“...headstrong BITCH!” Celestia was roused from her peaceful slumber by the shouted words, then forced suddenly into complete awareness as a hoof drove itself hard into her side. The blow was sharp and swift, and it made the Princess roll onto her side as her world spun about her for a moment. “Don’t you ever do something so, so, so pigheadly stupid again! Get up!”

This time, the blow was softer, marginally, and landed squarely on her ribs. The hoof didn’t pull away, another hoof joining it as the Princess of the sun was shoved unceremoniously out of her bed. She hit the hard stone floor with an undignified squawk, landing in a messy tangle of feathers, hooves, and a sharp pain in her hip, where her own horn had poked her.

Still trying to sort out her limbs, her lavender eye cracked open to find a very unappealing vision standing before her. Captain Valiant’s nose, nostrils flared wide as she snorted in fury. Then the nose moved lower, and a blue eye that was positively blazing came into view, Celestia promptly shut her eyes once more.

With another snort, the alicorn heard the soft hum of her bodyguards horn coming to life, magical power glowing at its point. A moment later, with a warm, surprisingly gentle touch, Valiant’s magic wrapped around her, setting her on her hooves and disentangling her from her own body. Once again, Celestia’s eyes opened the barest fraction, but this time, furious unicorn’s were absent from her immediate sight.

“Damn it, Princess.”

Opening her eyes fully, Celestia stretched her wings out. Rolling the joints in her shoulders, wings and rump, she shook her head as she turned to face her little soldier, feeling queerly like a filly. It was a feeling she rather liked, for all that nopony liked being scolded, simply because it had been so many years since she had felt so young. Was she really blushing?

She was, and the realization made her grin sheepishly, blushing harder. “You, um. Is there something you need, Captain?”

Valiant sighed, and let her head droop in resignation. Then, shaking herself, she fixed her Princess with a gimlet eye. “You are never, NEVER to put yourself in danger like that again, do you understand me? Because, I swear by the Light, I will... You won’t like it. I will do something to make you very unhappy.”

“Oh?” Celestia drawled, wry humor back once more. One eyebrow quirked up, and the corner of her mouth tucked in as she tried not to smile. She knew she shouldn’t, but the millennia old alicorn couldn’t resist the urge to needle the irate mare. “And how would you do that.”

The brilliant blue eye of the white mare began to twitch as her face contorted slowly. A hot flush of anger suffused her cheeks, staining them a bright pink that slowly darkened as she began to shake. Sensing an impending explosion, Celestia trained her face back to a a stoic mask, and strode forward. When her charge had begun moving, Valiant’s eyes had closed, and her she fixed her sightless gaze on the floor. Her chest heaved with slow, heavy breaths as she struggled to calm herself.

Celestia walked forward, nearly silent as she came closer to the furious mare. Before her, the white body of her guard trembled, and Celestia winced to see slow, heavy tears fall from her closed eyes. The alicorn stopped in front of the shaking form, and Valiant spoke.

“You almost died. Celestia, I nearly lost you.” She whispered, almost gasping. “I don’t... I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t...”

“Shh.” Celestia murmured, leaning in. She brushed a gentle kiss to Valiant’s brow, and the mare’s eyes shot open.

She stumbled several quick steps back, sitting down suddenly when her butt met the unyielding stone wall. Celestia chuckled, and advanced slowly on the flustered mare. The soft, friendly touch had the desired effect though. While her eyes were still wet, Valiant was no longer crying, and the red tinge to her cheeks was from embarrassment, not fury.

“Captain Valiant.” Celestia smiled, stopping several steps away from her protector. “I have known that you have... certain feelings for me, for some time. I also think that we both understand that I don’t, that I cannot see you as anything more than my dear friend.”

Valiant swallowed, closing her eyes for a moment. She rose from the ground, and took a deep breath, facing the Princess. “I understand, Princess. But do not ask me to stop caring for you. It is my duty, and my pleasure, to see to it that you are safe, no matter what. I... I do not know what I would do, without your light in my life, and I do not like the thought of the mare I would become.”

She paused, and a small smile played around her lips. “I know that your heart belongs to another, and I am glad that you have found happiness at last.” Her smile faded, and a hard gleam came to her eyes. “So help me though, if you ever put yourself in danger like that again, I will not rest until I have personally made your life hell, do I make myself clear.”

It was Celestia’s turn to smile softly, and she nodded her head in silent agreement. “I understand, Captain. But...” She paused, and a confused look clouded her face. “What did I do?”

For Twilight Sparkle, waking up was a much more peaceful ordeal. Though her body ached everywhere, and her throat burned with every breath, she at least wasn’t tossed onto the floor. In fact, despite the pain, she woke to the soft sounds of a whispered conversation.

“Pinkie, I don’t even know what happened out there. You were there too, why am I the one who has to explain everything?” A warm, accented voice whispered, annoyed. That was Nolux, Twilight was sure. Only Zecora had a voice like that, and the speaker sounded more flighty than the grave, graceful shaman.

“Because I can’t see magic, duh.”

Twilight didn’t notice she was smiling until the stretched lips cracked and another little piece of pain jabbed into her brain. The smile faded somewhat, and the mare winced. Her tongue peeked out, thoughtfully tracing the edges of the split in her lip, before returning to her mouth.

“Besides, I was busy trying to find our friends. You wouldn’t believe where they were. I thought it would be someplace obvious, like the hills, or maybe the clouds. I even checked AJ’s barn, and nothing. But of course, they all just had to be hiding outside the barn. I mean, who would look out there? You felt how hot it was outside, anypony would have just gone into the barn where it was all shady and cool.”

A long silence followed the words, and Twilight chuckled weakly. Turning her head to the left, towards the voices, she cracked an eye open. “Don’t ask.” She croaked, looking at the golden eyes of the shaman. “It won’t help. It’s just Pinkie.”

“Twilight!” Another voice yelped. The mare had a stronger, more musical tone than the zebra or earth pony, and Twilight twisted her neck to try and catch a glimpse of the speaker. She had moved too fast though, and suddenly laying still seemed like a very good idea. Maybe then, the ceiling would stop changing shape in such a disturbing manner.

A head popped into existence above her, a pink blob with a wide white slash running across its lower half. A second later, two more heads appeared beside it, first the striped, lopsided cranium of Nolux, then the dark, clearer vision of Princess Luna. It was shocking, the difference between the two mares and the Princess, like the difference between night and day. Where they appeared to be little more than shapeless splashes of color that swam disoncertingly through her view, the dark features of Luna were clear and well defined.

“Come back to us, Twilight.” The Luna head said, smiling down at her. Her voice was distorted, like she was speaking from underwater, thick and fluid. “You need to wake up. There is somepony here to meet you.”

“Mmm,” Twilight groaned, one hoof swiping weakly above her. “Can’t... think.”

Light, even her own voice was muffled. Twilight’s thoughts seemed to be the only things unaffected by the strange distortion, they were crystal clear and moving quickly. Wake up. Luna had said wake up, and the Night Mare would know about dreams, if anypony did. She must be teetering on the edge of slumber, barely awake, but not yet asleep.

With a herculean effort, Twilight sat up, trying to banish the lingering fog of exhaustion as she did. All three heads wobbled, before the wavy outlines blurred together in a gutwrenching mashup, before sorting themselves out once again. This time, thankfully, the colors stayed in the lines though, and each face was steady, even if they were still a little blurry.

Rubbing her eyes, Twilight groaned again. “What happened?”

“Yes, sister.” Another voice called, and Twilight turned to glance at the source. Standing in the doorway, lavender eyes wide with fear, disbelief, or rage, was Princess Celestia. Her sides were heaving, and a slight wince accompanied each inhalation, but the mare seemed hardly to notice. “What happened.”

“Ah.” Luna said, meekly.

“Yes, ah. Now, sister mine, by the Light, what happened?”

“Actually,” Nolux broke in, blushing. “I would like to know that, myself. I saw... well, I’m not sure what I saw, but at the end there was... I don’t know.”

“That was me.” Twilight spoke, quiet. “You saw me trying to stop the sun.”

“What?” The room was silent, save for that one, soft voice. Twilight grimaced at the quiet words, and cast an apologetic look at her former teacher.

“It was killing you, Celestia. I, I’m sorry, but I couldn’t stand there and do nothing.”

“You stopped the Sun?” Pinkie Pie asked, voice flat. Her eyes were wide and very blue. “Like, the big ball of hydrogen fusing, atomic reactor in the sky?”

“Yes?” Twilight asked, confused. What? Hydro... the sun was water? “Nevermind. I made a shield, and used it to stop the sun from feeding off of you, after you passed out. Then I just, I had to hold it until the spell ran out of fuel.”

Twilight’s voice got quieter and quieter as she spoke, four pairs of wide eyes fixed on her. This must be how Fluttershy feels all the time.

“FLUTTERSHY!” Twilight yelped, jerking forward. Her legs got tangled in the soft blankets of the bed though, and instead of leaping from the bed and rushing to find her friends, she tumbled face first into the hard stone floor. Stars burst into life, dancing before her eyes as she swore. Yanking herself free from the sheets she had dragged off the bed with her, Twilight made for the door.

“Twilight, they are fine.” Pinkie Pie said, sliding into the doorway from nowhere. She smiled reassuringly, but held out a hoof to stop her friend. “I found them all, and they are all resting up. Nopony was hurt, and... well, it will take awhile to get Fluttershy better, but all of her injuries were taken care of. Princess Luna brought us all to Canterlot, and the best doctors in the world made sure everypony was in tip top shape. Don’t worry, you can see them when they wake up, okay? They are all going to be okay, Pinkie Promise”

“O-okay.” Twilight panted, reaching a hoof up to press against her forehead. Without the urge to find her friends. to make sure that they were okay, the pain of the sudden movement caught up to the little unicorn. Her head ached at the abrupt movement, and she sat down very suddenly on the floor.

From the floor, she could see the room at last. It was the same room she had lived in for most of her life, the top of the Library Tower, crammed with books, scrolls and tomes. The bed behind her was the one she had slept on, whenever she hadn’t cuddled up with the Princess, or fallen asleep reading on a cushion. The soft purple blanket, the same color as her coat, and the Princess’s eyes, was in a puddle a few feet away.

“Twilight that... I know that your friends are important, but...” Nolux said, then hesitated. She bit her lip though, and finished the thought. “But you stopped the sun? I know I’m not one of you, magical and, kind of scary, but that sounds really difficult.”

“It should be impossible.” Luna said, quiet. Her eyes hadn’t left Twilight’s face, the whole time, and there was a sad confusion in the indigo irises. “It should have killed anypony less than an alicorn to even try, much less succeed. Even with my help, Twilight should be dead.”

“I...” Twilight stopped. She could still feel her connection to the caves, to the vast network of crystals that had hummed with energy. Now, those caves were almost silent. Would they even believe her if she told them? Twilight Sparkle sighed, and began once more. “Its a long story, but it started right after... after the wedding.”

Author's Notes:

Yeah, I'm not evil enough to leave you with that cliffhanger for two weeks.

... Well, I am, but I had a bunny thumping my skull, so you are spared.

Hugs and Kisses, I'm off to vacation,

Nadake