How adorable...

Luna smiled as she looked at the peacefully sleeping Rainbow Dash. She hadn't returned home as usual that night, but decided to stay outside and sleep on a small patch of cloud. She almost didn't want to wake the pegasus up, but disappointing Celestia by failing to complete such a simple task was not an option.

Luna softly nudged Dash with her hoof. "Hey. Wake up sleepy head."

No response.

She spoke a bit louder this time, and pushed harder. "Rainbow dash."

Nothing.

Luna snarled as she tried six more times to wake the cyan mare. Losing her temper, she leaned in to Dash's ear. "THINE PRINCESS DEMANDS THAT THOU AWAKENS FROM THINE SLUMBER AND OVERCOME THINE FATIGUE!"

Dash jumped up and spread her wings, instinctively bracing herself from an oncoming assault. She let out an annoyed huff when she saw nothing but a giggling blue alicorn flying next to her.

"Good morning, Rainbow." said Luna, a small smile appearing as she tried to hide her amusement.

"Yeah, yeah. Why did you have to wake me up so early?"

Luna burst into a fit of laughter, confusing the pegasus.

Dash growled. "What!?"

"It's noon." said Luna.

Rainbow arched her back and let out a slow chuckle. "Oh... Uh, right. Wait, what are you doing here? Don't you have to run Equestria while Celestia is away?" she asked.

Luna regained her thoughts which she had forgotten about while waking Dash. "Yes of course, but the nobles can handle court for today. Celestia wanted me to have some rain clouds moved over to irrigate Bic Mac's new farm in Canterlot."

Dash let out a sigh. "So... Why didn't you ask the weather pegasi to do it?"

"All still busy dealing with the drought in Appleoosa." argued the alicorn. "I knew you would be here in Ponyville, though."

The pegasus twitched in anger. "Because today is my day off!"

"I know! What better way to spend it than with me!" said Luna, grinning.

Rainbow face hoofed.

"If you wanted to tell me to move clouds to Canterlot, why make the trip over here? Couldn't you just send Twilight a letter?" asked Rainbow.

"Well how would she give it to you when she and her dragon are in Canterlot as well?" asked Luna, actually expecting an answer.

Rainbow sighed again and gave up trying to argue with the socially oblivious mare. Her and Luna gathered a few small rain clouds and began their slow flight to Canterlot, constantly moving around to keep the clouds in place. It became a miniature contest between the two to try and round out their half of the cloud collection as perfect as possible.

After they had finally arrived in Canterlot, the cloud they were moving was now a perfect gray sphere. Neither Luna nor Rainbow Dash wanted to give up their work, but it was inevitable as rain began to fall over the tilled soil. Upon seeing it, Macintosh exited his house and waved his large, black cowboy hat at both of the flying mares. They smiled in response as he went back inside.

"So now what do you want to do?" asked Dash.

Luna thought for a moment. "I am going to go do some paper work, the usual things. Tax extensions, appeals, and the occasional death threat." she joked.

Rainbow gasped. "Death threat!? Who would threaten to kill you!? Show me where they are, I'll give'm the old one-two!"

Luna giggled at the defensive pegasus. "Oh, the element of loyalty fits you so. Worry not Rainbow Dash, I am an alicorn. I cannot be hurt by physical means, and it would take the magic of ten thousand unicorns to wound me fatally. I am quite safe, I don't even understand why my sister and I have an ensemble of guards."

Rainbow Dash wiped the sweat off of her forehead. "Phew. So, you don't even take them seriously?"

"Not at all. I keep most of my death threats in a file cabinet, and read them whenever I need a good laugh." reassured the princess.

"That's awesome!" exclaimed Rainbow.

"It is, isn't it? Anyways, feel free to tour Canterlot for the rest of the day. After I raise the moon at eight, I thought it would be nice if we had a race. Palace roof to Twilight's library, what do you say?"

Dash lit up with partial disbelief, and excitement. "You're on!"

----------

Canterlot sucks.

Rainbow Dash grew increasingly bored of the generic flowers she had been staring at. She had earlier visited the Equestrian Air and Space History Museum, the only interesting thing in this city. It had a lot of information on famous pegasi, and even some inventors who tried to make steam powered wings and flying machines for unicorns and earth ponies. What captivated her most, though, was the complete history and member list of the Wonderbolts. They were young, only about four hundred years old, but it was still interesting for Rainbow to admire the past great fliers.

That didn't last long, though. After she left the museum, Dash took a long walk around the Palace gardens. It felt weird to her, seeing as she flew everywhere. If her wings could talk, they would be thanking and praising her for the rest right about now. For once in a long time, Dash stopped to smell the flowers. They smelled amazing, it was no wonder why Fluttershy loved flora so much.

Rainbow made her way through the gardens, and was about to turn and leave when something caught her eye. She didn't notice a problem at first, but then it hit her. The statue gallery was missing something. Something important. Something like...

Discord!

She flew up to investigate the empty platform. Sure enough, one frozen draconnequus was missing. Dash turned and raced towards the palace to tell Luna that Discord had escaped, frantically trying to put together her thoughts.

As she arrived at the gates, she looked down and spied on the scene below her. Twilight was casually talking to a palace guard in fancy armour, different from the other guards. She flew in closer, close enough to hear what they were saying but far enough away so she wouldn't be noticed.

Dash's jaw hung open when the guard bowed to Twilight and greeted her as royalty. After some small talk, they went inside. Dash quietly followed them, keeping a safe distance. She had the advantage, flapping wings made virtually no noise at all.

A chill ran down the pegasus' spine as she entered an ancient hall way, only illuminated by torches which Twilight lit with her magic. They finally came to the large golden door which led to Celestia's library.

In disbelief, Dash spectated Twilight activate the elements of chaos and enter the massive library. In fear of being spotted, Rainbow quickly fled from the hallway and back to the main section of the castle. She made her way to the throne room to find Luna with two stacks of papers.

She was wearing black eyeglasses, her full attention on her work as she levitated various papers, signing them and moving on. It took her awhile to notice the cyan mare standing in front of her, resembling Fluttershy more than she did herself.

"P-Princess..." said Rainbow, in the shyest, most quiet voice.

Luna looked up at the distressed pegasus and gave her a worried expression. "What's wrong, my friend?"

Rainbow pushed her mane in front of her face. "I just saw some... Really strange things."

"What would those be?"

"Well..." Dash gulped. "Twilight was just down in this creepy basement in the castle, and there was this huge gold and stone door. She had some weird diamonds and she put them inside the door, then there was this huge flash and the door opened."

Luna dropped her scroll as Rainbow told her the story. Her eyes widened, but then she brushed it off.

Really, Tia?... Giving the daughter of Stardust Arcane and Celestia Sparkle free access to ancient spell books? What are you trying to raise here, a princess, or a weapon of mass destruction? You'll be hearing about this from me when you get back...

"Rainbow Dash, follow me. There's something you need to know about." said Luna, letting out a long sigh and shaking her head slowly.

Luna led her friend to an office near her room, and levitated out a dusty old book. After flipping through a few pages, she found what she was looking for. Luna put the book down on the table and motioned for Dash to read it.

"This is... Your family history?" asked the cyan mare.

"Yes it is. This book contains the genealogy of almost every royal alicorn, save for the creators."

A question popped up in Dash's mind. "Wait, if the alicorns created the earth, why do you only rule one country?"

Luna laughed a bit. "A lesson to be learned, my friend. Great power corrupts greatly, but absolute power corrupts absolutely."

The night princess' seemingly infinite wisdom did little more then confuse the pegasus. "Hmm."

"Find anything on this page, Rainbow Dash?" asked Luna.

She looked again. Sure enough, there was a picture of a large, dark violet alicorn stallion with a black mane and tail, with a scarlet red stripe going down them. He wore a large crown with a red gem that matched his cutie mark, a red star.

Luna smiled. "That, is General Stardust Arcane."

Realization smacked Dash across the face. "That looks just like..."

"Twilight Sparkle." said Luna, finishing the pegasus' statement.

"But how?" asked Dash. "I've met Twilight's parents, why does this pony look just like her?"

Luna chuckled. "Have you ever noticed how Twilight's mother and father look nothing like their daughter at all? They are her foster parents, Twilight was given up at birth when her father died. Her mother was far too busy to take care of her correctly."

Dash felt utterly stupid for not connecting the dots so much sooner. "This is... Her father?"

"Yes."

Wait. "If that's Twilight's dad, who's her mom?"

Luna coughed as she tried to think of a response. She had promised Celestia never to speak to Twilight or anyone she knew about being her daughter. "That is not important. What's important is, Twilight is an alicorn, and a royal princess all the same. She has complete access to the palace and all of it's contents."

Rainbow needed a few moments to collect herself, this was a whole lot to take in. Not only was her friend an alicorn, but she was also heir to the throne! "Wait. Aren't alicorns supposed to have wings, and be a lot bigger then normal ponies?"

"Oh, I forgot you aren't one to research such things." joked Luna, getting a scowl in response from the rainbow maned pegasus. "An alicorn mare only grows wings once she has lived for about a quarter century. Only then will she go through the final stages of her adolescent life, and mature into a full grown alicorn. The entire process takes just about five years after her wings grow in."

Dash lost all control and burst into laughter, rolling around on the floor. "So you're telling me, Twilight is still just a filly!? At twenty two years old!?"

Luna sighed. "That's one way to put it."

"That makes no sense..." said Rainbow, choking on the words through her laughter. Pain kicked in, so she eventually calmed down.

Then, as she said those words, the strangest feeling washed over her. The same one she got when she was released from Discord's influence. Like she had just missed something, something really important. A look of dread over took the pegasus as evil words rang in the back of her head.

But where's the fun in making sense?

Luna grabbed the now hyperventilating pony and tried to calm her down, oblivious to what was going on. "Are you okay, Dash?"

Rainbow held back her imminent tears as fear over took her. "Luna... I went to visit the statue garden today after we moved the clouds to Big Macintosh's new house..."

The alicorn braced herself for the worst. "What happened? Is everything alright?"

Dash gulped as she looked into Luna's eyes, the weight of what she was about to say only now showing itself.

"Discord wasn't there."