Author's Notes:

This is the second of two chapters being posted today: 3/25/2017

It was a strange day to be Princesses Celestia and Luna. For one thing, both princesses, who would normally be out and about conducting their duties, were not in fact performing their expected duties. Well, they weren’t performing duties not pertaining to raising the sun or the moon.

Outside of raising the sun and the moon, the sisters had not been doing any work related to their princess duties. That pleasure had been relegated to the council that had been set up in light of this new development.

They had received word from Princess Twilight asking whether it was possible for alicorns to die. It was here that they realized that they had no clear answer. But as they read Twilight’s letter further, it was clear that she had decided to press onward and test this for herself and had appealed to both of them along with Princess Cadance to help her conduct these tests.

She had explained that it was something that her pupil, Starlight Glimmer, had posed to her during a meal and it had gotten her thinking.

It was clear that it had gotten Celestia and Luna thinking as well. Their subjects had assumed that given that Celestia ruled Equestria for 1000 years during Luna’s banishment, not counting the time that they ruled Equestria together prior, that they were immortal. Many theories had been spun about their immortality ranging from their connection to their celestial bodies or some manner of mysterious alicorn magic that no one would ever get a chance to study.

The truth was simple: neither of them knew whether it was possible for an alicorn to die. They’d allowed the theorists to spin their theories and boast their claims so that they wouldn’t have to explain everything themselves. Still, now that Twilight’s pupil posed the question and the princess of friendship had already started testing, Celestia and Luna couldn’t help but be curious. So they decided to participate as well when Twilight sent a second letter to them both each with an appeal for help.

Plus the fact that they were long overdue for some sisterly bonding was a plenty good excuse to put their princess duties on hold for the foreseeable future.

At least after they reassured the reformed council that they would still raise the sun and the moon.

So with that said, the two princesses had the pleasure of testing all manner of methods of suicide on themselves, each deciding to switch off so that the other could document the experience for collaborative purposes.

But there was one problem they’d quickly realized when they had started work. On the off chance that they’d stumble across a method that could kill them, how they revive themselves so that the living sister wouldn’t be left alone once this whole experiment was complete. They couldn’t afford to have an uproar in Equestria or the knowledge of alicorn mortality coming out. The two Canterlot princesses enjoyed not being assassinated and would like for that to continue, thank you very much.

The answer, as it turned out, was astonishingly simple.

Unfortunately, it came at the cost of Philomena's plumage. Not that Luna cared. That pesky phoenix had pulled more than her fair share of pranks on her and any ponies who had the misfortune of being stuck with her.

“Phoenix feathers have the ability to revive ponies,” Celestia explained to an awestruck Luna. “Admittedly, it leaves you feeling quite weak but it’s better than being dead.”

Luna had been quick to agree. It would be fitting revenge for the phoenix, Luna had mused as they had gotten started. They had soon learned that it was indeed quite possible for an alicorn to die. They had uncovered several methods by which they could be killed and they also learned more about themselves in that first week than they had in the past 1000 years they’d been alive.

Even as they went through the methods and switched off killing themselves, or each other as the situation called for, it was still a bonding experience unlike any the sisters had ever experienced.

The hardest part, by far, was keeping it a secret from their staff who’d been practically trained to learn every detail of their personal lives. It had taken several polite requests for them to allow them a modicum of privacy before they guiltily stalked off.

From there, they had decided that instead of conducting their experiments in their bedchambers, it would be wise to use one of the larger dungeons in the basement. No one ever went down there and their prisoners were kept in a jail under Royal Guard watch. Naturally, the dungeons had suited their needs quite nicely. Well, once they’d done some warding to prevent anyone snooping around catching them and did a little cleaning up.

As they cleared away the implements of their latest experiment in the kitchens with Twilight (whether Princess Celestia would actually kill her for eating her cake). As it turned out, Princess Celestia was a benevolent ruler who, contrary to popular belief, was happy to share her cake with ponies brave enough to ask her.

Still, she had to respect Twilight’s bravery for trying to steal it hence her decision to let the matter slide as she had found the whole thing hilarious. Even if she had been disappointed in Twilight stealing, the worst Princess Celestia would have done was chide her for her behavior and made her promise never to repeat it again.

It was a scarily effective method against all ponies from her sister to her students and every subject in between. She knew she had to be careful with how she used it otherwise ponies would likely go to extremes to earn her forgiveness.

“Sister, I believe it is your turn for the next method,” she could hear Luna’s voice call out to her. Celestia looked around to find her recently revived sister, trotting over. She silently accepted the elixir Celestia passed to her in exchange for the list of methods.

“So you’re correct,” Celestia agreed, peering over her sister’s shoulders to peruse the list. “Now which one should we try next…”

“Do I have to do this?” Shining asked. His ears flattened when his question sounded more like a whining protest than a question. He rather not run a spear through his wife. He had no desire to leave Flurry without a mother.

Cadance stared at him incredulously for several seconds before putting her face in a forehoof while taking a deep breath to calm herself down. She reminded herself that she needed to be patient. While there was still the council to look after the Crystal Empire when she took the time off needed to test the ways alicorns could kill themselves, Shining had to juggle raising their daughter and maintain the Crystal Guard.

It had been something of a surprise when she’d received letters from both her aunts and from her beloved sister-in-law. They’d had a bad habit of not writing nearly as much as she would have liked. What really caught the normally unflappable princess of love off guard was the contents of the letters. It had requested aid for answering a single question.

Could alicorns die?

Initially, Cadance had been tempted to tear the letters to pieces and then hurl the pieces into the fire and banish them from her mind. She had even made the motions to do that exact thing but then a stray thought gave her pause.

Celestia had taken in her in after she’d ascended following her battle with Prismia and not only trained her up to take on the role of princess but had raised her much like a mother would her own foal. It was thanks to Celestia’s kindness and generosity that Cadance had turned out to be the pony she was today: a beloved ruler of the Crystal Empire.

That was to say nothing of the influence Twilight held. She’d quickly come to respect and admire the younger pony for her relentless dedication to anything she set her mind to. Cadance could safely say that Twilight, at least in part, was part of her motivation to improve and become a pony worthy of the alicornhood she attained.

Twilight and Celestia’s impacts on her life had been very tempting motivation to not tear up their appeals for her help and actually give them a try. However, there had been something that had compelled her to refuse as well.

Said reasoning could be heard squealing somewhere nearby while Sunburst yelped before conjuring a shield to protect himself.

Cadance had already answered an important question: Could alicorns have foals?

As it turned out, they could. Apparently, there had been something of a debate about the subject and it was all very confusing. Unfortunately, Celestia and later Luna showed no inclination toward any potential suitors. When the public had gotten wind that Cadance would soon be wed to Shining Armor, the whole of Equestria had celebrated at this news. When she and Shining Armor had announced that they’d be having a baby, the excitement that news brought had put every other piece of news to shame.

Ponies had wondered what kind of pony the foal of Princess Cadance and Shining Armor would be and they were all very excited to find out. When word got out that the newborn foal was an alicorn, all minds had been blown. When the letters had mentioned ways to die, her mind had flashed to Flurry Heart who was upstairs wreaking havoc. Two thoughts floated into her head almost in tandem.

They’d better not ask me to involve Flurry Heart.

I hope this doesn’t end with Shining a widower and Flurry motherless.

As it turned out, they hadn’t, as far as Cadance could tell, asked her to include Flurry Heart on these proceedings. After she and Shining encountered Twilight, her student, her assistant, and Discord revealed to them a way to revive themselves in case Cadance died, things had gotten much less tense.

Now that they had a way to revive Cadance should she die, Cadance found herself far more willing to take up the task than she would have otherwise have been.

“Sorry Shiny,” she murmured, pulling her mind from her memories and offering her husband a long nuzzle under his chin. “But Auntie Celestia, Luna, and Twilight need our help getting this done.”

“Don’t remind me,” Shining moaned, covering his face with a hoof. “I already have to worry about the possibility of you dying. Please don’t make me worry about Twilight more than I already do!”

Cadance hadn’t thought of that as she kissed him deeply. Any complaints Shining had died on his lips as he allowed himself to get lost in the kiss. Cadance smiled through it and knew that she’d won him over.

“It’ll be just one more method we need to test for this week,” she said gently. Her previously gentle gaze changed into a fiery one. “After we finish for the week,” she purred. “We can relax, spend time with each other…”

She paused to enjoy the effect these words had on her husband whose ears perked up at the prospect of spending more time with his wife. She’d intentionally trailed off toward the end to keep things open ended and to allow him to interpret it however he choosed.

Still, she was pleased as he picked up the spear once more. At her encouraging nod, he gripped it tightly and charged right at her, plunging the spear into her as far as it would go.

It didn’t get very far.

“Huh,” Cadance stared down at the spear dangling by its tip in her chest before falling out. Turning to Shining, she said, “it hurts a bit but I don’t think I would call this lethal.”

Indeed, when Shining marked and pulled the spear out of his wife, it had penetrated roughly an inch.

After conducting several more tests and applying salve to the wound to heal any injuries, Cadance could safely conclude that she wouldn’t have to worry about assassinations by way of spears. Metal ones would simply phase through her and stone tipped ones would only do minimal damage. Still, learning this piece of information had been a relief to Shining as he’d worried that the weapons the Crystal Empire possessed could be used against them. Now that he knew that Cadance, and by extension, Flurry Heart, were protected from spears, he could breathe easier.

It was one of those rare times when business was slow and there were no customers present at Sugarcube Corner. It was these times that Pinkie Pie thought about things contrary to popular belief that she didn’t think at all. What she thought about usually depended on what had happened on her days in the recent and in some cases, distant past.

The past several days had been interesting to say the least. Not just because she’d got to make friends with a pair of changelings that had decided to move to Ponyville but because she had received visits at work from some of her friends. It wasn’t so much her friends visiting her that stood out to her. It was that they were visiting her during working hours that had briefly caught her off guard. Especially in the case of Twilight whom she hadn’t seen in quite some time.

The fact that she hadn’t seen Twilight in as long as she had and created bubbles of worry in Pinkie’s stomach. It was a feeling she didn’t like. Whenever she tried to investigate or search for her friend, she quickly remember something else that she’d have to do and give up.

It was only the knowledge that Twilight was merely busy and not on some deadly adventure with friends that Pinkie hadn’t had the pleasure of meeting that prevented her from calling a search party.

The first time, it had been Spike and Starlight who’d come to order a cake for Twilight. Pinkie already knew what kind of cake Twilight liked but Starlight had insisted she do it bigger than what Twilight normally did. She’d been bemused as this did not coincide with what she knew about the princess of friendship.

If there was one thing Pinkie knew about Twilight, her friend was a pony of habits, of lists, of studying, and of friendship. This deviation from what she knew about Twilight would have normally set off alarm bells inside her brain. However, she quickly realized that she would be debating against the only two creatures alive in Ponyville that lived with Twilight and would likely know even more about Twilight’s habits than she did no matter how good her information collection systems happened to be.

All of this aside, Pinkie had agreed to the modified order and silently hoped that Twilight would enjoy her efforts.

Or at least segue into a food fight. Pinkie would be content with that.

She still remembered the multiple tiered vanilla cake she’d made for her friend and remembered the blood, sweat, and tears invested into making the cake. The last time she put this much effort into her baking had been when she’d assisted with baking the Marzipan Mascarpone Meringue Madness.

Or as she preferred to call it: the MMMM.

Still, Starlight had been nice enough to share pictures of Twilight’s elated smile as she saw the behemoth that was the cake. It made all the effort Pinkie put into baking it all worth it just to see that smile. She would have preferred to see it for herself but she supposed that getting a photograph of the event was better than nothing. All the same, she hung it all her wall and smiled fondly at it whenever she was in her room.

The second instance was a visit from Spike and Discord. Much like the first time, Spike hung back while Discord did most of the talking. Well, more accurately, he was asking her about tricks to make ponies laugh. It was something Pinkie loved talking about and felt not an ounce of suspicion as she and Discord discussed ideas at length. It felt nice to be able to talk about the nature of laughter with those with like minded views. She only vaguely registered the mention of Twilight and the thought hadn’t come up until after Discord and Spike had left after saying goodbye.

She wondered what Twilight happened to be up to and resolved the pay closer attention in the future.

Maybe I should ask some of the others to stake out Twilight’s castle with me. It would be so much fun! Pinkie thought eagerly as she closed her eyes to go to sleep.

It was a strange day to be Fluttershy.

Her days had gone about like they normally did: wake up, brush her teeth, eat breakfast, feed the animals, tend to any ailing ones, eat lunch, any combination of spending time with her friends, singing, playing hoofball, reading, or practicing her knitting, eat dinner, and then read until she fell asleep.

Still, the only one who visited her regularly was Discord so naturally it had been something of a surprise when she’d started receiving regular visits from Starlight Glimmer. Ever since Starlight moved to Twilight’s castle, Fluttershy had noticed the drastic change in Starlight’s demeanor: gone was the confident leader that had managed to trick them all and steal their cutie marks and in her place stood a mare lost and trying to find her place in the world.

Fluttershy was sympathetic. It was something she struggled with as well and it was something they had bonded over even after Starlight rebuilt her friendship with Sunburst. Starlight had been quite easy to get along with and certainly helped that her animal friends, Angel included, had been as interested in her as she was in them. While Starlight quietly admitted that she wouldn’t be looking for a pet any time soon, she still enjoyed spending time around her animals.

Almost as much as Fluttershy did, in fact.

“It’s must be nice being friends with all these wonderful woodland creatures,” Starlight had told her morosely during one such visit as she nuzzled a small squirrel. “Knowing they won’t judge you as harshly as some might if you make mistakes…”

Fluttershy could relate to Starlight’s fears hence the reason she spent so much time around animals. It was also part of the reason why she spent so little time around other ponies until she’d met Rarity and the others.

It was several weeks after Starlight and her ragtag group had managed to rescue the princesses and Twilight’s friends that Fluttershy had notice a rather sharp decline in the number and length of visits from both Discord and Starlight. For the life of her, Fluttershy could only begin to guess why this happened to be the case. When she pressed them for information, all she got from them was that they were busy with some business with Twilight. This lack of information served to only make Fluttershy worry for their well being.

It wasn’t until Starlight came for an extended visit did she get more details.

“I’m sorry I haven’t been able to come by in such a long time. It’s this project that Twilight, Spike, Discord, and I are working on with the other princesses,” Starlight explained as she and Fluttershy sipped their tea. “All of the princesses swore everyone involved to secrecy so I’m not allowed to say anything about it.”

That made more sense to Fluttershy and had gone a long way to dispelling the fears she’d fostered. She had been worried that Starlight and Discord wouldn’t want to be friends with her anymore. Hearing it straight from Starlight would certainly help her breathe more easily especially since she’d mentioned that Discord would be by in the near future for an extended visit as well.

It had been during this extended visit that Starlight asked Fluttershy an interesting question.

“Would you be willing to let me borrow Harry for the day?” Starlight asked, referring to her pet bear. From what Fluttershy saw, the unicorn seemed more than a little nervous about asking. Fluttershy couldn’t begin to imagine why. Nonetheless, this raised some warning bells in Fluttershy’s head. Why was Starlight so interested in Harry? Why not one of the smaller woodland creatures?

Truthfully, Fluttershy would not have minded letting Harry spend the day with Starlight. Indeed, Starlight had demonstrated a competency in animals Fluttershy hadn’t seen before. The only problems being the concerns that might be let loose were Harry to be spotted in the middle of Ponyville. She’d rather not have young ponies having heart attacks at the sight of him. Besides, even if Starlight took the long way around Ponyville and managed to avoid being seen, Fluttershy rather doubted that she would be able to do what Harry needed to do. Bears were temperamental creatures and it takes time to make them trust you implicitly. Fluttershy knew this from personal experience.

There also the problem of Harry having had a nasty run in with some of the more violent creatures in the Everfree forest. This made Fluttershy’s decision easier than she would have cared to admit.

“I’m sorry, Starlight,” she started and she truly meant it. “But I can’t let him out of my sight right now. He had a really awful encounter with some of the creatures in the Everfree forest and needs treatment before I can safely let him go.”

“That’s okay,” said Starlight, her voice equal parts understanding and disappointed. “Harry’s health is the most important thing here. Let Harry know that I wish him a swift recovery.”

Fluttershy smiled as she accepted the sentiments. Starlight had drained the last of her tea, noticed the time on the clock across the room and stated that she needed to get back to the castle. Fluttershy led her out and uttered a goodbye and a request that if Starlight happened to run into Discord to let him know that she missed him.

Starlight offered a smile and a promise to do as she asked before disappearing with a pop.

Applejack wiped the sweat off of her face as she looked at the baskets loaded to the brim with freshly bucked apples. There was nothing quite as satisfying to Applejack as putting in an honest day’s work. She allowed herself a small smile as she felt the faint traces of a breeze caress her face.

While she let the wind caress her face, Applejack thought back on her day. All in all it hadn’t been especially interesting. At the very least, it was only as interesting as one happened to find continuously apple-bucking to be. Nonetheless, barring apple-bucking, the most interesting thing that Applejack had seen all day was the entourage composed of Twilight, Starlight, Discord, and Spike. They spared enough time to stop for a short chat.

“So what brings ya’ll to our neck of the woods, Sugarcube?” Applejack asked keenly.

“We were planning to do some research on some of the old tomes in the Castle of the Two Sisters,” Twilight explained eagerly. “From what Spike told us, that place had all sorts of ancient spells and Starlight and I are keen on investigating this thoroughly!”

That explained why three out of four of their entourage was going… but what about Discord?

Seemingly able to read minds or that it was possible that Discord had read her question from the expression on her face. “I’m just along for the ride. Also for the chance to see if I can make those suits of armor do my bidding. I am the Lord of Chaos after all. Why should I be reduced to doing my own housework when I can make someone else do it for me!”

At one time, Discord’s explanation would have rubbed Applejack the wrong way. This explanation would have led to Applejack’s ire building to epic proportions and would have surely led to some form of property damage. Still, now that she’d gotten to know Discord better, she’d come to realize that almost everything he did was in the name of having fun.

Even if a fair bit of his fun came at the expense of someone else.

Applejack, if she was being honest with herself, probably would have turned a blind eye if he happened to send a prank in Rainbow or Pinkie’s direction. Land knew she could do with more laughter in her life.

Still, she’d waved them off and wished them good luck on their endeavors even to Discord who’d seemed only mildly taken aback by her encouragement but quickly took it into stride as he caught up with the others. She watched them until they had disappeared beyond the thick trees that made up the forest. Once they were gone, she turned back to the remaining trees and went back to work.

Every so often at seemingly random points in time, Applejack would hear bouts of psychotic laughter coming in the direction of the forest. It was at this point that she felt fear and concern for her friends whom she knew had headed in that direction earlier.

Yet I know I didn’t see them coming back… Applejack thought as she strayed from Sweet Apple Acres and trotted toward the Everfree forest. Are they staying at that rundown castle? I hope they haven’t been caught or anything…

Applejack’s concern only heightened when she heard another bout of psychotic laughter emanating from the forest. Fear and concern clashed in her for dominance and in the end, concern for her friends had driven her to gallop headlong into the Everfree forest.

At first, she’d been fine and had been perfectly able to block at the occasional bouts of psychotic laughter; her concern for her friends’ safety triumphed over any concerns for her personal safety. Nonetheless, as she traversed further into the forest down the path she knew the castle to be she felt her resolve weaken. Applejack could feel the goosebumps underneath her coat emerge and the feeling that she was being watched was more than a little unsettling.

She’d done her best to ignore her mounting fear and press on but as she drew closer to the castle that had indirectly cemented the friendship fostered between her and the others, fear took hold. She grimaced as she struggled to move forward and found herself paralyzed by fear. Not only was the laughter louder than before, she could also hear the faint sounds of growling and the sound of grass bristling.

Applejack soon found herself surrounded by timberwolves.

Forced to fight, Applejack had little trouble dispatching them. With help from "Bucky McGillycuddy" and "Kicks McGee", Applejack had been able to clear a path and escape. She felt that discretion would be the better part of valor and silently hoped that Twilight and the friends she’d brought along would be enough to handle whatever was going on in that castle.

Rarity hummed a tune to herself as she weaved the thread through the fabric. It had been a wonderful day for the unicorn. She’d managed to secure a collection of commissions from Sapphire Shores herself! Just meeting the famous musician would have made Rarity’s day but having the pleasure of being able to create several ensembles for her favorite musician had been something of a dream come true for Rarity.

And I have Starlight to thank for all of this! She beamed. Rarity liked to reflect on the day when she’d received the commission whenever inspiration was thin on the ground. It had been one of those seemingly ordinary days turned extraordinary.

She remembered it vividly; how could she not? She had just come out of the spa with Fluttershy who’d needed to get back to her cottage. Rarity vaguely remembered something about an appointment or something but could not for the life of her remember. Fluttershy had offered a hasty goodbye before beating a quick retreat back home.

Unlike Fluttershy, Rarity was in no hurry: she had no orders waiting for her back at her boutique. She’d made sure of that before going to the spa. Rarity was a firm believer in finishing work before indulging otherwise it just defeated the purpose of indulging.

As she continued down this train of thought, she’d spotted a weary Twilight being led back to her castle by Spike and Starlight. As she drew closer to them, she noticed that Twilight’s mane was as disheveled as it had been in the days in which she’d tried to avoid her castle. As if it wasn’t bad enough to Rarity’s well-trained eye, she could see her normally vibrant coat was now pale, her eyes boasted bags upon bags. Her tail was just as disheveled as her mane.

It was all the telltale signs Rarity needed to know that this was an emergency of epic proportions.

Without any provocations, Rarity galloped forward, seized Twilight in her magic, and dragged her toward the spa. Alarmed, Starlight and Spike rushed to follow her, protesting her decision to take Twilight to the spa. Rarity ignored their protests which varied from Twilight needing sleep to having a far more opulent bathroom at the castle than anything the spa could produce.

Rarity grinned as the familiar building of Ponyville day spa came into view. All she had to do was block out Spike and Starlight’s protests for a few more minutes and she’d be home free! It was here that Starlight had decided to try another approach.

“Hey Rarity, is that Sapphire Shores over there?” she could hear Starlight ask.

As the question finally processed through her brain, Rarity paused and looked in the direction Starlight had indicated. Sure enough, she could see the familiar pale golden coat, poofy blue mane and tail; all telltale signs of the famous singer. As far as Rarity could tell, it was the singer that she’d practically idolized.

Any thoughts of taking Twilight to the spa were promptly banished from Rarity’s mind as she galloped toward the famous singer. She’d failed to notice Spike grinning as he and Starlight hauled Twilight off to the castle.

“Ah! Rarity!” Sapphire beamed. “I’ve been hoping I’d run into you…”

“Really?” Rarity asked, stunned. In truth, Rarity probably shouldn’t have been as surprised as she was; she had, after all, worked with Sapphire Shores twice before on commissions, both of which had turned out better than either could have hoped for.

“Oh yes,” Sapphire nodded but before she could explain further, other ponies had wised up to the fact that there was a musical celebrity in their midst and had rushed toward them.

“We’ll go to my place,” Rarity murmured, as they galloped away with what seemed like a healthy portion of Sapphire’s fanbase chasing after them. Rarity would have normally enjoyed the attention but Sapphire’s irritation mixed with appreciation made her pause until she was alone.

“Can’t you teleport us back?” Sapphire couldn’t help but ask. “I know your friend, Twilight Sparkle knows how to.”

“Sadly… I haven’t exactly had much time to learn,” Rarity explained quietly as she checked to make sure the coast was clear. “I’ve just opened a new store in Manehatten and between managing that one and the one in Canterlot, it’s been more than a little exhausting to say the least.”

“But…” Rarity continued, grabbing two large cardboard boxes. Rarity would have likely guessed that Pinkie had put them there in case of cardboard box emergencies. “That doesn’t mean I don’t know how to disguise myself.”

True to form, Rarity and Sapphire were able to avoid the latter’s fans thanks to being concealed as boxes. Sapphire hadn’t especially enjoyed hiding under a cardboard box; she was a singer and reveled in the spotlight shining down on her. Still, she enjoyed the thrill of the pseudo-adventure with Rarity as they did everything they could to make sure they weren’t caught by her fans.

Ten minutes later and the duo had finally managed to sneak into the boutique without raising suspicion. Sapphire didn’t waste any time and explained what it was she wanted.

Rarity had agreed almost instantly.

“Finally,” she murmured several days later as she finished the last piece of the ensemble. She folded all the pieces neatly before placing them carefully into a small box. She was just about to head out to mail them when she heard the door of her shop open.

“Welcome!” she trilled, looking to whoever had entered. Her eyes lit up at the sight of Spike and Starlight and she dragged them further into her shop. Rarity quickly went to work bustling about and brewing tea.

The three had sat down, each holding a cup of tea as Rarity recounted her meeting with Sapphire Shores. Rarity thought that Starlight looked far more surprised than she ought to have been. After all, she was the one who pointed her out to Rarity in the first place!

“I’m glad you were able to get everything sorted with Sapphire,” said Starlight brightly. “But… we kind of came to ask if you could make something for us.”

“Of course, dears!” she replied eagerly. Her horn lit up as paper, ink, her glasses, and quills flew across the room toward her. She had barely managed to put quill to paper when Spike intervened.

“We need hazmat suits,” he said quickly. Rarity blinked, dropping her supplies to the ground with a loud clatter.

“Hazmat suits?” she repeated, her voice high pitched and borderline hysterical. “Why?”

“One of Twilight’s experiments,” Spike started but Rarity raised a hoof.

“Say no more dears,” she said resignedly. “I completely understand. So one for you two and Twilight?”

“Actually, Twilight’s already got one,” said Starlight quickly. “But we’ll need one for Discord.”

Rarity seemed taken aback by this but heaved a sigh while letting a small smile slip back onto her face.

“I’ll take care of it.”

It was a boring day to be Rainbow Dash.

Wonderbolts training had finished for the day and Rainbow had been at a loss for what to do. Her default decision had been to take a nap but the problem with that was that she was too pumped up on adrenaline from practice to be able to nap as she normally did. Her next thought had been eating and Sugarcube Corner came to mind. There was little doubt that Pinkie would be thrilled to see her and would be interested in planning some pranks with her while they shared a fresh batch of sweets.

Then she remembered Spitfire’s mandatory eating regimen for the new wonderbolts and that idea was struck dead. At least until the end of the week. Nonetheless, It had been a point of contention between Rainbow and Pinkie when the former had told the latter about it but Pinkie had reluctantly backed down in respect of Rainbow’s dreams.

So she decided to fly. Hopefully if she flied long enough, the adrenaline would give out and she would be tired enough to get the nap she craved.

As it turned out, even after twenty minutes of high speed flying, the adrenaline still hadn’t give out. If anything, Rainbow felt more lively now than she did before.

It was here that she realized that Twilight’s castle was not far at all and then an idea came to her.

“Maybe I can get Twilight get cast a sleep spell on me or give me a potion to help me,” Rainbow murmured. Gaining altitude once again, Rainbow flew as fast as possible in the direction of Twilight’s castle. The speed with which she flew had been fast enough to create a sonic rainboom.

If Rainbow had been paying attention, she wouldn’t have needed to bother with going to Twilight’s castle. If Rainbow had been paying attention, she would have noticed that her sonic rainboom had been contained in an orb before it could let out its immeasurable powers. If she had been paying attention, she would have noticed Discord, Starlight, Twilight, and Spike on the ground below her.

As it was, she didn’t notice any of this and instead made tracks to the castle.

Rainbow burst into the castle foyer, loudly announcing her presence. She hadn’t bothered with ringing the doorbell; after all, this was common practice for her. What wasn’t common practice was not receiving some form of greeting from Twilight, Spike, or Starlight whom all somehow knew when she came calling.

“Twilight! You in here!” Rainbow called, landing on the cool crystal floors and began to search for her wayward friend. Several minutes of searching later and Rainbow concluded that she was not in the castle.

“Where is she then?” Rainbow wondered aloud as she walked into the throne room and took a seat at her own throne. She quickly made a mental note to put some soft cushions there. While her throne looked as awesome as she expected it to be, the fact remained that it was not as comfortable as she would have liked. She resolved to remedy this in the future but there was still the current problem of Twilight’s non-presence in her castle.

It was here that she noticed a slip of parchment taped to the table.

Curiously, Rainbow picked it up and read it to herself.

To whom it may concern,

I am currently out of town on business and I unfortunately will not be back for several days. If you could leave you contact details when you leave, I will do my best to get back to you as soon as possible.

Sincerely,

Twilight Sparkle.

Princess of Friendship.

“Of course she would be away now of all times,” Rainbow rolled her eyes in annoyance. So much for getting any help from Twilight today.

Maybe Zecora would be able to whip up something to help her with sleeping problem...

Angels had all manner of responsibilities that they needed to fulfill. Some extracted the souls of those who have died. Some guard the gates to paradise and hellfire. Others keep tabs on every living creature in world, recording every good and bad thing that they’ve ever done while other angels enforced the rules of nature.

All this being said, being an angel had its perks: not having biological needs certainly opened up time for them to be productive. All angels had been firm believers in eating, drinking, and sleeping being overrated anyway even though they were sympathetic to those organisms who needed to rest. Another such perk is being able to assume the identity of anyone. It is a power comparable to that of the changelings. The main difference being that angels happened to be much better at being who they were disguised as than changelings were.

One such angel had just finished extracting the soul of an elderly earth pony. It was obvious that her soul was still as pure as it was the day he was born. The fact that it had come out as easily as pouring a glass of water was a testament to that.

It was here that she found herself face to face with Discord: self proclaimed lord of chaos.

“Hello,” said Discord, grinning at her.

“Hi,” she replied shortly. She was just about to head out to extract another soul when she found her path blocked yet again by the draconequus. She attempted to bypass him to resume her duties but Discord, ever the saboteur, blocked her path at every turn.

Even when she tried to escape by way of teleportation.

Heaving a sigh, she asked. “What do you want from me? I’ve got things to do.”

“I need your help with something,” he said briskly, dragging her away. The angels who’d noticed decided against saying anything.

“So what is this place?” the angel asked, looking around.

“Welcome to my little corner of the world,” he said simply. The angel knew Discord too well to take him seriously. This “little corner of the world” defied all the laws of nature. Other angels had tried to change the environment but to no avail. In the end, they gave up and left it alone.

“So what do you want from me?” the angel asked briskly. “I’ve got work to do and I don’t like falling behind as I’m sure you know.” She couldn’t help but smile as Discord shivered uncomfortable. It was clear that he remembered their last encounter quite vividly.

“I need your help,” said Discord as he explained the situation to her. The angel’s expression remained carefully blank as Discord explained what he wanted her to do.

“Hmm…” she murmured thoughtfully once Discord had finished. If she was honest with herself, she’d never encountered an alicorn soul before but hadn’t thought much about it. “So let me get this straight: you want to test whether it’s possible to kill an alicorn?”

“Exactly.”

“Why?” she asked incredulously.

“Academic curiosity?” Discord offered.

“All of this in the name of academic curiosity,” the angel’s voice had left incredulous territory and had entered hysteria.

“It was the alicorn’s idea in the first place,” Discord added flippantly. “Well, actually it was her student’s idea but you get the drift. Her student posed the idea to her and she actually decided to test it. For what it’s worth, the other alicorns are going to be testing this as well.”

Hysteria seemed to vanish on the spot as the angel regarded Discord thoughtfully. Surely no one would notice if she skived off once every so often to assist with this insane operation that Discord had proposed. After all, there were millions of angels around and they was little doubt that they would be able to pick up the slack.

Besides, from what Discord described. He seemed to be under the impression that it would not be a common thing so she wouldn’t have to worry too much about falling behind on her responsibilities.

So she agreed.

“I’ll need some way to know that it is your alicorn that’s dying,” she stated. “My information can only tell me that someone is dying and can take me to them. I need a way to distinguish your alicorn from the rest of the souls that I need to pull so that I can have everything ready at a moment’s notice.”

“That’s easy,” he said confidently. A snap of his fingers later and a six point star badge was bequeathed onto her. “It’ll vibrate when she’s dead so that you can come and work your magic so that she’ll be okay again.”

“Fine,” she replied and Discord flashed her a silly smile before disappearing. The angel stared at the badge before stuffing it away and returning to her duties.

The angel wondered not for the first time if she regretted her decision to help Discord. He kept her posted on how their experiments were going though she could never be bothered to remember them for long. She had been thankful that for as far as she could remember, they hadn’t yet encountered a death yet. Still, a deal’s a deal and she didn’t feel inclined to back out now. Besides, if she did, Discord would harass her even more than he already did.

The first time her badge vibrated, the angel had just finished extracted the soul of an elderly pony who’d lived a long and wholesome life. She reviewed the spells needed to make the revival work and then travelled to the alicorn Discord had mentioned.

Her name was Twilight Sparkle apparently.

“Not any stranger than any of the others, I guess,” she shrugged. As per usual, she descended from above backed with golden light as she began her spellwork. These were mostly simple spells angels used when it was deemed that they had passed before their time was up but were applicable here too.

“Thank you,” the alicorn named Twilight said sincerely.

The angel stared at her and shrugged. “You’re welcome.” With that, she quickly left.

If only she knew… Really, it should have been obvious from the beginning but the angel was too busy with her own duties to give much thought to scientific method. Still, she could not be blamed for failing to realize that they would repeat experiments multiple times. Regardless, it made things hectic for her when they stumbled across a technique that happened to prove fatal to Twilight. The angel was halfway tempted to simply stake out the castle on such instances. It would save her a little time and energy at any rate.

Still, at least Twilight was a decent conversationalist. Usually when an angel came calling it meant death had arrived. Usually, such instances involved pleading to be sent back or resigned acceptance in the form of blissful silence. It was all very boring to the angel but she could safely say that no one had ever questioned what it was like to be an angel. She almost regretted having to give one word answers to her questions as she was absorbed in the spellwork involved in the revival.

Nonetheless, the angel found herself enjoying these little dialogues with Twilight. It was a nice change of pace if a little awkward with some of the questions.

“Do you have a name?”

“What do angels do with their free time?”

“Where do angels come from?”

Awkward silences tended follow whenever these types of questions were asked. She was just thankful that Twilight seemed to have enough common sense not to press the issue. Those were the kinds of things she didn’t like talking about.

Still, in recent weeks, the angel found herself more interested in Twilight’s experiments of self demise and taken to keeping tabs on them between duties. Indeed, whenever Twilight died, the angel had taken to sticking around invisibly to watch the subsequent attempts.

Regardless, this interest would have to be explored at length and she figured that she could only do that by sticking around.

Hopefully none of the other angels would notice if she was slightly slower with her duties because of this.