I woke up after someone pulled me out of bed and I fell a short distance onto the floor. "Rise and shine, Yang. We're an hour from Canterlot."

"Mmhrrgg," I said from the floor.

The blanket got pulled off of me with a vengeance. "Do I have to hold this toasty blanket hostage?"

"Oh no you don-actually, do that." I yawned as I started getting my mind together.

"If you insist." The guard not only held onto the blanket, but also started folding it as well.

I slowly sat up, apparently the only one that had been asleep. Or maybe I was just the last to wake up. I stumbled as I tried to stand, the heels on my boots messing with my attempts at the simple action. By the time I had managed to get on my feet, I was pretty well awake. “I am not sleeping with heels on again.” After retrieving my blanket from the guard and putting it away, I went back to the dining car, my companion following me.

“Breakfast burrito and coffee?” the stallion at the drink counter offered as I walked in. Somehow, he was wide awake and cheery.

I turned to the guard. “How are we on bits?”

“Easily enough for breakfast,” he reported. “Lunch and dinner, too. There's a lot of bits.”

“Is there any grass or flowers in the burritos?”

“There is hay in it,” the serving stallion answered. “Unfortunately, the burritos are premade, so it can’t be removed.”

“Darn. I’ll just get something in Canterlot, then.” As I went to an empty table nearby, I heard the guard order his own burrito and coffee. Moments after I sat down, he joined me with his food and coffee, both lightly steaming. “You know, for a guard, you’re acting pretty casual.”

“There are times that we can,” he said. “It’s usually just for simple tasks like this one. I was also told to be more casual and friendly with you as well, so there’s that.”

“Hm.” I turned to look out the window and watch the green landscape go by as he ate his breakfast. It was a peaceful way to pass the time.

When we arrived, I made a beeline to the cargo unloading area to get my bike and suitcase. Once they were back in my possession, I took them to a booth for holding until I got back for the train to Ponyville. Once that was done, I followed my escort and started walking to the castle, happy to stretch my legs.

Halfway to the castle, I had to stop for a bit and sit down. “Is something wrong, Miss Xiao Long?” the guard asked.

“No, well, yes,” I answered. “Let’s just say I’m not going to be walking up the mountain in these boots again anytime soon. My ankles are hurting.”

He looked at the footwear in question. “That doesn’t look too difficult to me.”

“When you’re not used to it, it is bad. Just give me a bit.” Exactly 1.21 moments later, I was back up. “Let’s get going.”

“By your word.”

As we kept going upwards, I started feeling it in my ankles again. Even letting the guard take the backpack did nothing to help with it, and once I’d confirmed that, I took it back. “The walk down’s not going to be fun.” As we approached the castle gates, I glanced down. “Then again, why should I have to walk down with these heels? I could just let one of the princesses throw me to the train station.”

We went inside, and I followed the guard through some halls, coming to a door simply labelled ‘Celestia’s Study’. “Go on inside. I’ll get the princesses and have somepony get you some breakfast.”

“Thanks.” As he left, I went inside and found a well furnished office, the walls covered in bookshelves that were all filled with books. In the middle of the office was a desk, with a Princess sized office chair behind it, and a fireplace behind it, unlit and with logs stacked neatly to the side.

Whether it was real or just my imagination, I felt a brief chill when I saw the empty fireplace, so I started moving logs into the fireplace. Once I had a few in there, I put a flame on my finger tip and lit them. Soon, I had a nice fire going, set the backpack down, and sat down in the office chair, turning it around so I could face the fireplace.

A few short, quick knocks caught my attention. “Come in!”

A butler came in. “Good morning, Miss Xiao Long. I heard you might be hungry?”

My stomach answered for me. “Yeah, I am. What’s on the menu?”

“What would you like?””

“Do you have meat here? I’m craving some.”

“We have chicken, pork, and Griffonian beef available.”

I thought for just a moment on what I wanted. “Hmm, cheesy scrambled eggs, bacon, crispy hash browns, water, and orange juice. No pulp. Oh, and the total cost of the meal.”

“I assure you, you don’t have to worry about the bill. It’s-”

“I. Want. To pay for it. Like anyone else.”

“M-Miss Xiao Long, I insist-”

Someone else interrupted him. “Let her pay for it, kind butler.” Luna interrupted herself with a yawn. “In fact, Yang, would it be too much to ask for me to add to your bill? I just need some light coffee.”

“Go ahead,” I said. “In fact, get some of what Celestia likes to drink, too. On me.” The butler took one look at Luna’s slightly irritated gaze before bowing and rushing off. “So, what do you think of the new look?” I stood up and walked around the desk for Luna’s convenience.

“Well, it looks good, but I can’t say I expected to see you wearing something like that. Dare I ask why you’re wearing it?” Luna came in and looked it over a bit.

“Rarity made it for me, then I wore it yesterday for a temporary job, got right on the train last night, and here I am.” I went back to the chair and sat down. “It does take a bit of time to put on and take off, though.”

“Is that a new work style, Yang?” Celestia asked from the doorway as she came in. Five of the solar flares on her cutie mark were detached from the orange circle in the middle. “It looks like you mean business.”

“I guess you could say that, Celestia.” I turned to both sisters once they were sitting across from me, and decided to get down to business. “So, since we’re all here, what can I do for you?”

“We want to debrief you on how you took down that weather machine. If you have any idea how it might have gone rogue, it would be appreciated.”

“Just to get it straight, you’re saying the machine started spreading the toxic sludge on its own, right?”

“It put up a robust defense,” Luna said. “Lightning bolts, hail, and more. It took an eclipse beam before it was sealed.”

“What if I told you there was a pony sealed in there?” As I told them of my trip through the machine, my breakfast and our drinks arrived, along with the bill, which I paid off immediately. Once the butler was gone, I started on my breakfast and told them of my looting trip, promising to show them what I got later on.

They were fascinated with everything I told them about my fight with Brain Storm, especially his armor and what happened when he injected himself with the liquid rainbow. After I finished off my breakfast, happy to have had some bacon again, I started telling them about the 1812 Overture Finale and how that ended up destroying the machine.

“So, the machine wasn’t going rogue, but had been hijacked?” Celestia rhetorically asked. “Thinking about it, that makes more sense than it going rogue on its own. The intelligences on those machines were top of the line, and it was just the one machine that went bad.”

“Indeed it does, sister,” Luna agreed. “How did we not consider that possibility?”

“I don’t blame either of you,” I said as I stood up. “I’m sure anyone would think it was the machine when they saw it too. I certainly did. Is there anything else you need to know?”

"No, I do not believe so," Celestia said. "How about those things you picked up on the machine?"

"Of course."

For at least an hour, we looked over all the things I'd gotten, both of them getting a bit nostalgic over different things. Celestia with the dresses, Luna with the computer. Apparently, she was a bit of a gamer in the past. As I was packing the things back up, they started figuring out the value of the items in bits. They generally agreed on the number of zeros, and there were enough of those mentioned that I could live comfortably forever, and likely become one of the nobles.

I decided not to take up their theoretical offer, as I already had plans for the stuff.

Once we were done talking, I asked them for a launch to the train station, and Celestia obliged, opening a window and launching me out with her magic. As I was flying, one thought ran through my head: "How am I going to land with heels?! I did not think this through!"

I landed at the entrance to the train station face first. Amazingly, my hat stayed in place the whole time.

Author's Notes:

Terrible landing strategy is terrible. Thankfully, aura is an amazing thing.