Once it was dark enough, I decided to make my move. Unfortunately, Canterlot security was crazy this evening. I guess they've already put out the All Points Bulletin for Dash and me. I was tempted to go looking for the "Princess Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash have lost their minds; do not engage; contact a guard" posters which I assume are around. Granted, I actually have no idea if there really are any "Twilight is crazy" posters, but it's what I'd do, were I in my brother's position; assuming I'd also lost my mind and everything, of course.

Getting out wasn't easy. Shining Armor apparently didn't think putting up a citywide force field was a good idea. I suppose it would raise too many questions if he didn't have full control over the guard already, plus I know Princess Celestia's not around. Maybe this implies they don't have Princess Luna yet? Or, perhaps Luna is with them (as I suspect), but isn't ready to launch into a full-scale war with Princess Celestia. There just isn't enough information to do anything other than engage in wild speculation (which is never productive).

To get out of town I decided to turn myself into a gryphon and fly out directly. A pegasus guard watched me exit the southern perimeter of the city from about thirty meters away, but didn't approach further (whew). I timed it so the light wouldn't reveal my colors but would show my shape well, so that plan seems to have worked.

Aside: I had actually been working on this spell as a gift for Rainbow Dash. I don't want to think about it, as it makes me sad. Someday we'll be able to do it together, though. I'll let her play with transformation spells to her heart's content. I mean, why not? I don't even remember why I opposed the idea, to be honest. Maybe it had something to do with me being a prude about everything.

Of course, what I hadn't planned on was not knowing how to work a gryphon's body. Letting my legs relax and flapping worked pretty well, though it may have been obvious I was clumsy. For a while I was worried they'd take me in for drunk flying, but it didn't happen. (Gryphons are probably low on their watch list right now.) Fortunately for me I was able to change back after only a few minutes, once I'd reached a fairly safe distance from the perimeter. Back in my natural alicorn form I put the speed on (well, not like Rainbow Dash but the best I can manage) and flew the entire way to Ponyville nonstop. It was pretty late in the evening when I got there, and my wings were exhausted. I'm surprised I was able to do it. I think the fact I had the trots (eww, I know, sorry) was motivation to get to a proper bathroom as quickly as possible.

I landed on the balcony under cover of night. The balcony door was locked (I can't blame Spike) but easy to bypass. Spike was fast asleep. That didn't last, though. He ran into the upstairs bathroom screaming and attacked me with a frying pan until he realized it was actually me. I was of course mortified, as was he (seeing me there, you know) but I'm really proud of how brave he was! Spike waited until I finished up, and then we hugged.

"Thank Celestia you're back, Twilight. We were starting to get worried about you. I've got a lot to tell you..." he said.

"I'm sure you do!" I said. "I could really use a good night's sleep first, though We can discuss things in the morning, okay?"

Spike nodded. "Sure thing Twilight. We're safe here. Nopony has been coming by except Pinkie Pie, and she's been pretty discreet about it. Like, in general, not even just 'Pinkie Pie discreet' but actually stealthy," he said, and laughed. Oh how I've missed his smiling face. I love you Spike, I really do. You're the one rock that holds me firmly to the ground.

I quickly wrote this entry, and now I plan to sleep in. More in the morning.

Okay, this is a little bit of a mess. There's not a lot of room here to explain (I just didn't leave myself very much on this entry, oops), but future entries will make things clear enough. Apparently I had been missing an entire day: I was out of commission basically and didn't know it. Actually, that kind of happened twice but I know which one is which now.

So I've finally fixed the entry headers to match the correct days, now that I know where the time actually went.

Again, there will be much more on this later, but for now you can assume that the header dates are correct.