. Apparently I would be giving information first. How irritating.

“Luna is the Alicorn of the Night. I could tell you about the histories I’ve uncovered, but I honestly don’t think you’d find them all that interesting.”

“Agreed.”

“There’s really not much more to say other than that she’s Celestia’s little sister.”

Both points were only technically true.

The first was true because no matter how much Trixie disliked Celestia right now – if at all – deep down I had little doubt she still loved her mentor. There was practically nothing relevant I could say about Luna that wouldn’t make Celestia look bad.

The second was true in a chronological sense only. In terms of conscious hours, however, Luna was much older than Celestia; Luna was always conscious.

“Although, I suppose it also bears mentioning that Luna was never a monster and never ate foals.”

“Of course not. Trixie is not a fool. That whole cannibalism shtick is obviously just an old mares’ tale.” Sighing, Trixie asked, “Do you hate Princess Celestia?”

Choosing my words carefully, I said, “I have little reason to love her, unlike you.”

“You’re right,” Trixie said, a frown winning out over a smile on her face. “I can’t bring myself to so much as dislike her, even if she wouldn’t have given me the time of day back when we were eight if she didn’t need me to use the elements for her.”

Oh, how I wanted to pounce on that admission and to drag every last piece of information Trixie had screaming out of her immediately, but that just wouldn’t do. It would never do again. This time I would think before I acted.

Celestia needed Trixie to use the elements. Why? Did that mean Celestia was unable to use them, or was it just more convenient to have Trixie wield them? Honestly, from the information she had, Celestia didn’t even need the elements to win. She had Cadance on her side, after all. She only needed them to banish Luna for another thousand years.

Trixie could be a reserve plan on the extremely unlikely chance Celestia didn’t plan to banish Luna again, but I couldn’t think of any reason why she would trouble herself with subduing Luna another way when the elements worked so well.

So the main plan had to be Trixie banishing Luna. That was an incomprehensible decision if Celestia could wield them herself. Trixie was so weak and fragile in comparison to her. It would be so easy to simply kill Trixie, but there wouldn’t be much of a point with our plans. Not that Luna or I would stoop to that; we weren’t Celestia. Even if we found another artifact for me to ascend off of, I’d still try to hunt down the elements first.

But even Cadance would have to be a better choice. Yeah, she was bad at magic, but surely in the approximately two decades she will have been an alicorn, she could learn to wield the elements.

It wasn’t as if Luna and I had never considered the possibility of Trixie wielding the elements before, but the idea was just so confusing. And when something was confusing, as Luna had told me time and time again, it usually meant something else I believed was wrong.

The simple answer was Celestia had lied to Trixie. However, that didn’t seem consistent with the other facts, particularly the fact that Trixie was Celestia’s apprentice at all. Celestia could still have lied, but why would she? She could easily have come up with something more believable if she had some reason to lie to Trixie.

What if she had lied to get Trixie to feed me false information? Would that imply she knew I was Luna’s apprentice? Probably, but then why wouldn’t she just deal with me directly? To make Luna overconfident? Was Celestia that twisty?

No. No, that was ridiculous. That was the kind of gambit you ran when you were bored, desperate, or insane – usually in conjunction with dozens of other ones. The former was possible, but not probable, of Celestia, and the middle was simply not the case for her. The latter wasn’t something I had any evidence for, so I had no reason to believe it.

Was Trixie lying to me? Not unless she was a Luna-class actor. As far as I could tell, she’d only spoken the truth. I didn’t see any reason for her not to, either.

“Twilight,” Trixie said, poking me with her magic. “Are you alright?”

Horseapples. “Oh…um…yeah. Sorry.” I really needed to learn how to think and talk at the same time.

“No, I’m sorry. I should have put that better. But as you put it, that’s what you lost: the chance to fight an insane goddess with Equestria at stake.”

I ignored the prickle of annoyance at Luna being called insane. “No, it’s alright. I just – I didn’t expect it to be something so important. Can Celestia not wield the elements herself?”

“That’s what she said…”

Good to know for sure. But that still left the ‘why not Cadance?’ question. I doubted Trixie knew the answer, but – “Why can’t Cadance wield the elements?”

Trixie shrugged.

“Oh well. I’m sure there’s some reason.”

We fell into a silence broken only by the sound of Spike playing with books, neither of us wanting to speak.

“Heh,” Trixie said sometime later.

I looked toward Trixie and silently asked her to elaborate on what she found funny.

“What a pair we make, Twilight. We’re just…” Trixie paused to gnaw on her lip, trying to find the right words. “You know what the real joke of all this is?”

I shook my head. “But there’s a lot of irony we could pick through, I’m sure.”

That pulled a rather sardonic smile out of Trixie. “Absolutely. But no, it’s something Princess Cadance told me. Sunset Shimmer is still alive. Apparently, Princess Celestia can still feel her tugging on the sun somehow every on rare occasions. She could just waltz back in and render both of us moot.”

“That’s…”

Not letting me dwell on that, Trixie continued, “You know, Princess Celestia and Princess Cadance are always telling me to make a few more friends.”

A snort escaped me. Smiling, I interjected, “Cadance gets on my case about that on occasion, too.”

“She’s such a busybody, isn’t she?”

“You have no idea.”

“Heh. Maybe not. Still, do you want to be friends?”

I cocked my head to the side. “Sure, why not? It’d be nice to have somepony my age that I could talk about magic with.”

It would make life harder for Pupa, but being Trixie’s friend was too good of an opportunity to pass up given that she was supposed to wield the elements; it opened up some options we hadn’t been available to us before, such as talking Trixie around to our side. Or at least confusing her long enough to steal the elements and ascend if I failed to recover them.

And if it really became too much – say, if Celestia became too watchful – Pupa could just break the friendship or let it wane out of existence.

“So,” I began, after a long, awkward silence, “what now?”

“Yeah, I…don’t know. The only thing I ever do with Moondancer is homework.”

Cooperation on homework? At a level that Moondancer could actually help?

What exactly was Celestia teaching Trixie? Trixie should be years ahead of her peers with a breadth of knowledge none of them could match. I’d never talked to Moondancer much, but from what Twinkleshine had told me, she wasn’t smart enough or self-motivated enough to keep pace, even if she was the best in her year.

“Is she actually any help? I mean, there’s an accelerated program, and then there’s being Celestia’s student.”

“Well…she’s not a detriment to Trixie. But what does that make the self-taught Twilight Sparkle?” Trixie’s eyes widened. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean–”

“It’s fine, Trixie. Anyway, I only get to learn the theory” – I still shivered every time I thought of that; Twilight the earth pony was no joke – “so I’m probably way ahead of you.”

Well, it was true that I did mostly book reading when I was awake. It also helped a lot that my days were half again longer than anypony else’s.

“Ha! You dare challenge the Great and Powerful Trixie, Twilight Sparkle?”

“Well,” I began, suppressing a laugh at Trixie’s posing, “my magic is unrestricted for the next day or so, but I really shouldn’t.”

“Oh. Right.” Trixie fell back onto her chair with a heavy thump. “I’m sorry.”

“Trixie, it’s fine. You don’t have to walk on eggshells around me. You’re not acting like the Great and Powerful Trixie everypony knows at all.”

“Sorry…”

Sighing weakly, I asked, “Do you want to talk about it, Trixie? I can keep secrets, and I know enough about everything for you to speak freely. And I’m not Cadance or Celestia.”

“No, I…” Trixie began, biting her lip. “No. Trixie’s problems are her own. I’m sorry, Twilight.”

I couldn’t put my hoof on what exactly, but something in Trixie’s voice sounded a lot more sincere in that last apology. It felt like it meant something more.

“Anyway,” Trixie continued, veering the topic wildly away, “I heard you managed to turn Moondancer’s below average roommate into an A-plus student. How did that happen?”

“I didn’t do anything special. A good tutor makes a world of difference is all.”

“Pfft. Boring. You don’t secretly do her homework, do you?”

I rolled my eyes. “If I did, how would you explain her test scores?”

“Steal ‘em in advance, secret agent style.”

“Trixie, I know neither of us actually attends that school, but I’m sure we both know their tests are mostly one on one and specific to the pony.”

“Oh, come on. For a Flare, you have no sense of flair, Twilight.”

Oh, ha ha.

“Magic isn’t magic unless you make it magic. Get it?”

“Trixie, theater is your shtick, not mine. What do you want me to do, run around shouting, ‘I’ll show them. I’ll show them all,’ and laughing maniacally?”

Humming to herself, Trixie looked me up and down. “That’s not exactly what Trixie would recommend, but it could work. Have you tried it yet?”

“No.”

“Dear Celestia, you have!”

Curse my capillaries!

“Once. I did it once. Once!”

Trixie just smirked at me.

“It’s true! And I only did it because I got the idea from a book!”

“Oh? What book?”

“It’s…not important which one. Laughter has proven stress relieving effects.”

“Whatever lets you sleep at night.”

“Ugh! Fine!” I slumped to the table. “I don’t care anymore. Think what you will.”

After an extended silence, I looked back up at Trixie. She was waiting patiently for…something. Cocking my head to the side, I silently asked, “What?”

“Trixie is still waiting for you to say, ‘But I’ll show you,’ or something to that effect.”

I let my head slam back onto the table.

“Ow…”

I never found out what Trixie’s problem was nor why she had to be the pony to wield the elements. The former I could live with. The latter…well, I could also live with it, but it seemed like an important mystery to deduce the answer to. I suspected Trixie didn’t know herself, and I certainly wasn’t going to ask Cadance or Celestia. Hopefully, Luna would know when I saw her tonight; my sleep schedule was in chaos from all the extra naps I’d gotten recently.

In unrelated news, I’d found out why Spike liked Trixie. Underneath the illeisms, the drama, the arrogance, the sheer hamminess, and the extroversion – stars above, when she got going, she couldn’t shut up – Trixie was actually fairly interesting and intelligent. She and I had a lot in common once she stopped being annoying.

Trixie had, as she had said, a flair for magic which I could admit to liking and which Spike adored. She could easily be a fantastic stage magician, and if Celestia taught her properly, she could bend her talent to just about anything. It all came so naturally to her that I found myself a little bit jealous on occasion. Not that I’d ever give up my talent for hers.

Anyway, I was nearly back to Shining’s room when I came up behind a pair of pegasi, one of whom was familiar.

“Come on. You want to talk to this Spike, right?”

Fluttershy nodded weakly, but she gave no ground. Literally. Her…friend, perhaps…was trying to push her forward to no effect.

“Then just go on in there and talk to him and get this over with.”

“B-b-but, Dash, there’s g-guards. And there’s a p-princess in there. I couldn’t–”

“Sounds pretty cool to me. Now stop being a foal and get in there, Flutters.”

“No!” Fluttershy whispered.

“Yeeeees,” grunted the pony who was probably Dash as she redoubled her efforts to marginal success. That was the name Fluttershy had used, if I hadn’t misheard.

Alright, it was time to interrupt this comedy act.

“Hello again,” I said, a few hooves behind the pair.

Fluttershy unsurprisingly eeped, but Dash turned around like a normal pony who didn’t have any kind of social dysfunction. How strange.

“Heya,” Dash said, looking me up and down and paying special attention to Spike. “You must be Twilight Sparkle.” Flying over to get a better look, she continued, “And this must be Spike. Never thought I’d get to meet a dragon up close like this and live to tell the tale.”

I strained my neck to get a better view of Dash talking to Spike on my back.

“Hey…what do you call a baby dragon? Whatever. Hey, Kid. Name’s Rainbow Dash. Fastest pegasus in the world.”

Lifting Spike off my back and into my waiting hooves, I asked, “You do realize the superlative implies there is literally nopony faster than you, right?”

“What, you think I’m lying or something?”

“It’s more likely you’re exaggerating than not.” Said the most powerful unicorn. I silently chuckled to myself over the irony.

“Ha! As if. I’ll have you know there’s not a single pony that comes close to my speed. Why when I was just your age, I was already breaking the sound barrier with the legendary sonic rainboom.”

My eye twitched before I could help it. Here was the pony who had set off my first flare. I didn’t know if I should buck her in the head or…ehem…buck her in gratitude.

Neither, probably. She hadn’t made me flare on purpose, and I would’ve been discovered as a Flare eventually regardless. Possibly under worse circumstances…

“Anyway, I take it you two are friends?”

Dash flew to Fluttershy and flew her over, one foreleg holding her around the barrel. That was actually pretty impressive. Fluttershy was significantly taller – and heavier – than Dash, and the positioning seemed all around awkward for flight.

“Totally. Me and Fluttershy go way back. I’m sure you’ve noticed she needs some looking after.”

I had, but I wasn’t going to comment. It seemed Fluttershy didn’t intend to defend herself either.

“Right, so why don’t we find somewhere more private?” I asked, looking suggestively toward Fluttershy.

“What, and not meet the princess? Cause that’d be super uncool, Twilight.”

And how is it that you somehow felt entitled to meet Cadance? It wasn’t like she wouldn’t say hi to anypony, but I didn’t like it when ponies put promises in my mouth.

“Dash, we shouldn’t–” Fluttershy whispered.

“Fluttershy, you told me you were too scared to meet a princess–”

“That’s not exactly what I said…”

“–and now I’m all psyched up to meet a princess myself.”

Facehoofing, I said, “Ugh. Look, why don’t we just head to Cadance’s room and pass the time until she comes looking for me? You can meet her then. I’m supposed to be in bed anyway.”

The things I put up with for Spike.

I sat on the edge of a spare bed that had been set up for me in Cadance’s room. While I would have preferred Cadance’s bed, it was made of clouds, and I wasn’t going to publicly cast a cloud walking spell.

Fluttershy and Spike were playing together and not interacting with anypony else in the slightest bit. I might have just told the guard outside to not let her leave with Spike and have taken a nap, if it weren’t for the other pony in the room.

Rainbow ‘Danger’ Dash, as she had reintroduced herself to me, rather than Spike, had grown bored with ‘the totally cool dragon’ and was backstroking lazily through the air above me. That – that just blew my mind. Luna had told me I needed to learn more about pegasus magic; I had told myself I needed to learn more about pegasus magic.

But this – this was just plain breaking the rules. Pegasus magic shouldn’t be able to do that!

It even looked like Dash was pushing air upward! That should have sent her barreling into the floor!

And the worst part, the absolutely most irritating aspect, was that Dash didn’t even know how she was doing it.

“Yeah, so I totally blew through school. There was no keeping a pony as awesome as me back. Skipped a few grades with my sheer awesomeness and stayed my senior year to help out Flutters.”

Argh! Deep breaths, Twilight. Deep breaths. Dash wasn’t immortal enough to survive everything she deserved.

“I pulled all-nighters before the exams to ace the theory stuff and flushed it all outta my head right after.”

Easy, Twilight. No amount of ingenuity, or cleverness, or luck will get you out of destroying Canterlot Castle as collateral damage for your first outrageously justified act of smiting. Your divine retribution would have to come later.

Easing up on grinding my teeth and forcing a smile, I asked, “So what are you going to do after spring? You’re graduating rather early to strike out on your own.”

It was a safe question. I didn’t see how Dash could possibly find an answer which would dig herself deeper into her hole; she’d already tunneled straight into Diamondia.

Dash performed a backflip and hovered a bit above and in front of me. She positioned herself as if she were lying on a bed, or a cloud, or anything flat. I swallowed another urge to scream in exasperation. It was official. Dash didn’t obey physics.

“I figured I’d hang out with Fluttershy for a few years. Help her get used to wherever she finds work, maybe join the local weather team, practice my flying. You know, that kind of stuff. Then when I’m old enough, I’m gonna join the Wonderbolts.”

I wondered if it were really possible to burst a blood vessel from sheer anger. I could barely believe Dash had managed to find a response so…so…so awful. All that raw magical talent, and she wanted to waste it on being a Wonderbolt. Even Trixie wanted to be more than just a performer, and she behaved like she was born to be one.

Argh! It sickened me to admit it, but this was like watching myself aspiring to be a mere librarian, but with wings instead of a horn.

This time I’d change the topic away from Dash completely. Surely she couldn’t mess that up. “So then what’s Fluttershy going to do?”

“Ah, Flutters wants to find herself someplace nice, quiet, and boring on the ground to work with animals.”

My ears perked up at the first non-irritating thing Dash had said all afternoon. I turned my head to get a full-on look at Fluttershy playing with Spike, both clearly enjoying themselves. An idea took shape in my head, a wonderfully, beautifully idiotic idea.

“Exactly what kind of job does she want?” I asked.

“Huh? Anything with animals, really. Like, literally anything. Why?”

“Well, if she just wants a job with animals somewhere she wouldn’t have to talk to many ponies, I know of the perfect opportunity.”

“Really?” Dash asked, floating directly in front of my face and invading my personal space. “You’re not just trying to pull one over on ole Fluttershy, are you?”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

“Cool,” Dash said, flying to face Fluttershy. “Hey, Flutters.” When no response came, Dash flew over to Fluttershy and tapped her on the withers, causing her to shriek, take to the air, and then clumsily fall back to the ground.

Was Fluttershy unable to fly? That would certainly explain wanting to find a job on the ground. Oh well. I didn’t need her to be capable of flight in space.

Once Dash had dragged Fluttershy back over – not literally this time – Fluttershy said, “Um…Dash said you might know of a job for me. I mean, I wouldn’t want to impose or anything, but I have been looking…unsuccessfully…and I could really use some help, if it isn’t too much bother, that is.”

I was about to automatically reply yes when I remembered something I’d said to Twinkleshine. The ponies I took with me would become like family. I’d met Twinkleshine when she was still young and moldable, but Fluttershy was probably going to be this shy her entire life. She even seemed uncomfortable around Dash to some extent. Was I willing to put up with that?

Probably not. But then again, I could always just ignore her. There’d be somepony, Spike if nopony else, to keep her company, and I doubted she’d be offended or miserable if I didn’t talk to her often. Yes, this could work out just fine.

“Yeah, I–” A knock came on the door, and I quickly finished, “Come find me in Ponyville in a week or so, and I’ll introduce you to the job.”

“Twilight,” Cadance began, opening the door, “Hearth’s Warming Dinner is almost ready. Are you awa–” Gasping and backpedaling, Cadance asked, “Were you making friends?”

I sighed and chose to ignore her question. “This is Fluttershy and Rain–”

Somehow, the mare in question was already hovering right in front of Cadance. “Name’s Rainbow Dash.” She might have made the slightest of head nods in substitution for a bow. Then, extending a hoof, she added, “Nice to meet you, Princess.”

Cadance took the time to flash a grin toward me before turning her attention back to Dash. After bumping hooves, she said, “Hello, Rainbow Dash. It’s always a pleasant surprise to meet a friend of Twilight’s. And where did Fluttershy disappear to?”

I gestured behind my bed, and Cadance crossed the room to look at Fluttershy trembling behind it.

“Hello there, Fluttershy. I’m Princess Cadance. It’s very nice to…meet you… Hmm… Twilight? Is she…”

Shrugging, I said, “As far as I can tell, she has equinophobia and xenophilia.”

“Oh. That’s rather unfortunate.” Falling to the floor, Cadance stared straight at Fluttershy’s forehooves, which were covering her eyes.

And that was my cue to stop paying attention. Instead, I went to fetch Spike from the walk-in closet he’d wandered off into. Fortunately – very fortunately – he hadn’t set fire to anything. The only chaos he’d brought down upon Cadance’s rather extensive collection of clothing was getting caught in a sweater large enough for…Shining…

Huh. I’d never really noticed it before, but Cadance was still growing. How long would it take her to reach Luna’s height? Based on her age when she’d ascended, she likely had been fully grown as a normal pony. How much had she grown since I’d met her? A decimeter at most, I’d guess. That still left her with a long way to go.

Oh no. How long would it take me? I’d been having growing pains on occasion recently, and I did not look forward to having an extra four decades or more of them. Worse, Mom was short, which meant I’d probably be short. Would that make me take even longer?

Sigh… Well, as Luna had said, a finite pain in exchange for eternity was still a good deal, even if that pain would be incredibly annoying.

“Come on, Spike.” I said, spinning a giggling Spike out of the tangled mess he’d trapped himself in. “It’s supper time.”

“Again! Again!”

I sat Spike down on my back. As I left, I said, “No, Spike. Supper.”

“Supper? Diamonds?”

“If you behave, I’ll make you one later.” Diamonds were surprisingly easy for me to make. I’d once entertained the idea of crashing the gem market, but Luna had intervened and told me in no uncertain terms that I should not.

“Kay!”

I left the closet, and to my great surprise, found Cadance chatting with Dash and Fluttershy like it was the most normal thing in the world. If I didn’t know better, I would’ve accused her of cheating by using her connection to love.

Waving me over, Cadance said, “Fluttershy has something she wants to tell you, Twilight.”

“Oh – um, yes. I, uh, thank you. For helping me, that is. You really didn’t have to, but–”

“You’re welcome,” I said, preempting the otherwise inevitable drivel that would’ve followed. I really didn’t want to listen to it again.

“Come on, Flutters,” Dash said, hovering in the air as always. Didn’t she ever get tired? “Let’s go find our parents. I’ve heard this Hearth’s Warming dinner thing is supposed to be amazing.”

“I wouldn’t say amazing,” Cadance said, “but the kitchen staff did work hard to make dinner for thousands. If you see any of them, please give them your thanks.”

“Will do,” Dash called back as she left the room with Fluttershy.

As soon as they were out of sight, Cadance’s smile sagged. What little smile I had myself disappeared.

“Hey,” called Dash, flying back into the room alone. “Really, Twi, thanks for your help. Fluttershy’s a real mess and needs a hoof or two to lead her with some stuff. So just, you know, thanks a lot.”

“I, uh…” Wow, was I knocked off balance. There was no way I could’ve expected Dash to say something like that, especially not so sincerely. “It’s – it’s no problem. Really.”

“Still, thanks again. And it was cool meeting you, too, Princess Cadance.”

Cadance smiled and waved a hoof as she watched Dash fly back out of the room. Still not looking at me, she said, “That was a very nice thing you did, Twilight. I’m proud of you.”

Sighing, I said, “It really wasn’t. It cost me nothing to tell her about the job.”

Indeed, it cost me nothing, and hopefully it would net me an animal specialist. An animal specialist who also happened to have some basic medical knowledge. Quite a catch, really. It was just my own needs incidentally making other ponies better off in the process.

“Perhaps,” Cadance said, “but it still wasn’t very dark of you.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see a small smirk on Cadance’s face. A comment like that deserved my full attention.

“Ehem.” Cadance and I turned toward each other, and I let the usual dark flames flow from my eyes. “It really was nothing. You see, my summoned Tartarian demons get all testy when my virgin sacrifices turn out to be missing one of the prerequisites, and I figured that Fluttershy would be good to have around, just in case.”

“Oh dear. You know, Twilight, I don’t think sacrificing ponies is technically illegal. I can’t imagine Princess Celestia sitting down with her council and saying, ‘Hey, we need to outlaw sacrificing ponies to demons.’ It should sort of go without saying that you shouldn’t.”

“Hey, I always keep my sacrifices in pairs. If they really didn’t want to be sacrificed, all they have to do is…um…” Oh, this was awkward. Shining had walked in – well, limped in on three legs, supporting himself with his magic in place of the fourth – through the open door while I hadn’t been paying attention. I still couldn’t bring myself to properly look at the bandages covering Shining’s stub.

For her part, Cadance had shot Shining a concerned and reprimanding look before bursting into laughter. I could see how this would be funny from her perspective, but personally, I was more of a fan of situational humor when I wasn’t in the situation.

Shining started to facehoof, only to think better of it before his hoof had even reached his withers. He tried to hide it, but I saw his legs bending in the telltale sign of losing his balance, and I noticed a grimace flash through his face.

“Please tell me this isn’t going to be a regular topic of discussion in the future,” Shining said. “And please tell me dark magic doesn’t involve sacrifices of any kind.”

“It doesn’t,” I answered, remembering to turn off the dark fire I had going while Cadance continued to laugh.

“Well that’s good, I guess…” Shining sighed slowly and quite obviously deliberately. “Now if you’d be so kind as to lift whatever curse you’ve placed on Cadance, we should get to supper.”

I let my withers sag and worked up a sad filly pout. “I didn’t do anything to Cadance, Big Brother.” Pretending to wipe a tear out of my eye, I continued over Cadance’s redoubled laughter, “How could you even think something like that? Don’t you trust me? Don’t you love me anymore?”

“Wha – Twily, I didn’t mean – I know you didn’t – I – I’m sorry.”

Once I had gotten my own laugh in, I said, “I know, Shining. I’m just teasing.”

It was nice that we could pretend everything was normal like this. I had no clue what we were going to do to make things be normal again – hopefully it wouldn’t involve any yelling, passive aggressiveness, or fear of me and or Cadance – but this was good enough for now.

Not that we would be able to do that during the imminent dinner. Everypony who had no place to go was going to attend to eat, drink, and be merry, but only until the end. When it was over, Cadance was going to publicly take the blame and apologize for what I had done. Annoying and troubling, but there was nothing I could do about it; Cadance was dead set on this, and some kind of explanation was necessary for the public.

I sighed. At least it would be over and done with soon. Then the three of us could run off to Ponyville to spend time alone together. Smiling faintly, I couldn’t help but look forward to it.

Chapter Twelve - A Full Crew

I sighed as I stared at my reflection in the mirror across the room. Slouched over on my bed, I idly played with my new magic suppressor. I couldn’t figure out why, exactly, but when I put this one on, it didn’t give me the same sense of horror and desperation as the last one.

That wasn’t to say it wasn’t awful; I still felt a bit like I was dead inside when it was on. It just…wasn’t that scary anymore for some reason. Maybe it was because I had enough power now to lift it on and off gently with just my magic, but that explanation didn’t sound right. It lacked that ring of truth that it should have had.

On a side note, I’d discovered that I could, in fact, cast a warming enchantment with a suppressor on. I’d gotten a small laugh out of that.

In other news, I was happy to find that my story about dark magic held water. Almost my entire repertoire of dark magic was available for my use, with only the strongest spells I knew lying out of reach.

And this time I had decided to do the smart thing and not destroy the suppressor. What I hadn’t decided on was whether or not to leave it behind. Pupa would certainly find it useful, but as much as I hated to admit it, so would I. There was a room on the Nebulous specifically designed to contain my flares, but after the incident at Canterlot, I knew I couldn’t possibly take too many safety precautions.

A very forceful knock came at the front door downstairs, catching me completely by surprise; I’d had to take all of my spells on the house down permanently with Cadance and Shining formally moving here in a couple weeks. Regrettable, but at the same time, I probably wouldn’t be coming back on any long-term scale after my trip to Mona, anyway.

First taking a deep breath, I affixed my suppressor over my horn and buried myself under my covers.

Eventually, Mom called out, “Twilight, some friends of yours are here!”

Friends, eh? I didn’t think I was up for friendly friend time right now. I squeezed out a very short-range scry through my suppressor and moaned.

“Fluttershy just had to pick now to visit, didn’t she?”

Dash was with her, too, and she would undoubtedly be just oodles of fun.

Ugh, whatever. It would probably be fine to swap the suppressor for a fake, but I was a little too lethargic to do so right now. I rolled lazily out of bed. Not bothering to fix my mane or tail, I trudged out the door, down the hallway, and stopped at the stairs. One deep breath later and I had a faker smile on my face than Celestia.

As I approached the living room, I could hear some small talk.

“What kind do you have?” Dash said.

“Just chocolate right now,” Mom answered. She must have been talking about the cookies she’d made earlier today.

“Sweet! A whole plateful would be awesome. Or do you want two, Fluttershy?”

A short silence passed. Presumably it was filled with Fluttershy-grade mumbling.

I walked in just as Mom was leaving. “Hello, you two. It’s good to see you again.”

“Hey, Twi. Get this. I had to drag Fluttershy halfway here when she found out Ponyville is next to the Everfree.”

I turned my head slightly to look at Fluttershy, but she didn’t say anything. She just stared straight at the ground.

“Fluttershy, the Everfree isn’t dangerous on the edges; why would we live here if it were?” Aside from silly reasons that made volcano fortresses cool. Seeing that my reassurances had done nothing, I sighed and said, “Well, the job offer is literally as far away from the Everfree as it can be, so try not to worry.”

Fluttershy mumbled something I couldn’t quite hear.

“Sorry, I didn’t catch that.”

After another bout of ineffectively mumbling, I turned to Dash who shrugged.

“Maybe we should relocate. There’s actually two job offers for you. One moment.”

I left the living room to the sound of a very quiet gasp and set about gathering the few belongings I might need. Removing my suppressor for the moment, I teleported various objects from around the house to me, starting with my saddlebags.

Stepping into the kitchen, I asked, “Hey, Mom, can we get those cookies to go?”

I grunted as I shoved open a door in town hall with my hooves. I never thought I’d be doing that again, but here I was. Oh well. There was no telling how many of Celestia’s agents were in town now – if any yet – and I wasn’t going to take any dumb risks just to make my life more convenient for a few weeks.

Fluttershy and Dash walked in right behind me. Well, Dash flew in, but that was the same thing for her.

Approaching the mayor’s secretary’s desk, I said, “Hello again. I brought the mare I told you about last time.”

“The animal specialist?”

I nodded and gestured toward Fluttershy, who looked a bit like she wanted to run away crying.

After taking the time to frown slightly, the secretary said to Fluttershy, “Go right on in. Mayor Mare’s free right now.”

“Dash,” I said, stopping her before she could enter the mayor’s office.

“Hmm? What is it?”

“Interviews are generally conducted alone. It won’t look good if you hold her hoof through the entire thing.”

“What? Are you serious?” Dash looked behind me, presumably at the secretary, and touched down on the ground for once.

“Besides, I need to talk to you,” I said, closing the office door myself. “Follow me.”

I took off down a hallway, looking back with a scrying spell. Dash hesitated for a moment, turning between the door and me, but eventually she took to the air again and flew my way. I led her back outside and a short ways through town, somewhat envious that her own magic kept her warm without any effort on her part.

Eventually, I slowed from a trot to a gentle walk, and I asked, “Can you keep a secret, Dash?”

“Huh? Of course I can,” Dash replied, somewhat aggressively. “I’d never sell out a friend or anything like that. That’d be super uncool.”

Shaking my head, I said, “It’s not a personal secret, Dash. It’s a state secret.”

“Oh. My. Gosh. That is so awesome! Are you one of those secret agents trained from birth to be the best of the best? Is that why you know Princess Cadance?”

I stopped walking for a second to look up at Dash. “Um…as far as I know, there’s not an elite corps of foal soldiers. I guess I have no evidence to the contrary, but you need to present evidence for…”

Seeing that what I was going to say would go in one ear and out the other, I turned back and continued walking.

“No, there’s no such ponies, Dash. Although…I suppose I am about as close you’ll get.”

I heard a squeal I would have expected more from Fluttershy than from Dash. I had probably just scored an impressive number of ‘awesome points’.

“Anyway, this is top secret, even from Cadance, so you cannot discuss it with anypony.” After another squeal, I added, “Especially from Cadance, actually. She has too many troubles to deal with right now as it stands. Understood?”

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t tell anypony. I got it. So what’s the secret?”

“The job Fluttershy is interviewing for is a cover.” For certain definitions of interviewing. I certainly wasn’t going to let Fluttershy not get the job. Not that I thought she didn’t have the skills required; she just didn’t have the prerequisite social skills to leave a good impression. I had kept my interference to a minimum, though. “The real–”

“Whoa, whoa. Wait up,” Dash said, flying in front of me. “You want to make Fluttershy a secret agent? That’s a horrible idea. She’s scared of her own shadow half the time.”

I rolled my eyes. “And who would be a better choice? You?”

“Well,” Dash said, poorly pretending to be aloof, “now that you mention it.”

Well, here it was: the point of no return. Not actually, I could always erase memories, but it was the point of no return in spirit. I’d thought it over, weighed the pros and cons, talked to Luna, and now it was time to make a final decision.

Should I take Dash with or should I just have her be Fluttershy’s contact on Equus?

Taking her with would make it easier to recruit Fluttershy, no doubt. Peer pressure worked wonders. And I wouldn’t have to find a weather manager. And Dash was admittedly a very impressive specimen, like a bizarre pegasus version of myself. And she was more than capable of doing the job. And she would probably be a valuable ally in the future; she was obviously the kind of talent you didn’t let go when possible.

All it would cost me was putting up with her.

I sighed. The choice was obvious.

“We need Fluttershy’s knowledge and skills, so we can’t take you in place of her. However, if you’re interested–”

“Yes!”

I walked around Dash. We were about halfway done with our lap of Ponyville, and I wanted to finish that lap sometime today.

“You really shouldn’t agree like that, Dash. You have no idea what you’re getting into.”

“Psh. I can manage whatever you’ve got for me.”

“It’s not that,” I said. I had no doubts about Dash’s ability to manage weather. “This is an entirely different career track than the Wonderbolts.”

“What, can I not quit once I’m old enough to join the Wonderbolt Academy?”

I bit my tongue to keep myself quiet. Dash could do whatever she wanted with her life. It wasn’t my business.

“Yes, you can. But not right away. There is a minimum length of service.”

Humming, Dash asked, “How long?”

“Until a little after the thousandth Summer Sun Celebration. After then, you’d be free to stay or go.”

“Is that all? And here you had me thinking it’d be a for life kinda thing. I’m sure having ‘former secret agent’ on my resume will more than suffice for applying a couple years late.”

Okay, that was worth a real giggle. Putting ‘secret’ agent on a resume was sort of a contradiction in terms.

“Just so you know, the work won’t actually be that exciting until the last year or so. Mostly it’ll consist of low-stress weather work and a lot of relaxation time.”

“So…pretty much what I planned to do anyway?”

“More or less, but in an exotic locale and with the opportunity to gain the favor of the crown.”

“Wait, do you mean like, favor, or favor.”

I turned to look at Dash flying sideways and raised an eyebrow.

“Do you not watch movies or something?”

I held my gaze as we walked. “No, not really.”

But now that you mentioned it, stocking up on movies and a projector or two seemed like a very good idea. Records were probably a good thing to collect as well. I owned a few myself, but I had a sneaking suspicion that nopony would share my taste in music.

“Wow, we need to get you a life, Twi. You could be the second awesomest pony in the world, and it wouldn’t mean anything if you don’t stop to enjoy life once in a while.”

And you understood the meaning of the word stop? Still, at least we found each other’s passions mutually uninteresting.

“So anyway,” Dash began, “what’s the job exactly?”

“We need to–” I shook my head. I could do much better than plain Equestrian here. “We’re leaving on a quest to recover a frighteningly powerful set of magical artifacts.”

“Nice! Are there going to be giant monsters, and dragons, and stuff to fight?”

“No. Not at all. I wouldn’t invite Fluttershy along if there were.”

Dash snorted. “Fair. I guess.”

“Like I said, it’s going to be low-stress. The hardest part of the trip will be keeping ourselves from driving each other mad.” Talking through Dash’s laughter, I continued, “I’m serious, actually. You’ve heard of cabin fever, right?”

“What, are we going to sail around the world for six years or something?”

“Or something. I’ll explain in more detail later. I need to go pick up a number of other ponies on the team tonight, and I’ll take you and Fluttershy with to meet them. If you want, that is.”

Dash flew a half-somersault in front of me and addressed me upside down. It irked me more than it should that I still hadn’t figured out how she did that with just pegasus magic. Even Luna was left scratching her head. “Like I’d ever miss a chance to meet real life secret agents.”

Sigh. Twinkleshine was already going sci-fi on me, and now I had Dash heading down the dark road of action novels.

“I’m afraid none of us really think of ourselves the way you are.” Interrupting Dash before she could say anything to the effect of ‘lame’, I said, “Except for Queen Chrysalis.”

“Queen? What’s up with that? Are we dealing with foreign royalty now or something? Or is she going with a ‘queen of espionage’ kind of thing?”

“Both, actually.”

We walked in silence for a moment before Dash rolled over and landed. Walking beside me, she said, “Huh. I honestly wasn’t expecting that.”

“Yes, that’s just how she likes it. You probably won’t be able to meet her until we actually leave, though. She’s busy, and we had a bit of a…falling out recently.”

Dash was polite enough to give me a moment alone with my thoughts. Although, right now, in this particular instance, I wasn’t sure if I considered that a good thing.

“Anyway. Her daughter–”

Well, all the changelings were Queen Chrysalis’s foals. Or something. Luna was a bit unclear on that, and I’d never had a chance to ask for clarification. However changeling reproduction worked, Pupa was Queen Chrysalis’s heir, and the two had a very pony-like mother–daughter relationship.

“–is staying nearby. I’m sure you two would get along wonderfully.”

That was probably true. I hadn’t spent much time with her yet, but Pupa seemed a lot like how I used to imagine Celestia: kind, gentle, altruistic, and above all, patient.

Arriving back at town hall, we stopped just outside the door.

“Is she a spy, too?” Dash asked.

“More a princess of spies, but yes, she is also quite proficient in the field.”

“Sweet! So are we going in or what?”

“No, I have somepony else to meet today now that you two are here.”

I’d found another prospective crew member. Again, peer pressure worked wonders, and Dash would no doubt lay the peer pressure on with reckless abandon, a fact I intended to exploit for all it was worth. Although from what I’d heard and seen, I didn’t think it’d be necessary with the new prospect.

“I’ll meet you back at my house afterward,” I finished.

Dash turned to look toward the outskirts of Ponyville. “What about the Everfree? Flutters was practically scared to death.”

Oh, right. I’d forgotten about that. Summoning a piece of paper and some ink from my saddlebags, I drew a non-scale map of Ponyville along with directions and an address. Hoofing it over to Dash, I said, “Here is where Queen Chrysalis’s daughter is staying. Her name is Pupa. Just tell her I sent you. I’ll meet you there.”

I knocked on the Cherry family’s barn door before stepping inside. Well, Cherry Berry’s mother had referred to it as a barn, but Berry Punch had told me a lot about my potential recruit. Apparently despite her former…situation, Berry Punch was actually acquainted with most ponies in town.

That really shouldn’t have actually been surprising when one considered that Ponyville was a small, close-knit town, but it had been nonetheless.

Anyway, Berry Punch had said that the youngest of the Cherry family, Cherry Berry – it was going to be so confusing having three Berrys on the ship – knew what she was doing ‘well enough’ to help. She’d returned to town recently after being abroad for well over a season, so I now had my chance to approach her. More importantly, I allegedly only needed to mention a single word to get her to agree to hop on board.

I’d doubted that at first, but it’d only taken me about ten minutes of investigating before I’d called it quits. Berry Punch had been right, so ridiculously, outrageously right.

And here before me was a virtual sky dock stuck inside a barn that confirmed absolutely everything I’d heard about the mare.

“Hello?” I called out to the barn at large.

“Over here,” a voice, presumably Cherry Berry’s, called back. I looked in the vague direction of her voice. “No, no. Up here.”

I looked up and saw Cherry Berry’s head poking up out of the basket of a hot air balloon, aviator goggles and all. For some reason, she had a slew of black spots on her coat. If I had to guess, I’d say they were soot, but grease was a solid second choice.

Pushing up her goggles, Cherry Berry asked, “So what’s up, little filly? Are you here to hear stories of my epic journeys around the world?”

I smiled. There was an earth pony of real character in Ponyville; apparently, I just hadn’t looked hard enough.

“No, but I might take you up on your offer some other time. I have something important to–”

Cherry Berry hopped out of her basket, shrugged off the landing, and cantered up to me in all her pink-coated, yellow-maned glory. Eyes practically sparkling, she asked, “Did that jerk Daring Do finally own up that I was the pony who recovered the Sapphire Stone?”

I raised an eyebrow. Daring Do was real?

“Er… Heh, heh. Um, would you please forget what I just said?”

“I suppose so. But why did you ask?”

“Bah! Don’t even get me started? That mare can’t stand to talk to anypony that couldn’t be described as her nemesis. She usually finds some foal to deliver her messages for her. Trust issues or something. And then she goes and publishes a fiction book claiming all the credit! I didn’t even get a supporting role! So while she’s sitting all nice and cozy in her private train car on her next big adventure, I’m stuck operating out of Ponyville with my parents’ help. That was supposed to be my big break! That was supposed to make my name! Not some disgraced archeologist’s!”

I fought the urge to whistle. Berry Punch had said it would be easy to convince Cherry Berry to come with, but she really had vastly underestimated how easy this would be. Rather than Dash peer pressuring her, it might actually work out the other way around.

“And she even had the nerve to leave out Princess Celestia’s part in the story!” Cherry Berry continued. “I mean, I guess there could be some sort of – I don’t know – marketing problem otherwise, but still. Ugh! She just – just – sometimes I just want to scream!”

Her breathing ragged, I gave Cherry Berry a comforting pat on the shoulder. My situation with Trixie was nowhere near the same; she and I were friends after some fashion. But I could empathize just a little bit. If Trixie somehow found her way to Mona after I arrived and stole the elements from me, I’d be able to understand completely.

“Sorry for blowing off steam on you…”

“Twilight Sparkle, but just Twilight is fine.”

“Sorry, Twilight. I’m just really frustrated.” Rubbing one forehoof along her other foreleg, Cherry Berry blushed and said, “And I may have threatened to expose Daring Do in a heated argument recently. Kind of hoping she doesn’t take that seriously…”

After nervously shuffling around a bit, Cherry Berry said, “Seriously though, please keep the whole Daring Do is real thing a secret. She really doesn’t like publicity–” Muttering under her breath, Cherry Berry said, “ironically,” before continuing. “–and I try to be the bigger pony about the whole thing.”

Awkwardly shuffling on her hooves again, Cherry Berry added, “Well, usually I do.”

Giggling, I said, “Don’t worry. I know how to keep secrets. I promise I won’t say anything except under exceptional circumstances.”

Cherry Berry breathed a sigh of relief. “So what brings you here, Twilight? You mentioned something important?”

“Indeed!” I said, posing dramatically with my hoof raised. “I’m actually here to see if you want to join me in an adventure into the great unknown!”

“Oho! I see. Following in my hoofsteps and wanting to learn from the master, eh?”

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. I hadn’t expected Cherry Berry to take me seriously, but that didn’t make her response any less annoying.

“Seriously, Cherry Berry,” I said, lowering my hoof, “this is the kind of adventure that doesn’t make your name, but puts it in history books.”

Sighing and then smiling again, Cherry Berry said, her voice terribly serious, “I’d like that very much. Lead on, Twilight, and let us face the unknown together!”

I nodded and headed back outside. I chuckled quietly enough that Cherry Berry wouldn’t be able to hear. I could just imagine her reaction when she saw for herself where we were heading. Hopefully Dash and Fluttershy would already be waiting at Pupa’s when we arrived.

“Oh,” Cherry Berry said, “just so you know, I’d like to get back before sunset. My parents managed to find some sunflowers, and they’re my favorite flower. Sweet, sweet roasted sunflowers. Mmm…”

I didn’t bother suppressing my laughter this time. “Yes, my fearless companion. I’ll make sure you get home in time for dinner.”

There was only one inn in Ponyville. It was all the town had ever needed; visitors usually stayed with family or friends. It was much to my surprise when Pupa had told me a few days ago that it was run by changelings. In fact, a distressingly large number of inns, motels, hotels, et cetera, were run by changelings. And not just in Equestria, but all around the world.

It made some sense, and it wasn’t like they were planning some sort of hostile takeover, but it was a bit frightening all the same. Apparently they had managed to keep this up for centuries without ever being exposed. Sure there was the odd memory spell here and there, but it was impressive nonetheless.

And it didn’t stop with hotels. They had their hooves in plenty of other businesses, too, including talent agencies. Pupa had said they didn’t dare take the spotlight in Los Pegasus themselves, and that was about as far as she had gotten before Queen Chrysalis had effectively told her to shut up.

I stopped just outside of Pupa’s room with Cherry Berry in tow, and I knocked on the door.

“Come in!” Pupa called back, the door swinging open with her voice.

I led the two of us into the hotel equivalent of a living room and immediately facehoofed.

Appearing beside the two of us, Dash said, “Heya, Twi. You’ve got some pretty neat friends. Anyway, you’re supposed to guess which one is the real Fluttershy.”

I sighed and removed my suppressor, tucking it away in my saddlebags.

Next to me, I heard Cherry Berry whisper, “They’re not twins? Did those two get involved with some cursed artifacts or something?”

“No,” I answered for Dash. Casting a detection spell on the left Fluttershy, who was awkwardly standing in front of me and trying to make herself look small, I said, “The one on the right is Pupa, who is very good at magic.”

With a burst of green fire, Pupa reverted to her regular pastel-green unicorn disguise.

“Detection spells go against the spirit of the game, Twilight.”

I rolled my eyes at Pupa as she crossed the distance to give me a hug. Of the unintentional consequences of my actions, this was perhaps the most…not awkward, but strange. Among the many emotional bonds Cadance had ‘restored’ to Pupa was her self-love, her love for Twilight Sparkle.

Fortunately, Pupa had said she’d recovered her own sense of self-worth quickly enough. Cadance hadn’t done anything worse than making Pupa feel ambivalent about herself for a short time.

“Pupa, in case you hadn’t noticed, I’m kind of in the middle of something.”

“Oh, yes, yes,” Pupa said, breaking the hug. “I’ll see to it that nopony misses any of you. Have fun.”

Once Pupa had left, Cherry Berry asked, “So…what just happened?”

“Pupa knows some crazy awesome magic that lets her change shape!” Dash shouted. “She can do anypony and anything! Even random things like giant bug ponies and chimeras.”

I mentally sighed. That was as good a way as any to introduce ponies to changelings, I supposed. Pupa had probably made my job easier, too. In certain circles, one incredibly powerful magician’s words and actions, such as my own, carried a lot of weight.

However, none of my potential recruits were really part of those circles. Cherry might be a little bit with her interest in adventure, but even she would no doubt look for more regular social proofs and appeals to authority. The more competent, grownup ponies like Pupa on my team I showed off, the better off I would be. Not that I expected to have much trouble with these three.

Cherry Berry hummed to herself, idly scratching her jaw. “That sounds sort of familiar, but I can’t put my hoof on why. Something I saw in some ruin somewhere maybe? Oh well. But who is…Pupa, was it? Who is she exactly? In my experience, powerful mages hanging around is always bad news. Back when Sunset Shimmer was around, she was pretty much a harbinger of doom.”

Answering before Dash could say anything, I said, “Pupa is one of my assoc – friends and is going to ‘hold down the fort’ for me while I’m gone, so to speak. But you can talk to her yourself later, if you want.” Turning mostly toward Fluttershy, I asked, “For the moment, does anypony get motion sickness?”

“Of course not,” Dash said.

“Nooooo…” Cherry Berry said, obviously not sure why I was asking.

Fluttershy gave a small shake of her head. That was a bit unexpected, but if she had trouble flying like I suspected, she probably had to use alternative travel most of the time.

“Excellent. We’re going to make a quick stop in Germaneigh to pick up a lot of furniture, but after that we’ll head out to the future starting line of our adventure. If anypony starts to feel queasy, let me know right away.”

I lit up my horn as Cherry Berry said, “When you say Germaneigh–”

It wasn’t very far to Germaneigh, only a few minutes by teleport. While we were mid-transit, I moved the air with us so we could talk.

And by talk, I meant Fluttershy could futilely squeeze her eyes closed in a panic, Dash could be quiet for once in her life, and Cherry Berry could flip out and be the only pony saying anything. Whether or not Cherry Berry actually said anything worth listening to, however, was an entirely different story.

My last teleport left the four of us in a warehouse where one of my many orders was waiting for me to pick it up. As requested, everything was stored in giant wooden crates to make transportation slightly simpler. But even boxed up as they were, it wouldn’t be difficult to find and remove a few select pieces.

“Would anypony like a chair?”

“So,” I began, “I know you have a lot of questions, but let’s try to keep them to one at a time on this attempt.”

A lot of questions was a massive understatement; it’d taken five minutes before Dash and Cherry Berry stopped trying to talk over one another, so I’d taken the opportunity to ignore them and get us on a stable route away from Equus.

I also had resuscitated Fluttershy from her fainting and had explained to her that there was no possible way she could fall out here. What had really sealed the deal was my description of space as ‘swimming in ground’. It wasn’t a perfect analogy, but it had worked for Fluttershy.

Dash and Cherry Berry looked to each other, and Dash won their little silent exchange.

“Let me first just say, so awesome! But after that” – Dash paused for effect – “Twi, what the buck!”

I raised an eyebrow. “I believe I made it very clear to you that we had a six year travel time. If we just needed to go pick something up on Equus, you could do it in a fortnight. What exactly were you expecting? Certainly not an archaeological dig based on our earlier conversation.”

“I – I guess?” Dash frowned and sat on her haunches, looking thoughtful.

I hated to admit it, but that expression simply didn’t work for her.

“Okay, okay,” Cherry Berry said, taking over. “I think I get it. We teleported a bunch – pretty sure – and there was that…that…Pupa mare before with her whole illusion thing. How old are you really?”

“Young enough that it’s both irritating to work around and embarrassing.”

I giggled at Cherry Berry’s confusion. There were probably but four mares in the world that actually enjoyed growing older – maybe only three if Cadance hadn’t been taken out of a normal pony’s mindset yet.”

“To answer your question directly, I’m twelve and a half.”

“You don’t honestly expect me to believe that, do you?”

I shrugged. “You can think of me as whatever age you want. It really doesn’t matter. I don’t behave much like a filly, after all.”

“Right, right. I totally get the whole prodigy thing–”

Well, at least Dash and I had that in common. Maybe we could bond over talking about how other ponies took ten times longer to do everything. Maybe.

“–but where on Equus are we going?”

“Not exactly the best choice of words,” I said, eliciting an eye roll from Dash. “Anyway, did you mean ‘where are you taking us?’ or ‘where would we be going if we left with you?’”

“Uh…both, I suppose.”

“The ultimate destination is the comet Mona, hopefully by way of the moon. Right now we’re just going to my spaceship, the Nebulous. We have about a half-hour of travel time before we arrive.”

It was Cherry Berry’s turn to look thoughtful. If I were to guess, I’d imagine she’d realized that this was her chance to reach for the honor and glory she wanted, and perhaps even more than she’d ever dreamed possible.

“Why that particular comet?” Cherry Berry asked.

Answering for me, Dash said, “Twi mentioned something about a doomsday device.”

“I believe I used the term ‘frighteningly powerful magical artifact,’” I said before Cherry Berry could interject, “not ‘doomsday device’. I’m also reasonably confident that what I’m after can’t be directly used for destruction at all.”

“And what are you after?” Cherry Berry’s voice was practically dripping with suspicion, but her eyes betrayed her. I may have been ‘bad news’ as a powerful mage, in her words, but she was already too invested in this trip, whatever the reason for it.

“The exact details surrounding the purpose of this trip are classified until after we leave.” As an afterthought, I added, “Sorry. State secrets and stuff.”

Frowning, Cherry Berry asked, “Alright, fine, I guess. So what do you need us for?”

“I need you three, and two others already on board, to provide food. And company so I don’t go crazy from the extended solitude” – in case Luna couldn’t reach my dreams at some point – “but I really only need one pony for that.

“Anyway, Fluttershy would be in charge of animals for eggs, milk, butter, pollinating, and stuff like that.” Turning to address Fluttershy directly, I said, “We have a couple pets coming along, too, so if you agree to come, I’d like you to look after them as well. And Spike is coming, too, of course.”

After a weak nod of understanding, definitely not of agreement, from Fluttershy, I continued, “Dash, you would be in charge of weather. Well, ‘weather’. The job should be pretty challenging in climate diversity and space constraints, so you might actually enjoy the work. Like I said to you before, it’ll be a low-stress job with plenty of downtime to do whatever.”

“Twi, you had me at secret agent. Then you added fame and glory and space. I think you can count me in.”

I smiled and nodded to Dash. It was obvious to me that her real answer would actually be the same as Fluttershy’s, but it was good to know she was strongly in favor of coming with.

Next, I turned to Cherry Berry. “I know you’re not primarily a farmer, but you came on recommendation for your ability and for your interest in adventure. You wouldn’t be responsible for growing everything yourself, but you’d have one of the more labor intensive jobs.”

Cherry Berry sighed. “You completely missed the point of my question.”

What?

“I knew what you want me and…uh…”

“Dash. Rainbow Dash,” Dash said, introducing herself properly. “Middle name Danger.”

“Right…” Cherry Berry shook her head slightly. “Anyway, I got what you want us to do. And I get the whole animal thing now; that hadn’t occurred to me. What I don’t get is why. I know a bit about unicorn magic – comes with the field – but I don’t get why you don’t just leave for a week with some snacks and cool beverages.”

It took my brain a few seconds to restart, and I had to try hard not to stare vacantly at Cherry Berry while it was recovering. I hadn’t expected her to know anything about unicorn magic. Not that it wasn’t a pleasant surprise. Still, that was the kind of question I’d expect Twinkleshine to ask, and I was still waiting for her to actually do so.

Continuing, Cherry Berry said, “I mean, there’s no way I’m going to say no. My biggest fear is that I’ll fall in love, get knocked up – maybe not even in that order – and settle down on the farm, maybe going ballooning once in a while to pretend my life had played out otherwise. And that I’ll be happy with that.”

Cherry Berry sighed and continued, “Don’t get me wrong. I’m certainly grateful that you’re throwing perhaps the best opportunity ever at my hooves. I just don’t get why you need us at all. I don’t want fame that I didn’t really earn.”

“I…uh…wow. Okay, yeah. Do you want the long answer, or are you fine with me just saying that the issue is a problem of scaling and safety?”

“Please not the long answer,” Dash complained.

“No,” Cherry Berry began, “I’d like to know the details. Well, maybe not the fine details, but an overview would be great.” She left it unsaid, but the way she looked at me said, “And I’d like to know how smart and cautious you are because you’re a foal dragging me into space,” for her.

I cleared my throat and took a quick breath. “Alright, so in theory, if I reduced the mass I have to bring with to a few buckets of water and a pile of snacks – roughly a decrease by three orders of magnitude – I could get to the comet in less than a week. In theory.

“Practically, this is not possible. I take it you know that telekinesis scales linearly with force, correct?”

Cherry Berry nodded.

“And you know that it spreads that force over an area, not a volume, right?”

Again, Cherry Berry nodded.

“Dash, you should know what happens when you undergo a large acceleration. Would you care to enlighten her?”

“Huh? Oh. Fine,” Dash grunted. She’d barely been paying attention. “My pegasus magic mostly protects me, but it’s sorta like…like waiting for your insides to catch up to you. I only ever realized it was a problem when I cornered during a sonic rainboom. It can hurt, and badly.”

“Not just hurt,” I interrupted, “it can kill. I’m counteracting the effects of accelerating us right now so that you won’t have to constantly feel it, but unlike telekinesis, it is not a magic efficient spell; it increases linearly with volume and acceleration, not force, and has a large coefficient. I might be able to invent something less…less…” I waved my hoof in the air, searching for the right word.

“Primitive?” Cherry Berry offered.

“No, it’s more…hacked together, I guess. It’s a working solution, but it’s inelegant. I could probably come up with a specialized spell, but I have no idea how long it would take, and this mission has a non-negotiable deadline. Anyway, the point is, while it’s all well and good to make the mass smaller and the acceleration larger for telekinesis, I either wouldn’t have enough magic to make the trip in a week or I would kill myself.”

I held up a hoof, interrupting Cherry Berry before she could protest. “No, the volume is not made smaller in exchange. Not significantly, at least. I’m casting the spell very sloppily right now, but on the actual ship, I’ve been busy weaving a very complex spell matrix to only affect the volumes I absolutely need to.

“And yes, I have stress tested my ship, and yes I have checked that plants do, in fact, grow normally under constant horizontal accelerations. Oddly enough, I found a research paper on that topic. Some ponies find the weirdest things interesting in science.” Not that I was one to talk.

First pausing only briefly to let Cherry Berry process what I’d said, I continued, “Of course, that all doesn’t completely dismiss your objections. I would still be able to make the trip in a few seasons at lower accelerations. I have the magic for that. What I don’t have is stability.

“I will spare you the details, but I have too much magic for a unicorn. Sometimes I lose control. If I did that on a space voyage unprotected, I would die. There is no question about it. Nor is there any doubt that I will lose control at some point during the trip. To keep myself – and anypony else coming along – safe, I have to bring a specially designed room to contain me until I regain control.

“Now this room was heavy enough that it dramatically increased the length of the trip to the point that food, water, and solitude became serious concerns. Adding on requirement after requirement, it eventually reached the point where the longer, slower trip actually became the faster journey. So I built what amounts to a small space colony which can survive indefinitely with enough unicorn, pegasus, and earth pony magic.”

I stopped to take a deep breath, then asked, “Does that answer satisfy you?”

Getting a nod from Cherry Berry, I let myself relax. I seemed to have put more tension in my withers than I’d thought.

“How bad?”

It took me a few seconds to realize that I had just heard somepony talk, and that the pony in question was Fluttershy. As I turned to look at her, she turned away.

“What did you say?” I said, asking as gently as I could. Knowing Fluttershy, she’d probably think I was offended by whatever she had said otherwise.

“I – uh,” Fluttershy began, barely speaking above a whisper, “you said you lose control. How badly?”

That wasn’t an unexpected question, nor was it one I didn’t intend to answer, but I had hoped I could at least wait until Twinkleshine and Berry Punch were around. When I’d first seen Twinkleshine after, she’d already deduced that Cadance had taken the blame for me and was asking if I were alright before I’d even opened my mouth.

Berry Punch, on the other hoof, had empathized with me on a very deep level. We’d spent hours talking while she had me replanting trees. It had been…nice. Yes, nice.

Sighing, I said, “I’m going to be completely honest with you three. When I lose control, I am beyond simply dangerous. Cadance took the blame for me, but everything that happened in Canterlot recently was entirely my fault.”

Fluttershy was quiet. She probably had already made the connection when she’d spoken. Dash and Cherry Berry, on the other hoof, were far more expressive.

“What the buck, Twi?”

“Are we safe right now?”

Drowning out Cherry Berry, Dash shouted, “How did that happen? You’re friends with the princesses! Shouldn’t they, like, have you on a shorter leash or something?”

Sighing, I addressed Cherry Berry’s concern first. “Yes, you’re safe with me. The probability of you dying or otherwise suffering injury right now is so small as to be considered zero.” I turned to Dash and continued, “They usually do. There’s a reason why I live in Ponyville with a giant backyard. The circumstances of what happened in Canterlot were, while entirely my fault, extremely unusual. I will not let them occur again.”

A moment of dramatic silence passed without Dash or Cherry Berry interrupting. My intentionally dramatic stance and expression may have had a large part in achieving that silence. Regardless, we were approaching our destination.

“I need to concentrate to slow us down properly, but I’ll try to form coherent answers to any questions you have.”

Spotting Twinkleshine easily enough, I teleported all four of us into the Nebulous’s library not too far from her. She didn’t even bother to look up right away; she’d gotten so used to me teleporting around that it no longer surprised her. The crates of furniture I dumped on the currently unoccupied bridge.

“Hello, Twinkleshine,” I said, walking over to her.

That finally got her to look up from whatever she was working on. She even got up to give me a hug.

“Is this the rest of the crew, then?”

“Hopefully.” Turning back to to the trio I’d brought with, I said, “Everypony, this is Twinkleshine, the navigator on this expedition.”

Dash gave her a grumpy greeting, Cherry Berry was polite enough, and Fluttershy squeaked as expected.

“Twinkleshine elected to move up here early with another crew member a little while ago, but we won’t be leaving until the first harvest is halfway ready in a season or two. Now Twinkleshine, on the left, we have Fluttershy, the animal expert. She’s shyer than you used to be–”

“I can tell,” Twinkleshine interjected as Fluttershy tried her best to stare a hole into the floor, which would, of course, kill everypony here if I weren’t around should she succeed.

“–so play nice. In the middle is Rainbow ‘Danger’ Dash.”

The mare in question nodded approvingly, satisfied with my use of her middle name. Not that I fully believed that her name actually had a ‘Danger’ in it.

“She’s…well, more a pegasus magic expert” – only in hooves-on magic, no theory – “but she knows more than enough about weather.”

“Darn right I do.”

“Right, well, anyway, on the right we have Cherry Berry. I’ve been told she grew up learning about farming, so she can help out. However she’s primarily a…professional adventurer?”

“Not quite yet,” Cherry Berry replied, her voice betraying her bitterness, “but I might as well be.”

“Right, so that covers introductions for now. Would you three like–”

Popping up out of nowhere, Pinkie Pie said, “Don’t forget about me, silly.”

“–a tour…” I sighed. “This is Pinkie Pie, our chef, and with some instruction and practice, perhaps somepony who will help out in the greenhouse on occasion. She’s the other pony already living up here.” As an afterthought, I added, “She also keeps an eye on Twinkleshine to make sure she eats.”

“Hey!”

“And I’m sure she’ll be doing the same for me when I don’t have my parents around to act as a clock.”

“Better,” Twinkleshine muttered.

“Speaking of which,” Pinkie Pie began, pulling a platter out of her mane, “does anypony want a snack? I made muffins.”

Okay, disregarding how she managed to pull anything out of her mane and how she managed to bake without an oven – that was in today’s shipment – I quickly snatched up the blueberry muffin and one of the poppyseed muffins for myself. Whatever else Pinkie Pie was, she was a fantastic cook. She made the kind of food ponies would camp out overnight in lines to get.

Or join in on an adventure to get.

Through a mouth full of muffin, I said, “Thanks, Pinkie Pie. Great as always.”

Surprisingly, Fluttershy was the next pony to take a muffin. Well, Twinkleshine pulled one off with her magic at more or less the same time, but she didn’t count. As Fluttershy bit into the chocolatest muffin I’d ever seen – seriously, there might not have even been a muffin underneath all that chocolate – an actual tear came to her eye.

“Whoa!” Pinkie Pie said, sidling up next to Fluttershy. “Are you okay? You’re not allergic to almonds, are you?”

“N-no. I just – my granny used to make something like this when I was a filly.”

“Oooooh. Well if that’s the case, I could make the quadruple chocolate, almond surprise muffin for you all the time. I made sure we’ve got plenty of cocoa and sugar.”

As Dash and Cherry Berry sampled a muffin each – obviously to their delight, judging by their eyes – Fluttershy said, “I’d… I think I… Yes, I’d like that.”

I took an extra large bite of muffin to hide my smile. As soon as I brought everything we’d need up here, I could finally get back to full time studying with Luna. Recruitment was over.

Maybe Luna would finally explain what that ice cream spell really did instead of just telling me to figure it out.

Anyway, Pinkie Pie had dragged our three new recruits off for the guided tour, having left Twinkleshine and I to our own business. I kept an eye on the group with a scrying spell; I didn’t think it would happen, but there was a chance that Pinkie Pie’s energy would scare off Fluttershy if I didn’t intervene, and she would inevitably drag Dash away with her. I was sure she would tell Dash to come with even if she refused, but I was also sure Dash wouldn’t.

About five minutes later, both Twinkleshine and I could hear Cherry Berry shout, “Berry Punch?”

I made a note to myself to add soundproofing to the doors.

Chapter Thirteen - From the Early Log of Captain Sparkle

[Spring 91, 993 – Day 1]

At the insanely constant insistence of Twinkleshine, I find myself with the responsibility of–

*thunk*

Wow, I need to turn down the sensitivity on this spell.

Wait, stop recording this.

How do I erase things?

Where did I toss that box?

*stomp*

*stomp*

Let’s see… We’re excited you’ve purchased the navigator’s black box two point oh. Ha, ha. Very funny. It comes in a black box. Anyway, where is…

Are – are they serious? I can’t… Fine. Whatever. I’ll just cast a–

Great, now I have another cut off sentence in here.

You know what? It doesn’t matter.

Today we set off. It was all pretty anticlimactic, but you certainly wouldn’t know it from the party Pinkie Pie and Twinkleshine put together. Dash had a hoof in it, too, I’d imagine.

Nothing further of interest to report.

[Spring 92, 993 – Day 2]

Not recording why Dash asked us to turn around. Too stupid to contemplate. Funny, though. Besides, I gave her advice and redirected her to Chrysalis and a few books. She seemed satisfied with that.

I talked to everypony after that, and they took the whole long lost princess thing well. Twinkleshine and I talked further after that. Incidentally, I discovered an even stupider reason while we talked to turn around than the one Dash had. No comment on what it was.

Nothing further of interest to report.

[Spring 93, 993 – Day 3]

Twinkleshine said she’ll give me – and anypony who wants to listen – a rundown on how we’ll make a stop at the moon in a couple weeks. She wants to collect real flare-rate data before she commits to her plan.

Nothing further of interest to report.

[Spring 94, 993 – Day 4]

Nothing of interest to report.

I don’t know why I’m even bothering.

Twilight, can you help – is that the log? Oh my gosh! You’re actually keeping up with it! Can I see? Can I?

I guess? Go ahead.

Let’s see… Twilight, this is horrible.

Well what were you expecting? You’re the navigator. Isn’t this your job anyway?

No, no, no, no, no. I make log entries to keep track of where we are and where we’re going so we don’t get lost. That kind of stuff. I especially keep accurate recordings of the positions of the compasses pointing to the elements so I can check my math for consistency.

Well what exactly do you want? I’m not going to take very much time out of my nights for this. It’s just not that interesting for me.

Fine. Maybe I can help once in a while, but I know you can do better than this, Twilight. You’re just being lazy. How do we start a–

Oh, well I guess that works.

Yeah. This whole thing is kind of sketchy. I mean, word processing is all well and good, but this spell isn’t doing much beyond matching frequency patterns. It doesn’t really process; it just transforms sound to text. I still don't get why you won't let me just write normally.

Because that wouldn’t be in the right spirit.

Right… Well, the punctuation is good at least.

It is! So how would I go about saying–

Congratulations, you now have a useless entry.

Oh. Um…sorry. That’s kind of annoying. Well anyway, let’s have you try day one and two again. You can do our departure better justice than that.

*sigh*

Fine. But there are some parts that you won’t be allowed to read. I’ll alter the spell to encrypt those, all right?

I…guess that’s better than nothing. But I’ll still want to see what you’ve written later.

Yes, yes. That’s fine. What was it that you wanted anyway?

Nothing that can’t wait. I’ll come back later.

[Spring 91, 993 – Day 1, Take Two]

We were all prepared to leave at the end of spring. I’d spent most of the intervening time…

I’d spent most of the intervening time since Fluttershy, Dash, and Cherry Berry had signed on with Pupa, Twinkleshine, Spike, and the latter two’s replacements. We’d mostly chatted, read, played games, watched movies, and so on in an attempt to make us all like each other. As I’d previously noted to myself, Cadance was such a pain in the flank to work around.

We’d tested the waters, so to speak, and Cadance hadn’t objected when we swapped out Spike and his replacement. There had been an eye rub, but nothing more. Luna had been confident that Cadance would dismiss the changes as the random emotions of a newborn, and she had been proven right.

In Owlowiscious’s case, we’d simply decided that he ‘had flown away’ when I took him up to the Nebulous. We’d never actually put him in a cage or anything, so it wasn’t all that unlikely. I was actually a bit surprised that he’d stayed all this time, but that just showed what domestication did to animals. I’d put on a show of sadness, but nothing too dramatic.

Then when we’d replaced Twinkleshine, Cadance hadn’t so much as blinked. To be fair to her, though, she’d never spent much time with Twinkleshine, and we’d only given her a quick glance at the replacement.

Anyway, things had worked out as planned, and we were finally set to leave. I’d had my teary farewell with my parents – even though I’d still be able to talk to them through Queen Chrysalis and Pupa – and had left, leaving my new suppressor behind. It had taken the better part of a season, but one of Luna’s allies – somepony named Quartz, apparently – had managed to find another one for me to take with. Where he’d found it and how he’d obtained it without being arrested, I didn’t want to know. I shuddered at the mere thought that there was a viable market for them anywhere in the world.

Anyway, I teleported into an anonymous part of the Everfree just past the outskirts with Pupa. Queen Chrysalis was already waiting for us.

“Hello, Mother.” Pupa walked forward for a hug, melting the frown plastered on Queen Chrysalis’s face. They were never really apart, but changelings enjoyed physical affection just as much as ponies, and perhaps even more so.

Interrupting the awkwardly long hug, I asked, “May I assume you are the real Queen Chrysalis?”

“Yes,” was all Queen Chrysalis said.

Sighing, Pupa broke her hug. “Will you two stop all this silly nonsense. You can’t expect Twilight to feed you if you’re always holding her at a distance” – Pupa turned from Queen Chrysalis to me – “and you can’t expect to feed her if you’re all stiff and formal.”

Well…being casual was fine with me if Queen Chrysalis were willing. But it did seem she objected; the two of them were completely silent as they discussed something over the hive mind. I was so utterly jealous that I couldn’t communicate like that. It’d make life so much better, although I would want to have a mute button. Pupa had told me mental privacy was a privilege for changelings, not the norm.

Without warning, Queen Chrysalis half-shouted, “I am not calling her Princess Twilight!”

Princess Twilight? That was not going to happen. I’d seen the kind of stuff Cadance had put up with as just a…a lowercase p princess, and I wanted no part of it. Sure, I would help Luna with whatever she needed, but I’d much prefer the title ‘doctor’ over ‘princess’. Not that I couldn’t have both, I supposed, but there really wasn’t a point if I was going to seclude myself in a lab most of the year.

Now that I thought of it, I knew that except in certain contexts, the higher ranked title was used, but what about equally ranked titles? If I got multiple PhD’s – which I obviously would eventually – did the doctor titles stack? Sure it would sound ridiculous, but why would I not want to be called ‘Doctor Doctor Sparkle’? Well, besides the giggling.

Wait, giggling?

The source of the sound, Pupa, said, “If you’re not going to call her Princess Twilight, then I expect you to be fine with her not calling you Queen Chrysalis.”

After a few seconds of silence, Queen Chrysalis grumbled, “Fine.”

“Great!” After one last nuzzle, Pupa took my form. “Well then, I have a play date with my foalsitter. I’ll talk to you two later,” before teleporting away in a burst of raspberry flame with just the slightest hint of green mixed in.

Once I was sure Pupa wasn’t going to come back – I wouldn’t put it past her – I ventured to say, “I see you two have been getting along well again.”

“Ha.” Que – Chrysalis turned herself into light-gray unicorn mare. “My dear Pupa has the biggest heart of anyone ever – changeling, pony, or otherwise. She can be friends with anyone.”

“Yes, I can tell. She really… Oh.” In all my experience, I knew this was exactly the worst moment to apologize, so I kept my mouth shut before I put my hoof in it.

“Just keep your promises.”

A silence fell, and it took me some effort to break it. “Right… Well, are you ready to leave? Any last minute things you want to take with?”

“Let us be away from this place.” Chrysalis spaced out for a moment. By now I could recognize when a changeling was talking over the hive mind – at least when they weren’t trying to hide it – and that was definitely what Chrysalis was doing. “Let’s go.”

I giggled as I cast our first teleport. I just couldn’t help it. Chrysalis had probably just gotten another scolding from her daughter.

Chrysalis and I appeared on the bridge where there was a celebration of sorts already underway. Somehow even Fluttershy had been pulled away from her animals for it, and she wasn’t even trying to sneak away.

Pulling up on the needle of the phonograph, I cut the music. It took a minute or two for everypony to quiet down, and there were a scattered few greetings.

I cleared my throat and said, “I’m sure you all have already figured it out, but this is Chrysalis, Pupa’s mother and our connection back to Equus. If you want to find out what’s going on back at home, or anything else we’ve already discussed, talk to her.”

“Don’t you mean talk through her?” Dash asked, spilling much of whatever she was drinking. Judging by the flush in her face, I’d guess that she was half-drunk. Cherry Berry looked to be in a similar state, and even Fluttershy was unsteady on her hooves.

Berry Pinch and Spike were off playing together with some blocks far away from whatever drinks Berry Punch had been coerced into serving. Not that there was really any problem with Spike drinking alcohol; his stomach incinerated all alcohols and nearly every other toxin before they could get to his blood stream.

I sighed. “Yes, yes, Dash. Very funny. Oh, and if you ever feel a little weird around her” – I ignored Chrysalis’s glare – “tell her to ease up on the magic; it’s harmless in small doses.” As I could personally attest to from feeding Pupa for nearly two seasons.

I pulled Twinkleshine away as the music restarted and Dash began her line of questioning as to what magic Chrysalis should ease up on. Judging by Dash’s first guesses, she’d probably assumed I meant ‘if you feel aroused’ when I said ‘if you feel a little weird’. Although at the same time, I was sure Chrysalis knew plenty of seduction spells and other empathy magic, so perhaps that warning was justified as well.

“Before we get started,” I said to Twinkleshine, “I have to ask. You’re not drunk, right?”

“Wha – Twilight, I’m barely fourteen.”

I glanced back toward Dash, who was barely halfway between fifteen and sixteen. It only took Twinkleshine a couple seconds to figure out what I meant.

“I’m not like her!” whispered Twinkleshine.

“You should have seen Berry Punch before she signed on; she was a wreck. I mean, I don’t really care if you drink when you’re off duty – the only law out here is what we impose upon ourselves – just make sure you don’t hurt yourself.

“Or you can head over to the library and see if we have any alcohol related spells documented somewhere. Actually, I’m sure we do. I can’t imagine that they’re not listed in a book of medical spells somewhere. Chrysalis might know some her–”

Twinkleshine put a hoof on my withers. “Twilight, you’re rambling.”

“Right. Sorry.”

“It’s fine. It’s cute.”

Ugh. I was tired of being cute. Cute got no respect.

A memory flashed through my mind. Being called cute – or adorkable, or whatever – wasn’t so bad when Luna was the one saying it. Still, cute was suboptimal.

Ignoring Twinkleshine’s comment and most definitely not blushing at all, I said, “Anyway, we need to actually leave. You’re ready to take the wheel, right?”

I said, ‘take the wheel,’ but that didn’t accurately describe the situation. Creating a three dimensional steering wheel had proved awkward. Twinkleshine and I made one, but it was horribly unwieldy, even with telekinesis. As it stood, the ‘wheel’ for the ship was completely abstracted out into my enchantments. As such, only Twinkleshine and I, and probably Chrysalis, could interact with it.

“Well, I’m still a bit nervous. I mean, if we get lost, it’ll all be my fault. But yes, I’m about as ready as I’ll ever be.”

I nodded and gave Twinkleshine a smile. “You’ll do just fine. Give me a minute to switch the power source from Equus to me, and then feel free to set our course.”

First, I cast a simple illusion on my horn to prevent me from turning into a raspberry colored night light. Nopony would want my horn shining constantly whenever I was awake, least of all myself.

Next, I took a deep breath and took a firm stance. To minimize the amount of mental effort I needed to expend on this trip, every spell on the ship was a permanent enchantment that would run so long as it was fed enough magic. Then at the magical core of the ship, which was only accessible via teleport, there was a filtering enchantment that distributed magic to every other spell.

Being completely honest, I had no idea how that spell worked. Luna had directed me to an ancient research paper in Old Equestrian. From the sound of it, the only other places the spell was used was in Canterlot Castle and in the old castle, the intention being that Luna or Celestia would use it to power a ridiculous number of defensive wards when actually necessary.

It was kind of a shame nopony had found the spell interesting enough to translate and improve upon, but I could see why it wasn’t necessary in general practice. It was thousands of times easier to just let every enchantment be independently powered by the ambient magic of Equus, and spells that needed an alicorn to power them were few and far between in mundane life.

“We’re ready,” I whispered. It was going to take a while to get used to using this much magic constantly, although it should get a lot easier as I got older.

A short flash of panic swept through me as I felt my magic surge, but the surge quieted quickly enough when I pulled back on it; an outside source constantly siphoning my magic acted much like a suppressor. I allowed myself a quick sigh of relief while Twinkleshine was absorbed in her own spellwork and not paying attention.

Luna had drilled how to precisely control how much magic I used into me in my early education, but she never got around to teaching me anything about how to control my flares. It was pointless if I was going to ascend, after all. I’d always had a little luck with it, shockingly, but I suspected I’d be learning a lot about that on this trip from pure hooves-on experience.

“Aaaaand…we’re on our way,” Twinkleshine said as the ship did not lurch at all, just as usual. She levitated a nearby notebook and quill over to her and recorded our heading, the time, our acceleration, et cetera. Snapping the notebook shut, she said, “So?”

I paused to think for a few seconds, but my mind came up blank. “So what?”

“Ugh! Twilight, you promised to tell me…us what we’re going after once we left.”

“Oh. Well, I would, but…” I turned back toward the ongoing party. Berry Punch and Chrysalis were probably the only sober ponies at the moment, and Fluttershy and Dash were currently engaged in a rather passionate make out session. I briefly wondered how they were going to react to that once they sobered up; hopefully, it would be amusing.

“How about tomorrow morning over dinner slash breakfast?” I suggested.

My sleep schedule was still tied to Luna, but I was interested to see what would happen to everypony else. In a year or so, the sun wouldn’t be able to provide a reference point for their internal clocks, so there was no telling when they’d be sleeping.

Twinkleshine, rather than explicitly objecting, puffed out her cheeks and hummed angrily.

For my revenge, I said, “That’s cute.”

I fell over onto my chair in the library. It had taken me forever, but I’d finally found some useful information about the ice cream summoning spell Luna had taught me so long ago. And I’d found it completely by accident in an old book about zebra magic of all places. It was just a tiny little footnote, but it explained so much.

“‘Zebrican potion making is also commonly referred to as alchemy, which is not to be mistaken with the long disused field of unicorn magic known as alchemy despite their inherent similarities.’”

Now that I knew what I was looking at, it was actually pretty obvious Luna had taught me an alchemy spell. I could make sense of all of the subparts of the spell now, even if I still couldn’t understand them. That was why she’d needed to be outside. It wasn’t a summoning spell. It wasn’t a spell of creation. It just worked with what was already there and rearranged it.

“Oh stars. No wonder the spell is so complex. Yikes. I can understand why the field died out. There’d maybe be…a couple dozen unicorns that could do something that complex per generation, and that’s an optimistic guess. And the zebras could do effectively the same things with a tiny fraction of the magical and mental effort; it was only a matter of time before everypony lost interest.”

I closed the book with a sigh. Luna might have snuck a few books about unicorn alchemy into the gigantic list we had gathered, but it’d be a hundred times faster to just tell her I’d figured the spell out. She’d direct me to the right books if I had any.

A small smile found its way to my face despite my protestations. Based on the roundabout way she’d introduced the field to me, Luna was probably testing the limits of her patience while waiting to teach me alchemy. It had been far too advanced for me at the time – and probably still was – but I’d guess she’d introduced it anyway to sate her desire to teach it. She was probably betting on me taking long enough to discover alchemy for me to have all the prerequisite knowledge.

Well, I’d shown her!

It took a couple seconds for my brain to accept what I’d just thought, and the only proper response was to let my head slam on the library table. I’d never live it down if Trixie ever found out about that thought.

Veering away from that topic entirely, I set my mind to the task of figuring out what alchemy could do. There was the legend about the philosopher’s stone in zebra alchemy, and unicorn alchemy probably shared it, but if it were true, there’d be enough philosopher’s stones to pave the roads of Equestria. Nopony would be stupid enough to ignore a known immortality tool.

Maybe there’d be a lot of medical uses for unicorn alchemy as there was in zebra potion making. Then again, there were plenty of other specialized spells for healing, so that seemed a little unnecessary. Maybe healing spells weren’t as good as–

My eyes widened, and I went full bolt upright in my chair. Was the polymorph spell an alchemy spell? I had no idea; there were no extant unicorn shape shifters, at least none that I knew of. I certainly hoped it was. Stars, I wanted to learn the polymorph spell. Disregarding the thousands of other interesting uses for it, I really wanted to get used to having wings in the waking world.

I was broken from my glee when I heard the sound of hooves approaching. Twinkleshine must’ve woken up and come to make me tell her about the elements. I turned around in my chair, and to my great surprise, found myself looking at Dash, who was both in a library and not flying.

“What brings you here?” I asked.

“Nothing. Just – just looking for a certain book. You know, to kill some time with while everypony else wakes up.”

I raised an eyebrow. On a scale of Cadance to Celestia, Dash appeared to be a Cadance when it came to lying.

“What? It’s true!”

“Okay. Sure. What book are you looking for? I can probably find it right away for you.”

“Er… That’s okay, Twi. I – I’ve got this.”

“Whatever you say.” I gestured with a hoof at the cabinet Dash had passed by. “The index is in there. Just say the name of the book, and if we have it, the index card will pop out.” Instructions you wouldn’t have needed if you’d ever been to a library before.

“Right, right. Cool.” Dash walked over to the cabinet, and leaning in, whispered something.

I sighed. “You have to open it first, Dash.”

“I knew that.”

Now with the cabinet open, Dash whispered to it again. I resisted the temptation to cast a spell to listen in. When an index card came up, Dash shoved it back into the cabinet with her wings and slammed the door closed with her hooves.

“Heh. Heh, heh.” Dash spun around, leaning on the cabinet, her face bright red. “Turns out you don’t have it, Twi. We should turn around to go pick it up before we leave again.”

“Dash, are you regretting leave–”

“No, no, no!” Dash flew over to me in a blue blur. “Not at all! There’s just…something we forgot to bring. A book. Yeah. We forgot to bring my favorite book, and I’ll go stir crazy without it. You like books, right?”

I gave her my best ‘I didn’t believe a word you just said’ face. It wasn’t very hard to do. It mostly consisted of fancy eyebrow work and a smirk. The only part of that I did believe was that Dash had, not forgotten, but found out she hadn’t brought something she wanted.

“Sorry, but we’re not going to turn around without a good reason. If you want to actually tell me what it is you failed to think of after two seasons of packing, I might consider it.”

Dash just squirmed on her hooves.

“Well?”

“There are…certain…”

Okay, I somehow managed to pass from annoyed all the way around to curious. Just what was it that Dash wanted?

“You know how there are, well, only mares on this ship?”

“Spike,” I corrected Dash, holding back another smile. I’d already figured out what she wanted. Oh, this was going to be fun.

“Okay, sure. But he’s like, two or something.”

“Chrysalis, then. She can be whatever and whoever she wants.” I was reasonably sure that Dash knew that Chrysalis’s transformations weren’t superficial.

“I guess… But–”

“I’ve been thinking about learning a similar spell myself.”

“No, that’s not–” Dash sighed. “Look, a grown mare has certain needs.”

I finally let my smirk show. “Oh. You want to master–”

Dash flew forward and covered my mouth with her forehooves. “No.” When I was done laughing through her hooves, she let go and stepped back. “Look, it’s not like that. It’s…well, Fluttershy and I…”

“Oooooh, I see. So you and Fluttershy are going to take your friendship beyond drunken kissing?”

Her face first flashing through nearly the entire gamut of emotions, Dash finally said, “Yes. Maybe. I don’t know. But, I think I want to, and – you know – be prepared.”

“As much as I admire the sentiment, and I know you probably don’t want to take advice from somepony my age, you don’t need any props for sex. Just push her down onto a bed and do what comes naturally. You’ll both get better with practice.”

Dash looked unconvinced.

“If you want, I know we have at least one entire book on the subject.” I paused just long enough to let Dash realize what was coming. “But I’m sure you know that, too.” After laughing at Dash groaning in frustration, I eased up and said, “In all seriousness, we don’t need to turn around for this. Try without first, and then go to Chrysalis.”

Looking up and locking eyes with me, Dash asked, “Chrysalis? Really? Isn’t she, like, a queen?”

“Yes, but I wouldn’t be surprised. If she can’t help you, come back to me, and I’ll see what I can do for you. The unicorn part of the Kama Sutra is quite interesting, and it has nearly fifty pages just listing relevant spells.”

Dash’s jaw threatened to fall off as she futilely tried to form a coherent response. “Are – are you serious?”

“Oh yes. Quite serious. You know how ponies are. There’s nothing they won’t try to sexualize at some point, including magic. Anyway, you should definitely give the pegasus section a glance; I’d imagine you’ll be in for a few surprises.”

I got up and walked past Dash. It took a little bit of magical assistance, but I managed to run my tail along the tip of her muzzle as I walked past. The look on her face was priceless.

“Quick tip, Dashie.”

I giggled as she went from flummoxed to fuming, although that mood didn’t last long, either. I whispered in her ear with magic and faked a quick nibble on the same ear with telekinesis. It was hard not to laugh again when she started and blushed.

“It’s the little things that count most,” I continued, barely loud enough for Dash to hear. “Anypony can have sex, but only close friends can make love. Don’t neglect the emotional component of the act for the physical one.”

Sidling up to her, I leaned into her as she took a step back. A tremor ran through her as I slowly nuzzled her and held her forehoof with the lightest of touches in mine.

After a couple seconds, I whispered into Dash’s ear, “Now imagine if I were Fluttershy.”

Hearing the telltale sound of a tail rising, I abruptly broke away. Dash let out a small gasp, holding her neglected forehoof up to reach out to me before setting it back down slowly.

Before she could say anything, I said, “At least, that’s my understanding of it. Your results may vary. Again, I’d recommend talking to Chrysalis if you really want to learn.”

Dash gulped. “I-I-I n-need to go!” she whispered in an impressive impersonation of Fluttershy before bolting out of the library.

Once she was definitely out of earshot, I burst into giggles. That had been every bit as fun as I’d imagined it would be. I – I yawned. I was getting pretty hungry. Leaving my books where they were, I too left the library, heading toward the kitchen. Hopefully, Pinkie Pie would be awake.

I was halfway through my dinner when Dash finally dragged Fluttershy to the table for their breakfast. Fluttershy’s coat did absolutely nothing to hide her blush, and it seemed it wasn’t going to depart anytime soon. For her own part, Dash met my eyes for a moment and nodded slightly. I returned the gesture with a small smile.

Once both of them had taken their seats, Twinkleshine said, her tone betraying her impatience, “Okay, we’re all here now, Twilight. You’re going to tell us everything now, right?”

“Well, not everything–”

“Oh, come on!” Twinkleshine shouted practically into my ear from right next to me.

“–but most everything important,” I finished. I sent a quick glance Chrysalis’s way, and she rolled her eyes in return; I’d be having no untoward interruptions from her, it seemed.

“Alright, so I could just tell you what artifacts we’re recovering, but it wouldn’t mean anything to anypony but Chrysalis and myself. So without too many complaints, I think we need a history lesson.” I looked at Dash and got another eye roll for my trouble. “So can anypony tell me why Celestia rules Equestria?”

Right away, Pinkie Pie answered, “Because she’s the princess, silly.”

“That’s a tautology, Pinkie,” Twinkleshine said. “That’s like saying a beach is sandy because it has sand.” She turned to me and asked, “Right?”

I smiled and nodded.

“Then is it because she’s an alicorn?” asked Berry Punch.

“No,” I replied, “that’s a contributing factor, but it’s not the reason she rules.”

After a painfully, but not unexpectedly, long time, Cherry Berry suggested, “Because she defeated Discord?”

“More or less, yes. To be more precise, the feat allowed her to lead the rebuilding efforts of – well, there’s no nice way to put it – the cesspool of a civilization the world was left with. She wasn’t any better off herself in the knowledge and culture department, but having a constant guiding hoof through the ages does wonders for the march of progress.”

Celestia certainly was nothing if not an effective ruler. Whatever problems there were with her character, she could keep a civilization galloping forward. A couple thousand years of experience will make a pony good at anything, after all.

“So then, what would be the logical question to ask?”

Nearly in perfect unison, Twinkleshine and Cherry Berry said, “How did she do it?” The two looked at each other for a moment before Twinkleshine continued, “Defeat Discord, that is. He shouldn’t have had time to do so much damage if he were easily dealt with.”

I waited a moment for that to sink in for everypony, including Dash. “Exactly right, you two. I’m not sure what Discord is, but he’s stronger than both of Equestria’s diarchs put together.”

Stunned silence. Perfect.

The first to find her voice, Dash said, “Er…Twi, I think you’ve lost us.”

“I – um…” Fluttershy began, gently pulling on Dash’s wing, “I think that maybe she’s talking about Princess Cadance. Maybe.”

Leaning onto the table and whispering like there was somepony else around who could overhear us, Pinkie Pie said, “Do you mean Princess Cadenza? She’s only, like, twenty or something. Unless…” Pinkie Pie paused, drawing everypony but Chrysalis and I toward the edge of their seat. “Unless she’s a time traveler! What if she went back in time to help Princess Celestia defeat Discord and stuck around in some sort of stable time loop?”

“At the risk of my next meal,” Chrysalis interrupted. I wasn’t sure if that was actually directed at me or not. “Time travel magic is essentially impossible.”

Essentially? Chrysalis and I were going to have a chat later over a no doubt lovely breakfast and dinner.

“The restrictions on time travel spells render them effectively useless. At best, they are a ‘get out of death free’ card that can only be played once, to use a modern expression.”

As much as I liked what I’d just heard, this conversation was getting off track fast, and Chrysalis had just given Pinkie Pie an opportunity to break out her board games and permanently derail it.

Speaking above everypony else’s sidetalk, I said, “Cadance is a princess in the same sense that Blueblood is a prince. Well, more so, but she’s not a diarch. But before we get to that” – Twinkleshine nudged me with a hoof, nearly knocking me off my chair – “I’m sure you’ve all guessed, but we’re going to retrieve the set of artifacts that were used by both diarchs to defeat Discord: the Elements of Harmony.”

“So what do they do?” Dash asked, cutting right to the point.

“Well…not a whole lot, actually. As far as I know, they’re mostly used to imprison ponies in some form or another.”

“That doesn’t sound very harmonious,” Berry Punch commented.

“Kind of a misnomer,” added Dash, impressing me with her vocabulary for once.

Cherry Berry laughed dryly. “Better than some of the names other artifacts have: no ‘doom’ in the name or anything.”

I simply shrugged off the comments. “Anyway, disregarding the quality of the naming sense, when used against Discord, it resulted in his petrification. Later, against…well, you probably won’t recognize the name, but against Sombra, it was banishment. Admittedly, he wasn’t strong enough to warrant the use of the elements, but there were extenuating circumstances.”

“Just asking,” Cherry Berry began, “but there’s not a prophecy about Discord returning or something, right?”

“Well actually…” I trailed off suggestively, smiling.

The response to my teasing could kindly be referred to as negative. It mostly involved everypony but Fluttershy, Chrysalis, and myself trying to shout over each other. I casually took another bite of my dinner and enjoyed a silent chuckle.

Holding up my hooves after the panic no longer amused me, I said, “Okay, okay, I was just joking. You know, mostly. Discord is not looming ominously over Equus or anything like that, but there is a pony returning on the first day of the thousandth year. She unfortunately got in the line of fire of the elements, which is why Celestia put them out-of-the-way on the comet Mona for safe keeping.”

And that was probably more or less true for some interpretation of my words, even if it skipped a few logical steps.

“So are you talking about that other diarch you mentioned?” Twinkleshine asked.

Nodding, I said, “Yes. Princess Luna, Alicorn of the Night, Diarch of Equestria, Mistress of Dreams, et cetera, et cetera is Celestia’s sister and the other pony who was responsible for Discord’s defeat, although history has seen fit to forget her in her near-thousand year absence, among many other things.”

Pinkie Pie, crying overly dramatically in the same way she expressed every emotion, said, “That’s so sad! I’d hate to be separated from my sisters for a thousand years!”

Berry Punch scooted her chair away from Pinkie Pie to avoid getting wet. Sometimes I felt like Pinkie Pie needed to be put in a cage and studied for all the weird behavior she exhibited, not to mention her disregard for the laws of magic and physics. Now was a perfect example. Tears weren’t supposed to actually fly from her eyes; that was comic book stuff. The only thing that kept me from freaking out around her was my utter dearth of knowledge concerning earth pony magic.

Anyway, Fluttershy was the next to speak, barely above a whisper as usual. “Why hasn’t Princess Celestia kept Princess Luna’s memory alive? If – if you don’t mind me asking, that is. I’m sure the princess has a good reason and all.”

I kept myself from sighing or frowning. “I’m sorry, Fluttershy, but I can’t answer that question right now. It’s a–”

“State secret,” Dash finished for me. “What isn’t with you?”

Cherry Berry put a hoof over Pinkie Pie’s mouth and held it there while she said, “So before somepony leads us off topic, I need to ask. Are we on an epic quest to reimprison this Princess Luna?”

Deep breath, Twilight. In, and out. “No,” I said calmly. We were on a quest to do the exact opposite, but excepting Chrysalis, we weren’t close enough yet for me to tell them that and to expect any good to come of it. “Luna is my dear mentor and my closest friend.”

I barely caught it underneath Pinkie Pie saying, “Aw, sounds like somepony’s got a crush on her teacher,” but I did hear Twinkleshine’s quiet inhale of breath.

Whoops. I turned to her and quickly whispered, “We need to talk in private after this.”

Twinkleshine nodded – a very small gesture that probably only indicated she’d heard me – but her eyes were distant and unfocused.

Sighing inwardly, I turned back to the rest of the table, torn between dropping the conversation and running off with Twinkleshine and finishing it. In the end, my professionalism got the upper hoof, and I fully returned my attention to the briefing.

Snickering, Dash said, “You know, Twi, Princess Luna is just gonna end up back in jail if you put those moves you showed me on her.”

Laughter, choking, and spit takes were the response to that statement, with Chrysalis and Pinkie Pie in Dash’s laughing camp.

“Dash!” Berry Punch shouted. “That is – I’m sure she’d never–”

Veering the topic at a complete right angle, Cherry Berry hastily asked, “So how are you Princess Luna’s student if she’s…”

“Banished,” I finished, helping Cherry Berry out.

Interrupting as usual, Pinkie Pie said, “Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Are you a time traveler from the past? I mean, we’re all time travelers from the past, but are you from the past past, because that’d be super duper amazing! What was life like back then? Do you know the lost recipe for the fourth flavor?”

“Er…words to the effect of no,” I answered. “I mentioned that Luna is the ‘mistress of dreams’. She’s able to communicate with ponies while they’re sleeping.”

“Huh,” Cherry Berry said. “I wasn’t expecting that.”

“Can I meet her?” Pinkie Pie asked. Gasping, she added, “Has she even had a party in the last thousand years?”

“Probably…not,” I ventured to say.

“Not even birthday parties?”

“Maybe? It’d just be a party of two. I mean, she and I have had a few small celebrations, but she’s old enough that birthdays aren’t really that important to her anymore.”

“Not important?” Pinkie Pie shouted. “This needs to be corrected pronto!” She vanished in a blur of pink out the door at a speed Dash would’ve been proud of. What she intended to do, I didn’t want to know. I silently promised to apologize to Luna later.

After a long silence in which I, at least, if not everypony else, had to focus on not contemplating the dread Pinkie Pie, Cherry Berry said, “Disregarding… Hmm… Anyway, I’d like to meet Princess Luna, too.”

“Me three,” Dash said. “Princess Cadance was cool and all, but meeting somepony like Princess Celestia would be amazing.”

“I’d like to be added to the list,” Berry Punch said. “I take it she’s the sponsor of this trip, and I’d like to say my thanks.”

Nodding, I asked, “Anypony else?”

Twinkleshine silently raised her hoof.

“Alright, I’ll pass along your requests when I go to bed, but I will tell you this in advance. Luna is not like Celestia at all, and you’ll hurt her if you go in expecting a carbon copy of her sister.” I looked to Dash in particular, but it didn’t look like she noticed.

“Anyway,” I continued, rising from my chair, “I’m getting a bit tired, so Twinkleshine and I need to be about our duties before I go to bed.”

Departing the table, I sent a small nod toward Chrysalis, who returned the gesture. She’d be in charge of sustaining the life support spells while I slept. While we wouldn’t die if they were disabled for eight hours a day, it was far better not to take any unnecessary risks, and Chrysalis had more than enough magic to take up the rather light burden. The shields in particular were important; if we ran into any space dust, it’d tear a hole straight through the ship without shielding.

Once I’d reached the door, Twinkleshine finally arose from her chair and trotted over to catch up with me, falling into step silently at my side.

On the bridge, Twinkleshine and I had quickly finished the few measurements we needed to take, including the precise time that I stopped accelerating the ship. While she could, to frighteningly fine precision, calculate our location based on the positions of the stars, Twinkleshine felt far more comfortable having a secondary set of information to check against, which was something I highly approved of.

What I didn’t approve of was the stifling silence hanging between us.

“Twinkleshine–”

“Twilight–”

I held out a hoof, gesturing for her to go first.

Gulping, Twinkleshine nodded. “Twilight, are you and Princess Luna planning to overthrow Princess Celestia?”

After a second of complete silence, I felt my head mechanically tilt to the left as if it were the second hand of a clock.

“Sorry! It’s just, I know you’re not on good terms with the princess, and we’re going to retrieve the…the Elements of Harmony, which you said can banish alicorns for a thousand years. And you’ve made it clear to me at least that the princess doesn’t know about this” – Twinkleshine gestured to the ship with a hoof – “so I thought…you know.”

Regaining my ability to think properly, I said, “No. No, that’s fine. I just – I was expecting a completely different question. Okay, wow. So to answer your question as posed, yes. Can you accept that?”

“I…I don’t know.” Twinkleshine looked away, unable to meet my gaze. “Nopony deserves a thousand years of banishment, no matter what they’ve done.”

“We agree.”

Twinkleshine’s eyes widened for a moment as she looked up and met mine, but the surprise was soon replaced by confusion.

“Then why are we going to Mona?”

“To break the elements. It’s funny, really. Celestia could make this trip in a couple hours. The hard part for her isn’t the distance, or anything even remotely related to it. For her, the hard part is finding the exact position of Mona. I can just imagine the look on her face when she comes to retrieve the elements and finds out she can’t use them to banish Luna again.”

“Then she really…”

I nodded.

“How could she do that? To her own sister even. She always seemed so nice and gentle when she visited the school. She’d even talk to anypony who talked to her. That’s… I – I really don’t know what to say.”

I left Twinkleshine to her own thoughts for seven seconds short of five minutes by the clock. While I was sure I could talk her into just about anything, the need wasn’t there. Her own words had already all but condemned Celestia.

“Twilight,” Twinkleshine began, her voice barely a whisper, “what do you two plan to do with the princess?”

“Nothing too bad; we certainly have no interest in creating a mad goddess to complement Discord by imposing a thousand years of solitude upon her. Luna and I are not so cruel, even if Celestia intended to do as such to Luna.”

I sighed at the bite in my voice. Despite how true it was, I hadn’t planned for that to come out quite so harsh. Twinkleshine didn’t appear off-put by it. In fact, there was a small smile on her face, one that I returned with little effort.

“Disregarding other precautions we have to take, we intend to put her into a magically induced sleep for…an indeterminately long time.”

Not that we could actually do much more than that without crippling ourselves, but Twinkleshine didn’t need to know that. Celestia was as unkillable as any other alicorn, and the magic required for a banishment spell scaled roughly linearly with the magic of what you were banishing. Banishing Celestia would effectively reduce one of us to unicorn levels of magic or both of us to half Cadance’s strength, since the spell would need to be recast over and over again, and neither were acceptable options.

And honestly, we really weren’t that cruel, no matter how much Celestia deserved it.

Now it was Twinkleshine’s turn to sigh. Fortunately, it was a sigh of relief. “What about Princess Cadance? I know I’ve only met her a few times, but she seemed really nice. What happens to her?”

“Nothing. I love Cadance, and Luna has nothing against her.” As an afterthought, I added, “And my brother would never forgive me if I ever let anything happen to her.”

Giggling, Twinkleshine said, “He wasn’t very subtle when I saw them together, was he?”

“Heh. No, he wasn’t. He still thinks it’s a secret, though. He really turns into a big idiot around Cadance. To be fair to both of them, they tone it way down in public. Still, I’d have to have my nose in a book every waking moment not to notice.”

“Don’t you?” Twinkleshine smiled and gently bumped me on the shoulder with a hoof.

“Pft, I wish.” Once our giggling had died down, I asked, “So are you okay with this?”

“Well…no. And yes. I’d rather everypony be happy, but I guess I understand it, at least.”

“That’s good enough,” I said, stepping forward to nuzzle Twinkleshine. “Thank you for understanding. You’ll keep this a secret for now, right?”

Returning my nuzzle, Twinkleshine said, “Of course, Twilight. I’ll always keep your secrets.”

I took a deep breath, idly noticing that Twinkleshine smelled nicer than I remembered. “I don’t know what I’d do without you on this trip. I think the rest of our little family here would drive me insane.”

“Glad to be of help.”

Breaking away, I said, “See you tomorr…” A horrible thought struck me. “Oh, horseapples.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Did we bring enough shampoo?”

Twinkleshine’s eyes widened.

“No, this is ridiculous. We’re not turning around for shampoo. I – I need to go to bed, but first thing in the afternoon, we need to scour the library for instructions on how to make it.”

“I’ll get started right now,” Twinkleshine offered.

“Great! It would be humiliating to have to ask Luna or Chrysalis to find out how to make shampoo – magically or otherwise – for me if there’s any way at all we can avoid it.”

“Understood, Captain Sparkle.”

As Twinkleshine cantered off, I called out, “And make sure this stays secret!”

Nothing further of interest to report.

Author's Notes:

Fun with color!

Now featuring a named prereader – Starlight Nova

Chapter Fourteen - Darker Matters - Part One

[Summer 15, 993 – Day 25]

Luna finally got around to meeting Twinkleshine tonight, which makes her the fourth and last pony to do so. I now have three concurring opinions that Luna should visit a dentist. Pinkie Pie being the dissenter – naturally – who thinks Luna looks like an alligator.

I still don’t know what madness possessed that mare to get an alligator for a pet.

I suppose it also bears mentioning that Dash thinks Luna’s teeth look cool. However, for what was probably the first time in her life, she agreed that functionality is more important than awesomeness in this case – or radness, or whatever. I can’t remember what word she used exactly.

Anyway, I’m glad it went over so well. Pinkie Pie and Dash can be more than a little rude, and they live life completely at their own pace. On the other hoof, Luna can be a bit intimidating when she’s in full regalia, although she’s been forgoing most of it in the past few seasons.

Huh. Now that I point it out to myself, I think that last time I saw her all dressed up was…

*hmm*

I think it was a couple weeks before…er…Hearth’s Warming.

*cough*

Odd.

Nothing further of interest to report.

As soon as she came into view, I ran up to Luna and nuzzled her. I was just barely up to her chest in height now, so it wasn’t nearly as awkward for either of us as it used to be. Well, I was if I leaned into her while standing on two hooves.

It still counted.

“So how did you find Twinkleshine?” I asked.

“Vicious and predatory.”

Jumping back, I shrieked, “What?” Looking up, Luna was silently laughing as if she’d just told a joke, but she certainly hadn’t sounded like it. “What did she do?”

“Mostly she sat and listened as I told her stories of the stars long forgotten, but she had a few questions as well.”

When Luna didn’t continue, I asked, “And?”

“Hmm? And what?”

“Luna, what did Twinkleshine do to you? Was she rude, or mean, or – or what?”

Chuckling, Luna said, “No, she was a very sweet filly. My niece did well to introduce the two of you.”

“But – but you said you found…” The precise wording I’d used finally clicked, and I stomped my hoof. “I am not amused.”

“Perhaps,” Luna replied, dragging the word out teasingly, “but you are adorable when you’re frustrated.”

Blushing, I turned away from Luna. The eye contact wasn’t helping me stop being adorable in the least.

“So what was she dreaming about?”

“Oh, nothing too important.”

“Really? You can tell me.”

“Twilight,” Luna began, placing a hoof on my muzzle to guide me back to her eyes, “dreams are private matters, and I will not reveal them without permission. Well, except when–”

“–there is a serious need to,” I finished for her, my flat tone relaying my opinion for me.

A wicked grin grew on Luna’s face, showing off her teeth. “I suppose in such circumstances as well, but I was going to say except when I can use it to tease my friends.”

Gasping, I said, “You wouldn’t.” My mind was already replaying several mortifying dreams I’d had that I knew Luna had seen before interrupting them.

Luna just sat there, staring at me while smiling and silently laughing.

“Please, Luna, don’t.” I really didn’t like how that came out as borderline begging.

“I make no promises.”

Ugh. I needed to distract her quickly before she got any bad ideas. Remembering my idle thoughts from before I’d gone to bed, I asked, “Luna, why are you only wearing your tiara?”

“Huh?”

“I just realized that you haven’t worn your full regalia in a while, but Twinkleshine told me you’d had it all on.”

I caught the slightest hesitation in Luna’s answer, one most ponies wouldn’t have noticed. “Is there something wrong with that?”

“Well, no. I was just–”

Looking herself over, Luna interrupted, “I’d be quite embarrassed if it’s been covering up something strange that I haven’t noticed. It wasn’t, was it?”

“No! You’re beautiful, Luna! I was just–” My brain caught up to what I’d said. Blushing once again, I finished, “I was just wondering why.”

“Hmm. I don’t really have any particular reason. Just letting my mane down, I suppose. I must admit I’ve never had much room in my heart for horseshoes or greaves, nor for any clothing, to be honest.” Pulling off her tiara with a hoof, Luna added, “Even this little thing can be quite tiring.”

Luna threw her crown off into the distance, and I watched it dissolve into nothing; it was, after all, just a figment of Luna’s imagination. When I looked back to her, the tiara was already back atop her head.

“I completely understand,” I said. I’d never understood why anypony wore clothing, let alone liked it. Mare’s clothing was especially bad. Dresses were horribly uncomfortable, not to mention that accommodating our tails had a horrible tendency to make us look ridiculous.

Cutting off my train of thought, Luna said, “You understand nothing.”

I jumped back in surprise. Luna’s words somehow sounded frighteningly loud, but she hadn’t so much as raised her voice.

“You have not faced the true horrors of having a half-dozen mares obsessing over your appearance and throwing a fit at the mere suggestion of having a single eyelash out of place. At the worst of times, they wouldn’t even let me preen myself.”

A dangerous glint entered Luna’s eye, and I took a step back.

“You once said you wanted to know everything…”

I gulped. “When I said everything, I didn’t mean everything everything. There are some things in this world that are better off left mysteries.”

“Oh, come now,” Luna said, her horn glowing ominously. I felt her magic washing over me, refusing to be denied its purpose despite my resistance. “That’s not like my little Twilight Sparkle. Let us…learn.”

Some horrible time later – I still couldn’t tell time in a dream, but I was sure it’d been at least an hour – I sat in Luna’s hooves, her magic working a brush through my mane far more gently than the rest of the process had been. The only thing that had made the experience bearable was Luna talking about alchemy though…well, not through most of it, but during some of the slower periods.

I had an admittedly nice cross between a dress and a cloak on – the last in a long line of options Luna had seen fit to dress me up in. I was in no mood to admit it to her face, but she had a decent sense of fashion, or at least I thought she did. Light blue matched my coat well, and the silver trim highlighted the entire ensemble well without descending into frilliness.

“You were right,” I mumbled.

“Hmm? Right about what?”

“About…that. I really didn’t understand.”

“I’m glad I could help.” I could practically hear Luna’s smirk. “Now you can’t say I never warned you about how terrible the life of a princess can be.”

“Luna, do I…” Asking the question somehow felt wrong, like returning a bad Hearth’s Warming present given in earnest.

Momentarily halting her ministrations mid-stroke, Luna asked, “What is it?”

“I – do I really have to be a – a princess?” There, I’d said it. With any luck, Luna wouldn’t be too upset.

We were both perfectly silent for a moment, and then Luna returned to brushing my mane.

“Do you not want to be an alicorn?”

Immediately, I shouted, “No, of course not! There’s almost nothing I’d give that up for!”

“Almost nothing? And what would you give up your ascension for?”

“Oh, um, nothing in particular comes to mind – just ill-defined outlier cases.”

“I see.”

I silently sighed to myself, glad that Luna didn’t follow up on her question. I didn’t really want to put to words all of the horrible potential futures my very creative imagination could come up with, even less so to the pony whose terrible fate played a central role in nearly all of them.

“So then,” Luna began, “what’s the problem? Is ‘princess’ too much of a downgrade from ‘goddess’?”

“What? No, I–”

“Canst thee not bringest thyself to consort amongst the mortals in thy future station, o divine one?”

“Luna, stop teasing me.” I tried to turn to face her, but Luna wasn’t having it; I was stuck firmly within her hooves while she continued to brush my mane. “That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”

“Perhaps so, but it’s just too easy. You can consider it a lesson, if you want. Everything you say will be subjected to intense scrutiny as a princess.”

“Is that a yes, then?” I asked.

Sighing, Luna said, “Twilight, let me share something with you. Even at its worst, to Equestria, I was still its princess. Of course, I was the evil princess of darkness seeking to corrupt my shining sister who could do no wrong, but I was still their princess. It doesn’t matter whether or not you accept a title, or wear a crown, or anything else. The very moment you ascend is the moment the world stops seeing Twilight Sparkle the pony in favor of Princess Twilight Sparkle the goddess.”

So I didn’t have a choice in the matter. Great. I could always disguise myself as a regular old unicorn if I needed to, but I found the idea distasteful. I shouldn’t have to hide who I was to be treated as who I was.

And I sort of really liked wings.

With a muted thump, I felt something drop onto my head, and the brushing stopped. I tried looking up, but Luna’s hoof held my head level as she adjusted whatever she’d put on me.

“There. You look like a proper little princess now.”

“Wonderful,” I said, rolling my eyes and casting a scrying spell to look at my head. Luna had placed a smaller replica of her own tiara on me, except mine was silver – platinum, maybe – instead of dark blue. “And it only took most of the night.”

“Well, professionals are faster…” Luna said, trailing off to suggest she shared my opinion.

“Isn’t there, like, an instant makeover spell or something?”

Luna shrugged. “I’m afraid I spent more time avoiding makeovers than trying to optimize them. Something which…became much easier over the centuries.”

I spun in place and latched onto Luna in a hug. Luna brought a hoof to rest on my mane. She probably would have rubbed it if she hadn’t just spent ten minutes brushing it to perfection.

Eventually, Luna asked, “Twilight, what are you going to do on my moon?”

“Um…nothing, I guess. I hadn’t really thought about it much.”

The plan was to retrieve the elements as late as possible, and delaying our departure wasn’t really a good idea. Stopping at the moon was a good way to burn the extra travel time, whatever other personal sentiments it held for me.

“Are there any interesting sights to see?” I asked.

“Twilight, are you expecting tourist traps on the moon?”

“No, not at all.” That’d be like expecting an attraction in the badlands back on Equus. Well, there was Mizyl Rock, but that was a naturally forming magical curiosity.

“That’s a shame,” Luna lamented. “They could really use the tourism. The moon has zero incoming revenue these days. Quite unfortunate, really.”

“Okay, okay. I can take a hint. What should I visit while I’m there?”

“Well, there are two or three craters that have a sort of raw, natural beauty you might appreciate–”

I was skeptical of that. I’ve seen and made a lot of craters in my day, and if you’ve seen one crater, you’ve seen them all.

“–but there’s also a few interesting magical sites you would enjoy.”

“There’s magic on the moon?”

“There’s a lot of magic on the moon, Twilight – more than on Equus, actually.” I unconsciously pulled myself closer to Luna, and before I noticed what I was doing, Luna half-whispered, “That magic isn’t there because of my banishment. Don’t let it bother you.”

Releasing my vice-like grip on her, I settled for simply leaning into Luna again. “Sorry.”

I still couldn’t help but wonder how much of the magic on the moon was literally Luna in her banished state. I barely suppressed a shudder at the thought of using Luna like a sacrifice to cast a spell. It was a whole new level of creepy which I’d prefer to never think about again.

The subject forgotten, Luna said, “But there is one other place… How long were you planning to stay on the moon?”

After a second for my brain to catch up and to realize I’d been asked a question, I said, “As close to exactly one day as possible.”

“Hmm. In that case, you should seek shelter at my vacation home after you’re done sightseeing.”

What? I awkwardly broke away from Luna and fell backward onto my haunches to stare up at her. Her face was completely serious. “You have a vacation home on the moon?” At Luna’s nod, I asked, “You’re not just teasing me?”

“No, Twilight. I’m afraid it’ll lack many of the modern conveniences you enjoy back on Equus, and even on the Nebulous, but so long as your Old Equestrian hasn’t gotten rusty, you’ll find the servants accommodating enough to make your stay quite pleasant.”

After working to pull up my jaw, I asked, “There are ponies living on the moon? Moon ponies?”

“Yes. Unfortunately, I was never good enough with golems to make the Lunar Palace self-sustaining. That was one of my bitter failures.”

“No, no, no. That’s completely missing the…golems? That sounds – no, I’m not getting distracted. There are ponies on the moon?”

Nodding, Luna said, “Their population is fairly stable at approximately two-hundred, plus or minus a dozen or so. I never told my sister about my home away from home, so the original generation was stranded there. It was, perhaps, a stroke of luck, as it allowed the subspecies of lunar pegasi to endure.”

“Wait, wait, wait. Are you talking about bat ponies? They’re real?”

“Well, that is one of their many names. Thestrals would be one of the more morbid options, but I assure you that they can be seen without watching somepony die, nor are they animated skeletons, and they certainly won’t feast on your blood. Other than the cosmetic differences, they are exactly the same as any other pegasus; everything else is just superstition.”

“I…I see.” Slightly embarrassed by the terseness of my response, I forced myself to ask, “What happened? Did Celestia genocide them?”

“No, the disappearance of lunar pegasi is one of the few things my sister has not had a hoof in. They are, in theory, still around on Equus, but I don’t believe any full blooded ones have been born in eight- to nine-hundred years; their genes are all recessive, and bringing together all of the ones necessary to get a proper lunar pegasus almost never happens.”

“So they just evolved into near extinction?” I couldn’t figure out if that was sad or not. If that were the case, it wasn’t like they were gone, just…different.

Nodding, Luna said, “It really is a shame. There’s something wonderfully exotic about them that I find fascinating.”

Note to self: Luna finds bat ponies appealing. I was about to ask for more details when a thought struck me. Letting my curiosity rule me, I asked the almost positively rude question, “Are your eyes natural?”

“Ah…” Luna sighed, and a frown found its way onto her face. “No, they’re not. I’ve always wished they were, though.”

Well, in for a penny, in for a pound. “And the teeth?”

This time it was Luna’s turn to blush and turn away. “I…may have a gem addiction.”

“You have a…gem…addiction? I – I don’t understand.” There were too many questions competing for my attention, each demanding to be answered immediately. “Just – just how?”

“Well, you see, alicorns can use any type of magic.” Luna blew a short burst of cyan dragonfire to prove her point. “My sister and I generally downplayed that fact to make us seem less…alien to ponies, and at first to make us seem less like Discord in our ability to do just about anything.”

“And that includes the magical digestion of dragons?” I asked, to which Luna nodded. “Do alicorns have some sort of expanded diet? Do you have to eat gems like dragons do?”

“No, we don’t actually have to eat at all. It’s…recreational. And again, it makes us seem less alien if we do.”

Huh. Well, it wasn’t like I was much one for food anyway. I’d probably starve to death as a unicorn if I didn’t have somepony feeding me, and that was really embarrassing when I could just go outside and graze in the worst case. Okay, maybe I wouldn’t starve to death, but I’d almost certainly be malnourished.

“So…” I began, torn between addressing the elephant in the room and leaving it alone. As usual, I asked the question. “How did you…you know?”

Luna took a deep breath and then answered, “Never challenge a dragon to an eating contest.”

“Oh.”

We sat there in an awkward silence for some while before I asked, “So what do they taste like? Gems, that is, not dragons.”

I got a small laugh from Luna. “They vary wildly depending on the crystal structure, as well as the material it’s made of. Impurities are like spices. The quartz family is what I like the most – citrine and amethyst in particular. They’re a lot like rock candy, but a thousand times better.”

Luna’s horn lit up as she licked her lips. An amethyst the size of my hoof popped into existence. I watched her stick the gem into her mouth whole and saw her bite it in half with all the difficulty of eating bread. It was, in its own weird way, fascinating to watch a pony eat a gem.

Then again, maybe it was just that Luna was older and had table manners, rather than that she was a pony; Spike tended toward gnawing on his food, or failing that, to melt it as he sucked on it, which while entertaining, was often a pain to clean up.

“Oh my gosh!” Luna said through her full mouth. “It’s. So. Good!” Swallowing, she continued, “I’d say you should try some, but you really shouldn’t.”

“Is this why Spike gets really upset if I try to take a gem away from him?” I asked, alarm creeping into my voice as I realized exactly what I was implying. “Am I feeding him drugs?”

“Oh, no. He needs gems in his diet, especially if he’s not getting meat.”

I shivered a bit a the reminder that Spike was an omnivore. I’d filled the Nebulous’s rainwater lake with fish before we’d left to feed to Spike, but Fluttershy was having qualms about it, and she’d reinfected me with them, too. Watching Spike tear flesh from bone was a little scary, and the first time I’d watched him do it was nearly traumatizing.

“Anyway,” Luna said, putting a hoof on my withers, “dragons have an instinctual urge to hoard; they hate it when you try to take anything away from them. Just keep doing what you are, and I’m sure he’ll grow up into a wonderful, and reasonable, young drake.”

“Thanks, Luna,” I said, stepping forward to nuzzle her.

Luna diverted my affection with a hoof. “After all that work earlier, you want to ruin it by rubbing your face all over me?”

“Oh. Right.”

“Unless, of course, you want to go through the entire process again?”

“N-no! I’m good! Thanks, but no thanks!”

Giggling, Luna said, “Oh well. Now I do believe we’ve gotten way off topic. Do you remember where we left off earlier?”

“Um… I think it was transmutation. Specifically, state changes and why I shouldn’t make…um…”

“Plasmas?” Luna suggested.

“Right. I shouldn’t make those because I’ll probably ‘vaporize myself’.”

“More or less, yes. They seem to be responsive to magnetic fields, but being sublimated is never a pleasant experience, alicorn or otherwise, so I’d suggest avoiding them altogether.”

[Summer 16, 993 – Day 26]

Okay, quick note. I’d never noticed it before, but Fluttershy has tiny little fangs among her teeth. Apparently she has bat…er, lunar pegasus ancestry. Or at least a fair number of their genes.

Nothing further of interest to report.

[Summer 20, 993 – Day 30]

After some delays, Twinkleshine finally got around to giving her presentation detailing our trip. I’m sure she’s going to badger me into recording it despite it clearly being within her purview, so here we go.

Cherry Berry and Fluttershy came to listen to Twinkleshine. Chrysalis was busy dealing with something back on Equus, so she asked for a summarized version later. In my opinion, I think she was just looking for an excuse to politely decline. I think Dash and Pinkie Pie were in a prank war at the time, so they declined. Not that either of them were particularly interested to begin with, especially the former. Berry Punch, the only pony with a real excuse, was looking after the foals.

Anyway, we’d found ourselves a nice, cozy spot in the library.

“I was kind of hoping for a better turnout than this…”

“Don’t take it personally, Twinkleshine,” said Cherry Berry. “Berry Punch is legitimately preoccupied, and Chrysalis is…”

“Making herself busy so she doesn’t have to sit through this,” I finished for Cherry Berry. “She’s just grumpy, though. She’ll become friendlier eventually” – not that I was one to talk – “or else she’ll suffer the dread and terrible wrath of her daughter.”

“And what would that be?” asked Twinkleshine.

“Probably the silent treatment.” Which compared to a regular pony, was doubly hard for a changeling to pull off at all, and infinitely more effective when Pupa brought that most fearsome weapon to bear against Chrysalis. It had taken but ten minutes before Chrysalis had cracked the last time I’d witnessed it.

Rolling her eyes, Twinkleshine said, “How scary.”

Well, if I were in constant telepathic contact with somepony, and they suddenly went silent, I’d be pretty edgy and worried, too, even if I knew they were alright. Or at least I imagined I would be.

“Right. The point is,” began Cherry Berry, “two of them are busy in their own way, and the other two are the completely wrong target audience for this kind of stuff. I’d be surprised if Dash could stay awake through this and even more surprised if Pinkie could sit still that long.”

“Excuse me,” Fluttershy whispered, “but Dash can too stay awake.” When Cherry Berry turned toward her, Fluttershy continued, “Er… That is, she always could in school. Sort of. Not that she paid attention…but she didn’t fall asleep.”

Cherry Berry blew a lock mane out of her eyes with far more force than necessary, but didn’t say anything. I knew she and Dash were butting heads a lot recently over the whole amateur versus professional adventurer thing, but I hadn’t realized they’d moved past shouting and onto passive aggressiveness.

“Why don’t we just move on to the actual presentation?” I suggested.

Twinkleshine looked straight at the floor. “Um…sure. So the moon. Yes, the moon. That’s, uh, where we’re going.”

Sighing, I got up from my cushion to hug Twinkleshine. I took her a while, but eventually her knees stopped shaking. “You’re just talking to friends, Twinkleshine. It’s not really public speaking, and there’s no ill will here.” Breaking apart, I said, “Remember, you’re not giving a speech. You’re just sharing your notes. Okay?”

Twinkleshine took a slow, deep breath. “Okay. I – I think I’m good.”

I took a moment to give Twinkleshine a smile before turning and retaking my seat.

“Okay, okay. So…the moon. It’s not that far away, but there’s a big obstacle we have to avoid, so we’re going to act like a comet and go whoosh” – Twinkleshine nearly fell over using her forehooves for emphasis – “right by it…and that’ll make it easier to chart a course to Mona, too, since we’ll be be mostly following the same path. Questions?”

Cherry Berry coughed.

“Um…Twinkleshine? Do you think you could…expand on that just a little bit?” Oh, why did Twinkleshine have to make that sad face? I was just trying to help. “Maybe you could start by explaining why we’re taking a detour on our detour? Remember, you’re talking to two layponies and a hobbyist.”

“R-right. So…the universe is a paraboloid of revolution–”

Sigh. It seemed I still needed to work on Twinkleshine’s communication skills.

“–and we’re near the bottom where all the–”

“Excuse me,” Fluttershy whispered. Twinkleshine cringed a little, but she stopped and waited for Fluttershy to speak. “I”m sorry – it’s probably my fault for being terrible in school – but what’s a parabloid of revolution?”

A look of recognition flashed through Twinkleshine’s eyes. “Oh! Uh, it’s paraboloid, by the way, although they don’t sound that different.”

“Sorry.”

“I didn’t mean–”

Interjecting myself into the conversation, I said, “We’re all learning here, you two. Questions and mistakes are nothing to be ashamed of or to get worked up over. Just…you know…relax.”

“Sor–”

I cut Fluttershy off with a look.

Meanwhile, I could hear Cherry Berry sigh, apparently finding this as frustrating as I did. “You were saying?” she said.

“Um…so paraboloids of revolution are what you get when you spin a parabola about its ver – er, about the lowest point of the parabola, which is called the vertex. You all know what a parabola is, right?”

All three of us nodded our heads.

“Great. So it’s like a cone but less pointy. In it, there’s a point called the focus, and–”

“Quick question,” Cherry Berry interrupted. “You said we were near the bottom earlier. Are we… I guess what I want to ask is, is there an edge to the universe?”

“Yes! Yes, there is. Equus is actually really close to it. We’re near the bottom of the universe, but there doesn’t seem to be any end to space above us – at least none that we can observe. Oh, and when we look at really old stuff, there’s this weird disconnect where everything just goes crazy and seems to do whatever it feels like for no reason.”

My breath caught, I barely managed to ask normally, “Twinkleshine, when did that happen?” Her answer was going to confirm or deny one of my biggest fears.

“Um… If I remember correctly…it starts approximately fifteen-hundred years ago and ends about four-thousand years ago. It’s hard to be exact though since we have to look at stars way far away from Equus to see the ripple effects of whatever happened. Why do you…”

Even as Twinkleshine’s eyes lit up, I had to suppress a sigh of relief. If the stars were still moving fifteen-hundred years ago, that almost certainly meant that Luna had only been banished once.

Gasping, Twinkleshine asked, “Twilight, can Princess Luna move the stars?”

“Yes, but let’s save that discussion for another time, alright?”

After going through her usual motions of humming and pouting to no effect, Twinkleshine said, “Fine.”

Seeing her falter as she struggled to remember what she’d been discussing, I said, “You were telling us about Polaris?”

“Oh, right. So Polaris, the Southern Star – typically called the North Star for non-cosmographical, historical reasons – the brightest star in the sky, et cetera, isn’t actually a star. Just like the moon and sun, you can see it from anywhere on Equus, and the further south you go, the bigger it gets. And now I remember that I haven’t explained what a focus is.”

“I know what it is,” Fluttershy said. “At least, I do if it’s the same as in a parabola.”

Agreeing, Cherry Berry said, “I’d assume so. We’re basically just dealing with a…continuous parabola? Gosh, it’s been so long since my last math class.”

“Questionable abuse of vocabulary aside,” I commented, “the only important part you need to know is a lot of light goes through Polaris, but almost all of it doesn’t reach Equus.”

“How much is ‘a lot’?”

“Enough to melt us at a radius orders of magnitudes larger than danger zone of the sun,” answered Twinkleshine.

Twinkleshine cast a simple illusion of something vaguely representing our ship melting at the relevant distances for the sun and for Polaris. The utility of the visual aid was questionable, in my opinion, and her oral explosion sound effects weren’t making it any better.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Fluttershy petrified with her eyes stuck open.

“Naturally,” I began, “we’re taking the long way around. Starting in a few weeks, it’ll be bright all the time, and the same will be true after we leave the moon for a season or two.”

“Yep,” agreed Twinkleshine. “We’re going to slingshot around the moon like a comet but with a small enough eccentricity that we don’t burn up along the way. I’m pretty sure none of us actually want to be a comet.”

Using magic to whisper into Twinkleshine’s ear, I said, “Remember to keep the vocab down, and please try to stop scaring Fluttershy unintentionally.”

Looking bashful, Twinkleshine made a small, “Oh,” before elaborating. “So the idea is we take a large berth around Polaris at a reasonably slow speed so that when we come back on the other side, we still have a large berth and don’t have to desperately try to steer ourselves away from…certain… Sorry.”

Sighing, I picked up one of Pinkie Pie’s fantastic butterscotch cookies – even if she didn’t want to come, Pinkie Pie had still catered the event – and ate half of it in one bite. I made it through four cookies before Cherry Berry had calmed Fluttershy down enough for us to continue.

“Sorry, Fluttershy,” Twinkleshine said.

“It’s – it’s okay.”

“No, really, I’m sorry. I just get wrapped up in…stuff sometimes.”

I rolled my eyes at that. For some reason, the novelty of space had never worn off for Twinkleshine. It was cool and all, but after being up here for so long, it really should just be normal for her. Oh well.

Not interested in yet another Fluttershy–Twinkleshine apology match, I said, “Fun fact: because our universe is only locally Euclidean everywhere, when we get to the moon, you’ll be able to see all of Equus at the same time with a telescope.”

“Are you serious?” Cherry Berry asked.

“She is!” Twinkleshine answered for me. “It’s going to be so cool! If you look outside right now, you can actually see Equus warping a little bit already. Well, you could in other parts of the ship. The floor isn’t see-through in the library.”

I heard Fluttershy mumble something, but I didn’t know what. She probably said something to the effect of, “I’m glad.” Even now, she had trouble walking through the all-glass corridors. It’d been awhile since I’d paid attention in detail, but I suspected she still closed her eyes when traveling between rooms.

“Well, I guess we’re far enough away that you’d need a telescope by now, but it’s the thought that counts.” Turning to me in particular, Twinkleshine said, “Maybe we can do a little planetgazing later.”

“I don’t see why not.” I would’ve asked Cherry Berry and Fluttershy if they wanted to join us, but I was pretty sure Twinkleshine was trying to ‘subtly’ ask me out on a date without actually asking.

Now that I thought of it, Twinkleshine had been spending a lot of time with Chrysalis lately, which probably meant she was spending a lot of time with Pupa, too. I really hoped they weren’t planning anything silly like getting Twinkleshine to try and seduce me. I wouldn’t be surprised if those two changelings would egg Twinkleshine on for their own entertainment.

Sometime soon…ish, I really needed to sit down with Twinkleshine and have a long talk with her.

Anyway, the other two declined the planetgazing invitation, and Cherry Berry asked, “There’s something that’s bothering me. It’s not really all that relevant, but how does Equus not get dragged into Polaris by the sun’s and the moon’s gravity? They’re huge, right?”

“Yes,” Twinkleshine replied, “but the answer goes back to what Twilight said. Basically, straight lines in our universe don’t look straight on the astronomical scale. I don’t really understand the math, but what happens is Equus is in a very small volume that’s in stable equilibrium with the movement of…

“Okay, so backing up. Stable equilibrium basically means small changes are negated. In the end, the net effect the sun and moon have on Equus ends up being zero, or approximately zero, anyway. There’s a whole slew of theories on how we got here, but nopony really knows. The explanations we do have are mostly…mostly…hmm… Ah! They’re more or less what you’d call conspiracy theories. They usually center around either Princess Celestia or Discord seriously messing with a more ‘natural’ system, producing what we see today, but there’s no evidence for any of them.”

And this was the point where Dash would say, “Of course there isn’t,” if she were here. Still, it was an interesting question to ask, and Twinkleshine and I had asked it long ago. Luna herself didn’t know, so the real answer was probably lost to time, sadly.

“Anyway, getting back on track…”

Picking up on my cue, Twinkleshine said, “Okay, so we’ve covered our flight path, so that just leaves our timing and our visiting plans. We’re timing our arrival for as near Hearth’s Warming Eve as we can get.”

Cherry Berry asked, “Why? Isn’t that sort of…awkward? Why then?”

“Because that’s when the sun and moon are furthest apart at their apexes, which means we have the largest error margin.” Her eyes darting to Fluttershy, Twinkleshine hastily added, “Not that we need a larger error margin. Just, better safe than sorry.”

“To clarify,” I began, “by apexes, Twinkleshine means the closest the sun and the moon come to Polaris. It changes depending on the season. In the winter, the moon comes closer, and in the summer, the sun comes closer.”

Nodding, Twinkleshine continued, “When we arrive, we’ll spend exactly a day on the moon and then leave to catch up with the Nebulous. Chrysalis elected to stay behind to keep the shields running so we don’t come back and find the greenhouse depressurized and all the plants dead.”

“Prudent,” was all Cherry Berry said to that.

“Does she have to?” Fluttershy asked. “I mean, it sounds kind of lonely. And…well, it’s the moon. It’d be a shame to miss it.”

“Chrysalis volunteered the moment she heard we were stopping at the moon,” I answered.

Volunteered was perhaps a bit misleading, but it captured the spirit of her words in the eyes of an optimist. A pessimist, however, would say she just didn’t want to spend time with us and found the moon as boring as the badlands back on Equus, which I could understand a bit. In the end, the moon was just a giant rock in space with a lot of magic.

“Anyway, we’ll spend a full day on the moon. I’m a bit concerned about what’ll happen to us during the day, since I have no idea what happens to the moon other than ‘it disappears’, quote Stargazer’s On the Workings of the Universe, but I assume Princess Luna would know if we’d have any problems.”

Twinkleshine sent a suggestive glance my way.

“Luna told me the moon leaves this side of the universe but never elaborated on that. We’ll just have to wait and see, I suppose.”

“Er, no offense to the princess,” Cherry Berry began, “but are you sure that’s safe? Has she ever tested it? Maybe with, you know, mortals?”

I nodded. “It’s perfectly safe. Luna’s offered to let us stay at the Lunar Palace when we’re done sightseeing, and the ponies that live there have never had any problems. I’d imagine we’ll be able to celebrate an old style Winter Moon Festival, rather than Hearth’s Warming, but…uh… Twinkleshine, why are you looking at me like that?”

“Twilight, did you just say ‘moon ponies’?”

Horseapples! “Not…in those exact words.”

Twinkleshine’s grin grew to frightening levels.

Nothing further of interest to report.

[Fall 73, 994 – Day 183]

I shut myself and Spike up in my room during the night to have a small, somber party all to ourselves. It took a lot of doing, and I depended heavily on Spike not really knowing what was going on due to his age, but we made it through the entire thing without Pinkie Pie butting in. It also helped that she was…probably…asleep

Anyway, Shining finally recovered from my stupidity. He still has physical therapy to go through, but he can finally walk properly again. Yay.

*sigh*

I really can’t get into this right now.

[Fall 85, 994 – Day 195]

*sigh*

It seems all I’m doing is sighing these days, and Pinkie Pie’s constant attempts to make me smile have been having anything but the intended effect. I’m sure it’s just a passing melancholy, but that doesn’t make me feel any better.

While I was asleep – sometime around noon, I believe – the date was set for Pupa to meet with Celestia in my place. She goes in on the first of winter. I’ve heard she’s gone through great pains to make sure Celestia won’t be able to casually see through her magic. Well, I say ‘casually’, but I mean ‘intense inspection’ by normal standards. Changelings are rather good at hiding themselves when they know they’re being pursued, but Celestia is very old and powerful. Feathers crossed.

On the same topic, Chrysalis, Pupa, and I have all been practicing faking my integration into the hive mind. Pupa is very good at pretending to be me, but we don’t want to chance the odd slip up in Celestia’s presence.

Anyway, the mechanics of the whole process basically amounts to putting a perfect illusion on me of Chrysalis’s experience of what Pupa sees and hears and having her relay my reactions back to Pupa. It’s a rather complex piece of illusion magic, but one well-tested over changeling history. And in all honesty, I’d expect nothing less from them.

Here’s hoping my stubborn pride last Hearth’s Warming won’t come back to bite us.

Nothing further of interest to report.

Okay, that’s not actually fair to myself. What was I supposed to say to Celestia? Oh, I had no idea what I was doing. Thanks for pointing that out. I’ll just give up the only magic I have left to me with a smile on my face. Like she would have believed that for a second. It’s just another consequence of me being stupid, not of my pride.

[Winter 1, 994 – Day 211]

I have no idea how well I’m going to remember the rest of today; I’ve never had an almost literal out-of-body experience before. However, I do know that pony memory is much stronger for personally experienced events, myself being no exception. As such I’ve decided to record today’s events in real time in case I find myself wishing to refer to it later.

Setting the scene, my family plus Pupa and Cadance arrived in Canterlot the day before. Celestia first spoke with Cadance and Shining – both individually – about ‘my’ progress in the dark arts, and then Pupa was finally called in.

“Twilight Sparkle?” a guard asked. Pupa looked up to get a better view of the stallion, and by consequence, I looked up as well. Never before had I been so thankful that I didn’t get motion sickness; I was absolutely positive I’d have vomited multiple times before this was over if I did.

Pupa took a long, deep breath. “Is it time?”

“Yes, the princess will see you now. Please follow me.”

The guard held open the door to Cadance’s room to allow Pupa to walk out. As soon as she’d left, the door closed almost without a sound. The guard nodded to Pupa and took the lead through the halls.

“Remember, Pupa,” I began, Chrysalis relaying my words for me, “you’re a wunderkind pretending to be a genius pretending to be a desperate cripple.”

Chrysalis snorted back on the Nebulous, but I paid her no mind. I certainly couldn’t claim all the credit for my immense talent and knowledge, but that didn’t make them any less real or any less mine.

“Don’t worry, Twilight,” Pupa said. “I certainly understand the desperate cripple part. Living without magic has been eye opening, to say the least.”

“Wait, have you not been cheating? Can’t you at least fake earth pony magic without anypony noticing?”

“I can, normally, but this infernal ring manages to block that, too.”

“Perfect!” I shouted, unintentionally jumping to my hooves. “That’s the spirit! I think I used that exact description once. Just remember that you need to let bitterness and anger simmer underneath everything you say, but it needs to be clearly under control – use just the lightest tinge. Celestia can crush you like a bug, and you both respect and fear that.”

“An apt simile,” Pupa joked, although I could tell Chrysalis had not appreciated it herself.

Our conversation lulled as Pupa was led through a particularly dense crowd of ponies, but it picked up again soon enough.

“A fair warning, Twilight. I do not have much practical experience displaying anger. I’ve never really been in such a position for real nor when pretending to be someone else.”

“I’ll give you cues when you need them,” I said, resisting the urge to panic. “Just try to do your best. Celestia is probably the only pony that could possibly notice you acting out of character, but she and I have only met two – three – four? We’ve only met in person a few times, so you shouldn’t have any real problems.”

“What about Cadance?”

“She doesn’t seem to be able to detect moods, at least not passively, so if she’s hanging around, don’t worry about her. Speaking of which, in public, it’s Princess Cadance, or Princess Cadenza if you’re talking to really uptight ponies. Same for Princess Celestia. Everywhere else, it’s Cadance and Celestia, except it’s still Princess Celestia to her face.”

“Simple enough. Is there any chance you’ve thought of a reason for us to cave to Celestia’s request to stop using dark magic?”

I sighed. “No, nothing that wouldn’t draw undue suspicion. Honestly, our goal right now is just to avoid a medical exam.”

“I’m reasonably confident I could fool the tests.”

“If you had your magic and if Celestia isn’t that one doing or overseeing them.”

“Well…yes. So long as she’s not in the room, it should be okay.”

“Still not something we want to risk.”

“Indeed,” Chrysalis interjected. “Just remember not to raise a big fuss about it.”

“Yes, Mother, I know.”

“And if you do get caught, Twilight is your friend and foolishly asked you to come in her place.”

I rolled my eyes at Chrysalis’s none-too-subtle jab at me.

“Yes, I–” Pupa began, only to be cut off by Chrysalis again.

“Then if she still insists on meeting Twilight, you reluctantly admit that you do not know where she is. She offered you her life and left.”

“Ye–”

“And if you are forced to admit you do know more, Twilight is holding me hostage.”

“Yes, Mother, I know,” Pupa said forcefully. “You’ve taught me well, you know, and we’ve already covered this. You don’t have to treat me like a nymph anymore.”

“Ehem.” A rather awkward interruption on my part, but it certainly got Pupa and Chrysalis to stop the mother–daughter stuff. “Do either of you know where that guard is leading us?”

A few seconds passed before Pupa replied, “Flint and Chzix agree that I’m probably headed toward the throne room.”

“Are you serious?” I asked, although the answer was obvious. “Why is Celestia doing this in public? Is she deliberately trying to drag me through the mud? I don’t understand why she’d do that. If she publicly disgraces me, she makes Cadance look bad, which makes her look bad.” And more importantly, me being seen in public with Luna later would make ruling harder for her.

“Oh?” Chrysalis said. “Are you suddenly ashamed of your inner darkness, you moldy, stale–”

“Mother!”

“Urgh. Fine. Sorry.” It was obvious Chrysalis’s heart wasn’t in that apology. “My point still stands.”

I sighed. “Look, there’s nothing wrong with using dark magic so long as the caster is mentally stable. Ponies like Sombra – ponies that were already insane or psychotic – are the kind of ponies that are remembered because they’re evil and do terrible things. And when you ask why they did what they did, it’s easier to just say, ‘Oh look, he used dark magic,’ then it is to actually contemplate the inner workings of a madpony.

“And as much as I hate to admit it, I guarantee you that only Celestia will actually understand and accept that argument, if only because she can use dark magic, too. Everypony else will just think me, er, Pupa already insane from the dark magic if she tried to reason with them.”

“Perhaps we should save your whining for some other time,” suggested Chrysalis.

Grumbling, I acquiesced – for now. As it was, Pupa had arrived at the doors to court. They were already spread wide open. Inside, a slew of ponies stood waiting off to the sides. I imagined they were the standard set of courtiers, but I’d never had enough interest – that is, I had zero interest – in Day Court politics to really know.

It wasn’t like they really mattered anyway. Everypony knew that the only pony with real power in the room was siting on the throne at the far end of the hall. Sure everypony else performed useful functions in mundane matters, but as far as this meeting was concerned, they were little more than wallpaper.

Fortunately, neither Cadance nor Shining were present, so that comment didn’t apply to them.

Not that it wouldn’t still be true…

A herald announced the arrival of Twilight Sparkle as Pupa approached the base of Celestia’s throne. I couldn’t help but notice that it had been timed rather poorly, which made me suspect that foals – and other ponies with short legs – didn’t often visit court. The awkward silence would’ve been funny if it were under other circumstances.

What wasn’t funny in any circumstance was when Pupa made eye contact with Celestia and actually snorted.

“No! Too much! Way too much!”

“Sorry, Twilight, but you have some strong feelings, and Celestia’s… Nevermind, I’m sure you don’t want to know.”

“Twilight Sparkle,” Celestia boomed from way atop her throne at the summit of her ridiculously large dais.

“Know what?”

In that same voice not quite at the Royal Canterlot level, Celestia continued, “You come before this court as a practitioner of dark magic” – from the sound of it, if not all, then nearly all of the assembly gasped – “in former violation of the regulations placed upon the field.”

Deflecting my question, Chrysalis said, “It doesn’t matter right now. We’ll tell you later.”

I was positive that Chrysalis had a little asterisk on the end of that which read, “If you don’t forget.”

“Considering your age and your circumstances, the charges made against you were dropped. However, as you refused to cease and desist, an overseer was tasked with determining your competence, both magical and mental.”

“See?” I began. “There’s indirect agreement with my point from the pony who tried to stamp out dark magic herself. If you’re mentally competent, there’s nothing wrong with it.”

“Whatever you say,” Chrysalis said.

“Before we begin, is there anything you would like to say for yourself?”

Pupa let out a curt, “No,” eliciting a few whispers from the wallpaper.

That hadn’t been the best response exactly, but I certainly wasn’t going to blame Pupa for getting ruffled. Celestia could have at least made it sound like she was an impartial arbitrator of law. Chrysalis worked to calm Pupa down, leaving me to simmer on my own.

Celestia’s pause was long and rather terrifying, her gaze filled with some hidden meaning. Pupa hadn’t needed my cue to start fidgeting on her hooves and to look away. I wasn’t even really there, and I still felt as if there had been some magic afflicting both of us.

Eventually, Celestia slowly said, “Very well.” Levitating a stack of papers to her, Celestia continued, “Lieutenant Armor has kept a log of your activities over the past three seasons. In it, he has detailed what spells you have used, as well as what spells you claim to also know. There are a few troubling entries which are blatantly illegal, including, but not limited to, placing a geas upon your parents for extra dessert.”

“Is – is she smiling?” I asked. It was hard to tell from Pupa’s distance, but it looked an awful lot like the corners of Celestia’s frown were fighting upward.

Chrysalis answered, “Canterlot’s worst kept secret is that Celestia has an outrageous sweet tooth.”

I found myself chuckling at the imagery that evoked despite my objections. Everypony else in the throne room chose some manner of gasp or outrage for their response, forcing Celestia to calm them all down.

Once the hall was quiet once more, Celestia said, “However, since observations began, you have at worst straddled the line between legal and illegal. I would like to believe this is because you have matured morally and ethically–”

Liar.

“–but there is something else which concerns me. I spoke with Princess Cadenza, and she told me something which Lieutenant Armor agreed with when prompted. She said that your personality has been, and I quote, a little bit erratic and changing–”

“Sorry,” Pupa said before I could say anything.

“–sometimes being kinder than usual and sometimes being meaner than usual.”

“It’s not entirely your fault,” I replied. “I’ve had some bad days at home while I was still back on Equus.”

“Do you have any explanation?” Celestia finished.

I flushed, immediately thinking of a really dumb and kind of embarrassing answer. It was the only thing I could think of in the very small amount of time we had to think of a response, and I passed it on to Pupa.

Pupa, now blushing herself, whispered, “I’ve been known to…”

“Please speak up,” said Celestia.

“It’s…um… You see, I’ve been known to get…moody…when I’m going through…estrus.” Pupa made the last word barely audible over the background noise in the hallway, but there was no doubt that everypony had heard it.

Oh stars, I couldn’t believe I’d just told Pupa to say that, and in court of all places. That was the stupidest, oldest excuse in the book. As the only pony in the room that hadn’t so much as flinched, Celestia herself didn’t look impressed with that answer either.

“I asked as much myself,” Celestia began. “However, Princess Cadenza and Lieutenant Armor said your behavioral changes were not so predictable as an estrus cycle. Unless you have any other explanation–”

Celestia waited a few seconds for an answer that none of us had. I’d honestly expected that excuse to work, or at least to buy us enough time to think of something better.

Seriously, I could barely believe Celestia had actually asked about that in advance. Why would it even cross her mind? I’d never spoken to anypony but Luna before about that annoying aspect of my biology, much less Celestia of all ponies.

“–then I am forced to conclude that you cannot recognize these behavioral shifts yourself, which in turn makes me suspect you do not have the mental fortitude required for long term use of dark magic. As such, before irrevocable damage is done to your mind and before you hurt somepony, unintentionally or otherwise, I am afraid I must order you to desist immediately in accordance with article seven of magical law four-thousand-six-hundred-three, which pertains to the regulation of dark magic in ponies of uncertain mental stability.”

Celestia took a moment to breathe after that mouthful. “This is your first and only warning. Regardless of your circumstances, the penalty for breaking this order is petrification or banishment.”

Pupa and I were both stunned into silence by the cold and distant way Celestia had spoken, and the throne room was just as quiet. Chrysalis mentally nudged both of us, me with magic and Pupa with the hive mind, waking us from our stupor.

Unfortunately, that only freed me up to think about how to respond. It took me all of a second before I started crying for my imaginary me, placed in a situation where Celestia had taken the last hoofhold she had in magic.

“Leave,” I whispered.

Pupa responded immediately, turning in place and galloping out of the hall in an ungraceful mess of hooves before anypony could stop her. Fortunately, nopony had bothered to close the huge double doors that she’d come in through. She made her way back to Cadance’s room mostly unmolested, slipping past the wingful of guards that got in her way.

“Are you really alright?” Pupa asked as she continued to provide me with a very lovely view of one of Cadance’s pillows.

“Yes, I’m just fine. Really.” I sighed. “I didn’t really expect anything else from our meeting. Celestia’s regulation of dark magic was clearly malicious in its implementation to begin with. And honestly, given the evidence she was presented with, I can’t really blame her for the decision. We did take a little longer than was wise to perfect your impersonation of me.”

“Twilight, I can hear your voice cracking on this side of the conversation, too, you know.”

Both of us fell into silence. Thankfully, Chrysalis felt no need to interrupt us.

“It’s not like any real harm has been done, right?” I suggested. “I’m not in Equestria anymore, after all.”

“I suppose…”

“I’m sorry you had to deal with that for me…and for what comes after. I’m sure Cadance will try, but I doubt she’ll be able to keep much out of the papers anymore after such a public dressing-down.”

“Twilight, please stop dancing around the real issue.”

Having chosen silence as my response, Pupa sighed soon after.

“I’ll do the best I can to repair your reputation. I’m sure Princess Luna would be just as disappointed as you if she couldn’t appear in public with you.”

A tiny thankful smile formed on my face. Regime changes rarely went smoothly, especially when the old princess has an approximately one-hundred percent approval rating. Taking the reins of Equestria would be a nightmare for Luna if a mare disgraced and scorned by said princess were at her side, regardless of whether that mare were an alicorn or not.

Of course, that brought up the question of why Celestia made our meeting public to begin with. Now Cadance was going to have problems, too, and surely Celestia wouldn’t want that.

Right?

I shook away those thoughts. There had to be some ulterior motive that didn’t involve Celestia trying to drag Cadance down. And Celestia herself had acted so…cold at the end. I suspected that she had never sounded like that in public before. Ever.

A muffled shout came from the other side of the door to Cadance’s room. It sounded like Cadance, but it was too quiet to hear properly. A few seconds later, it became clear that it was Cadance, and she was yelling at Celestia.

Finally Pupa, Chrysalis and I could make out what Cadance was saying, although we couldn’t hear Celestia’s responses.

“–ridiculous! Why on Equus would you say, ‘It was efficacious?’”

“I never said that!”

“No! You’re not going to talk to her! I won’t allow it! Not after–”

“You’re going to what?”

“Are you insane? You can’t ask her to teach her!”

A long silence stretched before Cadance shouted again.

“Hey! We’re not–”

The door to Cadance’s room opened without so much as a knock. Celestia trotted in with Cadance right behind her, still fuming, her cheeks flushed in anger. Both of their horns were glowing brilliantly to no noticeable effect. It almost looked like Cadance was trying to overpower Celestia, but with Pupa’s magic suppressed, she couldn’t find out for sure.

Seemingly giving up, Cadance’s horn dimmed and she flew across the room to Pupa, providing a pony shield against the still advancing Celestia.

“Stop it,” Cadance said, nearly growling. “Just go away. You’ve done enough to Twilight today. Aren’t you happy yet? Haven’t you taken enough from her? I’ll – I’ll take responsibility for her. We’ll… We’ll go find an island somewhere! Somewhere with just us! I-I know I can keep her safe from herself!”

From behind Cadance, the only useful thing I could see was her tiara, glowing with her own magic, being carelessly tossed away onto the ground somewhere in a clatter.

Turning around, Cadance wrapped Pupa in a full hug, stroking her mane gently.

The moment passed without Celestia saying a word, only for the silence to be broken by a wail from Chrysalis.

The illusion spell placed on me changed to random flashes of colors before failing entirely, leaving me with nothing to look at but a wide eyed Chrysalis.

Author's Notes:

Prereader – Starlight Nova

For those that desire it, here's a link to a diagram depicting what Twinkleshine was describing, complete with annotations below it.

Chapter Fifteen - Darker Matters - Part Two

Chrysalis had been flat out ignoring me and everything else in the room for a long time now. She hadn’t even reacted when I’d thrown a pillow in her face. Whatever had happened must have been bad enough that even getting upset with me was thrown to the side in favor of dealing with the problem.

Then even when she finally stopped frowning, trading her expression in for what I could only describe as a look of unadulterated relief, she still ignored me as if I didn’t exist.

Suddenly, I felt Chrysalis building up power for a familiar spell. Sighing as it took effect, I found myself once more seeing the world through Pupa’s eyes. Cadance and Celestia were in the room and chatting with each other surprisingly peacefully after what I’d just seen from Cadance. If nothing else good came from this, at least I’d finally learned how Cadance behaves when she was mad – a very petty victory.

And I’d learned that Cadance cared enough to go against Celestia for me. I doubted she would switch sides at the big confrontation in five-and-a-half-ish years, but it was still just about the nicest, most flattering thing she could have done.

The next thing I noticed ruined that good feeling. I’d suspected, but I’d hoped I was wrong. In the corner of the room was a pile of unmoving changelings. At the very bottom of her vision, I could see Pupa’s own black chitin as well.

She was exposed.

I took a few deep breaths exactly as Cadance had taught me. They were doubly effective this time, as they brought back some of the warm fuzzies I got from knowing Cadance would stick up for me.

“Okay,” I began, “considering Chrysalis hasn’t tried to rip my head off…yet…I assume you’re fine, right?”

“Ye–”

“You better thank your lucky stars she’s alright.”

“Mother!” Pupa sighed. “Yes, I’m fine, Twilight, at least so far. I can tell Cadance is still furious with me, and Celestia is still wary despite how…relatively nice she’s been.”

“What about them?” I asked, gesturing futilely with my head toward the changelings some astronomical number of kilometers away, or toward Chrysalis’s bookshelf back on the ship.

“They’re fine, too,” Pupa answered, a clear fondness in her voice. “Very stupid for teleporting in here alone, but also very brave. Mother didn’t even have time to give them an order before they responded.”

“Which crippled my ability to rescue you quickly,” interjected Chrysalis.

“Perhaps,” Pupa said hesitantly, “but I still disagree with reprimanding them.”

Humming angrily, Chrysalis said, “We’ll discuss this later. For now, just fill us in on what happened.”

“Alright. When Celestia came in, she knocked out my disguise and severed my connection to the hive mind.”

Pupa sat on Cadance’s bed, oblivious to the world. Her severing from the hive mind had been swift and merciless, leaving her, for the very first time in her life, alone with her thoughts.

Screaming was not the right response. Her instincts told her not to for some reason.

Crying…yes. Crying was appropriate.

Pupa fell over onto her side, still staring at nothing. Even the intrusion of the pillow she had been holding into one of the holes in her legs did not bother her the way it should have.

Finally, she snapped back to reality as a surge of golden magic set her upright. That very same magic turned dark purple and boiled as the terrifyingly inexpressive goddess of the sun spoke.

“Answer my questions with the truth.”

Something latched onto Pupa’s mind, and it took her only an instant to realize she had just had a geas placed on her.

Celestia visibly grit her teeth, seeming to struggle with what she wanted to ask. Pupa took her brief respite to glance about the rest of the room. Cadance was nearby glaring daggers at both her and Celestia, but mostly at her. Piled up in a corner were several undisguised, possibly dead, changelings.

“Is Twilight Sparkle alive and well?” Celestia finally asked.

Answering almost automatically, Pupa said, “Yes.” It was the strangest, most horrifying feeling she had ever experienced. It hardly even felt like the geas was forcing her to reply, almost as if she herself wanted to answer more than anything.

“When did you replace her?”

Pupa was about to say, “At the end of Spring,” but her memories supplied her with a different answer. “Last Hearth’s Warming.”

Brows furling, Celestia mumbled, “That explains much.” Turning to Cadance, she said, “I trust you realize this means Twilight was cooperating with these changelings.”

Cadance tried to protest, but she ended up nodding weakly instead. She almost looked defeated as she slumped onto the ground.

Turning back, Celestia asked, “Was her flare last Hearth’s Warming engineered for you to replace her?”

“No. It was an accident we capitalized on.”

Pupa could practically feel Celestia’s eyes poring over her. She had long since lost the thin look of an active and light-eating changeling, having molted several times from the sheer volume of love she had consumed.

“Why did Twilight Sparkle offer you her life?”

Somehow finding the strength to overcome the urge to tell Celestia more than she had asked for, Pupa said, “She wanted to leave, but she couldn’t because of Cadance.” Out of the corner of her eye, Pupa could see Cadance bristle at the casual form of address. Then again, perhaps it was because Twilight had deceived her. It would be hard enough to tell normally, but Cadance’s expressions were changing wildly, making it essentially impossible.

“Where is she?”

“Somewhere in the universe.”

Pupa fought to not hold her breath, watching Celestia closely for any sign that the deeper meaning in her automatic answer was understood. It was unfortunate the answer had not come out as ‘I don’t know’, but ‘somewhere in the universe’ was almost as good.

“One last question,” Celestia began, her face expressionless. “Are you, Twilight, or anypony you know in any way associated with Nightmare Moon?”

“No,” Pupa replied immediately before her mind could consciously complete the connection between Nightmare Moon and Princess Luna.

A moment passed, and then the corners of Celestia’s lips crept up again as her horn glowed. The surprisingly weak compulsion for Pupa to correct herself diminished further and then quickly disappeared altogether. Without the geas stabilizing her, Pupa’s mind locked up again, still recoiling from the loneliness and unable to process the words and expressions that had just been exchanged. For all that she could tell at the moment, she might have told Celestia everything as easily as she might have revealed no new information.

Completely ignoring Celestia, Cadance stepped directly in front of Pupa and locked eyes with her.

“Why?” whispered Cadance. “Why did she leave? Why did you let her? Why did you help her! She’s a helpless little filly!”

Celestia put a hoof on Cadance’s shoulder and opened her mouth.

Immediately, Cadance whirled on Celestia, swatting away the hoof. “You! This is all your fault!”

“Cadance,” Celestia began, her voice annoyingly calm and soothing even now, “Twilight Sparkle has long since demonstrated that she can keep herself safe.” Looking at Pupa’s horn, she added, “With or without her suppressor. As long as she stays outside, she should remain unharmed until–”

“Until she kills herself!”

“Cadance, please calm down. She shall be easy to find when–”

“Out!” Cadance shrieked, pointing her hoof toward the door.

“Cadance–”

“Get out now!”

A pillow flew across the room toward Celestia, leaving a deafening boom in its wake. It stopped a few hooves short of impact, golden magic gently placing it on the floor and extinguishing it.

“I cannot leave you alone with her.” Celestia did not say it, but her expression heavily implied, “Do not do something you will regret.”

Growling with teeth bared and wings flared, Cadance glared at Celestia, her horn glowing ominously. Even through the suppressor, Pupa could feel the immense, raw power Cadance had at her disposal.

“Unless you wish to finish what Twilight started, I suggest you stop.”

Cadance’s eyes widened, and she reeled backwards as if struck, falling to her haunches. The light of her horn blinked out.

“Auntie, I – I didn’t – I didn’t mean…” Barely audibly, Cadance turned away and whispered, “Sorry.”

Crossing the gap between them, Celestia lowered herself to her knees and wrapped Cadance in a gentle hug with her wings.

“You have nothing to apologize for. I understand how horrible it is to lose a little sister.” After an extended hug, Celestia stepped back and raised Cadance’s muzzle with the tip of her wing. Smiling, she said, “Unlike mine, yours is merely misplaced, exactly like I’ve misplaced Sunset. We shall find her. I promise.”

Sniffing, Cadance rubbed her nose with a hoof. “She’s not actually my sister yet, you know.” The two of them shared a smile for a brief moment before Cadance shoved Celestia away, shouting, “No, no, no! I’m still mad at you! I’m not letting you get within so much as the same city as Twilight.”

“Please,” Celestia began on the verge of being on the verge of begging, “please calm down, Cadance. I” – Celestia hesitated for a split second – “promise I shall not do anything to Twilight Sparkle without your consent.”

“Do – do you really mean that?”

“Yes, I do. May I assume I have your permission to find her?”

First ruminating for several seconds with her head pointed squarely at the floor, Cadance slowly nodded once.

“Thank you for trusting me.” Turning to Pupa, Celestia continued, “Now then, I believe we both have some more questions we would like to ask our guest. Would you – oh, please accept my apologies.”

As Celestia’s horn glowed, everyone came back. The entire hive was buzzing in Pupa’s mind again, and before she could even put a single word to how relieved she was, Chrysalis was already assaulting her with affections and questions.

“And that’s what happened. It may not be word for word, but I’m sure the meanings are all right.”

“Cadance…” I whispered to nopony. I’d known she liked me, but I’d always assumed I was ‘Shining’s little sister’ to her: a friend, but not family. It wasn’t like Cadance didn’t have…

I sighed to myself. It’d been a long time since I’d thought about Cadance’s past in any detail, and even then I’d mostly been interested in hearing about defeating Prismia and Cadance’s subsequent ascension. She’d been formally adopted into the royal family by virtue of being an alicorn, but if she wanted to be part of mine, I’d welcome her with open hooves.

But that sadly would have to wait until I returned to Equus. Hopefully, we’d have a better long-term relationship than Luna and Celestia.

Anyway, the other thing of interest in that conversation was when Celestia asked about Luna. I didn’t know if I should be glad Celestia now wrongly assumed I had nothing to do with Luna or terrified that she’d asked at all.

What exactly she’d suspected was the most worrying part. If she thought I was part of a cult or something, that wasn’t a problem, but–

Actually, that sort of was a problem; I didn’t want Celestia making Cadance think I was crazy or something. But that was a small, personal problem. If Celestia somehow found one of Luna’s faithful subjects and got her to reveal that Luna could dreamwalk in her banishment, that could turn into a huge problem.

“Pupa, I’m ready to continue whenever you two are. If possible, I’d like to find out why Celestia asked you about Luna. And I’d like to know what Cadance and Celestia were arguing about when they first came in.”

“I’ll see what I can do, but I’m not really in a position to make demands; Celestia has her under control right now, but Cadance is more or less ready to – to use your own words – rip my head off if she thinks it’ll help her find you.”

“Um… That’s sweet?” I definitely appreciated the sentiment, at least.

“Frankly, I think it’s a pretty unnerving to see her act this way. I know you think she’s bad at magic, but–”

“She is bad at magic.”

“Okay, from a mechanical standpoint, she is bad at magic, but I don’t think you’ve ever felt an alicorn on the verge of fighting. She could have crushed me into a tiny black hole with all that power with just telekinesis.”

“Actually, I don’t think you have enough mass to form a black hole. I’d have to ask Twinkleshine.”

I flinched away as Pupa’s hoof connected with her face, for all the good that it did.

Coughing to fill the awkward silence, I then proceeded to say, “I’ve sparred with Luna a lot in my dreams where we both have unlimited magic. I know what you’re talking about. All you have to do is sever a few key nerves to knock her out; Cadance doesn’t know how to properly defend herself from a magical attack.”

“Twilight, that’s–”

“Efficacious and painless. I suppose Celestia might get mad at you, but I doubt she’d kill you for acting in self-defense. And it’s not like she can do anything worse than make you a black hole, right?”

“She could torture me first.”

“Or erase all her memories,” Chrysalis interjected.

“Or do that and hijack my body with a geas, bending me completely to her will as her faithful slave.”

“And have Cadance meddle with her mind further to make her love every moment of it,” Chrysalis added.

“It’s just like killing me, but using the leftovers for–”

“Okay, okay! I get it! If you’re completely immoral, you can do horrible, horrible things to a pony. Celestia is a bad pony and a worse sister, but she’s not evil. Probably. I mean, I don’t have any proof that she’s never done something like that, but I’m still me.”

“Probably,” Chrysalis said.

“You’re not helping,” I said, stomping my hoof.

Sighing, Pupa suggested, “Perhaps we should move on.”

“Sounds good,” I said at the same time Chrysalis said, “Indeed.”

Almost immediately after Pupa first stirred, Celestia turned to face her.

“So,” began Celestia, “should we be expecting an army on our doorstep?” It was hard to tell, but it sounded like a joke.

“No, Princess Celestia.” Pupa started to rise from Cadance’s bed, but Celestia held up a hoof, gesturing for her to stay seated. “I’m terribly sorry for what my subjects did. If you could find it in your heart to forgive them, I would be very grateful.”

Smiling, Celestia said, “There is nothing to forgive. I treated you quite roughly, after all.”

“Thank you, Princess.”

“Not going to ask her to let them go?” I asked.

“No. I don’t want to make the situation awk – more awkward. I wouldn’t be surprised if she thought the only reason I was still here was because of them.”

“Think nothing of it. Cadance and I were hoping you would answer a few of our questions, though.”

“Of course, Princess. Although I’m quite curious how you figured out I wasn’t Twilight.”

Pupa tried not to look at Cadance bristling at the use of my name, but her eyes refused to stay focused on Celestia.

“You walked straight into my throne room; no amount of magic could have hidden you completely from me in there. However” – Celestia paused – “you are also sitting on a cloud bed.”

Everypony was silent for a moment.

Facehoofing and sighing, Pupa said, “That’s fair. Twilight and I weren’t expecting such a public meeting, either.” With that said, she fiddled with the suppressor on her horn to get it off. She let out a sigh of relief once it had.

Meanwhile, Celestia held up a hoof, cutting Cadance off. Mouth wide open ready to shout, it took Cadance a few seconds to settle down, exhaling as she slumped back into her seat.

“Before we continue, would you care to introduce yourself and explain how a young changeling queen and Twilight Sparkle met?”

“Thoughts?” Pupa asked as she said, “My name is Pupa, heir of Queen Chrysalis.”

“Just go with what we had planned before. I don’t see any problems with it.”

“Besides exposing one of our primary means of collecting love,” Chrysalis said.

Meanwhile, Pupa continued her introduction. “Twilight and I met two summers ago on the outskirts of the Everfree Forest in her backyard.”

“It’s not that big of a deal,” I said. “No matter how this turns out, you’ll end up fed or genocided; there’s not really an in-between.”

“I’d left home to gain practical experience in love collection. It’s our tradition that the queen should be at least passingly familiar with all the main aspects of our way of life.”

“Is that true?” I asked.

“Yes, but Pupa finished that long ago. Normally she would have left home permanently a decade ago.”

“I’d looked through Ponyville for a good food source that I could enjoy spending time with, but no one really caught my fancy. Except when I was about to move on to the next village, I ran into Twilight.”

“Afraid to let your daughter grow up?”

“She chooses to stay. Although, I suppose I am glad she does.”

“I almost dismissed her out of hoof, but–” Pupa’s eyes widened, and she gasped, pretending to have said something she shouldn’t have.

Cadance’s eyes widened with Pupa’s. She opened her mouth once, but nothing came out. On the second try, she whispered, “Why?”

“She–” Pupa stopped to mull over her words, pointedly not looking at Cadance and instead observing the pillow she was fidgeting with.

“Tell me!” Cadance barked. Celestia shot her a look.

“It’s – she made me sick to my stomach just being somewhat near her. She was so miserable. Ponies like that usually have their days numbered without drastic intervention.”

“No! No, no, no!” Cadance launched from her chair, only to be held back by Celestia’s magic. “You’re lying! You have to be! Twilight would never…never…” Cadance descended into incoherent blubbering.

I silently whispered my apologies to Cadance, simultaneously wishing I could take Celestia’s place for their hug. Not that Cadance even noticed it happening. But there was something else weighing on my mind.

“Pupa…I – I was like that before I met Luna for…a long time. Do you think I would have–”

“Twilight, I don’t know. Everyone changes so much as they grow up. I didn’t know you back then, so I can’t say. However, I don’t think the current you would ever consider it.”

I sighed. It wasn’t so much an answer as a non-answer, but Pupa had a point. I’d rather be told the truth than a pleasant lie, even if the truth were useless.

“Thanks, I guess.”

Faking a cough, Pupa said, “If I may continue…” Celestia nodded, but Cadance’s ears didn’t even twitch. “Anyway, I was going to leave, but underneath all of the rancid emotions, she smelled awfully sweet.” Pupa licked her lips for emphasis. “I was awfully curious, so I decided to stay, at least for a little while. I don’t know if I should say that was a mistake or not; it only took a week before Twilight figured out I wasn’t a regular owl.”

At that, Cadance’s ears did pick up. She pushed Celestia off her and asked, “You were Owlowiscious?”

“I was, but only until Hearth’s Warming. Speaking of which, would you mind if you…toned down a few of Twilight’s feelings for me? It would make it easier to be polite.”

Cadance paled instantly, and her jaw fell. “I – I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize – I mean…” Gulping, Cadance finished, “Which ones?”

“Just the one,” Pupa replied. Out of the corner of Pupa’s vision, I could see Celestia struggling with a frown or a scowl. Was it really that hard for her to accept that not everypony loved her? “It’d help if you could take it down to friendly sympathy levels.”

Nodding, Cadance’s horn lit up, and it only took a fraction of second before Pupa let out a huge sigh.

“Thank you,” Pupa said as Cadance turned her head away. “Anyway, as I was saying, Twilight figured me out quickly. I erred and acted far too domesticated, not realising how attentive she was to details. One night, she took me outside with her and told me about all of her problems as though she were talking to herself. When she finished, she took her suppressor off and essentially told me to start talking. A little mundane, I suppose, but that was how we met. Despite the rough start, we became friends rather quickly. She really needed someone she could talk openly with.”

Cadance began in a whisper, quickly building up into a shout. “You’re her friend. You’re her friend, and you let her run away! She’s barely a teenager!”

“Physically, but I’m sure–”

“Pupa,” I interrupted, “don’t try to reason with her like this. Cadance isn’t really listening right now. Just tell her the hive is keeping an eye on me.”

“–you realize she’s mentally very mature. She can be very foalish, yes, but half the time she acts like a mare thirty years her senior.” After I finished, Pupa asked me, “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

No, but I wanted to be able to talk to Cadance again before I returned. “How about I check in with the hive, then? Maybe I visit a city every week or so to talk and catch up on my life.”

“That doesn’t matter, you – you bug! If you haven’t noticed, she doesn’t eat unless somepony feeds her, and that’s not even the worst of her problems!”

I coughed awkwardly. I didn’t catch as much of what Cadance had said as I wanted – I’d never understand how changelings managed to keep up with multiple conversations – but I was pretty sure she said something embarrassingly true about my eating habits.

“She took Spike with her. She promised me she’ll keep him fed, and I’m sure she’ll eat with him.” At the same time, Pupa said to me, “What if Celestia can track you through the hive mind?”

I frowned, not having thought of that. Luna hadn’t said she herself could, but neither had she said she couldn’t. Then again, Celestia also had an extra thousand years to learn how, if it were possible.

“I suppose you’re right…”

Before Cadance could respond to Pupa, Celestia said, “That makes this much easier. We can send a letter to Spike and track its destination.”

Cadance’s brief expression of glee was crushed as Pupa said, “Actually, Twilight blocked Spike’s dragonfire mail…thing. She is determined not to be found.”

“Mail thing? Seriously?”

“Well you never used it and never explained how it works. All I know is that it’s a thing dragons can do.”

I rolled my eyes ineffectually. Then again, maybe Pupa could see me through Chrysalis.

“Let me get this straight,” Cadance said, her voice cracking. “You decided it was a good idea to let a filly wander off on her own with her adopted baby dragon. What is wrong with you!”

Shouting in response, Pupa asked, “Do you want to be the one to tell Twilight to come home and give up her magic again? All of it, this time?”

Cadance winced and fell silent.

“That was kind of mean…”

“I’m sorry,” Pupa said, probably to both me and Cadance. “That was unfair.”

“And technically I wouldn’t have to give up dark magic, since the reason for that odd behavior is obvious now.”

“No,” Chrysalis said, “you still would have to. Celestia would have no excuse to retract her decision without revealing changelings that wouldn’t sound like an excuse.”

“There is another option,” Celestia said.

“No!” Cadance shouted. “You’re not–” A glow from Celestia’s horn left her shouting soundlessly into the room. Her eyes blazed with fury when she realized what was happening.

“Before we discuss that, I would like to ask if Twilight Sparkle is listening.”

I was so glad I wasn’t Pupa right now. I could probably get through that question, but wow that was a lot of pressure.

“It’s possible,” answered Pupa. “Not every changeling is accounted for at all times; we don’t have a buddy system or anything like that. Twilight could, in theory, find a member of my hive and geas her to listen in without letting Mother or me know, although they all have standing instructions to contact Twilight on sight. However…”

“However what?” Celestia asked.

“Well, she is quite good at illusions, and she knows how to teleport.”

I got to see a very gratifying widening of Celestia’s eyes before she substituted them for a raised eyebrow. Honestly, I would’ve liked to have waited to let her know exactly how talented I was until the last minute when the sheer weight of her foolishness fell upon her, but that didn’t make this moment any less satisfying.

“Did you make sure she learned the proper safety precautions for teleportation?” Celestia asked.

Nodding, Pupa said, “I honestly don’t think she’ll accidentally kill herself or Spike. But you mentioned another option? It’s possible I could talk Twilight into coming home if I knew what it was.”

“I do not believe anypony would willing subject herself to this, but we–”

Cadance, having finally gotten a counterspell to work, shouted, “You are not petrifying Twilight ever!”

It took what seemed like an hour for me to process that.

“Pupa…” I began, not really sure what to say.

Really, what could a pony say to that? Petrification was a horrible, nasty ailment. In some ways, it was worse than banishment. The only upside was that if you were placed somewhere with other ponies, you might not go insane. I could probably make it if somepony read books to me, being a very inactive pony, but somepony like Dash would be broken afterward.

“I…I have to side with Cadance on this one,” Pupa said. I didn’t think she registered that I’d said anything, not that I’d said anything useful. “I’ve had a run in with a cockatrice before, and I certainly won’t be the one to lure Twilight back to be petrified.”

Celestia looked Pupa straight in the eyes. “Even if the alternative is death?” Pupa flinched away under Celestia’s gaze as she continued, “She is presently a danger to herself and others, and you expressed concerns about her mental and emotional state earlier. Do you not believe she would regress if we forced her to return home? Something must be done.”

“Pupa, we need…I want more information. Just say, ‘probably,’ or something.”

Pupa turned to Cadance, who was quietly biting her lip and who looked ready to decide whether Pupa was a good person or not based on her answer.

“I…would be willing to try talking Twilight into coming home if” – Pupa pointed to Cadance – “it were for her to become her teach – well, her protector while Twilight taught herself. I know that didn’t exactly work out last time–”

That wasn’t fair at all. I was attacking Cadance last time, not letting her try to help me.

“–but I suppose it couldn’t be any worse than Twilight being on her own. I don’t think she’ll go for it, though. Part of the reason she left and learned to teleport was because she felt guilty about how dangerous she is.”

“But I’m immortal! Twilight proved that well enough when she threw me off of the Canterhorn.”

Oh…oh no. Did I really – oooooh, of course I did. “Nooooo,” I moaned.

Chrysalis must have repeated my moan, because Pupa said, “I wouldn’t mention that to her, if I were you. That will just make her feel worse.”

“That is exactly why we have not told her,” Celestia said, apparently caring about my feelings for once. “However, you two are missing the key issue. Teaching flares requires specialized knowledge and skill, as well as a great deal of time. If you do it wrong, you merely end up with a magical bomb waiting to destroy what remains of Canterlot.”

Celestia paused just long enough to glance out a window toward the city. “Twilight Sparkle has become a lit fuse, and she must be extinguished before she kills herself and potentially tens of thousands of others, if not more.”

Oh my. That wasn’t ominous. Nope, not at all.

I gulped. Note to self: if I fail in my mission, stay lost in space forever, or else Celestia will probably just kill you and end the problem you pose once and for all.

“Sorry if this sounds like a dumb question, but why didn’t you just take Twilight on as your student when she was…”

“Eight,” I said. “If you want to know, you could have just asked me, you know.”

“When she was eight?” asked Pupa, then turning her attention to me. “I suppose, but I’m interested in hearing it straight from Celestia.”

Shrugging, I said, “Whatever.”

“Has Twilight not told you?” Celestia asked. “I would have assumed she already knew.”

“She mentioned the imminent return of Princess Luna–”

“No! Wrong! Nightmare Moon!”

“–and that your current student, Trixie Lulamoon, needed to be the one to use the Elements of Harmony against your sister, but she either didn’t know the details or neglected to tell me them.”

“If you already know that much,” began Celestia, seeming to fight off a sigh, “I suppose there is no harm in answering your question directly. As you no doubt know, nearly one-thousand years ago, I wielded the elements against my sister when she became Nightmare Moon. The end result was her banishment, but that was not what I had intended.”

What?

“I had meant to purify her, to return her to the sister I knew and loved.”

Wait…

“However, I found myself unable to wield the full power of the elements myself; they never were meant to be used by a single pony, or even by two alicorns. They are meant to be wielded by six ponies.”

No, no, no. Time out. She wanted to what?

“The sixth element, Magic, is the most troubling. I had planned for my previous student, Sunset Shimmer, to wield it, but she…disappeared.”

No, she couldn’t–

“Unfortunately, her timing could not have been worse. With so few years left before Nightmare Moon’s return, I would not have had time to prepare Twilight Sparkle to face her. At best, my sister would have been banished again. At worst, she would simply kill the element bearers and proceed to terrorize the world from the shadows.”

She was serious. Celestia wanted to delete Luna from her body now that she wasn’t so willing to put up with abuse and replace her with some fake version that would just sit there and be obedient. That was even worse than banishing her again!

I never really thought I’d say this, but I’d given Celestia too much credit. She was a monster.

My eyes widened as that thought sunk in. If I failed, I’d never see Luna again no matter how long I lived.

“I see,” Pupa began, “but that leaves the question of why you can’t be the one to bear the Element of Magic.”

Before Celestia could respond, Cadance snapped, “It’s because dear Auntie Celestia is a horrible pony who goes around petrifying ponies to solve her problems.”

Celestia turned to Cadance, giving her a disappointed look. “That is not why, but the spirit is right. Unfortunately, I cannot use the elements anymore, and I shall leave it at that.”

Ha! It seemed the Elements of Harmony knew who was in the right in this conflict; maybe that was why they didn’t let Celestia use them to kill Luna a thousand years ago. In the worst case, then, if I killed Trixie, I could save Luna’s life, or at least delay her execution until Celestia trained another bearer. Good to know.

“Right… So I guess I understand why you couldn’t teach Twilight at the time, but what does petrifying her accomplish that…well…that killing her wouldn’t?”

“It’s physical effects are reversible,” Cadance hissed, “and it would keep Twilight physically young until after Nightmare Moon has been dealt with.”

Before Pupa could ask the question, I said, “Flares need to learn control from a young age so our mind develops around the concept. It’s sort of like why adults have trouble learning languages when foals can learn several without a conscious effort. Luna’s not bothering with that for me, having offered ascension as a permanent solution.”

“Thanks, Twilight.” Pupa looked from Cadance back to Celestia and asked, “And why would this be helpful? Would you be teaching Twilight? I can tell you right now, she will never accept that unless you force her.”

Sighing – actually sighing – Celestia said, “No, I realize that ship set sail long before I even made port. My sister, however, I suspect she would accept.”

Pupa was laughing uproariously over the hive mind as she responded. I just rolled my eyes.

“I could see that working, but” – Cadance suspended her glare – “I still have to side with Cadance. I can’t imagine Twilight coming out of a multi-year petrification mentally whole.”

Oh stars, this was going to turn into one long, circular debate, wasn’t it?

As if sensing my distress, Pupa said, “Twilight, you can go talk to Princess Luna if you want. I don’t think anything useful is going to happen for a while. If there’s a good opportunity to find out why Celestia asked about her, I’ll take it, but I don’t imagine that happening anytime soon.”

“I – sure. Thanks.” I really didn’t want to sit around and listen to them argue the same points over and over. “Chrysalis, would you keep the recording spell running?”

“Yes, yes. I can take care of it. Just let me know when I need to take over the shields as usual.”

“Luna!” I called out to my dream world, rather excited to share everything I’d learned today.

“No need to shout, Twilight.” Luna appeared just behind me and wrapped me in a hug. “I take it Pupa’s meeting with my sister is over.”

“Um, no, not exactly. I left when it was about to devolve into an argument over what to do with me if they ever found me on Equus, which of course they can’t.”

Luna sighed. “So Pupa was revealed, then. That’s unfortunate.”

“Well, yes, but as a result, Pupa testified under a geas that nopony she knew was associated with Nightmare Moon, so whatever suspicions Celestia had been entertaining have been dropped.” As an afterthought, I added, “And Cadance is acting fri – somewhat friendly toward Pupa, which is great news. I mean, Cadance was incredibly upset with her, but they seemed to bond a little bit in their disapproval of Celestia’s plan for me.”

“She has a plan for you?” Luna asked incredulously. Her voice almost oozed with doubt.

“Yeah. It would be funny if it weren’t so horrifying. She wants you to teach me.”

Setting me down in front of her, Luna gazed intently at my face, her eyebrows fighting to both scrunch together and rise. I’d never seen Luna look so utterly and completely floored before. Not that I could blame her. I wouldn’t have believed it either if I hadn’t heard it first – well, essentially firsthoof.

“I – I don’t understand.” Luna pulled back, no doubt having decided I was telling the truth. “How does she expect that to work?”

“Well, that’s where it becomes horrifying. First, she plans to petrify me for a decade or so.”

Luna fell to her haunches and resorted to rubbing her temples with her hooves. “I…suppose that would work in theory, but…” Luna shook her head. “Did she really say that?”

I nodded.

“Okay. Sure.” Luna seemed to be having trouble wrapping her head around the idea. “You wouldn’t be the first pony she’s petrified, I guess. Why not? And how does she expect to get me to cooperate? I can’t exactly teach in banishment, so far as she knows.”

First taking a deep breath, I replied, “She wants to kill you.”

“She wants to what?” Luna bellowed at the traditional royal level, leaving me deafened. Her eyes were literally glowing with unbridled magical power. I could feel her magic washing over me without even using my horn. I took a step back as it lashed out at my own magic, burning it in an undefinable, abstract sense.

I cast a quick healing spell on my ears and steadied myself in front of Luna. “She wants to use the elements to ‘purify’ you and turn you into a fake, submissive, pushover version of yourself, philosophically killing you. I don’t even know if the elements would use you as a base for your body’s new personality.”

The sheer pressure of Luna’s raging magic slowly shoved me backward away from her. I hadn’t been lying when I’d told Pupa that I’d felt the raw power of an alicorn before, but I’d never seen magic this…raw and untempered. Even my flares had some structure, producing random magical effects. This – this was just pure magic.

“She dares to make a slave of me? To destroy everything that I am?”

Unable to withstand Luna’s magic, I tampered with my dream, removing myself from the effects of Luna’s rage.

“So be it! I shall see to it that the night lasts forever by virtue of the simple lack of anything else. I shall extinguish her precious star ponies call the sun. I shall drag her kicking and screaming from the æther and reduce her to a mere mortal. I shall destroy everything she ever cared for and force her to watch.”

Luna bore a distressing smile as she gazed upward at nothing. Then she did something that made me sure that she needed help: she laughed.

“Ha ha. Ha ha ha. Aha ha ha ha ha!

“And then when I am bored with her, I may see fit to banish her for a thousand years in some anonymous corner of space. Then when she returns, she will slowly die of starvation. Oh, but then, then I will offer her a choice at the very end of her life, because I am kind to my dear sister. She can die, or she can suffer what she had planned for me. Oh, how–”

“Please don’t stoop to her level,” I whispered, tightly hugging Luna. Celestia certainly deserved all that, but it wasn’t worth it if Luna became a monster herself in the process.

I waited with my face buried in her coat. I couldn’t bear to look at her right now for fear of what I might see. Luna had every right to be mad, but somewhere deep inside myself, I was scared I’d broken her, that this was the last in a long line of abuses which had finally pushed her over the edge.

I waited, tightening my hug as our silence stretched on. The storm of Luna’s magic raged on in the separate plane of existence I’d tucked it into. If anything, it was only stronger for my words.

I waited. If my lip weren’t bleeding yet, it would be soon. As far as I could tell, Luna hadn’t so much as twitched since I’d spoken.

With a thump, I fell onto the ground, my muzzle colliding ungracefully as I landed face first in what amounted to a bellyflop sans water.

Jumping to my hooves, I looked around. I was standing where Luna had been but was no longer. Neither was she anywhere around me.

Then it happened. I could sense that instinctual feeling of a regular lucid dream. Luna wasn’t around to stabilize my consciousness anymore.

“Luna, come ba–”

I woke up in my usual bed and tried to roll over. The familiar weight of Spike curled up next to my belly, unfortunately, kept me stuck in place. Somepony must have put him to bed for me while I was busy sleeping outside my usual schedule.

Oh well, it wasn’t really that important. I was already comfy and warm enough to enjoy my blissful, sleepy haze.

I needed to remember to thank whoever put Spike to bed at some point. It was probably Berry Punch. Spike spent most days when I was busy playing with Berry Pinch.

Speaking of whom, Cherry Berry said something about…something recently. I think it had something to do with Pinkie Pie. Maybe Berry Pinch’s birthday was coming up.

That made sense. Pinkie Pie was trying to hide it, but I knew she’d been planning a few parties recently. My half-birthday was coming up soon, too. I’d have to make sure Pinkie Pie made butterscotch cookies this time instead of oatmeal raisin like during my last birthday. Those were the worst. I thought I’d be getting a delicious oatmeal chocolate chip cookie, but then suddenly raisins.

Mmm. I could go for some oatmeal pancakes right now.

Eh, but then I’d have to get out of bed. It wasn’t worth it.

I guess I could send a message to Pinkie Pie and ask for breakfast in bed. No, that was too much effort, too. And I’d still have to leave the snuggly warmth of my blankets.

There really was nothing like warm blankets. Changelings had some sort of cocoon thing that they could make for…ah, I couldn’t remember right now, but I was sure even that had nothing on blankets.

Then again, blankets could probably be improved. Spike was so warm himself, but he was so small. If I had somepony the size of Luna to snuggle with, everything would be bet–

My eyes popped open. Luna left! She’d just left and hadn’t come back! No, no, no. That was unacceptable.

I promptly cast a sleep spell on myself, falling unconscious before I’d even felt it take hold on me.

I woke up in my usual bed and rolled over. Much better. I’d felt a little uncomfortable before.

My stomach growled, but I paid it no mind. It was far too soon after waking to be thinking of anything in particular.

Now that I’d realized I’d been uncomfortable – wait, how long ago was that? Oh well. Anyway, Spike seemed to be missing, or at least I thought so. I was guessing purely on how much colder the bed was compared to usual. Dragons were so warm.

It was such a terrible trap. I usually only used my room to sleep, so I kept it cold so I could have more blankets. But then I’d have too many blankets, and I’d be too hot, so I’d need to make it colder again, thus necessitating another blanket.

Hmm… For all that her magic kept her warm – or cold, I guess – Dash and I got into fights over blankets pretty often. Maybe we should have brought some cotton plants. We’ve got some spare fabric and needle and thread in storage somewhere for patching rips – not that we’d ever needed them yet – but not enough to make more blankets.

Did leaves make good blankets? I could ask Berry Punch to save a bunch, and I could dig up a preservation enchantment.

Hmm, but then those blankets would be edible. What would happen if I ate one? It’d probably just come out the other end whole. But then I’d have to have strong enough teeth to eat through the spell preserving them. Unless the spell didn’t do that. I’d never needed a preservation spell before. I should probably look into them, or at least the ones used on books.

What was I thinking about? Oh yeah, teeth. If I had teeth like Luna’s, I could probably eat through–

Luna! She didn’t show up!

I cast another sleep spell on myself. This time Luna would come meet me. I just knew it.

I woke up in my usual bed. Somepony was saying something, but I couldn’t really make out what; my ears weren’t working properly yet.

That was something I always found interesting. I got that some ponies were light sleepers, but I didn’t understand why. My hearing literally didn’t work until I properly woke up or until I deliberately tried to hear things. Sometimes I would get stuck somewhere in-between – like right now – but that was the exception, not the rule.

My sense of touch, on the other hoof, didn’t like to turn off. If somepony wanted to wake me up, they just had to keep poking me – something whoever was nearby was apparently well aware of.

I lit up my horn and cast a sleep spell on the interloper. A little mean, perhaps, but it solved my problem. Besides, one should never wake a sleeping unicorn. Or was it a dragon? Wait, didn’t it have something to do with tickling? Tickling either a dragon or a unicorn was pretty dangerous.

I shoved whomever had fallen on top of me off to the side with a hoof and curled up into a ball.

There was something that I needed to do…but I couldn’t quite remember what. Maybe it had something to do with Berry Pinch? What did I need to do for her? She was still too young for magic lessons, and she’d be lost if I tried to teach her math or science.

How many scientists did we have on this ship? There was me and Twinkleshine. Oh, I needed to get her lessons started at some point. Summer break was over forever ago. Um…I think that was all of our scientists. That wasn’t nearly enough. I’d have to see to it that Berry Pinch and Spike grew up to study…eh, chemistry or something. Something sciencey.

Spike would look great in a lab coat. He’d get all the mares. Or…whatever female dragons were called. Drakeias? No, that sounded dumb. I didn’t remember bringing any books on dragon culture, and I didn’t relish trying to hunt the word down in a dictionary. But I did bring dragon anatomy books, though, so that should work.

I could always just ask Chrysalis or Luna. I was sure they’d both know. Maybe next–

Oh, no. Luna didn’t show up again…

Next time for sure.

I cast a sleep spell on myself.

I woke up in my usual bed. Spike felt bigger than usual. And more hoovey. And softer.

Eh, whatever. He was even better this way, and I fit nicely in-between his legs against his coat. What did Dash call that? Something about a spoon? That didn’t make any sense.

Speaking of spoons, though, I was pretty hungry. It wasn’t so bad as those times when I had to be dragged kicking and screaming from my books, but I was seriously considering getting out of bed. I was pretty thirsty, too, now that I thought of it. I licked my lips to little effect; my mouth was pretty dry.

Ugh… Speaking of bodily functions, I really needed the bathroom.

Sighing, I teleported myself out of bed to go about my afternoon routine on autopilot. Relieve the pressure in my bladder, get a drink, brush my teeth, shower…some other time. I wasn’t really in the mood right now.

Yawning, I trudged back into my bedroom, idly brushing my mane and tail with my magic. I looked over to my very tempting bed. Oh, how I wanted to crawl back under the covers and snuggle back up against Twinkleshine.

I cocked my head to the side. That was new. Twinkleshine and I didn’t share a bed, although I doubted either of us would object. Why was she here? Did somepony manage to talk me into drinking last morning to the point that I couldn’t remember?

No. No, that didn’t sound right. Somepony had been…trying to wake me up? That – yes, that was what had happened. And then I’d reflexively put her to sleep. Whoops. Oh well, no harm done. We’ll just have to move at a less lazy acceleration toward the moon today to make up for the–

Horseapples! Luna still hadn’t shown up!

I clambered back under my blankets and cast a sleep spell on myself.

I woke up to vigorous shaking, my eyes opening right away. I was floating in midair in front of Chrysalis just above my usual bed. Twinkleshine was standing sheepishly behind her and trying to look small.

“I stayed awake all this time because I assumed you had something important to talk to Luna about, not so you could get laid. I am going to bed right after this and will be relieving myself of my shield duty. Unless you want to risk traveling defenseless, I suggest you get up and stay up this time.”

“Um…Chrysalis, we didn’t–” Twinkleshine began, only be be cut off.

“I know very well you didn’t. You don’t smell like it at all.” Chrysalis dropped me in an ungraceful flump back onto my bed – above my sheets no less – and stomped out the door, shouting back a curt, “Good night!”

First righting myself, I looked for the edge of my blankets. Finding it, I pulled with my magic and pulled them tight back over me. Luna still hadn’t shown up yet.

“Twilight,” Twinkleshine said. I tried to ignore her. “You can’t sleep right now. Chrysalis meant what she said, and she’s really cranky right now. We need you to get up and power the ship.”

“Later. I need to be there for Luna right now if she needs me.”

“No!” Twinkleshine shouted, knocking my horn with her own telekinesis and interrupting my sleep spell. “Twi – Captain Sparkle, your crew needs you now, so get up.”

“But–”

“No buts! You can go spend all the time you want with your best friend later, but it’s time for us right now.”

I raised myself to my haunches and looked at Twinkleshine. I knew that there was jealousy in what she’d just said, but I couldn’t tell if she’d meant there to be or if she’d even noticed. Her face didn’t reveal anything important, nor did her stance. She just looked like she was scolding a lazy foal.

Luna needed me right now. That much I knew was true. If only she hadn’t left, I could’ve been there for her.

But she had, and I had no way to get to her; Luna had to come to me, and she could only do that if I were asleep.

Of course, being asleep required me to be alive. This close to the moon and sun, the chance of running into space debris was non-trivial over a long period of time.

Ugh. I could provide a large surge of power to the Nebulous for a minute and then take a five minute power nap, repeating that over and over until Chrysalis woke up.

But what if Luna came to me while I was awake. There’d be a one-sixth chance of that, and she might not come back if I missed her.

This was the worst.

I felt the power to the shields drop and quickly took up the slack myself. I could geas Chrysalis to stay up, but she’d never talk to me again after that. She might even ignore Pupa and her own well-being completely and betray us.

Biting my lip, I slowly got out of bed.

I really hoped that was the right decision.

Author's Notes:

Prereader – Starlight Nova

Chapter Sixteen - The Moon - Part One

[Winter 48, 994 – Day 258]

We leave for the moon as soon as I wake up. Not that I really need the extra sleep to make the journey. I’m still pretty well rested.

*cough*

Anyway, everypony but Twinkleshine will be sleeping through the journey. I told her I planned to study through the final leg, but she insisted on staying up with me anyway.

Still no sign of Luna, but I thought of something today! Luna doesn’t like Hearth’s Warming. Well, rather she gets moody around it; she likes it as much as any other holiday, if not more. I know we spent most of the last one together, but that was the exception, not the norm. Luna just needed some more space this year after hearing Celestia wanted to kill her. That’s definitely why she hasn’t come back yet.

I hope she doesn’t chew me out for slacking off with all that extra sleep instead of studying.

“The moon!” Twinkleshine shouted to our little bubble of air. “We’re on the moon! I’m on the moon! The moon! My hooves have moon dust on them! Twilight, can you turn off the gravity magic? Please?” Twinkleshine looked up at me with cute little puppy dog eyes, which really didn’t work since she was normally taller than me.

“No,” I said, “you’ll die.”

Well, she probably wouldn’t die right away – even the sun wasn’t big enough to kill a pony instantly with its gravity – but I could easily see her breaking a few bones within a second. Dash and maybe Fluttershy might be able to handle their own weight on the moon, but us two frail unicorns would snap like a twig.

The earth ponies in our group might be able to handle their weight, too, but it certainly wouldn’t be pleasant for them. Of course, that came with an asterisk; I was sure Pinkie Pie would be fine. She already casually cheated physics everyday with her usual insanity, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she shrugged off gravity several dozen times Equus’s.

To be fair, I suspected Pinkie Pie was a time mage, and the effects of living with non-linear causality had broken her mentally. I wasn’t sure if I found her more or less annoying after that revelation. On the one hoof, she wasn’t such a mystery anymore – probably – with the discovery. On the other hoof, I still had no idea how she did any of it.

Speaking of whom, Pinkie Pie jumped onto my back in a hug, and ignoring my protesting grunt, she said, “Don’t be a grumpy pants, Twilight. You promised all of us that you’ll have as much fun as you can today. Or is it tonight? I mean, we’re on the moon, so it’s night back home, but it’s pretty bright here. Does that make it always daytime on the moon? Maybe it’s always nighttime. Ooh, or maybe it’s always twilight since it’s not all that bright or dark.”

Okay, I drew the line at bad puns. Ducking down, I dropped Pinkie Pie back on her own hooves and crawled out from underneath her. To Spike’s delight, I picked him up and placed him on my back, thus preventing any further pouncing from Pinkie Pie.

“So anyway,” Cherry Berry began, “where are we headed first? Bare, cratered, pale gray rock is only entertaining for so long.” She glanced to the side where Berry Punch was trying to catch Berry Pinch and stop her from rolling around in the moon dust. “For some of us, at least.”

“I…um…” I looked to Twinkleshine, hoping she might know of a few interesting places to visit on the moon.

After a prolonged silence, Fluttershy whispered, “Are we lost?”

“I–”

“You have got to be kidding me!” Dash shouted, facehoofing. “We’ve been here, what, five minutes?”

“We’re not lost,” I said as calmly as I could. “I know the general direction to head in to get to Luna’s palace, or close enough at least to find it. Just…not anywhere else. We were supposed to have a tour guide.”

After an awkward nudge from Fluttershy, Dash said, “I didn’t mean… Sorry, Twi.”

“It’s fine. I had to tell her something she really didn’t want to know. She just needs some space.” For half a season…

I had to fight back a sigh that threatened to turn into a sniffle. If only Luna would saddle me with her problems instead of running off to deal with them herself. She always helped me feel better whenever I was down; I’d love it if I could do the same for her.

“Anyway,” I began, “does anypony want to go see…um…a scenic crater?”

Dash facehoofed for me. Twinkleshine alone looked enthused, but I could probably show her a pebble and have it make her happy right now.

I sighed. “Maybe we should just go to the palace.”

“No objections there,” Cherry Berry said with barely suppressed enthusiasm. Much like Twinkleshine, she was overeager to meet the ‘moon ponies’, having talked about all of the priceless historical knowledge she could gain from them – and probably several book deals – for weeks on end. Really, Cherry Berry had looked so happy about the whole trip that I hadn’t had the heart to tell her that there had probably been a significant amount of cultural contamination. Equus and the moon weren’t completely without contact; Luna did talk to her subjects, after all. Then again, Luna had said they still spoke Old Equestrian, so maybe they weren’t too affected.

“All right. First teleport in three, two, one–”

With one last flash of teleportation, we arrived…approximately at our destination. We were within a couple dozen kilometers of the southern – if you could say any one direction was really south when there was no magnetic field – side of the Hornburg, the moon’s tallest mountain. Unless I’d messed up horribly, the palace should be somewhere around here, built into the cliff face.

The only problem was actually locating it.

“Any chance you can feel any spellwork around?” I asked Twinkleshine. I didn’t really expect her to reply positively, but a mare could hope.

“Huh?” Twinkleshine tore her eyes away from the mountain just long enough to look at me and to say, “Oh. No.”

“Does anypony happen to see a castle anywhere? Maybe some foliage on the ground?” I held out hope that I was blind or that Pinkie Pie could randomly tell us for just a little bit longer before giving in. “No? Great…” Hope was for the hopeless.

My first solution would be to teleport around until we stumbled into the castle, but I didn’t know what kind of defenses Luna had put up all those centuries ago. Even if there were no hostile wards, it could be very difficult – possibly impossible – to blindly stumble in.

For instance, we might be subtly teleported a bit out of the way when we would have successfully entered the palace, and it’d be incredibly hard to notice. Distances were insanely difficult to judge on the moon; earlier when we were approaching the Hornburg, I thought we’d get here twice as fast, but the mountain was secretly much taller than I’d thought. Well, not secretly. In my experience, mountains generally didn’t keep secrets. It’d be better to say it was deceptively taller.

Anyway, I already knew what I’d have to do with no Luna to guide me, so I should just get to it. I was going to have to dig through the background magic everywhere near the mountain to find the castle. This was going to be a long night…

“Alright, since nopony knows where the castle is, I guess I’m going to have to find it. I’ll be back every so often to make sure the spells are holding up.”

Just as I was starting my teleport, Pinkie Pie said, “That’s not true, silly.”

“What’s not?” I asked, bracing myself for a dose of Pinkie Logic. It usually made sense, if only in the insulting ‘moon logic’ sense, but it was rarely useful.

“There are plenty of ponies who know where the castle is.”

“Yeah,” Dash began, “inside the castle where we can’t find them to ask them where the castle is.”

“Well yeah, it’d be pretty silly if we asked them where the castle was, because they’d just tell us it’s right there,” Pinkie said, gesturing vaguely toward the mountain. “So we should just ask them to show us where the castle is so that we can all see it ourselves.”

“Same problem, Pinkie Pie,” I said. “They’re… Oh.”

“Oh what?” Cherry Berry and Dash asked at the same time.

“Weeeeell,” Pinkie Pie began, “if we can’t bring the party to them, why not have them bring the party to us?”

“Pinkie, that’s brilliant!” Dash shouted, bumping hooves with Pinkie Pie.

I wouldn’t really say brilliant, but it was a much better idea than brute force. Even if they weren’t expecting us, they’d certainly investigate a large, obvious, magical disturbance on the moon. The only question was whether or not they were actually able to leave the castle. Since the spells protecting the castle would’ve needed maintenance over the years, I would assume they had at least one unicorn with enough magical knowhow to come find us.

While the rest of the group engaged in conversation, I set about casting a gigantic illusion in the sky above us. It wasn’t anything fancy, just an enormous, colorful sign saying, “We’re lost,” with a large arrow pointing down to us and ending just a few hooves above the tallest of us, Berry Punch.

“Hooves crossed that nopony is looking at us with a telescope,” I mumbled to nopony. That would be a very dumb way to have my cover blown. I didn’t think the illusion was that big, but even non-professional telescopes would be able to notice the splotch of color on the moon if they just happened to be looking at the Hornburg from the right angle.

And now we just had to wait. I pulled my notes on alchemy out of my saddlebags and picked up where I’d left off earlier tonight. I was so behind on my lessons, and these infernally complex alchemy spells still weren’t clicking in my head. Luna would be so disappointed with me if she came back and I didn’t even have a basic grasp on the actual spellwork implementations.

Sigh. That wasn’t fair to me. I could use the odd alchemy spell well enough to fake understanding, but that was far below my standards for myself. Luna had shown me how to put the big pieces together to do simple tasks like performing a few chemical reactions, but I was far away from what would usually be referred to as the ‘useful’ stuff.

Although, what would be called useful would vary wildly from pony to pony. There’s actually thousands – if not millions – of uses for forcing specific chemical reactions to proceed. As interesting as that was – and it was fascinating – I was more interested in the creation of complex objects: cells, food, phonographs, unstable elements, even wings. There was so much potential in alchemy. A mare could get lost in her imagination for days at a time.

Speaking of which, Fluttershy gave me a soft nudge with a hoof; I almost didn’t notice. Looking up, I saw everypony was staring off into the distance, and Twinkleshine was squealing in delight while bouncing on her hooves. Shifting my own gaze the same way, I noticed some small, colorful specks against the backdrop of the mountain.

Well, not that colorful, actually. I think they were dark grays and browns specks, plus one bright orange one that was hard to pick out against the backdrop of the moon. With a quick scry, I confirmed the colors. We had one orange unicorn headed our way with three lunar pegasi in tow, or rather towing him in a chariot which looked big enough for…most of us. How awkward. One had a nearly black coat, another had a dark gray coat, and the last one had a dark brown coat.

Anyway, there was no sense in making them fly all the way to us. I canceled my illusion and fired up a teleport. We weren’t too far away from them, so we could make the trip in roughly a dozen short jumps very quickly.

I didn’t know if I should make anything of it, but I was a little disappointed when none of our four guides started when we suddenly appeared in front of them, teleporting one last time straight to the ground after I said a quick hello. Maybe Dash and Pinkie Pie were rubbing off on me just a tiny bit with all of their prank wars.

Within seconds, the chariot above us turned and started its descent, gradually slowing down all the while.

“All right, everypony, before they land, I want to say something.” As I continued, I met Twinkleshine’s and Pinkie Pie’s eyes in particular. “Whatever you do later, I expect you to behave civilly for the moment. That means no flying tackle hugs, no treating them like a specimen, no anything along those lines. And preferably no staring.”

I was about to comment on Twinkleshine’s pout,when, from the center of our group, a voice said, “Greetings, Princess Twilight Sparkle, Harbinger of the Night and Mistress of Magic.”

What? I turned around until I found our guides with their hooves on the ground and bowing to me. It seemed Luna had been wrong; ponies were going to treat me like a princess with or without wings. I’d hoped that I could have put that off a few years longer, but apparently Luna had ruined any chance of that.

Still, it was just for one night, and nopony but myself would understand a word the locals would say.

Oh, stars. Except for the adventurer slash archaeologist who could read and write ancient languages and who could probably–

“Princess?” Cherry Berry echoed.

Immediately, I cast a quick spell to mute her, using another to whisper into her ear, “I’ll explain later. Please keep quiet.”

“So, what?” Dash began. “Is one of them a princess or something?”

Berry Punch asked, “Are we supposed to be bowing, too?”

“Everypony’s supposed to bow to princesses,” Berry Pinch unhelpfully added.

“No, I don’t think bowing is a cultural thing,” I replied. “Probably not, anyway. I’m…well…kind of a big deal as Princess Luna’s apprentice.” Afterward, I mumbled, “Apparently,” to myself.

Turning my attention back to the ponies who were still bowing, I cast my own ventriloquism spell to converse with them. Emulating all of Luna’s usual poise and sophistication, I straightened my back, held my head level, and hoped my accent wasn’t really as bad as Luna had told me it was.

“Please rise.” Instant compliance. I bit back my irritation at being obeyed, which was competing with my elation at not being bowed to. “I would much prefer it if you would treat me like…”

Huh. I was going to say treat me like a normal pony, but I was pretty sure how well that would go over. I’d spend half the night futilely trying to get past all the formalities until I’d get so tired and frustrated that I’d learn to accept my place or something, and then Pinkie Pie would sing some song about how good life is, and at that point, I’d have missed the festival completely.

Yeah, I’d just skip that.

“Please behave informally in the presence of my companions.” I added a wink for effect. Hopefully they’d take the hint that there was a reason they shouldn’t call me ‘princess’, and Cherry Berry wouldn’t.

The older, dark-gray lunar pegasus didn’t so much as blink, but the other three betrayed my meaning for a moment in their own time. That probably meant I was going to have to use the standard lame excuse: Shining was almost certainly going to marry Cadance and make me part of the extended royal family.

Sigh. While true, it was so technically incorrect of an excuse that it made me cringe.

The elder pegasus, the one who was either quick witted or didn’t understand subtext, spoke in time with the voice that was projected from behind me. He said, “As you wish, Lady Twilight. Please permit me to introduce myself. I am Crescent, and I am privileged to be the voice of the princess amongst those who call the moon their home.”

“I see.” Ignoring Twinkleshine nudging me, I began, “Has she…” I took a deep breath to calm myself, turning it into a fake yawn. I could ask about Luna later; I had few doubts that I was going to be disappointed by the answer. “I’m terribly sorry. I’m afraid the final leg of our journey to the moon has taken much out of me.”

“Shall we then repair to the city?” I nodded, and he continued, “Very well. How would you like to arrange our departure? I regret to say, the chariot we brought is not quite large enough for all of you.”

“If we were to follow you by…” I mashed my lips together, searching my vocabulary. I really only had conversational level knowledge of Old Equestrian. Turning to Cherry Berry, I asked, “What’s the word for teleportation?”

“Huh?” Cherry Berry said, apparently taken by surprise. “I don’t think there is one, but there is a related word. It refers to when Princess Celestia – and I guess Princess Luna, too – would disappear and reappear elsewhere.”

“What is it?” I asked.

“‘Manifestus’.” At my odd look, Cherry Berry added, “It’s a loanword from another dead language. Don’t try conjugating it.” Switching over to Old Equestrian, Cherry Berry said, “However, it has a distinctly divine connotation that you may or may not want to use, Princess.”

As I sighed, Crescent said, “Excuse me, Lady Twilight, but if I may interject.”

I turned around to give him my attention.

“Any means by which you follow us would be acceptable. The magical defenses placed upon the city were dispelled centuries ago. As hard working as our few spell casters are, we have not been able to maintain more than the bare minimum of the original enchantments. The princess’s spellwork was too far beyond us, I’m afraid.”

Containing my squeal of delight at having a chance to examine some of Luna’s real world work, I said, “If you would like, I would be happy to meet the current generation of spell casters and perhaps give a few pointers.”

“If you wish,” Crescent replied with a knowing smirk. “Shall we depart, then?”

“Of course.”

We didn’t have far to go, although we traveled at the speed of flight instead of at my usual teleportation pace. We only had to travel a little bit around the mountain before I could pick out Luna’s magic in the distance. Luna’s magic! Her real magic, not just her magic in a dream! It felt subtlety different, and dozens of other ponies’ magic were mixed in, but it was definitely hers at the core.

I certainly wasn’t alone in my eagerness. Twinkleshine and Pinkie Pie were still just as excitable as ever, each for their own reasons. Cherry Berry hid it well, but her bearing betrayed her. Dash was an open book for anypony to read, but surprisingly, even Fluttershy was restless in anticipation.

Well, it was probably in anticipation. She could be thinking about bolting, but I rather doubted it.

“Twilight,” Twinkleshine whined, “how much longer?”

“We’re almost there. Maybe another minute or two.”

“Ugh. Can’t you just teleport us all the way there right now?”

“No, Twinkleshine. It’d be rude to leave Crescent and the others behind after they were nice enough to come fetch us.”

“Oh, come on, Twilight. Pleeeeease? The wait is killing me.”

I cast another teleport to put us below our guides once more as they continued flying forward.

“Just be patient.”

“I don’t wanna!”

I wanted to tell Twinkleshine to stop acting like a foal, but I knew it wouldn’t do anything. She was, after all, literally living one of her dreams right now. Several of us were, actually, and I certainly didn’t want to be the one to put a damper on all the excitement.

“Hey,” I began, “why don’t you go ask Cherry Berry to teach you some key phrases?” Like I should have done. Hmm…

“I guess…” Twinkleshine said.

I turned to Cherry Berry with a hopeful look. She let out a silent laugh and smirked before responding.

“I suppose I could take her off your hooves for a little while. I might as well teach everypony while I’m at it. Come gather round.”

Tuning out the rest of the group, I simply enjoyed being in the presence of Luna’s magic again. It’d been so long since I’d seen her; I’d worried that I wouldn’t be able to recognize her magic anymore. Obviously, I’d been wrong, but that didn’t make the feeling any less satisfying.

“Mama?”

“Hmm?” I said through my emotional haze. “Yes, Spike?”

“Is Auntie Luna here?”

Sighing and lifting Spike off my back, I said, “It’s complicated.”

“But we’re on the moon.”

“Yes. Yes, we are. It’s… It’s complicated, Spike. I’m sorry she hasn’t been around for so long after you just met her, but she’s been busy. Auntie Luna is a very important pony. She has to take care of all of Equestria at night.”

“All of it?” Spike asked, eyes wide. “But – but that’s like hundreds of ponies.”

I resisted the urge to correct Spike. Equestria’s population was more toward the hundred millions. Instead, I said, “Yep. Sometimes she gets so busy that she just doesn’t have time for us. Auntie Luna is here, but she won’t be able to spend any time with us tonight.” Lifting Spike’s sad face with a hoof, I added, “Just try not to have any bad dreams. You don’t want to make even more work for her, do you?”

“Uh-uh.”

“Good. Now, would you like to spend tonight with Berry Pinch?”

Spike stopped to consider the idea, no doubt stuck between wanting to follow me around and wanting to go play.

“You’ll probably get bored hanging out with me tonight. I think I’m going to be stuck with the old ponies tonight. It’ll just be a whole bunch of talking.”

“Bleh.”

Giggling, I said, “I’ll ask Berry Punch to look after you.”

I looked up to locate a destination for our next teleport, when I noticed that our guides had disappeared. My eyes widened when I realized where we were: the edge of the illusion. With one more teleport, I relocated us inside the spellwork, and I lost my breath.

I’d expected a little chunk of Ponyville on the moon with a fancy castle nearby, but not this. This was like walking into a painting, with the hinterland spreading out before us, the village splayed across the base of the mountain, and the palace – it was definitely a palace, not a castle – looming over everything.

“Is – is that a river?” Cherry Berry asked.

I let our protection spells go, as we didn’t need them anymore.

“Oh my!” Fluttershy whispered.

I noticed a small flock of birds in the air of a species which I was fairly sure was extinct. Near those birds was a smaller flock of lunar pegasi engaged in some sky-based sporty thing.

“Hey, Twi, I’m not gonna die if I leave, am I?”

“Huh? No, you–”

“Great! See ya, everypony!” Dash shouted back to us as she flew off into the sky in her usual rainbow blur.

“What? Wait! Dash–”

I didn’t have time to say anything else before a pink blur speed past me on the ground. Already far away, Pinkie Pie was headed toward a curvy part of the river where dozens and dozens of lunar pegasi were dancing, and playing music, and eating, and in general, reveling and making merry. In Pinkie Pie terms, they were having a party.

Worse, Berry Pinch had somehow managed to latch onto Pinkie Pie’s tail and flailed wildly as she was carried away. It only took a moment before Berry Punch realized what was happening and ran off after her daughter.

Sighing, I forced my eyes away from the, quite frankly, very architecturally pleasing palace in the distance and the three fillies that had just bolted like… Well, the standard Hearth’s Warming present simile really didn’t apply here, since it was Hearth’s Warming. Sometimes I felt like a mother with too many foals to look after.

“Cherry Berry,” I began, “I don’t mean to rain on your own adventure, but could you look after them once in a while tonight? The ones on the ground, at least?”

“Yeah, no problem.”

“Also, would you mind taking Spike with you until I’m free to wander about?”

“Sure thing.” Cherry Berry smirked again. “Try not to let all the royal affairs ruin your solstice.”

Ignoring her, I gave Spike a hug goodbye and teleported the two of them some ways ahead of Pinkie Pie. I doubted their lead would last long.

“At this point, you might as well go see what they have in the royal menagerie here,” I suggested to Fluttershy. I’d already lost control of the situation, so I might as well just roll with it and pretend it had been my idea all along.

“I…um…I think I’ll stay with you, if you don’t mind.”

“That’s fine. I’ll make sure Dash gets back to you at some point tonight.”

Ignoring Fluttershy’s quiet thanks, I turned to Twinkleshine, only to find her already talking up a storm a little way behind us with Crescent and the other three – well actually, just the other two lunar pegasi. That much was expected. What I didn’t expect was all four of the locals – the unicorn included – seemed to be just as interested in Twinkleshine, although none of them could understand each other.

I wasn’t sure if this meant Twinkleshine was going to stick to me like glue or if she was going to get distracted and let me mope and hug a moon rock all night by myself.

Wow. Even I had to admit I sounded depressing.

As I took a step toward Twinkleshine and her new friends – written as specimens – the locals seemed to suddenly remember I was here. They all stood a little straighter and tried very hard to pretend like what I’d just seen hadn’t happened.

Addressing Crescent, I said, “You know, I did request you act informally around my friends. I will not think any less of anypony that is as excited about our visit as Twinkleshine here is, nor would I expect Luna to.”

The mare in question seemed unperturbed by the change in mood as she pulled out one of the pegasus’s wings to examine. I doubt she noticed his blush, either. At least he wasn’t upset or offended.

Crescent cleared his throat. “Well, yes. Anyway, it is my pleasure to welcome you to the lunar palace, Luminance, home to the last of the fengari.”

I was just going to assume that last word meant lunar pegasi, or moon ponies, or bat ponies, or whatever.

“Seeing as your group has dispersed–”

“My apologies,” I mumbled.

“Think nothing of it, Lady Twilight. You are our guests, and you are free to do as you wish while you are here. That said, would the three of you care for an escort anywhere?”

Ah, there it was. ‘You are free to do as you wish so long as we can hang out with you and get into the next goddess’s good graces.’

Sigh, maybe I was being too paranoid. Crescent wasn’t even a real politician like the kind Cadance complained about or like the ones loyal to Luna whom I’d briefly talked to on occasion back on Equus. Not everypony wanted something, and he had looked genuinely interested in us when he’d let his guard down. Besides, I had few doubts that Luna doted on her little ‘moon ponies’ as much as possible, so it wasn’t like any of them really needed anything from me.

“Twinkleshine?” I said, drawing her attention away from her…mingling. “Fluttershy? Is there anywhere in particular you’d like to visit?”

Shortly before I finished asking, Twinkleshine replied, “The castle! And each and everypony inside it! And I want to look out over the moon from the highest turret! And eat whatever local foods they have! And – and everything!”

Giggling, I turned to Fluttershy and asked, “How about you? Any preferences on what part of everything we visit first?”

“Oh, anything would be fine. I’m sure whatever you want to do would be wonderful.”

“Alright, then.” Turning back to Crescent, I asked, “Would you care to show us to the–”

I shuddered as I felt a faint, mildly familiar magic fill the air, but if anypony noticed – the magic or my reaction – they didn’t comment on it. I’d known it was coming, but I’d managed to lose track of the time while we were traveling.

Midnight had arrived, and with it had come Celestia’s magic.

“–palace?” I finished lamely.

“It would be my pleasure.”

The chariot ride to the palace was nice, even if we managed to draw every local’s attention when we got anywhere near them despite the rest of the crew already having occupied their attention. Lunar pegasi, as it turned out, could fly a lot smoother and quieter than regular pegasi, but not quietly enough for my tastes.

I’d asked the unicorn hitching a ride with us – his name was Astral – about the differences between the subspecies almost immediately after I’d noticed the first one, but it quickly became obvious he had no idea. In hindsight, that should have been obvious. The only way to get a regular pegasus here would be from the unicorns and earth ponies reproducing and getting a pegasus child, and even then, they’d come out with mixed traits like Fluttershy, although probably far more pronounced. Based on what little I knew about genetics and the fact that the moon wasn’t littered with regular pegasi, I’d guess that there were some mating guidelines in effect.

Well, even outside of the need to have a few unicorns and earth ponies hanging around, there would probably need to be mating guidelines anyway with such a small current population, disregarding whatever they started out with. The griffin royals – and the pony nobles, unfortunately – have historically had fertility issues due to all the inbreeding, and such problems would be amplified here.

Anyway, I’d only caught a glimpse of one or two foals on the trip, so while I probably should assume the worst until informed otherwise, Luna had said their population was stable. Consequently, I was going to be optimistic and assume that there was instead some grand scheme in effect which involved long gaps between generations.

Lost in thought as I idly translated for Twinkleshine and Astral, I started when we touched back down on the ground in the palace courtyard. That wasn’t to say the landing wasn’t smooth, or gentle, or any other positive quality of landings. I was just too busy letting my thoughts wander aimlessly, which in hindsight, was sort of a contradiction in terms.

Ugh. Anyway, I hopped off the chariot and took stock of my new surroundings. Up close, as so many things did, the palace lost much of its stunning beauty. It looked nice – not that I had the best eye for these kind of things – but it wasn’t anything to write home about. And just looking at it, something felt…off, somehow.

I couldn’t put my hoof quite on what was wrong, though; this place wasn’t all that different in spirit from Canterlot Castle. Obsidian stone walls, check. Miscellaneous flora and the odd fauna, check – although I only recognized one or two of the trees. A fountain, check. The wingful of statues, check. Enchantments which probably only I noticed, check. Scattered guards, not check – probably not necessary.

Hmm, what else was there? There were nice, paved walkways through the courtyard, and the plants were blooming. The latter was a bit odd considering it was winter, but the seasons could be whatever the residents wanted on the moon. Really, we could make the seasons whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted on Equus, too, with or without Luna’s or Celestia’s help, but we kept them around. Presumably there were valid reasons for doing so.

Maybe I was approaching this wrong. What was missing? There were the previously mentioned guards, but I didn’t think that was it. There weren’t any flags or tapestries. That was odd, but I didn’t really see the point of them here, especially when the locals had more limited resources at their–

That was it! Well, not exactly, but it was the same spirit. There were no festivities here at all, not even a plate of muffins or mug of hot chocolate. Actually, they might not have chocolate here; I wasn’t sure when chocolate had been invented, but it was probably after Luna had been banished. Stranger still, the entire palace didn’t have the usual wear and tear I’d expect to see in a castle. Obsidian showed imperfections like no other rock, and while Luna could have enchanted it to be effectively indestructible, everything that Luna wouldn’t have had a chance to enchant looked pristine as well.

Was the palace simply not used? With space being a very valuable resource, I couldn’t think of any reason why they wouldn’t.

“Crescent,” I began, turning around, “is there any reason the palace isn’t used?”

All of Crescent’s surprise at my question showed on his face for a few seconds before he mastered his expression.

“Well, the three caretakers live up here, so it is not completely vacant, but everypony else finds the flight up here too inconvenient for regular use.”

“Ah…” What a horribly mundane explanation. And here I thought Luna might have a whole palace full of interesting things she didn’t want ponies putting their hooves all over. Oh well. “Would you mind terribly if the three of us simply wandered by ourselves for a while?”

After a moment’s hesitation, Crescent replied, “Of course not, Princess. Whatever you wish. I trust you will be able to make it to the festival on your own, should you desire.”

I nodded and then turned to Twinkleshine and Fluttershy. “Alright, you two. We have free reign of the palace alone, so let’s go explore it to our hearts’ content.”

“What! Twilight,” Twinkleshine whined, “what about the moon ponies!”

“We might run into one inside,” I said, although honestly I’d rather just be by myself while I did this. I’d been given a chance to look into Luna’s past firsthoof, and I wanted it to be a private affair. “You’re free to do what you want, of course, if you’d rather do something else. Especially you, Fluttershy.”

“M-me? I – I don’t…”

Sighing, I said, “Fluttershy, your eyes dart toward some rustle in a bush made by an animal every other second. Just go enjoy yourself.”

“I…um…” Fluttershy pawed the ground with her eyes looking straight at the floor. “Okay. Thank you.”

I didn’t stay to watch Fluttershy wander off; like me, she loved her privacy. I wandered off through what I presumed were the front gates of the palace, Twinkleshine following just behind me. My first real look at the inside of the palace left me secretly wishing I were Luna’s art student. And naturally, this beautiful moment was interrupted by Twinkleshine running right into me. At least we didn’t fall over…

“Sorry,” Twinkleshine said automatically, her eyes not even looking toward me for a moment.

I turned my attention back to the walls of the hall myself. Just from our arrival, I knew that Luna obviously had an artistic gift in landscaping and architecture, but her painting was somehow even better. The entire hallway was one big canvas, and if what I had seen and could see of the rest of the palace were any indication, Luna had probably painted everything. And it wasn’t just one big picture either; the subject matter clearly changed as it went along, but it was so seamlessly done, I couldn’t point to any spot and say, ‘This is new material.’

And then I actually noticed the windows. They were stained glass windows, and Luna had managed to incorporate them into the canvas, too. They weren’t distracting holes in the wall; they were accents, and the soft moonlight they radiated was gorgeous.

Twinkleshine gasped and galloped a little ways down the hall, not even bothering to look where she was going as she watched the walls go by. In no rush myself, I followed at a slow canter. I’d never imagined I’d actually find myself captivated by art, but well…here I was. It helped my pride a little bit that it was Luna’s art.

As I approached Twinkleshine, I idly said, “This is amazing. How long do you think this took?”

“Centuries!” Twinkleshine half-shouted, her voice echoing through the palace. “Don’t you see what this is?”

I shook my head and looked back at the halls. Nothing in particular jumped out at me, but I could easily imagine it would take centuries to paint an entire palace while ruling a country.

“Twilight, this is the history of – of the world! Well, at least the princesses’ histories. I think it starts back there with Discord and just sort of…sprawls out from there.”

Twinkleshine grabbed one of my hooves and pulled me back the way we came. We went a short ways down one of the hallways we’d skipped, and she spun me to look at the wall.

“It’s not just one story either. The main hallway was showing us the founding of Equestria, but this one shoots off on a…a…a side story. All of the hallways did! I think this one is a love story between Princess Celestia and this pegasus stallion! And that one over there.”

I noticed Twinkleshine’s intentions early this time and cantered along with her instead of being pulled along, but not before taking one last look at the wall. Celestia looked…young…in these paintings. She was shorter, and her pure pink hair was a huge image change, but there was no doubt it was her.

“This is Princess Luna’s love story!”

With a lunar pegasus, of course. No surprise there; I did more or less understand the attraction after I’d seen some myself. The far more interesting thing was Luna’s appearance. I hadn’t recognized her at first, but the similarities were obvious when I knew what I was looking at. Where Luna now was stunning and beautiful, this Luna was adorable and cute. And it wasn’t like that one time when I’d turned her into a filly. She’d just looked ridiculous then. I had to admit, the lack of stars in her light blue mane left a lot to be desired, but she was still pretty. Her dark blue coat might actually go better with the stars, but I’d have to see her in pony with it to know for sure.

More importantly, if this was Luna as a filly – well, in a somewhat filly-like body; she was probably pretty old already – I wondered what she looked like fully grown. If this was a history of Equestria like Twinkleshine said, then I should be able to find out if I…

“What happens when the hallway splits?” I asked, half to myself and half to Twinkleshine. “More subplots? What about when it rejoins other, larger hallways? Are there no loops in here?”

I knew Luna was a good story teller, but would she really be able to weave together potentially thousands of little stories into each other at arbitrary points? That was unbelievable. I had to see it for myself.

Twinkleshine and I took our first step forward at the same time. The easiest way to answer my questions would be to just wander the palace. I might even get answers to hundreds of other historical questions I’d always wanted to ask Luna but never had the time to. A small hop came into my step just thinking about it, and I barely paid attention to the little love story going on around me. I was kind of regretting sending Crescent away; he could have given us the guided tour.

Then again, he mentioned that there were some caretakers that lived here. Maybe they were still around, considering that everypony here apparently knew we were going to come visiting.

“Hey, Twinkleshine, why don’t we split up? Crescent said” – I turned my head to look at Twinkleshine, but she didn’t turn to me and was biting her lip – “there were some ponies who lived here. We could maybe find them for a guide, and…” I bit my own lip for a moment and then asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“That is the most obvious lie I’ve heard that didn’t come out of Dash’s or Cadance’s mouth.”

I stopped walking, but Twinkleshine didn’t bother to stop with me.

“Twinkleshine, please tell me what’s wrong.”

Finally, Twinkleshine stopped. “I said it’s nothing! Just – go follow the main hall, and I’ll check the side passages, okay?”

Okay or not, Twinkleshine didn’t wait for an answer and started off on her own. As responsible as it would’ve been to have followed her, I turned around and went back the way we’d come. I had to admit, when I said I wanted my look into Luna’s past to be a private affair, that I wanted to be alone, I had meant it. And now I had the chance. All it cost me was not cheering up my friend after…whatever it was that upset her.

I…guess I needed to apologize – probably definitely. Eventually.

Walking through the main hall wasn’t as exciting as I’d have liked it to be. Anypony who could get her hooves on a changeling history of Equestria wouldn’t find it particularly enlightening. It was just all the major events of Equestrian history: wars, treaties, important ponies, new nations, et cetera. There were no shortage of hallways I was tempted to go down, including a particularly interesting looking account of Sombra, but for now, I resisted their call.

I climbed a set of stairs and found myself at the entrance to the throne room. I suspected a small part of me was expecting to see two thrones, but there was only one at the far end. Luna had said she’d never told Celestia about this place, but they did used to be on good terms. I could see Luna building an extra throne just in case.

Anyway, it looked like the main story continued on through the throne room and out the doorways in the back, so I made my way across. If I had to guess, I’d say I was a few centuries off from Luna’s banishment. I was pretty sure the ceiling was depicting the battle of Horseshoe Bay, but it could have been one of the battles at the future site of Manehattan.

By this point, Luna was probably as fully grown as she was going to get; she hadn’t changed in a century or two in the paintings. She looked so… If I’d met this version of her first, I’d probably think the current one was weird, but since it was the other way around, she looked so…so…unbalanced? No, that wasn’t the right word. She was still gorgeous. She was surprisingly much shorter, but that wasn’t what was bothering me.

Ugh, I didn’t know how to put it. It was like if somepony came into my room and moved everything a few centimeters in a random direction. It wasn’t all that different, but the minor changes would trip me up over and over again for no good reason.

I did really like her navy blue coat, though. Maybe not more than her black coat, but it was a great look for her.

Continuing out the back of the throne room, I pursued the main history. Just after I passed what I was certain was the signing of the Equestrian–Draconian peace treaty, I noticed an odd door. There was nothing strange about it as far as doors went, but it was the first and the only door that I’d seen in the palace so far. Everywhere else just sort of went without doors or even doorframes. Then again, I hadn’t followed any of the side passages very far. Individual rooms probably had doors.

Frowning, I made a mental note to come back here after I’d reached the end of the main history. I was only about a century off from the end of what Luna could have painted, after all. I could be patient.

Not that there was much to be patient for. I followed the main hallway to the end of the painting, where it abruptly stopped. It wasn’t even a clean break. The parts that looked done would poke out of an imaginary line that marked the end of the canvas – or else there was just a lot of background not painted yet – but there were plenty of half-finished ponies and buildings.

This was it. This was the end. I wasn’t sure what to make of it that Luna hadn’t put any of her own personal feelings into the main history. At least she hadn’t so far as I could tell. The academic in me was delighted by her impartiality; the historian in me was divided, given that Luna was a rather important figure in history and that her thoughts and opinions had a direct effect on the course of history; and the student in me was worried about how much her teacher was bottling up, even in her own home.

Then again, perhaps that was what all the side passages were really for. They did detail her life, and maybe that was where she let the raw emotion out at. I had so much to see here, and I had only one night to do it.

And I had a door to start with.

Author's Notes:

Prereader – Starlight Nova

Chapter Seventeen - The Moon - Part Two

“Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, owwwww…”

Note to self: never ever buck a door again just because it wouldn’t open. It wouldn’t help, and it would just give me another leg to nurse back to health.

Still, I was only more interested than ever to get past this door. There was no handle, no knob, it didn’t push open, magic wouldn’t budge it, I couldn’t teleport past it, I couldn’t scry past it, I couldn’t easily destroy it, and there was no telling what disenchanting it would do. This was the door. What all other doors aspired to be. I’d experimented with going through the walls, too, but even if that had worked, I didn’t think I could bring myself to damage Luna’s painting just to get past a door.

And even if I was crazy enough to try turning myself into a sentient gas for a little bit – Luna had given me a scolding when I’d said I wanted to try that after reading about it – it looked an awful lot like this door was also airtight. For all that it looked like simple carved wood with decorative crystals, this was probably the most enchanted door I’d ever seen, even more so than bank vaults.

A rather loud and obnoxious part of me was screaming that Luna didn’t want me in there and that I should just leave, but that was Past Luna. I was sure Present Luna wouldn’t mind if she were around to ask – probably. I could just be making excuses, but I only had tonight to get inside and look around, or else I’d have to wait three to six years.

Alright, so assuming this wasn’t some cruel joke and that there was actually something behind the door other than a wall, there was probably some sort of spell key set to open the door. A thousand years ago, the mere idea of cryptography would have barely existed, so this probably wasn’t an impossible task.

If it were just keyed to Luna’s magic, I could probably fool the door; I did have plenty of samples of her magic to work with within hooves reach. Then again, that was probably evidence for that being the wrong answer, since the door would probably accidentally open all the time that way. No, it had to be something else. That would be a backup idea.

If the trigger was tied to a specific spell, I wouldn’t be able to determine which it was without disabling the wards muddling my magical senses beyond the door, and that could prove disastrous. Now that I thought about it, opening the door at all could be a really bad idea. Crescent said that they were only able to maintain the minimum level of enchantments, so there was no telling what state the ones here were in. The smart thing to do would be to go find and ask one of the caretakers, but…well…that would be admitting defeat.

What if I looked at it another way? Assuming I could solve this problem at all – which was a big assumption, admittedly – what could I do that would be hard for anypony else to do? Okay, that was the wrong question; I could do a lot that other ponies would find hard to do. Rather, I should ask what would be difficult for somepony to replicate, even if they knew what they had to do. That was the best kind of lock, disregarding whatever other protection measures a pony took.

There was my flaring, or just my high magical power in general. It was barely within the realm of possibility that Luna had enchanted this door to require an alicorn’s raw magical power to open, but honestly, I’d expect that would just fry the spells and destroy the castle when somepony actually tried to open the door. And if she didn’t want to be able to enter through this door herself, she’d just have put a wall here instead, so that probably wasn’t it.

Alchemy spells were incredibly hard, but they weren’t really an appropriate answer to my question. If you already knew you had to use an alchemy spell, it was a simple as taking a weekend to learn one without understanding it. Well, maybe more than a weekend for ponies that weren’t me, but my point stood. I needed to think of something that might be literally impossible for some…

Was it really that simple?

I took a few steps back from the door and readied a ‘run for my life’ teleport spell, just in case. With a shield up to block any potential physical damage, I called upon my darker feelings and flung some raw, unrestrained dark magic at the door. Much to my delight, it only took a split second before the door responded. The crystals lit up brilliantly, and I had to avert my eyes. When the shining finally died down, I looked back. The door had completely vanished.

Inside was another hallway that led to yet another door, although this one had one of those really, really old ring handles that a pony would stick their hoof through to pull on. The walls were painted almost all the way to the end of the hallway, and for some reason, a few of the images seemed familiar at a glance.

I rushed through the doorway to get a better look. As soon as I passed through, I felt a small magical surge behind me. Spinning around, I found my life threatened by nothing more than the door that had returned.

Sighing in relief, I turned my attention back to the paintings. It took me all of one second to realize exactly why Luna had this hallway sealed up. This was private private stuff, the kind a pony only showed one or two other ponies closest to her, if any at all.

The art style hadn’t fundamentally changed so far as I could tell, but the color schemes certainly had, and all of the lines were rough, at times even jagged. And the expressions on the ponies here…they felt so much darker. This place was filled with anger, hate, and depression.

I hurried along as quietly as I could. I wasn’t so sure I wanted to be here anymore, but I had to know what was beyond the next door. I’d known Luna liked Celestia even less than I did, but this place was so…raw. It reminded me of me at my worst.

I tried not to look, but my curiosity drove me to take a glance at the wall every so often. This story was of all the insults, all the neglect, all the pain that led up to Luna’s banishment. I seriously doubted the story actually started in history where this hallway was located, considering how much pain was in the very first images, but maybe the beginning was unimportant. Maybe even Luna didn’t know when it began.

And I swore I’d see some of these images before. One of the earliest ones was especially driving me crazy as I walked. It had Luna and Celestia chasing the moon and sun respectively in a circle, and I just knew I’d seen it somewhere before. Maybe it’d had slightly different colors or something.

I stumbled as I passed another image that I just had to have seen somewhere. It was the first depiction of Luna I’d seen with her current appearance, and it was so familiar. It had her rearing up as if to strike something, or perhaps to strike somepony down. Without realizing it, I must have moved on to when Luna’s anger was flaring out of control.

Taking a deep breath, I turned away and continued down the hall. I was close enough to the end now that I opened the door with my magic. If I were in any mood to be pleasantly surprised that my magic had worked, I would have been.

I glanced at the last image in the hallway as I passed it by, only to freeze. The very first thing that bothered me was the art style; it was as different as night and day. The second much, much worse thing was the subject matter. There was no way in Tartarus that Luna had painted it.

Celestia was sitting on a cloud, looking up at the moon. And now that it was right in front of me, this was the first time I’d seen the mare in the moon on any of the paintings here. This was made after Luna had been banished!

My eyes widened.

I knew why this place was so familiar.

It was that book. The one Celestia had read to me.

Celestia had been here!

She had painted this!

I backed into something hard and screamed. In my panic, I bolted further down the hallway and into the room at the end instead of galloping away.

Looking around, I found only one very dumb place to hide, but I didn’t have any other options. I wanted to live.

I dove to the floor and squirmed under the bed and made myself as silent and as magically inactive as I could be.

Who was I fooling? I was so dead.

Any moment now.

I could only hold my breath so long before I passed out.

Okay, I didn’t want to complain about not being dead, but why wasn’t I? I felt a little bit insulted. Celestia had warded the Tree of Harmony back on Equus, why wouldn’t she have warded here?

Was she not the one who had painted that last image? I didn’t have any hard evidence it had been her, but who else could have? I seriously doubted any of the locals had ever been allowed in here, let alone that they would take it upon themselves to continue a tiny piece of Luna’s work. That just sounded horribly disrespectful, especially considering it was depicting their princess’s defeat.

It had to have been Celestia, but that didn’t make any sense! Ugh! She shouldn’t be this inscrutable! Why would she even leave this place standing? Why wouldn’t she kill everypony that lived here, or drag them back to Equus, or something? Did she even know anypony was living up here? She must have, but then somepony should have found out she’d been here, and then Luna should have found out. But if Luna knew, she would have told me and warned me away from coming here. So that must mean Celestia had never been here.

No, that couldn’t be right. It had to have been her. She could have just made herself extra invisible to the point where nopony here would be able to notice her in any way. She was an alicorn; she could do that.

She could be doing that right now! She could be looking at me right now, laughing at my helplessness. Hiding under the bed wasn’t going to do anything for me. Maybe I’d even seen her already, and she’d erased my memory of it just to enjoy watching me self-destruct.

Well I wasn’t going to let that happen! If I didn’t use any magic until I’d calmed down, I definitely wouldn’t flare. I just needed to calm down.

Maybe Celestia wasn’t here. Maybe I could talk my way out of…well, out of death. Luna would kill her if she killed me. Even Cadance would probably want to kill her. And it wasn’t like Cadance would really believe she’d found me on the moon if I didn’t admit to it.

Deep breaths, Twilight. Deep breaths. I wouldn’t give Celestia the satisfaction.

My heart wouldn’t slow down, but at least I’d gotten myself…barely calm enough to talk without breaking out in tears. I needed to say something, but what could I say? Threats were best saved for a last resort; they rarely worked against goddesses.

Wait, wait, wait. The moon was in the opposite direction of Mona. I was just running away to practice magic safely. I took a few friends with me to start a moon colony. Naturally we explored and stumbled upon this place while mountain climbing. And, um, we sent the colony we started into space because…because…we never landed the ship because I thought it’d be dangerous – no, that was dumb. We never landed because…we wanted to climb a mountain first as a – a symbol of our triumph. So we picked the largest one.

Maybe I’d even been here before, too. Maybe this was where I’d learned about Luna and dark magic. Yes, yes I could make that work. That worked even better, actually. It’d be exactly what Celestia would expect, hopefully. And that was why I didn’t land the ship; we didn’t need to. We already knew about this place. I only brought my friends along for company and because they wanted to come.

Perfect. Now I just desperately needed Celestia not to find anypony else from the Nebulous until I’d had a chance to talk to them. That meant I needed to run a distraction. I wouldn’t even mention the rest of the crew until I had to. I wouldn’t want to get them in trouble, too, after all. It wasn’t like there were any laws against coming to the moon or anything, but it did seem sort of rude for a pony to come here uninvited.

Okay, okay. One last deep breath. I could do this. This would work. I just needed to act like a filly with her hoof caught in…well, not in a cookie jar, but maybe in the treasury. That was easy enough.

“H-hello? P-Princess Celestia? Please d-don’t hurt me.” Getting no response, I continued, “I – I’m coming out. I’m sorry for barging into…”

Where was I? I looked around as I stuck my head out from under the bed. There wasn’t much in here. There were plenty of paint cans and brushes, although they were all probably useless after a thousand years of aging, even if there were spells keeping this room clean and or preserved. I had noticed there wasn’t any dust in here, not even under the bed.

There were a few bookshelves, too. All but one of them were completely filled with books. If I had to guess, then based on the materials and how the books were assembled, I’d say they were from several different centuries and arranged chronologically.

Opposite the bookshelves was a vanity with two doorways that sort of blended into the walls. Perhaps one lead to a closet and the other a bathroom, considering where I thought I was.

“Your sister’s bedroom,” I finished, not that I got a response. “Please – please don’t do this. Say something. Anything! Please!”

I waited with bated breath for anything to happen, but the room was devoid of any sound not of my own making.

“This isn’t funny, and – and I’m sure I could find something illegal about this. Unless you’re going to k-kill me, w-which I assure you would be a very b-bad idea, you should come out right – right now.”

I stood stock-still for what must have been several minutes, but still nothing happened. After a while, I broke into a nervous laughter.

Maybe Celestia really wasn’t here. Maybe I was just being paranoid. But even if I tried something crazy like creating a large explosion here, I wouldn’t be able to know for sure if Celestia were around.

Was that reasonable? Was it just the panic talking? Stars, I didn’t know.

But Luna would. Luna would be able to tell me if there were another pony in the room with me. Surely she would notice and be worried if there were. I could go to sleep now. I’d already said everything I needed to before Celestia did…whatever she wanted. It wasn’t like I could escape or fight back, anyway.

Hopping up onto Luna’s bed, I said, “I – I guess I’m just going to go ahead and nap until you decide to be civil. G-goodnight.”

It’d been a long time since I’d been here, but I’d never forget the sensation of being in a dream, not in a thousand years. Well, I didn’t actually have any experience with thousand-year-old memories yet, but that wasn’t really the point.

“Luna! Luna, where are you?”

I thought I heard a hoofstep, but I got no other response.

“Please don’t do this to me, Luna! I – if I did anything wrong, I’m sorry! You promised you wouldn’t leave me alone! I – I miss you so much! I don’t want to be alone anymore!”

Oh gosh, what was I saying? I couldn’t be guilt tripping Luna any harder if I were trying.

“Twilight,” Luna said, appearing right in front of me, “there’s–”

I knew it was rude, but I didn’t care. I pounced on Luna in a huge hug and knocked the wind out of her with my death grip.

“Luna, I’m so sorry!” I shouted into her coat. “I didn’t mean what I said. I mean, I did, but I didn’t, and – and sorry.”

I felt Luna’s hoof moving through my mane, and my distress vanished almost instantly.

“Twilight, there are a dozen things I want to say to you, but chief among them is how sorry I am for leaving like I did for so long. It – it was wrong of me, and I don’t know what I can do to make it up to you.”

Squeezing Luna extra tight, I said, “You don’t have to do anything. Just…maybe a warning before you’re going to vanish for a while. I was so worried about you.”

After a second of silence, Luna replied, “I’ll try. I – Twilight, I’m not a nice pony when I’m truly upset. And historically I’ve had issues…well, issues directing that anger when I can’t…” Luna sighed and paused her ministrations for a moment. “When I can’t simply smite the source of my wrath.”

Oh, that reminded me of why I was here to begin with. “Luna, I don’t really want to interrupt, but this is important. Was there anypony near me back in the waking world?”

“Hmm? No, not at all. You’re the only pony on the moon capable of barging her way into my bedroom.”

“Oh, um, sorry,” I mumbled, reluctantly releasing Luna and backing off a bit. Apparently, I was safe, but I still didn’t understand why.

Luna giggled. Oh, how I missed that. “It’s fine.” Taking a more somber tone, she continued, “You’ve already seen me headed straight toward my worst; there’s no harm in letting you see some of the things I’ve done in my darker moods. You weren’t…” Luna actually looked bashful for once as she tried to find the right words.

This called for another hug, but not a desperate, clingy hug.

“Other than reminding me of my own issues, your art was beautiful.”

“Thank you, but that’s two red flags now, Twilight. What has you so worried?”

I bit my lip; this could go over very poorly if I did it wrong. I needed more tact then the last time I’d had bad news for Luna.

“There was a picture that…well, you couldn’t have painted it.”

“Somepony modified my masterpiece?” Luna hissed. “Where?” Taking a deep breath first, Luna asked again, “Where?”

Looking up at Luna, I asked, “Do you promise not to run away?”

“Yes, I do. Twilight, I really am sorry for what I did before. It’s no excuse, but I never expected my sister would actually stoop to such levels. It was a shock, to say the least.”

No surprise there. I could barely believe it myself, and I had none of the sisterly expectations Luna had of Celestia.

“Alright,” I began, “so, nopony modified your work, but somepony added to it. Just outside your bedroom, actually.”

Luna’s eyes narrowed. “Do you mean past the door?”

I nodded. The list of ponies that could open the door was probably a lot bigger a thousand years ago, but I imagined that probably didn’t include any moon residents. Luna’s list of suspects probably only had one pony on it.

“The addition showed Celestia looking up at the moon.” As an afterthought, I added, “The moon with the mare in the moon on it.” That detail was very important for establishing the time of painting. And now that I thought about it, none of the ponies on the moon would know what the mare in the moon looked like – not really, anyway. They could have the dark spots mapped for some reason.

Almost snarling, Luna said, “I cannot believe this. Why would she take the time to find Luminance just to rub salt in my wound? It’s not like she could even expect me to find out about it. I simply cannot fathom why…why… What’s the mare in the moon?”

“Huh?” I knew there were more important things to discuss – both business and personal affairs – but maybe this was just as important. “Has nopony ever told you? There’s this sort of unicorn – actually, I’ll just show you.”

I turned to the side and made a simple illusion of the moon in front of me; Luna didn’t so much as breathe.

“This is what the moon looks like from Equus without a telescope. There’s these dark spots that don’t produce much light. We don’t really know why, but from what you painted, I assume they showed up after–”

When I looked to Luna, I found her crying silently without so much as a sniffle. I opened my mouth to ask what was wrong, but Luna spoke first, almost in a monotone.

“Twilight, how much do you know about banishment spells?”

Awkwardly putting a hoof on Luna’s foreleg in a way I really hoped was comforting, I said, “Very little. What’s wrong?” I hated to admit it, but I found myself a little happy about Luna’s distress. I had a chance to help her this time, and I wasn’t going to miss it.

“When something or somepony is banished, a mark is left behind. It’s size and shape depends on the who and what, as well as how much power it took. For Sombra and the Crystal Empire, it was a small crystalline shape the size of a marble. For me…”

Oh my. I turned back to look at my illusion with wide eyes. It would’ve been obvious if I hadn’t grown up with the mare in the moon existing as far back as living mortal memory could recall.

Luna spoke barely above a whisper. “She didn’t even have the decency to turn my moon around.”

Turning the moon around wouldn’t actually be all that helpful. Luna would still be on public display, but a pony would at least need a telescope to see the mare in the moon then. Not that I felt this was an appropriate time to mention that.

“If,” I began. I wasn’t exactly sure if this was the right thing to say. “If it helps, I don’t think anypony knows what it means anymore.” Getting a sigh in response, I continued, “And if you ignore what it means, it actually looks kind of nice. I mean, you look beautiful anyway, and you did in the past, too, but – no, I mean, it’s not just my bias. Twinkleshine–”

Luna put a hoof over my mouth and wore a rather weak, fake smile. “Twilight, I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but you’re too young to tell me I look good in chains.”

As soon as my brain had processed what Luna was saying, I turned away in embarrassment, my cheeks burning. I really hadn’t meant to say it that way at all. Not that Luna wouldn’t look good in chains; she looked good in anything. Oh stars, what was I even thinking? Okay, it was time for a new topic.

“I think Celestia plagiarized some of your art, too.” It wasn’t the best choice for a new topic, but at least it wasn’t – nope, not thinking about it.

Following one of the longest sighs I’d ever heard, Luna said, “I don’t think I even want to know. Would you mind if we did something else? Something fun?”

“But what about–” I began, only to shut my mouth before I stuck my hoof in it. “You’ll really be here tomorrow? And the day after, and the day after that, and the–”

“Yes, Twilight. I really will be.”

“Okay.” It couldn’t hurt to wait to talk for another day or two. “So what do you want to do?”

There was a rather pregnant silence before Luna spoke. “I don’t know. Something I’ve never done before. Something new. But not too long. I wouldn’t want you to miss the Winter Moon Festival completely for me.”

I suspected that last part was code for ‘I want to be alone’, but she didn’t just take off like last time, so that was something.

“Alright, um, I guess I recently learned a card game. I think I remember enough of the cards to put together a few decks we could play with, although personally, I find the most fun is in building the decks.”

“Recently?” Luna asked. “If you learned it on the moon, I probably already know it.”

I shook my head. “I actually learned it from Dash. It’s her ‘deepest darkest secret’” – I added air quotes for effect – “and apparently only I and Fluttershy know of ‘her shameful addiction’.” I resisted the very strong temptation to roll my eyes as I continued. “And I guess you, too, now. Fluttershy knows because she was the one who first got Dash hooked, and I know because I stumbled onto them playing it one night. Not that that’s really important, but you asked, and–”

I got the ‘you’re rambling’ look from Luna.

“Right, anyway, Dash brought an entire crate of trading cards with her. I don’t know how, but she managed to slip it into the supplies without me noticing.”

If I had a checklist, that wouldn’t have – no, bad thoughts, Twilight. Worse than imagining Luna in – no!

Trying really, really hard to suppress my blush, I said, “Alright, so this game is pretty complicated in the details, but the basics are simple. First we both need a sixty card deck.”

I woke up feeling refreshed with warm fuzzies inside. I’d needed the nap a little bit, and seeing Luna again was just so wonderful. And I might admit that curb stomping her in a game she barely knew was a bit of a delight. Luna won non-chance-based games we played together at an absurdly high rate, and even when I won, it was almost always a hard-won victory. That may have been a little mean spirited, but whatever; it wasn’t every day a pony could say she thoroughly beat Luna at a game of strategy.

Anyway, after an epic struggle against my urge to snuggle further into Luna’s bed and to enjoy the blissful feeling of being half-awake, I rolled out from underneath the covers of the princess-sized bed.

Rubbing my eyes, I mumbled, “How long was I out for?”

I looked around until I found an old grandfather clock, but it had stopped working. If I wasn’t mistaken, it looked like a mechanical clock instead of an enchanted one, oddly enough. Maybe it held some sort of special significance for Luna.

Shrugging to myself, I tried pulling on one of the chains and was excited to find that it still worked, although I wasn’t exactly a fan of mechanical clocks. The incessant ticking that accompanied all mechanical, non-silenced clocks started right away. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d heard one of these, but it was just as annoying as before.

Hmm… I was sort of regretting restarting this clock now, but I had no clue how to turn it off, and I didn’t want to mess with it magically, so I just let it be. I did reset it to read four twenty, which is what time it felt like to me for whatever reason. Instead, I turned my attention to the bookshelves. There must have been a couple hundred books for me to go through, which was a little distressing. I should have asked Luna what they were about while I was with her, but oh well.

I pulled what I assumed was the very first book – if Luna had organized these in any sane manner – off the shelf and cracked it open, only to sigh. I really shouldn’t have been surprised; everything in it was hoofwritten in a language even older than Old Equestrian. Cherry Berry could probably read it, but I didn’t think it would be a good idea to show her without Luna’s permission.

Replacing the book, I pulled off what I assumed was the last book. This one I could read. Like the first, this book was hoofwritten, although I got the impression from the hoofwriting that the author was not in a good mood.

I have begun to think Tia is not as innocent in all this as she professes, the book began. But then I believe somewhere deep inside of me, I always knew it was only a matter of time before she grew bored with her games amongst the mortals and desired to test her skills against me.

Ah, this was Luna’s work. A diary, maybe? Perhaps I shouldn’t – oh, who was I fooling? There was no way I wasn’t going to read this unless Luna explicitly told me not to, which she hadn’t. I jumped back onto the bed and made myself comfortable.

If she had simply asked for a competition of some sort, mayhaps I would have consented, but I cannot forgive her machinations against me by merely knowing their purpose. I shall simply have to wrest an apology from her in her own game and devise a suitable punishment for when I have won.

I hope nopony but I ever needs must lay hooves on this book, for I would hate to rip out so little as a single page, but I must be honest with myself here, if nowhere else. I fear myself too late; I fear Tia already the victor to some unknown end. Even without her head start potentially decades in the making, I find myself distressed over my prospects. Tia is, and always has been, the politician and schemer of the two of us. We never could have defeated Discord without those talents, and now I find they are turned against me. I confess it has been hard to sleep in the mornings, and I have taken to sleeping in Luminance instead of at Castle Everfree.

As distressing as my situation is, I shall always make time for my artistic dalliances, for I find them incredibly soothing. As the preface suggests, this book shall detail the meanings depicted in my paintings of the struggle between Tia and myself. I have already completed the first in this new branch and have found it to be one of the most relaxing I have made yet, despite the fire in my blood when I created it.

Oh, I got it now. All of these books were basically author’s – or in this case artist’s – notes to accompany the paintings for the artistically incompetent like myself. Well actually, the preface more suggested they were just a way for Luna to record her memories and vent, but they could also function as a series of history books, too.

Maybe I should start with another book. I already knew a little bit about this, and I’d met Celestia. Then again, maybe that was a reason for reading this book instead of against. Everything else would be so impersonal and disconnected for me. And I really only had time to read one – maybe two – of these books, and only if I decided to skip the festival entirely.

Yeah, there was nothing wrong with reading this one.

Speaking of, the tale is quite old already, but I felt it best to begin with at least one of the earlier events in our battle. I did not think too much of it then, but time casts a new light on many things. Two business ponies, one Diamond Charmer and one Emerald Shimmer, had come to petition my evening court to settle a dispute, and I ruled in favor of the less inane of the two.

The affair was all rather, oh what was that new expression, par for the course? Yes, I believe that is correct. I must try this ‘golf’ sometime soon. I believe the Zebrican ambassador expressed an interest in the game; mayhaps for the next meeting I have with her, we shall make an outing of the event. I vaguely remember one of my petitioners recommending the new course in Trottingham.

Anyway, Diamond Charmer was one of those ponies who could not simply accept a royal decree, and he attempted to petition the morning court with the same problem. There are no shortage of ponies who try this, of course, but this case was unusual in that it was accepted and brought forth before Tia.

Naturally, such errors do occur from time to time; the ponies who review all the petitions to our courts before Tia and I see them do make mistakes. Oftentimes, Tia or I will recognize the petition from when we complain to each other of the frivolities of our little ponies and simply dismiss the petition, but not always.

However, it is the rare case that we do not discover a re-petitioning to the opposite court before judgment is passed. In fact, I suspect that it has never happened in a dispute between two ponies, for they know a re-petitioning can only be made to the same court unless they – well, if whoever is reading this actually cares, she can consult those atrocious law books herself. In essence, Tia overturned my decision illegally and allegedly unknowingly, even though Emerald Shimmer would no doubt have spoken up and would have had the petition thrown out.

I did not think much of the case at the time, for I thought it a singular incident. When I discovered the error after the fact, I brought it up with Tia. We were going to revoke her ruling, but after discussing the petition at length, I yielded to her judgment and let her decision stand instead.

That was the biggest mistake of my life, although it took me years to notice the effects it had. We – or at least I – had unknowingly given ponies the idea that such actions were acceptable. I find it difficult to believe Tia would not have foreseen what would come, whether she sought to destroy me then or not.

Of course, that alone would not have been enough to–

Okay, on second thought, I really didn’t want to slog through a bunch of stories of politics; one was quite enough, and I didn’t think Luna would be offended if I quit now. I overturned the book and started flipping through from the back, which was blank. In fact, I found that a good chunk of the book was empty as I flipped through.

Eventually, I reached a page that had actual text, but it was stuck to several other pages. The very end just read, If they desire a nightmare, I shall oblige. Actually, when I examined the nearby pages in detail, I discovered that a lot of them were stuck to each other in pairs, threes, and sometimes fours, and they were all tear stained. At that point, I snapped the book shut and replaced it on the shelf; I wasn’t going to read something that Luna had literally cried her heart out into without explicit permission.

It was surprising that Luna hadn’t taken better care of the book, though. Even if she didn’t do it right away, I would have expected her to have cleaned it up, considering how much effort and passion she had obviously put into everything here.

Oh well. I’d just have to give her another hug later. But the question now was ‘what should I do?’ Twinkleshine was probably worried and looking for me, and there was a big party outside the palace that she’d probably want to go to.

Hmm… Maaaaaybe just one more book first. Just a little bit of one. I didn’t have to read the whole thing.

If I remembered what time the clock was at when I started it correctly, it was about half an hour later when I heard a pair of voices echoing into Luna’s bedroom, both mares.

“Do you really think she’s in there?” the first voice said.

“We searched everywhere else in the castle. She isn’t in town or down at the river, so where else could she be?”

Sighing to myself, I put my book away and jumped off the bed.

“But only the princess is supposed to be able to open this door,” the first voice protested.

“Crescent said the princess is grooming her to be a goddess. If anypony else could open this door, it’s her.”

“I guess. But then couldn’t she be anywhere?”

“Oh, just quit it. The new princess isn’t going to bite your head off or anything. Just knock already.”

“That’s easy for you to–”

Before the first mare could protest further, I opened the door for them. The first mare screamed in surprise while the second merely bowed to me and backed out of the way as I exited into the main hallway.

Both mares were lunar pegasi, and both possessed dark gray coats, but that was where the similarities ended. Where one was panicky, the other was confident. Where one looked like she would trip over her own hooves, the other had well-toned muscles that obviously saw a lot of use.

The one not trying to pull her wits together into a bow herself rose and spoke. “Greetings, Princess Twilight. My name is Chamomile. It is an honor to meet you.”

When I found the strength to pull myself away from those wonderful green eyes, I managed, “L-likewise.” Oh stars. This was almost as bad as that Big Macintosh back in Ponyville. I’d thought I understood why Luna thought lunar pegasi attractive before, but I’d known nothing. The way her nearly-black blue mane bounced about her eyes was almost hypnotic, and that muscle tone managed to blend into her curves in the best of both the masculine and feminine worlds.

“Ah, I’m Bookkeeper, Your Highness,” the other mare said at rapid-fire. “I’ve always known I’ve been blessed to be born into the generation that will be able to welcome the princess back, that is Princess Luna, but I never expected I’d be able to meet another princess, too, let alone Princess Luna’s apprentice, and I–”

Chamomile nudged Bookkeeper who promptly stopped rambling and went back into a bow, asking for my forgiveness.

Sighing, I asked Chamomile, “You two were looking for me?”

“Yes, Your Highness. Dame Twinkleshine–”

“We’re sorry if we messed up her name,” interrupted Bookkeeper.

I felt the urge to facehoof growing stronger by the moment. “If you’re talking about a unicorn mare roughly my age, then yes, her name is Twinkleshine. Has something happened to her?”

“No, not at all,” Chamomile said before Bookkeeper could speak. “She asked for a ride to the festival a couple hours ago. She also expressed a desire for us to locate you, presumably to ask you to join the celebration.”

Nodding, I said, “Thank you for helping her at the expense of your own free time. Please pass along our appreciation to whoever carried Twinkleshine down the mountain as well.”

“It was no problem. We are forever at our princesses’ beck and call, as well as their companions’.” Finally, Chamomile asked, “Will you be desiring an escort to the riverside yourself?”

“No thank you,” I said as I fired off a scrying spell to find somewhere safe to teleport to. “I can make my own way there.”

After selecting a nice, quiet location just on the outskirts of the festival, I fired off a teleportation spell. I wouldn’t normally be adverse to teleporting straight into the middle of the festival wherever Twinkleshine was, but what Cherry Berry had said earlier was stuck in my mind. If I did something as goddess-like to these ponies as appearing out of nowhere, I could see myself derailing the celebration in ten seconds flat, as Dash would say.

With a population of two-hundred or so, it wasn’t hard to pick out Twinkleshine among the crowd, especially since everypony but the few I’d brought with me from Equus felt compelled to bow as I walked past. Although naturally, I was pretty sure I spotted Cherry Berry bowing, too, no doubt to annoy me.

Anyway, Twinkleshine and Pinkie Pie were hanging out with a small band that instantly stopped when they noticed me approaching. Pinkie Pie had a saxophone – one of the many, many instruments she could play, although for the life of me I couldn’t figure out where she’d gotten it from or how she manged to play it without unicorn magic – in one hoof as she poked Twinkleshine with the other. After that Pinkie Pie pointed toward me, and Twinkleshine turned around to face me.

Only to promptly blush and whirl back toward Pinkie Pie. I thought about eavesdropping but decided against it. Twinkleshine was likely still mad at me for earlier, probably just for leaving her alone now that I’d thought about it and was less distracted; I didn’t need to give her any other reasons to be mad at me.

“Twinkleshine,” I began, “I’m–”

“Shut up!” Twinkleshine screeched, whirling back toward me with a huge blush. “I mean – just – just wait there and be quiet!”

I raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything. It took at least a minute of talking to Pinkie Pie, but eventually, Twinkleshine turned toward me and whispered something to her.

That was when the music started. It sounded unpracticed, but at the same time, it was still very familiar. If I could just substitute an instrument or two, I could probably name the song. I think it might be missing a piano and maybe…a flute? Ugh, what was it? I could almost put my hoof on it. At its heart, the only thing that was missing was lyrics, and it looked an awful lot like Twinkleshine was going to provide them.

“Fly me to the moon.

“Let me play among the stars.”

Oh my. Of course that was what it was going to be. I could feel my face burning up already.

“Let me see what spring is like

“On a – Jupiter and Mars.”

I could hear Twinkleshine stumble over those two mythological planets, but she kept powering through the song, her voice growing stronger and less shaky as she went.

“In other words, hold my hoof.

“In other words, filly, kiss me.”

I would, but I wouldn’t want to miss the rest of the song.

“Fill my heart with song,

“And let me sing forever more.

“You are all I long for,

“All I worship, and adore.”

Twinkleshine was actually pretty good at this. Not great, but she was definitely good. Did she used to be in a choir or something?

“In other words, please be true.

“In other words, I love you.”

Oh, Twinkleshine. You were pretty cute when you had nothing to do but blush and stare at your hooves. I would say you should have picked a song without an instrumental section, but there really wasn’t a better choice than this.

“Fill my heart with song.

“Let me sing forever more.

“You are all I long for,

“All I worship, and adore.”

I hoped she didn’t mean that line literally. That would be awkward. No, bad Twilight. You were ruining the moment.

“In other words, please be true.

“In other words~”

Twinkleshine walked toward the edge of the impromptu stage.

“In other words~”

Her voice wobbled as she jumped the short distance to the ground.

“I~”

She stopped just in front of me.

“Love~”

She put a hoof on my cheek and stared into my eyes, her face beet red. I didn’t even have to suppress a cringe as a few instruments substituted poorly for the missing piano.

“You.”

Author's Notes:

Prereader – Starlight Nova

Chapter Eighteen - The Moon - Part Three

I sat down at a table with Twinkleshine after the most intense kiss of my entire life. It was also the only kiss of my entire life, but that hardly mattered. A local blend of fruit salad was served to us in mere seconds, making me suspect we took some other ponies’ orders. This wasn’t really the time to complain about preferential treatment, though.

“So…um…I’ve been…no…”

“Was I really good enough to leave you speechless?” asked Twinkleshine.

I faked a cough so poorly, I didn’t think anypony would’ve been fooled by it. “Kissing is more of a team effort.”

“Well I enjoyed it.” Twinkleshine ate an orange slice in a rather suggestive way.

“Um…okay, so first off, there’s a time and a place for…this” – I waved my forehooves at Twinkleshine – “but I much prefer Twinkleshine to this sort of…Dash–Twinkleshine hybrid. You don’t have to act like this to get my attention.”

“But back at the castle you–”

Holding up a hoof, I cut Twinkleshine off. “I think both of us know I’ve been…distracted. I’m really sorry for leaving you alone, but this winter has been rough on me. Not that that’s a good excuse for moping around, but I’ll try harder not to get like that in the future.”

Twinkleshine narrowed her eyes. “Is that really all it was? Twilight, we were alone in what was effectively an art museum on Hearth’s Warming Eve–”

“Hearth’s Warming Day, technically…”

“Whatever,” Twinkleshine replied, rolling her eyes before continuing. “–on the moon after flying all the way through space to get here, and you got rid of everypony except me right before that, even if some of them just sort of bolted on their own. It sort of gets a filly’s hopes up, don’t you think?”

“Right…” I said, rubbing the back of my head, my ears wilting. “I’m sorry. I’m usually better about that kind of stuff, but…” Sighing, I simply said, “I’m sorry.”

“Fine, but you better make it up to me.”

“I will, but only if you act like yourself.”

“I…guess that’s reasonable,” Twinkleshine conceded. “But you never really noticed me before tonight. I–”

“Twinkleshine, you’ve been in love with me – or at least infatuated – since approximately a season before I asked you to join the Nebulous, and you only realized what you were feeling after living aboard the ship with me for a few weeks.”

It seemed Twinkleshine had been left speechless.

“Trust me; I pay attention to you. The only reason I wasn’t the one to push you down is because I promised I wouldn’t do anything sexual until I got a little older, although I don’t think anypony will be too upset if it’s just kissing for now.”

“You – y-you knew?” Twinkleshine stuttered, blushing much more like her old self.

“That is the essence of what I just said.” I cringed as I ate something really, really sour. “Sorry, that wasn’t about you, just a new fruit I ate is all. Anyway, I’m happy to be the pony who flew you to the moon.”

Twinkleshine buried her head in her hooves on the table, moaning in embarrassment. “I can’t believe I really did that!”

“You were pretty good, if you think you can trust my biased opinion on the matter. Were you in a choir as a filly or something?”

I got a muffled, “Three years,” as a response.

I enjoyed a little giggle at Twinkleshine’s expense as I continued my meal alone. It’d likely be a few minutes before Twinkleshine was much for conversation again. I was about halfway through my fruit salad and on my second glass of some kind of fruit punch that had no business being as delicious as it was when Twinkleshine came back to life.

Taking a deep breath first, Twinkleshine said all at once, “So are we fillyfriends now?”

Alright, Twilight, sighing was a bad idea right now, so keep that little reflex under control.

“Twinkleshine, I’ve been meaning to have this conversation with you for several seasons now, but I’ve just kept putting it off for reasons that I think will become clear.”

“Is that a no?” whispered Twinkleshine. I thought I saw a tear in her eye, but it could have just been a trick of the light.

“It’s more a ‘yes but no’. And you’ll have to decide if you’re willing to put up with me.”

Head cocked to the side, Twinkleshine asked, “What do you mean?”

Resisting the urge to sigh and the urge to run away and put this off even longer, I said, “I’m a polyamorous pansexual.”

“A…what?”

“Hmm…” What was the best way to put this that didn’t end with me getting completely rejected and slapped? “Alright, this is going to require explanation, so please don’t freak out and run away until we’re done.”

“Wha – Twilight, I would never do that to you!”

“I’ll hold you to that.” I felt like I should have smirked there but didn’t. “Anyway, we might as well begin with the basic definitions. Pansexual comes from the root word pan, meaning all or every, and sexual, which of course means relating to sex in some manner. In simplistic terms, it basically means I’m willing to sleep with anypony.”

Twinkleshine shot me a confused, mildly disgusted look.

“Wait, wait, wait!” I said very quickly. “That came out wrong! Let me rephrase that. It means that whom I’m attracted to doesn’t depend on things like species or gender, although I certainly do have certain archetypes that I’m more likely to find attractive than others, and there’s other factors at work, too. For example, due to the current Equestrian culture, unicorn mares tend to be the most magically inclined, which is a trait I find appealing in a mate, which in turn leads me to find more unicorn mares attractive than I otherwise would in a sort of blank culture, whatever that means.”

“Um…okay,” Twinkleshine began. “I think I get it. So you would, say, find Chrysalis attractive? She’s magically talented”

“If you repeat this to her, I’ll deny it, but no. Her daughter, on the other hoof, is really sweet, and I could see myself spending some of my nights with her if she asked.”

Idly poking at the last piece of mango, I continued, “Honestly, it’s mostly about personality for me, but looks do play a part. Like, if personality were P, and looks were L, and we had some sort of objective scale with an attractiveness threshold A, then I would find somepony attractive if P cubed times L is at least A.”

“Twilight, I – I don’t think you’re explaining this right. We are still talking about…love? I’m not even sure anymore.”

Okay, maybe abstract mathematics weren’t really the right way to explain how I view sex and love to Twinkleshine.

“Essentially, it’s like…like…ah. Essentially a pony with a horrible personality would need to be the most beautiful pony in the world for me to find her attractive, but a pony with a great personality only needs to be mildly pleasing to me physically for me to find her attractive. Does that make sense?”

“Mhm,” Twinkleshine hummed, nodding. “Should I be asking if I have more…um…P or L?”

“That’s…kind of a loaded question.”

“Oh, come on,” Twinkleshine said in a rather dangerous tone. “I promise not to get mad.”

I bit my lip as I took Twinkleshine’s pleading stare full on. It proved too much to resist at the moment.

“You’re sort of a low medium L. You’re not beautiful, but I wouldn’t call you average or ugly. In my particular case, your white coat is really working against you, not that I think you should dye it or anything. I – I’m just digging my own grave over here, aren’t I?”

Twinkleshine giggled. “No, that just means I have a wonderful personality, right?”

“Well, more or less, yes. I really like how much of yourself you put into what you love to do. It’s not everypony who would take on the job I asked of you at your age successfully.”

“Says the filly who brought me to the moon,” Twinkleshine said, visibly deflating.

“It was a team effort. Besides, I’m not really a pony anypony should compare herself to.” For many reasons, but in particular because I had to make myself into an outlier among outliers in order to ascend. “I’ve had a lot of advantages that only a few other ponies have ever had.”

“Like a princess for a teacher.”

After polishing off a third glass of that mystery fruit punch, I exclaimed, “Exactly! Anyway, moving on, we have the word polyamorous next. Poly means many, and amorous is an adjective essentially meaning ‘possessing romantic love’, so at its core, polyamorous means ‘having many loves’.”

“Oh,” Twinkleshine deadpanned.

Well at least she hadn’t outright rejected me, philosophically or personally.

“So, I’ve never given this talk before – I’ve only had it given to me – but I’ll try to explain it as best I can in general terms, because everypony that would refer to herself as polyamorous sort of has her own code of conduct.”

Frowning, Twinkleshine asked, “This isn’t one of those herd things, is it? My mom said that’s just when a handsome stallion or beautiful mare tricks a bunch of ponies.”

“No,” I said as strongly as I could put it. “I’m not going to deny that kind of stuff happens, but that’s just domestic abuse as you described it. It’s no more common among non-monogamous relationships than it is in monogamous ones. I know I can be manipulative–”

“And beautiful,” Twinkleshine interjected.

Okay, flirting was good, even if it was the annoyed kind of flirting.

“–but I hope I have good enough taste to like ponies who are strong enough to tell me when I’m doing something wrong. I mean, not that the victims are at fault, if you have any family that has–”

Twinkleshine interrupted me with a cough.

“Right…” I mumbled, playing a bit with my fork. I wasn’t very good at this. “Anyway, so a herd is more of one big relationship. I mean, not everypony necessarily likes everypony else, but the relationship dynamic is more or less a single unit that makes its decisions as a whole. On the other hoof, polyamory is a more general set of pairwise relationships with varying levels of association. You could describe it as a graph, or more appropriately as a sort of flow network with the vertices being relationships and the edge weights being the level of asso… I’ve lost you again, haven’t I?”

“Pretty much,” Twinkleshine said through a half-full mouth of something green and purple. “Do you always think about love in mathy terms?”

“Well, when I’m thinking about the philosophy of love, it’s a rather succinct way to speak. But when I’m thinking about particular ponies I like, usually no.”

“Usually?” Twinkleshine tried to raise an eyebrow the way I did, but she clearly lacked the dedicated muscle training to make it work. It ended up as simply hilarious and cute as she struggled to get her face to work the way she wanted it to.

“What can I say?” I said through my giggles. “I love math. I use it a lot in spellcasting, after all.”

Facehoofing, Twinkleshine said, “Please promise me I’ll never find you making out with a textbook.”

“Well, I mean, ponies like Pupa could turn into a…” Getting an ‘are you serious’ glare from Twinkleshine, I got the message. It wasn’t like it was much of a concession. “Okay, I won’t ever let you see me making out with any sort of printed word medium, textbooks included.”

“I – I’m just going to pretend you just made a really romantic promise to me so we can move on.”

“That may be wise…” The conversation was descending into a horribly awkward place.

Getting up from her chair, Twinkleshine said, “I’ll go get us some of that funny looking pie.”

I probably should have gotten up to help her, but it was pretty amusing to watch Twinkleshine pantomime her way through a conversation. Honestly, whether or not Twinkleshine actually communicated anything with her gestures was up in the air, but there’s really only one thing a pony could ask of a pie distributer. It wasn’t long before she returned with two slices of pie.

“I think these are called mona coffyns,” Twinkleshine said, a rather conspicuously large chunk already missing from her own slice.

“How appropriate,” I said through a mouthful of my desert. It was pretty good, tasting a bit like a strawberry tart with the consistency of a cherry one. And there was something else in it that I couldn’t quite identify, something sweet and crunchy. It was definitely a positive addition.

“Why? What does it mean?”

“Essentially ‘moon pie’.”

“Well,” Twinkleshine began, stopping dead as she searched for words to put after that. “I guess it’s no less creative than Equestrian bread.”

Hmm… Maybe we needed some sort of naming regulatory committee in Equestria. They’d be in charge of maintaining a minimum threshold of creativity in names in all things, but particularly in foods. Well actually, that was kind of a bad idea. At some point they’d wind up trying to regulate the sciences, and then instead of simple theorem names that everypony could easily refer to, we’d get a big mess. Yeah, on second thought, that was a bad idea.

“I had something else earlier that had mona in the name,” Twinkleshine said. “I suppose that means it was a moon cake, then.”

“Maybe. I think we actually have those back on Equus. They’re a griffin food, if I remember correctly.”

“Huh.”

I couldn’t help but feel Twinkleshine and I were just trying to distract ourselves with pointless conversation. As much as I’d like to keep putting this off, I really needed to get back on topic, if for no other reason than because Twinkleshine deserved it.

“I’m screwing this up, aren’t I?” I asked.

Twinkleshine hesitated to answer, which I took as a yes.

“Well anyway,” I began, hoping that I didn’t make this any worse, “there’s sort of three basic ideas that polyamorists all accept, although there’s a lot of overlap of derived ideas. The first one that sort of gets the ball rolling is fairly straightforward. Basically, jealousy and possessiveness are undesirable and manageable.

“I’ve grown up in the culture–” At Twinkleshine’s none too subtle cough, I corrected myself, “Er, I’m still growing up in the culture, I guess, but I do understand and experience those feelings. When I say that they’re undesirable, I don’t mean that you should bottle them up or avoid them; that would destroy a pony eventually. The point is that you’re supposed to confront them and find out what’s really causing them.”

Not that it was always easy for ponies to do. It sounded really great on paper, but sometimes emotional problems ran really, really deep. Of course, resolving those problems was always for the best, no matter what the reasons for doing so were, but that was easier said than done.

“The core idea here is that other loves are a gain for your lover, not a threat to you. The love between you and your lover is independent and grows or dies separately, at least in general. There are certainly cases were that’s not true, like a ménage à trois, which I probably mispronounced.”

Twinkleshine rolled her eyes. “Twilight, I’m not really concerned with your pronunciation of a language I don’t speak right now.”

“Well you should be,” I huffed, taking an extra large helping of pie in protest. When I finally managed to swallow it all, I continued, “That said, there are, naturally, theoretical upper bounds on the number of meaningful… To be fair, that was more social science than mathematics.”

“Whatever you say, Twilight.” Twinkleshine was clearly unimpressed by my rebuttal to her unvoiced complaint.

“Anyway, my point was going to be that ponies rarely find enough love to actually be a strain on their other relationships. You can sort of think of friendships as an analogue. Ponies don’t naturally make so many friends that they become less…friends… That sounds really awkward, and now I want to establish some sort of friend level function.”

I didn’t even bother to glance at Twinkleshine’s no doubt disapproving look as I sighed.

“Do you at least understand what I’m trying to say?”

Twinkleshine nodded and chewed a little faster. After swallowing, she said, “Yeah, more or less. There’s an old quote that goes something like, ‘If you love something, set it free. If it comes back, it was yours; if not, it never was.’ I guess that’s what you’re trying to get at, but it comes back with company instead.”

“Yes, that’s exactly it! Okay, so now we should talk about what fidelity means, since that ties in well here, and since there’s not that much to it. This is the number two sort of universal idea, although even here there’s a lot of wiggle room for nuances.

“As I’m sure you can imagine, trust is a big part of polyamory, and at its core, fidelity is about honoring your agreements with your lovers. I know it sounds like something you should do anyway, but it’s a big part of monogamous fidelity, too. The primary difference between the two is that sexual exclusivity is modified or dropped entirely, as is the expectation of exclusive romantic love.”

“That was sort of implied when we began this conversation,” Twinkleshine commented.

It still bore mentioning, though. “Anyway, what agreements ponies make vary wildly, but it’s important you talk about them before you actually enter into the relationship, which is why we’re having this conversation now. If you don’t, the relationship is usually a powder keg waiting for a spark. Some ponies might agree not to have sex with anypony new without first discussing it with their current lovers. Some ponies might agree that growing old together is what’s important.”

Not that I could actually do that for Twinkleshine. I would be all for pushing her to ascend, if only her special talent didn’t overlap with Luna’s. As much as I wanted to know what would happen, I wouldn’t want Luna to be my experimental subject.

“And I expect almost everypony would agree that being able to depend on a lover’s care and presence is important.”

“I, at least, agree,” said Twinkleshine. “I – ooh, is that a lemon cobbler? Be right back!”

Huh. I wasn’t sure if I should be taking Twinkleshine’s appetite as a good or bad sign. She never showed any signs of an eating disorder, so I doubted she was eating her problems away right now. Not that it precluded the concept of comfort food. She could be simply trying to distract herself with literally anything else, and food was the nearest and easiest choice that made it look like she was really paying attention.

Then again, maybe I was going on at length about something she didn’t really have a problem with and was just bored, wanting to go participate in the festival. I kind of wanted to go, too…

No, I couldn’t put this off any longer. We’d talk until we were done or until Twinkleshine said she needed time to think.

Twinkleshine sat back down and placed two plates down, the lemon-cobbler-like dish for her, and–

“Oh my gosh!” I shouted through a double mouthful of butterscotch… Well, I didn’t know what it was, but it was butterscotch. “I didn’t know–”

“Please don’t talk with that in your mouth, Twilight. It’s really, really gross.”

Swallowing, I said, “Sorry. But I had no idea they had this here! Luna must have given them the recipe in advance!”

It only took me a couple minutes to polish off my plate. I had to make sure that Pinkie Pie got that recipe before we left. And I needed a few more plates of this stuff, but later. If I just started eating it right now, I’d probably eat it all and get a stomach ache.

I finally properly looked back up at Twinkleshine to find her watching me with a smirk.

“What? You know this stuff is like catnip for me.”

“Yes, yes I do. Anyway, you were saying?”

“Oh, right.” I resisted the temptation to lick my plate, although it did draw my eyes on occasion. “So the last big idea is that honesty and respect are fundamentally important. Polyamory is incredibly difficult to make work if the ponies involved can’t trust their lovers to be open and honest with them, that they won’t attempt to undermine other relationships, that they will be preemptively honest, et cetera.”

Hmm, that didn’t come out exactly as I wanted it to.

“The honesty and openness is mostly concerning feelings, both within a relationship and in regards to other relationships, new or old. There’s still plenty of room for personal and state secrets; you don’t have to be an open book, although the basis of most good relationships is sharing yourself with your lover. To sum up a really complicated issue in a sentence, it’s basically about having good intra-relationship communication skills and inter-relationship respect.”

I only hesitated for a moment before I continued; I doubted Twinkleshine noticed.

“And on the topic, now might be a good time for you to…I guess monologue at me about how you feel about this, and then we can discuss it together. And be honest; don’t just tell me what I want to hear.”

Twinkleshine took a very deep breath. “Are you sure? I – I’m not sure if I’ll be able to stop once I get started. I’ve been holding a lot of things in for a while now…”

“Well, there’s never a better time than the present,” I said, deliberately not cringing. My theory that Twinkleshine was bored had almost certainly just flown out the window. “Like I said, communication and honesty are important.”

After another deep breath, Twinkleshine began.

“I’m not at all happy about this! I don’t want to share you with anypony, not even our friends. I know that’s unreasonable, and I’ve been trying to work on it, but you spend so little time with others that it’s hard not to be jealous. You’re so solitary, and you barely ever pay attention to anyone. I – Twilight, I don’t know if somepony like you can really understand, but you completely turned my life around. You turned me into an honor student and a space pioneer.”

Second space pioneer, technically. Luna and Celestia were out here first, after all, and Discord probably had been, too. Not that I was going to mention that.

“And look at us now. You’ve brought me to the moon, Twilight. The moon! You could beat me and treat me like dirt, and I’d still never be able to get you out of my head!”

I – I didn’t know what to say to that.

“I know you’ll probably say that I helped, but I know you’re a lot smarter than me; you could have gotten here by yourself just fine if you really put your mind to it. I hate feeling like I’m just here to keep you entertained, but the truth is, you’re so introverted that I know you don’t even need me for that, especially with” – Twinkleshine stopped dead for a second, biting her tongue – “her supporting you.”

I couldn’t say I didn’t see this coming…

“I thought I could make you look at me instead of her; I really, really did. She’s a princess, and you’re just a little filly. I thought I could do it.” Twinkleshine rubbed her nose with a hoof and tried to sniff silently. “And then I saw what you were like without her, and I got desperate. This – that song wasn’t a spur of the moment thing. I asked Pinkie to help me weeks ago.”

Twinkleshine was openly crying at this point, although she managed to keep herself to sniffles so she could talk. “It was terrible of me, but I thought this was my chance. You’ve been so vulnerable. And – and the worst part is that you just told me that there’s no way I can ever take Princess Luna’s place in your heart. I-I know you’ll s-say they’re in – inde – independent, but that doesn’t mean you won’t like her more than me. I’m s-so tired of playing second fiddle, and I hate that I want to tear you away from somepony who’s done so much for you, but I do. I really, really, really do. I know now more than ever that you’re going to hate me for it, but it’s true.”

Pausing for only a moment to catch her breath, Twinkleshine continued, “I wish I were stronger, like you, but I’m not. Whatever you make of me, I’m still just the old, fragile Twinkleshine inside. Inside, I’m like…like glass, ready to break under pressure, and – and I just realized you’ve been spending years trying to build my self-confidence. I’d never ever have been able to get up in front of everypony and sing alone like that when we first met, much less plan to do it, but even then, I only could because it was for you.”

I passed a much needed cloth napkin over to Twinkleshine, her own already in need of a good washing. She really wasn’t being fair to herself; she had really made leaps and bounds in the self-confidence and self-worth departments in the past couple years. In all honesty, I suspected she didn’t really mean even half of what she was saying, but I wasn’t going to stop her venting now.

“Just…why? Why do you even put up with me? I’m not pretty like you; you’re educating me; I’m greedy and jealous; you have to hold my hoof for more than half the amazing things you let me do; I’ve even yelled at the princess.”

Huh? That was news to me. As far as I knew of, Twinkleshine had only spoken to Luna that one time. Luna hadn’t said anything…specifically on the subject. She did mention…something about Twinkleshine being…something. Not that it mattered too much in this context. And what was that about me being the pretty one?

Descending into no more than a whisper, Twinkleshine continued, “I – I’m not – I’m not the stuff of legends, Twilight. You are, and the princesses are, but I’m not. It’s so hard loving you, like trying to woo a star in the sky, but I can’t stop. You’re so bright that I can’t see anything else. Sometimes not even myself…”

Twinkleshine collapsed onto the table. “I – I’m done. You can make me feel better now; you always do.”

Wow. Just…wow. Those were some high expectations to live up to.

And even though I suspected she was being harsher on herself than normal, I’d probably accidentally made Twinkleshine a little…no, I couldn’t try to downplay this like that. I’d made Twinkleshine emotionally dependent on me. Unintentionally, sure, but in trying to help her be a better mare, I’d taken too big of a role in her life.

I’d have to fix that, but…how did I go about helping Twinkleshine detach herself from me more? I needed to get more involved to get less involved? That was a contradiction in terms.

Ugh. Well, first things first.

“Twinkleshine,” I began, “before I say anything else, I want to say I really appreciate your honesty. I know that some of that – well actually, most of what you said must have been hard to say. That said” – I spared a side glace at the area around us – “would you like to take this somewhere more private?”

We did sort of have at least half of the lunar population pretending not to be watching us intently. I was honestly surprised we didn’t have everypony asking if I needed any help. But then again, I wasn’t the one crying; maybe this was one of those things where ponies stood at a respectful distance while they let their princess take care of it.

Oh stars, I just referred to myself as a princess. Sigh…

Whatever. I had more important things to do right now.

“Twinkleshine?” I repeated myself, not having gotten an answer yet.

“No,” Twinkleshine said into the table, barely audible over the background noise of the festival. “No, you’re just going to let me down gently then where I won’t make a scene.”

“That’s not true, and you already have made a scene. Not that I care about that. If you want to stay here, that’s perfectly fine,” I said, levitating myself and my chair to sit next to Twinkleshine.

I suspected the right thing to do for Twinkleshine right now was to push her to make selfish decisions for her own happiness, even if it were for petty things like staying in the middle of a crowd.

Putting one hoof across Twinkleshine’s withers and another on her shoulder, I continued, “I have no intention to let you down if you don’t want me to, gently or otherwise. If you want me to back off, I will. If you want me to get closer, I will. If – if you want me to push you away so you can find yourself without me, I…will. It’s your decision if you want us to pursue this relationship.”

Twinkleshine didn’t say anything, but she did lean into me.

I spent a minute trying to think of something to say that would fix everything, but I came up empty. I really wasn’t trained for comforting or therapy, nor did I have much practical experience. All I really had to offer was advice.

“Twinkleshine, I can’t think of anything to say or do right now that will make you feel better. All I can give you is a healthier perspective.”

I thought about making a joke about not being perfect because of that, but I wanted to drag Twinkleshine up, not myself down. That was far healthier in the long run.

“Honestly, yes, I could probably do your job if I had the time for it. I know it looks like I do nothing but study and teach everyday–”

“That is all you do,” Twinkleshine interrupted.

“Yes, but that’s my job. Deposing a goddess is, to use your words, the stuff of legends, and it’s very time consuming. However, you’re looking at this the wrong way. I’m not going to try to tell you I’m not amazing, because I am. Your problem is you’re looking at a pony with a skill set that has a lot of applications in other fields, and you think, ‘She can do my job, so my job must be simple,’ but that’s an easy mistake to make. I know I help you on occasion, but I’m ultimately just providing the ship’s power.”

I stopped for a brief moment to catch my breath. I really needed to slow down; rushing would only make it seem like I was trying to cheer her up instead of stating facts.

“Think about it, Twinkleshine. Whether or not I could have gotten here myself, you did the work. We got to the moon. We even got here on the first try; we didn’t have to turn around and try again or anything. That is impressive. Even just going from Equus to the Nebulous, I messed up all the time. Even if you don’t think you’re ‘the stuff of legends’, you at least have a big part in them.”

“I guess…” Twinkleshine didn’t really look or sound like she believed it.

Of course, I wasn’t expecting Twinkleshine to instantly cheer up or anything; ponies really didn’t work that way. Maybe after a few weeks of thinking about it with a lot of small, positive reinforcement, she’d start to really feel better. Honestly, what she needed was an important project, preferably something I couldn’t do.

Then again, that wouldn’t really help if I were the one to give it to her. Maybe Luna could? Hmm, that might work; it did fit the ‘quest’ archetype to get a task from a princess. I’d probably still need to keep my hooves out of the project design, though, or Twinkleshine might notice my influence.

Or, maybe, just maybe, I could make the reasonable choice, and in a week or two, I could ask if Twinkleshine would be willing to visit a therapist for her personal issues. Luna could probably track down somepony trustworthy and good, and Chrysalis should be willing to let Twinkleshine use the hive mind. That was so reasonable. And if that didn’t help her, we could try other methods.

Although on the whole issue of sharing me…well, Twinkleshine did seem to have some problems to work out there, too. She and I would need to talk about it together, perhaps with a mediator. Some of that hadn’t sounded…healthy. Not that she hadn’t pointed out some of my own issues, too.

“Twilight–”

Oh, horseapples. I’d spaced out on Twinkleshine just now.

“–thank you for trying.”

Twinkleshine let her head rest on me as if she were going to fall asleep sitting up in my hooves, which would be very awkward and uncomfortable for both of us.

I hesitated for only a moment before replying. “I’m sorry I couldn’t help much.”

“It’s okay. Will you stay with me the rest of the night?”

“If that’s what you want,” I began, looking straight up, “I’d love to. I’m not sure how much night is left, though; the moon is starting to get pretty big in the sky.”

From this side of the moon, dawn was rather fascinating to watch, and no doubt a little horrifying if you didn’t know the moon wasn’t going to crash into itself. The moon set in its own sky in almost the same way as it did on Equus, but it also grew larger at the same time, finally reaching a one-to-one scale as it crossed over the edge of the universe. It was sort of as if the sky were one big mirror.

We’d be traveling way too fast for us to get a good look, but in theory, we’d be able to see ourselves in the moments just before moonset. And then – then we’d get to see what was on the other side! Even under the unexpected circumstances, I was really looking forward to finding out; Luna hadn’t told me before she disappeared or after she’d come back. The latter might have been my fault for not asking, but I suspected she would’ve just told me to wait and see before.

“Hey, wait a second,” I said, my mind catching up to what I’d just promised Twinkleshine. “Night never really ends on the moon, does it?”

“Ah, you caught me.” Twinkleshine’s laugh was weak, but it was a step in the right direction.

I rolled my eyes. “I suppose I can stick to you like glue while we’re here.”

“Thank you,” Twinkleshine mumbled.

The moon hung ominously over the horizon, filling nearly half the sky. Honestly, it was a little terrifying, although neither I nor Twinkleshine would ever admit it openly. The only reason I knew Twinkleshine found it scary was the the subtle shaking of her legs as we sat together on the balcony of the highest turret in Luminance.

Other than that little detail, the view really was stunning. The landscape wasn’t as beautiful looking out as it was looking in, but it still looked lovely. I hadn’t noticed it before, but there was a little lake hidden behind a hill at the end of the river. Strangely enough, the start of the river just came straight out of another small hill.

Magical landscaping was weird.

A knock came on the door behind us. “May I enter?” Chamomile asked, her voice muffled through the wood.

“Please come in!” I called back.

Turning my head a little to the side, I saw Chamomile enter pushing a cart – which must have been a huge pain to carry up the staircase – bearing tea and small snacks with her forehooves. The teacakes I recognized, but the rest of the snacks were beyond me.

“Thanks for doing this for us,” I said. “You really didn’t have to.”

Hearing one of the words Cherry Berry had taught her, Twinkleshine echoed in Old Equestrian, “Thanks.”

“Oh, trust me, Your Highness, it was no trouble. I rarely have an excuse to practice my special talent, even during the Winter Moon Festival.”

My smile turned to a frown nearly instantly. “I know the feeling. It’s horrible.” A shiver ran through my body; even after all these years, I still wasn’t completely over those first several weeks of horror after my first flare.

“Well, I do find a chance every now and then, although mostly just for myself; nopony else here particularly cares for tea.”

“I’ll be honest,” I began, taking a plate of teacakes in my magic, “I don’t like tea too much either, but I do love caffeine. Still, that must be unpleasant, especially right after when you got your cutie mark.”

Chamomile let out an exasperated sigh and had to set her tea pot down for a moment. “It was. ‘Chamomile, find something useful to do.’ ‘You want to be a maid? The castle cleans itself.’ ‘You want to be the librarian? Bookkeeper already does that. No, she’s the chronicler, too.’ ‘No, you can’t just make tea and grow tea plants.’ ‘Why would we need a hero? A guard is no different.’”

Eyes widening, Chamomile stopped short of another mocking quote. It was a shame, too; she did a pretty funny old stallion voice.

With a bow, Chamomile said, “My apologies, I–”

“Don’t bother,” I interrupted. “I much prefer not being treated like a princess.” After thinking for a moment, I continued, “Well, at least in conversation. I am liking that everypony gives me what I want, no questions asked.”

Seeing that Chamomile didn’t get it, I smirked to emphasize that it was a joke. Her eyes lit up in recognition a moment later, and she smiled back. Honestly though, it was a nice change of pace. Everything was so much work back on Equus and even on the Nebulous.

“But in all seriousness,” I began, “you don’t need to walk on eggshells around me. Please just call me Twilight.”

Clearly flustered, Chamomile said, “I – um – th-thank you, Your – er, I mean, of course, T-Twilight. I – do – would you like anything else?”

I wanted to raise an eyebrow at this, but it might endanger the fact that my request had actually worked. Well, sort of. The words ‘super effective’ came to mind. At least Chamomile had used my name instead of a title.

“No thank you–”

Twinkleshine yawned. That wasn’t terribly unexpected; she had been up for quite a while and under a lot of stress. She didn’t even have the benefit of a nap like I did.

“Um, I guess if it’s not too much trouble, maybe stick around somewhere nearby. Twinkleshine could really use a bed after moonset, and I don’t really want to put her in Luna’s.”

“Of course! I’ll just be waiting at the bottom of the stairs whenever you’re ready. I – um – I’ll just leave this here,” Chamomile said quickly, gesturing to her tea cart, “if you decide you want any more. I’ll – I’ll see you soon.”

Chamomile excused herself with a quick bow that was probably aborted halfway through. Moments after the door closed behind her, an excited cry echoed back up into the room.

Snickering, I said to Twinkleshine, “I wonder if she knows the turret echoes.”

Whatever Twinkleshine said in response, it was completely indecipherable through her mouth stuffed with food.

“How much have you eaten tonight?” I asked, poking Twinkleshine’s belly. As unflattering as it was to comment on it, her stomach was actually bulging a bit.

Swallowing, Twinkleshine replied, “Enough that I’m going to regret it in the afternoon.”

I rolled my eyes at her goofy, crumb encrusted smile. I sort of thought when Twinkleshine had said she wanted to eat ‘whatever local foods they have’, that she hadn’t meant all of them.

“How are you not regretting it now?”

“I think one of my grandparents was a cow.”

I was pretty sure genetics did not work like that, even in the extraordinarily unlikely event that Twinkleshine was part cow.

“I think when we get back to Equus, I’m going to send you to the Apple family for lunch,” I said, more to myself than to Twinkleshine.

Opening her mouth for a moment, Twinkleshine closed it again and scrunched her eyebrows together. Just before I was going to ask what was wrong, she said, “I would rather not test my theory, or at least that’s my hunch.”

“Huh? Twinkleshine, is something wrong?” Besides those other things we were just sort of forgetting about for the night.

“No, not at all. I just thought my phrasing was strong.”

Oh stars, she wasn’t. “Are you serious?”

“Perhaps. My motives are mysterious.”

I looked Twinkleshine dead in the eyes. “I like oranges.”

“Um… Um… You’re…borenges?”

I was a little ashamed to admit I stuffed a cookie in her mouth, but Twinkleshine deserved it. I was more ashamed to admit I actually laughed. Once. Twinkleshine, on the other hoof, seemed to be enjoying herself, although it was probably more from my reaction.

Mid-sip of tea, I felt her magic again.

“It’s happening,” I said as quickly as I could.

“Really?”

“Uh-huh,” I hummed in answer. Apparently I was right in thinking that I was the only pony who could notice.

The entire moon was covered in the faint sensation of Celestia’s magic, and the moon was getting noticeably larger in the sky over fractions of seconds. I felt a little off, but that was almost certainly Celestia’s magic doing it’s job to shunt us across the edge of the universe.

“Don’t flinch,” I said, probably to myself, but I could always pretend I’d been talking to Twinkleshine. We may have been squeezing each other a bit, but it was definitely not because we were nervous.

Secretly, I was really, really glad that the Hornburg wasn’t going to be the first point to pass through the boundary, but it was very close. We were going too fast to actually experience the mortal terror of that moment just before potentially splatting on the edge, crushed beneath ourselves and the moon behind us, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t imagine it, especially with the moon filling almost the entire sky now.

At least if we died here, it would be spectacular and instan–

Oh. Well that was disappointing.

Author's Notes:

Prereader – Starlight Nova

Chapter Nineteen - The Moon - Part Four

“We really should have seen this coming,” I said to Twinkleshine, my eyes not straying from the sky.

“It was kind of obvious, wasn’t it?”

The two of us looked up at the now moonless, and consequently empty, sky. We hadn’t noticed it before, because we had been facing away from the stars in the other half of the universe in a regular Euclidean sense, so intuitively, it made sense that we hadn’t seen them. However, we really should have seen at least the brightest stars from the moon.

It only took a tiny, blue pinprick of light that we’d almost missed in the this sky to make us realize that.

“The moon is pretty bright, isn’t it, Twilight?”

Twinkleshine sounded even more annoyed than I was. There was obviously something out there, but the moon was too busy generating light to let us see it.

“Why don’t you try some of your magic?” I suggested. “Maybe we’ll be able to see something.”

Nodding, Twinkleshine lit up her horn for one of her simpler telescope spells. By the standards she and I now measured her, it was rather crude, but it required less magic, so she’d be able to send it out further away from the moon.

And we wouldn’t need any protection from high-energy light with this spell, but that was more of a side benefit. Somepony in the course of history wisely decided to modify the standard beginner’s illusion spells to only produce light in the visible spectrum. No small number of mysterious deaths in early Equestrian history were thought to have been due to otherwise benign illusions.

Anyway, if we were lucky we’d see something other than–

“Ack!” Twinkleshine and I shouted in unison as we looked away from her illusion.

Note to self: I needed to teach Twinkleshine how to put a maximum level of brightness into an illusion, which unfortunately was not a thing that anypony had put into the standard beginner’s illusion spells, and – argh, my eyes still burned! Why had my flares never damaged my eyes before! I could just heal them if I’d ever had cause to learn the spell!

“Twilight, soak these with water and cool them!”

My head snapped in the direction of whatever it was Twinkleshine was talking about, for all the good it did. I could feel her magic levitating two things nearby, but it hurt just to open my eyes. I wasn’t going to try a scrying spell for vision on the off chance it induced phantom pains, so I worked purely off of my magical senses.

I summoned a large chunk of water blindly in the air, letting it crash to the ground and soak everything on the floor. Immediately after, I froze the water remaining in the air.

Twinkleshine let out a tiny squeak. “Too cold, Twilight,” she said, as a block of ice bumped into my eyes. “Thaw them.”

What was going on clicked in my head, and I brought the wet napkins – that was probably what Twinkleshine had used – back just slightly above zero degrees. It was with much relief that I breathed out and relaxed as my eyes were cooled.

Breathing easy again herself, Twinkleshine said, “I’m so sorry, Twilight. I – I made a mistake with the coordinates.”

Sleepy and stressed, that didn’t surprise me. I really should have just sent Twinkleshine to bed.

“It’s fine. Accidents happen. Again, apparently, based on your reaction.”

“Yeah… I sort of screwed up a few times when you first started helping me. How bad do your eyes feel? Were you looking straight at the spell? Can you still see?”

“My eyes feel like they’re on fire, but they’re working.”

First sighing in relief, Twinkleshine said, “Great. You should be okay in a few minutes or so.”

A few minutes? How bad could it have been? Hours? Days? Years? No, probably not years if Twinkleshine had done this to herself more than once. More importantly–

“What about you?” I asked.

“About the same, I think. An hour at the most…”

Just then, the door burst open to the sound of ragged breathing and shouting.

“Your Highness! Are you! Alright!” Chamomile asked between breaths.

“Not really,” I said, using the wrong Equestrian before repeating myself. “But we will be.”

“Whew,” Chamomile said, collapsing to her knees and then to her belly when that wasn’t enough. “I’m sorry. I just. Need a moment.”

Wow. Chamomile was obviously in shape just by looking at her. Just how fast did she have to move to put herself in this state?

Putting on what I suspected was going to quickly become my princess smile, I said, “Don’t worry about it. Thank you for your concern, though.”

“H-happy to serve.”

Turning…well, turning my attention, if not my nonexistent line of sight, back to Twinkleshine, I asked, “Where did you put your lens?”

“Huh? Oh, I – I think I accidentally inverted the sign on the relative coordinates…”

Inverted the coordinates? That would mean looking in the vaguely opposite direction of that blue pinprick of light, with the lens placed on the other side of the moon. The viewing direction must have been flipped, too, pointing away from the moon, because the moon was nowhere near that bright. I mean, the moon sort of hurt to look at directly when you were on the surface, but it wasn’t blindingly bright like that.

“I think that was moonlight,” Twinkleshine said.

I hesitated a moment before I said anything, not wanting to flat out tell Twinkleshine she was wrong, especially since she was probably right. The color of light the illusion had produced was burned into my eyes, and it had been the pale white color the moon gave off.

Still, it made no sense. The moon was no brighter near the surface than staring at a normal illumination spell from a couple centimeters away. Twinkleshine’s spell would have reduced the intensity by at most half, so while it would still have hurt to look at, it shouldn’t have been so painful. Unless the spell ended up inside the moon. It should be very bright there, although still not burning bright.

“So if that was moonlight,” I began, “do you have any ideas on why it was so bright?”

“A few. I’ve been thinking about this ever since I heard there was another half of the universe. I think the universe is made up of two paraboloids of revolution. If we put their axis of rotational symmetry along z-axis, then we’d be in the negative z’s now.”

“Or the positive z’s,” I commented dryly. “There’s no sense in being too hasty. Maybe this half of the universe is the better half.”

I could almost hear Twinkleshine rolling her eyes in her tone of voice. “Anyway, if I’m right, I think what happened is the moonlight focused a bit stronger than normal, and since it’s so close to the edge, the moon reflected its own light – probably more than once – which resulted in us looking at a blindingly bright moon.”

That…sounded an awful lot like an excuse. That would get us maybe a factor of two, and that was really stretching it. I generally didn’t think of moon rock as reflective, and a lot of the energy should have spread out anyway.

But then moon rock was white, and – no, I wasn’t even going to go there. I either needed to brush up on my astronomical scale physics, or I needed to leave this to Twinkleshine. On second thought, I’d just leave this to Twinkleshine; she didn’t need me encroaching on her territory any more than I already had.

“Also,” Twinkleshine started hesitantly, “it didn’t help that my lens also took a large sample for a small image, preserving power, not intensity.” It sounded like Twinkleshine was fiddling with her hooves as she whispered, “It’s usually a good idea.”

Ah, so that was the real problem. Twinkleshine didn’t really need to try to deflect the blame to the universe, but I wasn’t going to call her on that. I didn’t really care. It was just an accident.

Sighing, I squinted my eyes extra hard as I removed the napkin. Very slowly, I cracked them back open, wincing once they were open enough to actually see anything. It took some time and a lot of blinking, but eventually, my eyes readjusted to the ambient light in the room.

“Well, I feel less like tearing my eyes out now.”

“Sorry…” Twinkleshine said, her dejection crystal clear in her tone.

“Twinkleshine, I didn’t mean anything by that. I was just trying to say I feel better.”

Getting no response, I gnawed on my lip. I had a feeling that this was one of those moments where anything I said was just going to make things worse.

“Why don’t we find you a bed to sleep this off in?” I suggested.

Twinkleshine nodded, and we left the turret with Chamomile leading the way. Despite her objections and her pouting, I carried Twinkleshine down the stairs with my magic. The last thing we needed was her tripping while I was distracted and breaking her horn, or neck, or anything else.

I sighed as Twinkleshine finally fell asleep. Getting her to put off investigating the universe until after a good morning’s rest had been nearly impossible, requiring a promise that I would wait for her and several reassurances that the universe would also wait for her.

Anyway, as much as I’d love to snuggle into some blankets myself, I still had some things to do. The rest of my crew were as much my responsibility as Twinkleshine was, and with only one translator among them, they probably could use some help. If nothing else, I’d make sure they all found somewhere to sleep that was as cozy as the palace room Chamomile had provided for Twinkleshine.

As I headed for the door, I caught sight of my reflection in a mirror. Double checking that the door was closed and that Twinkleshine was asleep, I took a moment to look myself over.

“Pretty, eh?”

That wasn’t something I heard everyday. I was a little overweight for my age, although that would probably disappear as I grew taller. I didn’t exactly pay much attention to my appearance in any other way, either. Even my mane and tail I just cut in a straight line when they got too long.

Well, it wasn’t as if I really cared too much, but the flattery was nice. Besides, even if it was generalizing from only three data points, I’d probably grow up into a beauty as an alicorn.

Right then. I spun around toward the door, opened it, and marched straight out. Chamomile was still waiting for me.

“Is there anything else you need, Your High…”

I gave Chamomile a small, sad frown.

“Er, T-Twilight.”

Switching to a smile, I said, “You’ll get it eventually.”

I’d probably spend a lot of time up here in the future digging through history, and Chamomile seemed like decent enough company, if perhaps surprisingly easy to fluster with informality.

Ooh! Maybe I’d even get to watch Luna try to paint the past thousand years.

Actually, yikes. A thousand years was a long time; painting them would be quite a task, now that I thought about it, a true labor of love. And Luna probably only had second hoof information for a lot of it, too. Maybe she wouldn’t even continue it…

“Anyway,” I began, “I’m going to need another six beds for my friends and myself. And breakfast when we get up, if you wouldn’t mind.”

“Of course. I’ll tell Pumpkin to bring breakfast up to the castle. Would you care for anything in particular?”

“Hmm… Do you know what pancakes are?” Getting a nod, I added, “With blueberries and orange juice?”

A momentary frown flashed through Chamomile’s face before she spoke. “I believe we might be out of blueberries after tonight, but I’ll make the request.”

How unfortunate. Blueberry pancakes were pretty great. Spike really liked them, too, especially with chunks of – oh.

“If you could bring me a pile of carbon as well, I’d appreciate it. Spike gets a bit testy when he doesn’t get any gems.”

“Carbon?” Chamomile asked, clearly confused. Carbon was one of the oldest known elements, so that wasn’t the problem.

Clarifying myself, I said, “I’ll make a diamond for him with it.”

“Ah,” Chamomile said, her face lighting up in recognition. “I heard there was a dragon here, but I never saw one. Are – are they not bigger than houses?”

I couldn’t help snickering at that. Sure, Spike would be a dozen meters tall in a century or two, but he’d be shorter than me for decades to come. Honestly, I had a hard time picturing Spike as a giant, hungry dragon. Well actually, the hungry part was pretty easy to see.

“Spike is just a baby dragon,” I said. “He’s not even my height yet; it’s very easy to miss him in a crowd of ponies.”

“Oh,” Chamomile said, faintly blushing. “I see. Sorry for presuming that…never mind. I’ll go prepare those bedrooms and await your return in the courtyard.”

As I watched her go, I idly thought about how I could thank Chamomile. She’d been really helpful, far more than so than anypony at Canterlot Castle had ever been. Then again, that could be the difference between being a princess and being a princess’s friend at work.

Oh well. I’d ask Luna what a good gift idea would be for a moon pony later. Right now, I had to deal with Cherry Berry. Hopefully Crescent had warned everypony not to feed her information before she got to them.

“You’re a goddess?” Cherry Berry half-shouted at me in Old Equestrian. Berry Punch, Berry Pinch, and Spike were with us, too, as we wandered about looking for the rest of our merry band; Cherry Berry at least had the decency to do this in private. Oddly enough, her tone was some weird mixture of fear, excitement, and annoyance, as if she couldn’t make up her mind on how she wanted to approach me and decided to try everything.

“More like a filly goddess,” I said. I was pretty sure that Cherry Berry wouldn’t buy the extended family argument anymore. I wouldn’t have erased her memories anyway, but if I did, it would leave a rather gapping, obvious hole in her memory that would make her suspicious. “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t mention that to anypony.”

“No, no, no. You’re a goddess!”

“Well, again, more like a filly goddess. I’m still not a proper alicorn yet.”

If I were, I’d have just been to Mona and back as a pleasant morning teleport. Not that I was going to put that into Cherry Berry’s head if I could help it.

“No. Just – princess, sure. But goddess?”

Frowning, I said, “You’re acting like you weren’t alive when Ca – when Princess Mi Amore Cadenza appeared out of nowhere. Where did you think goddesses came from? The æther?”

I might as well have thrown a brick in her face for how stunned Cherry Berry looked.

“Look, I wouldn’t mind if you told anypony if ponies didn’t react exactly like you are right now.” And also if they couldn’t spread the information back on Equus, but Cherry Berry didn’t need to know that. “I’d like to live the rest of my unicorn years in peace, if you would be so kind as to let me.”

“But… But… But…” Cherry Berry was really impressing me with her vocabulary.

This was really dumb, but it’d probably snap her out of her stupor. “You can write my biography, if you want.”

“What? Really? Wait. Hang on. That’s not important right now.”

Drat.

Sighing, I stopped walking, drawing Cherry Berry’s gaze to myself. Locking eyes, I said, “Look, you knowing won’t change my behavioral patterns toward you or anypony else. I don’t see what the big deal is.”

“Well of course you wouldn’t. When you find out somepony is a goddess, you just go, ‘Welcome to the club.’”

Heh. ‘Welcome to the club’. I could imagine it now. The next time a pony ascended unsupervised like Cadance, I would just walk up to her, give her an unimpressed look, and then throw out that line along with a gift basket before walking away. Stars, that would be hilarious.

Sort of. Okay, so it wasn’t actually that funny. And it would probably take years to move past the horrible first impression. And it was just a little mean spirited in general.

Hmm… Alright, maybe I shouldn’t.

I sighed as Cherry Berry continued rambling about how this changed everything, only listening to every other word. Eventually, I spotted Fluttershy and Dash sitting together at a table that had obviously been moved away from the others.

“Not very subtle, Fluttershy,” I mumbled to myself.

The two of them were busy eating…something cold and soft looking with the oddest shade of green, so they didn’t notice our approach. It also didn’t help them that they were pretty distracted with each other.

“I hope we’re not interrupting,” I said. Fluttershy flushed immediately, but it wasn’t until I spoke again that Dash joined her. “You realize you’ve got each other’s feathers in your manes, right?”

Part of me wondered what they’d have to have been up to for that to have happened, but most of me was just wondering where they’d gotten up to it at. I didn’t want to have to go apologizing to a random local for having their house broken into and their bed used.

Somehow less beet red than Dash, Fluttershy managed to whisper, “It’s a pegasus thing…”

Hmm… They were sort of ordered, and there were only a few.

“Right, well anyway,” I began, “I’m not here to tease you until you stop being embarrassed right now. I’m rounding everypony up to get them to a bed in the palace. I asked for six beds, but do we only need five?”

“Twi!” Dash moaned. “Please stop.”

Please? Oh my, I might have broken Dash.

“Alright.” There’d be plenty of time for that later. “Seriously though, if you’re getting tired, you can come with us, and I’ll take you to our bedrooms. Or you two can fly up to the palace courtyard later and wait for a pony named Chamomile.”

“That was the name!” Cherry Berry exclaimed, still in Old Equestrian.

“What do you think, Flutters?” Dash asked. “You up for a small flight?”

“Um… I think I would prefer to teleport, if you don’t mind.”

“Yeah, that’s fine.” Turning from Fluttershy to me, Dash said, “Give us a couple minutes to polish this off. Then we’ll catch up to you.”

Alright, that was two more down. All we were missing now was Pinkie Pie, and she should be easy to find. All we had to do was follow the noise. We’d barely taken two steps before Cherry Berry started up again.

“That was driving me crazy. Trying to remember her name, that is. I was more caught up in the fact that you have a cniht of all things. There hasn’t been a cniht in Equestria in centuries. I’d bet Princess Celestia doesn’t even remember how to make them.”

“Sorry, that word isn’t in my vocabulary. What’s a cniht?”

“You know,” Cherry Berry said, switching languages for a moment, “a knight.”

“I have a what?”

“A cniht! A protector! Somepony who dedicates their life to your defense specifically. Most often found in–”

“I know what a knight is,” I interrupted. “What I want to know is why you think I have a subject of four and a half centuries of romantic literature in my…service?”

“Because you do!”

Wait, if I remembered correctly… “You’re not talking about Twinkleshine, are you? Chamomile referred to her as ‘Dame Twinkleshine’ before. It’s probably just a misunderstanding.”

“No.” Cherry Berry stomped her hoof with the word. “Everypony I talked to was very clear that it was a pony named Chamomile. She’s some sort of hybrid assassin slash lady’s companion.”

Oh please, those were two entirely different skill sets. That just made the idea even more ridiculous.

“Why on Equus would somepony want a maid for an assassin?” I asked. “I mean, sure, the first self-defense assassination…” Had I really just said that? “Um… It would be a huge surprise, but after that, nopony in Equestria wouldn’t know about her.”

“A lady’s companion isn’t a maid,” replied Cherry Berry, as if I’d just said a fireball spell was the same as a light spell. “They’re more like paid friends or extended family.”

That definitely deserved an eyebrow raise. I was probably confusing a lady’s companion with a lady’s maid – apparently – but the idea was so weird. Why not just be friends?

“The whole concept is really archaic,” Cherry Berry continued, reading my mind, “from when – wait, that’s not important! How could you not know you have a knight? You had to have accepted her vows.”

I sighed. “Okay, look. If you won’t believe me, why don’t we just go ask Chamomile herself? She’s not my knight, and I don’t want her to be. I’m sure she’ll agree.”

Trotting in front of me, Cherry Berry turned and looked me in the eyes. “Don’t do that. There’s an old story about Princess Celestia dismissing Aurora Shield – one of her knights, of course – who committed suicide a few days later.”

Wha–

“The knight position was taken very seriously, Twilight.”

I stood still with my mouth half-open. I did not want somepony’s suicide on my conscience, even if it really wouldn’t be my fault. Maybe it was time to take Cherry Berry seriously.

Okay, so I didn’t have a knight, or at least not in the way Cherry Berry had put it. I certainly hadn’t accepted anypony’s knightly vows – whatever they were – but there must have been something going on. If Dash or Pinkie Pie were the one telling me, I would have dismissed it as a prank, but that wasn’t Cherry Berry’s shtick.

What were the possibilities, then? Cherry Berry could be misunderstanding something. Maybe Chamomile was Luna’s knight. That would make a lot of sense. Luna had mentioned a few years ago that she was re-forming the night guard. Then again, maybe Luna had accepted Chamomile’s service on my behalf, considering I was a minor.

No, that couldn’t be it. This sounded an awful lot like something that ignored the age of majority laws. But then Luna was also a diarch, and I wasn’t actually a legally recognized princess, or at least I probably wasn’t. She could just do whatever she wanted, although she’d have to be willing to eschew tradition and not ask me first or tell me anything about Chamomile. Luna wouldn’t do that.

Unless, of course, she’d planned to but had gotten distracted halfway…

Suddenly, my eyes were assaulted with a pink hoof waving widely in front of them.

“Moon to Twilight,” Cherry Berry said.

“Sorry, I got distracted. But seriously, Chamomile isn’t my knight to the best of my knowledge. I’ll talk to Luna, but asking me–”

Cherry Berry gasped. “Princess Luna returned?”

I couldn’t help but smile like a giddy schoolfilly.

“Yes, she has. Speaking of whom, Luna has something up in the palace I bet you’d love to see. Asking me about Chamomile won’t do you any good, so if you’ve still got this much energy to burn off, I’d suggest that as a distraction.”

Hesitating for a second, Cherry Berry finally asked, “What is it?”

“Find out for yourself,” I said, teleporting her into the castle’s entryway. Despite her initial protestations to bring her back, it only took her a moment or two to get distracted by Luna’s art, exactly as planned. I cut off my scrying spells and briefly explained to Berry Punch what had just happened.

As a bonus, Cherry Berry had completely forgot to keep pestering me about being a princess or goddess, too. I’d have to thank Luna for the diversion later.

I jumped on Luna the moment she appeared. It wasn’t much to compensate, but it was a small step toward recovering from a dearth of Luna’s hugs and nuzzles.

“Happy Solstice, Luna!”

“I missed you, too, Twilight.” After we finally broke apart, Luna asked, “I take it you enjoyed the Winter Moon Festival?”

That was sort of an unfair question. There was a whole lot of distracting background noise to really say. There was my totally justified panic attack, Twinkleshine’s song, and Cherry Berry’s nonsense. I hadn’t had much time to enjoy or hate the actual festival just for itself.

The music had been nice, and the food had been great. All the ponies were friendly, but they had also treated me like a princess, which looking back on it, was really a mixed blessing. I’d only been half-joking when I’d told Chamomile that I liked ponies doing things for me. It was really convenient. Twinkleshine was nice and helpful, but I really did need an assistant from time to time.

“Was it really that bad?” Luna asked. She was making an obviously fake sad face.

I shook my head. “Sorry, I was preoccupied by other things that happened. Moon food is pretty great, though!” Exercising my control over my dream, I conjured up some of that butterscotch thing Twinkleshine had brought me. “And they made this…thing! Did you give them the recipe? It was amazing!”

With an absolutely disgusted look, Luna prodded my imaginary treat with a forehoof.

“I did…but please tell me you didn’t eat this much butterscotch toffee.”

I nodded through a mouthful of the stuff. Its siren call was too strong to resist.

“Ugh. Even a filly your age should get sick after eating this. I can eat whatever I want, and I bet I’d still be unable to keep this down.”

Rolling my eyes, I swallowed and then said, “On the topic of you telling the moon ponies things, I think I need to lodge a complaint or two.”

“Oh? And whatever could they be, my little princess?”

“That’s one of them,” I grumbled.

While Luna was constructing an elaborate illusion, she said, “Of course it is. I do know you quite well, but it was for the best. Better your first experience with princesshood is in a warm and welcoming environment with ponies who respect and adore you.”

Finished with her spell, I found myself standing atop a throne with hundreds of ponies looking up at me expectantly.

Everything paused for a moment while Luna asked, “They did respect and adore you, right?”

Bookkeeper had acted pretty scared and jittery, but other than that, the phrase was pretty accurate. I nodded, and everypony returned to life.

Nopony in the room looked quite like they knew what to make of me. A wingful looked contemplative, and a few were openly hostile, but the majority had the kind of single minded focus that was practically a prerequisite to joining the royal guard. I had this ominous feeling that I was going to be judged entirely by the next thing I did.

“It’s a big difference, isn’t it?” Luna asked quietly.

I managed a weak, “Uh-huh.”

“This is one of my earliest memories; it’s from just after I formally ascended to the throne. All it was supposed to be was a little meet and greet.” Luna paused for a sigh. “It turned into a complete disaster. I was too young and too unversed in the ruling arts. I was suited for the field of battle then and little else.”

“What happened?” I asked, only for Luna to wince.

Before I could apologize, Luna said, “It suffices to say that nopony showed up to the night court for some time, myself included. When you spend the first several decades of your life either terrified beyond the capacity for rational thought or fighting for your life, peace is a difficult change. If you want to know the full story, go down the fourth hallway on the left from the main entrance of the castle.”

With a flash of her horn, Luna banished her illusion. In a few moments, it was replaced with an impressive vista of a frozen forest from atop a tower. We were on a balcony without any railing – which wasn’t really an issue in a dream – and behind us was a small room. Judging by the contents, it was a bedroom, but it was hard to be sure. The longer I looked, the harder it was to focus on any particular object inside.

“I’m afraid I don’t really remember what my bedroom looked like.”

I nearly jumped when Luna spoke and broke my concentration.

“I don’t think I’ll ever forget the view from it, though. Winter in the Everfree was a gorgeous sight.”

That was what it was! We were above the Everfree Forest, and those were the Macintosh Hills off in the distance. Things really had changed a lot in a thousand years. The Everfree actually looked bright and cheery right now. Without the fog and the incredibly dense canopy, it actually managed to be inviting.

Turning to Luna, I asked, “Is this really accurate? I mean, it’s a huge change from the modern version.”

“Well, it might be a bit idealized, but it should be reasonably close.”

“Huh. I never expected the Everfree could be so nice.”

“Sooooo…” Luna trailed off expectantly, poking me with a wing.

I rolled my eyes; this was about as subtle as a hungry dragon. “Fine, being a princess wasn’t so bad. I didn’t have any real responsibilities, though.”

“Perhaps, but it’s still nice to hear.”

It wasn’t like I was going to give up my ascension over a few negative perks. Not that I couldn’t appreciate what it meant for things to be said aloud instead of merely understood.

“Tea?” Luna asked, pulling both the drinks and an extra large cushion out of nowhere.

I cocked my head to the side as Luna sat down. There was obviously plenty of room next to her for me, so I wasn’t going to say no, but Luna had never been the tea type, and I wasn’t either. And this was more of a hot chocolate moment, too.

Although the tea did remind me of my other complaint. It was almost as if–

“Wait a second,” I said, tripping over my own hooves as I tried to jump to them. Cushions were officially being listed under hazardous terrain. Just before I face planted, Luna caught me with her magic and sat me back down.

“Thanks,” I mumbled. “But this is chamomile tea, isn’t it?”

Nodding, Luna added, “Laced with honey for sweet toothed ponies.”

Well…that actually sounded pretty good. Not that I was going to be distracted when I practically had my other complaint put up on a billboard right in front of me, which meant Luna was expecting it.

Oh stars. It finally clicked that if Luna was expecting this, then Chamomile really was my knight. Maybe not in those exact terms, but there was something going on. How badly would Luna be offended if I said I didn’t want or need her? They were probably friends if Luna asked her specifically to protect me.

Wait, if they were friends, maybe I should think about this first. Luna hadn’t introduced me to any of her friends on Equus, if she even had any there, but I certainly wanted to meet them. I’d already met Chamomile, and I supposed I’d like to get to know her better, but I still–

“You know,” Luna began, interrupting my train of thought, “the first time somepony told me the story of Princess Frost and Sir Arrow, I nearly had a conniption. To think that somepony could reduce knighthood to some silly love affair. It was perhaps the biggest insult anypony could have thrown at many of my truest and loyalest friends, many of whom laid down their lives for me.”

Luna paused for a rather long sip of tea, long enough that she actually emptied her cup in one go.

“A week later when I’d calmed down, I was so embarrassed when I realized it was all my fault. I made quite a habit of sleeping with my knights.”

Or better put, spending nights with her knights.

Okay, that was awful. I was so glad I hadn’t said that aloud.

Anyway, what Luna said likely wasn’t completely accurate based on what Cherry Berry and Luna had already said on the subject. She didn’t sleep with her knights; she made knights of ponies she was already willing to sleep with. Not that I thought the reverse implication was true, either. I was sure there were plenty of ponies Luna had been intimate with that weren’t her knights and vice versa.

But I thought I knew what Luna was getting at.

“So what you’re trying to say,” I began, “is that you trusted your knights enough to be at your most vulnerable around them.”

“Partially. As an alicorn, you will need no protection. The only ponies who could truly aid you when you would be unable to aid yourself are other alicorns. Why then do we have a guard?”

“To deal with the rabble,” I said automatically, the answer obvious. “We only get one second per second like everypony else, even if we get more of them in the end. We don’t have time to deal with every little brawl, riot, invasion, or whatever.”

As much as Shining liked to say that his duty was to protect Celestia, it was fairly obvious that his real duty was to keep order around her. Anything strong enough to be an actual threat to her would require her direct attention.

As an afterthought, I added, “Actually, if we study Pinkie Pie, we might be able to figure out how to make that a moot point.”

“Oh, yes. That’s actually near the middle of my list of things to do when I’m free, although it would still be rather tedious to deal with everything personally.”

I looked up at Luna properly and asked, “What’s more important than time magic? I mean, besides the obvious immediate concerns.”

“Well, I primarily planned to start with a culture binge. I’ve tried to stay in touch with the world’s developments, but I mainly have only second hoof experience. I thought I’d start with popcorn and movies.”

“Wait, so you just want to lay around for a few weeks doing nothing but that?”

“I doubt it would be nothing but movies, but yes. It shall be glorious fun.” The inflection in Luna’s voice when she said the word glorious was nothing short of laughable, but I managed to keep my chuckling down. “I’d love it if you’d join me.”

A few weeks relaxing with Luna? “Of course!”

Luna took a moment to smile at me before returning to the topic at hoof.

“Knights, as you said, are trustworthy. You can be at ease around them, but that means more than you said. Yes, you can trust them with your secrets, your hurts, your desires. But they are also the ponies that let us sleep peacefully. They are the ponies that allow us to enjoy life without constantly glancing toward the shadows or preparing for what lurks around a corner.”

“But they aren’t any stronger than any other guard,” I protested. “Even if they’re specifically guarding only you, why would that matter?”

“Actually, although this is not terribly important in this context, when somepony becomes a knight for an alicorn, the knight is typically granted a small blessing of power. Do you remember how I promised to give you my blessing to raise the moon?”

I merely gave Luna a look that said everything for me.

“I meant that figuratively then, as you should be an alicorn by the time I could do so, but here I mean it literally. As the Alicorn of Magic, I suspect you will be able to give particularly useful blessings aside from any additional enchantments you choose to cast.”

Huh. Some of the strange things in the oldest knightly romances suddenly made a lot more sense. In the story Luna mentioned in particular – which was a classic, even if it was an offensive classic – Sir Arrow did a lot of things that should have been impossible for an earth pony. I’d just assumed artistic license was in effect at the time, and maybe a little bit of wish fulfillment on the author’s part as well.

“Anyway, if you get a knight, I would not encourage you to abandon all of your own wards and defenses, but neither should you be overly paranoid while they watch over you. Nearly all true threats to you – such as sleeping spells – can be negated by a few seconds of early warning. The job of a knight is to provide that warning, whether or not they are themselves also capable of dealing with whoever is threatening you.”

“But what about all those stories of questing?”

Luna faked a cough. “Well…they vow to obey you in all things, including in epic quests for fetching snacks. Also, if you’re feeling too lazy to lead a campaign into battle because you stayed up all morning reading a book. Or if it’s one of those days when getting out of bed–”

“I get it,” I interrupted. “You’re sort of breaking a lot of illusions I had right now.”

Luna giggling wasn’t helping me get over the minor emotional trauma of hearing dramatic historical and literary moments condensed into ‘because I was tired’ and ‘because I just couldn’t be bothered’.

After a prolonged lull in the conversation, I finally recovered enough from my daze to speak.

“You said if. Cherry Berry said Chamomile is or is supposed to be my knight. And that she’s an assassin maid, but…what’s so funny?”

“No, it’s just, I think I’ll be referring to Chamomile as an assassin maid from now on. The title certainly suits her. I should decree that her work uniform should be a maid outfit, regardless of the impracticality.”

Sighing first, I asked, “Are you going to explain?”

“Yes, yes. Where to begin… Do you know that her special talent is tea making?”

I nodded. She was pretty good at it, too, despite her earlier complaining of never getting put it into practice.

Luna held her own tea forward and gestured toward it. “By the way, this is one of her creations.” After taking another drink she continued, “Anyway, Chamomile expressed interest in what I needed at the time, namely a sparring partner, and she was an agreeable young mare. Seeing that she was struggling to find a job on the moon she would enjoy, I offered her the position. Officially, she was called my lady’s companion, which is no doubt where the maid confusion is coming from.”

“Wouldn’t she have been better called a page?” I asked. That fit the job description much better. She performed small tasks for Luna and helped Luna with combat training, which was effectively what a page did.

Luna merely shrugged at my question. “If you ever decide to spar with her, watch out for small cuts. She is very good with her poisons.”

Ah. So that was where the assassin part came from.

“Oh, and if she ever suggests you enjoy a soothing cup of post-spar ednorog tea, politely decline. It’s unicorn bane, which is unpleasant even for alicorns to drink.”

“Wow, what a dirty trick.” Pretty fitting for an assassin, though.

“Heh. Quite. But I paid her back for it tenfold later. Anyway, about three years ago, I gave her the captaincy of the night guard, however small it is right now. It wasn’t until a little over a year ago that I played with the idea of asking if she would be willing to be your knight.” Chuckling, Luna added, “She actually swooned when I brought it up.”

“Wait, so she is my knight?”

“No, not at all. I merely asked if she would be open to the idea, which obviously, she was. The decision is entirely up to you, although I wouldn’t suggest making it anytime soon. As much as I will recommend her and as much as it would let me sleep better knowing she’s looking after you, I want to stress that the decision is completely in your and her hooves. If you don’t like each other, if you can’t trust each other, the arrangement would be a disaster.”

“But you think we will,” I commented. Luna wouldn’t have even mentioned it if she hadn’t. Chamomile had been really nice so far, but it was impossible to tell if that was how she normally acted or if she was just trying to make a good impression.

“Yes, I imagine you two will get along very well, although I should warn you that she reads purely for entertainment, not to learn.”

What a deal breaker. It wasn’t like I put up with a pegasus that simply hated reading on a daily basis.

“Well, if I can get Cherry Berry to calm down properly, I don’t see any fundamental problems with it, I suppose. We have enough food to feed her.”

“Hmm?”

“Not that I’m saying I want a knight, but…I could consider it.”

It would probably appease Cherry Berry, too, if we took a living part of the moon with us, and Twinkleshine would be thrilled. And Chamomile might be able to help turn some of Dash’s energy away from pranks and toward…flying competitions or something. Anything other than making a mess in my library would be great.

“I didn’t mean for you to take her with,” Luna said. “You’re welcome to ask her, of course, but I intended for you to put the decision off for another six to seven years. After all, you don’t really need a space knight.”

No, I certainly did not. The ship was so overprotected against accidents that the only really bad thing that could happen would be Celestia appearing out of nowhere.

“But,” Luna continued, “whether or not you accept her as a knight, if you took her with, Chamomile would have a chance to be immersed in modern culture before she first arrives on Equus. It would also give her the opportunity to learn Modern Equestrian as well, a task I was not looking forward to performing. You don’t have to, but if she’s willing, I think it would be good for everypony if you took her with.”

Well, like I’d said, we had enough food. As long as Chamomile didn’t expect anything beyond the invitation, it would work out fine. Finding space for her was actually the biggest problem. I didn’t expect her to have too much luggage, but we’d have to make a new bed, and somepony would have to share their room.

We could always shove Dash and Fluttershy into the same space; they share a room often enough already. Now wasn’t really an appropriate time to invite Twinkleshine into mine, although I could share with Chamomile. I spent most of my time in the library after all. But then I already shared a room with Spike. But his bed was small, and he crawled into mine more often than not.

Pinkie Pie wouldn’t mind sharing at all, but that was a surefire way to make Chamomile regret leaving the moon. Then again, we could always commandeer some of the open space on the bridge for a new room, or I could melt off some of the outer glass on the Nebulous and simply make a new room. It shouldn’t compromise the hull anywhere if I take evenly from everywhere.

“I’m sure I could make it work,” I began. “We don’t really need the help, but I guess it would let the others take days off more often with an extra set of hooves and wings around.”

Well, sort of. Chamomile could do manual labor and pegasus work, which unfortunately meant Dash could procrastinate even more than ever. Sigh. Whatever. As long as the work got done and I had food, it didn’t really matter to me who did it.

But then again, I was sort of wishing for an assistant lately. Chamomile could fill that role nicely. Even if she’d just keep the library organized for me, that would be enough. Still, that was a matter for later.

I hopped off the cushion and walked in front of Luna. Seeing as I didn’t have anything else to complain about, it was time for a change of pace.

“Want to reenact the Battle of Crystal Plains?” I asked, although I was using the word ‘reenact’ rather loosely. The fine details of the actual battle were lost to time. We didn’t even know who won or why they were fighting. All we really knew for sure was it was one of the largest scale military engagements just prior to the founding of Equestria.

“Wouldn’t you rather have a nice, quiet solstice? We can do that again tomorrow.”

“Well…we could.” But then I might not have a chance to use the excellent cheap move that popped into my mind a few minutes ago.

Actually wavering under the pressure of my frown and fake tears, Luna begrudgingly said, “All right.”

“Yes!” My sad face was getting better!

“But only if I get the combined forces of Earth and Pegasopolis,” Luna added. “I’m not in the mood to micromanage hundreds of unicorns right now.”

I sent a quick questioning glance Luna’s way but didn’t comment. Luna usually took Unicornia because she greatly preferred their tactical flexibility. And because it forced me to work with and learn earth pony and pegasus magic, but mostly because of the former.

“I’ll get started on the landscape,” I said. “Would you build the structures?”

“Of course.”

Anyway, if Luna didn’t want to force me to play with unfamiliar abilities, so much the better. All I had to do was bide my time to launch a surprise attack when Luna was distracted. At the opportune moment, when Luna had dropped her guard, assured in her victory, I’d tell her that Twinkleshine had kissed me. Then my victory would be assured.

I woke up with Spike snoring in my hooves, still pretty disappointed that my trick hadn’t worked. Luna had just smirked as her forces rolled over mine. Sigh. Maybe I should reread The Art of War. Ooh, actually, I should talk to that Bookkeeper mare and ask for books on military strategy. I’d probably be able to find more here than back in modern Equestria. Maybe.

Oh well. I could just lay here for hours; this was an exceptionally good cloud bed. Dash, for all her other prodigious talents and as ironic as it was, was terrible at making soft clouds. For some unimaginable reason, she liked hard beds, and that was all she could really make. And Fluttershy…didn’t really do pegasus magic. Maybe I should ask Chamomile to come along solely for whatever bed-making prowess she possessed.

Heh. Chamomile the bed knight. Eh, the dream knight? No! The pillow knight! ‘I vow to defend the pillow fort from the dread advances of the evil Princess Cadance at the behest of Princess Twilight.’ Perfect. The next time I had a pillow fight with Cadance, I’d have proper backup instead of that two-faced brother of mine. Betraying me for his marefriend at the end. What a jerk.

The door slammed open and Spike jumped awake, nearly cutting me with his claws. I really needed to remember to file the points off of those sometime soon.

“Twilight! It’s morning! Er, it’s afternoon! It’s time to look at the stars before it’s too late!”

I groaned before I could help myself.

“Oh, um, sorry. Were you not awake?”

“No!” shouted Spike.

Giggling to myself first, I said, “Yes, but not for long enough. Go ahead and set up. I’ll just cocoon myself in a blanket.” With Spike diving back under the covers and holding tight to my barrel, I added, “Spike, too.”

“Alright,” Twinkleshine replied, much more subdued than earlier. “I’ll have everything ready in a minute or so. I’ll let you know when it’s safe to look this time.”

Casting my voice with a spell so I didn’t have to shout through my cocoon, I said, “You really don’t have anything to apologize for, you know.”

Twinkleshine made no response, so I poked a scrying spell outside my blankets. She had this unpleasantly neutral frown, but at least she wasn’t crying or anything. I really wished I had a magical instant fix for everything, but that was life, I supposed.

“Twilight, yesterday, I – I didn’t mean everything I said. I wanted to…apologize.”

Ugh, that last word was rather reluctantly given life.

When Twinkleshine didn’t continue, I said, “I’m still pretty new at this, so please bear with me. First, I forgave you after every word for what little was necessary to. It’s obvious you needed to say each and every last word that came out of your mouth yesterday.” At this point, I managed to stick my head out of the bottom side of my blanket. “And by the way, that song still was really sweet.”

“T-thanks,” Twinkleshine stammered, her blush obvious against her coat.

“Second, I really appreciate this and that you’re trying, but please don’t sweep our problems under the rug. I really should have talked with you sooner, but I kept putting it off.” I felt like I should have had more to say, but all I managed to come up with was a simple, “Sorry.”

After a short whimper, Twinkleshine asked, “You’re really not going to let me take the easy way out, are you?”

“Uh-uh.” I slipped my head back under the covers and tried to properly snuggle back in with Spike, who had somehow managed to get back to sleep already. “Let me know when you’re ready.”

“It’ll only take a second or two. I just need to – that can’t be right. Hang on, let me just try again with a better spell.”

“Take your time,” I said through a yawn.

Some time later, I finally felt Twinkleshine finish her casting, the only flow of magic leaving her coming from her continued hold on the spell.

“Um…Twilight? Did Princess Luna ever tell you what we should expect to see?”

“No. Why?” I asked, struggling back out from under my blankets.

“Because we’re really close to a whole lot of things I don’t want to be close to.”

Oh my. Twinkleshine’s spell had just about everything spacey in it. There were several nebulas, all with distinct shapes, and there were at least hundreds of thousands of visible stars, but I could be off by an order of magnitude or two. I thought I could even see a quasar, but surely that wasn’t possible. Right?

“How close did you say we were?”

“Too close,” Twinkleshine squeaked.

“Huh. Well, unless we’re astronomically unlucky, nothing terrible is going to happen in a single night.” Twinkleshine didn’t say anything until after I added, “By the way, lovingly rendered as usual. Good work.”

“Right. Thanks. I – I guess you’re right.”

Hmm… Looking at the image again, the configuration it depicted really shouldn’t be a natural formation. Gravitational forces should have ripped this arrangement of stars and dust to pieces a long time ago, so this was probably some of Luna’s recent – er, astronomically recent work, but it didn’t really have any apparent rhyme or reason. It was all just sort of clumped together, like looking at…

“Twinkleshine, we might be looking at Luna’s doodles. Or rough drafts or something. Stellar engineering probably isn’t as easy as simply putting stars somewhere and sending them on their merry way.”

“Oh. Oh! Wow! I – it’s one thing when you told me she can move the stars, but I guess it never really sunk in.” Twinkleshine took a step toward her illusion and gazed at it with a newfound awe. “You don’t think this is a stable system, do you?”

I gave a quick once-over over the nearby universe, picking out all of the large chunks that I might call subsystems. I stopped once I’d reached the double digits, since there really wasn’t a point in counting higher.

“If Luna solved the general n-body problem a thousand years ago, she needs, like, a weekly celebration of her unrivaled genius.”

A moment of silence passed as the obvious occurred to both of us.

“Twilight, isn’t the first day of the week named after Princess Luna?”

“No, no, no. That etymology is totally unrelated.”

Seriously, it was. Luna’s name just happened to mean ‘moon’ in the language the calender was originally developed in. It was just a coincidence.

Twinkleshine’s horn lit up, and a giant pile of paper flew over to her from inside her saddlebags she’d left by the doorway. It only took her a few seconds to get a spell going on a quill to copy down her illusion onto the paper. I really needed to dig up a book on camera magic for Twinkleshine at some point, because this was an awfully slow and sloppy spell. It got the job done, but not much more than that.

“Hey, has Princess Luna named any of these things yet?” Twinkleshine asked. She had the same half-mad smile she’d had when I’d told her about the moon ponies.

“Not to my knowledge. Feel free to name your name into history–”

Yelling dangerously close to the level required to wake Spike, Twinkleshine jumped into the air. “On it!”

“–unless told otherwise later.”

I wasn’t sure if Twinkleshine heard me or not. She was already on an endless ramble describing the cosmic formations in front of her. Every ten seconds or so, she’d write something down. Usually it was a name with some coordinates, but occasionally she’d make a longer note.

Yawning, I settled down into as comfortable a position as I could find with my head still poking out and mostly right-side up.

It was at least an hour later, maybe more. Even with a window, there was no moon in the sky – at least not one I could see with the naked eye – which made it incredibly difficult to tell time, but I had a feeling I was right. Considering it was winter back on Equus, we were probably only an hour or two off from moonrise, and Twinkleshine knew it. She’d given up naming literally everything in the sky a little while ago in favor of trying to make pictures of the entire sky instead.

Both were, in my opinion, rather ambitious and tedious tasks. Sure, there was a lot of spellcasting to be done, but it was repetitive spellcasting with the only variation being the part of the sky you got to see next. Twinkleshine fortunately hadn’t asked me for help after she’d stopped the naming phase of her efforts, for which I was eternally grateful.

“And then he met He – Heph – Hefa…”

“Hephaestus?” I finished for Spike.

“Yeah! Him! Orion met him! And there was a big battle! Whoosh!” Spike swung an imaginary sword.

If I wasn’t wrong, he was reenacting a battle against Hephaestus’s servant, Cedalion. It wasn’t exactly an accurate recounting of the myth of Orion, but it was always nice when Luna made time for Spike. Besides, the original version was pretty bloody and disturbing, which was far from appropriate for him.

I nudged Spike back onto the bed with my magic when he nearly fell off. He probably didn’t even notice, considering how involved with his performance he was.

“And then Orion went, ‘Roar! I’ve won!’”

Suppressing my fit of giggles, I said, “That was a pretty good battle cry, Spike. You can color me impressed.”

A knock came at the door as Spike reprised his performance. It was shortly followed by Chamomile asking permission to enter.

“Good afternoon, Chamomile,” I said.

“Good afternoon” – there was only the slightest hesitation before Chamomile continued – “Twilight. Breakfast is ready whenever you and your companions are.”

Nodding, I prodded Twinkleshine with my magic. She still hadn’t noticed that we had company.

“Huh? What is it, Twilight?”

“Breakfast?”

“Yes!” Spike answered for her. “I’m hungry.”

“Well, I suppose that’s that,” I said. “Are you coming with?”

“Um…” Twinkleshine looked between me, her current illusion, and her gigantic stack of parchment. I honestly thought she had enough to keep her preoccupied for a decade or more, but I could understand the compulsion for completeness.

“You can bring everything with you, you know.”

It took a while and a little coaxing, but Twinkleshine finally agreed to come eat. I couldn’t help noticing that she didn’t look like she was regretting how much she ate yesterday as she’d claimed she would. Hopefully she hadn’t left an unpleasant surprise in her room for whoever had to clean it.

“We’ll be along in a minute,” I said to Chamomile. “Could you wake up everypony else?”

“Of course. I’ll meet you right outside in the hallway with the rest of your companions.”

Chamomile excused herself with a small bow, leaving the three of us to prepare for the day. Spike, as annoying as it was, never had any morning problems to deal with, but my mane was still a mess. My tail wasn’t faring much better, and Twinkleshine looked like she hadn’t even tried taming her mess of hair before she’d left her room.

A frustratingly long process of unknotting my mane later and I was ready to go. I vaporized the hairs I lost, just in case: I didn’t want to come back here years later to find somepony thought they needed to be enshrined or something. I wanted to destroy the brush I’d borrowed, too, but that would have been pretty rude. It also might have been a historical artifact, considering how old it looked. I’d assume it were a royal brush if it were more elaborate and if Luna’s bedroom weren’t locked.

Anyway, I stepped out into the hallway where everypony except for Fluttershy and our heaviest sleeper, Dash, was waiting for us. Chamomile was missing, too. No doubt she was still busy trying to get Dash up.

“Good afternoon, everypony. How–”

I hadn’t noticed before, but Crescent was standing off to the side with the rest of the crew. After exchanging greetings amongst ourselves, I turned to Crescent and repeated my greeting.

“Good afternoon indeed, Lady Twilight. Have you found everything satisfactory during your stay so far?”

“I have. Chamomile has been very helpful. Is there anything in particular that you needed?”

Crescent nodded slowly. It might have been a bow until he remembered that I’d asked him not to do that.

“You mentioned before that you would be willing to provide a few tips to our enchanters. We would like to bring Luminance as close to its former glory as possible for Princess Luna’s return if you could find the time.”

“Oh, yes.”

I’d completely forgotten about that, although I had taken a look at the enchantments woven into the land here after Spike had fallen asleep. They were all rather embarrassingly patchwork, which wasn’t terribly surprising after several dozen generations of unicorns had all worked on them.

“I actually looked at what you have here already, and I can write up a list of suggestions over breakfast.”

Crescent’s jaw hung half-open for a second. “But there was no record of you entering – never mind. I should expect such proficiency from the Princess of Magic herself.”

Ooh, that sounded like there was a magical core to Luminance. I definitely needed to take a look at that before I left.

“Honestly,” I began, “your biggest problem is that you haven’t recast the enchantments. It should be a lot easier to work with a brand new spell than to keep the mess you have going. If you send…um…Astral, was it?” Getting a nod from Crescent, I continued, “If you send him to me later, I can give him a quick overview on what needs to happen. I could suggest some books, too, but my knowledge of the titles in your library here is pretty limited.”

“Bookkeeper knows the library by heart. If you merely provide a summary of what to look for, she should be able to locate a relevant title if we possess it.”

Very impressive if true, but I rather doubted she had every passage of every book memorized. Still, there was no harm in providing the references.

“As for the enchantments that have already faded,” I said, “I can probably write up instructions for them, but I won’t have the time to teach them or to cast a lasting version of the spells.”

“That’s more than enough. We truly appreciate your aid in this matter.”

Yeah, yeah, whatever. I wished I knew if he was asking for Luna’s sake or if it was just to impress Luna. But I wasn’t going to refuse to help even if it were the latter, so it didn’t really matter much.

Crescent made his excuses and went off to find Astral, wishing all of us a good breakfast.

And by all of us, I meant all of us. Chamomile had returned at some point with Fluttershy and Dash. With Chamomile leading, we made our way through the palace toward the dining room. I made note of several paintings I wanted to take a closer look at as we walked, including one that depicted the founding of Luminance.

Just as we arrived at our destination, I pulled Chamomile to the side and away from Cherry Berry in particular. I’d deal with her later, preferably after we’d left the moon.

“Can I have a word?”

“Of course,” Chamomile replied. “Is there anything you need?”

“Well…sort of.”

It was one thing to tell Luna I’d ask Chamomile to come with us, but it was pretty awkward to actually bring it up with the mare in question. If she were just some random pony I’d taken an interest in, it wouldn’t be a big deal. The whole knight issue, however, was unbearably troublesome.

I sighed. Might as well just get it over with.

“Chamomile, I – First, I want to be perfectly clear that I’m not promising anything else. When we leave tonight, do you want to come with?”

Chamomile’s squee managed to be of a high enough pitch to leave my ears ringing for a couple seconds. Maybe being a bat pony let her hit higher pitches. Maybe she could even use echo – wait, I needed to stay on topic.

“Assuming that’s a yes–”

“Yes, of course it’s a yes! Thank you! Thank you so much!”

I opened my mouth to try and clamp down on this outburst but ended up saying nothing. I’d already said that I wasn’t promising anything else, so Chamomile could react however she wanted.

Besides…it was a nice, fuzzy feeling being on the opposite side of this kind of happiness, and I didn’t want to let it go. Maybe this was how Luna felt right after she asked me to be her apprentice.

I crushed the idle thought that dared suggest being a princess would be worth it for just this. A few seconds of warm fuzzies – as nice as they were – every couple decades was not commensurate with the amount of tedium that occurred in-between. Not that there weren’t other benefits to balance out the bad. Just, this alone wasn’t worth it.

“Be packed and ready to go by midnight. Luna can carry messages here if she has to, but you won’t be back for years. Be sure to say your goodbyes.”

Chamomile’s eyes widened. “Oh, oh stars, you’re right. I need to go talk to–” Halfway to flying away, Chamomile touched back on the ground and asked, “Please excuse my – do you need me for anything? May I go–”

I gestured for Chamomile to leave with a hoof, adding, “We can take care of ourselves. You don’t have much time left here, so go make the best use of it that you can.”

“Thank you,” Chamomile called back as she flew through the halls. She probably should slow down, but then again, she grew up here. She likely knew the halls well enough to avoid face-planting into them.

Once Chamomile had disappeared around a corner and the faint sound of her wings had died down, I turned back toward the dining room. I likely had a long night ahead of me, and I knew I had a long flight back to the Nebulous in the near future. I was going to need a good breakfast before the day was done.

Author's Notes:

Prereader – Starlight Nova

Chapter Twenty - The Long Journey - Part One

[Winter 57, 994 – Day 267]

I asked Luna to spend some time with Twinkleshine once in a while last morning, hopefully to defuse some of the tension between Twinkleshine and me. Given that Twinkleshine didn’t blow up at me after she woke up, I’m going to call this a success until further notice.

In other news, Chamomile has settled in well. She tries to make herself useful to everypony, but the language barrier pretty much restricts her to working with Cherry Berry, myself, and, surprisingly, Chrysalis. I’m not going to question why she knows Old Equestrian. She probably has a changeling translating for her on the fly. But I am intrigued by how quickly she’s taken to Chamomile. Perhaps it’s a rare species thing, or maybe it’s that they both have fangs.

Hmm… Chrysalis does get along reasonably well with Flutter – no, that’s silly. Fangs do not a friendship make.

Finally, we’ve at last managed to turn around completely, and we’re headed mostly in the right direction to reach Mona now. We’ll probably be making little adjustments the entire trip, but it’s smooth sailing from here on out. The pace isn’t as relaxing as the moon leg was, but I’m managing well enough. We have five-and-a-half years before Luna’s banishment ends, so there’s plenty of time to rest when I need it.

Nothing further of interest to report.

[Spring 12, 994 – Day 322]

I swear, I don’t even know what to do with Twinkleshine right now. Have her get to know Luna to help us? A flawless plan. Tell Luna she should ask about Twinkleshine’s project? An instant success. Tell Twinkleshine to go to bed after working for two days straight? I had to remind her that she could get input from Luna.

Try to get her to come to class? Impossible, the little truant. She’s acting almost half as bad as Cherry Berry. Why just the other day, Twinkleshine actually showed up to class while I was teaching Berry Pinch just to ask me to make another ream of paper for her to use, and she got mad at me when I told her no.

And don’t even get me started on Cherry Berry. She’s nearly constantly pestering me for information about the past, present, and future. I’ve been mostly successful in diverting her attention with Chamomile, but that doesn’t always work.

Seriously, they’re working so hard it’s like they think they’re going to run out of ti–

Well…it’s not my job to make everypony else immortal.

I wonder if I can find a solution in forty years or less. Maybe thirty… But then age spells are a thing, even if they…

*sigh*

Right. Let’s get off this morbid note. Mom and Dad aren’t leaving me anytime soon, and neither is anypony else.

*ehem*

Anyway, Twinkleshine is getting totally obsessed! I know this is, like, a dream come true for her, but this is the third dream come true she’s gotten. Or is it the fourth? There’s space, the moon, the new stars, and I guess the moon ponies count as a separate one. You’d think she’d adjust after so much, but she hasn’t.

*grumble*

I suppose I can be just as bad at times. They’ll both calm down eventually. I just have to wait them out. Besides, Twinkleshine is enjoying herself. So long as she doesn’t drive herself into a rut or something, I’m glad she’s having fun.

Nothing further of–

*crash*

Dash! How many times do I have to tell you? No stunt flying in the library!

Chamomile, can you clean that up please?

Yes. Simply.

I think you meant – Dash, get back here!

[Summer 8, 994 – Day 418]

I think Spike is wandering somewhere around nearby instead of – in bed, like he’s supposed to be! – so I’ll keep this short. First, I am never going to dance ever again ever, especially not at my own birthday party. Maybe after a hundred years of practicing ballroom dancing with Luna in space in the other half of the universe, but not a moment sooner.

Second, I approximately kept one of my old promises to Luna, plus or minus some kissing with Twinkleshine. I already can’t wait until I’m sixteen, because wow, she was completely right.

Nothing further of interest to report.

[Winter 1, 995 – Day 611]

Today…has not been a good day. I have hopes that things will be better in a few weeks, but – well, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Just after noon today, Chrysalis woke me up and patched me into the hive mind without so much as a warning.

“What on Equus is going on?” I asked Pupa and Chrysalis.

Seriously, Chrysalis better have a very good reason to wake me up several hours early while I was in the middle of a magic lesson, or I was going to send her into deep space. Well, further into deep space. Away from the ship. Whatever, I was tired.

“Cadance is looking for you,” Pupa replied, giving me a full view of the mare in question.

Cadance was sitting on her bed, looking very relaxed. If her eyes weren’t half-open, I’d have guessed she was asleep.

“This is a joke, right? I don’t get it, and I’m going back to bed.”

As I built up power for a teleport, Pupa said, “No, wait. Listen. Cadance has been taking her studies seriously for awhile now.”

That was sort of the point of her punishment when she took the blame for my flare two Hearth’s Warmings ago. She was supposed to be studying to better use and control her magic. But if Celestia hadn’t found me yet, there was no way Cadance would either.

“So what’s your point?” I asked. “Are you going to tell me Cadance has somehow surpassed Celestia?”

“Twilight Sparkle!” Chrysalis bellowed. “Pay attention!”

Alright, deep breath.

“Can we do this later? Cadance isn’t about to ruin everything, is she?” She certainly didn’t look like it.

“We don’t know,” Chrysalis said quickly. “That’s the entire problem. We don’t know how long she’s been at this, and she’s not very talkative right now. All we got out of her was what she was doing. She’s looking for you as the Alicorn of Love. She’s, and I quote, ‘searching the world’s love’ for you.”

Oh. Oh no. Oh no, oh no. That was Bad with a capital b. That sounded exactly like how Luna found ponies by searching for their dreams.

How long did Luna say she’d searched for Sunset Shimmer before giving up? How many ponies did she check before she found me? Would Cadance have to purposefully look in space to stumble upon me? A dozen questions were all competing for my attention as my brain fired into action.

“Okay,” I said, shoving my ever increasing number of questions to one side, “so Luna is probably waiting for me to come back; the obvious first step is to ask her opinion on this.”

“That is a big part of why we woke you up early,” Chrysalis commented.

Oh. Right, of course it was. This was why I never did anything until an hour after waking up.

“Wake me up in fifteen minutes or when something important happens,” I said before knocking myself out with a spell.

I reappeared in my dream world with a bemused Luna in front of me.

“What was that about? Did a dragon bite you in your sleep?”

That hadn’t happened in seasons. All I’d had to do was use a little more scented shampoo to get the smell of pony off of me.

“No, we might have a huge problem,” I said, waving my forelegs off to both sides for emphasis. “Cadance is looking for me with some sort of long-distance, alicorn love-sight magic.”

Luna’s eyes narrowed as she spoke. “How long has she been searching?”

“We don’t know yet, but no more than a year, of course. Pupa just found out today. She’s still pretending to be me, so she’s usually not awake right now, which might be why. Maybe she’s not supposed to know!” Chrysalis would kill me if anything happened to Pupa!

Well, maybe not kill me, since she would still need to get back to Equus. But she could probably barter passage back off of Celestia. But then if Cadance found out–

“I’ve been worried about this since Pupa was discovered,” Luna began, bringing both of us out of our thoughts. “Ordinarily, I would suggest we fake your death, but that leaves us with two major problems: my niece might be able to see through the ruse, but even if she does not, Pupa’s position puts you in just as much danger.”

The second line of reasoning was obvious; Chrysalis would betray us at the drop of a hat to save her daughter. There was no telling what Cadance might find reason to do if she thought I’d died because Pupa let me leave.

“Why would Cadance in particular be able to see through a fake death?” I asked. “Alicorn shenanigans?” She was the Alicorn of Love, and she could actually ‘see’ relationships somehow. Maybe a relationship died when one of the ponies died or something.

“Not quite the word I would have used, but yes. I unfortunately know even less about my niece’s abilities than she does. My best educated guess would say she will not find you within the next four-and-a-half years.”

“But…” I said. Luna always had a but at times like this.

“But we need more information than my guesswork to rest comfortably, and unfortunately, my niece is the only one who can provide it, inaccurate though it will be.”

Well that explained why Luna hadn’t brought it up sooner. We didn’t want to put the idea of searching for me with alicorn magic into Cadance’s head ourselves, and Pupa was already watching Cadance for us. One thing was still bothering me, though.

“Are alicorns really so different from each other that you can’t know for sure if Cadance can find me?”

“To put it in terms you would use,” Luna began, “I only have two-and-a-half data points to work with. Everything I say about alicorns in general is merely an assumption that what we do have in common is constant across our species.”

Well, that was pretty fair. There was only so much you could learn from two alicorns, and from what Luna had told me before, it wasn’t as if nopony had ever tried to ascend before…

“Luna,” I began, my words caught in my throat. This was one of the scariest questions I’d ever asked, and indeed could be the one of the scariest questions I ever would ask. “Why are there only three alicorns right now?” There should be dozens flying around, even at the terribly slow rate of one appearing every thousand years or so.

Luna’s frown only deepened at my question. “I don’t know. If there were ever any histories concerning pre-Discordian alicorns, Discord destroyed them as well. There are scraps of religious records remaining, but the deities they describe and the powers ascribed to those deities are nothing like alicorns. I have several theories but no evidence for any of them.”

“Like what?”

“This really isn’t the time, Twilight.”

“But aren’t I just waiting for Chrysalis to wake me up right now?”

Luna had said we needed more information, so there wasn’t much I could do while asleep. I knew what questions we needed to ask; they were pretty straightforward. We wouldn’t have much time to plan for what to do in response to what Cadance’s answers were, so there wasn’t too much point in starting right now.

Now that I’d calmed down, it was easy to see we likely didn’t have to rush to make any decisions. The chances of Pupa walking in on Cadance only minutes before she found me were small enough as to be not worth considering.

“I suppose,” Luna finally said, the words reluctantly leaving her. “I want your promise that you will speak of this to nopony but myself.”

“What about Cadance?” She was an alicorn, too, and this sounded an awful lot like an alicorn conspiracy.

“I have not been impressed by her ability to keep secrets.”

Ah… “Alright, I promise.”

Luna nodded. “Remember, these are only possible explanations; I have no real evidence for any of them. And as far as anypony else is concerned, there never were any other alicorns.” After I’d nodded, Luna continued, “The worst possibility is that they were killed or otherwise ceased to be able to interact with the world.”

“Is that possible?” I shouted.

“My banishment is proof enough that the latter, at least, is possible.” Without missing a beat, Luna moved on. “Another possibility is that alicorns, as a general rule, eventually get bored and find another planet to go develop from the ground up.”

That…actually sounded fun, but maybe a bit tedious.

“Or perhaps there is another ascension alicorns can undergo to reach a yet higher plane of existence.”

Wasn’t that how a lot of characters were ‘killed off’ in the books Twinkleshine keeps having me read?

“It’s just barely possible that there were never any sufficiently powerful magical artifacts to power an ascension before Discord appeared, but I rather doubt it. Considering how we believe Star Swirl the Bearded died, it’s likely he was trying to ascend.”

Oh, wow, I’d almost forgotten about that. I certainly hoped there weren’t any special requirements to become an Alicorn of Magic. It was sort of difficult to believe that somepony of Star Swirl’s legendary talent wouldn’t make sure he had a powerful enough artifact to ascend off of.

“My most terrifying idea” – Luna actually shivered – “is that Discord created the universe a few thousand years ago. I think the universe is too orderly for it to be his creation, but Discord is unusually powerful, and it took an unusually powerful set of artifacts to defeat him, so I cannot completely discredit the idea.”

I – I really didn’t know what to say to that one.

“I suppose alicorns could have otherwise been discouraged from appearing, or somepony could have intentionally sabotaged ascensions, but I think the most likely idea is that there are more alicorns on Equus.”

“Wait, what? Wouldn’t they be fairly easy to find with how much magic alicorns have?”

Luna nodded. “What easy to find things are you looking for, Twilight?”

My mind locked up for a few seconds as I processed what Luna had said.

“You think the elements are an alicorn? Alicorns?”

“Six, specifically,” Luna added. “And Discord as well.”

My jaw ever so slowly fell as I tried to say, well, anything.

“As I said,” Luna continued, “both Discord and the elements are unusually powerful – far stronger than a single alicorn. Speaking only of the elements, they generate their own magic, which is a unique trait among magical artifacts. They also possess a sort of will as well, which is also unique among magical artifacts. I personally like to think the Element of Magic is Star Swirl, but that’s probably not the case.”

I lifted my jaw back up and tried to reconcile what I’d heard with what I’d thought earlier. I had thought Star Swirl would’ve been careful enough to ascend successfully. But wait. If Star Swirl was already the Alicorn of Magic, what would happen to me? Would it matter that he was an artifact? I knew Luna wouldn’t have the answers to any of the questions I was coming up with, but I wished she would. These questions could be of vital importance in both the near and distant future.

But then these were just Luna’s conjectures, and she’d said she had no idea what the truth was. I shouldn’t worry myself ragged over things we had little enough evidence for.

It would be pretty interesting if we could find a way to make remake a half-dozen alicorns out of the Elements of Harmony, though. But having two Alicorns of Magic was still a very worrying thought. That could end poorly.

“Luna, how likely do you think any of that is what happened to the old alicorns?”

Shrugging, Luna answered, “I have no idea. I know so very little about ancient history. It’s hard to put a probability on any of my ideas. Probability ratios I could attempt, but nothing more. Personally, I wouldn’t get too worked–”

My world went black and hazy, and I…what was I talking about just–

“Twilight,” Chrysalis said, shaking me with her magic, “it’s been fifteen minutes. Get up already.”

Fifteen…oh, right. I yawned and sat up slowly, rubbing my eyes with my magic out of habit.

“Luna said we should be okay, but she’s not very comfortable with that guess.”

A second or two passed in total silence.

“Is that it?” Chrysalis asked.

“Sorry. It’s all we have. Has Pupa been able to get anything out of Cadance?”

“Other than a whole lot of food, no.”

Wow, Cadance hadn’t even responded to being fed on? Weird. Pupa had said that Cadance had said the love eating process felt really weird. I’d never really noticed it when Pupa or Chrysalis fed on me, nor did anypony else on the Nebulous, so I’d always assumed that was an Alicorn of Love thing. Still, that should have ruffled her feathers enough to get her in a talking mood.

“Well, at any rate,” I began, “she’s not likely going to find me today, so I think I’m going to go back to bed. Wake me up again if anything interesting happens.”

I was shaken awake again, interrupting another interesting semi-historical lesson on ancient alicorns. As soon as I opened my eyes, I found myself already patched into the hive mind and staring at Celestia poking Cadance with her magic.

“Cadance, please stop,” Celestia said. “For Shining Armor, if not for me.”

Huh? “Chrysalis, what am I looking at?”

Finally blinking, Cadance turned to Celestia and simply said, “Why?”

“Well,” Chrysalis began, “we wanted to talk to Princess Cadance to find out what exactly she’s doing and how worried we should be, so the obvious action is to play the part of the curious, but concerned, friend and fetch Princess Celestia.”

Ah. That actually made quite a bit of sense. Celestia didn’t really have any reason to leave Pupa out of the ensuing discussion, given that Pupa was friends with Cadance. And Celestia hadn’t bothered to corrupt changeling histories, and she knew Pupa in particular already knew a lot about the current situation, so it wasn’t as if Pupa would learn anything fundamentally new.

“Cadance, dear, no matter how much you practice, finding a single pony is beyond your skill. Even my sister would have had trouble locating a pony with nothing to go on, and she had nearly a thousand years of experience. Nopony wishes to see you waste your youth on a futile quest.”

I breathed a small sigh of relief. Luna’s opinion was that only Cadance would be able to tell us how long it would take her to find me, but it was good to know that Celestia, who had more information at her disposal with which to make estimates, thought Cadance wouldn’t be able to find me either.

Cadance turned away from Celestia with a look that said the latter had used up her right to exist.

“It’s not futile,” Cadance said.

A silence descended as Celestia searched for some unutterable words which were clearly on the tip of her tongue.

Finally, Celestia sat down next to Cadance and draped a wing around her. “I know Twilight Sparkle meant” – Cadance’s eyes narrowed, although Celestia was in no position to notice – “a lot to you, but she would not want you to spend your time locked up in your room alone every morning.”

Ironically true in this case, but in general, I would prefer to think that Cadance cared enough to make an actual effort to find me if I were in trouble. I couldn’t help wondering if Celestia had actually tried to find Sunset Shimmer after she disappeared to…wherever she’d ended up.

“I don’t want to hear that from the pony who spent a thousand years plotting and scheming to–”

Clearing her throat first before Cadance could really get going, Pupa interrupted, “If I might put in my opinion as somepony who knows Twilight’s behavioral patterns well enough to fill her horseshoes, she wouldn’t want you looking for her right now. I doubt she could bring herself to run away a second time, nor could she live without her magic – or with the…alternatives.”

That at least managed to get a reaction out of Cadance, even if it was only a frown. I had no idea what she intended to do with me if she found me; I suspected Cadance herself didn’t know what to do with me, either.

“I hate to say this,” Celestia began, “to both of you, but my own spells have failed to find Twilight Sparkle in the past year; you both must consider the possibility that she is no longer alive.”

“She is!” Cadance shrieked. “I’d know if she weren’t!”

“What does she mean?” I asked.

“Oh, I forgot to mention that to you,” Pupa replied. “About a season ago, I made the obvious suggestion to Cadance to see if a pony’s death affects how she saw other ponies with relevant emotional bonds. I was getting a bit worried about her, and as both your friend and hers, I couldn’t avoid making the suggestion. Now that I think about it, that may have led to the current situation. Sorry about that.”

My voice faltered for a moment. “No, thank you for giving her the idea. I really don’t want her worrying herself to death over me. If knowing I’m alive can help her even a little bit, it was worth the risk.”

“Actually, the results were…inconclusive. None of the changes she saw couldn’t be explained in another way, such as a sharp decrease in love as an emotional coping mechanism, although I was not with her for all of her tests. That said, she is no less sure she can tell whether you’re alive or not.”

“Well, please don’t try to convince her otherwise in the name of good science,” I said, shuddering a bit reflexively. Fudging test results to make somepony happier would send me to science Tartarus.

Celestia breathed deeply as if to sigh. “Cadance, I would ask you to take a week long vacation. Feel free to take Lieutenant Armor along as your escort.”

“Is that an order?” Cadance grumbled.

“If it must be. Your search can wait another week for you to relax.”

Adding her own two bits, Pupa said, “Princess Celestia is right, Cadance, whether you continue searching for Twilight or not. You sound more than a little high strung; your search would likely go faster if you took your mind off of it once in a while.”

Throwing distractions at Cadance was great, but I was pretty sure we shouldn’t be telling her how to optimize searching for me. But then again, Cadance would likely be more accepting of additional distractions after the first one. Perhaps that was both Celestia’s and Pupa’s goal.

“Fine.” Cadance shuffled out from under Celestia’s wing and then rolled off her bed. Walking over to her closet, she continued, “I’ll leave after lunch.”

The sooner she left, the sooner she got back, no doubt. Somehow I got the feeling Cadance didn’t really understand the word ‘vacation’ at the moment.

As Pupa was halfway to her hooves, likely to head over to Cadance, Celestia said, “If I may have a word with you in private, Princess.” A silence fell for a moment, broken only by the sound of Cadance’s door unlocking. “Forgive me. Princess Pupa, if you would be so kind.”

Pupa took a short look back toward Cadance, who had already returned to packing. Sighing, she nodded, a burst of green fire changing her appearance back to mine.

After leaving and after Celestia and Pupa were out of earshot of the guards stationed in front of Cadance’s room, Celestia, with her usual calm voice, said, “I realize the two of us possess conflicting priorities in this, but I beg of you, if you have any means of contacting Twilight Sparkle, please avail yourself of it.”

Much to her credit, Pupa didn’t miss a step as she walked. I didn’t think I’d ever even heard of Celestia asking a pony for a personal favor, let alone beg – aside from what she’d indirectly asked Trixie to do to Luna.

“Princess Celestia, I’ve told both you and Cadance before that I don’t know where Twilight is or how to reach her. For all I know, she could have flared and teleported herself to the moon.”

I buried my face in my hooves, screaming wordlessly at Pupa.

Pupa turned her head to the side, finding Celestia a half-step behind her now. After a short laugh, she added, “It was just a joke, Princess. If I were to guess, I would assume Twilight is in Zebrica. A unicorn wouldn’t stand out too much there, and it’s rather far from Equestria.”

“Yes,” Celestia began, falling back into step, “that was my first thought as well. I cannot say I know Twilight Sparkle as well as you or my niece, but I believe I understand the manner in which she thinks very well. I was reluctant to break several ancient treaties to search for her, but I fear my niece may do something foolish if she is not found alive and well.”

“Several?” Pupa asked.

“During the year 561 in the old calender, the Alicorn Accord was brought into effect. In essence, it said I would not use my magic to interfere with other nations, even for something as simple and non-threatening as finding a stray Equestrian.”

Snickering, Pupa said, “One might observe that the sun and moon technically interfere with other nations.”

Pupa looked up to see a small smirk on Celestia’s face.

“Yes, well, in the worst, Equestria could manage fighting the entire world, but diplomacy and friendship are ever our first choices. Another unofficial agreement was made before I even ascended to the throne with the changelings.”

Out of the corner of Pupa’s vision, I could see Celestia was watching Pupa closely.

“Sorry, I’m not familiar with that.”

“Really?” I asked.

“It’s entirely possible we never recorded it, or perhaps it was only written in a diary kept by an ancient queen, or something similar,” Chrysalis offered. “If she’s not simply lying, that would be long before the world had recovered from Discord. Paper would have been a rare commodity worth its weight in gold, let alone ink.”

“The changelings asked to be left alone and forgotten,” Celestia said, adopting a lecturing undertone, “and in return, they would cease abducting ponies to drain their love, among other concessions.”

“Do you really do that?” I asked.

Pupa immediately replied, “Not often, and not at all since we met you.”

Well at least she was being honest about it.

“It’s not a sustainable source of food without drawing undue attention,” Chrysalis added. “Except in emergencies, the benefits are not commensurate with the costs.”

Well at least she was being practical about it.

“I do not ask if your species has broken our agreement” – Celestia’s voice somehow suddenly grew colder, yet still sounded warm and friendly – “but I would be very cross to discover it so now after allowing you to feed off the Alicorn of Love for so long.”

I could actually see Pupa’s vision shake as a shiver ran through her.

“We haven’t. Honestly. I swear we haven’t. I don’t even know how to make a cocoon.”

Even I gulped as the oppressive atmosphere Celestia had exuded lifted.

“My apologies, I was remembering a darker age.” A short silence fell before Celestia continued. “While I have been content to ignore you, to treat you as merely another friend of Cadance’s, I cannot do so any longer. I must find Twilight Sparkle if she is still alive, if for no more than an exchange of letters, and I can no longer overlook your connection with her.”

Pupa sighed. “Princess Celestia, I already said I don’t–”

“I am trying,” Celestia interrupted, each word slow and deliberate, “not to be upset with you, but you are making it difficult. I would not believe for even an instant that two mares as meticulous as yourself and Twilight Sparkle would not have an emergency means of communication in place.”

Celestia stopped there; her meaning was beyond clear, and no further words needed to be said.

After her first unsuccessful attempt to speak, Pupa stammered, “I – I can – I’ll – please don’t tell Cadance.”

“Of course. So long as Cadance is removed from the downward spiral she has entered, I shall not say a word.”

Celestia stopped walking just outside a door with two guards in front of it that looked awfully familiar, but there was no way the route she and Pupa had taken through the castle could have brought them there. As she opened the door, she spoke just loud enough to be heard inside the room, but quiet enough to seem like the room’s occupant would be eavesdropping if she overheard it.

“I hope that will be a good Hearth’s Warming present, but I fear I am too old to make such judgments these days.”

“That sounds an awful lot like a deadline,” I said, “with emphasis on the dead.”

Chrysalis gave a short huff, likely not repeating what I’d just said.

Once the door had opened far enough, Pupa looked inside to find Cadance talking with Shining. Well, talking probably wasn’t the right word; from the look of them, they were in a bit of a one-sided argument, briefly suspended at the opening of the door.

Okay, note to self: Celestia has some serious dimensional magic in place in Canterlot Castle. It had to be even easier to get lost in it than in Luminance Castle. The small part of me that was still a petty little filly felt vindicated for all those times I’d gotten lost in the castle, but the rest of me was glad I discovered that before we tried to storm the castle to find Celestia in the final battle. That could have potentially proved disastrous: not from a ‘permanently lost’ perspective, but from a ‘significant delay’ perspective.

“Anyway,” Celestia continued, not stepping back into Cadance’s room, “I have things I need to be getting back to.” Waving at Cadance and Shining, she added, “I hope you two have a wonderful vacation together.”

Just after the door closed, Shining asked, “Twily, what were you doing with the princess?”

“Oh, nothing important, Shining,” Pupa said. “She just wanted my advice about something for Trixie.”

“Really?” Shining asked, his skepticism obvious.

I sighed. It’d been too long since I’d had a chance to talk to Shining, even by proxy. This should have been a wonderful opportunity, but I just didn’t have the energy right now.

“I’m going to go start working on my alibi,” I said.

Just before teleporting myself back to my room, Chrysalis chuckled and broke my connection to the hive mind. “Remember how I said your scheme required too many things to go right?”

“Yes,” I said through gritted teeth. “And?”

“Oh, nothing. I had merely remembered the thought again and found it funny.”

I had to admit there was a certain touch of irony that the one pony who was guaranteed to jump ship if it went down was the doing the most to keep it afloat. Chrysalis had saved my flank an embarrassing number of times already.

“Th–” I sighed, waiting for my frustration to settle down. It would be silly to say this while frustrated normally, and utterly pointless to an emotivore. “Thank you for you help, Chrysalis. And for Pupa’s as well.”

Chrysalis smirked in that special way that said I’d completely missed the point.

Oh. “I’ll keep my alibi simple and devoid of information.”

“Please do,” Chrysalis said, not dropping the smirk.

“What?” I asked. “I’m tired, and I’m in trouble, and I’m not in the mood to riddle you out. What do you want?”

Chrysalis’s smile turned into a frown, and she said, “Nevermind. You are apparently too inexperienced to understand. Which brings me to my next point. You clearly need a tutor beyond Princess Luna to help you learn how to plot properly.”

“Huh?” That was far afield of what I’d have expected Chrysalis to say. “You want to teach me?”

“Yes, I might as well at this point. You may consider it an investment, if you wish.”

“An investment?”

“So that I have less danger in the future to defuse,” Chrysalis clarified.

I facehoofed before I even realized it.

“I don’t know how much time I can free up, but I’ll think about it, I guess.”

It was a good opportunity if Chrysalis was actually willing to offer me some pointers. And my pride would survive getting advice from somepony who was literally born and raised to outwit ponies by a hundred generations of changelings who had done the same.

Still, I had more important things to do right now. I needed to get ready to finally talk to Cadance again for the first time in forever.

Nothing further of interest to report.

[Winter 37, 995 – Day 647]

Well, today was the day I gave Cadance her ‘Hearth’s Warming present’. As usual, Pupa entered the castle disguised as me with a now fake inhibitor ring on her horn.

“Now isn’t really the best time, Pupa,” Cadance said the moment the door to her office closed. “What is it?”

“Have I ever mentioned–” Pupa cut herself off abruptly. Nopony had actually interrupted her, but it was part of the act.

Looking back up from her paperwork, Cadance asked, “Mentioned what? Pupa? Hello?”

Pupa sighed dramatically. “How willing are you to keep secrets from Princess Celestia?”

“Huh?” Cadance’s surprise at the question was written all over her face. “I mean, I certainly haven’t told her everything I’ve done with Shining–”

“No,” interrupted Pupa, “I meant important secrets.”

“Hey!”

Pupa and I both stifled a laugh together. It was almost cute that Cadance thought Celestia wouldn’t have already guessed, let alone her skewed sense of what qualified as an important secret.

After futilely waiting for an apology or something, Cadance finally said, “I don’t know. What kind of secret?”

“I have a changeling from another hive waiting with a member of my hive that wants to speak with you, but only on the express condition that not so much as a single word of your conversation or its circumstances reaches Princess Celestia.”

“I…I don’t know.” Cadance replaced her quill in its vial, bitting her lip and wrinkling her brows. “I don’t really have much independent political power. Aunt Celestia would be the better pony to talk to for anything important.”

“Please don’t deflect the question, Cadance,” Pupa said. “This may be a one-time offer.”

After what Celestia had said to Pupa, certainly not. Cadance didn’t need to know that, though.

“You might want to prod her with something more obvious,” I suggested. “She doesn’t really know how to play this kind of game, after all.”

“If I might offer my opinion,” began Pupa, “I can’t see how having the conversation would be worse than not having it. I will personally vouch that no malice is intended by who is on the other end.”

Cadance took a painfully long time to consider that, and finally said, “I suppose… Would we have to fly anywhere?”

Pupa shook her head. “The person who wishes to speak with you is talking to a second changeling from the second hive and wishes to remain outside Equestria.”

“You know, I’ve been thinking about it, and technically, I think space counts as part of Equestria, or at least as part of the diarchy‘s property.”

Pupa rolled her eyes, sending my own vision spinning. “Sorry, Cadance” she said. “That was directed to the nitpicker waiting to speak with you.”

A sudden light entered into Cadance’s eyes, and she half-jumped, half-flew over the top of her desk, knocking over half a dozen stacks of paper and a mug of coffee.

“Yes, yes, I promise I won’t say anything! Is that Twilight? Where is she? Is she okay? How is she–”

A hoof to the mouth silenced Cadance.

“Cadance, I’m going to repeat everything Twilight says as she says it, and I will do the same in reverse for you. Please just speak as if you were speaking to her. I’ll try to get her expressions right, too, but that’s a little hard to do inter-hive.” Pupa removed her hoof and asked, “Ready?”

Cadance nodded immediately and with the same eagerness she had displayed earlier.

“Alright, let me just make a few tiny adjustments,” Pupa said as she transformed into a more perfect copy of myself. And by more perfect, I meant a far less idealized version than the one she had taken to using.

At the same time, Chrysalis kicked me out of the hive mind and transformed herself into a copy of Cadance. We didn’t strictly speaking need to act out the half-truth we’d told Cadance, but hopefully, it would make it a bit more real for her.

“Hello, Ca–”

While I was probably the only pony on the Nebulous that didn’t feel awkward talking to Chrysalis mimicking another pony, even I found it a bit awkward for her to be hugging me with a vice-like grip. The fake tears weren’t helping, either.

At the very least, for what little it was worth, I’d established that the real Cadance had a stronger grip than Chrysalis. Or perhaps it was just because I was older and bigger now that Chrysalis felt like the weaker of the two. Either way, the common problem wasn’t going away.

“Cadance. Can’t breath.”

I tried squirming out of the bear hug, but that only seemed to make Cadance hold on stronger. I teleported out instead, Pupa presumably mirroring my spell as best she could, and placed myself a few hooves away from Cadance. It was hard, but I managed not to cough or wheeze afterward.

“Twilight, wait! Please don’t leave!”

After a few deep breaths to stretch out my barrel, I said, “I’m not going anywhere, Cadance. Just try not to kill me with love.”

“I – I’ll try.” Cadance summoned a handkerchief and blew her nose. “It’s really you, right? This isn’t some trick Auntie set up?”

“Feel free to ask me about something obscure. Pupa knows a lot about my life, but not everything.”

“What? Oh. Um… What can Shiny never beat you at?”

That got a small laugh out of me. “When I taught Pupa poker, I never imagined she’d be able to keep my record intact. I figured Shining would win from sheer dumb luck eventually. Anyway, that’s not a good enough question. Try to think of something that would have no effect on how I’d interact with other ponies.”

“Um… Oh, I know! What amazingly cute costume did I try to get you to wear on Nightmare Night?”

I groaned, recalling that monstrous abomination. “You tried to put me in a frilly pink and yellow dress that was not cute – urk!”

Cadance pulled me into another bone-crushing hug, and I teleported out immediately instead of waiting for my lungs to complain again. This time, though, I returned the hug immediately after at a much more bearable level.

“I’ve missed you, too, Cadance, but you still need to learn how to control that ridiculous earth pony strength you have.”

After a few failed attempts at speech, Cadance managed, “I’m working on it.”

Some unknowable time later, we finally broke apart.

“I’d suggest we go flying while we talk like we used to,” I began, “but I don’t think the changeling I’m with could support my weight.”

“Twilight, please come home. We can work something out. I promise. Just please, please come home.”

I sighed. I hadn’t honestly expected Cadance to start this conversation with anything else, but I had hoped.

“Sorry. I really, really am sorry, but no. I can’t come home.”

“Why not?” Cadance asked, her voice cracking. “I – I know I haven’t always – always been able to help you, but I promise I will this time. Please give me another chance.”

“Please don’t, Cadance. I…” This was a lot harder than I thought it’d be. “You haven’t always been the best big sister, but I haven’t been the perfect little sister, either.”

Even now, that managed to get a strong enough blush out of Cadance for me to see it through her pink coat.

“You – you heard about that?”

I nodded. “I’m sorry I didn’t realize sooner. I might have done things differently if I’d known, but I’ve burned too many bridges. I can’t undo some of the things I’ve done since we last saw each other.”

“Twilight, I’m a princess of Equestria. I can undo anything for you!”

“Even Celestia’s decisions?”

Even before I’d finished my question, Cadance winced.

“She had a reason to hold that in pub–”

I titled my head to the side and raised an eyebrow.

In a tiny voice, Cadance asked, “Pupa told you about that, too? Auntie promised she wouldn’t do it.”

Sighing, I tried to give Cadance a reassuring smile. “I’m sorry, but I can’t believe everything about her that you do. It’s… Even if she never found out about this conversation–”

In a rare flash of insight, Cadance said, “Twilight, you didn’t!”

“Cadance, please understand. I’m trying really hard not to be found. I’m just…borrowing two changelings so that I can’t be tracked. I won’t hurt them, and they’re only losing an hour or two of their day. Geases don’t inherently cause any harm.”

“Ugh.” Facehoofing, Cadance continued, “You’ve given Auntie all the legal excuse she needs to ignore my opinion.”

“Well, I won’t tell if you won’t. You did promise not to, after all.”

“I – I suppose I did.”

“Besides,” I said, picking up where I’d left off before Cadance had interrupted, “Celesta already could charge me with treason any time she felt like it.”

In no time at all, Cadance’s hoof was on her face again. “What did you do?”

Avoiding Cadance’s eyes, I said, “It might be possible that somepony ransacked the old castle for any notes Celestia might have left behind about Flares, and it might be possible that somepony made off with a few other select possessions of both diarchs.”

“Twilight!”

“To be fair, I’m not sure if it qualifies as treason. It might just be grand larceny.”

“That’s not any better!” Cadance screeched.

I faked a cough and then rather unsubtly changed the conversation. “Anyway, I found a bunch of Princess Luna’s writings, too, including a couple diaries. If – if the offer is still good later, I think I’d be willing to let her teach me.”

Cadance opened her mouth, but no words came out. She actually looked a bit hurt, probably since from her perspective she thought I thought a madmare was good enough to teach me but not her or whatever plan she might come up with for me.

“That is assuming I’m not permanently broken or dead by then,” I added, “but I’ve been doing alright so far, I think.”

“I… I see…” Cadance slumped to the ground, her eyes losing that spark of hope she’d had before. If I were to guess, I’d say she just realized there was no way she was going to convince me to come home. “Have – have you been eating well?”

I nodded. That much I could at least reassure Cadance of.

“I made some friends like you always kept bugging me to, and they’ve been making sure I eat. In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve kind of gotten a little pudgy.”

“You did feel softer than I remembered.” Cadance managed a weak smile.

“And I’ve made sure Spike’s getting fed, too. He’s a lot easier and cheaper to feed when I can just make gemstones instead of having to buy them. Parenting is hard, but I think I’m doing alright there. I don’t know how effective it is as a measure of success, but his familial love for me is changeling approved.”

Cadance gasped, her eyes going wide. “I completely forgot about Spike! I didn’t even – I mean, I was so busy with you, and there used to be a nanny, and – I’m a terrible pony, aren’t I?”

“Maybe a bit,” I said, stepping forward to nuzzle Cadance.

“Thanks…”

“But you’re mostly a distracted one that I hurt terribly first. If anypony here should feel bad and should be asking for apologies, it’s me.”

“Twilight, you don’t have to–”

“I’m sorry I left without telling anypony,” I interrupted. “I’m sorry I didn’t realize how much it would hurt you in particular to find out I’d left. And most of all, I’m sorry for the trick Pupa and I played on you on Hearth’s Warming. I didn’t realize until later how you would take that and why.”

Cadance didn’t need any reminding to keep her hug light this time. “I don’t care about any of that. I just want you back safe and sound. I can’t lose you.” Mumbling, she added, “I can’t lose another sister.”

Ignoring that last part – whoever Cadance had been referring to – I said, “I’m sorry about that, too. And I’m sorry you had to keep Pupa a secret from everypony, but I really appreciate it.”

“Would you at least visit? Or let me visit you? In secret? Please?”

“No,” I finally said after a long, drawn out silence. “I – just talking is hard enough.” I was crying for real now, but not as badly as Cadance already had. “And you’d be easy for Celestia to track.”

“Could we at least talk? Or send letters, if you won’t do that?”

I’d known that question was coming, and I’d thought long and hard about it. I’d even asked Chrysalis for advice after Luna had said it was my decision to make.

On the cold and calculating side, even though Celestia already knew this conversation would be happening on a theoretical level, if we made this a regular thing, we might draw too much of her attention. It was also possible that I’d say something that gave away our plan which Chrysalis wouldn’t catch in time to not repeat, although that was very unlikely.

But at the same time, Cadance was a key piece in this struggle, and if we could so much as tempt her to indecisive inaction at the moment of truth, the risk would be worth it. And on an emotional level, I did really, really miss Cadance, but I couldn’t let that affect my judgment.

“We could talk once in a while,” I answered, “but only if you really promise not to leak anything to anypony. Not Celestia, or Shining, or Mom, or Dad, or even Twinkleshine, or Trixie. Nopony.”

“I promise,” Cadance said without even a single second of hesitation. “But I’m still going to try to convince you to come home.”

Smiling, I said, “I suppose that’s fair.”

“So what now?” Cadance asked. “Are you leaving? Why did you even contact me and Pupa? Are you in trouble?”

“Um, in the order you asked, no, I was a bit homesick, and no. I just wanted to find out how everypony was doing, but then Pupa told me about how you’d found out I was gone and about how you’ve been acting, and what was I supposed to do? I couldn’t leave my big sister like that.”

That brought a warm smile to Cadance’s face. “That’s going to take some getting used to.”

“I was under the impression you’d already married my brother, Sis.”

With a fierce blush, Cadance asked, “How long have you known?”

“Since I hit puberty, so about three years now. It’s kind of obvious.”

“Ah. Well. Yeah. I mean, he’s pretty hunky. And sweet. And caring. And–”

I interrupted with a laugh. “Yes, I know my brother is awesome. Why do you think he’s my BBBFF? Anyway, Pupa was a little vague on the details. Why don’t you fill me in on what’s been going on with our family?”

Cadance blushed extra hard at the word ‘our’.

Giggling nervously, Cadance said, “Well, a couple weeks ago, Celestia banished me to a tropical paradise.”

Nothing further of interest to report.

[Fall 22, 996 – Day 932]

I had an interesting conversation with Twinkleshine today. Well, interesting isn’t the right word. It was an important conversation for the two of us. Even if she was mostly kind of okay with sharing me with Luna at this point, we did have other issues to work out – in this particular case, the difference in our abilities.

Honestly, I imagine this is something most lovers have to work through at some level. An extreme example would be when a university professor gets together with a high school drop out. Sometimes, and no offense if you’re reading this Twinkleshine, sometimes I feel like that university professor, vainly trying to get intelligent conversation out of my lover.

Not that such pairings are unworkable or fundamentally bad, but it can certainly be a source of tension. With Luna, she has such a ridiculously larger amount of knowledge and experience that I don’t notice it, but Twinkleshine and I are close enough that I sometimes lose my patience with her.

And really, none of this is fair to Twinkleshine. She is smart. She did get into the best magic school in Equestria, after all. She just isn’t as smart as I am, which is no fault of her own.

Anyway, this conversation was mostly about our magical power – and some trust issues – not about who was given more opportunities to learn. I don’t know how much we actually resolved, but the first step is always identifying the issue. The two of us were in the middle of an exam of sorts…

I took a good, long look at the two Twinkleshines standing in front of me. They looked identical; I’d made several circles, and I couldn’t tell which one was the illusion and which one was real. Of course, what good was an illusion if it couldn’t stand up to intense scrutiny?

I walked around to the left Twinkleshine’s side and gave her a gentle shove on the shoulder. Teleporting to the other side, I then quickly did the same to the right Twinkleshine in the opposite direction before she had time to react. I was pleasantly surprised when this Twinkleshine reacted normally as well. She usually found it difficult to create proper tactile feedback on her illusions. Still, I had a sneaking suspicion the one on the right was the fake. Something about her just seemed off.

“I watched you form the spell earlier, and you did a good job as usual,” I said. “Better than the last time I tested you, actually. I couldn’t have done better myself”

“Really?” the left Twinkleshine asked.

I teleported directly in front of the left one and watched her reaction carefully. She reared back a little in surprise, but no doubt she’d expected the teleport. Still, Twinkleshine had a statistical tendency to speak with the real her when reacting to news, good or bad, thus increasing my suspicion that the left one was the real Twinkleshine. Still, it wouldn’t be fair to use outside statistics against her at this stage of her education.

A few steps back, just far enough to get a good look at both of them, and I was ready for the next test. Without any warning, I prodded both Twinkleshines in the cutie mark with a bit of telekinesis. I felt, or rather I didn’t feel the right one meet any immediate resistance for a fraction of a second.

It was a valiant effort, but Twinkleshine’s magic hadn’t fought mine quickly enough to simulate a real object. The left one, then, truly was the real Twinkleshine. Blushing and looking at the ground, Twinkleshine didn’t look up until after I’d mastered the tiny smirk that crept up onto my face.

Technically, Twinkleshine had already failed the test, since I’d managed to figure out which one was the illusion, but I wasn’t going to call the exam yet. I had a time limit to figure out which one was real, and I fully intended to see if Twinkleshine could hold this spell in place for the entire duration. This high level of an illusion was fairly taxing on Twinkleshine’s magical reserves.

I wasted the next five minutes with mostly useless tests, one of which managed to confirm once more that the left Twinkleshine was the real one. By this point, the magical strain was clearly evident on both Twinkleshines’ faces. It was a bit mean spirited, but I was going to force her to burn up even more magic.

I teleported myself to the greenhouse lake and froze a two pony long, half-pony wide and tall prism of water into ice. With a quick teleport back, I gently placed the ice on top of the the real and fake Twinkleshine.

“Oh, come on,” the illusion said, “that’s not fair!”

Despite her complaint, the ice didn’t fall – not immediately, anyway. There were three minutes left on the clock when the block of ice finally fell through the right Twinkleshine and promptly slid off the left one. The illusion broke as Twinkleshine stomped her forehoof in frustration.

“Ponyfeathers!”

“The right one was the fake,” I concluded.

“No duh, Twilight!”

“Well, better luck next time, I suppose. To be fair, you did a wonderful job. You’re getting very good with your illusions. It’s getting quite difficult to nitpick them.”

Twinkleshine let out a frustrated scream. “Even Princess Celestia’s school’s exams aren’t this difficult!”

“Of course they’re not. They’re designed to make sure you learn, not to make sure you excel.”

A twitch ran through one of Twinkleshine’s eyes. “Are you failing me on purpose?”

“Even if I were, it’s not like I’m sending you back a grade or not teaching you new material.”

“Dear Celestia, you are! You are doing this on purpose! I haven’t passed one of your exams in a year!” Twinkleshine gasped. “This isn’t one of your exams, is it? You’re not giving me tests Princess Luna expects you to pass, are you?”

There was no nice way to say, ‘No, this was the kind of stuff I could do when I was seven,’ so I answered a slightly different question instead.

“No, I don’t have exams. I used to have a…thing about them, so Luna abandoned the concept almost entirely.”

Honestly, I still had a thing with exams, but it was nowhere near as bad as it used to be. It was completely irrational to be so worked up over something so meaningless. Exams were only there to see if a pony had already learned what she was supposed to, which I always had; the actual grade didn’t matter in the slightest. Failing was only bad in normal schools because it was too time consuming to tailor difficulty to each individual student.

And yet, knowing all that, I still got twitchy. Sigh…

“Well, good for you,” Twinkleshine huffed.

This is were I would normally make the sarcastic suggestion that Twinkleshine could just quit; she certainly had enough knowledge to be considered a college drop out. Unfortunately, right now, Twinkleshine might take that suggestion seriously.

“Twinkleshine, I’ve never given you a test or a lesson I didn’t know you could complete.”

“How on Equus would you expect me to hold that slab of ice up for ten minutes straight!” Twinkleshine shrieked. She kicked the ice with a hoof far too hard and cried out in pain. Fortunately, I didn’t see any cracks on her hoof, so she should be fine.

“I didn’t actually.” I earned a glare for my honesty. “I’d already figured out the right one was the illusion. I just wanted to see how much your magic has grown in raw strength.”

Twinkleshine winced as she gently put her hoof back on the floor. I could tell she barely put any weight on it as she said, “Congratulations, then. You’ve found out that you’re still a thousand times more magical than me.”

It only took her a moment before Twinkleshine’s face crumbled. “Twilight, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean – I know being a Flare isn’t all sunshine and rainbows.”

“Heh. No, don’t worry about it. I’m not so vain that I think my problems are proportionally worse than my gifts compared to the average pony. If I were just a regular old pony back on Equus, I’m sure I’d want all the magical power of a Flare and the crazy lives we lead.”

I smiled, and Twinkleshine smiled back – for a little while.

“I don’t know,” Twinkleshine began. “I think I get enough crazy just from being near you, but… I feel… Even though they’re not Flares, Dash, Pinkie, Chamomile, and Chrysalis are all super magical and can do all sorts of amazing things.”

Especially Dash and Pinkie Pie. Dash was probably as close to a Flare as a pony could get without actually being one, and Pinkie Pie…was Pinkie Pie.

“I wish I could at least be like them.”

“You are,” I said, putting a hoof on Twinkleshine’s shoulder. “You may not have as much magic, but you’re smarter than all – well, Chrysalis might – sorry, I–”

Twinkleshine giggled.

“Okay, that might not have been the greatest pep talk ever…”

“It’s okay. You’re so cute when you do this.”

I fought off the urge to facehoof. “So you’re saying you like it when I’m insensitive?”

“Well, it’s more about how you get slightly flustered and try your best to hide it.”

“Ah.” I was pretty sure my blush was faint enough for my coat to hide it completely. “I think I need to stop hanging out with you if you’re beginning to notice my tells.”

Twinkleshine and I shared a smile, and then I took a deep breath before I said, “In all seriousness, Twinkleshine, I never set you up to fail. I – telling you why your tests are so hard could have a negative influence on your education. Knowing that, do you want me to?”

“Yes,” Twinkleshine replied immediately.

I gave her a glare, silently telling her to think before deciding.

Twinkleshine frowned, but she did listen to me. Thirty seconds or so later, she nodded, again saying, “Yes.”

“Alright,” I said, sighing. “I couldn’t care less whether or not you pass any of the tests I give you. I’m explicitly designing them so that there’s a non-trivial chance of you failing.”

“So you are setting me up to fail!” Twinkleshine stomped her bad hoof and soon found herself whimpering quietly.

“No, not at all, Twinkleshine. Answer me honestly. Do you think you ever had a chance of failing an exam back at Celestia’s school?” Just before Twinkleshine was almost certainly going to say, ‘Yes,’ I added, “After I started tutoring you.”

“Of course.”

I stared wordlessly at Twinkleshine.

“It’s true! I mean, they weren’t easy.”

I kept waiting for Twinkleshine to continue.

“That is, well, I had to try on all of them…”

“In other words, no,” I finished for Twinkleshine. Only getting a low groan in response, I added, “Celestia’s school is probably the best school – public or private – in Equestria, but it still has to process a lot of students. Their tests are designed to test a specific pony’s magic, but they all have the same difficulty level, and tests do get reused. They’re given to check if you’ve reached some minimum threshold of magical proficiency. They might be difficult, but they’re not challenging.”

Twinkleshine’s eyes widened ever so slightly, shining with the light of realization.

“I only have two students, both of whom I know quite well. I give tests to make sure I am staying in touch with you, not to make sure you’re staying in touch with the lessons. If you fail disastrously, I thought you were further ahead than you were, and if you succeed with minimal effort, you were further ahead than I thought. I’m sure you remember the disastrous first test I gave you?”

Frowning, Twinkleshine said, “It’s hard to forget an exam you failed in less than a second.”

“Right… Sorry again about that. Anyway, now that you know the secret, I can only trust that you actually know when you’re doing your best, rather than tricking your best out of you with cheap psychological tricks like tests.”

Twinkleshine opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out. I waited as Twinkleshine took on a contemplative look. Eventually, she said, “So what now?”

“You mean about your education?”

Twinkleshine nodded.

“We have a few options. As I said, I can simply trust that you’re truly doing your best, but I find that ponies tend not to without the proper motivation, even myself.”

“You don’t sound too confident about that, Twilight. What else is there?”

“Well, option two is pretty simple. I could try to find new ways to motivate you. I’m sure I could come up with something if I really thought about it.”

“Er…” Twinkleshine’s eyes flicked away from mine when they met. “Have you been digging through my films lately?”

I cocked my head to the side. “No, why?”

“Um… No reason. But maybe we could pick another option?”

“I guess? Another option, probably the best option, actually, is we could just pretend this conversation never happened. You could write a note to yourself, and then I could erase your memory of the past five minutes or so.”

Eyes widening, Twinkleshine stumbled over her words as she said, “I take it back. Option two is actually wonderful. Let’s go back to that.”

Sigh. I probably shouldn’t have even bothered to mention the sensible option. It wasn’t like memory wiping hurt, and it would be for a morally unambiguous cause this time, but I could certainly understand the strong desire to never forget anything – outside of the natural forgetting process for useless information.

“If you insist,” I said. “I’ll start thinking about the problem. However, do you have any ideas you’d like to share right now? Anything you think might work as a carrot and stick, so to speak?”

“Well… There’s… If…”

“If…what?”

“It’s – it’s not so much motivation…” Twinkleshine was staring directly at the floor and rubbing a foreleg with her opposite hoof. “I was wondering if…”

“If I could drop you in the lake?”

“What? No! I was wondering if you could just magic me more magical,” Twinkleshine said without hesitation, rising to the bait. “I mean, back when we were on Equus and I was reading about Flares, there were a lot of theories about how ponies become Flares, like the stars need to be aligned just right, or a terrible dark ritual is performed during a full moon soon after a pony is born, or that it’s a gift given in secret by Princess Celestia, or–”

“Stop.” I held a hoof up against Twinkleshine’s mouth. “For future reference, you can just ask me about this stuff. I really don’t mind. If I really don’t want to talk about something you ask about, I’ll say so after a momentary flinch of pain which I’d soon forget. The cost of asking is far less than the cost of not asking, understand?”

Twinkleshine nodded, and I said, “Great.” I hoped it stuck this time; it certainly wasn’t the first time I’d told her to be frank with me. “Now, what was it that you actually wanted to ask?”

“Is – is there anyway you can use your magic to make me stronger? Like you or the others?”

“N – well…no, not right now.”

After I ascended, the answer was probably yes, since there was apparently some sort of blessing thing I could give, but whether that counted as making Twinkleshine more magical was debatable, since it would still fundamentally be my magic, not hers.

Eyes sparkling, Twinkleshine asked, “So you can? Was one of those theories about Flares actually true?”

“Pft. No. Those theories were all ridiculous. Nopony really knows how ponies become Flares; it just sort of happens. And Flares don’t even know they’re Flares until their first flare, although they might suspect. There’s just not enough of us to gather meaningful data. I’m only the third Flare in the last one-hundred years, and even that is extremely rare. There’s usually only one, maybe two.”

“Wait. Are there still other Flares in Equestria? Couldn’t…”

I sighed and finished the question for Twinkleshine. “Couldn’t they have taught me instead of having Celestia suppress my magic?”

“Yeah,” Twinkleshine said in a small squeak.

“The flare before me, Sunset Shimmer, is missing, presumed dead. The flare before her, General Bronze, died in–”

“He was a flare?” Twinkleshine shouted. “The history books never said anything about that at all. Just that he was Princess Celestia’s… Oh.”

I grit my teeth for a moment before speaking calmly once more. “Celestia taught every Flare except me. I wouldn’t give up Luna for the world, but… Never mind. That I don’t want to talk about.”

“I – I understand,” Twinkleshine said, glancing away. “So, um, back to my original question. I’d rather not go through any…you know, just to be stronger.” I raised an eyebrow, and she clarified, “You know, dark rituals. I mean, there’s…nothing wrong with you using dark magic, but I don’t really…you know.”

“Twinkleshine, I’m going to crusade forever that dark magic isn’t inherently evil. Magic is magic. But no, that’s not what I had in mind. Dark magic is just efficacious and efficient; it doesn’t make you more magical. I can’t really explain my idea right now, but in four to five years, I could give you a real answer.”

“Huh? Okay, I guess, but why that specific – it’s Princess Luna, isn’t it? Can she do some weird alicorn thing to me?”

“Yes, actually, but that’s also not what I had in mind. It was a very good guess, though.”

“Well, what do you have in mind, then?”

“That,” I began with a smirk, knowing this was going to frustrate Twinkleshine endlessly, “is a state secret.”

“What? Twilight, that’s not an answer!”

I just shrugged. “Anyway, I need to go figure out how to continue teaching you. I’ll get back to you later.”

“Huh? Wait. Twilight, come back here.” Twinkleshine cantered after me.

Nothing further of interest to report.

Author's Notes:

In case anyone has forgotten, the new year starts on Summer 51 with the Summer Sun Celebration.

Prereader – Starlight Nova

Chapter Twenty One - The Long Journey - Part Two

[Summer 9, 996 – Day 1219]

There was no journal entry for yesterday, but we didn’t crash, or explode, or anything. My sixteenth birthday party was pretty exhausting in and of itself, and Twinkleshine gave me a particularly amazing, but tiring, gift for it after everypony else had fallen asleep.

Anyway, I’m ashamed to admit I didn’t get much done today or even in the morning with Luna; my thoughts kept straying back to last night. Fortunately, she didn’t object to an easy night of talking and gossiping instead of lessons.

I’d bet Twinkleshine had the same problem as me. She’d barely said two words to me today, and she was way too embarrassed to look me in the eyes. That was something we were going to have to work on.

While I’m on the topic, I’m not looking forward to my next conversation with Cadance. There’s no doubt that she’ll somehow know I’ve slept with somepony, and she’s not going to stop pestering me until she gets every last detail.

It’s not that I really mind talking about it, but Cadance can get a little…obsessive about this kind of stuff. I wish I could give her the same treatment in return, but I don’t actually want to hear about what she’s getting up to with my brother, as much as I tease her about it.

As far as other events go, the only other notable thing that happened is Pinkie Pie roped me into preparations for Spike’s birthday party a couple weeks early this year. And she told me I couldn’t give him a book as a present this time, which is completely ridiculous! I mean, does she know how much effort it takes me to find the time to write a book!

Bah. I guess I can come up with something else and give him the story I wrote as a Hearth’s Warming present instead. Sigh…

Nothing further of interest to report.

[Fall 97, 997 – Day 1407]

Today has been another reminder of how much I simultaneously hate and respect Dash. She’s like a…an animal, working purely off of instinct. If she’d just sit down with a book once in a while, she’d probably be the best pegasus spell caster that ever lived.

*sigh*

I’m just getting myself worked up over nothing. She’s annoying at ti – often, but there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with her. She’s frustrating but fascinating? Yes, I think that’s a better way to put it. I’d say I should ask her to help me learn pegasus magic in a couple years, but her learning style – and presumably her teaching style, if she can even teach – is more or less incompatible with mine.

Oh, and if you’re reading this Fluttershy, no offense meant about the animals and instincts thing. Although maybe that’s why you like her so much.

*snerk*

Since writing doesn’t preserve my tone of voice, I should probably mention that I’m only joking. Well, mostly.

Anyway, as usual, my day started off in the library.

“Hey, Twi!” Dash shouted. “I need your–”

It was an automatic response at this point. I glued Dash to the floor with my magic, ensuring that she didn’t knock over any bookshelves, scatter any piles of paper, or crash into me when she went flying around. I swore that all of those past incidents had to have been malicious despite Dash’s claims to the contrary. She was too good of a flier.

Grunting first as she slammed to the floor, Dash said, “You really need to stop doing that Twi; you put a crack into my left forehoof last time.”

And maybe you should stop flying in the library. That didn’t use to be rule number one, but it’d quickly risen up through the ranks over the years faster than even my brother.

“I already apologized for that, Dash. My magic just flared a little that time, and besides, both Fluttershy and I looked at your hoof, and we both agreed it was just superficial damage that you could have gotten from jamming it in a door. And I researched how to fix it for you anyway when it would have simply grown out in a couple days.”

“So what’s your point?”

Sighing in exasperation, I felt like yelling at Dash to not fly in the library, but the message never stuck no matter how I tried asking. Even Fluttershy couldn’t get Dash to remember for more than five minutes.

“What do you want?” I asked.

“Oh, right. I need you to cast a lightning proofing spell on me.”

After a brief pause, I sighed, placed a bookmark, and shut my book. Turning on my chair to look Dash straight in the eyes, I asked, “And just why do you need a lightning shield?” She had the magic to survive unharmed just about any sane voltage put into a lightning bolt. Anything more might start melting holes in my ship.

“Well, I was like, ‘Chamomile is the head of the night guard, right?’”

For now, at least. I still wasn’t sure if I wanted to poach her as a knight or not. She was certainly nice, and helpful, and a solid fighter with an excellent knowledge of chemistry, but… Well, those were all excellent reasons to make her my knight, but I was still uncomfortable with the idea.

“So she must be good at fighting,” Dash continued. “I asked her to show me her moves, but she said that unless I wanted to die, get really hurt, or get really, really sick, she couldn’t.”

Who would have guessed the assassin specialized in killing, nearly killing, and crippling injury? What a surprise.

“But I kept the pressure up and asked her again anyway, and she told me about how she can shoot lightning at ponies.”

“No,” I interrupted. “You’re not doing that inside my ship.”

“Oh, come on, Twi,” whined Dash. “You’ve got that heavy duty room separated from the rest of the ship that we never use.”

I facehoofed. I just couldn’t help it. “Dash, that’s the room I go to when I’m about to kill everypony with a flare. It’s not a playground.”

“Come on.”

“No.”

“Let us use it.”

“No,” I said, deliberately turning away from Dash and reopening my book.

“Why not?”

“It’s complicated. It’s not a nice place to be.”

“Chamomile and I are tougher than you.”

“Physically.”

“Come ooooon.”

I slammed my head into my book, barely missing another pile of books with my horn.

After a very brief blessed silence, Dash said, “Please?” She shortly followed it with, “You can join us,” nudging me with a knee.

“How long are you going to keep this up?”

“‘Till I get bored.”

Which could be a very long time when it came to shooting lightning at ponies. I hadn’t forgotten how long Dash had pestered me to drink my first, and only, glass of alcohol. Decreasing my IQ was the exact opposite of what I wanted, and I’d almost destroyed the ship in the process.

Fortunately, I was less stupid than Dash, and had Twinkleshine on hoof after making absolutely sure she could cast a sobering spell. In the future, when I taught other Flares, I’d have to remember that alcohol mixes very poorly with them.

Sigh. At least this time the whole ship wasn’t in any danger from Dash’s fun.

“Meet me on the bridge in an hour with Chamomile,” I said into my book. “I have to disable–”

I was cut off by a hug which knocked the wind out of me and pulled me up into the air.

“Thanks, Twi! You’re the best!”

Dash, Chamomile, and I appeared inside my isolation chamber with a small popping sound. I’d turned off most of the spells designed to suppress magical effects, so being here only made my horn tingle in protest a little bit.

The very first thing I did immediately after that was to teleport the magic suppressor stored nearby to me. I had no idea if it was still strong enough to stop one of my flares or if it would just break, but better safe than sorry. It would, at the very least, stall a flare long enough for me to turn the other protection spells back on.

Setting down a cushy chair I’d brought with us, I said, “You two have fun. I’ll make sure you don’t kill each other or melt my precious ship.”

Dash flew over and swept me up in her hooves as I tried to sit down. I had no idea how she managed to carry my weight without the slightest bit of strain, but the flight was as smooth as it was brief.

“Oh, come on, Twi,” Dash said, setting me down in-between herself and Chamomile, the latter of whom looked half-scandalized. After all, this was no way to treat a princess. “I know you can do this, too. I saw that time you used one of my thunderclouds to–”

Glaring at Dash, I magically whispered into her ear, “One more word, and I’ll ground you for an entire week.”

It was a bluff. Dash usually managed to overpower my grounding spells pretty quickly unless I went out of my way to keep them in effect – which I wouldn’t waste a week of my time on – but she didn’t need to know that.

“Not cool, Twi.” The two of us had a stare down until Dash randomly gave up and moved on. “You should totally join us, though. I want to see what a princess’s apprentice is made of.”

“Not happening,” I said. The next moment, I was relaxing comfortably in my chair after a teleport, a book already on its way to joining me. Unfortunately, Dash was back hovering over me a second later.

“Why not? You do this kind of stuff all the time with the princess, don’t you? It’s fun.”

“Dash,” I began, opening my book, “I spar with Luna in an environment where both of us have equal resources at our disposal, where I’m not responsible for making sure nopony dies, where I don’t have to constantly fear using too much magic” – that finally got a frown out of Dash – “and where I can let loose and have fun with it.”

To make my point final, I snuggled even further into my chair and wrapped a blanket around myself. “I won’t be joining you.”

I didn’t even bother to look up. Either Dash would leave or I’d put up a shield next time to keep her out.

I’d gotten through half a page when Dash finally mumbled, “Fine,” and flew away. “Alright, Chamomile, show me you moves!”

Sometime later, Chamomile called out, “Twilight! Is it okay if I damage some of the ground?”

Answering magically, I said, “Just try to avoid hitting me. It’s distracting.” I seriously doubted Chamomile could actually damage anything in here with lightning bolts, but it’d be easy enough to fix even if she did.

The thunderous crackle that soon followed left my ears ringing, having forgotten to protect them from the inevitable thunderclaps. How I wished I had pegasus magic already; I wouldn’t even need to worry about this kind of nonsense.

Mid-spell, a small pebble hit me on the horn out of nowhere. It didn’t really hurt, but it’d been annoying. After I fixed my ears and placed a protection spell on them, I glanced up at what was going on. There were still little sparks gently floating to the ground around Dash and Chamomile. Judging by the rocky ground below her – which Chamomile hadn’t damaged, just lightly scorched – Chamomile had just built up a massive charge and let is dissipate beneath her.

I watched Dash attempt to do the same but to far less impressive results. Her own scorch mark was barely even visible and nowhere near the size of Chamomile’s. The floor was rock a long way down for no other reason than to take abuse, but it was still rock. Dash wasn’t going to damage it with anything less than her best.

At least the cleanup would be easier than cleaning up after my flares. I cast a shield spell around myself in case of more wayward pebbles and returned to my book.

Pegasus-generated lightning had a tendency to go where its user intended it to go. This was as opposed to where it should go if it were to behave like normal electricity, namely nowhere interesting. The pegasus version of lightning was inherently magical until it hit something, in laypony terms.

And by hit something, I meant until it got close enough to something that it thought it’d had its fun ionizing air and wouldn’t it be a lark if it discharged into whatever caught it’s fancy. Books were pretty eye-catching, as were ponies reading them.

“Princess!” Chamomile shouted, reverting to Old Equestrian in her panic. Even with her being a lunar pegasi, the beating of her wings was easy to hear.

I just stared awkwardly in silence. My mane, and tail, and coat, and eyelashes, and nasal hairs all felt a little stiff, and I was pretty sure my book was emitting a small cloud of black smoke. But my chair wasn’t on fire, so that was something.

Chamomile scooped me up before I could react and laid me flat on the ground. She immediately follow it up by putting an ear to my barrel right above my heart.

“Ah…” I began listlessly. Despite how much fiction liked to portray it otherwise, CPR was not a pleasant experience, and I had no interest in going through it, no matter how stunningly beautiful Chamomile was. “I’m alright.”

At hearing me speak, Chamomile sighed and fell on top of me, which was not exactly helping. I gently lifted her off of me and levitated her to the side.

“Dear Luna, I’d never forgive myself if I lost you like this,” Chamomile panted. She wasn’t as fast as Dash, but she’d managed to reach me before I’d even blinked earlier. “And Princess Luna would have my legs torn off and the rest of me fed alive to a dragon if I’d lost you like this.”

Dash chose this moment to join us. “Sorry, Twi, my bad. You okay?”

“Yeah… Yeah, just – just wasn’t ready for that big of a surge in my magical output and a lightning bolt to the face.” I was a little worse off than I’d have hoped, but flaring was the worst that could have happened. “Just shocked. Nothing to worry about.”

“Pft. If you can make bad puns like that, you’re fine. Let’s get back to it, Chamomile. We’re not leaving here until I hit you at least once.”

Bad puns? What was – oh, I got it. No, that hadn’t been on purpose. Maybe I should have said I was dazed.

Seeing that Chamomile hadn’t so much as moved her wings, I said, “You can go. I’ll be fine. I’m sure I’ll get revenge at some future point.”

I might commission Pinkie Pie to do the deed for me. I probably wouldn’t even need to bribe her; she was behind in her and Dash’s endless prank war.

“Are you sure, Pri – Twilight? Dash put far too much magic into that bolt.”

“Yes, yes, I’ll be fine.”

I rolled over to my hooves to prove my point, casting a quick spell to unsinge myself. It wasn’t the first time I’d been burnt, although it was the first time it was from electrical burns. I was just glad it wasn’t dragonfire this time; that had been ridiculously difficult to fix, and I’d still lost half my tail.

The next time I looked to Chamomile – who still hadn’t moved – she looked almost more worried than before.

“May I ask an impertinent question?”

“Huh? Of course, but I really am fine, you know.”

“No, it’s…not that.”

“Hey!” Dash shouted. “What’s keeping you?”

I briefly replied, “Give her a minute, Dash.” Turning my attention back to Chamomile, I asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Well, I mean no disrespect to her. Dash is fun and enjoyable to be around.”

On rare occasions and in small doses.

“But… I once asked her what she does, and she said she was just a weather mare. However, she is too good for a weather mare. No disrespect to the profession, either, but she is far too overqualified.”

You could say that again.

“She never spoke with anypony on Equus through Queen Chrysalis, so I just ignored it. I know this is silly, but it’s my job to worry over these things. She’s learning from me too quickly, and in my professional opinion, looking back, there was always a bit of a…how should I put it…military discipline in her underneath everything else.”

Really? Discipline wasn’t usually a word I’d associate with Dash. Still, I thought I knew the source of Chamomile’s confusion.

“So you think she’s a spy?” I asked just to be sure that was where Chamomile was going with this.

“More mildly worried than think, but yes. I’m concerned that she has some means of ruining everything at the last minute, although I do not know what reason she or the sun princess would have to delay.”

I waited a moment to see if Chamomile was going to add anything else and then nodded when I was sure she was done.

“Alright, warning received. Honestly, though, if Dash is a spy, she’s hidden it so well that I’d be more concerned about being a spy myself. Long before we left Equus, we did a background check, and I made sure there were no unpleasant spells placed on her. Luna took a peek into her dreams as well, and even Chrysalis had no objections. So far as it’s possible for us to know, she has had no contact with Celestia or her agents in pony or by proxy.”

I may have also used some more underhooved spells to make absolutely sure.

“However, she did use to go on and on about joining the Wonderbolts when we first left.”

“Er…the Wonderbolts?” Chamomile asked.

“They’re a quasi-military organization of stunt fliers attached to the public relations division of the Equestrian military. They’re sort of part of the chain of command, but not really.”

And if I could have put that any more inelegantly, I would have won a trophy.

“She spent most of her life idolizing them and preparing to join them,” I added, “for whatever reason. What you’re seeing is probably an aftereffect of that.”

“Hmm… Yes, that makes sense. I’m sorry for wasting–”

“Nope,” I interrupted, “not listening to that. I’d rather have a thousand false alarms than miss a single problem as large as what you were concerned with. On the topic, the only pony here you could possibly need to worry about is Chrysalis, but her loyalty is not in doubt.”

Of course her loyalty which was certainly not in doubt was to the winner of this struggle. I couldn’t really blame her for that, but I did like knowing that Pupa, at least, liked me enough not to throw me under a coach intentionally.

“Anyway, keep up the good work,” I finished, giving Chamomile an appreciative pat on the withers. “And go have fun.”

“Thank you! I will!”

“And I suppose I wouldn’t mind if you roughed Dash up a bit to pay her back for her attempted assassination.”

Chamomile bowed, although I couldn’t tell if it was a genuine bow or a jesting one. “Your will be done, Your Highness. She certainly has been asking for it.”

I watched Chamomile fly off for a second or two before returning to my book and chair. Fortunately, there was only minor damage done to the book, so I was once again comfortable and reading within moments. I was having a hard time keeping my mind from wandering, though.

Dash had stopped talking about the Wonderbolts. I’d noticed, but I’d never noticed. I knew her pretty well by this point, I presumed, and I was almost certain that she wasn’t the kind of pony who would simply grow out of her dreams. I hadn’t prodded her away from the Wonderbolts, and I didn’t remember anypony else saying anything related, either. Strange, that.

Not that it was any of my business. Still, maybe I could talk Dash into sticking with me and reaching her full potential, whatever that turned out to be.

Heh. If I got one knight out of Chamomile, I might as well ask if Dash would be my second. If she agreed, the trap would be set. I could force her to do research into pegasus magic with me. Not the conventional use of a knight, sure, but certainly an effective one.

Ah, well, that would just lead to the quickest betrayal of knightly vows in history, but it would still be funny.

Still, what had made Dash stop talking about the Wonderbolts? Distance? That could certainly be a factor. Disillusionment, maybe? She was more talented then all of them, in my opinion; maybe she’d finally realized that.

Oh, actually, Fluttershy. If I remembered correctly, the Wonderbolts had almost yearlong performances all around Equestria. That didn’t leave much time for friends outside the group, and even less time for ground-bound ponies like Fluttershy. And forget about relationships.

Would Dash really give up her dreams for Fluttershy? Yes, of course she would. We were talking about a mare who graduated two years early just to stay with Fluttershy.

Hmm… Underneath all the annoying, Dash was a pretty good friend. A pony really could depend on her when it actually counted.

Not that I wasn’t going to rant about her later in my log to let out stress. Seriously, who hits ponies with a lightning bolt by accident? And she’d made me feel all the horrible nonsense she’d done with her magic while she was learning just minutes ago. If poor technique and sloppy, brute force execution could make me sick, I wouldn’t be able to eat lunch for a week.

Honestly, I was a bit surprised that Dash hadn’t blown herself up. She’d pretty much been casting semi-random arrangements of magic as spells until she’d gotten them right, which almost never ended well.

Oh well. She’d made it to nineteen years old without dying; she must have known what she was doing well enough to make it to twenty, too.

Nothing further of interest to report.

[Spring 46, 997 – Day 1556]

Chrysalis said the strangest thing today. We were nearing the end of dinner when she just started laughing for no reason. Like, uncontrollably laughing and pounding her hoof on the table, shouting, ‘I was right!’ over and over again.

Eventually she petered out, ending with, ‘Of course she wouldn’t leave it up to chance. Decisive action. No negotiation.’ I think I also heard her mumble, ‘I might be in over my head,’ but I could have misheard.

I managed to extract a tiny explanation out of her once we were alone, but it was no less bizarre and cryptic. She said, and I think these were her exact words, ‘Some advice, Twilight. When you know there is at least one plotter involved and it seems like there are too many coincidences, then the situation was almost certainly engineered. I’ve had my hive looking for a particular little orphan, and we finally found her. And if I want to keep my head, I think that’s about all I can say.’

Yeah. Weird. I’m going to ask Luna if she knows what Chrysalis was talking about after I head to bed. I’m really hoping she can leave me less confused.

Nothing further of interest to report.

[Spring 47, 997 – Day 1557]

Not much happened today other than Dash clipping a wing on a particularly strong bolt of lightning. I know she and Chamomile have really grown to enjoy sparring with each other, but I really need to tell them to tone it down. Just two days before it was a severe case of frostbite on Chamomile’s right wing. One of these days they’re going to do something I can’t fix for them.

Anyway, I did talk to Luna about Chrysalis’s strange behavior yesterday. When I asked her about it, her eyes actually widened in horror. She tried to dismiss it as nothing, but in the end, I pressured her to the point where she actually said she didn’t want anypony to know about the filly Chrysalis had found, not even me.

I don’t really know how to feel about that, but I guess we’re all entitled to our own secrets…

At any rate, Luna confessed that she just wanted the mystery filly to live a happy, ignored life and that it would be best for everypony if nopony went and bothered her. And that was that.

My guess is Chrysalis found one of Luna’s descendants, probably one from a particularly well-loved suitor. It doesn’t really fully explain the rest of Chrysalis’s comment, especially the part about keeping her head, but I don’t really see why Luna would be so bothered by a random filly she’d never even talked to before otherwise.

*hmm*

Oh, maybe Luna had her original foal in secret, or something, and Celestia only recently – in the past two decades or so – managed to track down this descendant. That’s entirely possible, and it would explain both Luna’s and Chrysalis’s reactions if Celestia had tried to do something horrible to her. Luna must have pulled off something spectacular to get the filly out of trouble.

Oh well. Unless Luna asks for my help, I’ll let the matter drop. She made her wishes on the subject pretty clear, after all, and it’s not like there’s much I personally can do from the middle of nowhere, space.

Nothing further of interest to report.

Dear Luna,

It’s only been two days, but I’m missing you already. I knew this was coming, of course, but I don’t think I’d honestly understood and processed that Chrysalis’s hive mind would outrange your connection to dreams while banished.

Spike misses you, too, although he’s acting tough. I don’t even understand where he’s getting that from. It has to be from books, or at least I hope it is; the only masculine role model on the ship would be Dash, and she does not set a good example for foals, colts or fillies. Her actions and decisions are too complex to really explain to Spike at his age.

I mean, I wouldn’t want him taking Fluttershy, the opposite extreme, as a role model, either, but I do wish he wasn’t going to go through this whole ‘feelings are lame’ phase.

Well anyway, obviously I received your letter, and I found the books you asked me to read. I’m halfway through Pony Genetics, although I think I’m unfortunately going to have to read it twice to get a real understanding of it. Biology hasn’t exactly been a focus of my studies, but I think I can manage something this technical.

Speaking of Dash and Fluttershy, I’ve been meaning to ask your advice about something. A few weeks ago, Dash asked if that old – well, not old for you, but she asked if captains really could marry ponies. She never said why she asked, but only she would consider the reason anything but obvious.

The answer to her question was ‘No, of course not,’ but I answered her real question and said, ‘Both Chrysalis and I have the authority to marry ponies, but so far as I know, it’s not because of any captaincies we hold.’ I was assuming I do have that authority, being a princess; feel free to correct me if I’m wrong or if you never officially saddled me with that. I’m curious if Chamomile does, too, being a high ranking military officer, but that’s not really all that important.

Anyway, what I wanted to ask was if I should marry them if Dash asks. On the one hoof, I’m philosophically opposed to the idea, but on the other hoof, I don’t really want to say no to either of them over something like this just to make a point. Especially when they could just ask Chrysalis instead; I doubt she would refuse them, Fluttershy in particular, even if I asked her to.

In happier news, Berry Pinch cast her first successful real spell today. I know I was hesitant when you said I should try to teach her every field – yes, I know that’s a bit hypocritical – until we found something that stuck, but you were right, as always. It really was worth it. You should have seen the smile on her face when she flew around with butterfly wings, or the completely baffled look she had when they vanished and she fell flat on her barrel. She’s not a prodigy, but we got our hooves on her when she was young enough to make something great of her.

Really, the spell only lasted a few seconds, but she was so infectiously happy about it. Berry Punch might have been even happier. I mean, it was obvious to her that her daughter was learning under my tutelage, or she would have just tried to teach Berry Pinch herself, but the fake wings spell is the first big, fancy, impressive spell I’d taught Berry Pinch, not just another cantrip.

Of course, there was another reason for both of them to be happy, too. Berry Pinch finally got her cutie mark when she cast the spell! It was a golden horseshoe. I have no idea what it’s supposed to mean, but we had a party anyway. I still don’t know how Pinkie Pie manages to set them up so quickly, but she did.

Anyway, I suppose I’ll leave it here. I wouldn’t want to overburden my parents with memorizing my letters.

Dear Twilight,

I cannot say I much appreciate letter based communication either. I know the post serves most ponies well enough, but it does little good for those of us capable of long-range telepathy or teleportation.

Unfortunately, I have little recent experience with parenting, so I will have to direct you to your own fantastic, wonderful, understanding parents who miss you everyday and whom you now have an excuse to talk to more often for advice.

In my experience, it is pointless to argue against marriage to those who are engaged in a happy one or who are about to propose. It strikes a sense of loyalty, which to reevaluate or revise, most would feel would be a betrayal and thus will hear you but not listen.

All things considered, marriage is not such a terrible fate in the present day, although the reasoning ponies give for pursuing it continues to baffle me. Divorce is not uncommon in Equestria ever since the fool in charge finally legalized it, although the frequency has ‘mysteriously’ dropped a significant fraction in the last decade or so since a certain pink alicorn appeared. In any case, ponies have a tendency to die before their feelings are strained beyond the breaking point.

Unless, of course, somepony involved happens to know enough alchemy magic for an age spell, which has been known to turn very ugly. I once kept the company of a handsome earth pony stallion for well over a hundred years – in secret, unfortunately. I was not yet quite old enough for ponies to overlook my actions as the whim of an ancient alicorn whenever I did something unusual.

The problem with age spells is twofold. First, they do not work forever; eventually, a pony loses their magic and dies. Second, a pony who should otherwise have already died becomes dependent on the pony casting the spell. I trust you can think of how unpleasant that can make an intimate relationship. Although the spell is naturally permanent unless additional effort is expended, as with all alchemy spells, it doesn’t eliminate the fundamental problem of aging. However, I have digressed from your primary concern.

It is certainly well within your rights and powers to marry whomsoever you choose. Since your friends are likely to marry in either case, I see no reason for you to refuse and darken their lives, however little, but the choice is yours.

As for Berry Pinch and her mother, it has been a long time since I have helped an ordinary pony with an ordinary problem, even if only by proxy through you. I could not say I wish to do so often or have the time to, but…it is not a bad feeling.

P.S. Try teaching Berry Pinch the breezie transformation spell. It should be somewhere in a book called Faerie Culture. I suspect you have an alchemist on your hooves; she will need a lot of guidance from you if so. When you return to Equus, there is a pony named Quartz who she should meet to further her studies; he was the pony who gave you the replacement suppressor.

Currently, he lives in Manehattan, which is not very close to Ponyville, so you may wish to discuss the idea with Berry Punch sooner rather than later.

That said, as far as I know, Quartz is the only unicorn alchemist on Equus. He is rather crotchety, even for a two-hundred-year-old stallion, but he makes for good conversation, and I know he has always wanted an apprentice for himself. I owe him a rather large favor, and sending Berry Pinch his way would be the perfect opportunity to repay it.

[Fall 72, 998 – Day 1782]

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Today was the day. Today was the day I’d finally try to use real alchemy on myself instead of those ridiculous specialized spells that turned ponies into breezies and apples into oranges. Seriously, whoever thought a spell that specifically turned apples into oranges was important enough to invent was crazy.

No, I couldn’t lose focus now. This was too important. This was a moment I wanted to remember forever. This was a culmination of half a decade of studying and hard work.

A little bit of power here, a careful inscription there, and my magic danced before me as I wove together my spell. Directing the spell toward myself, I felt the effects wash over me, tugging at every part of me as the spell did its work.

I had no idea how changelings managed to transform so easily, although I was sure I’d learn after ascending. For now, I directed the second target of my spell toward a feather I’d borrowed from Fluttershy. If I did this exactly right, I’d find myself with a lovely pair of purple wings without any of Fluttershy’s other features, like an inconvenient lack of a horn.

With a final burst of magic, I added the finishing touches to make the changes all temporary. No matter what, I’d still have only unicorn magic, so I’d be able to get myself back to normal, but it would be hard without a horn as a focus. There was always the possibility that I’d messed up the spell in other ways, too; I could get really sick and maybe even die if I had and if I made the changes permanent.

My eyes closed, I performed an initial check of my body. I could still feel my horn. That was a good sign. I hadn’t accidentally lost all of my mane or tail or coat so far as I could tell. That was even better. I could still feel my legs, and I was breathing normally. My sides felt a little heavier than normal, and my back felt a little weird. I could tell I was moving something, and I dearly hoped that something was a pair of wings.

I took a deep breath and opened my eyes. I turned my head around to gaze at my back, and my eyes fell upon a pair of yellow wings attached to a yellow coat just in front of the strangest mix of colors I’d ever seen on a pony’s tail before, as if somepony had dumped a few of their favorite eye-searing paints into it and mixed them all around.

But never mind that horrible yellow and pink and red and purple monstrosity. I had wings! Real wings that I could move! I flapped them once just to prove to myself that I could. Sure, this hadn’t been a complete success, and my lack of pegasus magic meant I couldn’t leave the ground, but – but wings!

A thought struck me. I might not be too heavy to glide! I teleported myself straight up into the air in the middle of my library, and I gave myself a little telekinetic push to get me going. Pegasi gliding broke all kinds of physics rules, especially when Dash did it, but I could still try to fly like a regular bird.

That was the idea, at least. I was falling fast – not fast enough or from high up enough to be scared, but still fast. And naturally, being focused on the ground, I swerved right into a bookcase headfirst and fell to the floor with a thud, landing on one of my previously unblemished new wings.

I winced as I hobbled to my hooves. At least I hadn’t broken any of the bones in my wing. I just needed to preen a bit…and maybe wait a few more minutes for my wing to stop throbbing, and then I could try again outside the library. I really didn’t know what I’d been thinking. No flying in the library was the number one rule to begin with, and I was the one that had made it.

Actually, thinking about that reminded me of something. As counter intuitive as it was, I should probably go ask Dash for help. I’d learned to fly in a dream with pegasus magic – or how I dreamt pegasus magic worked – by watching Luna and using alicorn-sized wings. For all I knew, I’d been doing everything wrong in ways Luna hadn’t been able to notice or correct.

I scryed across the ship and quickly found Dash tucked away in Twinkleshine’s room with Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Chamomile, and, of course, Twinkleshine. It looked like they were watching an old Appleloosan flick, but I had no idea which one. At any rate, I teleported directly into the room with them and stopped the film projector on arrival.

“Hey!” Dash said, only to cut off when she got a good look at me.

“Fluttershy?” Twinkleshine asked, only for the real one to quietly nudge her with her muzzle. “Um… Chrysalis? What’s going on?”

“And who are you disguised as?” Pinkie Pie asked. “I love what you’ve done with your mane and tail! It’s like a bunch of cotton candy types all mixed together into one super swirl of sugary deliciousness.”

Before I could get a word in edgewise, Twinkleshine said, “She sort of looks familiar. I think I saw a picture of somepony like this back at Princess Celestia’s school, but the mane and tail were different. I think hers was…red, maybe? And her cutie mark wasn’t…Twilight?”

“Yes,” I said, sparing a quick glance back at my haunch. Apparently my cutie mark hadn’t changed to Fluttershy’s – not that it was an impossible change to make, despite popular opinion to the contrary.

It was, however, impossible to change a pony’s special talent. Well, probably. Kind of. A special talent was a laypony’s way to describe the magic that came naturally to a pony, and there were a lot of factors at play in determining what those magics were. It might not be impossible to change somepony’s special talent, but so far as I knew, nopony could. Maybe if you really injured your magic…

At any rate, the cutie mark was just an expression of a pony’s own magic on their body. In other words, it was a personal magic at work, not some grand magic of destiny enforcing its will upon a pony. Ponies, in theory, caused their own cutie marks to appear when they used their magic to the limit, whatever that meant for each pony.

That was why there were so many different cutie marks for the same special talent and why there were so many similar – or even identical – cutie marks for different special talent. Ponies grew up with certain expectations of what cutie marks should look like and what they meant, and only rarely would ponies get something fundamentally new, like a bowling ball, which was a relatively new sport in history.

As another example, my own cutie mark was a star burst. The usual cutie marks – in our current culture – for special talents in magic involved either the stars or the sun. In…in all honestly, I was kind of surprised I hadn’t ended up with a sun of some kind. It would’ve made a lot more sense than stars when on considered my filly years.

But I’d take a half-dozen stars on my flank over a sun any day!

“Hey, Twiliiiiight,” Pinkie Pie called out. “You in there?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah. I just wanted to borrow Dash. I’m trying to make these things” – I ruffled my wings – “actually work.”

Slipping back into Old Equestrian, hopefully on purpose, Chamomile asked, “Have you managed to ascend already?” Her face showed a shock that hadn’t been there earlier, and all but one other pony shared it. I didn’t think they’d really processed that I had wings right now, considering how much of an eyesore I was otherwise.

At the same time, Pinkie Pie said, “Oh my gosh, this calls for a ‘my friend is an alicorn now’ party!”

“You’re an alicorn now?” Twinkleshine shouted.

“Wait. Quiet!” After the rabble died down, I continued, “This is just a spell. I’m still just a unicorn with just unicorn magic. These wings don’t even work properly without pegasus magic. I just want some help to figure out how to glide right now so I can feel the wind on my feathers and get that rush of laughing at the ground that thought it could tame me.”

Dash was openly laughing, and Twinkleshine and Chamomile were both snickering. I slowly put my raised hoof down and folded my wings back to my sides, ending my unintentionally dramatic pose.

Pinkie Pie, on the other hoof, was already in my face, asking, “Can you cast that spell on me, too? I love flying, and I had to leave my helicopter on Equus since there’s nowhere to use it on the Nebulous, but this would be a lot of fun, too, and much easier on my legs since I wouldn’t have to pedal.”

“Um… You left your what?” I asked, only to decide better of it immediately after. “Never mind. I guess I can cast it on you, but I’m still working out the bugs.”

“Is that why you look like Flutters after losing a fight with a rainbow?”

I sighed. “Yes, very funny, Dash. I used one of Fluttershy’s feathers as the base for my spell to build my wings from, and I didn’t manage to successfully filter out all of her other physical features.”

Fluttershy made a small little, “Oh,” from next to Dash.

“Ehem. Might I suggest you ask somepony else to teach you,” Chamomile said. “Dash can be a bit…”

“Hey!” Dash shouted, flying herself to land right in front of Chamomile. “What do you think I was gonna do, kick her off a cloud and tell her to flap?”

“The thought had occurred to me, and a big part of my job is protecting her.”

“A little fall never hurt anypony.”

Fluttershy tried to say something, but she was drowned out by Dash.

“It’s not like she’s going to break her neck or anything.”

“Just because she can heal herself doesn’t mean it’s okay for Twilight to get hurt.”

“Oh come on, it’s not like I’d actually let her hit the ground. I’d totally catch her.”

Chamomile just looked at Dash skeptically.

Why was everypony just assuming I’d hit the ground? I wasn’t a natural like Dash, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t a good flier. I just needed a few real life tips.

“Are you trying to say something?” Dash asked.

“No,” Chamomile replied calmly. I’d never found out if she was just hard to rile up or if she acted calm on purpose to make Dash lose her temper even more. “It’s just that you have a higher accident rate than I would like.”

Dash’s hooves crackled with lightning where she stood. I really wished she would stop doing that; it wasn’t hard to fix the damage she caused, but it was annoying.

“Come on, you and me,” Dash said, tapping her chest and Chamomile’s with a hoof.

“Must we? We were watching a movie.”

“Yes! I’m going to crush you this time for sure.”

Sighing, Chamomile turned to me and said, “If you would, Twilight.”

“Wait, but…I still want to fly, or at least glide.”

“Huh?” Dash turned to look at me like I was crazy. It was kind of scary how quickly Dash could forget what she was originally arguing about. “Oh. Don’t.” As I opened my mouth to protest, Dash added, “You’re too heavy without magic. Even I can’t make that work.”

“Wha? If that’s all, I can just make myself lighter…” Even as the words came out, I knew that wasn’t what I really wanted. “I mean, I could just levitate myself…but I’d have wings!”

I tried just that to see if it felt any different with wings, but it didn’t. It really didn’t.

Dash rolled her eyes, and Chamomile gave me a sympathetic look. I turned my gaze away from them as my hooves touched back down on the floor, only for it to fall upon Pinkie Pie eating popcorn. Typical.

“Hey, Twilight, are you okay?” Twinkleshine asked.

“No, not really. I was looking forward to flying.”

“I think she means your magic,” Chamomile added. “It was light-blue instead of raspberry.”

Nodding Twinkleshine added, “I know your magic changes when you…you know.”

“Dark magic is not evil magic,” I said. I’d tried to explain that to everypony on the ship for years now, but the only pony who had really listened – and learned – was Chamomile.

“Anyway,” I continued, “I doubt you want to hear about how normal magic auras get their color, but it’s not all that hard to change it. My parents once told me that my own aura changed from a light pink to a dark pink when I was… Um… Stars, I can’t remember, but I must have been really young. Three, maybe? Two? It’s not all that unusual for growing unicorns.”

“So if Fluttershy were a unicorn, she’d have light-blue magic?” Pinkie Pie asked. Even before I shrugged, she asked, “Can you do me? What color magic would I have?”

“Maybe later, Pinkie Pie. I’d have to figure out how to mess up the spell in just the right way to keep my horn but take on most of the rest of your features, which could take a while, given that I designed the spell to give me wings.”

What would it even mean to turn myself into an earth pony with a horn with only unicorn magic? That pretty much was the definition of a unicorn. Maybe I would have more muscle?

“Seriously, Twi,” Dash said, interrupting my thoughts, “don’t try flying with those things. You’ll just fall.”

I sighed, the wind completely taken out of my sails by this point. “Whatever. I don’t care anymore. Maybe I can use these things to write or something.” I experimentally tried fiddling with the tiny joints at the ends of my wings and successfully managed to move a few feathers.

“Pft, good luck,” Dash said. She reached into Pinkie Pie’s bowl with a wing and grabbed a single kernel of popcorn as if it were the most natural thing in the world, following it up by tossing the kernel into her mouth. “Three words, Twi. Years. Of. Practice.”

I turned to Fluttershy, silently asking for her opinion.

After biting her lip, Fluttershy said, “It is hard.”

“Great…”

I canceled my spell and reverted myself to my normal unicorn form. I fully intended to properly learn how to use my wings, but I wanted them to be my wings, which meant I needed to perfect the spell first.

“Well anyway, do you two still want to go at each other?”

“Oh. Yeah!” Dash said, smirking this time instead of snarling. “Let’s do this!”

I turned to Chamomile, and she said, “I’m fine with it.”

Nodding, I cast the necessary spells on the two of them and teleported them to what had long since become their sparring arena, rather than my flaring room. I kept a scrying spell up so I could keep an eye on them, although I wasn’t paying too much attention.

“No offense, Fluttershy,” Twinkleshine said, getting to her hooves. As she crossed the short distance between us, she added, “But Twilight is much cuter like this.”

I leaned into the kiss Twinkleshine gave me. For once, I knew Twinkleshine wasn’t just flattering me; I really had been an eyesore.

When we finally broke apart, I asked, “So what movie were you watching?”

“Blazing Saddles,” Pinkie Pie said through a mouthful of popcorn. “You wanna watch?”

I raised an eyebrow. “Are – are there saddles on fire?”

Fighting back her laughter at my expense, Twinkleshine said, “No, that’s not what it’s about at all. It’s a comedy. I think you’d like it.”

“Eh, I think I’ll pass. I need to be getting back to work.”

“But that’s what you always say,” Twinkleshine said, looking at me with a pout and big, sad eyes, her lower lip quivering every so slightly, and–

“Okay, fine. I suppose I can work and watch.”

“Yay!”

Twinkleshine immediately busied herself with rewinding the tape reels while I took a seat next to Fluttershy.