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CHAPTER 53

Celestia had called for a short recess after the first three hours of answering her little Ponies’ questions, needing to wet her throat and take a breather, but in truth the Princess felt like she could go on forever. Dawn Ray, a life-long member of the Royal Guard and a Pony whose discretion and softly-spoken friendship had long been of great comfort to Princess Celestia, had come to provide her with refreshment, with the bulk of the Royal Guards in the castle-proper buzzing around like angry bees with a plethora of desperate reporters trying their luck for an exclusive interview, let alone the security nightmare of so many Ponies cramming their way into the castle to get out of the growing heat of the day.

Her Ponies were listening. Chrysalis’s surrender, the threat of a potential threat across the Badlands, the capture and successful incarceration of a Demon and the promise that Equestria would help the other nations of the world prepare countermeasures against future demonic threats, all of it gave the Ponies something to pin their hopes on.

True, tomorrow the media would no doubt try to spin it this way and that, the usual suspects would try to pin all the blame on Celestia and her constant reforms and changes to the ‘old ways’ yet again, but today, her Ponies listened to her for a change. Today, they could feel safe again, trust that everything could be made alright, that their faith in the Crown was justified.

It had felt like an age since she had last enjoyed that feeling. Between the Shadow Council, and the various other antagonist groups she allowed to spring up within Equestria over the past thousand years, it had been far too long since Celestia felt like she had won anything. Groups like the Shadow Council would be allowed to flourish for a few generations, to bring together like-minded individuals as much to allow Celestia to keep an eye on those who would try to undermine her message of Harmony as to cultivate groups that would be willing to stand against her and call her out if she made decisions that negatively affected her little Ponies.

“Princess?” Dawn Ray asked softly, the old veteran giving her an appraising look as Celestia poured herself another long glass of iced water and downed it slowly to soothe her taxed throat. “Are you sure we should allow the Royal Interview to continue? I mean, that is a lot of Ponies out there, and we weren’t able to set up the standard protective barriers. Captain Rosebush is probably going to have conniptions if she hears you’re allowing yourself to be exposed without the usual security measures in place …”

“I am wearing a significant amount of my Regalia, dear Ray. Unless a cabal of Sorcerers has managed to sneak into the castle grounds and is preparing a multi-tiered spell-circle attuned to the forces of entropy and negative energy out in broad daylight, and we somehow miss a ritual that should immediately start to cause unnatural phenomena, I should be fine.” Princess Celestia smiled and levitated another glass off the serving table, filling it and offering it to the aging Guard, who bowed his head slightly in thanks and took the vessel with a hoof. “I am more concerned about the Ponies who would be caught in the backwash of the attack than any concern for my own safety. I am an Immortal after all. The succor of Death is, sadly, a luxury I am denied.”

“Be that as it may, Princess, consider the blow to morale Equestria would suffer if all your grand talk out there on the balcony came undone because of one surly Pony with a heavy crossbow and a bolt enchanted with death-magic? It might just be a nuisance to you, but it would completely destroy your credibility after what you’ve said today if an assassin was able to make an attempt in-front of so many witnesses.”

Celestia poured herself another glass and drank half of it before fixing Dawn Ray with a weary look as she felt her good cheer starting to disappear into the usual hole in her guts.

“…How many did we catch this time?”

“The first group was composed of five crossbow-wielders with a pair of necromantic bolts each, all Pegasi and all belonging to different mercenary companies. The five of them slipped into the castle while disguised as cloud-maintenance workers to help position the clouds some of the reporters are sitting on and were hiding on, or in one case, inside the clouds with some of the most powerful repeating crossbows we’ve seen to date, Minotaur work, of course, but adapted for use by beings with hooves rather than fingers.”

“We’re still trying to isolate exactly who gave the order to allow our air-space security to be violated like that and if there are any further snipers in the crowd, but I’m willing to bet a week’s wages the orders were forged. Captain Rosebush is going to have kittens when she hears that somepony has managed to forge both her signature and her Captain’s seal.” The aging guard trotted to the doorway, peered back and forth down the hallway before trotting back to Celestia’s side and gave his monarch a much-needed back-rub. “Additionally, six students from the School for Gifted Unicorns are being kept for questioning when we found and confiscated contraband wands and spell-scrolls containing combat magic and one manifesto that advocates a return to Unicorn leadership over the ‘lesser tribes’ and the deaths of the ‘mongrel’ Princesses. The Magi have identified the scrolls as containing enchantments to conjure clouds of acid and flame ... blasted Tribalists.”

“And finally, eight Earth Ponies, all employees of a shipping company we’ve tentatively identified as a shell-corporation that is, through about seven different owners, property of the Muckrakers, armed with crossbows of Gryphon make this time, and quarrels fitted with alchemical explosives packed with shards of ceramic material that we believe have been soaked in poison. Again, nothing that could kill you, your majesty, but they could have inflicted considerable harm on the crowd and it would have taken days just to remove the poisoned shards from your body, let alone the unfortunates caught in the explosions. And just as alarming, both pegasi and Earth Ponies swear they were contracted by a ‘middle pony’ …”

“… dressed all in white with a large, high-pointed hat, so they could not make out what Tribe the Pony belonged to, or even their age or gender.” Celestia gave a loud groan of annoyance and put down her glass with a loud thump. “A match, no doubt, for our mysterious individual who also attempted to have Twilight’s father kidnapped by yet another group of mercenaries?”

“Some details are different, the meeting places mostly and the type of rewards offered, but yes. Unfortunately, the outfit this ‘Middle-Pony’ uses makes identifying them all but impossible. We could be dealing with a Pony from any of the four Tribes, we have no idea what gender the individual is or any other distinguishing features … for all we know, it could even be a Donkey or Gryphon posing as a Pony, given that they share a roughly similar shape to our own. I would heartily recommend we take our victories, such as they are, and declare the Royal Interview over for now. We’re severely understaffed, and having our forces stretched between the border we share with Gryphonia and then the entire Third Circle being sent to escort the Changeling Queen, I’ve no doubt we will need to review our entire defense strategy for Canterlot Castle and replace our entire spell-network just to ensure we haven’t been critically compromised.”

Celestia indulged in a most Un-Princessly groan, and welcomed a second back-rub from the veteran Royal Guard and long-time confidant. Perfect, just Faust-flipping perfect. The Powers as my witness, when we find this middle-pony, and can finally throw Bluebone and his cronies into Horseshoe Bay, that law preventing me from going down to the city and going bar-crawling is being repealed and Discord and I are going to drink until we drop. And given I’m an Immortal and he’s a Demi-God …

Perhaps just a quiet celebration at the Apple’s farm instead. Less chance of accidentally causing the apocalypse due to being blindly drunk with an equally-inebriated Chaos God egging her on that way.

“…No. I know that Captain Rosebush is currently stuck dealing with reorganizing the legal department right now to focus on the Changeling Trial, but right now we cannot allow our momentum to falter now. I will continue the Royal Interview, but we will narrow down the amount of Ponies who may be present and have the Royal Interview held someplace smaller, a place where the Royal Guards can keep a closer watch over the Ponies I am speaking to. Two reporters per paper, radio-station or news-station only. That should improve our chances of catching any further assassins and minimize the amount of Ponies at risk should we miss one.” The Solar Monarch gave herself a quick shake of her head in annoyance. A part of her had revelled in speaking to her Ponies en-mass, and their absolute focus on her as she told them everything was going to be alright had been soothing after centuries of dealing with the selfish, fractious Nobles and stubborn, close-minded splinter-groups that popped up every other decade.

Their efforts were a constant hindrance to her dream of uniting the continent under the banner of harmony, where all nations and races were considered of equal importance, regardless of wealth, position, gender or religion, but Celestia had lived through what happened when a leader ruled unopposed, even with the best of intentions. However petty and spiteful and toxic groups like the Shadow Council were, their very existence helped keep her on the straight and narrow path to her goal.

“…Off the top of my head, that makes about two hundred plus Ponies … I’d say the Hall of Blue Song. It’s small enough you won’t need to rip your throat up to make yourself heard but large enough it could hold around that many bodies at once, there’s only two entrances for anypony to use, and a balcony running along the upper walls where the Royal Guard and Magi can position themselves to keep watch over the Ponies.”

“Make it so, Dawn Ray, but give me ten more minutes before we let Ponies start entering the Hall. I will cast as many enchantments as I can to protect everypony from acts of malice … and then, if Faust is on our side, we can wrap this up safely and prepare for tomorrow’s backlash.”

“Aye, your Majesty.”

“And see if the kitchens can whip up some ‘hard day’ dishes to be sent to my quarters for the noonday meal. I am going to need it.”

“Only if the Royal Guards can have some too.”

“You do realize only my armor is enchanted to resize if I gain a few pounds, Dawn Ray? But of course you may ask the kitchens to do so, old friend. I dare say, we’ve all earned the right for some comfort food today.”

“As ever, your generosity and largess knows no bounds … your largeness.”

Celestia responded with a snort of laughter, and throwing a pillow at Dawn Ray’s rapidly retreating backside to the jab towards her infamous large flank. But she did feel a little better, and though a part of her quailed at the thought, she realized that ever since she and Discord had begun their affair, her attitude around her trusted confidants had become rather more informal. She found herself being openly friendly with them, not merely the ever-calm and understanding monarch but finally herself, and some like Dawn Ray reciprocated in kind, a treasure that Celestia had long since resigned herself to never experiencing again.

Still, she had only minutes to layer a slew of protective enchantments over the hall, and once alerted to the change in venues, the mob of slavering reporters in her courtyard would move heaven and earth to get themselves into her Castle. If there truly were more assassins amongst them, as Dawn Ray feared, then Celestia had to make sure her work was impeccable.

A Princess could not settle for anything less than perfect when it came to the lives and safety of her subjects, after all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was strange, Night Light thought to himself, to find the house suddenly lonely now that the bulk of his ‘house guests’ had vacated the premises to recover the necessities for their long-term stay under his roof, with proper escort from the Royal Guard this time. The first order of business would likely be the supplies needed to sound-proof the house so they wouldn’t all drive each other crazy.

Well, crazier than they all were. He was willingly married to Twilight Velvet, after all, and Spud was willingly married to three very different Mares.

Not that the relative silence was unwelcome. Spud’s wives had commandeered the bulk of the ‘house guests’ with military training to serve as additional guards and bullied, cajoled and sweet-talked the rest into being their packmules, which left Night Light alone in his house with his wife … and Thunderwing.

With the latter desperately trying to escape the former, who was having none of it and had tied herself in literal knots around the latter that made Night Light very grateful to be a Stallion as he watched the two Mares squirm around on his livingroom carpet like a pair of duelling snakes.

“Velvet, please! I am the Commander of the Night Guard, I can’t do this! I have responsibilities, duties ... dignity!”

“You’re a Mare, first and foremost, and I am not letting you go until you agree to this!”

“We’re far too old to be pulling this crap now! Night Light, help!”

“I’ve no problem with making it official.” Night Light said calmly, raising an eyebrow as Velvet gaped and Thunderwing simultaneously scowled and blushed. “I was not lying when I said I wanted us to be a Herd back then, and I’ve no issue with us creating one now.”

Twilight Velvet let out a squeal that was entirely unbefitting a Mare with two full-grown children of her own, and Thunderwing’s struggle to escape Velvet’s grip apparently turned into an attempt to crawl closer to Night Light to throttle him, judging from the half-muffled words coming out of the Thestral’s mouth as Velvet’s fore-hoof accidentally pressed across Thunderwing’s throat.

“That said, dear, please let Thunderwing go before she passes out. Once Spud and the rest come back with the supplies, we’re going to be busy remodelling the house for all our guests, so perhaps it would be best if you and Thunderwing took the ladies out someplace safe while we get started, with another troop of guards watching over you all, of course. It’s going to get noisy, and we’re going to be busy remodelling the spare rooms on the second storey into actual bedrooms.”

“Oh, think the Mares can’t handle some home improvement?” Velvet asked tartly as she uncoiled herself from Thunderwing, who took the opportunity to crawl away, apparently not trusting her legs to carry her to safety after getting grappled by Night Light’s wife again.

“No, but I assume you’d rather pick the new wallpaper rather than leave it in the hooves of somepony else, and as much as I love my friends like the brothers I never had, do you really want all those Stallions picking the furniture and décor for our house, let alone their wives?”

Twilight Velvet went still, her eyes narrowing as she glared up at the ceiling, no doubt imagining the state of her house with half a dozen couples and one Herd all trying to put their own personal ‘take’ on her rooms.

“So, you can pick whose tastes you trust to come out with you, and those who you don’t can stay here and help us prepare the sound-proofing panels and renovate the upstairs bathroom … or you can let everypony redecorate their rooms as they see fit. And we could be in this situation for mon-.”

“Dear.” The word came out with a considerable amount of irritation behind it. “I get it, so please, stop. I’ll take a handful of Ponies out after lunch to pick the wallpaper and new furnishings, while you and Spud keep the rest of our new … house-guests … from demolishing our home.”

“Will do, love. Thunderwing, you okay over there?” The ex-Ranger sighed and turned his gaze to the formidable Commander of the Night Guard … who was currently struggling to pull herself up onto the couch with her front legs and wings, as everything south of her navel apparently as useful as wet noodles.

“When I get feeling back in my back legs, Night Light, I am going to choke the life from you …” Thunderwing snarled, awkwardly pulling herself into a sitting position and massaging her thighs with her fore-hooves, shooting a dark look towards Twilight Velvet, who was apparently lost in thought as she wandered off towards the stairs, probably imagining what she wanted the renovations to look like. “I forget that Velvet practices martial arts…”

“She’s the kind of mare who can tuck both back legs behind her ears at forty years of age …” Night Light teased, his muzzle splitting into a grin as Thunderwing flushed and flung a throw-pillow at his head. “Tai Chi is the least of Velvet’s many and strange talents, as you should well remember. Mare knows every pressure-point and nerve cluster on the Pony body …”

“Oh, I remember a lot of things, Night Light. Like when you had an afro and bell-bottom pants were the height of fashion, you came up to us in the disco and tried to ask us to dance … except the music was so loud, we couldn’t tell which one of us you were trying to ask!” The Thestral sighed and went back to attempting to massage feeling back into her hind-legs. “It was … the happiest time of my life, Night Light. My best friend, a sweet, dorky stallion and I all as part of one happy little group. The Colony and my duties were so far away, Velvet was refusing to conform to the Nobles’ attitudes towards us ‘commoners’ and you were …”

“…A magic drop-out who joined the Royal Guard while stoned out of his gourd and still somehow managed to ace the tests.” Night Light finished, chuckling softly along with Thunderwing as they recalled the misadventures of their wild youth.

It was … nice. To have Twilight Velvet puttering around in the background, and Thunderwing chatting with him again, the back-and-forth teasing, the shared delight in star-gazing … it seemed only a few minutes has passed when he found himself on the couch, massaging Thunderwing’s hind-legs as the Mare groaned in approval as the tingling in her limbs signalled the return of sensation.

I didn’t lie … Night Light thought to himself with more than a little surprise as he seated himself next to Thunderwing, and the scarred Thestral didn’t pull away this time. We’ve taken the long way to this point, but I know I wouldn’t object to forming a Herd with Thunderwing and Night Light. I … I truly hope that Shining and Twilight don’t object, but I really do want to properly court Thunderwing again and finally have our Herd together once again.

First things first, however … “Now, while Velvet is distracted by something other than making up for lost time with you, however enjoyable it is to watch … Bluebone and our mysterious mercenaries. Any word from the Castle?”

“We’ve only the names of the mercenaries. Penny, Pound, Dime, Nickle, Pence and Guinea, all belonging to an all-Unicorn mercenary group called the Spiral Pikes that only recently returned to Equestria after a long campaign fighting for a string of Zebra warlords way down south, and more disturbingly, only after a number of individuals in Canterlot were bought out or agreed to out-of-court settlements for a variety of crimes that would make both our manes go gray-er.” The scarred Thestral sighed, leaning her head on Night Light’s shoulder, her tone somber. “An all-Unicorn mercenary group … and guess who was their primary patron before they decided to leave Equestria for places more accepting of magical carnage?”

“Oh Faust, Bluebone?”

“No, Countess Krystaline, but you were close. We’ve tracked them receiving sums of money, resources and even political favours from some very politically-connected Ponies, including the Amber Swirls, the Twinkleshines and just because we needed another reason to mistrust these bastards, Countess Krystaline regularly used these bastards as hirelings during several events that saw a number of Ponies either bruised or traumatized, and they’ve a track-record of hiring on for dodgy employers longer than my tail. At least five of their last employers before they skipped Equestria to avoid some very disturbing charges are known members of the Shadow Court.

“Charges for …”

“You name it, they’ve done it, but the worst included hate-crimes against Earth Ponies in Canterlot and the surrounding regions, arson of businesses and homes of Ponies we know offended members of the Shadow Court, likely refusing to sell-out to the Nobility or something similar. Rosebush is convinced that at least some of the mercenary band are responsible for sexual assaults against nearly a two-score Mares before the entire band skipped the country. Unfortunately, the victims were too traumatized to be able to provide proper identification, but the fact the Mares were all cursed to ‘scramble’ most paternity spells we have access to so we could identify their assailants from residue left behind after the attacks points to a fairly powerful Unicorn being involved.”

“And being an ex-Royal Guard, Night Light, you’d well know that the kind of spells capable of that kind of obfuscation are extremely rare and more often than not kept under heavy guard and taught only to specific Magi of the Fourth Circle purely so the Magi can keep our counter-curses and anti-hex wards up-to-date and functional. Add to that the fact that the Spiral Pikes specifically advertise their ability to curse and hex their opponents into defeat and they have a history of abusing non-Unicorns with magic, and we have a very nasty problem on our hooves.” The Thestral’s scarred muzzle split into a thin, vicious grin however, exposing the large, sharp canine teeth that had made Night Light’s ancestors’ once fear the bat-ponies as blood-suckers. “Thankfully, after nearly getting snuffed by a curse from their own people, Guinea, the leader of the group we’ve got our hooves on, spilled the beans very damn quickly in exchange for being put somewhere safe from all forms of magic …”

“Yes, I remember. Stop jerking my reins here, Thunder, you know damn well I remember why I was evicted from the Cell of Ultimate Confinement.”

“Hmph. Well, to cut a long story short, Guinea let us know it’s something of an initiation rite amongst the Spiral Pikes. When you advance up the ranks to that of their ‘Captain’, you have to prove you'll do anything for the Spiral Pikes, and I do mean anything …”

“Oh sweet Faust, you mean they hunt down Earth Pony or Pegasi Mares and rape them? To advance up the ranks?”

“Apparently so, according to Guinea at least. I will say that three of the group had to be immediately restrained from attacking their fellows upon hearing this, cousins I believe who are called Penny, Pound and Pence. Apparently the rank-and-file aren’t told about this little ritual until the senior officers think they’re ready.”

“So murder, arson, kidnapping and racially-motivated thuggery are acceptable to these louts, but rape is a step too far? Evil has standards, is that it?” Night Light snorted in contempt, but his features remained set in an expression of sick understanding. “It does makes a loathsome sort of sense, however. They have such a terrible crime hanging over their heads, and if they leave or betray the mercenary band, the evidence gets leaked and if the bastard is lucky, the Royal Guards get to them before the outraged mob does. But to actually do that …”

“It gets worse, if that’s even possible. Most of the officers in the Spiral Pikes, including their leader, are Mares. According to Guinea, they’re the ones who started the rite when they took over after the old Colonel who was leading the band got killed during a freak accident in a training exercise … an accident that also involved the current leaders of the Spiral Pikes. We would have gotten more information out of Guinea, but apparently the idiot swore a blood-oath to keep the secrets of the Spiral Pikes and somehow forgot about it. As soon as he tried to tell us more, blood started to pour out of every orifice he had and the bastard went into convulsions that nearly snapped every bone in his body. We’re lucky the restorative-wards in the Cell kicked in and were able to out-heal the damage the blood-oath inflicted on Guinea, or we’d have a dead witness on our hooves and five more that are too terrified to testify in-case the same happened to them.”

Thunderwing lifted her head off Night Light’s shoulder, patting the Stallion’s shoulder in understanding as the greying ex-ranger reached for the pitcher of water on the table and took a long draught, spurning the cups in favour of trying to force the bile he felt welling up in his throat back down into his guts.

“If my contacts are correct and they usually are ...” The scarred Thestral said softly as Night Light gave her a haunted look. “The evidence all points to a horrible truth: The Spiral Pikes are led by a coven of Witches, Blood-Witches at that, and the Shadow Council are likely fully aware of this and expended a small fortune in bits and political favours to allow the entire mercenary band, a full five thousand Unicorn tribalists led by practitioners of a form of magic that is almost universally banned in every country on the continent, to re-enter the capital city and then disappear into thin air, as far as the Guards assigned to track down the rest of the mercenary company are concerned. And the Witches are dedicated enough to the task they’ve been hired to do that they’d risk hexing one of their own to death rather than allow them to spill the beans to us.”

“You want us to just lay low and quiet. But Thunder, that could take months, if not longer …”

“We may have to accept that the Shadow Council has stolen a march on us all, Night. That our only real option is to hunker down in your house like rabbits waiting out the winter snows, until Princess Celestia can flex some of those divine muscles of hers and burn these monsters out of our city.”

“It’s all well and good to try and push for a resolution, darling.” Twilight Velvet pointed out softly, causing both Thunderwing and Night Light to jump in their seats, falling against each other as they gave matching guilty looks to the other Mare who had returned to the room with a pot of coffee. “But right now, if what I just overheard was correct, can we really risk overextending ourselves? With all the wives and partners at risk if you fail, especially since we’re all stuck here while the Shadow Court is prowling around?”

“You promised when you came home from the Border that you’d never run off to battle again and leave me wondering if I’d be a widow. Trust in the Princess to do the right thing, and protect your family, not your country, just this once.”

Night looked from Velvet to Thunderwing, his face twisting into an agonized frown before he threw himself up off the couch and stalked out of the room. Thunderwing got up to follow, but found herself checked when Twilight Velvet put a hoof to the Thestral’s chest.

“Leave him be, Wingy. I just poked an old wound to remind Night that he’s not some young Stallion who can go galavanting off whenever Bluebone and his cronies pop up, he’ll be a right pain to deal with for a short while till his common sense beats his pride back down.”

“You … really made him promise to leave the army?” Thunderwing asked in a very soft voice as the two Mares sat down on the couch, Velvet’s face splitting into a wry smile before she answered.

“I did … but I kind of had help. Shining had just started to become interested in what his father did for a living, and like all young children, he just blurted the first thing that came to mind, without any concern for what it might mean to the adults around him.” Velvet explained as she poured coffee for them both, her eyes focusing on a distant point on the wall as she spoke, the smile returning in force as she spoke. “He said, and I quote, ‘I’m going to be a soldier like dad, kill all the bad guys, and come home to get a medal from the Princess.’. Night Light turned whiter than Celestia herself, because you know Bluebone’s men were infamous for their tendency to inflict friendly fire on the common-born units back then, and when I started badgering him about not leaving me a war-widow, he actually gave his word that the next tour of duty would be his last. I guess he was also dreading trying to explain to a three-year-old colt who idolized him that every time he left home, there was a very good chance he’d never return.”

“Shining said that?” The aging, scarred Thestral muttered, taking up her cup and blowing on the hot, black liquid, eyes narrowing as she thought back to when a certain white-coated snot-nosed Unicorn first joined the Castle’s Royal Guards and had, in a chance, private meeting in one of the Castle’s many twisting stair-cases, called her ‘aunty’ Thunderwing, and earned a black eye for his audacity. And though she never actually said it, for hurting Thunderwing with old memories that Shining probably had no idea he was stirring up.

“Night did make it home after the next tour, naturally, and finally mustered up the courage to sit Shining down and explain to him what it really meant to be a soldier. I think that hurt Night more than anything, having to break the pretty little illusion Shining had built up around his father during his tours at the Border.”

“… Being a parent sounds difficult.”

“Very. Every action you take, every word, every time you pay attention, or worse still, when you don’t, the children notice and shape themselves to fit in with what they see before them. I constantly worried that Twilight was becoming an introvert because of me and my job, and I know Night nearly tore out his mane from worry when Shining joined the Royal Guard, fearing that our boy might end up in Bluebone’s sights …” Velvet shifted herself closer to Thunderwing on the couch and took a sip of her own coffee, smiling sadly. “Not that I really got to do much parenting with Twilight, what with Princess Celestia keeping my little girl at her side for years at a time, but when she came home she was a very independent child, always trying to do everything herself. Did you know that by the time she turned seven, she was all but autonomous? It took our other … child … to make her start to rely on other Ponies, and even then it was a battle to make my little Twiley remember she didn’t have to do everything alone or with her nose in a book.”

“The Dragon, Spike? I admit, trying to raise such a creature on her own …”

“No, Wingy, though Spike did help Twilight remember that she was allowed to lean on her family for help. No, although we tried, we weren’t able to adopt him because of interference from the Nobility, and he ended up becoming a ward of the state … in a very spectacular fashion, but still a ward of the state.” Velvet’s smile shrank as her eyes trailed over to the far wall, where pictures of her family hung, and a very particular picture, very small and almost lost amongst the larger frames of pictures, diplomas and medals. “When he left us, Twilight … my little girl fell into herself and tried to shut everyone out again, a defence mechanism against being hurt. A trait she shares with her father, sadly.”

“So for now, we’ll let Night Light work his way through this, at least until everypony comes home, and then you’re coming with me on a shopping trip, Wingy!”

“…Why?”

“Because if you really are going to finally form a Herd with Night and myself, I want to make absolutely sure our renovations meet your approval as much as mine!”

“…”

“And just so you know, I can cast a bondage spell faster than you can fly away.”

“I think you meant ‘binding’ spell, Velvet.”

“Oh my dear sweet Wingy … you know I meant exactly what I said.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Twilight knew the theory behind cloud-manipulation quite well, having studied it years ago to help cast the cloud-walking spell for her friends during that il-fated Wonderbolts show in Cloudsdale, but she hadn’t expected it to have so many problems when attempting to move such a large and complex structure as Rainbow’s cloud mansion.

Certainly it was a relatively simple matter for Twilight to, with some coaching from Luna and Soarin, extend her considerable, if still somewhat drained, magical powers through internal channels that her transformation from Unicorn to Alicorn had imbued into her body and into the cloud-mansion itself, literally holding everything from bookshelves to window-sills together as the three Pegasi and two Alicorns pushed Rainbow’s house into position, but the micro-management she had to use to keep her part of the house intact and connected to the parts Luna and Soaring were moving was staggering, yet they made it look so easy.

And yet once she stopped thinking about the mechanics and just decided to do, the process was frighteningly simple to learn, even as a small corner of Twilight’s mind marvelled over how easily a Pegasi could move water around at-will with their hooves and even actively manipulate air-streams with quasi-tangible magical fields generated from their wings. It also made her wonder just what her Alicorn magic, manipulated through her Earth Pony ‘channels’, could accomplish …

And if Luna was correct, Twilight had always had Earth Pony channels, being a hybrid of Earth Pony and Unicorn. Which could mean she had been using Earth Pony ‘magic’ subconsciously to keep up with the extremely-fit and physically active Ponies around her.

Had she privacy, and no other concerns, Twilight would have quite happily ensconced herself in the library for a week just testing her budding theories. Sadly, such happy day-dreaming would have to wait …

How they would keep the house in place once it was in position was something that Soarin seemed loathe to actually explain, but the swarm of a hundred camera-wielding Pegasi, and easily twice as many Unicorn and Earth Pony paparazzi taking to the air with hot-air balloons and dirigibles prevented her from actively grilling the Wonderbolt on why he was suddenly so reluctant to train her on how to ‘be’ a Pegasus.

“By Faust’s right plot-cheek, when Command said you two were getting swarmed by the media, they weren’t kidding.” Soarin muttered as the mansion slowly sailed through the air, Soarin providing advice and minute changes in direction as Rainbow flew around the front of the mansion to ensure nothing got caught up in its path … and to swoop pesky Ponies who sought to trespass into her house while it was on the move to get closer to the Princesses at the back of the mansion, and Spitfire flew escort at the back, relying on her infamous reputation as the dare-devil commander of the Wonderbolts to keep similarly-tenacious reporters and paparazzi from mobbing the Princesses.

“You think this is bad, you should have been at the press conference …” Twilight muttered back, straining for a second to keep the north wall of the mansion in its place as a pack of Pegasi swooped in to try and get close enough for an interview only for Spitfire to fly right through their group and send them spiralling downwards in tailspins before they flattened out and, appropriately cowed, joined the rest of the mob, the collective tail-wind of their passing threatening to tear the compressed cloud-matter apart into vapour.

“Really? I know we’ve got quite the posse after us now, but the newspaper articles were rather tame, considering the Big Three seemed afraid to print more than a few sentences on the matter.” The Wonderbolt replied, giving Twilight a confused look. “Normally anything involving the Princesses or the Element of Magic gets at least the first-page treatment, yet all we got was ‘Princess Twilight saves town with basement dungeon, Princess Celestia to blame for continent-wide blindness from reckless spell-casting?’, which for a medium dominated by idiots like Stump, Murdock and the Muckrakers, is almost approving of our monarchs.”

“Twilight explained the dangers of teleportation to the reporters when one fool tried to pin the blame for the whole incident on Twilight not teleporting Sunset out of town, and the entire group ended up losing their breakfasts or fainting dead away in their seats.” Luna explained, chortling to herself as Twilight blew a raspberry in her direction. “I suspect we’ll have a considerable decrease in the number of would-be applicants for the teleportation license after that. I think the next time we have a hostile press-conference, I’ll just have my sister wheel you out first and terrifying all but the boldest of reporters into fleeing the castle, Twilight.”

“Ha. Ha. Ha.” The purple princess muttered, though a smile did crease her face briefly at the thought. “Still, we’re going to have a hard time escaping the media frenzy behind us when we head into the Everfree Forest to pick up our tent and other supplies.”

“Errr … begging your pardon, Princess Twilight, but that is the Everfree Forest. I don’t think even Stump’s bits would convince a Pony to fly over that place just to get an exclusive interview with Royalty.” Twilight found herself looking at the Wonderbolt as if he’d grown a second head once she recognized the fear in the Pony’s voice. “To you, it might just be your backyard, but to most Ponies, that’s one of the most dangerous places on the continent.”

“Huh. You know, with all the times we’ve been through the forest, I kind of forget … well, I mean I know it is dangerous in there, but …” Twilight stammered, blushing at Soarin’s comment. It wasn’t that she didn’t recognize that the forest was dangerous, it was just … familiar now. Between helping Fluttershy with her animals, and assisting Zecora with her hunts for rare herbs or exotic minerals, or just following the yelling until she found which sap-covered tree the Cutiemark Crusaders had gotten stuck to this time, Twilight felt like her hooves had trodden every hidden path and ruin in the Everfree Forest by now.

“It may be a blessing in disguise, Twilight. If the Everfree truly holds such terror to the average Pony, our flying into the forest without concern will help cement not only your bravery, but also make others wonder just how strong you are that the thought of walking amongst Manticores, Hydras and Timber Wolves does not even concern you.” Luna pointed out, still grinning as her silver-shod hooves pressed hard against the cloud-mansion to maintain her portion of the structure’s integrity. “There’s nothing wrong with allowing a little mystery and glamor to build up behind you name, especially this early in your career as a Princess when every pony and their mother is pushing to see how far your authority actually reaches, but we’ll probably have to step in when the cults start to pop up.”

“… You do realize that is … no, you know what, nevermind. Maybe a bit of embellishment that is positive towards us could be just what the doctor ordered. Faust knows, we could do with something going our way for once.”

The rest of the trip passed almost peacefully, with the only words spoken between Soarin, Luna and herself just cautions about errant gusts of wind or commentary on the increasingly irate Spitfire’s attempts to ward off the paparazzi following them. When the cloud-mansion finally reached the air-space that was roughly an equal distance from Ponyville, Fluttershy’s cottage and the Apple family farm, Twilight found herself gently told to ‘buzz off’ by Rainbow, who was circling the mansion, eyes narrowing as she inspected the house for dissipating clouds or other forms of damage.

It was surprising to Twilight when, still extending her Alicorn magic through her ‘Pegasi’ channels, that she could feel Rainbow’s magic teasing the clouds back into shape, puffs of magic carried on the air-currents of her wings and dancing along the edges of the blue Pegasi’s hooves as the injured Mare tended to her house.

A quick glance at Spitfire and Soarin showed that they too were using their magic, somehow forcing the clouds to remain stationary in mid-air just by brushing the fields of magic emerging from their wings against the cloud-matter. Magic was at work, but in a way she’d never even thought could actually work, power flowing and changing without the usual methods that her training as a Unicorn demanded, just through simple effort and unthinking instinct as the Pegasi managed to convince the compressed cloud-matter mansion to remain at a fixed space in the sky, even as wind-currents from the Everfree pushed at the building.

She had experienced something similar when keeping Rainbow’s house from disintegrating during the trip, but the finesse the trio was displaying humbled Twilight. For all her mastery of the arcane, what these Pegasi were doing right now was just as elegant and refined as any spell Twilight might have cast.

Was that this mysterious Innate Magic that Princess Celestia suppressed, or something simpler still? Twilight wondered to herself, frowning as Luna led the way to the Everfree Forest, half the reporters breaking off to stay behind and interview the Wonderbolts, the other half hot on her and Luna’s tails, screaming demands for an interview or …

“EXCUSE ME?” Twilight shouted back, craning her head back over her shoulder to stare at one bold reporter whose question brought a brilliant flush to Twilight’s face, a task made more difficult by her wings flapping to keep Twilight moving forwards fast enough to keep the dementedly determined paparazzi at a suitable distance.

“ARE YOU SEEING ANYONE, PRINCESS TWILIGHT?” The reporter, a sea-green Pegasi with shocking red hair, screamed back, likely assuming Twilight had mis-heard her.

“Are you serious? My private affairs are just that, private!” Twilight shouted back, her horn glowing with power as she considered, briefly, transmuting the idiot’s feathers into lead weights, and instead turned the summoned energy into a cloudy barrier of magic between Luna, herself and the reporters. “First thing I do when I finish my Ascension and officially become a Princess under the laws is figure out a way to repeal these stupid media laws and force these jackals to practice some empathy, along with making journalistic integrity a legal prerequisite for every single article published in an Equestrian-owned paper!”

“You will simply have to learn to tune it out, Twilight. Faust knows my sister has spent hundreds of years mastering such things. That, and she takes a vicarious pleasure in using the outright-slanderous articles as the floor-covering for Philomena’s cage.” Luna replied, a low chuckle spilling out the corners of her mouth as she spoke. “Apparently it’s the best way she knows to apologise to the trees for an otherwise wasteful use of pulped timber.”

“Doesn’t Philomena’s droppings contain large amounts of white phosphorus?”

“And her cage is made from an alloy of adamantite and magically-augmented gold precisely because the first time Cellie brought that infernal bird home, it proceeded to leave incendiary droppings all over our castle. Thankfully, granite doesn’t really burn, but the furniture wasn’t so lucky.”

“And having said papers immolated on a daily basis via incendiary bird poop is just a humorous twist?”

“You know my sister’s sense of humor can be both twisted and frustratingly subtle when she has no other outlets due to the constant presence of Ponies who may use it against her. And besides, it is the best use of Stump’s and Muckraker’s papers.”

Fortunately, the Everfree Forest soon was under their wings, which had an amusing effect on the reporters, as Twilight and Luna found out. Dropping the magical barrier as much due to wanting to preserve her strength for carrying their belongings back to town as a fear of being mobbed by giant, horrible, book-eating moths again, Twilight and her fellow Princess had the dubious honor of watching over fifty Ponies suddenly have their focus shaken when Twilight’s barrier faded away, the paparazzi looking down to see what would cause Twilight to drop the visual barrier and then collectively scream in horror like a flock of chickens in a McNugget factory, with the air-vessels piloted by the Unicorns and Earth Ponies clumsily wheeling about in mid-air, nearly colliding with each other in several cases, and the Pegasi actively trying to climb over each other in mid-air as they realized they’d flown over the outer edge of the Everfree.

“That … is at once hilarious and disturbing.” Twilight muttered as she and Luna hovered and watched the paparazzi scramble back towards the ‘safe’ zone outside of the Everfree’s borders, several of them visibly hyperventilating or having to be carried back down to the ground, having fainted from shock or horror.

“Count our blessings, Twilight. As soon as we make it back to the border, you can be certain the paparazzi will be waiting in force with every camera and recording device known to mortals.” The Lunar Princess replied with a tired smile on her face. “So let’s brain-storm what we might possibly do to either escape their attentions, or give them something more interesting to focus on.”

“I don’t know … did your sister leave any baby Hydras lying around while she took a good portion of the Royal Guard into the Everfree? Maybe if we start tossing baby snake-dragon-thingies at them, those vultures will get the hint.”

“Be-have, Twilight. Besides, that would be far too cruel to the Hydras.”

“Mmmph.”

Thankfully, the trip back to their camp-site was mercifully swift and without distraction, as Luna and Twilight quickly dropped down below the tree-line to avoid being tracked if some of the paparazzi managed to develop the spine to follow the Princesses into the Forest-proper and followed a snaking river deeper into the heart of the Everfree, Luna claiming she could ‘sense’ her portable hole, and Twilight having enough trouble keeping up with Luna, as her wings were unused to such constant use, in addition to pushing a third of a cloud mansion across the sky for an entire hour, to bother arguing with Luna about the absurdity of tying one's magic to a single, infamously fragile device.

Indeed, Twilight found herself enjoying the Everfree, the strange, constantly-changing sensation of the Wild Magic that permeated the area feeling somehow more … friendly towards her than it had before her Ascension as her magic-sensitive horn sensed hundreds of swirling tendrils of the Wild Magic snaking out to caress Luna and herself.

Is it because I am becoming a part of this world, or is it something else? … I really hope Wild Magic, or the Everfree itself, isn’t sentient in some sort of fashion like Luna says these mysterious Powers the Elements of Harmony are derived from, as after the burst of Sympathized Magic Luna and I sent out that night … would that make it a ménages à trois? I mean, that’s not really the right term, and I have no way of knowing if I’m just feeling things that aren’t real because I’m so fatigued right now, but wow I really hope Luna and I didn’t accidentally include a quasi-sentient magical forest during what I hoped was a very private moment!

And speaking of Elements … are they sentient? I still haven’t figured out if what I felt during Rarity’s … breaking from the group was a coherent choice on behalf of Generosity, or some sort of autonomous function of the magic of Harmony that the Element represents? And what does it mean now that I bear two Elements? Will I be compelled to be more generous myself now, or am I just holding onto the Element till a new Bearer emerges?

Why doesn’t Immortality come with a guide-book or something? Gah!

“Twilight, pick up the pace!” Luna called out from up ahead, the dark-coated Alicorn hovering impatiently at the bend of the river, a hoof pointed at something out of Twilight’s sight. “I can see our camp, and something is wrong!”

“Coming!” Twilight shouted back, groaning out loud as her wings protested at their continued abuse as she flapped over to Luna and caught sight of their tent. Please don't be reporters. Please don't be Gryphons. Please don't be Steven ...

Their currently bulging tent, where a large, red, scorpion-like tail emerged, waving in the air vigorously as the owner rummaged around inside the blue-silk tent.

“And suddenly I am reminded of Celestia warning my to not wish for foolish things.” Sighing heavily, Twilight could only face-hoof as a familiar-looking Manticore backed out of the tent, yowling loudly as it turned around and lay down sideways with its hind-quarters disappearing into the tent.

A familiar-looking, heavily pregnant Manticore.

And judging from the way her belly was rippling, said Manticore was about to give birth inside the tent, and would be immediately hostile to anything that came near her during the birthing.

And the stone covering the folded-up Portable Hole, which contained all of their supplies, was well within the range of the giant predator’s deadly fore-claws.

“Buck.” Luna and Twilight whispered together as the Manticore yowled again, the scorpion-like tail lashing around inside the tent as a powerful ripple of muscles under the lion-like creature's skin signalled another contraction.