Celestia was worriedly pacing the length of the throne room. “Where are they?!”

Suddenly, there was a flash of magic. She turned to see Twilight, Artemis, an unknown stallion and a rope. The strange thing was that Twilight was using the Element of Magic.

Almost immediately, two spheres of pure magic appeared right in front of her, one purple and one dark blue. She ignored them both for the moment and threw herself at Artemis. “Artemis! Are you alright, little brother?”

He smiled and hugged her back, just holding his sister for several moments. “Yes, sister, I am fine. Once again, all thanks to Twilight.”

He let go of Celestia and turned to Twilight, pulling her in for a deep kiss. “Thank you, Twilight. I am very glad I asked you to keep that spell going. This is the second time, in only four days, that you have been able to save my life because you tuned your senses to my magic.”

The stallion was shocked “Nopony told me she did that!”

Twilight glared at him “Does it matter? If you want him, you are going to have to find a way to get rid of me, first.”

Artemis and Celestia laughed “Good luck with that!”

Celestia then walked back to the two magic spheres and watched the events of the evening, as told through the memories of Artemis and Twilight. Artemis had made sure that his included the conversation between himself and Night.

She let out a sob as she ran back over and pulled Twilight into a very tight hug. “Well done, Twilight! And thank you, Little Sister. I am so glad that my brother chose you as his mare.”

The stallion stared “Nopony told me about that, either!”

Celestia stomped her hoof on the marble floor.

A couple of Night Guards entered the room and stared. “Prince Artemis! Princess Twilight! We thought you were in Ponyville on vacation!”

Twilight turned to them “We were and will be going back soon. This idiot (He won’t tell us his name, so that’s what I will call him until he does) attacked Artemis with a force that required the girls and myself to use the Elements of Harmony earlier tonight.”

She paused as she saw their confusion

“He summoned a clone of Night-Terror Knight and used a rope, with a magic draining spell embedded into it, to try to kill Artemis via magic loss. Don’t worry, the girls and I used the Elements of Harmony to destroy the clone. Then, I was able to stop the magic drain and remove the rope, using my Element of Magic. I have also shared some of my magic with him. That will cover him until his magic recovers on its own, which should happen in a day or two, at most.”

The guards stared at her for a long moment before bowing “Thank you, my princess. You have saved our prince again.”

Twilight smiled “Of course I did.” She nuzzled Artemis as he smiled at her. “He’s pretty important to me, too.”

She turned to Celestia “Earlier tonight, he mentioned that Blueblood will be angry at him for failing to kill Artemis.”

Celestia’s eyes widened “Did he, now?” She turned to glare at the stallion “Well, we’ll just have to talk about that, won’t we?”

He gulped

“Oh,” Twilight said “Make sure nopony touches that rope with magic!”

“Right” Artemis added “It will link to the pony’s magic and drain it from their body, killing them slowly. If that happens, only somepony with a larger amount of magic will be able to remove it.”

Celestia nodded and summoned a bag that was made of a material that would not allow magic to pass through. “Can you put it in here, please?”

Twilight nodded as well and did so.

Then she turned to Celestia “I would like to go back to Ponyville soon, if that’s alright. Are there any other questions that you have for us?”

Celestia nuzzled her “Go enjoy yourselves and get some rest. You’ve certainly earned your vacation.”

Twilight nodded then paused “Oh, can you do me a favor, please?”

“Anything” Celestia promised

“Let my parents, Shining Armor and Cadance know what happened tonight? I want to keep them informed.”

Celestia nodded “I will tell them, personally, first thing in the morning.”

“Sister, can you take care of the moon and stars? I don’t think I have enough magic for it tonight.”

“Of course, Artemis”

She gave Twilight and her brother another hug and a gentle push “Now, go!”

They smiled, wished her a good night and disappeared in a flash of light.

Back in Ponyville, everypony turned at a flash of light to see Twilight and Artemis standing in the center of town. They watched as she left her empowered state. As soon as she did, she collapsed.

Fortunately, Artemis had been expecting this. He fell to the ground with her, making sure that he caught her as they went down.

Everypony gasped in horror.

Cries of “Prince Artemis!”, “Princess!”, and “Twilight!” echoed throughout the air around Ponyville.

Everypony that was even remotely nearby came running. They saw that Artemis was laying on the ground, on his back. In his hooves, laying on his stomach, was Twilight. She had her eyes closed and was barely moving.

Artemis checked her over carefully then his cleared throat and spoke to the town as a whole. “She’s not injured”

There were many sighs of relief and “Oh, Thank Goodness!” was heard in a couple of different voices.

Mayor Mare stepped forward “Prince Artemis, why did she collapse? Are you sure she doesn’t need to see a doctor?”

Artemis nodded “If it makes you feel any better, a doctor can come take a look at her. However, I can tell you, with certainty, that she has simply used a lot of magic. Far more than usual.”

Twilight opened her eyes, looking around for Pinkie. As soon as she saw her, she said a single word “Cupcake”.

Everypony was confused, except Artemis and Pinkie. Immediately, Pinkie tossed a triple chocolate, strawberry frosted cupcake towards the alicorn pair. Artemis caught it in his magic, unwrapped it and shoved it into Twilight’s mouth.

She swallowed it whole.

After a moment of everypony holding their breath, she sighed, raised her head, and answered the unasked question. “It helps begin to replenish energy when magic levels are really low.”

Pinkie bounced over with a tray of half a dozen more. “Especially when they are my special triple chocolate, strawberry frosted cupcakes!”

“Pinkie,” Mrs. Cake began, confused “we didn’t make any of those today.”

Pinkie looked at her and said, quite seriously, “Emergency Stash”, leaving everypony dumbfounded. Then she turned back to Artemis and Twilight. “I’m sorry, I didn’t think I’d need that many today, so I only have six more.”

Twilight smiled as she got off Artemis’ stomach, noticed that her legs were wobbling, and lay down on the grass. “That’s OK, Pinkie. I’m sorry that we’re using up your whole Emergency Stash.”

Pinkie’s answer was to shake her head and shove another cupcake into Twilight’s mouth. “It’s OK, Twilight! You saved us! You can have all the cupcakes you want!”

Twilight shook her head as well, as she pushed a couple of the cupcakes towards Artemis and swallowed the one in her mouth. “We worked together to beat that clone, Pinkie. It wasn’t just me.”

Artemis, now laying next to Twilight, swallowed the last bite of one of the cupcakes and looked over at her. “That’s not true, Twilight. You are the one that saved me, freed our guards, and protected the ponies of Ponyville. You may have had help with the clone, but you did the rest yourself.”

Twilight looked up “Speaking of, where are Silver Shadow and Midnight Fang? Are they alright? I didn’t have time to check them over to injuries earlier. I was so worried about how much of your magic had been taken from you and making sure that the clone didn’t hurt anypony, that I didn’t allow myself time for considering much else.”

“Here, my princess.” Said Silver Shadow as he and Midnight Fang stepped up to take their positions behind the alicorn pair. “No, we are not injured”

She sighed “Good. I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to do more for you at the time. I was a little distracted.”

Midnight Fang snorted “Yes, distracted is one way to put it, princess. However, I prefer “Busy protecting the ponies that live in the town in which you live, destroying a threat to Equestria, saving our prince’s life, and capturing the culprit. Most of which, you did by yourself.” But that’s just my opinion.”

Twilight’s face turned bright red and she looked down in embarrassment as everypony around her burst out laughing.

Artemis, still laughing, put a wing around her and drew her close.

“Princess Twilight, what was that explosion? Was everything there alright?” asked Silver Shadow

Twilight’s head snapped up “Thank you for reminding me.” She raised her voice “Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. Please come here.”

The crowd parted as the three fillies, followed by their sisters, walked up to her.

“Spike?” Twilight asked, looking around

“Yes, Twi?” he asked, walking up with a couple bottles of Apple Family Apple Juice for Artemis and Twilight. He placed the bottles in front of them and looked up at her.

“Do you have a scroll and a quill on you?

“Of course, Twi. But it’s my last one.”

“That’s OK, Spike. I don’t think you’ll need more than that. Please take notes on this next part. If my hunch is right, we’ll need this information later.”

“You got it!” Spike replied as he prepared to take notes

“Girls, first of all, relax. I think you learned your lesson. So, there will be no punishment.” She made sure that she made direct eye contact with Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash. She waited for them to nod before continuing.

The fillies each let out a sigh of relief.

“However, I would like you to tell me about the stranger that gave you that chemistry recipe. What did he look like?”

“Everypony knows what he looks like! He was the one that was standing behind Night-Terror Knight!” answered Sweetie Belle

“You really need to pay attention, Sweetie! That was a clone! He said so himself!” put in Scootaloo, before a jab from Rainbow’s hoof got her back on topic. “Yeah, Twilight. He was the one that gave it to us. He said that it would impress our teacher, but we would have to practice it before we could show her. He even gave us the chemistry set we used.”

“Yeah” added Apple Bloom “He said that it was an extra one and that he didn’t need it anymore. He gave it to us so we could practice, as long as we promised to share it.”

“I thought so.” Twilight said as she nodded

Applejack looked confused “Twi?”

Twilight looked at her “Did you notice that he didn’t recognize me until the end? He didn’t know who you girls are or that we still bear the Elements of Harmony, either. He didn’t even care who we were until we called our Elements.” She turned to Artemis “How did he approach you?”

Artemis paused, confused “He didn’t. I was laying on a bench, waiting for you to come back, when I heard the crying of a foal. Following it, I found a foal wrapped in a rope. I thought that he had been trying to tie some knots and gotten tangled in his own rope. I reached out with my magic to remove it from him. As soon as I did, it unwrapped from his body on its own and shot towards me. It wasn’t until it had already started draining my magic and the ponies of Ponyville came out to see what was going on, that he dropped his disguise.”

“You know, I don’t think he was trying to get us away from Artemis.” Twilight paused, deep in thought, “I think he wanted the explosion to get Artemis away from everypony else, so that he could approach Artemis when he was by himself. When that didn’t work, he took the form of a foal to get Artemis to come to him.”

“Twilight?” Rainbow asked “Why do you think he pretended to be a foal?”

Twilight shrugged “If I had to guess, I’d say that it was to lower Artemis’ defenses.” She saw that most of the ponies around, even Artemis, were still confused, so she asked. “How many ponies expect a foal to try to kill them?”

Everypony’s eyes widened as they understood her point.

She shook her head. “Spike, please send your notes to Celestia when you finish writing them. She may be able to use this information while preparing for the trial.”

“You got it, Twilight” he replied as he rolled up the scroll before breathing out green fire. They all watched as it disappeared towards Canterlot.

In Canterlot Castle, Celestia had just finished questioning the stallion that Twilight captured and brought in. When she was done, she brought him to the Royal Dungeons herself, making sure that he was nowhere near Blueblood, and that they couldn’t talk or get any form of communication to each other. She also made sure that she ordered the guards, both Day and Night, not to even mention one around the other. It’s just a hunch, but I think Blueblood believes that my brother is dead. She smiled Boy, is he in for a surprise.

She turned her thoughts back to the stallion. He didn’t give much information that she didn’t already know. In fact, the only thing that he did tell her was that his name was Blaze.

No matter. I’ll get the truth out of him soon enough. She smiled. Once I tell Shining Armor and Cadance about what happened tonight . . . well, I wonder how long it’ll take them to get here. I have a feeling that he’s going to want to deal with the stallion that attacked his sister, and Artemis, himself.

The question is, how will Cadance react? She’s known Twilight for most of her life and has gotten kind of protective over her. She might be even angrier than her husband.

She was getting ready for bed, after raising the moon and stars, when a bit of green fire appeared in front of her. Surprised, she opened the scroll to find the notes that Twilight had just sent. Reading them, she smiled. Even on vacation, she finds a way to help me. This information may prove useful.

She tucked the scroll safely into her desk and went to bed. Have fun Artemis and Twilight. I hope you’re enjoying the party.

Back in Ponyville, Twilight sighed “I thought you’d be safe here. That’s why I agreed to the petition to have you come out here with me for a week.” She looked over at him, tears welling up in her eyes “I’m sorry, Artemis.”

He stared at her for a moment before pulling her in for a tight hug. “Don’t you dare apologize, Twilight.”

“B-but”

“Shh” He pressed his forehead to hers, cutting her off, before she could continue. “I wouldn’t be able to relax like this in Canterlot. More importantly, it’s clear to me that the safest place for me, in all of Equestria, is wherever you are. This is the second time in just four days that you have saved me. First, you saved me from another banishment. Then, tonight, you saved my life.” He kissed her and wiped her tears away. “There is no way I can thank you enough, for all you have done.”

Before Twilight could respond, Pinkie bounced over. “No more crying, Twilight! We have a party to get back to!”

“So, LET’S PARTY!!!!”

Next Chapter: Chapter 22 Estimated time remaining: 34 Hours, 15 Minutes