The amount of ponies creeping into Brayside was astounding Twilight as much as it was confusing her. She'd seen that Puddingarde had been fairly busy with training during her last visit, but not so much so as to account for nearly three thousand ponies, or so she thought. That wasn't including the ponies that were being recalled from other places now their purposes were fulfilled. To say Brayside was busy was an understatement.

Boats were docking at the river in droves, unloading food and other supplies, as well as weapons and armour for those ponies that had travelled here without them. A forest of tents was set up around the former pegasus facility as the already overcrowded building was pushed past its capacity.

Twilight was also shocked by the number of unicorns present. Previously the unicorns and earth ponies had kept a fairly even split, but it seemed to sway more in favour of the unicorns after Bitmark had joined the rebellion. It was just unfortunate that barely a quarter of all unicorns were tested as having the aptitude to complete the adept training. The rest had to rely on just their telekinesis to use their weapons, which still gave them a small advantage over earth ponies in that regard.

Sometimes Twilight almost felt she could understand the sad bias of earth ponies being the underdogs of pony kind. Too bad for unicorn supremacists, she knew the truth that pony kind would likely starve without them as only an earth pony could get three, maybe four harvests in a season.

Luna had also found the time to finish her explosives, meaning that they hopefully now had the means for the pegasi to disarm Prance of its siege weapons, while also giving the rest of them the means to breach its wall.

All these ponies, all this time spent, all pointed at the walls of Prance like a big, fleshy, yet highly volatile battering ram, and all mostly pulled together in the week that had passed since the unfortunate events that led to the unnecessary execution of a mare that didn't need to be killed even if the overwhelming opinion was that she had it coming.

Twilight had hoped to postpone the attack on Prance for a time while she tried to figure out the mess she had found during all that, but it seemed things didn't want to wait for her while she wrestled that particular bear. Then she figured that the glaring problems wouldn't become too obvious until the war was over and the flames had died down, and ponies collectively asked the question of 'what now?' She felt she had the time, and keeping ponies focused on Prance might prevent them from asking questions nopony really had an answer to.

So here she was making a show of surveying the troops, checking their readiness, walking along surrounded by thousands of ponies... and yet she had somehow managed to miss the one pony she'd actually like to talk to for that entire week. It became pretty obvious that Trixie was avoiding her after the first day, let alone week, and it was starting to get on Twilight's nerves. However, the one pony she wanted to avoid, Snowbright, she had seen an unfortunate amount of since he was second in command. It didn't seem fair.

The other ponies not finding things fair were Fleur and the filly. Twilight and Trixie obviously had their roles to fulfill, as did Octavia and Summer, but they were stuck at a loose end as their one job as spymasters had come to the abrupt conclusion of having all of Seeker's shades in Brayside after they had accidentally been caught up in the call-back.

It hadn't been particularly gratifying either to find that the information they had between them could barely fill half a page. Either their enemy had gotten a lot smarter at hiding things, or had giving up making things worth hiding. Twilight wasn't sure which concerned her more, even if one was far more preferable to the other.

All these thoughts flew from Twilight as she finally caught sight of the one pony she'd been seeking crouched around a camp fire next to the massive stockpile of firewood Twilight had requested, along with a dozen other ponies. While blue was a fairly common colour for a pony, it was rarer to have it combined with a pale silvery white and blue mane and tail. In all honesty though, even if Trixie had shaved her mane and tail and dyed herself, there was no disguising that horn.

"So this is where you've been hiding..." In plain sight, surrounded by more ponies than Twilight could currently count. It was so simple as to be devious as Twilight hadn't considered searching outside the facility thinking that Trixie wouldn't eschew the small comforts that place provided. Not wanting to waste the opportunity she snatched Trixie up in her magic and carried her somewhere quiet.

"What are you doing? Put me down! I don't know who you are, but you're messing... with... the..." Trixie gulped and put on a fake smile as Twilight orientated Trixie to face her, "Oh... hey Twilight... Long time no see."

"It has been a long time, hasn't it." Twilight jabbed a hoof at Trixie's chest, "You're avoiding me."

"What? Me? Nooo..." Trixie protested as she feebly struggled against Twilight's grip on her, "I'm not sure why you would think that! Ha ha haa-urgh..." Twilight squeezed her magic a little, making Trixie squeak with shock, "Aah! Alright! Yes! I was avoiding you! Happy now?"

Not wanting to make a guess as to how long it had been since she was actually close to something she could regard as happy, Twilight instead released Trixie, letting her slump to the ground.

"Why were you avoiding me Trixie?" Twilight asked, sounding a little hurt.

"Really? You mean to say you don't hate me after I sided with Snowbright?"

"I won't deny that I'm a little hurt and disappointed Trixie, but I know you have your reasons to do what you did, flimsy though they might be, and I still can't find it in myself to really hate you. I'm actually more annoyed that you've been avoiding me."

Trixie seemed incredulous, "Really?"

"I saw you at the execution Trixie, I saw how ashamed you were, I saw you look away. If you'd been like the rest of them I might have hated you, but instead I'm just confused. Why were you in favour of it if you're ashamed of what you did?"

Trixie sighed and ground her hoof into the dirt, "I'm not ashamed of my choice," she explained, "although I'm certainly not proud of it either. I'm ashamed of how we got there. I heard you in the meeting after, when you were talking about how Snowbright twisted it to get his way. You were right, he did plan on getting our soldiers to vote because he knew they'd vote the way he wanted. And I'm ashamed for going against you when you're my friend."

Twilight closed her eyes and sighed through her nose. It seemed that conflicting feelings were going to happen today, whether she'd had enough of them or not. She'd had quite a lot of them for the last week.

"You're allowed to have your own opinions Trixie," she said at last, "even if they're different to mine. The thing is it wasn't really your opinion, was it? You were doing it purely so there was no reason to take the Duke alive." Trixie hung her head. "The thing is I understand that."

Trixie slowly raised her head again, "You do?"

"Luna pointed it out to me on the way up here that I'm a hypocrite for wanting to ban the death penalty while still wanting to kill Pearl. Even though I hate that the death penalty is here to stay, I have to admit a small, nasty part of me is pleased I have no reason to have to hold back and take Pearl alive."

Trixie smiled lopsided, "You know the death penalty is unrelated to fighting and maybe killing her in self defence."

"I know that, but now there's no pressure to have to take her alive when she would be executed anyway." Twilight bit her lip; it sounded silly when she said it out loud.

"What if she surrenders?"

"She gets executed," Twilight said with a shrug. "I know how silly this sounds, but yeah."

"You have it better than me then," said Trixie. "Even with the death penalty in place, how am I supposed to justify killing an unarmed elderly couple? Now I think about it, I should've voted against it, so I'm not executed for murder. Shit."

Twilight blinked. She'd never really made an issue of Trixie wanting to kill the Duke, as there was probably a queue for that, but hearing it the way Trixie did right now... "And you're really okay with killing them like that? Two elderly ponies, completely unarmed and helpless when you face them?"

"Tell me they don't deserve it Twilight. Go on, say it." Trixie shrugged as Twilight stammered, "Tricky isn't it? Trixie chooses to see it as killing the Duke rather than the other way, even if Trixie gets executed for it anyway," she muttered at the end. "Can't believe I was dull enough to support Snowbright."

"You said it yourself Trixie, Snowbright would've won anyway," Twilight said as she tried to put Trixie's thoughts on killing the Duke aside.

"Yeah, but, you know..." Trixie shook her head. Both of them were wandering into moral conundrums not worth worrying about at the moment. Instead she should at least be happy that Twilight didn't hate her. "What about Fleur and the others? Do they hate me?"

"Uhhhh... I don't know. Maybe? I've tried to explain your point of view as best as I could, but I think they're feeling betrayed that you sided against them more than anything else."

Trixie hid her face behind her hooves and groaned into them, "I've really fucked this up."

Twilight offered a hoof to pull Trixie up, "I think apologising would be a good place to start."

"I'll just add it to my list of grievances," said Octavia.

"I'm not angry if anypony else isn't," said Summer.

"You're a fucking idiot, but fine, whatever," said Fleur.

"Doesn't anypony realise I was in favour of executing Hotpot since she tried to kill me!" said the filly. "Seriously, do none of you remember that?"

"It could've been worse," said Twilight.

"Sure..." said Trixie.

"So, what did I miss while I was slumming it?" Trixie asked as they made their way to the control room which was serving temporary service as a command room.

"We're planning on marching to Prance tomorrow."

Trixie's eyes bulged in their sockets, "Tomorrow? Really? Why didn't anypony tell me?"

"Do I really need to answer that?" Twilight said flatly.

"But there's so much I need to prepare!"

"Such as?" Twilight laughed. She really couldn't tell if Trixie was being serious.

"Loads! This is Prance we're talking about! The big 'P!' If we take Prance we finally have a shot at High Rock and ending this Twilight! We can't afford to mess this up, so we have to be ready."

Twilight hadn't thought of it in those terms, and the idea that Prance was the turning point in the war was... odd. She'd heard it said that they were winning the war by more than one pony, but to think that taking Prance was to almost win altogether was unsettling. It seemed like barely yesterday that they were a ragtag group of rebels scurrying about the tunnels beneath Neigh Orleans, now they were about to fight the most decisive battle of the war.

Panic is fine. Panic is perfectly rational.

"I'm guessing you've had Prance scouted out," Trixie continued, totally unaware of the panic swirling around Twilight's head. "Did they learn anything new?"

"No, not really," Twilight squeaked. She blushed at the odd way Trixie looked at her and pulled herself together a little. "That is, not much. The remnant of storm's taken a turn for the deadly according to Spitfire. Flying through it to learn more would be suicide. Apart from that, everything else has been fairly consistent with what we've learnt on previous scouting missions. She should be back soon with new information."

"There has to be more than that! What about enemy numbers? Troop placement? The civilians that are still living there in their thousands!"

"Technically over half of the Grand Army is in Prance, somewhere between ten to fifteen thousand of them since they've been conscripting. Placement seems to be inside the city, funnily enough, but probably works on a staggered defence going from the front gates back, so they can fall back as we push forwards. Of course we're hoping to totally avoid all that by blowing a hole in the wall around the back. Civilians..." This was the bit Twilight hated, as there was no way to work around it, "We have to accept there may be civilian casualties. Hopefully they'll stay out of the way as best they can."

"I get the feeling this is poorly planned at best, like most of our strategies. Why aren't we using that thing Fleur used to break in? That drain thing?"

"Firstly, bottleneck. Secondly, you really think they haven't prepared for that?"

Trixie paused, her hoof on the final walkway to the control room, "You mean we're seriously winging it here? In Prance? One of two major enemy strongholds? Seriously?"

"What do you want me to say Trixie?" Twilight gasped with exasperation. "There's only one way to win this battle, and that's to take the lower city, then upper, then the castle. All that while trying to not get civilians killed, our own side wiped out, and avoiding whatever Pearl has planned for us. I wish I could say I have every contingency worked out, but I don't. After my last trip to Prance, I really wish I did."

Trixie nudged her elbow against Twilight's side, "You'll have me there this time. That'll make all the difference."

Twilight smiled weakly, "I'm sure the thousands of other ponies we have here might have some effect on things too."

"Meh, maybe. But not as much as Trixie. Ever dependable Trixie. Yup."

Twilight sighed at Trixie's unsubtle guilt, "Oh stop it Trixie. The vast majority of ponies here voted against me, and I hardly hate everypony because of that. Hopefully they'll change their minds on it in the future, or Celestia might think of some way to convince them. Now come on, they're waiting."

Snowbright smiled at Trixie as they entered the room, but whether it was out of a shared victory or something else was to be left a mystery as she completely blanked him in favour of everypony else. Everypony else being Daybreak, Thorn, Luna, and Spitfire, fresh from a workout if the sweat on her face was any indication.

"Welcome back Spitfire," Twilight said jovially while Snowbright frowned at her, "learn anything new?"

Spitfire snapped to attention and saluted, "Nothing you want to hear ma'am. The storm's on the verge of breaking down completely. Another two or three weeks and it'd probably tear itself apart and dissipate. But if you want to attack tomorrow I seriously recommend clearing it out for the safety of your pegasi."

"I thought pegasi were lightning proof," Thorn said slowly, like she suspected she was about to be told otherwise.

"To a point," said Twilight. "Tame, pegasus made lightning still hurts, but does little lasting damage. Wild lightning like that storm's putting out though... I found a dead pegasus in the clouds last time I was there, and it's had a lot of time to get worse since then."

"How'd you think the shock collars worked if they're immune to lightning," Trixie laughed. "Didn't think of that one did you?"

"Even if pegasi were immune to lightning," Luna said as she scowled at Trixie for her inappropriate laughter, "they're carrying weapons made of metal, including the bombs we intend to use to eliminate their siege weapons. Unless you want pegasi exploding mid-flight, I support clearing the storm out."

Snowbright cleared his throat, "I'm not expert at weather, but don't pegasi have to touch the clouds to destroy them? How are they supposed to do that if its so dangerous?"

"With great difficulty," said Spitfire.

"Could magic do it?" Daybreak asked, his eyes fixed on Twilight's horn.

"It could," Luna confirmed. "I'm afraid it might fall to you to clear this storm out Twilight. Although, I could find you some... outside assistance if you wish it?"

Twilight nodded, "Yes please Selene. I guess we all know the plan by now, so if you've got nothing else to do, I suggest you rest up." Daybreak raised his hoof, "Yes Daybreak?"

"You know I'm not actually taking part in this, right?"

Twilight rolled her eyes, "I know that. You focus on setting up supply lines to Prance once things are settled."

"I still think we should make a distraction at the front gates," said Snowbright. "Something to keep their attention away from where we'll actually be attacking."

"You mean besides all the explosions as we destroy their siege weapons?" Thorn sniggered. "Come on Snowbright, really?"

"Yes really! If they see us coming up behind Prance before we get to the wall, it's going to be so much harder to pull this off. We need something to keep them focused at the main gate."

"Shadow and her thestrals will be clearing the walls of enemy soldiers," said Twilight, "but yes, I agree a little extra distraction wouldn't hurt. Why do you think I requested so much firewood?"

"I was wondering," Daybreak muttered.

"Don't you worry Snowbright, it's all in hoof."

"You enjoyed that, didn't you?" Luna said cheerfully as she, Twilight, and Trixie made their way down through the facility.

"Yes," Twilight said, not bothering to hide how satisfying it was to annoy Snowbright like that. "Quite frankly I think he needs a reminder that he's not in charge after last week. Besides, it doesn't actually hurt him to not know."

"Hurts me," said Trixie.

"We're going to build what looks like a massive campsite a mile or so from the city, so it looks like we're placing it under siege, when all we're really doing is lighting a whole bunch of fires. That way they'll hopefully think we're going to attack from the front at a later time, and that we're only destroying their siege weapons for our protection. Since this is all taking place at night, they won't be able to tell its not an actual campsite, and they certainly won't be prepared for us coming through the wall."

"Crafty..."

"Hopefully they won't see through the ruse," said Luna. "I might've suggested bombing their siege weapons a few nights ago if I had thought of it. Of course we would've had to clear the storm out sooner though."

"Won't us clearing the storm out also make them suspect something's up?" said Trixie. "It's not like you can do it secretly."

"She has a point," agreed Luna.

"I know, which is why we're going to do this using one of my favourite things!"

"Magic?" said Luna.

"'Friendship?'" Trixie suggested teasingly.

"No, science!" Twilight blushed, "But also magic, and yes, maybe friendship too. Who knows?"

Twilight watched quietly as Spitfire and Soarin compressed water vapour into a cloud. Even seeing it up close like this, Twilight still had no idea how it worked. She'd asked them to explain it, but after stumbling over their words for a bit, all they had managed was that it just seemed to work. This left Twilight wondering whether it was instinctual for pegasi to know how to do it, or if pegasus magic was intuitive, somehow knowing what to do while requiring only physical input from the pegasus itself, which seemed less likely. Neither conclusion pleased her.

"Maybe it's like dark magic," said Trixie. "I don't really know what I'm doing, but when I need to do something specific, I suddenly know how."

"I can't believe I'm comparing pegasus magic to dark magic," Twilight grumbled, "but perhaps you're onto something. It still takes practice to do what a pegasus can do though."

"Scholars from my day long suspected it was the angling of a pegasi's feathers that regulated their magic," said Luna, "but then they found that to be unique to each pegasi. Then they found that what a pegasus might do to brake mid-air was the same as what they might do to produce lightning. That led them to believe pegasus magic is fueled by desire. Back in the the pre-exodus days it was believed that a pegasi's warrior spirit dictated how good they were at weather magic."

"Is that why they were more militarized than the other tribes?" Twilight asked. She'd never read any of this before, and was keen to hear more.

Luna nodded, "It was."

"Did it work?"

"Yes, but not for the reasons they think. They simply practiced more, and had a greater desire to succeed."

"Hold on," Trixie interrupted. "You said a pegasus could produce lightning with their wings. You mean as in raw lightning came from their wings."

"Quite so." Luna sighed and frowned as she watched the Wonderbolts work. "The skill seems to have mostly died. It's how the Wonderbolts charge their contrails, but that's only half of it. Ancient pegasi warriors used to be able to throw lightning off their wings. Devastating in effect, but also risky. Now they produce lightning in the weather factory and bottle it. Scientifically fascinating, yet utterly bizarre."

"Do you know how to do it?" Twilight asked thoughtfully.

Luna shook her head, "My training regimen in my youth consisted entirely of magic and weapons training. Pegasi methods were left untouched beyond learning to fly. A shame really."

"The thestrals don't know it either?"

"Sadly their wings are woefully inadequate for weather management, beyond cloud-busting anyway. A small sacrifice at the time, but still a sad loss of their heritage. Frankly I'm still kicking myself over leaving their wings so vulnerable. Not even pegasi have that weakness! I fear I may have been too caught up in them being my children of the night to-" Luna froze as Twilight cleared her throat loud enough to make the Wonderbolts stop and look. "Was I rambling? I was rambling wasn't I?"

"You were beginning to, yes."

"Apologies." They waited as the Wonderbolts finished off making the fake storm cloud above. They had all seen weather made before, but sitting here, waiting for it to happen was agonisingly slow. It wasn't a long stretch of the imagination to think most pegasi here actually died of boredom. Thankfully it wasn't too much longer until the Wonderbolts came in to land and announce that the cloud was ready.

"We think we've got it to roughly the same density of the storm clouds around Prance," Spitfire said to them, "but the way it reacts compared to those clouds might be different due to it not actually being a storm cloud."

Trixie held up a hoof, "Yeah, I'm just a mere unicorn, uninitiated in the mystical ways of weather, but how exactly do you 'cloud-bust' a storm cloud usually, and why can't you do that in Prance?"

"Normally a pegasus made storm cloud expends its lightning during the course of a storm, leaving the cloud fairly benign afterwards, as long as you bust it before it starts going bad," Twilight explained.

"The problem is," Spitfire continued, "the clouds over Prance have become wild. They're making their own lightning, which makes them really dangerous to get close to."

"So you're going to use magic to clear them out?"

Twilight smiled and nodded, "Precisely. A massive shockwave should take them all out at once, but since we'll have a battle to fight right after, I don't want to expend all my energy doing that. Hence why we're doing this, to work out the minimum expenditure of energy possible."

Trixie rolled her eyes at Twilight's enthusiasm for this, "Suddenly the science part of all this makes sense. Sleepy time for Trixie I guess."

"Nopony's making you stay here if you want to go somewhere else."

Trixie shrugged and rested on her haunches, "Nah, I'll just sit here and watch. Maybe criticise things a bit. Laugh when you mess up. Maybe I'll learn something in case Trixie ever becomes an alicorn."

Twilight's words caught in her throat, "A-a-a- A what? Why would you become an alicorn?"

Trixie smirked at the stuttering Twilight, "I dare say stranger things have happened. Besides, Trixie thinks she'd make a marvellously majestic alicorn."

Twilight looked to Luna, the dark unicorn shrugging, "You must admit that stranger things have happened."

"Not that many!" Twilight sighed and pushed the thought aside. Trixie was only teasing her after all. "Nevermind. Spitfire, how much force would you have to use to bust a cloud like this?"

Spitfire rubbed her chin thoughtfully, then looked to Soarin who shrugged. "It's a two hoofer for sure boss," he said. Spitfire nodded in agreement.

"Meaning..?" Twilight prompted.

"Meaning you kick it almost as hard as you can."

"I'm afraid there's a large difference in the force of a pegasus bucking a cloud and an alicorn using magic," said Luna. "Entire magnitudes of difference."

"I still don't get how kicking a cloud destroys it," Trixie muttered.

"Kicking it sends a pressure wave through the cloud, destabilising and destroying it," Twilight explained. "Surely you could've worked that out on your own?"

Trixie walked up to the cloud that was barely floating above ground level and rapidly waved her hoof through it. "Not a lot there for me to go on. Seems Trixie's primitive unicorn brain just can't comprehend being a pegasus. The only reason I know the cloud's there is because I can see it, and because Trixie's hoof is now wet." She flicked the water off her hoof towards Twilight for emphasis.

Twilight wiped the water her face and glared at Trixie, "I think you've made your point, so if you could shush, I'd like to get this worked out." She created a bubble of magic in front of her, "Spitfire, could you buck that like you would the cloud please?"

Spitfire complied and bucked the bubble as hard as she could, the bubble making a strange sploing sound as a result. It was also a little disheartening that Twilight wasn't phased in the slightest, even though it was a pretty hard buck. She merely frowned as she made calculations, the bubble still completely intact.

"So if I were to spread that force over a wider area rather than in a single point, would it still destroy the cloud? Or does the process rely on it being hit in a single point?" She shook her head. Rainbow Dash's sonic rainbooms could destroy clouds with ease, over a two dimensional area, so the point of impact was probably irrelevant.

"Don't forget to factor in travel distance," Luna said cheerfully. She seemed to be enjoying the sight of Twilight deep in thought. "You can't let the spell grow weaker the further it goes."

"Also there's hundreds of clouds," Trixie added helpfully. "Not just one."

Twilight growled in the back of her throat, "I realise that, thank you."

"Well?" Trixie said impatiently, "We're waiting!"

"Alright! As far as I can tell, to clear clouds with that kind of force in a mile radius would take enough energy at once to burn me out at least twice over, so I got nothing."

"So you need some kind on amplifier," said Luna.

"Yeah, but I don't exactly have one of those lying around."

"What about that thing that happen during that wedding in Canterlot?" Soarin asked. "The big shield thingy that blew all the changelings out of the city?"

"That was..." Twilight rotated a hoof, "extenuating circumstances. If I had my brother and Cadence here to give him a boost as she fed off his raw love, maybe. But since that isn't going to happen, we need to think of something else."

"Raw love? Raw love. Raw love..." Luna repeated those two words a few more times before a smile lit up her face. "The crystal heart! That would work as an amplifier for the spell!"

"Except it works off emotional energy rather than magical energy," Twilight reminded her.

"Then think happy thoughts as you do it, duh."

"That's not how it works Trixie!"

"Actually," Luna said slowly, "Trixie's idea isn't without merit."

"Hah!" Twilight glowered at Trixie while Luna continued.

"The shield your brother and Cadence conjured was fed by emotional energy, yet worked exactly as a regular shield would."

Trixie kept grinning at Twilight, "Love the crystal heart Twilight. Love it with all your might. Get really intimate with it if you have to. I'm sure it's not that chilly."

"I swear to Celestia Trixie..." Twilight took a deep breath and slowly exhaled until she no longer felt like slapping Trixie. "Right, what are you trying to say Luna?"

"I'm saying that the crystal heart you have would likely act as an amplifier if you cast the spell using an emotion based magic rather than with arcane magic."

"Sooo..." Trixie went cross-eyed as she looked up at her own horn, "you mean like dark magic?"

"Oh heavens no," Luna said quickly. "I was thinking of its opposite, light magic. I suspect that pumping dark magic into a love driven object like the crystal heart would be all kinds of disastrous."

"Like explosively cloud clearing disastrous?"

"No, the more general and oft less convenient kind of disastrous."

"Ah, right."

Twilight ignored them as best she could. She was too busy thinking on how to translate something like that into emotion. The shockwave part wasn't too hard to translate as a shockwave was basically a shield in motion. What was difficult was everything else. Twilight hadn't put much practical application into light magic beyond opening doors that led to your worst nightmare. Not to mention there was the emotional train wreck she'd been for a while now. Light magic might be beyond her.

"Twilight, ma'am?" Twilight jolted back to reality as Spitfire tried to get her attention. "Was there anything else you need us for? We still have plenty to prepare for tomorrow."

"Actually, there is something you can do, and I'm afraid it might take a while. I need one of you to fly to Puddingarde to fetch the crystal heart. I would do it myself, but I think I'm going to need the time to work the spell out."

The two pegasi looked at each other, "You're faster," said Soarin.

"Yeah, I know," Spitfire groaned. "I want you putting those newbies through their paces while I'm gone. Last thing we need is them messing up and getting themselves hurt."

"Yeah yeah." Soarin grinned and saluted lazily as Spitfire raced off.

"How is she?" Twilight asked once she was gone.

"She's keeping it together. Until we hear anything off Fleetfoot though, I'm not sure she'll be totally okay."

"She still blames herself?"

"More than once she's woke up from a nightmare shouting Fleetfoot's name. Manages to kick me in the balls every time too. I'm going to say now that she might never forgive herself fully."

"She what? Are you saying you two are..." Twilight placed the flats of her hooves together and twisted them a bit. "You know..."

"Sleeping together in the same bed for her comfort?"

Twilight's cheeks turned crimson from having assumed that Spitfire and Soarin were having relations. "Oh! Right! Is that- Is that what you're doing? Good! Great! That's great!"

"We're also having sex a lot. I think its guilt sex, only I thought you were meant to have that with the pony you hurt." Soarin shrugged, "I'm not complaining." Twilight's blush turned an even darker shade of red.

"I really hope you know what you're doing then, so you don't hurt her."

"Are you kidding? As wild as she is I'm afraid of her hurting me sometimes!"

"Not what I meant! You're dismissed!" Twilight was afraid her cheeks might catch fire if they got even hotter.

"You are such a prude," Trixie teased as Twilight rejoined her and Luna, both of them having been listening in the entire time.

"I'm more concerned that Soarin would speak like that to somepony that is both his princess and superior," said Luna.

"Have to admire his honesty though."

Luna raised her muzzle slightly, "If that kind of honesty is something you admire, then go right ahead."

"Will you stop!" Twilight shouted. "I don't want to think about it! Luna, I'll need your help working this spell out. Trixie, just... be good."

Twilight glared at the cloud with angry defiance, although she was sure the cloud was pretty indifferent to her defiance, angry or not, much as it seemed to be indifferent to everything else she was doing to it.

"What am I doing wrong?" she growled.

"Besides getting angry at a cloud?" Trixie joked. To say she'd been enjoying the sight of Twilight failing at magic wouldn't be entirely true. She'd really been enjoying it, and was supplementing it by lounging in the shade the cloud provided.

"Not helping!"

Luna forced Twilight to sit down and take a deep breath before she exploded from cloud induced rage. "I fear you're not quite grasping this Twilight. You can't force this to happen. What are you thinking as you try to cast the spell?"

"That I would love, love, love this cloud to blow up!"

Luna winced, "That's probably not quite the best thing to be thinking."

"I know!" Twilight steadied herself and emitted a drawn out sigh, "I know... I just... I don't know if I have it in me to create those kinds of emotions right now."

"Nonsense Twilight. If you were to conjure a shield right here you'd be doing some of the work without thinking of it. This can't be much more different."

Trixie sat up slightly, "Eh? What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that a shield is two parts know how, one part raw power, and one part emotion, as in the desire to protect," Luna explained. "I suspect that desire to protect is what's lacking from your own efforts at forming shields Trixie."

"Hey! I protect! Just... aggressively."

"Quite..."

"Well..." Trixie paused for a moment as she thought, "Maybe Twilight should be thinking of what she loves more than of the spell itself. Her friends in Ponyville, her friends here, me, Fleur's tush, that sort of thing." Trixie smiled lopsidedly as Twilight growled, "I'm sure Fleur wouldn't mind strutting it for you if it helped?"

"Why did I come find you again?"

"Because you love me too much, obviously."

"Actually, Trixie's idea may not be without merit." Luna screwed her face up slightly as she realised what she'd said. "Never thought I'd say that twice in one day."

"Hey!"

Luna spoke quickly before another petty argument broke out. "Perhaps it might help you to think of what you love."

"Fleur's taut buttocks jiggling slightly with each step," Trixie said dreamily. "Her fur and cutie marks glistening with a slight sheen of moisture as though she's been out for a morning run, or just had a shower so she's nice and fresh... She smiles seductively at you and teases her tail to the side, giving you an all too short glimpse of her incredibly kissable marehood, and you want nothing more than to-"

"Not what I meant Trixie," Luna scolded. Twilight stared ahead blankly, not sure whether to be more concerned at the level of detail Trixie could give of Fleur's rear, or that she had imagined it so clearly. "Twilight?"

"Not thinking about it!"

"I sure am," Trixie purred. "I make Fleur sound hot. Maybe I should stop reading those erotic novels... Or start writing my own. Hmm..."

"Help her think of her Ponyville friends!" Luna shouted, her patience rapidly thinning.

"Oh! Okay... uh, Rainbow Dash is... dashing... dashingly. Apple- I want to say Applejess... but I know that's not quite right."

"Applejack!"

"Ah yes, Applejack. Applejack is apple-ing, like really hard. Her firm buttocks glistening in the sun with the sweat of a hard days work-"

"Trixie!"

"Shy pony has a mouse in her hoof. I'm not sure why, but it's freaking adorable, like they're multiplying the adorability factor of each other through sheer proximity. Then the pink maniac is planning a party, as she is wont to do, and it's for you after your triumphant return! Because she loves you that much. And the dragon. The dragon's there too." Trixie smiled at them, feeling genuinely pleased for helping Twilight remember people that Trixie barely knew.

"What about Rarity?" Luna asked after a few seconds.

Trixie blinked, "Who?"

"I refuse to believe you don't remember Rarity."

Trixie wracked her brain trying to remember. "Is she the dress pony? Hates green hair and the colour brown? Has the most adorable little sister called Sweetie Belle, who is so cute it's almost saccharin? Enough to give you diabetes just by looking at her? So cute!"

Twilight bared her teeth slightly, "If you make comments on Sweetie Belle's flank, I will hurt you."

"Ew! Gross! She's just a filly Twilight! What of kind of perverted mind do you think I have?"

"And I refuse to believe that's all you remember of Twilight's friends," said Luna.

Trixie spread her forelegs in exasperation, "What do you want from me? The first time I went to Ponyville I didn't care. The second time I was insane! Give Trixie a break, okay!"

"And yet you remember Sweetie Belle perfectly."

"How could I not?" Trixie clutched her hooves over her chest, "So cute!" she squeaked.

Luna planted a hoof in her face, then found room for a second. "Trixie... just be quiet, or leave, please. Either one."

"Fine." Trixie stood and stretched her stiffness away, "Trixie was getting hungry anyway."

Luna waited as Trixie sauntered away, shaking her head in disbelief at what could come out of that pony's mouth. She was about to try again without Trixie's assistance when she found Twilight sat with her head bowed, a lonely tear running down her cheek.

"Twilight?"

"I miss them so much Luna."

"Wait... Trixie actually succeeded?"

Twilight laughed through her tears, "It doesn't take much to make me think of them."

"And do you feel how much you love them?"

"Of course I do. Those ponies are everything to me. Knowing I get to go home and see them again is all that keeps me going some days."

"Then use that love, use it to power the spell."

Twilight closed her eyes and thought of her friends, and not just her friends in Ponyville, but those here, and her family. Her heart almost ached with the love she held for every one of them. She opened her eyes again to find her horn ablaze with delicate coils of light magic, which she carefully channelled into her spell. A wall of warming light spread from her horn, dissolving the cloud into delicate wisps that soon faded completely.

"Excellent Twilight," Luna said affectionately. "Channel that into the crystal heart, and I doubt we'll have any storm to worry about."

"Can I have a hug? I need a hug," Twilight whimpered, and Luna gladly obliged.

Author's Notes:

First off, I have nothing against Rarity, and even quite like her. That was just for humour. Secondly, I don't really know what I was doing with this chapter entirely. I think I needed a fluff piece before getting into the heavy stuff.

I was also planning to talk a bit about Legend of Everfree here. Maybe say things like 'OMG Flash! Way to rebound on your ex like a complete jackass! I hope you suffer a lifetime of rejection you waifu stealing jerk, and eventually get made incontinent in an amusing accident involving chocolate mousse and a cactus!' Then I might ask what you think the leak in the portal meant. My mind naturally led the negative conclusion of having to close the portal for good as the leak would harm both worlds. Then Sunset would have to choose to stay in human world or return to Equestria. But then I remembered this was a kids show, with money to make so long as the dolls keep selling.

But I'm not doing any of that because the bullshit 'It's out on the 1st October! Oh wait, no. That's just the Americas and a few other places. Sucks to be you if you don't live in those countries' thing that happened has left a very bad taste in my mouth. Seriously Hasbro, fuck you so much. At least I saw the English brazil version so hah! Or something.