Two more full months passed, and what had come to be called the “Turnabout Intruder Invasion” began to fade into memory as ponies began to repair the damage to both the town and themselves. For some ponies however, healing would be long in coming, and some would likely be forever changed.

Currently, Applejack could only act independently if someone was holding her leash or reins, a duty that often fell to Spike, who could often be seen riding on the back of the orange earth pony as she went about her day. He never gave Applejack any commands or corrected her in any way, simply remaining with her as the key to the lock on her suit-imposed conditioning.

A conditioning that Cadance was working hard on removing, or at least altering, and the fact that Applejack was able to self-actualize in any circumstances spoke volumes as to her ability.

The Princess of Love, however, had her own issues to deal with. Now beholden to the Nightmare Rarity, along with her husband, careful observers could often find the pair on the practice fields of the Twilight Guard. There, they were being trained in the old arts of harness dressage under the keen eye and accurate whip of the dominate latex sorceress, who in turn was nearly always under the glowering gaze of Princess Luna.

However, even Luna had to admit that the husband and wife did make a fetching pair, hooves moving in lockstep as their actions were coordinated and controlled down to even the flicking of ears and the lashing of tails.

In return for being allowed to remain free and bonded, Nightmare Rarity took time each week to scour the far corners of Equestria in search of the feral symbiotes who still prowled the land in search of ponies to bind and milk for the magic they needed to procreate. As the now undisputed Latex Sorceress of Equestria, the twinned mare was able to instantly sense and command any symbiotes that came within her range, which amounted to two dozen furlongs.

However, it was during one of these trips that a symbiote ventured near Ponyville, where it happened upon the cabin of the kindest mare in all the land, and it nearly broke Twilight to see Fluttershy days later wearing an inescapable harness of black living latex. Even if Twilight had to admit it looked very good on the butter yellow mare and she wore her organic bondage like the fashion model she briefly had been.

“It was starving, Twilight,” Fluttershy explained as she took a control collar from Twilight’s stocks and locked it around her own throat. “And you know that I couldn’t just let a creature suffer when I could help it. Besides, it’s been very well behaved and it’s not like I use my pegasus magic very much anyway.”

“But didn’t it try to make you a…” Twilight's still slightly raspy voice trailed off, not really sure how innocent her friend was.

“A sex slave?” Fluttershy filled in, giggling slightly as she watched Twilight’s jaw drop. “Twilight, I’m around animals all the time. I know what sex is, and I’ve both seen and experienced it. The suit didn’t try to do anything to me that I haven’t already done with myself, or with others. And besides, it’s been very well behaved once we set some ground rules.”

“Uh…” Twilight said, as her mind tried to recover from the concept of Fluttershy having sex.

“You know Twilight,” Fluttershy whispered quietly, nuzzling the underside of Twilight’s jaw in a way that sent tingles all through the alicorn’s body. “You and I have never really had a good preening session together. You should come over some time and let me take care of you.”

It was all Twilight could do to keep her wings from flaring outwards in the classic pegasus mating display and the alicorn wasn’t sure what was more disconcerting. That a pony was able to push her buttons so thoroughly with just a few words, or that it was Fluttershy propositioning her.

“I’ll see you later Twilight,” the pegasus said, breaking the contact and slowly walking away, the fall of her tail like a fuschia waterfall.

It took a full two minutes and a nudge from Dashiel before Twilight's mind fully returned to reality.

“Hey boss, you okay?” the veteran pony asked, her war wing gleaming with a new coat of polish.

“Yeah,” Twilight replied absently. “I think… I think I need to get back out there.”

“Not happening,” Dashiel replied firmly, taking a moment to make sure that the doors and windows were closed. She had been expecting this conversation for awhile now.

“Last time I looked, I was the princess and you were the soldier,” Twilight responded, eyebrow arching and her mind fully engaged now.

“Orders from all three of the other princesses. I’m to make sure you don’t go anywhere by yourself for at least six months and you’ve fully healed,” Dashiel answered, snapping a parade ground salute and coming to attention.

Twilight knew that look and body posture from the exiled pegasus. Dashiel was a weapon, a weapon that had been tempered in the fires of a desperate war for survival and had endured pressures that had broken many ponies before her. But not Dashiel, not the pony who was the fighting equal of Luna, one of the greatest gladiatrixes of Ancient Roam, and with a will to match.

While Twilight was no slouch in the fighting department herself, her bouts with Dashiel left no doubts about what would happen if Twilight tried to strongleg her way around the chief of her guard.

“So I’m a prisoner in my own castle then? Or should I just crawl back into my cage in Celestia's bedroom?” came the harsh whisper out of Twilight’s mouth, and even she was surprised at the level of despair that could be heard in that tiny sound.

“You can go anywhere you like, just not alone,” was Dashiel’s response, and the only softness in the soldier's stance on the matter was in her eyes. Eyes that had seen the horrors of war and for a moment Twilight saw a reflection of herself superimposed on those scenes of devastation and heartbreak.

“I just… I just don’t recognize home any more,” Twilight said softly, and to her surprise she thought she saw Dashiel flinch. “It’s all different now. All I really seem to understand now is being out there. Fighting to fix those other worlds, to make them good again.”

“Welcome to being a soldier,” Dashiel said, and Twilight looked up. “We fight, because if we don’t others get hurt. And it changes us. Makes us stronger and harder. But home changes too, just different than we do, and because we aren’t there to change with it we get left behind.”

“So what am I supposed to do?” Twilight asked, ears and tail hanging low. “Just sit here and do nothing?”

“You sit, you heal, you do all the things the docs tell you to do so you can get back in the fight as fast as you can,” Dashiel answered, and Twilight was surprised to feel a foreleg go over her shoulder in a gesture of comfort. “Or, you find a way around the fences all the nanny mares put around you, and prove them wrong for trying to hold you back.

“You… you think I should just go?” Twilight asked, voice and ears rising together. “Get back into the fight?”

“I. Am an obedient servant of Princess Luna. Her sworn sword. And I would never advise one of her best friends to go AWOL,” Dashiel stated, her sudden wolfish smile at complete odds with her spoken words. “At least not without taking backup to make sure that they were technically correct with how they went AWOL.”

Twilight’s mind instantly made the connection to what Dashiel was offering, and her own answering smile was an agreement as she replied with, “And technically correct is the best kind of correct.”

Hours later, Twilight found herself at a table in the Gloaming Glass, the bar that had sprung up to service the relaxation needs of her guard. The young alicorn still found it hard to believe at times that she had her own guard. Even more surprising was how the members of the Twilight Guard had thrown themselves into their training since the siege of the Castle of Friendship. The burned hoof really did teach best, and the ponies assigned to protect Twilight had gone from loving devotion to something akin to fanaticism.

“Why can’t you just take all of us?” Derpy asked, from across the table.

Twilight’s maid was taking a rare evening away from her daughter to sit in what had become a strategy session for Twilight’s next cross dimensional journey. A chorus of nods and murmurs of assent came from the crowd who had gathered around the table.in response to the question from the warrior maid.

“It’s due to the ‘Square Subject Law’,” Twilight responded, drawing confused looks from around the table.

“Hey, we aren’t all eggheads, Twilight,” said Rainbow Dash, having heard of something adventurous going on and wanting in. “You gotta explain it so all of us can understand.”

“Okay, okay,” Twilight replied, sighing. “Berry Punch. Can you get me a glass of water, one of those big bottles of cider, and a tray of shotglasses?”

“Sure thing, Princess,” the best bartender in Ponyville replied with a smirk, drawing the intended shouts of, “No rank in the mess!” from the crowd.

“Okay, see this water glass?” Twilight began, once her requested items arrived. “This glass is filled with the level of magic that an average pony has.”

“Now, I’m an alicorn. So I have this amount of magic,” Twilight continued, lifting the glass and bottle up together in her magic so that everypony could compare the two. “Cadance is pretty similar to me, but Princess Luna and Princess Celestia have way more.”

“Okay, so what’s the problem?” Rainbow Dash asked. Dashiel, the damaged mirror of the athletic pegasus rolled her eyes briefly at her counterpart.

“The problem is the ‘Square Subject Law’ which states that the power required for any spell increases by the square of the number of subjects it’s applied to,” Twilight said, uncorking the cider bottle.

“So for just me travelling, this is all the magic I need to use,” Twilight added, filling one shot glass from the bottle.

“For two ponies, two squared is four. So I need to use four times as much magic,” Twilight continued, filling up another three shot glasses so that four in total were full of the amber liquid. “Really hard for most ponies, but an easy stretch for an alicorn.”

“Three ponies is three squared, so nine times the original amount of magic,” Twilight continued, filling up five more glasses to bring the total to the proper amount and being sure to make sure the assembled crowd could see how the bottle was now a little more than half empty. “Well within my, or Cadance’s limits, but as you can see it isn’t easy.”

“And finally, four ponies squared is sixteen times the original amount,” Twilight summed up, emptying the bottle and leaving a few glasses unfilled. “Which is more than I can do without some kind of boost, but probably still inside of what Princess Luna or Princess Celestia could do.”

“So you can take one or two of us is what you’re saying,” Dashiel said, into the silence that followed Twilight’s summation of the cold equations governing magic.

“And the last pony I took with me was Starlight Glimmer, and you all know how that turned out,” Twilight replied, tossing back the contents of one of the glasses and immediately breaking into a massive coughing fit as the fiery liquid tried to sear its way back up.

While Twilight desperately tried to recover from her unanticipated exposure to Sweet Apple Acres Special Cider, the ponies around her had a good laugh. Dashiel waited until Twilight recovered before she asked the question that had been on all of their minds since they had first walked in.

“So, where are you going, and who are you taking with you?” Dashiel asked, and silence again descended on the room.

“I’m going to the world where I wasn’t around to stop Tirek from sucking up all the magic in Equestria and wreaking havoc on everything. I was only there long enough to see him blasting the landscape at random and if there is anywhere in all the alternate Equestrias that I can really make a difference, it’s there,” Twilight firmly stated, before looking up at the assembled ponies around her. “And I’m taking you and Trixie with me.”

The room erupted in objections and complaints, as every member of the Twilight Guard there voiced their opinion that one of them should go with her, or that Dashiel was needed here, in Ponyville. Twilight found it briefly amusing that not a single pony seemed to object to her taking her Knight with her. From pompous showmare, to caring sister and determined fighter, Dame Trixie had come a long way.

“And what about me?” Derpy asked in a voice like steel on silk. “You know I’m as good at fighting as any pony here. You know I’ll guard your back with my life. Why can’t I come with you? Is it because of my eyes?”

“It’s because I couldn’t live with myself if Dinky became an orphan,” was Twilight’s calm reply, and the alicorn could see that her explanation was like a dagger in Derpy’s chest.

“That’s a pretty dirty shot,” Dashiel commented, and Twilight couldn’t tell if the leader of her warriors was impressed or disappointed.

“Dirty, but accurate. Besides, I have another, very important task for my maid,” Twilight said, allowing herself to feel a small bit of pleasure at what she was about to let slip.

“Cleaning?” Derpy asked, in a sour voice. Derpy hadn’t looked up after Twilight’s initial explanation and thus didn’t see the twinkle in Twilight's eyes.

Months ago, Twilight had learned that her beloved mentor, Celestia, and her sister Luna, had been slaves in Ancient Roam. Luna had become a fearsome gladiatrix, whereas Celestia had learned how to manage their owner’s vast estate, among other things. Both alicorns had been fully tamed to the will of their master, to the point that even now, they kept to his last command to keep his ponies safe.

Though the shackles which kept the royal alicorns in bound slavery to Decius Caballus and his descendants were only mental, psychological constructs, Twilight knew better than most ponies how unbreakable such bonds could be. The only thing that could truly free Celestia and Luna was to find a direct descendant of their old master and have that pony formally free them.

It had taken Twilight months of research, spellwork and diving into some of the oldest records known to ponydom, but in the end, it had been the curse the windigo’s had laid against the bloodline of a pony that dared defy them that had been the final key to solving the mystery.

“Derpy Hooves.” Twilight began, shifting into her formal “royal” voice, and every pony around her immediately braced to attention. “More properly named ‘Dulcinea Hooves’, whose unknown, but true name is ‘Decima Caballus Equorum’. I, Twilight Sparkle, of the house Twilight, being its Princess, do have a Royal Command to lay upon you. Are you prepared to do my will?”

“I am yours to command, my Princess,” the newly named Decima answered, bowing forward in graceful, swept wing obeisance. “I only ask that the task be something worthwhile.”

“This is a task which only you, of all the ponies in Equestria can accomplish,” Twilight replied, and she could see the curiosity in her maid’s off putting eyes. “After I am gone, go to Spike. He will give you a chest that only you can open. Open the chest and read the scroll inside. What is on it has been researched and tested beyond any reasonable doubt, no matter how crazy it may sound. Afterwards, do what you think is best.”

“You… aren’t going to give me any more than that?” Decima asked, dress shifting as she stirred uneasily at the strange command. “All that formality, just to open a chest and read a scroll?”

“What’s on the scroll will make it clear why this had to be done this way, and my finding your ancestral name might give you a clue as to why,” Twilight said fondly, knowing it would set her maid’s curiosity afire and forestall any further questioning.

Dashiel, who as Luna’s sworn sword knew her history and who also knew Twilight’s side projects almost as well as Twilight did, couldn’t stop herself from giggling into her mug as she quickly connected one Roaman name with one Royal Command and got ownership of two alicorns.

“You shush,” Twilight commanded, dropping the formalities. “Go get Trixie and meet me in my office. We’re going to do this right. We’re going to have plans, checklists, and supplies. No more stumbling around and letting random chance play around with us. Got it?”

“Yes Ma’am,” Dashiel replied eagerly, snapping out another salute.

Sixteen hours later, after a long planning and preparation session that did indeed involve several very long lists, a solid meal and a full eight hours of sleep, the trio was ready to depart. Waiting for them in the embarkation room were a full company of Twilight’s guard, along with 143, Derpy and a rather tired looking Princess Cadance.

“Is everypony ready?” Twilight asked, running through yet another last minute checklist.

“All good here,” Dashiel responded, having checked her own pack and gear and confident in it enough to not have to check again.

“Trixie is ready as well,” added the light blue unicorn, having armored herself in light chain mail, with the sheathed length of the Zodiac Sword strapped to one side.

“Derpy, you’re in charge until we get back. You remember my orders?” Twilight asked, as her checklist got to the spot where she asked that.

“Look in the chest only after you’re gone, and anything or anypony that comes back through the portal gets pounced on, subdued and locked up,” Derpy replied confidently, only the rustling of her silk livery betraying her nervousness.

“And when I get back?” Twilight pressed, mouth set in a firm line.

“Anything or anypony that comes back through the portal gets pounced on, subdued and locked up,” Derpy repeated, drawing an approving nod from Twilight. “At least until we check you over.”

“Good,” Twilight replied, taking a moment to run a hoof over the living latex sheathe that encased her, knowing better than most its protective properties. “Allright, let’s go.”

“Sister,” 143 called out, even as the cross dimensional spell reached out to draw the chosen trio into the vortex. “I will miss you.”

“WHAT?” Trixie exclaimed, as her sister finally spoke in the first person. “Wait! STOP!”

But it was too late, and the unleashed power of the Element of Magic drew the trio up and away through the barriers that separated one universe from another. On through the space between space flew Twilight and her companions, with Trixie cursing a streak as blue as her hide all the way through.

“TAKE US BACK!” Trixie demanded, immediately upon landing. “My sister spoke in the first person. About herself. She’s never done that before! Please, we have to go back.”

“I know, Trixie,” Twilight answered, doing her best to calm the unicorn down while Dashiel looked on in disapproval. “It’s wonderful but we’re here for a reason. Isn’t that so: Trixie, of the House Lulamoon. Sworn in service to the House of Twilight.”

“I…”, Trixie began, as Twilight’s reminder of the formal bond between them, cut through the train of thought that had been charging through the mind of the azure coated pony. Trixie took a deep breath, calming herself with a little routine Twilight had seen Princess Cadance use once or twice herself. “Trixie apologizes to her liege lady, and begs her forgiveness. It will not happen again.”

“I forgive you, and I get it, but we have to stay focused,” Twilight replied, and only now did she have a chance to take in their surroundings.

The three ponies were standing in the middle of a broad path of destruction. For hundreds of yards in either direction there were no trees, no grass, no living thing of any kind growing out of the soil. Soil which had been churned up as if by the plow of a giant, and it took Twilight a moment to recognize what it was.

It was land that had been hit by one of Tirek's fiery blasts of destruction. The same blasts he had used on Twilight with little effect during the battle with his counterpart in her Equestria. However, during that battle Twilight had been bolstered by the magic of three other alicorns. In this universe, Twilight was sure that no matter what else, she hadn’t become an alicorn here, and likely had been drained of her magic along with every other unicorn here.

It was a moment of quiet contemplation, as the three ponies realized what they were up against and mentally girded themselves up for what was to come. Each as strong in her own way, and unlike visits to other dimensions Twilight had come fully prepared and equipped to deal with every possible contingency. Which is of course when the universe decided to drop the unexpected on them…

Okay, here we go again. This trip is going to be more martial than marital as this time Twilight is going after the big game. I know this chapter wasn't completely full of details of previous events, but I didn't want to go too heavy with the exposition. More bits and pieces will filter in as Twilight and company go after Tirek.

Mental health-wise myself, I'm still recovering but I'm getting better. All the best to all of you in 2023

I'd also like to give a big thank you to Lady Lightning Strike, for stepping in and editing this month's chapter.