"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Rainbow Dash hovered a couple inches off the floor of Applejack's barn and made a 'time-out' sign with her front hoofs. "The princess is gonna do what??"

Twilight sighed. "We have two princesses now, you know."

"Indeed we do!" Rarity gave a brisk nod. "And I for one think it's a marvelous gesture on Princess Celestia's part!" She fluttered her eyelashes. "Allowing her poor, repentant sister to take the throne of both day and night for the next week! Sheer poetry!"

"Huh?" Pinkie Pie cocked her head. "I didn't hear anything rhyme."

"But Twilight!" Fluttershy's breathy voice seemed even more hesitant than usual. "Princess Luna was..." She glanced around the otherwise empty barn and whispered, "She was Nightmare Moon! She wanted to take over the world and make it dark all the time! What if she...if she...?" Her eyes got wider as her voice squeaked away to nothing.

"Yes." Twilight licked her lips. "That's the second part." After the princess had left the library at four o'clock this morning, Twilight had banished the idea of sleep and had started making a list of things she needed to get organized over the next two days for the trip to Canterlot. And the first thing on that list was this meeting to tell her friends about Princess Luna's request.

It took less time than she'd thought it would, and she wrapped the explanation up by nodding to Spike, the little dragon setting his quill pen to a piece of parchment. "Now, I'm voting 'yes.' But we'll need to be unanimous in deciding to do this, so if anypony has any objections--"

"Yer darn tootin' I do!" Applejack leapt to her hoofs. "A week?? Away from the farm?? Ain't no way, no how!"

But Twilight had spent the early morning hours making lists of arguments, too. "It's practically winter, Applejack. The first snow'll be falling any day now, right, Dash?"

Rainbow Dash shrugged. "I'd hafta check the schedule, but yeah, next week or the week after." She grinned. "'Cept I'm gonna be outta town in the capitol, aren't I? Can't wait to tell the crew that!"

Spike made a check mark on his paper. "I'd call that our second 'yes' vote."

"Snow don't matter!" Applejack set her jaw. "Winter's just as busy 'round here as any other time'a the year, y'know! I cain't go gallivantin' off to--"

"Canterlot!" Rarity's face absolutely glowed: Twilight had suspected she wouldn't have any trouble convincing her. "And being on Princess Luna's staff means a week at the top of the social ladder! Oh, the gowns we shall need!"

"And the parties!" Pinkie's eyes spun like pinwheels. "I mean, I'm sure they're all, like, powdered wigs and minuets up there now, but once Pinkie Pie comes through, they'll know how a party's done!"

Twilight heard Spike's quill scratch two more check marks. "Four 'yes' votes, then."

But she was keeping her attention on Applejack. "I know it's a lot to ask, AJ, but Princess Luna needs us! She told me--" Twilight had to swallow, remembering the princess's voice quivering slightly in the quiet of the library earlier not that many hours ago. "She told me we're the only ponies she knows in the whole world now other than her sister. We...we're the closest thing to friends she has."

"Friends??" Applejack waved her front hoofs. "She tried her dangedest to kill us! 'Member that avalanche?? An' the manticore?? An' the--??"

Dash snorted. "We all do, AJ. But that's why it hasta be us! We kicked her tail, and she knows we can do it again!"

"Dag nab it!" Applejack's frown softened. "But I reckon yer right. I can always leave a list here fer Mac and the rest, but the Elements of Harmony, well, ain't no one else can do that." Her frown hardened again. "But one week, an' I'm outta there, y'all hear me?"

Twilight sighed in relief, Spike making a fifth check mark on his paper. "Thanks, Applejack." She turned then to the spot where Fluttershy had been sitting and had to blink when she saw nothing there but an empty stretch of floor, the yellow pegasus nowhere in sight. "Fluttershy?"

Dash sprang into the air. "Oh, great! C'mon! She can't've gotten too far!" And she sped out the barn door, the others jumping up to follow on hoof.

"The poor dear," Rarity said, tossing her mane beside Twilight, the two unicorns galloping out into the sheer blue of the frosty morning. "Not exactly the 'bright lights, big city' sort, is she?"

A pop behind them, and Twilight looked back to see Pinkie Pie trotting out, her jaw working a huge mass of bubble gum. "She's just mixed-up. I mean, whoever heard of playing hide-n-seek where the pony who's 'it' hides and the rest of us hafta go seeking?" She blew another bubble and popped it. "Looks like I'll need to run through the rules with her again."

Applejack pushed past the pink earth pony, her gaze aimed upward. "Anythin', Dash?" she called.

"Nope!" Rainbow Dash swooped down. "I'm gonna head over to her place and see if she's hiding under the bed."

"Right." Applejack looked at the other ground-bound ponies. "Twilight, how 'bout you, me an' Spike stay looking 'round the hills here? Rarity, you an' Pinkie can try callin' for her down the road to town. OK?"

Twilight nodded, perfectly happy to let AJ organize this. Rarity and Pinkie turned for Sweet Apple Acres' front gate, and Twilight heard Pinkie saying, "Maybe if we both dressed up like bunnies..." before they went around the corner of the barn and passed from earshot.

The sudden weight on her back told her Spike had climbed aboard. "You think she's all right?" he asked.

A sigh from Applejack. "Girl's always been flighty as a new-born filly, but I know summa her hidey holes." She gestured to the south. "How 'bout you two head on down the orchard? This time'a year, if she's up a tree, she oughtta be perty easy to spot."

Twilight looked at Spike, and his shrug earned another of Applejack's sighs. "'Cause we's already run the leaves off 'em, 'member?" Shaking her head, she turned for the hills north of the farm. "City folk..."

Starting down the slope toward the autumn-bare trees, Twilight blushed a little that she'd forgotten that, but then it hadn't been nearly as exciting this year as last: without Applejack and Rainbow Dash distracting each other and the other runners, she'd only managed to come in 17th...

Spike gave a little snort. "Like we don't have enough to do already! I mean, two days to get ready for a week in Canterlot? Where are we even gonna stay? Our old place at the university? Or in the Night Palace? 'Cause if you're really on Princess Luna's staff, I should be setting things up with Stargazer and the rest of the Night Ministers, not wandering around an apple orchard looking for--"

"You're right." Twilight was painfully aware of all the things she had on her own list, too. "You head back to the library, Spike, and I'll keep nosing around here for a while."

"What?" His tone made her swivel her head around, his face shocked. "You want me to walk all the way to Ponyville? On my own??"

Twilight started to sigh, but a thought made her smile. "If you hurry, you can probably catch up with Rarity. I'm sure she'd be happy to give you a ride into town."

Spike's eyes widened; he hopped off her back and took off for the farm's front gate faster than Twilight had ever seen him move. "See you around, Twilight!"

She watched him for a moment, chuckled, turned with a shake of her head--and found herself staring directly into Fluttershy's emerald eyes, the yellow pegasus hovering right in front of her. "I'm sorry, Twilight," she said, her words rushed and slurred, "but I can't go to Canterlot! Can't! There's all the winter blankets for my little woodland friends! I've barely even started getting them out of storage let alone started giving them out!"

"Fluttershy,--"

"And who'll turn the heater on and off in the henhouse? I've tried and tried to explain to the roosters and hens how the controls work, but they never seem to get it!"

"Fluttershy,--"

"And snow doesn't bank itself, you know! If I'm not there, it's likely to cover over my little friends' burrows! And then where'll they be?? Buried in the snow! Buried!"

"I'll help you, Fluttershy!" With an sigh, Twilight mentally threw her list into the wind. "We've got today and tomorrow, and we can certainly get a good start on those blankets in that time. We can ask Apple Bloom and the Cutie Mark Crusaders to look in on your chickens if it gets cold, and the snow, well, Dash said that might not start till the week after." She caught Fluttershy's hoofs between her own, held them, looked into the pegasus's wide eyes. "But we need you, Fluttershy. Equestria needs you. Without Kindness, the Elements of Harmony can't hold together, and without the Elements of Harmony, Princess Luna won't trust herself to do her duty."

"But..." Fluttershy swallowed so hard, Twilight could follow it down her neck. "Canterlot! And...and everything!"

"We'll all be there together, Fluttershy." Twilight kept hold of her friend's hoofs. "Please?"

For a long moment, Twilight could feel the pegasus trembling. Then in a tiny voice, Fluttershy asked, "You'll really help me? Get the blankets done before...before we leave?"

"Of course!" And that made it unanimous. Twilight smiled. "Rainbow Dash is at your place right now, so we can get her to help, too!"