It was quiet inside the Castle of Friendship, as it tended to be whenever Princess Twilight Sparkle found something new to study. Princess or not, she was always eager to learn something new. She found an odd thrill at the prospect of not understanding something. If she didn't understand something, the only way to fix it would be to study it until there were no more questions to ponder. Becoming a Princess may have given her more responsibilities (as well as tedious paperwork), but she could always find the time to wind down with a good study session. It was very therapeutic for her. Fortunately, luck seemed to be on her side today. She had no paperwork to go through, no bills or decrees to look over, and no pony visiting her asking for advice. Which meant that she could spend all day locked in her library pouring over textbooks.

Twilight sat at one of the round wooden tables with her eyes eagerly scanning the text of one of the books she had picked out. On the table were several more books, each one reaching almost a thousand pages or more. She knew there was no way she would be able to thoroughly read through all of them in a reasonable amount of time, but she definitely liked the idea of knowing everything there was to know about this particular subject. The collection of books included such titles as Magic: The Foundation of Equestria, Measuring Magic: An Egghead's Guide and many others, all containing information on the laws and nature of magic. Not just unicorn magic, but all magic.

Twilight learned at a very young age that the world was built on a foundation of magic. All living things, as well as non-living things, contained some trace of magic within them, and this was common knowledge. What many ponies didn't know however was that all living things also interact with the magic of the planet whether they realize it or not. It's how Earth ponies interact with nature and plant life on a far deeper level than any other species. It's how pegasi manipulate the weather. Save for a few special instances, most Earth ponies and pegasi would not be able to explain how the magic within them works. In fact, it's likely that most of them have absolutely no idea they had magical energy within them unless they specifically study this topic. Unicorns and alicorns, however, have the luxury of being able to control their magic in ways that most other species will never be able to. Despite being the Element of Magic, she never really had the incentive to study something as complex as measuring and sensing magic in objects and other ponies. It wasn't until a few weeks ago when she had accidentally tapped into a new form of magic while helping Applejack with her farm.

After about an hour of carrying empty buckets and setting them up under trees, Applejack was able to convince Twilight to attempt to buck one of the trees. After a few failed attempts with no apples dropping, Twilight took a break and decided to observe Applejack's technique to find out what she was doing wrong. At first, she figured that she was just not strong enough for the job. Applejack had been working on the farm all her life, and she had plenty of experience bucking apples. Her hind hooves had the strength of ten stallions, that much was apparent. Her technique was also highly coordinated and very consistent with each tree she bucked. After a few moments of focusing on Applejack, Twilight had felt a strange surge of magic that did not come from her horn. Once she was aware of it, she redoubled her focus on Applejack's apple bucking. Every tree bucked released another surge of magical energy, with Applejack being its source.

Now that Twilight had experienced sensing magic first-hoof, she decided the only thing to do from there was to master the technique.

"Spike!" she shouted out towards the door. "Are you ready?" The voice of a young boy called back.

"Yep! Put your blindfold on, I'm coming in!" Twilight did as she was told. She heard the door open, followed by the pitter patter of a small dragons footsteps closing in on Twilight's reading table. She smiled as she started to sense Spike's magic within his body getting closer to Twilight. Mastering her technique in location based magic sensing was quite easy for her. In fact, magic sensing in general quickly became second nature to her. The next thing she wanted to work on was feeling the magic, for all forms of magic felt different from pony to pony, and object to object. She created this little test to see how well she can separate and identify different magical sources. A few light thuds were heard, and Twilight could feel slight vibrations on the table which indicated that the baby dragon was placing objects on her table. Once he was done, Spike turned to the blindfolded Twilight and spoke.

"Okay Twilight, here you go! Just like you asked! I put a few pieces of fruit on the table, and you're supposed to... um, do what exactly?" He grinned sheepishly, not that Twilight could see it anyways. Twilight chuckled.

"I need to identify the fruit using only my magic sensing capabilities," she explained. "As I've told you before, every source of magic feels similar to one another, so it's important to be able to pick up on the subtleties." She opened her mouth to continue further, but Spike was quick to interrupt her before she could.

"Okay okay, look I'm not here to learn the boring stuff. I'm just here to help you learn the boring stuff." Twilight sighed. It seemed she would never be able to get Spike to actively want to learn.

"Alright Spike, place one of the fruits directly in front of me." Spike did as he was told, opting to go for the apple first. She focused her mind on the very small amount of magic she felt emanating off of the item. Being that she had practiced this almost non-stop for weeks, she was immediately able to pick up on the subtleties of the magic.

Crisp. Very dense feeling for what little magic is there. Almost reminds me of how the magic in a tree feels, though much less prominent.

Twilight smiled as she spoke, "Apple."

"Whoa," Spike said in amazement with his jaw wide open. "That's kind of spooky Twilight. Pretty awesome though!"

"Thanks! Let's try another." Spike took the apple away and replaced it with another fruit.

Soft. The taste of the magic has a citrus tang to it.

"Orange," Twilight said proudly. Spike scratched his head.

"How are you even doing that?" he asked.

"Simple memorization of the taste and feeling of the magic. I only know them because I recognize them." It was true. After all, she had spent weeks sensing and measuring the magic in many objects. Fruit, plants, even non-organic objects. In fact, now that she thought about it, the only magic she hadn't tried to measure was a pegasus's. Maybe she'd ask Fluttershy or Rainbow Dash for help later on.

"Well, it's still kinda freaky," Spike said as he reached for the next fruit.

After finishing up her little experiment, Twilight sat back and let out a content sigh. She had progressed so much since starting her studies a few weeks ago. She had, of course, sent Princess Celestia reports on her progress. The Princess of the Sun was obviously quite proud of Twilight for the initiative she had put in. Celestia was the one who taught her how to control her magic since a very young age, and she was happy to see that becoming a Princess had not slowed down Twilight's desire to learn. Now that she looked over how much she had improved, Twilight felt another letter to Celestia was due. However, she wanted to get a feel for pegasus magic before sending the report.

Pegasus magic was still a bit of a mystery to Twilight. She had not yet delved into those sections in her textbooks, and she hadn't tried sensing pegasus magic actively. The closest thing to magic that Twilight felt come from a pegasus was the Sonic Rainboom during the Best Young Flyer's Competition. Of course, at that point in time, Twilight had not even considered the thought of sensing magic in the way that she was now practicing. Still, the amount of energy given off by the Sonic Rainboom could not be ignored. She had even felt it again during the wedding of Shining Armor and Princess Cadence. The Sonic Rainboom was a marvel of magic study, even more so since it was proven to be a real thing. If it weren't for the fact that Rainbow Dash was an Element of Harmony, she likely would have been overwhelmed with researchers and scientists asking her questions and requesting her to participate in experiments. It probably wouldn't have mattered though, since Rainbow would have likely brushed them off. She was never a pony meant for science, she was meant for one thing and one thing only. Speed.

She then realized that Rainbow Dash would be a perfect pony to attempt to magically sense. Her ridiculous speed while flying was already a bit of a marvel, but the Sonic Rainboom made her almost legendary. Twilight let out an excited giggle as she imagined the kind of magic that pegasus must hold within her body. Any pony that could break the sound barrier must be holding very powerful magic within their hooves. It might be hard to convince Rainbow to participate in a scientific experiment, but she couldn't pass up the opportunity to try.

Maybe if I word it just right, she won't mind. Besides, she's my friend. Why would she say no? Unless she was busy.

Twilight finally stood up and took a quick glance at the clock.

It's late in the afternoon. She should be finishing up her rounds in Sweet Apple Acres soon.

With that thought, she called out to her assistant who was reading currently reading a comic.

"Spike," she said, "I'm heading out for a little bit. Do you think you'll be okay staying here for a while until I get back?

"Yeah Twilight," he replied in a disinterested tone. "I got things handled here." He licked his claw and flipped a page in his comic book. Satisfied, Twilight exited the library and headed outside.

---

Poof!

High above the apple trees of Sweet Apple Acres, a multicolored blur could be seen racing through the skies. Following up from the cloud that had just dissipated, Rainbow Dash continued her ascent. Her speed began to slow in a controlled fashion as she flew higher in the skies. As the speed slowed to a crawl, she finished her ascent with a small flip and began rushing back down head first towards the ground. She looked at her next few targets with a grin, a plan forming in her mind.

She aimed at the first cloud below her, increasing her speed. She held her hooves out and stuck her tongue out in concentration, focusing on the feeling of the weather in the air. She flew straight through the cloud, giving it a sharp push with her hooves.

Poof!

She quickly pulled up and leveled herself parallel to the ground below, looking at her next target that was slightly above her. When she got closer, she quickly turned her body and began an aerial barrel roll. She hit the cloud at the peak of her maneuver.

Poof!

When she reached the end of the trick, she quickly followed it up with a large loop, passing through multiple clouds.

Poof! Poof! Poof!

Rainbow Dash began laughing, enjoying the thrill of her flight. Cloud busting was probably the best part of her job. It was almost like she was getting paid to practice her awesome tricks. She could never understand why the other pegasi who worked in Ponyville hated it so much. Sure, they weren't as awesome as Rainbow Dash was, but surely they could find some fun in flying around aimlessly punching clouds out of the sky. While Rainbow could not deny the importance of the Ponyville Weather Team, she felt that the members took the job a little too seriously. She especially hated her first few weeks on the job years back. The stiffs at the top of the management chain did not take so kindly to her stunt flying while on the job and had even threatened termination on multiple occasions. Of course, telling Rainbow Dash to stop practicing flight tricks was like asking Twilight Sparkle to stop reading books. Still, the unorthodox methods she used to complete her job bothered the higher ups. It wasn't until they took an objective look at her work performance by giving her a few random task inspections that they realized two things. Not only was Rainbow Dash extremely efficient at her job, but she was also extremely fast when it came to getting stuff done. She always liked to boast that she could clear the town's sky of all clouds in ten seconds flat, and it wasn't an exaggeration. Eventually, the managers of the Ponyville Weather Team decided to let the cyan pegasus be, albeit with random inspections every now and again to be sure she was doing her job correctly.

Poof!

Another cloud bit the dust as she reached the peak of an overbanked turn. She finished her routine off with a diving loop to take care of the last cloud in the area.

Poof!

She milked her routine a bit by diving down towards the ground, before quickly pulling up just before her hooves hit the ground and flew into a tight, quick loop. She flapped her wings quickly and hovered in the air for a brief moment before landing on the ground in the forest of apple trees.

"And that, ladies and gentlemen," she said egotistically to absolutely no one, "is how cloud busting is done!" She giggled at the imaginary crowd cheering her on and waved her clasped hooves in the air. Finally, she was done with work. Well, technically she wasn't really done. She was still on the clock, and she still had almost an hour to kill before she had to return to the Department of Ponyville Weather to find out her schedule from the managers and clock out. Perfect time for a nap.

She jumped in the air and fanned her wings towards the ground. Once she caught air she quickly ascended above the farm. She took a few glances around the area, looking for one of the Apple family members. If they were out and about doing farm work, she didn't want to nap in any of the trees. For one thing, she did not like being woken up from her slumber by the sound of a powerful buck, followed by her face planting itself into the ground below. Also, Applejack tended to get quite annoyed whenever she found the pegasus sleeping in one of her trees. Rainbow never really understood why. It wasn't like she was doing any damage to the tree. Sure she'd usually take an apple or two before napping, but Rainbow always made it a point to either pay Applejack back for the apples she took, or help her out on the farm to make it up to her.

Rainbow scanned the entirety of Sweet Apple Acres and didn't see hide nor hair of any of the Apple family members.

Huh, I guess they're all at the market. Or in the house. Either way, it's nap time!

She started to descend back towards the apple trees but stopped short when she heard a voice shouting from below.

"Rainbow Dash!"

She looked down towards where the barn stood, expecting to see the cowpony. She was surprised to see Twilight walking towards her. Rainbow flew over to the alicorn princess and landed in front of her.

"Hey Twilight, what's up?" Twilight smiled at the pegasus.

"Hi Rainbow, I've been looking for you. I was wondering if you had time to help me out with something?" Rainbow groaned internally. She had known that Twilight was wrapped up in her castle studying some kinda magic mumbo jumbo, but she never bothered to get the details. The look on Twilight's face was enough for Rainbow Dash to figure out that whatever Twilight needed help with related to her studies. It wasn't that Rainbow didn't want to help Twilight, it was that she didn't want to get wrapped up into some kinda weird and boring egghead-y science experiment. However, Twilight was a friend, and Rainbow would never leave her friends hanging.

Well, so much for nap time.

She smiled at Twilight and answered, "Sure Twi, what do ya need?"

"Well, you see, I've been doing a lot of studying on a few interesting concepts in Equestrian magic. I recently came across a technique to sense the complex magical energies that connect us and our planet as one whole. Such magic differs in many ways, depending on who, or what, the item in question is composed of based on a molecular, as well as..."

"Erm, Twilight?" Rainbow interrupted, cocking her head to the side and giving Twilight a confused look. "Can you speak, you know, non-egghead?" Rainbow loved Twilight as much as she loved all her friends, but her magical friend had a bad habit of getting lost in her science rants. That was one thing Rainbow could see never changed about Twilight ever since first becoming friends with her all those years ago on that fateful night. Twilight always had to find a perfect and concise way of explaining everything. Rainbow figured part of that was due to the purple mare's obsession with books and information. She might as well be a walking talking encyclopedia, who happens to be an alicorn princess. Though, Rainbow had to admit, it was kind of cute seeing Twilight getting so excited over science and information rather than normal awesome stuff.

Twilight chuckled nervously at the pegasus. "Aheheh, sorry Rainbow. In layman's terms, I've been practicing and improving my skills in sensing magic."

"Sensing magic?" Rainbow raised an eyebrow. "But you're an alicorn! Why would you need to sense magic when you can just use it?"

"Well, sensing magic has lots of applications. For instance, if there's some sort of magical imbalance in Equestria, regardless of what it's caused by, Princess Celestia would likely be able to sense it, track it, and figure out exactly what caused it in a very short amount of time. Being that I am now a Princess, I feel like it's something I have to learn."

"Oh, okay. I guess that kinda makes sense. So, what can I do to help?" Rainbow noticed Twilight's demeanor shift slightly, seemingly nervous about what she was going to ask.

"Um, well," she began. She paused in thought for a few moments, trying to figure out how to phrase it. "I was kind of wondering if you could show me your Sonic Rainboom?"

Rainbow's heart dropped slightly but she kept her expression neutral.

"Why do you want to see my Rainboom?" She shot Twilight a cocky grin. "I mean, yeah I know it's pretty awesome. Why wouldn't you want to see it, right?" Twilight giggled in amusement.

"Well, I won't deny that it's awesome. That's not why I want to see it, though. I'd really love to sense and feel the magic of your Rainboom." Rainbow shifted uncomfortably in her stance.

"Feel the magic? Huh?" The answer she got wasn't what she expecting. In fact, she wasn't even sure what Twilight meant. She remembered Twilight talking about her Rainboom being a magical entity before so she figured her signature move had some magic to it. However, what did Twilight mean when she said she wants to feel the magic? Since when could magic be felt, other than when unicorns and alicorns use telekinesis and other forms of physical magic?

For that matter, why was Twilight so excited about feeling the magic of the Sonic Rainboom? Was it really that amazing?

"It's sort of complicated," Twilight replied. "I'm not sure I'd be able to condense the complexities of sensing and feeling magic without boring you to sleep." She gave Rainbow a slightly embarrassed grin. "In any case, what do you say? Will you do it?"

Rainbow was torn. On one hoof, Here's Twilight, her very good friend. Not to mention Princess. She was asking for Rainbow's help so she could become a better Princess. To do that, she wanted Rainbow to perform aerial stunts which were her bread and butter.

On the other...

Just tell her no, Rainbow thought. You don't have to tell her why.

Except she did have to tell her why, because if she didn't her refusal would come off as rather rude. Rainbow didn't want to upset Twilight. Besides, she wasn't a pony who would let pride dictate her actions. Not anymore at least. Rainbow frowned.

"Sorry Twi," she finally answered. "I can't."

Twilight's eyes widened in shock, before shifting into disappointment. It kind of hurt Rainbow to see.

"What? Why not?"

"I uh..." Rainbow glanced nervously to the side. She let out a sigh. "I can't really do it consistently yet, ya know? It's not like I can do it every time I try." Rainbow forced out a chuckle. "Still working on it, though. Won't stop until it's perfected!" Twilight tilted her head to the side and raised an eyebrow.

"Really? I mean, I hope this doesn't offend you, but I thought you could do it on command by now."

"Yeeeah not exactly, heh." Rainbow's cheeks tinted slightly as she nervously avoided Twilight's questioning gaze. "I sorta still have trouble breaking the barrier. Sometimes I break it, sometimes... well, I don't."

"Well, what about at my brother's wedding?" Twilight asked. "You had no problem doing it after the ceremony."

"Yeah I guess. I didn't really think about it then. I just sorta did it." Twilight put a hoof to her chin in thought.

"Have you done one since then?"

"...No."

Twilight's shocked expression hurt Rainbow more than she thought it would.

After a few moments of awkward silence, Twilight glanced away from Rainbow deep in thought. All Rainbow could do was stand there and try in vain to read Twilight's thoughts. She had never really confided in her friends about her troubles pulling off the Rainboom before now, besides Fluttershy anyways. The second time she ever pulled off the trick was right in front of all of her friends. After that had happened, everyone had sort of assumed that Rainbow had mastered the technique. This couldn't be further from the truth. It was a fluke. A fluke that saved the lives of the Wonderbolts and her friend Rarity, but a fluke nonetheless. She didn't even realize she had done it until she had caught the ponies falling from the air. After that spectacle, she spent months practicing the move yet again, almost on a daily basis. Not once was she able to break that damned barrier.

The Sonic Rainboom at the wedding was a little harder to explain. Like the occurrence at the Young Best Flyer's Competition, she wasn't even thinking about the Rainboom. She just did it. She would have liked to write it off as her being naturally awesome. However, even after the wedding, she found herself unable to perform the move again. This frustrated her to no end. The fluke at the competition was easily enough explained, but the wedding was another story. Why was she able to perform it with ease? Maybe not thinking about it was the key. Or maybe it was something else. Maybe she was just so overcome with joy at the wedding that the happy energy was able to give her the drive to perform the move.

Whoa there brain, don't go all sappy on me.

Rainbow felt it was finally time to break the silence.

"Um, I could still try it if you want." Twilight jumped in surprise, seemingly so lost in her own thoughts that she had forgotten the pegasus was still there. "I mean, hey! What if this time I get it?" Rainbow let out an amused chuckle as if laughing at a joke.

"Y-yeah," Twilight seemed very unsure about continuing this endeavor now. "I mean, if you feel up to it, I would appreciate it if you gave it a shot."

"Might as well."

She jumped into the air and began ascending slowly.

"Don't hurt yourself!" Twilight shouted to the pegasus in the air. Rainbow grinned.

"Don't worry, nothing can bring this pegasus down!" she shouted back with confidence. When she reached an acceptable height, she quickly dove down to gain some speed. She leveled herself out just above the ground, flapping her wings to gain even more speed. After a few hundred meters she began to curve upwards, gaining height at an incredibly fast rate. She looked back down on Ponyville and spotted a purple speck on the ground. She grinned and continued her ascent.

You got this Rainbow. You got this. No need to get nervous. There's only one pony watching, no big deal. I mean yeah she's an all-powerful Princess and also one of my best friends and...

Rainbow quickly shook her head, attempting to shake away her thoughts. She looked down on Ponyville once more. Only it wasn't just Ponyville she could see. From her height, she could see much of the surrounding area of the town. She could see the Everfree Forest to the south of Ponyville, which seemed to stretched on for miles. In the distance to the north, she saw Canterlot Castle as clear as day. She nodded to herself and began to slow her ascent. Just like when she was busting clouds, she did a small flip at the apex of her ascent and dived down back into the Earth. Her sights were set on Ponyville miles below. Her wings retracted into her body and she leaned into the fall, allowing gravity and her pegasus instincts to reach terminal velocity. After a few moments of falling, she began to push herself even faster using her wings. She could slowly see the barrier begin to form.

She took in a gasp as she realized she was getting close. She focused all her energy and concentration into building even more speed. Her eyes shut tightly as the sharp wind stung them. She forced her head down and gave it all her might. She could feel the barrier getting tighter. And tighter. Soon she felt the barrier all around her, but it's gradual rise in tightness soon came to a stop. She raised her head and opened her eyes to look at the center of the barrier. She was so close. She just needed one more push.

At that point, she realized that the ground was suddenly way too close for comfort. She thought she heard someone scream out her name. She knew she was in trouble.

She violently flared out her wings, attempting to slow the speed. It was working, but considering how fast the ground was reaching her it might not be enough. She could either continue attempting to slow her speed, or she could try to pull up. She looked ahead of her and noticed that she was close enough to make out Twilight's worried expression. She was still going to fast. She had to pull up. She angled her wings to catch air and desperately attempted to level herself out. The speed at which she was going made it difficult to make a tight turn. Her wings fought the wind and she began to become parallel with the ground. She could tell the turn was going to be too wide, and unfortunately, the speed she was going at meant she was going to have to attempt a running landing. Her hooves met the ground violently as she tried to get into a running stance. Unfortunately, her front hooves stumbled upon impact and she slammed into the ground, sliding and tumbling a considerable distance in the grass. The impact knocked her out cold.

When she came to, she was still laying in the grass. A purple figure was standing over her, apparently talking. As her vision cleared she realized it was Twilight.

"Rainbow Dash! Oh Celestia, are you okay?"

Rainbow groaned. She wasn't a stranger to violent crashes like this one, but that didn't make them any less painful. Her head throbbed in pain and her front hooves felt like someone dropped an anvil on them. She slowly got up off the ground and held her hoof to her head.

"Unngh... yeah, I'm alright. I'm a tough pony." She rubbed her face with her hoof, feeling something wet coming from her nose.

"Rainbow, you are not okay! You're bleeding!" Twilight looked over Rainbow Dash's face in horror. Nothing seemed broken, but the steady flow of blood seeping from her nostrils was not a pretty sight. "Here, follow me back to the castle. I think I know of a spell that will make it hurt less." Rainbow waved Twilight a dismissive hoof.

"Really, Twilight, I'm fine. I've crashed lots of times. It's just a nosebleed." And a throbbing headache. And the agonizing pain in her hooves.

"I'm not taking no for an answer! Follow me!"

Rainbow sighed, seeing she had no choice.

---

"There, do you feel any better?" Twilight asked. She had just finished casting the pain relieving spells she was reading from a magic medicine book in her Castle's library. The two ponies sat at a round table inside the room. The crash had been quite a scare for Twilight. She had witnessed her friend crash before, but never in a way such as this. She remembered watching the pegasus quickly approach the ground. Doing the calculations in her head, she realized that there was no way Rainbow would be able to slow down or pull up without a nasty crash. And while she had all the faith in the world in Rainbow, seeing her struggle with the barrier removed a lot of confidence Twilight had for the pegasus to be able to break the barrier in time to sharply pull up as she had done in the Best Young Flyer's Competition.

"Yeah, a lot better," Rainbow replied. Her bloody nose was gone, as was the roughed up and bruised look of her face and front hooves. Twilight grinned, proud of her work.

"Well, that's good." She looked to the side nervously and pawed a hoof on the floor. "I'm really sorry I convinced you to try the Sonic Rainboom."

"Whoa, hey there's no need to be sorry Twi. Crashes happen, and I kinda wanted to try the Rainboom for you anyways." Twilight smiled at Rainbow's response.

"Well, I still feel bad. If I hadn't convinced you, you wouldn't have been hurt."

Whatever response Rainbow had was cut short by a door slamming open. Spike ran into the room straight towards Twilight with a scroll in his hand.

"Twilight! Letter from Princess Celestia!"

Twilight and Rainbow glanced at each other with curious looks on their faces. Other than responses to Twilight's reports and personal musings to Celestia, the Princess didn't tend to send letters unless they were of the utmost importance. Naturally, Twilight immediately took the scroll and began reading.

Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,

It has been a while since the last progress report you sent me on the techniques and applications of sensing and measuring magic. I hope you won't take that in the wrong way. As you know, I am extremely proud that you have taken the initiative to learn something as complex and important as measuring magic. It is a subject that I am fond of, though not quite knowledgeable enough that I would have been able to teach it to you. It is very gratifying to see that you are finding ways of adjusting to the life of a Princess. Your newfound interest in this aspect of magic can only improve you as a pony and as a Princess. However as I was thinking about your last letter, it occurred to me that we never discussed such things in person.

As such, I would be honored if you could come to Canterlot Castle to discuss this at length. I also request that you bring the other Elements, as well as Spike of course. I realize that may sound like an odd request to you. However, I promise that everything will make sense once you are here. I have included seven train tickets from Ponyville to Canterlot to cover your traveling expenses. Please discuss this trip with your friends so we can sort out the best day for you all to come. I realize this is rather last minute, and I understand if you need a few days to sort everything out. However, I do ask that you come as soon as possible. I am rather eager to hear more about your progress, as well as sharing my own experiences with you.

Sincerely,
Princess Celestia

Twilight looked up from the letter.

"This is... well," Twilight paused for a moment. "Odd."

"What's so odd about it?" Rainbow Dash asked. "So the Princess wants to discuss magic stuff with you? I mean, yeah I don't really get why the rest of the girls have to be there, especially me, but still..." she trailed off. Twilight shook her head.

"I dunno Rainbow, she seems a little too eager about a visit from all of us for it to be something so little."

"Do you think something's happened?" Rainbow asked. Twilight paused at that. If something happened, surely the Princess would have said something in the letter? Unless it was something she didn't want to risk saying in a letter. Hundreds of possibilities flooded her mind, but dwelling on them wouldn't do any good. The only way she'd find out was to meet with Celestia, and as soon as possible.

"I don't know, but I guess we're going to find out."

Author's Notes:

Well, first chapter. It ended up being a lot longer than I originally anticipated. Took me half a day of writing, proof reading, and editing too. Ah well, hopefully it's not too long for you to enjoy it for what it is. I didn't really want to post this story until the prologue and the first chapter. Now that both are done, I suppose there's no point in delaying anymore, so welcome to my strange MLP cross over fic! Hopefully you'll enjoy this ride with me! Things are likely gonna start picking up more in the next chapter, so keep an eye out for that.