“This is the day that never ends. Yes it goes on and on my friends. Some ponies started living it, not knowing what it was. And they’ll just keep on living it forever just because-” Sweetie Belle continued.

“Stop!” Diamond Tiara demanded.

“Hey, you can’t boss her around, just because you have that tiara on your head,” Scootaloo yelled back.

“But that song is just so annoying! It was kind of funny the first time through, but it’s lost its charm,” Diamond Tiara complained.

“...actually I have to agree with you,” Scootaloo confessed. “All in favor of never singing that song again?”

Five fillies raised their hooves, while Spike raised a clawed hand.

“Sweetie Belle, you’re voting against your own song?” Spike asked in surprise.

“What can I say? I agree with Diamond on this one.”

Silence prevailed for nearly a minute.

“So now what?” Applebloom asked, breaking the silence in the clubhouse.

“It’s so… hot,” Sweetie Belle complained.

“It wouldn’t be if we met in my daddy’s air-conditioned house,” Diamond Tiara pointed out.

“Wouldn’t that mean we couldn’t play or do anything fun?” Scootaloo said.

“We aren’t playing now,” Silver Spoon countered.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Applebloom asked as an idea hit her.

“Doubtful,” Diamond Tiara said. “What are you thinking.”

“We all have these fancy squirtguns. We just need ta fill ‘em up with water,” Applebloom pointed out.

“What is that supposed to accomplish?” Diamond questioned.

Everyone but Silver Spoon looked at her strangely. Then Silver Spoon caught on and raised an eyebrow.

“What?”

“She means we could have a squirt gun fight.”

“How… lower class,” Diamond Tiara objected.

“Are upper class ponies not allowed ta have fun?” Applebloom said as she started leading the way out the door of the clubhouse. “Besides, if anypony questions you, just say it was trainin’. We will be gettin’ better with our aim, and dodging, and who knows if we’ll need ta load up the weed killer again some day.”

“Fine…”

“This is just perfect,” Flash Sentry said with a cheerful grin as he approached the new recruit to relieve her of duty. The sun had been out much longer than usual, lately. Still up when he went to bed, already risen when he got up to prepare to relieve the night guard. As far north as he was stationed, the extra warmth was quite welcome. He tolerated the cold better than most ponies, but he could still enjoy an early hint of summer.

“Speak for yourself,” the thestral mare groused, lifting her sunglasses to rub her eyes a moment, careful to set the glasses in place again before she reopened her eyes. “Is this your princess’ vengeance for the whole ‘eternal night’ thing? Because that never actually happened, even if we were kind of rooting for it back then.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Dusk Watcher,” Flash Sentry chided. “Neither of our princesses would allow this to happen, not on purpose.”

“So, they’re dead then?”

“That’s a bit much to assume,” Flash said with a frown. “I’m sure someone’s taking care of the situation as we speak. Let’s just watch the border.”

“For what… more ice and snow?” the thestral asked as Flash came up beside her, putting on his own sunglasses to protect his eyes from the glare of the North. “The Crystal Empire has been gone longer than Luna has, and the empty terrain where it once was isn’t exactly a threat.”

“No… but that might be,” he said as he caught sight of movement in the distance. Something was kicking up snow in a large, broad cloud on the horizon. “What do you know about what’s beyond the Crystal Empire?”

“Nothing, why? What’s up there?” Dusk asked, getting a bit nervous.

“Yakyakistan,” Flash Sentry said. “I’d better put on my armor. The cycle of the sun isn’t perfect. If things aren’t perfect, yaks get mad. Yaks always get mad when things aren’t perfect!”

“Belay that, Corporal,” Captain Aegis ordered, even as he strapped on his own armor mid-stride. “You need to travel fast and light. Go to Canterlot, tell them we need reinforcements before the day is done.”

“No hurries then,” Dusk joked. But nopony laughed.

“You’ve been a very bad mare!” Fluttershy accused. The pointing hoof just added on to the dreaded power of the Stare. But her victim met her eyes unflinchingly.

“You were cruel when you didn’t need to be. Rubbing salt in the wounds metaphorically is one thing, but to do it literally? You should be ashamed of yourself! What about those poor fillies? They had to see you acting like that! What is that going to do to them? If they ever act out like that, you’ll know just who to blame, now won’t you? Don’t you give me that look.”

Fluttershy finally stopped the stare and looked down at the ground, unable to maintain eye contact. “I’m sorry,” she muttered, tears starting to well in her eyes. “I didn’t mean to, but I just couldn’t help it.”

But the mirror didn’t answer, and now that she wasn’t looking up at it anymore, she couldn’t see how sorry it looked.

But Angel could, and he set a comforting paw on his friend and master for a moment, before the anger overtook him. He knew it wasn’t her fault. He knew someone else had made her act out of character, and he knew who it was. While she sunk deeper into self pity, the bunny headed off into the woods to take care of something.

Despite her objections, and even despite not being the best shot in the group, Diamond Tiara laughed happily as she pranced about the woods with her friends, launching arcing shots of water between the trees as she did her best to avoid return fire.

Okay, that was a lie. She gave a token effort to avoid it. As much as the immediate touch of the cool liquid made her squeal, the benefits of getting wet on this long, hot day were undeniable. And while she wouldn’t press anyone on the point, she was pretty sure at least half of her own shots were hitting because the fillies on the receiving end were letting themselves get hit.

Spike, on the other hand, seemed to do quite well in the heat, and was nearly untouched, every splash against his scales truly earned. Most required getting very close and consequently quite wet, so that he simply couldn’t dodge, but Scootaloo had managed a few good shots, sneaking out from behind trees behind him while he was distracted by another filly and hitting him from behind.

All too soon, the water ran out, however, and the laughing children fell to the ground in a heap, looking up at the nearly cloudless sky and sighing.

“I wonder why there’s so little cloud cover,” Spike said. “You’d think they’d roll out the carpet to give us a break from all this heat.”

“I heard they’re having too much trouble keeping the clouds from dissipating,” Scootaloo said. “It’s even worse than in the summer. They need to focus on keeping the load-bearing clouds in good shape, can’t spare the ponies to maintain the other clouds, much less roll out more.”

“Good thing we rescued the princesses so soon,” Sweetie Belle commented. “They’ll be able to bring night back, as soon as they recover.”

“Well duh, that’s what their job is,” Diamond Tiara said. “It might be nice if they make it night a little early, in fact.”

The others murmured their agreement, falling silent for a moment before an offended gasp shattered the silence.

“Diamond Tiara! What are you doing rolling around in the mud with those blank flanked commoners! You get away from them this instant!” Spoiled Rich demanded.

Chastised, the filly climbed to her hooves and started toward her mother, head low, even as she just noticed the mud clinging to her uniform, beginning to bake on from the endless noon.

“That’s right, young lady. Let’s get you home and get you bathed. Then we’ll get rid of this filthy thing and-”

Diamond glanced back and saw her friends, new and old, all looking sad to see her go. When had they become her friends? It wasn’t that long ago she was taunting them for being blank flanks. When her father had helped her muscle her way into their group, she had intended to take it over, probably even kick them out of it when she had the chance.

Resolved filled her as she stamped the ground once, coming to a firm start. “No! These are my friends, and more than that, they’re heroes! We just helped rescue the princesses a few hours back! Fluttershy even said the herbicide we gave them delivered the killing blow on the monster that foalnapped them!”

“If they’re so great, why don’t they have their cutie marks yet, hmm?”

“Because they haven’t found their destinies yet. If rescuing a pair of princesses wasn’t enough to earn their marks, then you can bet what does will be the stuff of legends! And I’m going to see it for myself, because I’m going to be right there with them when it happens,” Diamond insisted. “Now if you’ll excuse me, the Elements of Greatness are going to go have a meeting and do some more training. I’ll be home shortly after sunset, and when I get there you can thank me that you even have a sunset.”

As the tiara-wearing filly started back toward her friends, her mother brought her up short once again with a dire threat. “You come with me this instant, young lady, or I- I’ll disinherit you! You want to live like a commoner? That can be arranged!”

The other Elements of Greatness exchanged gasps and looks. Silver Spoon adjusted her glasses sadly before slowly starting to walk toward her best friends’ mother, knowing what Diamond would choose, what any sane filly would choose.

Diamond trembled with anger, eyes darting a bit as she thought about the decision that had been forced on her. She looked over each of her friends one after the other, ending with Silver Spoon. Even as the fellow foal of wealth came to join her, it was obvious she was as broken about it as Diamond was. Or would have been.

“Keep your money,” Diamond spit out, without even turning toward her mother. “You don’t have anything else worth a buck.” The venom in her words struck everyone, but most of all her mother. Diamond hesitated only a second before starting off toward the distant clubhouse, Silver Spoon and then the others falling into her wake. What was said could not be unsaid. Both mother and daughter knew that.

Spoiled Rich let her indignation be the only emotion to show on her face until she had turned and made a good distance herself, rounding a corner before the tears could so much as well in her eyes. When had her daughter gotten so strong, so fiercely independent? She would be proud, if the filly weren’t so wrong.

“Caddie, relax,” Shining Armor insisted. She obeyed at least as far as laying still so he could rub her back and shoulders.

“I’ll relax when the sun sets,” she countered. “Oh, Shiny, what if they really are hurt badly? Or worse? I haven’t even been coronated yet… We haven’t even made us public knowledge yet. Have you even told your family yet?”

Shining laughed nervously in a way that practically served as a confession. “I will. Soon. Promise.”

“I love you Shining, but we are not letting the first they hear of me be an announcement that a foal is on the way,” Cadance said firmly.

“I wouldn’t do that to you!” Shining insisted. “We’ll get married first. That will solve both problems at once. Will that help you relax?”

“How would that help me relax?! Oh there’s so much to plan. A venue, a dress, bridesmaids, catering. A date?!” Cadance seemed in a near panic of excitement. “But I can’t start planning any of that until we know if Celestia and Luna are alright. If they aren’t… how will we ever find time for any of that?”

A knocking on the door interrupted their discussion. “Who could it be at a time like this?” Shining asked, even as he got up to step out into the hall and answer the door. “Yes? Who is-”

After several seconds of thinking about her upcoming wedding and/or emergency coronation, Cadance realized Shining Armor wasn’t saying anything. “Shiny? Who is it?”

A quiet whisper was impossible for her to make out, until Shining Armor repeated it absently. “It’s the most beautiful mare in the world…”

Cadance huffed as she started toward the door. “That’s a lousy thing to say to your fiance. If it’s anypony there other than Princess Celestia, you’re going to have some ex-”

Green magic silenced her voice before she could scream.

When she reached the clubhouse, Diamond Tiara barely made it past the entrance before slumping to the floor, legs splayed in every direction as the adrenaline wore off all at once. “I guess this is where I live now…”

“I’ll sneak you food, as often as I can,” Silver Spoon offered, sitting down a bit more gracefully at her friend’s side.

“And I’ll sneak you apples,” Applebloom said.

Diamond started to sneer reflexively at the offer of such common faire, then replaced it with a smile. Now that she had been disinherited, there was no shame in enjoying one of the tastiest foods in Ponyville openly. “Thanks, Applebloom. And thanks Silver. I guess now that I’m a commoner myself I should just enjoy what I can get…”

“You’re not a commoner,” Spike objected. “You’re an Element. And there’s nothing common about that. I had my doubts about you when you first tried to join-”

“We all did,” Applebloom confessed.

“But you proved yourself out there to be more loyal than Rainbow Dash, more generous than Rarity, and more brave than Cloud Strife herself,” Spike concluded.

“Braver than Cloud? It’s not like she was going to kill me or put me in the hospital,” Diamond said.

“No, but she was threatening to end your future in a different way,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Cloud goes into every battle expecting to win,” Spike said. “She’s stronger than you. Faster, more powerful, and better with a weapon. And she expects that to be enough to carry her through and protect her friends. She knows the risks she faces, but she expects to overcome them. But you made your choice knowing full well what it was going to cost you. And that takes a lot of guts.”

“I’d say you finally earned that tiara,” Sweetie Belle offered.

“Of course you can’t borrow some flour,” Pinkie Pie said. “That would be silly! But you can have some! We won’t want it back when you’re done with it. Unless you give it to us in cake form! Or pie form! Or-”

“Agreed,” Silver Spoon said. “Now, may I?”

“Here ya go!” Pinkie said, tossing her a small bag with a flick of her neck. “Just don’t tell the Cakes I gave away more ingredients.~ But do tell me how well your pie party turns out!”

“Right. ‘Party’...”

“Right! Par~tay!~” Pinkie exclaimed.

When the filly finally left, Pinkie Pie slowly sank beneath the counter, riding the elevator down to the secret Party Cave.

“Whew. Just in time, too!” she said, as one of her cameras barely caught the tail end of Luna’s tail as she headed off into the woods. “Today’s the day that today stops being day! I can feel it!”

She quickly began locking in the final details. “Venue, set! Confetti, locked and loaded! Streamers, ready to unroll! Now then… all we need is to hire the DJ and start baking the food for the Aren’t You Glad It’s Finally Night Again, Nightime Funtime Block Party!”

The Elements of Greatness watched the sunset together from the deck of their clubhouse, bellies quite full of fresh apple pie.

“Thanks, Silver Spoon. You sure know how to bake. You might be even better than Pinkie Pie,” Scootaloo complimented.

“Well, making fine cuisine is my special talent,” Silver Spoon said proudly. “Applebloom’s family’s apples make fine ingredients, though. You can’t make great food without great ingredients.”

“Applebloom!” Applejack called out in the distance. “Time for bed!”

“I’d better go,” Applebloom said sadly. “Are you gonna be okay, DT?”

Diamond glanced at the old sleeping bag Scootaloo had given her, sitting in the corner. “I’ll have to be.”

“I need to get back to the library,” Spike said. “Once I walk Sweetie Belle home.”

Sweetie rewarded him with a quick peck on the cheek before heading for the exit herself. “We’ll be back tomorrow, now that there is a tomorrow.”

“I need to get home too, before my parents start worrying,” Scootaloo said.

“You have parents?” Spike said, sounding surprised.

“Yes, Spike. They’re just… very, very, very busy,” the pegasus said. “And my foalsitter and I have a truce. She doesn’t rat me out for being gone all day, and I don’t rat her out for spending the whole day with her magazines, not watching me.”

Sweetie Belle giggled, while Applebloom shook her head disapprovingly.

“I’ll stay with you for the night,” Silver Spoon offered.

Diamond considered it. It was really tempting to have company, especially this first night. “No. You go home, where it’s warm. We don’t even have a second sleeping bag. Maybe next time, if you can bring one for yourself.”

Silver hesitated, but the determined look in Diamond’s eye earned a nod of respect. “Alright, Diamond…” she held up a hoof inviting her to bump it with her own.

“Bump, bump, sugar-lump, rump,” the two old friends said, as they bumped one hoof, then the other, finishing with a collision of their cutie marks.

“I’ll miss you,” Diamond confessed.

“You’ll see me tomorrow,” Silver insisted.

Like mother, like daughter. Diamond managed to keep the tears out of her eyes until the others were out of sight, heading to their nice warm homes, and their welcoming families.

It was kind of amazing how seldom earth ponies and unicorns looked up. With how many people could fly, especially the local pegasus population, but plenty of others such as griffons and many dragons, it didn’t really makes sense.

But it served Rainbow Dash well enough, especially when she was in a pranking mood. She carefully stalked Prince Blueblood, keeping a cloud with her to hide on should he ever actually look his way, but it wasn’t proving necessary. He seemed even less inclined to look up than most.

This was just a scouting mission. She wanted to learn more about him so she could set up a proper prank or three. Knowing where he would be and what he would do was essential to setting up an ambush. For example, she now knew his room number at the hotel, so she could sneak a colony of ants into his bed later. He hadn’t bothered to latch his window, which was practically begging somepony with wings to come prank him. She knew he liked to hang out with Filthy and Spoiled Rich, which wasn’t as useful. Those two never could take a joke and had the resources to make a pony miserable in petty retaliation.

And now, with the sun finally set for the first time in four days, he was heading into the middle of town, not toward his hotel. That was interesting. He walked right up to Carousel Boutique and-

That was close. She barely hid behind the cloud in time. While ground ponies didn’t often look up, it was routinely part of actively looking around. When she dared to look back over the edge of the cloud cover, he was gone, the door to the boutique quietly shutting.

“What could a stallion like him possibly want in a dress shop?” Rainbow asked, furrowing her brow. Ideas started to form in her head. Maybe he was a crossdresser, and could be humorously outed in a humiliating way? Or maybe he wasn’t, and could be made to wear a dress against his will somehow?

Despite her own experience, despite her friend’s role in that experience, and despite the reason she was singling out this particular stallion for pranking, Rainbow Dash was not prepared for what she witnessed when she snuck down to peek in through the window.

“What are you doing up there, Rainbow Dash?” Spike inquired.

The sudden splaying of her wings in shock caused her to lose balance and tumble to the ground before she could regain her senses. “Spike? Sweetie Belle! Do not go in there.”

“But… it’s my home,” Sweetie Belle said. “And it’s after dark, time for me to go home and go to bed.”

“Well, I… I set up a pretty elaborate prank for Pr- your sister. And I don’t want you getting caught up in it. So let’s just go somewhere else now, okay?” Rainbow said nervously.

Spike wasn’t buying it. “You’re not being hon-”

Sweetie shushed him with a hoof on his mouth. “Alright, Rainbow. We can go someplace else. Maybe I could stay over with Spike at the library.”

“Right. The library. Perfect idea,” Rainbow said.

They made it most of the way there before stopping short. Cloud was heading to the library, with a grim look on her face and a pair of injured alicorn princesses trailing behind them.

“On second thought… maybe you should stay somewhere else… Fluttershy. Surely the Element of Kindness won’t turn around two youngsters in need,” Rainbow Dash suggested.

Change was good. Chaos was all about change. So any kind of change was a net positive in his book. Not that he could read a book right now if he had one.

The first change Discord experienced after coming to stone was the mysterious snapping off of his petrified antler. Losing body parts wasn’t his favorite kind of change, but now it was starting to become a relatively fond memory. It felt like it had been days between the petrification and the dismemberment, but the sun hadn’t moved a degree, so it was impossible to know if it really had been days, or just an hour that seemed to stretch into eternity. That was one of the drawbacks of using the Plunderseeds.

When he had created the plant monsters, and set them to capture the princesses, all royalty really just to be thorough, and devour the Tree of Harmony, he hadn’t really thought through any possible repercussions of his plan. He didn’t honestly expect it to be as much of a success as it was, though he also hadn’t expected it to take over a millennium to come to fruition. The Tree of Harmony must have been holding it at bay all this time. Until something had tapped its power enough to let them sprout.

He wished he could credit the plant monsters with enough loyalty to free him from his prior stone prison. In truth, it was a lucky side effect of being positioned in the Palace garden. When the plants had foalnapped the Princesses, the panicking ponies had naturally run around the gardens screaming in terror as they tried desperately to determine which foul flower was the culprit. Oh, such delicious chaos! More than enough for him to finally free himself.

This latest change was at least as dramatic, but much less delicious. First, the sun finally set, the cool of night beginning to reach his stony surface. But then it had been swiftly replaced with a new form of cold. This new cold didn’t sap his heat out of him as quickly, despite the absence of heat around him.

It took him a while to realize why. He didn’t have the scientific background to reason it through logically. What he did have was a sense of Chaos. And now that sense no longer detected the tiny amount of ambient chaos that came from the random eddies of air around him all the time. It was a level of ‘silence’ he had never experienced before in his life.

Yet, even in his own mind he couldn’t hear himself scream.

He just hoped, wherever they were, his antler and his voice were having a better time than he was.

The sobs persisted through the night, even in her sleep. But they final stilled as a blanket, instilled with her own familiar scent, wrapped itself around her, tucking her in tightly. There was a second familiar scent on it, a warm, loving, masculine scent, one her instincts would never forget.

The bearer of that scent leaned in carefully, kissing her ever so softly. Not enough to wake her. But enough to banish all bad thoughts from her dreams. “Good night, my little Tiara. I’m so proud of you.”

She woke for a moment, looking around as if she expected to see someone, but nopony was there by the time her eyes had opened. So she yawned and snuggled in tighter against the blanket before falling back to sleep.