Twilight fumed as she looked at the vast destruction that was the last known residence of her first and, sadly, least talked about friend. She picked up a sharpened piece of wood in her magic and twirled it around to check for some sort of clue since the trail had gone cold. She just stared at the pile of wood that she had tossed nearby, the picture forming in her mind a bloody mess and sighed.

"Twilight, you okay?"

Twilight turned and felt exhausted. The predawn light told her that Celestia hadn't woken up yet and discovered her town turned into a magical funhouse. She turned and looked at Rainbow Dash.

"No, Dash, I'm not really okay. You kept mentioning that maybe Moondancer was left behind or safe or something and look around us. Her place is destroyed and by the excessive amounts of blood that are on everything, I really doubt that she's okay."

Rainbow bowed her head. "Okay, I get it." Rainbow sighed. "Can you just act like you want to even be near Fluttershy after. . .you know. That?"

Twilight rubbed her forehead. "No, not right now. Maybe after we deal with the crazy pony that did this and find Moondancer, I might. But right now? I'd rather deal with that just because being hyperfocused on one problem makes me not worry about all the other problems I've had to deal with recently."

Rainbow rolled her eyes. If she wanted intense brooding drama, she would have told Rarity about some made up story about coffee disappearing due to Twilight botching a spell. Not Twilight acting like a big drama queen for multiple hours and punching one of her best friends. She was attempting to be supportive but Twi's moodiness and anger at one pony that felt like crap about it already didn't help. She shook her head and looked away.

"Hey, Twi, what's that?"

Twilight groaned. "Dash, if it's another piece of wood-" Twilight turned and noticed what might have caught Dash's eye. A very familiar amulet stared back up at her. "Ponyfeathering-"

"So that's bad right?"

Twilight lit up her horn and grumbled. She didn't like casting a spell so early in the morning, but if the Alicorn Amulet somehow broke, it wasn't going to be a good day for her. Twilight had guessed that it could be possible to break the gem off the setting, but handling magic that dark trumped her curiosity. Even she had standards. Well okay, self imposed standards after causing Ponyville light mental trauma for a hoofmade friendship problem, but who was truly counting? She breathed in and out to focus, since this spell was a type that most ponies hadn't even thought of, not that it was truly difficult per se, but Celestia kept this type of magic under lock and key for a reason.

When Twilight had pressed her, she hadn't mentioned why.

"Cantus Evocatio."

Rainbow took a step back as the air grew thick and heavy as the air pressure rose dramatically. She felt the pressure hit as waves of magic danced around her and lightly pressed against her. Dash quickly closed her eyes before any Twilight lightshow would start since the pegasi knew better. The last time Twilight pulled off some crazy stunt like this unannounced, she ended up being blinded for some long and uncomfortable hours.

With an audible pop, the world went back to normal. Or close to it. When Dash opened her eyes again after shaking off the light headache that was just starting to form above her eye due to the sharp and unexpected difference in air pressure, she looked back and saw a large flaming blue portal that oozed magic as it sputtered to life.

"Okay, while that is probably the most metal thing I've seen in a while, like what are you doing, Egghead?"

Twilight rolled her eyes at Rainbow's remark. "Now if I was correct and the time is right, I should be able to get somepony on this quick connection. Hello? Is anypony there? I know it's super early but hello?"

Rainbow could hear the clopping of hooves on crystal as a bleary eyed purple unicorn came into focus.

"I know you have royal prerogative and all that shit, but can you please cool it on the waking me up before even Celestia deems it to be morning? Like you aren't making it easier on me right now. Anyway, your stupid table keeps blaring at me about Canterlot." Sparkler yawned and glanced over at Dash, the shock of seeing another pony shocked her totally awake. "Wait, Twilight, why are you a giant disembodied head in the middle of your castle again?"

Twilight ran a hoof through her mane. "Not the best time to explain. Now what was that about the Cutie Map?"

Fluttershy stared at her face. Well Rainbow's face, but after this long in this predicament it felt easier to drop that and just be fine saying it was her face. At least when Rainbow wasn't in the room- that added another complication on top of that. So she just stared at her current face and sighed, seeing the damage that Twilight had caused put yesterday outside of some weird nightmare her anxious mind was creating once again.

She winced as the bruising still felt raw and painful. The pain of yesterday had made it difficult for her to be truly comfortable since she was super used to snuggling up beneath a giant thing of covers just so she could feel safer. But yesterday night was different since she couldn't rely on that coping mechanism to keep her nice and calm.

Fluttershy sighed, knowing that the idea that she was still terrified of the dark at her age would make most ponies completely scoff at her. Well most did. Her friends had been supportive of her attempts to break all these hangups she had about things. But she still feared that her friends somehow thought that her fear of Nightmare Night was just a silly thing. Those were the moments where she popped back into reality and wondered about things.

"Fluttershy, darling, while I admire your dedication of staring intently into mirrors and practicing cool sensuality, I'd worry that it's four am and a lady deserves her beauty sleep." Rarity strolled in, her frilly pink robe and slippers not matching her unkept hair and baggy eyes.

"Sorry Rarity, I should probably go to sleep." Fluttershy blushed crimson.

The white unicorn yawned and waved a hoof. "No matter, anyway I really couldn't sleep after yesterday. You know big headache and all." Rarity winked. "But honestly it's not that. Even though I did realize that if you knocked me out you had good reason for it, Miss 'I can't hurt a fly- even if it's some horrible acid spitting demon" so I'll just write that one off as a heat of the moment thing. But honestly it wasn't that that kept me up and ruined my sleep schedule."

Fluttershy listened intently at that; she felt only slightly better that Rarity wasn't exactly holding knocking her out against her. At least one friend wasn't peeved at her for yesterday. "So what kept you up exactly?"

Rarity wistfully looked away. "It's just that here," Rarity vaguely motioned towards the walls surrounding the pair. "just feels so hollow now. Like I know I should be happy that my stores are doing great, and I'm going to expand into Manhattan later this year and that was all I had dreamed when I was little. And now I have that and I have Applejack and all that entails. But after Starlight's little spell. . .everything just feels okay."

"Rarity, I don't think your life is boring at all and if you need to talk to a shrink, I know a few good ones in Ponyville."

Rarity smiled and shook her head. "I appreciate it, Fluttershy, and I may take you up on the offer, but that's not what I'm getting at. Starlight's spell was just so vivid. It was like if somepony just gave you a glimpse of what you dreamed of and gave it to you, no strings attached and then when you come back to reality. . .it's not there. I had everything I ever dreamed of and I lived an entire life in there."

"Rarity, I really don't follow."

Rarity stared at the mirror and frowned. "I saw what my life could be with Applejack. And sure Twilight's spell was probably equally as great, but it's like. . .I never got bored in there. I saw the Crusaders all grow up and have kids, I saw Applejack and I have an entire family and my business venture stretching across the globe. I saw Equestria no longer have to have Elements of Harmony. I could live my life anyway I wanted. I got bored and the spell reshaped my world so that I could live my life with them. I would say the Rainbow Dash or the Pinkie life was one of the strangest, but the spell made it so it made complete sense. And that was including Pinkie summoning things from Tartarus to show how much she loved me. Which honestly that should have woke me up right there due to Ponyville burning to the ground and all." Rarity quickly wiped away a tear.

"But Rarity, you are here now. And that was just a strong mental spell placed on the town. It shouldn't mean anything."

Rarity smiled. "Yeah, but my mind still thought it was real enough. And if your mind thinks the illusion is real does it make it an illusion? I don't know. But I wish it was real." Rarity sighed and breathed in. "But what has you in your doom and gloom?"

Fluttershy cocked her head. "Are you sure you don't want to talk about-"

Rarity stared directly at her friend. "About what? The existential dread that a spell somehow showed me multiple versions of my future and weird darkly humorous snippets at that? No. I need something. . .manageable right about now. So let me help you and we can both get something we need out of this- a calming presence for you and a totally normal problem for me to generously solve." Rarity winked.

Fluttershy quietly stared at the unicorn that had to be just barely holding herself together. "It's Twilight. She's mad at something I did yesterday and I really want to fix it and I don't know how."

"So like is she the crazy Twilight or the silently fuming Twilight cause our favorite alicorn princess tends to be either cooly logical or something of a bit of a hothead."

"What does this have to do with anything, Rarity, she's mad at me. I don't really see the significance between her moods."

Rarity quietly laughed to herself. "Darling, it has to do with everything. Now let's put this little temper tantrum into something I know fairly well." Rarity sat down in a nearby chair and kicked her hooves up to get comfortable. "Now where we we? Oh yes, examples. Now let's think of Twilight as a paying customer in one of my boutiques. Now your idea that her anger intensity level doesn't matter can be thought of in this case in two main ways. Well, multiple, but let's just stick to a few due to how important this analogy is."

Fluttershy nodded. "I mean it is way too early for this."

"Thank Twilight for explaining to me that brevity is better than intense and detailed explanations about the fashion industry. But back to Twilight, her anger is like a dress. Either she lets it hug all her curves and keep the dress uncomfortably close to the chest, or she lets out her anger in long and frilly pleats and long open designs." Rarity noticed that Fluttershy might have missed the point. "Well maybe that was a muddled analogy. Okay, next analogy. Color? Well Twilight's anger runs in two shades. Light blue or blood red. Cool versus hot. And my job as a fashion designer is to fulfill the customers every want within their budget. I don't want to be incorrect in my assessment in fixing a friendship issue." Rarity smiled.

"Well okay. I guess she's hot? In her anger I mean."

Rarity thought and thought in complete silence. She ran through the memories she had of Twilight and quickly tried to come up with the best solution she could. "Well I'd say I have two options here. Either you apologize and let her talk about how you hurt her trust or just let her steam and hold a grudge for a while."

Fluttershy sighed. "Thanks Rarity."

Celestia felt something amiss as she looked around her dream. Sure, she definitely did not have the knack for surfing around ponies' dreams like her sister did, but she managed usually to carve out a bit of her own little safe place where she could relax and cheat on her diet since it was in her dreams. But something felt off today. Maybe it was the strange flavor of the cakes or maybe the silence that permeated her dream but something felt amiss.

She usually felt her ponies in Canterlot at least on her mental periphery, but there was nopony there. She reached out with a tendril of consciousness and felt nothing as she swam through a river made of liquid chocolate. She felt something bring her out of sleep as shocks danced across her fur.

She was brought back to the waking world with a crash as she blinked awake, her tendency to roll out of bed on full display and she waited for the guards to come rushing to make sure some horrible Changeling wasn't there to murder her or some dark lord of evil wasn't planning to take over the nation again through some lost magical art.

Nopony came.

"Well after a thousand years of quick service, I think I can manage on my own." Celestia dusted herself off and turned, running smack dab into a motionless Raven. "Oh, Raven, you surprised me."

Raven robotically jerked around as she moved out of Celestia's way, her limbs jerking as they motored her around the room. "I'm sorry for being a burden to you, Princess. I should have stood somewhere else. I have hurt the trust and loving relationship that I want to form with you." Raven smiled, her smile reaching far too wide for Celestia to be entirely comfortable with her demeanor.

"That's very, well, interesting to know. I'll remember that." Celestia turned away, ready to raise the sun. She put the methodical clopping and the dead silence that the whole palace had become in a few hours. She quietly wondered to herself if Luna felt this exact emotion when she woke up after Chrysalis' invasion. Somehow even her sister had slept through her capture and had only known something was wrong after Twilight and her friends had fixed the issue. Though Celestia had chalked that accident up to Luna searching for the perfect wedding gift for Cadance and Shining Armor.

She pushed the creepy feeling out of her mind as she reached the balcony she tended to raise the sun from, reaching out with her magic she nudged the sun towards another day, it's power filling her with at least the hint of confidence that she needed. It was her favorite part of the day, even if the conflicting schedules of her and her sister made her wonder if she could somehow make the sun go on it's own volition.

She snapped fully awake though and out of her musings on ways to make her job ever easier when she felt a spell she had created from the Storm King's very own magisters. And unless the Storm King perfected invisible warships, she doubted that he came to party.

"Twilight. . ."

"Twilight, I'm sorry but it's six am and you want me to get your little friends over to Canterlot as soon as possible and that's before you just told me Canterlot's in some giant fuckery right now. Seriously?" Sparkler sighed. "Fine, you know what? Okay, but don't come crying to me when you have Canterlot blow up cause the element bearers are in town."

Twilight nodded. "Thanks, Sparkler. And you can take the day off to relax. I cleared my appointments for the next few days just in case."

Sparkler waved a hoof. "I guess I could see my family. But Twilight, get your shit together too, cause while I love being the voice of sanity here, you know you look like absolute garbage."

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Thanks?"

Sparkler laughed, her laugh having a delay as the spell took the sound and echoing it due to distance. "That wasn't a compliment but I guess living in near hermit conditions for years would make you terrible in social situations."

Twilight clicked off the spell and Sparkler's voice faded into nothingness.

"Dude, I know it's been four days or whatever, but she's still a bitch. I thought you'd be running a new experiment of 'what happens when a terrible pony gets friends' or something like that." Rainbow rolled her eyes and stretched her wings.

Twilight glanced over and frowned. "Sorry that the magic of friendship can't fix personality quirks in a day. Anyway, if you talked to her for more than four minutes, you would have sort of realized that she was acting far nicer than before."

Rainbow chuckled and glided into the air with Twilight close behind. "You do realize that I've been actively trying to avoid her and yet thanks to Ponyville being a small town, I get to see her every day or so? And it seemed like she was still prime bitch material."

Twilight banked into an updraft, the town from up here was completely silent and lifeless while the sun peeked over the horizon. "You know that maybe you don't come off as nice as you think you are so don't go throwing stones at others."

Dash lazily soared in the sky, which Twilight still found odd. What with Dash looking like Fluttershy, but acting exactly like before. It provided some mental dissonance that let her mind wander away from a malaise of depression edging on from the past few weeks.

"Pssh, like that's even possible. And if it was, it'd mainly be because they don't get how important a daily dose of awesome is. But seriously, egghead, like I get it and all. Still doesn't mean I have to like feeling like I'm being singled out for some act of confidence edging into hubris."

"Who are are you and what have you done with Rainbow Dash? Hubris? Now who's the egghead?"

Dash rolled onto her back and lazily backstroked her way through the air, her years of skilled flying trumping her unfamiliar and weirdly weighted reality. "I read Daring Do and I'm sorry A.K. Yearling likes using a bit of old timey weird words nopony uses anymore."

Twilight smiled. "It's hubris, it's not a rare word. Now if she was using highly specialized medical terminology and archaeological terms in order to give her books-"

"Not the point, Twilight. I'm just saying you shouldn't call me out always for being too confident. Everypony has confidence and all that. Like how I shouldn't call you out for being too into science and not expecting something could go wrong like the forty other times it did or being currently too focused on the big picture of Starlight stealing your one and only friend, I guess, when you have an entire town and at least five other ponies that put up with your stuff."

Twilight froze for a second, her wings faltering and hitching as her brain caught up from the prepared discussion on a nice book series to. . .this. "Can we not?" Twilight had two main moods when it came to this kind of predicament, get livid or get defensive. And since Twilight remembered still how well last night went, she reflexively went with option two.

Rainbow rolled her blue eyes. "No, I'm not going to drop it. It's sunrise right now. I've been awake for hours trying to get the swelling you caused on my face. Sure I'm not in there right now to feel that, but it's not like I shouldn't be somewhat miffed you went all knockdown fight on my face. And anyway Fluttershy felt terrible for hours. That's what's truly important and while I can talk a big game about how you hurt me, you did more damage to Fluttershy."

"Dash can't we just talk about this at another time I mean what even brought this on?"

Dash flew up to Twilight and stared directly in her eyes. Which Twilight wouldn't normally find somewhat intimidating due to their previous, and usual, owner being a giant teddy bear who couldn't hurt a fly. Here was a well trained athlete, with Fluttershy's lesser known strength, and who was mad. At her.

"I don't know Twilight, maybe it's you saying don't throw stones at ponies or maybe it's you talking about how long friendship lessons take or any of the many ways you've been dancing around this issue after you punched the nicest pony I know. What? Fluttershy was a bad friend for protecting Rarity from a crazy cult leader or whatever and sold out the friend I didn't even know you had? Big whoop."

Twilight turned her head so as to not look directly at her. "Okay so maybe I messed up a tiny bit."

"You think? Twilight, you're the princess of friendship and having you fly off the handle for a spur of the moment decision makes me worried. Heck, I haven't talked to Gilda in years because of what happened when she came to Ponyville and you don't see me crying about having to go to Griffonstone to save my friendship and here you are throwing your friend under the cart just cause Moondancer was your first friend. Neat, I met her, she was a bitter, sad pony living in a magical death trap of a place as a magical hermit just cause. Don't know why. She just got weird when you were brought up and all. So be happy, that's who you are putting on some pedestal."

Twilight blinked. "The party."

Dash stopped her rant. "What in the hay are you even talking about. What party?"

Twilight brushed her mane, vowing to take a shower when she got back to the castle, days of grime finally taking her toll on the bramble patch of a mane. "It's a long story but I was going to give Moondancer a present and go to her party when I was dragged off to Ponyville. Maybe she felt a betrayal or something due to me promising to come to her party and retreated back into solitude."

Rainbow raised an eyebrow at that. "I don't follow at all."

"It's what I would have done if I hadn't met you five." '

"Twilight, get out of your daydreams. It's not important right now. Right now, you are going to march yourself to Shy and apologize or I'm going to piledrive you into the ground cause I'm tired, you aren't making sense, and like I want to get past this at least a little bit cause we do have to try and keep our wits together against bad dudes. Like Starlight is still out there and if you want to find Moondancer and fix your weird issues, let's just find her. And Twilight, next time you have some earth shattering reveal like you tend to do, don't freak out and punch your friends. I know you grew up completely focused on books, but reality isn't just punch stuff and sulk while everypony else runs away from you."

Twilight looked down upon Canterlot and sighed. "Sure and I am going to the doctor to fix those problems, Dash."

Dash rolled her eyes. "Well maybe he's not using alicorn strength problem solvers, you dummy cause you are all kinds of messed up. And if Pinkie was here, she'd probably stare at me all weird for even calling you out on your garbage."

Pinkie's ear twitched as the two earth ponies zoomed off to Canterlot. She knew that feeling. It wasn't the most common feeling her Pinkie Sense gave her due to how each body twitch or set of twitches created their own feeling, but that one was uncommon by itself. Usually it meant that Dash implied something that she would have taken some offense to. Pinkie scratched her ear. She would usually try and find one of her emergency travel holes somewhere, but it was both too early and not world ending bad enough for her to just up and bend the laws of physics for a joke.

She yawned and looked over to Applejack, who was quietly bouncing her leg up and down in boredom. "Hey. AJ, you ever think that maybe Twilight should just invent like a way to automatically just zip us to her like a spell of sending or whatever. Be so much easier to get around when some random big bad evil pops up and declares it as Saturday and the world will be theirs. I mean I love trains and going on them and getting candy and you know all that- but trains take too long and all. Like what if there was a way to have cannons shoot you places instead?" Pinkie awkwardly grinned.

Applejack leaned against the plush seat and raised an eyebrow at Pinkie. "Now what are you even talking about, Pinks?"

"I just said trains. So trains?"

Applejack facehoofed. "Nah, that's not what I- okay let me start over. What has your tongue and brain tied up tighter than two rattlesnakes doing the do?"

Pinkie cocked her head. "That's a new one." Pinkie giggled. "I just want to know what's been eating you up and all, cause even though we both had all the time in the world to talk these last few days what with Rarity not being here and with Twilight not needing her alicorn daily amount of fun. . .I mean how are you? Cause I know what's on my mind all the time and all and it's currently going between if I could win an eating contest and wondering how long it will take for Twilight to give me a dick again and all that." Pinkie breathed out after completing her thought.

Applejack took off her hat and scratched her head trying to collect her thoughts. "Well since you asked and I know how pushy you can be-"

Pinkie slightly frowned at that. "Twilight calls it my curiosity factor not 'being pushy'."

AJ groaned. "Yes, of course she came up with one of them fancy ways to not call you pushy. Fine. Curious then. Cause I know you good enough, I'm a guessing you ain't going to just let this train ride go on in blissful silence fine. Just been dealing with things that really don't want to deal with right this gosh darn minute."

Pinkie smiled. "You mean the bun in the oven. Or was it buns? I could never exactly predict the amount of foals each pony has during then."

AJ cocked her head. "How did you? Did Rarity tell y'all?"

Pinkie blushed. "Pinkie sense. Got a big rumbly in my tumbly and then it moved lower and just stayed there like a warm spot. So I knew at least one of you were and all. My mom usually flip flops between calling it either the blessing or curse of the family and it really depends if she's in a good mood or not."

Applejack cringed. "Okay, fine. I'll take the you being you answer but if the next words involve the birds or the bees and how you can track that like I don't want to know. But sure it's that in all it's wonderful hoohah and whatever." Applejack ran a hoof through her hair. "But like I dunno. I haven't told a soul so having you know threw me through a loop."

"Not even your family?"

Applejack stared at Pinkie with wide eyes. "Definitely not them. I mean Big Mac knows but like Applebloom's way too young for this and Granny's well. . .Granny. I don't know if she'd kick me out on the sheer principle of the thing or have a stroke due to me breaking her heart or something."

Pinkie stretched, stood up and grabbed a nearby fizzy soda. It was early morning and for her own boundless energy- it did need a pick me up now and again. "Jackie, what if you're overthinking everything? I mean I freak out too over tons of stuff and only Gummy knows how much that is truly, but like chill out and relax."

The orange earth pony crossed her forehooves. "Are you even listening? I'm having one of those Rarity moments and here you are telling me to calm down?"

"I mean you are hinting at somehow hiding a baby for nine months. That's silly. When Ms. Cake had the twins she looked due at any moment for months and you're somehow trusting that your body doesn't blow up like a balloon? I mean I bet that's possible but where's the fun in that? Plus Aj, isn't your family like the biggest in all of Equestria?"

Applejack ran crimson. "I don't see how that's even relevant."

Pinkie took a sip of her drink. "Does it actually have to be related? I'm just saying your family is huge and all. Plus you have all of Ponyville anyway and Rarity. Just stay calm and let life just pull you in the direction your nose is pointing."

"What in the hay does that even mean?"

Pinkie chuckled. "It's an old Granny Pie expression. Whenever she said it, it usually ended with 'cause that's right in front of your eyes and you got to get your doodads in order before sweating the big stuff."

Celestia had done some rather heinous things to get out of meeting with ponies through the years, but she usually wasn't trying to get away from her assistant. Sure there had been a few, like Slipstream or Lemon Drop who were way too pushy and unable to take a hint, but they had turned to dust centuries ago, so she couldn't see their rather endearing sense of commitment outside of dusty tomes and her sometimes faulty memories.

And then there was the commitment that bordered on creepy and Celestia had met her match. Sure she now knew that during the time from when she decided to go to bed early for the first time in two years to right this moment- there had been something akin to Twilight's little bout of insanity after Discord came and mucked about with her. And the short, and rather unimpressive to most, pony right in front of her was just one of possibly tens of thousands with this affliction.

She sighed. Celestia never was one for the mental side of things. Sure she was competent with the art due to thousands of years just practicing, but there was a reason why she had won against her sister oh so long ago and why the surrounding and decidedly hostile lands hadn't just invaded. She was the sun. fire, heat, and as Discord knew, at least some passion and fun. Her magic was immense and flashy- not everypony appeared in a giant burst of light- or could send problems to the moon.

She wasn't good at finesse. Sure politics was her forte and that took finesse, but she wasn't Luna who swam in mental metaphors or even Twilight who she could foresee besting her mentor in only a few decades. She didn't feel useless due to that, she was proud at that fact. But being proud didn't fix the fact that the last hour and a half had devolved from creepy stares of loving intent into a mess fit for one of Luna's pranks.

And it came from one deceptively simple question.

"Where is Discord?"

"Who is Discord?"

Celestia imperceptibly twitched. "We have already gone over this ten times. Discord, the spirit of Disharmony and Chaos and also my, well I guess he's not really a pony, so special friend?" Celestia mentally noted to come up with some pet name or something because trying to perform mental gymnastics at this hour was awful. Even though she raised the sun, it didn't mean she was a morning pony. Just dutiful.

"But I am your special friend. You told me I was the best assistant you ever had and then we totally went on a date-" Raven sputtered out some nonsense the spell was regurgitating over and over. Rather cute, if you got past the undertones of obsession oozing all over this. Celestia had started noticing cracks though since the story had morphed from an outright description of Raven's lewd fantasies into a lesser and more realistic first date attempt.

"I think you are adequate at your job." Celestia grimaced. She wasn't like her sister that was for sure. A thousand years of tact had dulled her senses at being out and out mean. "And also our date was subpar and we were both left unfulfilled."

"How? I did everything. I set up the date, and the flowers, and everything."

Celestia smiled serenely. "Because that's just the window dressing. I like you as a pony, but I'm already accounted for and anyway, sometimes even the best laid plans don't work out."

Raven sputtered, her eyes twitching and her legs stamping on the ground as the spell tried to right itself for the eleventh time. But Celestia could feel the magic in the air grow heavy as it leaked out in large, sputtering masses. It would have bben a pretty sight to share if there had been any other ponies who could see it. Blackish purple clouds swirled around and dispersed in cascading flashes of rainbow lights. The light show was disrupted for a second as Celestia heard Raven slump.

"And Luna says I'm completely useless at breaking mental blocks. Who's wrong now?" Celestia looked around and pumped one of her hooves up and down. She faltered once she realized that her triumph was just one out of thousands to break free of this mental knot."Drat." Celestia rubbed her head and breathed in and out.

"Fine. Everything is totally fine."

Twilight slumped against the shower. "Everything is fine." She had been berated by both Rainbow and Rarity about this kerfuffle and right now the feeling of the water cascading along her back was the only thing that made her relax. She quietly hummed some Sapphire Shores melody in her head as she lathered up her mane and glanced at herself through the glass.

A very tired and wet alicorn stared back. She had never been obsessed with her beauty. Mainly because there was usually some book or thing to study or friends to help or things in Ponyville to do. But she looked as tired as she felt. Alicorns still needed sleep every once in a while to recharge and while her mind was used to days without sleep, this was a whole other level. Maybe it was the reason why she took Moondancer's disappearance so badly. Twilight sighed. That wasn't the point. Sure that was an issue, but she still chose to punch somepony.

"If only Celestia could see me now." Twilight morosely chuckled, her throat raw with anger at herself. "She'd probably say there was a way to revoke alicorn privileges and go back to a lowly student again. Or she'd banish me to the moon."

Twilight let the words hang in the air. The porcelain tiles lent the room some acoustics so the brief echo rang through hollow and weak. She moved onto lathering the rest of her body, paying special attention to her lower half to feel something outside of guilt.

It didn't help.

She turned off the water and let the drain take the bad feelings away and quietly toweled off. Twilight looked in the mirror and practiced an attempt at smiling. She usually didn't have to, but the rest of the day wasn't going to be fun. Especially with Pinkie here, since Twilight could fake her emotions well enough to get by most ponies.

And then there was Pinkie, who saw through her attempts at masking her real emotions and while Twilight was usually happy, the events had spiraled into a relapse of depression again. Twilight grimaced. She had been doing well enough for Time Turner to suggest moving onto a different and lower treatment.

"Can't win them all." Twilight balled up her damp towel and stepped out into the world, her face smiling while her insides turned with worry. All things considered, it was a normal day.

Pinkie and Applejack stepped off the train with little fanfare. The train had slid into the station with a harsh, echoing creak and jolt as the brakes hit their stride, but the two ponies had looked on Canterlot as mute walls bounced the sounds around and around.

"Where is everypony?"

Pinkie squeed with excitement. "Applejack, this is totally neato. It's like one of those zombie movies." Pinkie bounded on down the station, marveling at the reverberations of her hoofsteps. Applejack could swear Pinkie was singing a familiar song about laughing at apparitions.

Applejack shook her head. "Oh, of course Pinkie's a-okay about a thing that rightfully gives me the willies." Applejack hefted her pack and cautiously trudged through the station. Each noise was heightened as she noticed that without ponies around, she could hear her own breathing.

"Hey, Applejack, check it out." The orange earth pony looked around and saw a mass of ponies just sitting. Not moving. Just sitting there, hopefully breathing, and barely moving. Pinkie Pie, for her part was walking around their perimeter and slinking across the ground like a worm.

Applejack sighed, resigned to never truly get Pinkie, even if she might be possibly related to the pink mare. The Apples hadn't yet figured out if the two families were related, though Applejack mused that the Apple Family had been around for generations all over the gosh darned place so having a branch that split off a while back could turn into the Pies. Applejack shook her head, glad that something crossed it besides the worry that somepony would wake up and attack them. Applejack crept closer and began whispering to her companion.

"Pinkie, get away from that mare right now or so help me I'll come over there and pull you back to safety myself."

Pinkie waved a hoof. "Pssh, like there's a chance I could get hurt from this. Anyway, I have Pinkie Sense and it's not going off for this."

Applejack facehoofed, wondering how Twilight of all ponies could find Pinkie reasonable enough to have relations with. "Yeah, well. . .I have apple sense and it's telling me that you should get back here right this minute."

Pinkie heard that and zoomed back. "AJ, we are totally related! Cause if you have Apple Sense and I have Pinkie Sense it has to be related." Pinkie's smile stretched from ear to ear.

"What? No, I made that up." Applejack leaned against a close pillar and as she did that, the entire ring of ponies, seemingly all at once, had the unicorns all fire up their horns and teleport away. The air was rife with the smell of ozone and magic permeated the air, making it feel heavy as the two earth pony mares stared at the place the mass of ponies all had been before and looked at each other.

"AJ, you did it. You said there was something dangerous over there and it happened."

Applejack blinked. "That was just a coincidence."

The pink pony slid up and put a hoof around Applejack. "Maybe, but what if it wasn't? And I'd have totally gotten out of danger with my Pinkie Sense, but you totally have something special."

Applejack rolled her eyes. "Pinkie, stop it. It's just common sense. I felt like the creepy station would be dangerous and it just so happened something weird happened. Nothing more or less. Let's just get off this topic before anypony else shows up and makes it even worse." Applejack huffed and sat down.

"I don't hope I'm interrupting something, darlings." A sing song voice that Applejack hadn't heard in a few days made her mood at least lift a little, even if she was still miffed about Rarity being Rarity. "Now, Applejack, what has you in such a tizzy?" Applejack could hear the playful teasing in Rare's voice and Applejack could feel her cheeks get hot.

"Nothing."

"Are you sure cause I can tell by your body language something's amiss."

Pinkie chimed in before Applejack could prevail with a cooler and more rational answer. "She predicted something bad would happen and something did before even my Pinkie Sense could go off."

"Dear me, that sounds exciting."

"It's just common sense. Nothing special." Applejack got up and trudged off, the pair of ponies following behind as the earth pony tried to get as much distance as she could from the quiet chaos of the day.

Applejack could hear the smugness in Rarity's voice as she bounced puns back and forth with Pinkie. ". . .so your saying Applejack found a core component of this Apple Sense?"

"Well, it's more of a seed, but if she treats it well it might bloom into something special." Applejack could hear light giggling behind her as that continued, the thoroughfares of the town silent and empty contrasting heavily with the light and airy discussion of Pinkie and Rarity.

"Hey, Rarity, where is Twilight and the other girls anyway?"

"They are. . .working through some issues. It's been a tense few days."

Twilight knocked on the door that led into the rooms that both Rainbow and Fluttershy were staying in. Some east wing room that Twilight had rarely needed to enter and now that Starlight's spell was still affecting Canterlot, there were no guards around to make sure the castle was safe. She heard rustling from the other side of the door and she knocked harder. "Girls, can we talk?"

"Give us a moment, Twilight!"

Twilight tapped her hoof lazily on the floor waiting as a lock was turned and the pair of pegasi stumbled out of their room.

"Yo, Twi, what's up?" Twi rolled her eyes as she noticed a Fluttershy who still had some form of bedhead and a Rainbow was currently trying to style her longer mane to her liking.

"I guess I should come back later. I mean you two seem indisposed so getting into between that seems wrong." Twilight faked a smile as she tried to step away from the musty room.

"No, Twilight, we just weren't expecting you." Fluttershy crossed her blue arms and tried to apologize profusely. "I mean I just woke up and all."

"Uh huh."

Rainbow took the initiative. "So Twi, what do you want? I mean it's like noon and all and I'd prefer relaxing for like one day before we go punching bad guys."

The purple alicorn sighed and tapped her hooves together, the worry of messing up this apology running through her mind at the speed of light and she felt nerves she didn't even know she had. "Well. You see. . .after Rarity called me out for my behavior and well. . .you did too, Dash, I feel like maybe I sort of messed up." Twilight looked away.

Dash huffed. "That's it? You came all this way and your apology is 'I might have messed up?' That's the biggest understatement I've heard in a while. What's next? Guys, I'm sorry for opening a rift to Tartarus, I might have messed up. Or-" Fluttershy put a small and quick hoof on Dash. "Fine, fine. Just you know Twi, that even if Shy forgives you, I won't. Not at least for like a week or whatever. I'm not the Element of Loyalty for nothing." Rainbow stormed off and laid on the bed with a flop.

Twilight and Fluttershy stared at each other for a moment before Fluttershy awkwardly spoke. "So, uh, I don't forgive you either." Fluttershy could hear the palpable 'I told you so' emanating off of Dash. "I just can't right now. You punched me before I got to explain exactly how I felt and that hurts more than the punch itself." Fluttershy twirled a long polychromatic strand of hair as she gathered her thoughts. "Though we have better things to do than just bicker about this."

Twilight morosely nodded. "I get it. I do. So do you have any idea where Starlight might be? I mean I've been trying to locate her and all but I'm coming up with zilch, and I thought since you were closest to Starlight maybe you heard her slip up and say something."

Rainbow scoffed. "Twi, that's the stupidest idea I've heard."

"Rainbow can you give me a moment?" Flutteshy rubbed her temple gently. "Okay, I might be able to remember and I probably would be figuring out this sooner if somepony hadn't knocked a few brain cells loose." Fluttershy laughed, her voice tired and weak at the failed attempt at a joke. "But okay, she said something I recognized. Irondale? Steelville? Deermount? No. It's something like. . .I got it. Irondeer."

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure? That's like twenty miles from Manhattan of all places and has historical importance, I'd highly doubt she'd be there. IT'd be the most conspicuous ever. I mean there's an entire Royal Guard contingent right nearby- she'd be found instantly."

Fluttershy shrugged. "Well, she seemed really defensive when I told her I had heard of the town, so she's highly likely to be there. Seemed like whenever something wasn't in her plans, she had a completely terrifying freakout." Fluttershy shivered as she remembered the tone Starlight had taken with her.

Rainbow rolled off the bed. "Cool. Everypony's hunky dory again. Now can we like go get something to eat cause I'm sorry but I haven't had a bite of anything all day and it's the beginning of the afternoon."

Twilight just nodded. Maybe tomorrow was going to be a less contentious day, but she doubted it. She felt better though and while she realized that a friendship issue wasn't one to just be fixed in minutes, it felt like maybe she was back on a track. She just had to hit rock bottom- and another pony- first. She felt an inkling of calm. Not happiness, not yet, but it was a start.