The Untrotted Path

by Fluttershy Whisperwing

First published 30th of August, 2018

At the moment before she leaves Equestria forever, Sunset Shimmer's destiny is taken away from her. A new path unmarked by pony hooves is placed before her.

Sunset Shimmer had everything. Personal protégé of the Sun Princess herself, top marks in the School for Gifted Unicorns, and the honor of being dubbed the greatest arcanist since Starswirl the Bearded.

Until she threw it all away.

In the last moments before leaving Equestria forever, her destiny is snatched away right before her eyes. Once upon a time the story of the lives of herself, Twilight Sparkle, and the path of Equestrian History went one way, a story that we all know well. But in every stand of woods there is a path untrotted, one with a different story and new experiences.

About the deleted comments.

Discussion of this and other works can be found on my Private Discord Server

New cover by DVixie. If someone knows how to contact them I'd be appreciative. It more accurately portrays the current evolution of the story.

Arc One, Filly Steps: Complete.
Arc Two, What Twilight Learned Today: In Progress.

Greener Pastures (Edited 11/5)

‘No point in delaying, I guess.’

Six months ago Princess-Regent Celestia Sol Invicta had brought her personal student, the magical prodigy Sunset Shimmer, before the mirror. Ever since Celestia had first shown it to her, ever since she'd seen an image of herself as an alicorn Princess in her own right, it had plagued her every waking moment.

Like a tongue probing the socket of a missing tooth, she kept returning to the night prior. Celestia had been droning on about… something or other, and she'd finally snapped. Why had Celestia shown her that, if it was never meant to happen? If she wasn't ready?

The argument had escalated to a full-scale tiff. Her mentor-cum-surrogate mother had lost that damnable composure, and shrieked for her to go to her room.

Go to her room, like she was a blank-flanked foal instead of a grown mare of twenty who could bend the universe around her horn.

Celestia clearly expected her to think about what she had been saying to her for the last months. Sunset had pored through notes gleaned from any source she could find on the mirror, instead. She'd found out that it was one of Starswirl the Bearded’s miracles. That for three days it would connect to another world beside their own. She'd studied late into the night and made up her mind. She wasn't going to live under Celestia’s shadow any longer. She would venture into this other world and prove that she was ready for whatever Celestia had to offer her.

She packed her saddlebag with a few items she thought might come in handy from what she'd gleaned from her notes. A pouch of bits and a hoofful of gemstones- hard coin was rarely passed up no matter where one found themselves. A few of her carefully-annotated books on magical theory, to refresh her mind during her travels. At the very bottom, ignored by most of Sunset’s conscious mind…

A journal, emblazoned with her mentor/mother's cutie mark on the cover. A spell paired it with a twin in Celestia’s private study. Any time she needed to talk, she could write in it and whatever she would write would appear in Celestia’s half of the journal pair. She would take it with her, in case she regretted her decision, or if this was all…

“This might end up being the biggest mistake of my life. But you've left me no other choice, Celestia."

She steeled herself, and rested a forehoof on the surface of the mirror. A tingle ran up her foreleg and settled into her core as its magic mingled with her own. The second she felt it accept her, she would push through it into the other world. Never to return.

Instead of a ripple of magic, the floor rumbled and danced beneath her. With three legs, her balance was off and the shaking of Canterlot beneath her brought her to the ground. As the thunder continued, and mingled with the sounds of shouts and screams from the direction of Celestia’s School, the mirror vibrated.

She watched in horror as cracks spread across the silvered surface of her last chance. Her lifeline. Her heart broke as the mirror shattered. As jagged shards of glass collapsed to the ground with an almost smarmily cheerful tinkle. As if the universe was pleased it had subverted her destiny.

She stared for several minutes, cycling through myriad horrors. One of the few tangible objects left behind by one of history's greatest sorcerers, left in ruin. A beautiful object in its own right, destroyed. An ingenious magical artifact, undone.

Her destiny, disintegrated.

Nopony spared her a glance as she trudged down the hallways of the palace. They were all running the other way, towards the school. The commotion grew louder as she crossed the courtyard to her tower. Another student had probably Flared during the entrance examinations scheduled for this morning. In her current state of mind, Sunset couldn't be bothered with lending her arcane might to the task of assisting.

She slammed her way inside, and didn't bother even closing the door behind her. A hoof ran along the spines of books that she had prepared herself to leave behind as she clipped her way up the spiral staircase to the second level.

She gave a cursory glance to the laboratory housed there, and shook her head. Maybe tomorrow she would feel better, begin the research to repair the mirror. Maybe if she succeeded, Celestia would be impressed. She continued up the stairs, dropping herself into her far-too-comfortable bed.

She pressed her face into her pillows without bothering to remove her saddlebag, or even remove her jacket. Her magic flared, drawing her blankets around herself to ward off Canterlot's fall chill as much as to hide the shoulder-shaking sobs from the world.

She awoke some time later with a headache and dry, itchy eyes. Her saddlebag dug uncomfortably into her hip. The journal tucked at the bottom vibrated and glowed straight through the fabric of her bag, through the covers. The sharp vibrations of the journal had awoken her. She lifted herself from her damp pillows and sat up, fumbling for a light with her turquoise magic as she dug for the offending book.

As always, the next entry started on a blank page. Sunset watched as Celestia's flowery runic Ponish flowed across the crisp cream paper in stark black ink. She stared at the words, willing them to make sense, wondering if Celestia had slipped and written in a dead language, again?

She read over the missive again, puzzling over it for hidden meaning. It was as plain as it had been the first time, like their fight the previous evening hadn't happened. Like Celestia didn't hate her for being an ungrateful little nag who thought the world revolved around her.

‘Please join me in my study for a late tea. There is somepony that I think you should meet. It will be good for both of you.’

Another attempt at forcing her to make friends, then. There was nothing for it. Celestia had spoken and Sunset had better listen if she knew what was good for her.

Besides, listening to her mentor berate her would be worth it. They would have lunch at least. She'd stormed out without eating a bite of dinner the previous night, and had skipped breakfast to spend more time at the mirror. Her stomach protested uncomfortably.

The weather was clear and warm for a day in early fall this far above the treeline, but Sunset was cold. The cheerful chirping of birds in the trees grated on her ears. It was like the whole universe was objecting to her presence, like she belonged somewhere else.

She huffed and pushed her way through the imposing doors of Celestia’s private quarters.

She found them as she always did. The midafternoon light was too bright, throwing a thousand years of knickknacks into stark relief. Celestia stood by the stained glass doors leading out onto her balcony. She turned, their eyes met, and she stiffened. Sunset forced herself to withstand the withering gaze of the Sun Itself.

Ten years of this same scene played out in the back of her mind. Sunset would become enraged, one or the other would say something regrettable.

They'd stay apart for a day or two, and Sunset would slink back. She'd hang her head and mutter those magic words.

“I come before you seeking forgiveness, guidance, and knowledge.”

Wings that bore the weight of the kingdom would embrace her, and everything would be fine. In that moment, Celestia would cease to be Mentor, and transform into Mother.

The Princess Mask cracked, and Celestia broke eye contact first.

“Celestia, I-”

“Sunset…”

Sunset bowed her head. “You first.”

Celestia settled herself at the low study table, her golden aura embracing the silver-filigreed teapot and pouring out tea for the two of them. Two lumps of sugar settled into Sunset’s cup; Celestia drank hers dark and bitter.

“Do you know how old I am, my shimmering sunset?”

Sunset took her seat and fiddled with her tea. “Over a thousand years, as near as anypony can tell.” She knew better than to ask ‘why?’; Celestia always had some reason for whatever she asked or did.

“One thousand, one hundred twenty, actually. You'd think in all that time I would have learned something. Something staring me right in the face. But of course, the Sun outshines all other stars, and far too often I am blind.”

Celestia studied the stained panels that depicted the fall of her Sister nearly a thousand years before.

“She wasn't evil, or a monster, you know. She was my baby sister.” She cupped her tea in both hooves. “It was my fault. I didn't know how deep and dark my shadow was. Is. She was transformed into a wicked mare of darkness not by hatred, but by fear and doubt."

Sunset let her talk. When Celestia rambled, it was easier to just listen.

“Today, I'm breaking that cycle. You mean too much to me to live your life in my shadow, to have me outshine your glow.” A deep sip of her black, bitter tea. “As of today, you are no longer my student, Sunset Shimmer.”

Sunset’s heart stopped. A small lavender filly roused herself, awoken by the voices over her head. Sunset stared. Her turquoise aura darkened, deepened to a fiery red. Before she quite knew what she was doing she was already on her hooves, and the delicate porcelain had smashed against the wall. A hoof was thrust towards Celestia, as if Sunset willed it to be a blade to pierce her heart.

“This is so like you. Didn't take you long to replace me, did it.”

Celestia’s expression was impassive, the Princess Mask returned. “Sunset Shimmer. I'd like you to meet Twilight Sparkle. Your protégé.”

Filly Steps (Edited 11/5)

If Sunset laid very still and kept very, very quiet, the day before couldn't possibly have happened. She was disabused of this notion in extremely short order.

A cannonball of purple fuzz launched itself into her bed, shaking the mattress with a dull creak of springs. It immediately began bouncing over her from one side to the other, adding to the cacophony with its incessant shrieking.

“FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL! FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!”

When ignored, the little hellion resorted to nudging at her with its skull, digging its horn into her kidneys.

“M’up, m’up. Wha’ time’sit.” Sunset mumbled into her pillow, eyes tightly shut. Perhaps if she didn't move, the problem would go away.

“Seven. I think. Which means it's time for school!”

Sunset slowly rolled to a sitting position, and leveled a balefire glare at the tiny thing standing over her. To her credit, Twilight stared back with the quiet innocence only found in small children and the intellectually challenged. Sunset blinked slowly and released a slow breath.

“If I get up will you please stop shouting?”

The foal stared for a few seconds more, before nodding once.

Sunset rolled her eyes and slid off her bed, falling to the tiled floor of her bedroom with a quartet of soft clicks. Without a second glance back she made her sleepy, fumbling way downstairs to the kitchen at the base of the tower.

She slammed the door open with her characteristic lack of restraint, and swung her telekinetic aura around with the same. She slumped at her dining table, the coffee engine rattling and chirping behind her. The quiet clicking of the foal’s hooves roused her imperceptibly.

“How did you even get in here? I don't even think Celestia could enter my tower without permission, let alone my bedroom.”

The filly invited herself to sit at the spot directly across from her.

“I-I spent the night. Don't you remember?”

Memory flickered and sputtered behind her eyes. This early in the morning, her brain wasn't firing on all cylinders yet.

The conversation with Celestia only barely been bearable. She had been all “joy of responsibility” this and “this is the opportunity you've been waiting for” that. All while her heart broke with every word.

Then the Pink One had shown up, and things were spotty after that. She made a mental note to probe her psyche for any evidence of tampering. She'd probably forced some kind of emotional connection between her and the filly.

Who was chattering about something or other. She had a sudden realization that she should probably feed her. The filly probably counted as a “houseguest”, and learning on an empty stomach was supposed to be difficult.

“-and I didn't prepare a study guide, what if they give us a test our first day and I fail and they decide that I'm not cut out for school and-”

Sunset nodded and made hopefully affirmative noises. Her horn lit up, a glow of telekinesis clattering porcelain and silverware. The foal’s prattle died down in awe as she levitated no less than six separate objects.

A cup of tar-black coffee set itself in front of Sunset, and a cup of tea before Twilight. Bowls clattered to the oak surface of the table, promptly filled.

“Relax. It's just magic kindergarten.” She took a deep gulp of the lifegiving liquid inside her mug. “You can read, you're already ahead of the curve. They're not going to spring a test first day. Heck, I don't even think magic kindergarten has tests.”

She leveled an eye at Twilight, who was poking the contents of her bowl with her spoon, muzzle scrunched into an expression of sheer confusion.

“M-miss Shimmer, what is this?”

“Muesli. Eat up, it's good for you.” She prodded her own bowl of fruit and oats. “Now hush. Mornings are for breakfast, coffee, and quiet contemplation.”

Twilight’s lips moved, as if committing this to memory. “Er. Contemplating what?”

“How absolutely wrong my life has gone.”

The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and Sunset Shimmer was in hell. She'd walked Twilight on the short trip to the CSGU campus and had to deal with the filly hiding underneath her, while she listlessly spoke to faculty and found out where Twilight was meant to actually be, managing to get her into her classroom before the bell rang to announce the start of school.

Then, instead of taking a well-earned midmorning nap followed by lunch at a cafe and returning to her alchemy experiments, she sat at her study desk surrounded by a flurry of paper.

Suddenly she stopped. She was overthinking this. Plans, dusty primers far beneath talent… that was Celestia’s method. A method that had held her back for all these years. The only way she had gotten as far as she did was her own hooves-on approach.

She smiled to herself and brushed aside the drifts of failed lesson plans. She cracked open her copy of Starswirl’s Principles of Sorcery; A Primer and a clean sheet of paper. Dipping her quill, she began to write.

Sunset smiled despite herself as she waited at the foot of the great stone steps leading into the CSGU building. She sat on the edge of a fountain that dominated the courtyard. Water burbled cheerfully beneath a granite statue of Celestia reading a book to a foal nestled under her wing.

She watched the lavender filly carefully navigate steps half as tall as she was. Even if she was technically Sunset’s replacement, even if Sunset hated foals, even if she'd been ejected from the Princess’ tutelage and saddled with this responsibility, she had to admit that Twilight was cute as a button.

Her greeting died in her throat as she noticed the way the filly slumped at the withers. The flagstones beneath her hooves smoked as her expression hardened. The universe winced and ducked for cover as Sunset got angry.

Then suddenly she took a deep breath and cheered up. As the foal approached she took a gamble and stole a play from Celestia’s book, tucking a forehoof beneath Twilight’s chin and forcing her to look up.

Turquoise eyes met violet ones full of sorrow. They stared at one another for a moment, before Sunset’s eyes drifted towards her muzzle and she puffed out her cheeks. Startled, Twilight broke into a fit of giggles.

“Hey squirt. Did you make any friends today?” At this point she might as well put on a pastel-rainbow wig.

“Um. Not exactly. I wouldn't call them ‘friends’ seeing as how we've only known one another a day. But there was one filly that I liked. We read a book together.”

Sunset smiled as her rage cooled. Twilight was just worn out from her first day. Turquoise telekinesis wrapped the filly and pulled her up, settling the tiny thing on her own shoulders.

“I never checked- am I supposed to take you home?” She glanced over her shoulder, accidentally brushing her snout against the filly’s cheek.

Twilight tilted her head and pressed back, settling her forelegs around the mare’s neck.

“I guess so. Cadance was supposed to watch me tonight, my parents are going out.”

Ah. There was the anger again. She furrowed her brow and sighed, rubbing her forehead with a hoof. Of course Cadance. Her life wasn't going well enough without being forced into close contact with the Pink One.

She tipped her head back again as she briskly trotted off out of the courtyard. “Um… Where do you live again?”

A sleepy voice murmured around the vicinity of her ear. “434 Sunward Way.”

Her eye twitched. One of the thoroughbred districts. Naturally.

The walk over didn't take very long, and likewise jimmying open the gate with her magic. But, Twilight had fallen asleep, so she kept her tread as even as she possibly could as she made the final approach to Sparkle Manor. It wasn't enough that Twilight was apparently a minor noble, a member of the elite. It wasn't enough that she had aced her entry exam, including hatching a baby dragon.

No, the house just had to be tasteful and cozy-looking. Hanging off the side of a mountain tended to restrict the size of residential buildings and the size of property plots. But that didn't stop thoroughbreds from testing the city’s foundations with the largest and most ostentatious estates they could manage.

In contrast, most of Sparkle Manor's plot was well-kept lawn. It even had a solitary apple tree with a rope swing, and some new-looking playground equipment. A flagstone walk bisected the grass, leading up to the steps of the wraparound porch. The building itself looked only sixty or seventy feet on a side, and three floors tall. As opposed to Blueblood Manor, for instance, inside whose ballroom alone could easily fit this entire house.

The sort of house that she'd dreamed about, growing up in the drafty orphanage tucked against the mountain itself as far away from the castle as one could get.

She took a deep breath and stared at the door. Twilight was waking up, and digging in her saddlebags for something. Twilight’s weight leaning one way while she stood there indecisively meant that she toppled over readily, the door snapping open with a loud bang as she hit the floor of the foyer and slammed her head against hardwood flooring.

Two Twilights stood over her and poked her, before calling out something. Sunset couldn't tell, it sounded like her ears were stuffed with cotton wool. She struggled onto her stomach and held her aching head, willing the world to stop spinning.

The squirt was doing something, a complicated dance? No, copying… somepony. She stiffened and frowned as her vision cleared, Twilight sitting before the Crown Princess Mi Amore Cadenza.

Cadance for short, Cady to her friends. To Sunset, Pink One, the life-stealing bitch.

Gold Cobblestones (Edited 11/5)

Sunset closed her eyes and counted to ten. Cadance had every right to be here. The squirt had even said that the Pink One foalsat her, and that she would be doing so tonight. She let out a slow, sullen breath and dragged herself to her hooves, trying to ignore the pounding in her head.

Her muzzle split in her best winning grin, a wide toothy smile that didn't quite touch her eyes. The prissy Princess shrank a little under her stare, rather like a dog that had been kicked a time too many. She gently rested a hoof on the squirt’s withers.

“Just making sure my student makes it home safe, Princess.”

Cadance nodded a little too sharply, and scurried off somewhere. Presumably to the kitchen. Sunset gathered herself up and deposited herself and Twilight on the sofa, dragging her saddlebag into her lap. Something about the squirt’s puzzled expression gave her pause.

She froze. She'd invented that look. It was the one she'd turned upon Celestia herself one morning after watching her raise the sun.

It was a wordless question.

She refused to be broken by it. She returned it with a steely glare, a shard of fire stolen from the Unconquered Sun.

“No. I do not like Cadance. No, I will not tell you why. Yes, it's personal.”

She withdrew the book from her pack with a quick flourish and a grin.

“Now. I have homework for you.”

Twilight blinked, the Look broken. She merely nestled in against Sunset with barely-hidden glee as the cover of the tome was cracked. It was everything- a spellbook, a storybook, a history text. Everything a foal exhausted and bored by levitating blocks and lessons far below her ability would desire.

It was the book that started Sunset’s education, given to her by the Light of Dawn, Celestia Herself.

In the Beginning, Starswirl writes, the races of ponykind were created from the Fundamental Elements.

The tribe of Earth was called forth from the Stone.

The tribe of Unicorn was called forth from the Water.

The tribe of Pegasus was called forth from the Air.

These were gifted with animation by the Fire, and given thoughts by the Will. Got your notebook ready? Good.

The new Ponykind trotted the Earth, breathed the Air, and moved like Water. They lived and loved, with the Fire.

But from Will comes thought, and from Will comes Magic.

Starswirl’s First Precept: Magic is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will.

Through Will, the Earth Ponies attuned to the Stone. They shaped the earth beneath their hooves and made it bountiful and much lush of life and greenery.

Through Will, the Pegasus Ponies returned to their native Element and took to the Air. They flew, and tamed the weather to their whims, calling storms to worry their enemies and gentle rains upon those they called Friend.

Ever-shifting and immutable, the Unicorn Ponies turned their Will within and without. Their Will flows through our world and became Sorcery.

Thus were the Pillars of Equestria created:

Strength

Healing

Hope

Beauty

Bravery

And Sorcery.

These are the Elements and traits found in Ponykind United.

Twilight stared in rapt fascination as the illuminated pages flicked by, and Sunset put on her best ‘Starswirl The Bearded’ voice. Cadance leaned her head in from the kitchen and smiled a tiny smile, meant only for her.

The Princess of Love could see the chains that bound one pony to another. She could see links forming between the ponies nestled on the sofa, and the tiny smile on Sunset’s muzzle whenever Twilight stopped her to ask a question.

She wondered. She had never seen a bond between Sunset and another pony. How would loving somepony other than herself change her? How would Sunset’s love affect the filly she had grown to love? Despite her best impulses, she resisted the impulse to interfere, to strengthen those chains.

Sunset read on, and Twilight listened, asked questions, and scribbled hasty notes. Soon enough it was time for supper.

Having not had the pleasure of growing in a fishing village in Cavelia, the two stared at the dish before them with doubt. Flesh stared back.

Fresh fish, baked with herbs and sprinkled with cheese.

Sunset and Twilight sat on one side of the long table of Sparkle Manor’s dining room, with Cadence on the other side withdrawn and fretful.

Unbeknownst to Sunset, Twilight learned all the time. The filly was practically a sponge for information and knowledge. As Sunset lifted a fork in a haze of turquoise telekinetic aura and dug into the flaky fish before her, Twilight learned the first of many important lessons at her hooves.

When somepony does you the Kindness of cooking a favored dish for you, you must repay that Kindness by trying it.

The already awkward silence stretched as Sunset pushed the forkful into her mouth with all the bearing of somepony tensing at the first striker-cap snap of a firing squad. She chewed thoughtfully… and dug in for a second bite.

“Thish is actually… really good. I didn't know you cooked, Cadance.”

Cadance had the decency to tuck her wings tighter and shuffle her hooves, before nodding. The musical Cavellian accent hadn't yet faded from her tongue to be replaced by the lockjawed permanent sneer of Canterlot.

“It is a celebration meal. My mother cooked it for me when… I got my cutie mark.”

She offered nothing further, for fear of further attracting Sunset’s attention.

Over the course of the meal, the two older ponies teased out details of Twilight's first day- and the ponies who had been nice to her.

She and another two fillies had almost immediately grown bored of the instruction and had wandered off to their own corner. They learned their names; Moondancer, who was quiet and had read a book with Twilight, and Bouncing Betty, whose magic had a habit of erupting in fitful sparks and flashes when she grew excited.

The fire extinguisher had seen use throughout the day, and by the end of it Betty’s demeanor and unfortunate magical issue had quite exhausted it.

Before too long, last sips of tea had been sipped and last morsels swallowed. Twilight was nudged upstairs for a bath by Cadance, and Sunset volunteered to clean the dishes, giving Twilight a second object lesson;

When you are a guest in somepony’s home, it is polite to offer to assist in some small way.

Sunset flicked through the Primer, checking the skeleton of her lesson plan against the surprisingly neat hornwriting of her student. Cadance’s head poked over the stairs and her soft voice sang out.

“Twilight wishes for you to read her a bedtime story, Sunset. And please… no more of the Primer, or she will be up under the covers checking her notes with Miss Smarty Pants all night.”

Sunset took a deep breath, counted to four. Let it out, count to four. She herself had done the same to Celestia on numerous occasions, although a stuffed toy hadn't been in the equation. She selected a book more or less at random from her saddlebag and trudged up the stairs.

Twilight's bedroom was much as she had expected. It was large enough to contain a growing filly, walls lined with tall bookshelves and only a single untouched toybox at the foot of the rather well-sized bed, a dresser and armoire, and a worn writing desk. She smiled as she sunk hooves into the plush pile of the green carpeting, making her way to pull herself up onto the bed.

The light was turned out and changed for a nightlight, which really had Sunset gape for a moment. Far beyond a single candleflame attached to the wall, Twilight’s light threw a starfield across her ceiling, creating a perfect illusion of the night sky.

She swallowed and opened the book, taking a deep breath before beginning to read.

Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria…

Author's Notes:

Revealed Clues.
*Sunset continues the thread of narration as dialogue.
*Jumpcut scene transitions cause momentary confusion in certain characters, before blanks fill in.

Months Walk, Years Run (Edited 11/5)

Author's Notes:

I'm so sorry.

It happened when Twilight was ten.

The worst day of her life started out routinely enough. Six sets of hooves crunched through the manicured grasses of one of Canterlot’s many gardens. Late-spring birds chirped in the trees, singing songs of joy that summer had arrived. Classes were over, tests taken and passed, and for three glorious months there would be hours to fill with whatever pleased at the moment.

Five years in the rigorous furnace of Equestria’s most prestigious and advanced school had forged the six fillies into young mares, and created powerful links between them.

Twilight hung back of the group, a half-step ahead of Moondancer. A book floated at reading height and the other studious pony was using Twilight’s tail as a guide. She had a habit of walking into things; ponies, light posts, uneven pavement, even buildings weren't safe from her face.

The head of their little group trotted a little ways in front of the others, a duffle bag slung across her withers. She'd gotten it into her head that the thing to do on this summer morning was baseball.

Betty was the most unique pony Twilight had ever met, the most unique in Canterlot maybe. While the other unicorns tended towards slender, Betty was stocky. It wasn't uncommon for ponies to think of her as an Earth Pony with a horn glued to her forehead. She was taller than the others as well, almost the full size of a teenager despite trailing by a couple months in age.

Her red coat offset a darker mulberry mane that framed her muzzle in ringlet curls and spilled across her withers, her eyes and aura a warm tiger-lily orange.

If someone stalking the little group closed their eyes and imagined, their accents could have an archetype assigned. Twilight spoke, and in the mind’s eye one saw cravats and spats, culture and wealth. Moondancer spoke similarly, but differently enough that she'd appear a yuppie New Money to Twilight’s blue blood.

Lyra’s upper-class brogue carried imagery of cardigans and yachts, and conversations about Pranceton and Hayvard.

Starlight Glimmer had a rather bland and exact North Luna Oceanic accent, but a cheerful warmth of tone of a well-read academic, possibly the host of the gathering in her paneled study.

Trixie Lulamoon had neither title nor wealth to her name, but the others loved her for her stories and trinkets gathered from across Equestria’s settled zones; an exotic-voiced outsider visiting with tales of adventure.

And then Betty would crash the party, a Wild West desperado, a cowpony blowing in from the range. She hailed from Mustangia in the Undiscovered West, and often regaled her friends with tales of her home. Her mother was a railpony, and had made her fortune laying track from the Celestial Sea to the Luna Oceans, connecting Las Pegasus and San Flanksisco to the rest of Equestria.

“Righ’ here. This dog’ll hunt.”

She smiled thinly and dropped her load, Starlight, Lyra, and Trixie grabbing bases and trotting out lines. Twilight grabbed a couple balls and a bottle of water before settling in roughly in the center of the square.

Moondancer set aside her carefully-annotated copy of The Compleat Baseball Compendium, slid on her mask, and settled into a squat with her mitt held between hooves over her barrel.

Betty tipped a wink and selected a bat as she watched Twilight prepare to pitch. Street theater was a long held pony pastime, and snooty wannabe-nobles watched the uncouth proceedings with interest, of course while attempting to convey that they were not in fact watching.

Betty reared up on her hindlegs and gripped the hickory bat between her forelegs like an Earth Pony as Twilight wound up to toss the ball with her magic. The ponies pressed closer with more thinly-veiled interest, breath holding across the park.

In the moment of silence, Betty’s molasses-thick and equally sweet drawl rolled across the grass.

“C’mon naow, Twai. Straight’n true.”

Betty’s hooves tightened on the bat’s grip. Twilight’s eyes narrowed as she watched Moondancer make a motion with her hoof. She nodded, and let fly.

CRACK!

“I still can't believe what happened to that first ball.” Lyra smirked as she folded her forelegs to support her neck.

Betty flexed self-consciously. “Well Ah needed ta break in New Hick’ry after Ah cracked the las’ one, an Ah figured bustin’ the guts outta a ball would be worth at least a run.”

The fillies had watched in mild awe, the baseponies dropping to the ground and covering their ears when Betty had swung low like a Major Leaguer. The thunderous crack of the cover flaking off and the cork shattering had been met with silence, the perfect atmosphere for Moondancer’s quiet voice to make the call.

“You're lucky I only called it as a foul. The Compendium says I could have called it an out, and benched you for the rest of the game.” Moondancer had done the unthinkable in response to Betty crying blue thunder, had kept her place and merely shoved the (highlighted) passage in the book to her muzzle.

The game had been fun, and the fillies had collected their supplies and dumped them near enough to the bag to be called picked up before sprawling across the manicured lawn of the garden.

“Well hell, out Tall Tale way they'd’ve called it a run an’ Ah’d’ve been carried round the bases.”

Moondancer rolled her eyes as she flipped a page, a haze of magic holding Daring Do and the Sapphire Statue over her snout at an angle perfect for reading and blocking out the sun.

“Well it's a foul, and you're too heavy for us to carry.”

Trixie muttered something under her breath, to which Starlight responded with a quiet titter. Her lilting accent rose as she shifted to look at her companions briefly before returning to the clouds above them.

“What's everypony got planned for summer vacation?”

The ultimate question, the only question that mattered on such a perfect late-June day. It was met with silence, and much more thought than any of them had devoted to exams.

Moondancer broke the spell first. “My sister found me a spot interning for the Royal Archives. She needs help cataloguing and sorting some things from an archaeological dig near Somnambula.”

Lyra’s easy, rolling rhythm answered next. “Oh, Ma’s takin us down the coast, we’re gonna spend some time out in Trottin'ham.”

Starlight sighed, “Back home to Sire’s Hollow, same as every year. Sunburst will probably stay here for the Archives.”

Trixie rose up on her haunches, gesticulating wildly. “Sar laci and'ekh vadra! Titles and money, like crabs in a bucket! Mama is taking me on tour with her this year, to see all the sights of Equestria and meet all of the ponies. Do not despair, dear friends, for Trixie shall return in time for school with gifts! Things you've never imagined, from places you've never been and your chains do not reach- snowglobes from Whinnyapolis with real snow, glowstone bracelets from Somnambula, and…” She faltered uncharacteristically, her voice dropping to a pout. “... I'll think of something when we visit Los Pegasus. And letters from the road! You'll write as well, if you're not too busy with your buckets, little crabs.”

She dropped back down and shuffled an inch closer to Starlight. The other pony making halting attempts at the burbling language Trixie spoke with her mother, to quiet giggles and quieter responses.

Twilight’s heart stopped and her breath caught at a pressure on her hoof, looking down to see a cream-colored one settled over hers. She smiled crookedly and blushed a bit, shuffling closer to read the words as they flicked by.

“Well shoot, I ‘spect with the railhead jes’ put in out Tall Tale way we'll be headin’ out ta cut ribbon on the station, ‘n then probably camp out on the Range.”

Twilight cleared her throat and closed her eyes. “Normally, we spend four months visiting the settled zone near the Everfree Sparkle Estate. But Mom and Dad left for the shipyard in Fillydelphia about a week ago. When Shiny comes home from officer school we'll probably take the new Star Light for a cruise before heading out to the country. I hope the airship will be more fun than that creaky old house by the forest. Even if I do get airsick every time I set hoof on those blasted things.”

The six friends settled into quiet contemplation of the cloud shapes rolling overhead, not trotting out old quarrels or starting new ones. Hooves wordlessly sought contact, and six young hearts thrummed with the knowledge that nothing would ever change.

Cadance’s lilting Cavellian accent carried fairly impressively across the observation deck of the Tower of Art. The highest point in Canterlot, and well within the jurisdiction of Celestia’s School, it afforded anypony who made the climb the chance to see the entire city and Equestria unfurl beneath them like a map. Not that anyone in Canterlot ever cared, with their noses high enough to drown if it rained.

“Oh no, they're arguing.”

Sunset rolled her eyes and looked up from the pile of notes before her. It seemed like every new week brought new revisions to her carefully-crafted lesson plans, as Twilight proceeded to demolish every expectation set before her. She unfolded her legs from beneath herself and stretched, trotting to snag one of the telescopes arrayed around the fringe of the tower.

“They're always arguing. They're ten.” She swung the telescope down and across, fiddling with the focus to see what Cadance was watching. Her view of foals wasn't changed by Twilight, she merely found her the only filly in the world that wasn't inherently irritating. “Betty busted a ball. Again. I swear, that filly has zero restraint.”

Cadance glanced down and ran her hoof along the page of the book open before her, lips moving as she read.

“That’ll be a foul. Moondancer is a stickler for the rules.”

Sure enough, the argument ended with Betty resuming her position and a second ball lifting in Twilight’s telekinesis.

Both ponies jumped at the thunderous crack as hickory met cork, and groaned as it met a magic-hazed mitt reinforced by a pair of hooves, Trixie popping up from a roll and throwing herself to touch the base. There was a certain amount of crowing, before the lineup shifted and Starlight took the bat in her aura with a mildly self-conscious expression.

“You've got to admit, only they would be able to come up with a way for six ponies to play a game meant for eighteen.”

Cadance shook her head. “This baseball is so ‘ard to follow. I prefer hoofball.”

Sunset tugged over a sheet of paper and carefully marked it, squinting. The diagram filled up with pencil marks as the game progressed, keeping track of the notational runs, outs, and base hits made more complicated by the fillies constantly shuffling positions.

Before too long the game was over, and Sunset turned her attention back to the stack of books she'd brought along. Her attention was taken by a wordless squeal rising in pitch and rapid tapping on her shoulder.

“Tea’s ready.” She smirked, the keening sound Cadance made upon seeing something cute always reminding her of an angry kettle. She brought her eye back to the telescope and smiled despite the company. “Aw. Puppy love. I guess you're going to want to field that one?”

Cadance blushed and composed herself. “I appreciate you making an effort to realize that there are things only my talent can do for Twilight.”

Sunset made a face as she watched a purple ball present itself from the bag. No game in particular, the fillies just kicking it around.

“Yeah well… maybe the squirt’s got me thinking. Looking at myself, how I'm not much of a role model. How I'm…”

Cadance bit her lip and tucked her wings tight. “A bit of a bitch?”

Sunset gave her a Look, before the anger fizzled out of her like a rush of steam, leaving her hot and limp. “Yeah. Don't get me wrong, I still hate you for stepping into the life I always wanted and deserved without any effort but… You never deserved the way I treated you. How I'd pull feathers when you walked by or did things with magic to show you that you couldn't- or to make you afraid.”

Cadance smirked faintly and made a quiet pop noise. “My father always said that when you become a teenager that your head goes up your ass. He then said that one day you will hear a pop, and that will be it coming back out, and you will then be an adult.”

Sunset’s lips worked for several seconds, before she turned red and giggled helplessly. “I'm so telling Celestia that you said ‘ass’, Miss Priss.”

Cadance rolled her eyes. “Maybe part of the blame is mine. I should have spoken up, I should have stood up to you, I should have told Auntie that the way she treats you is unpony. She really does think of you as a daughter, you know… she just can't say it because she fears you will reject her.”

Sunset smiled a little self-consciously. "I know. She doesn't show it much, but I know."

She tapped Sunset on the nose gently with a forehoof. “But, it is okay. I no longer care how you act towards me. It is clear to me that despite five years of pissing and moaning you really care deeply for Twilight, as deeply as I do. That for the first time since I have met you, you love somepony other than yourself.”

They smiled at each other in the deepening twilight, before Sunset returned to her books and Cadance to the telescope as the sun dipped over the Eastern horizon.

“You're not so bad, Heartflanks, even if you are a filthy lifestealer.”

A tiny smirk. “And despite your constant bullying and self aggrandizing you are not such a bitch either. I only agreed to come here today because I know there's a good pony under there, she only needs someone willing to show her the way out.”

Cadance’s breath caught as she tilted the telescope up, brow furrowing.

“Ah, so that is the Star Light.”

Sunset lifted herself back up to peer through her own telescope. “She sure is beautiful, isn't she? I hope they didn't get ripped off.”

Cadance rested both hooves on the barrel of the telescope and squinted. “Truthfully, she is the first airship I have really looked at. Look there, on the left ah…” She made a circular motion with her hoof.

“Rotor? What am I looking at.”

“Is it supposed to do that?” She made a wiggling motion of her hoof.

Sunset cursed under her breath about stupid alicorn eyesight and squinted. “Ah. That's called cavitation, and no it isn't. The rotor is being pulled backwards by its own vacuum and that's making it wobble. A competent captain can smooth it out though, nothing to worry about.”

Both ponies gasped as flickering light raced along the nacelle.

“The engine’s caught fire.”

They watched helplessly as the rotor sheared free and blades the size of a windmill’s arms cut through the skin of the airship. The fire had engulfed the engine, and was spreading towards the envelope. A few other craft and a small flight of pegasi sprang from the docks on the lowermost part of the city, and both of them pleaded that they'd be enough, and in time.

They weren't. The bones of the ship were visible as the canvas burned away and she listed heavily to port and started sinking. She collapsed against the side of the mountain, as ponies fruitlessly tried to combat the blaze. The hydrogen escaping quickly turned it into an inferno that nopony could have escaped.

“No gliders. Nopony ditched the ship. They had to have known…”

Both ponies were frozen, still as statues. Cadance wept openly, sinking to the floor and burying her face into her hooves. She tried to ignore, to forget what she'd seen- two of Twilight’s bonds blackening and shriveling like burned rope.

Sunset stirred first, swallowing and rising to her hooves. “I… I…”

Cadance lifted her face and had to shield her eyes from how brightly Sunset’s shackles glowed in the sight of her talent. “Where are you going?”

“You wouldn't understand, miss Perfect Life. I have to tell Twilight that her fucking world just ended.”

Two Steps Forward, Four Steps Back

Chromatic Diminishment Syndrome:
Chromatic Diminishment Syndrome is the mechanism by which a pony loses her color and Vigor for life. Triggers can include Talent Mark Dissonance, in which a pony is unable to express that which makes her special, or by any event that causes a melancholic imbalance. Ponies who have lost loved ones and those with broken hearts are especially vulnerable.
Left untreated, her color will fade away entirely, and the Fire of Life in her breast will be extinguished.
Ponies afflicted with CDS require the presence of loved ones, encouragement to exercise their Talent, and gentle care. They may become unwilling or unable in their weakness to feed and groom themselves and may require assistance with daily tasks.

-Star Swirl The Bearded, Mage Meadowbrook's Magical Maladies

On final approach to Canterlot, the port rotor of the airship Star Light broke its shaft, resulting in the combustion of the ship. Rescue crews were unable to respond in time, driven back by flares of hydrogen and the heat at which the aluminum-doped envelope burned. A memorial service at which Celestia herself will be in attendance is planned for…

Early in the evening of 27 June, the lives of Dame Everfree Star Sparkle (45) and Sir Night Light (50) were lost when the airship Star Light burned.
They are survived by Twilight Sparkle (10), and Royal Guard Cadet Shining Armor (18).
Visiting hours at Sparkle Manor will be…

“Twilight, sweetheart, you need to eat.”

“Sparky, I brought the next volume of Principles of Sorcery.”

“Your friends are here, Ladybug.”

No matter what was said or tried, Twilight could hardly be shifted from her bedroom desk. It had amassed a drift of newspaper clippings, anything and everything relating to the deaths of her parents.

They could only watch as the formerly rambunctious, curious, and sweet-hearted foal first became snappy. As her coat darkened to a muddy gray. As the color gradually receded entirely from her.

Sunset rubbed her withers with an awkward smile, her jaw shifting slightly as dishwater-colored eyes slowly panned in her direction.

“Hey Sparky. Do… you remember my first real visit here, with your p-parents?”

Those eyes closed and opened again in loose approximation of a blink, as Twilight gradually lowered herself to the desk and idly ran a small hoof over a newsprint image of her parents.

Sunset smiled and tugged her close. Those eyes stared through her, deepening to violet for just a moment.

“Why do you hate Cadance.”

Sunset closed her eyes and winced. Her ears fell flat, and she drew back to arrange herself Buffalo-style on the filly’s bed.

“I don't hate Cadance. Not personally.” She rotated her hooves around one another. “This whole… loving family, supportive parents, older siblings thing- I never had that. I grew up in an orphanage on the Mountward side of Canterlot, practically on the terraces. Everything I had was fought for, claimed, and protected.

“When it came time for me to enter Celestia’s school proper when I was about your age, I had an entrance exam not unlike yours…”

“... Our magics intermingled. I drew on the only thing I could think of, solar-magic. Philomena is a being of pure life-fire.”

She gestured to the mark on her flank.

“After that I was officially part of Celestia’s School, and the mare herself asked me to move onto campus so she could teach me. I think… both of us eventually wanted a relationship that we couldn't have.”

She sighed.

“The only time she had time, she paid attention, and cherished me like a mother should was when I not only succeeded but excelled. I had to hatch a phoenix every day. And then… here comes this little mare with the wings I deserve, who Celestia instantly named her family, who got the attention I craved and was constantly denied.”

Twilight shuffled a little closer and pressed her snout into Sunset’s barrel.

“You're a Princess to me.”

It was hours later when it was Cadance’s turn to be blindsided by a question. Twilight had been coaxed away from her newspapers to stare at a book long enough to call forth a few fitful sparks. A meal had been picked at long enough for the filly to claim she wasn't hungry.

Sunset had left sometime during the meal, citing a meeting with Celestia’s secretary Raven Inkwell. Twilight watched her trot down the walk leading up to Sparkle Manor with unseeing eyes before being ushered upstairs for a bath.

Cadance was just reaching for the showerhead to rinse Twilight’s mane when the filly spoke up.

“How did you get your wings?”

Cadance’s laughter was often likened to the tinkling of crystal bells, her voice like sweet honey on warm bread. The soft lilt of her accented speech had brought Twilight many nights of restful sleep.

“Oh Ladybug… I was born with them.”

She waved her hooves vaguely.

“My title is just… politics. If I'd stayed in Cavellia, they would probably have declared me Princess there and broken away from Equestria. When I got my horn, I had to come here and be an Equestrian Princess. And I had to learn… Princess stuff.”

Twilight spoke as if words were worth gold and she were a miser counting pennies. As if every sibilant was a razorblade across her tongue, every plosive barbed wire in her mouth, every glottal acid in her throat.

“Horn then.”

Cadance sighed as she methodically brushed a hoof over Twilight's skull, rinsing her mane with the showerhead held in her teeth. She turned the water off with a free hoof.

“Nopony knows from where I actually come, but I was found in a little village called Chonamare, on the coast of Cavelia. There's a small cloud district to the north, but I didn't belong to any of the pegasi that lived there. But there were also frequently free-range pegasi who lived in the wild places, so not much thought was put towards it.

“This was how I found my way to Calm Presence and Caring Heart, who ran a home for the unwanted. I was raised as if I were a Earth pony with wings. I made myself useful. I learned to patch nets, I learned to cook, I looked after the younger foals and kept them out of trouble.”

Twilight arched a brow with the careful slowness of a major tectonic shift. Cadance had the decency to blush.

“I know. Sunset would say ‘get to the point’, but starting from the beginning is the way of Cavellian stories.”

She took a deep breath.

“When I was ten, new ponies moved into the cottage at the edge of the village. Crystal List and her mother Prismia. Crystal was a pegasus just like me, and her mother was a witch.”

Cadance’s head bowed, her mane hiding her face as she blew a soft chuff.

“I thought Crystal would be my friend. I was wrong. She was… wrong. But not as bad as Prismia. Even as a filly I could see them, the ties that bind one heart to another. I could see… everything Prismia touched tarnished. Her heart was black, with no love in it.”

Cadance clapped her hooves together as she thought.

“Prismia had an amulet, a scarab, that she always wore. She called it a good luck charm. I could tell it was evil. I confronted her, all ten years and three feet of me. She laughed and… I snapped. I called her every mean name I knew, which wasn't many and-

“I felt it stirring, like when my wings wanted to flare. I looked inside myself and saw the threads as I'd never seen them. A thousand hearts beating as one. I begged them, love. Pity Prismia, for she had no love in her heart, and was unloved. Remember the things she'd done and love them. How she'd set the milliner’s leg so it would heal true, how she'd saved the life of a filly who'd caught the fever.

“Where the binds lay on her she writhed as if they were hot iron. She screamed and balked and- Crystal List disappeared. Her scarab exploded, and I fell… somewhere, filled with stars. Celestia appeared and said that I had accomplished a great feat, worthy of being endowed as a Princess.”

She tapped her horn with a hoof.

“And that's how I got my horn- and my cutie mark.”

Twilight sunk down an inch or so, until only her nose and eyes were visible above the waterline.

Hidden recesses of her mind clicked into position for the first time in a month as she parsed through the story. She smiled softly.

“Power of love? Sappy.”

Cadance let out a small snort and splashed her playfully, before dipping her head under to pull the plug.

“I know. Let's dry off and see if Sunset has a better story?”

No sooner had the filly been carefully dried and brushed than Sunset burst through the door. She glanced at the clock and smiled vaguely as if she'd been slapped on the forehead with a hammer.

“How do you feel about a trip to the palace, Squirt?”

Twilight arched a brow faintly but allowed herself to be scooped up in a turquoise haze, and deposited on Sunset’s shoulders.

“You can come too, Cadance. We're going to see an expert in Twilight’s little issue.”

The march across town didn't take very long at all, and Sunset ignored any questions posed to her. To mild confusion she diverted at the doors leading to the audience hall and instead slipped through the gate of the Royal Gardens. She wiggled herself under a covering bush and waited, waving a hoof to the others to be silent.

Their spot was directly underneath the balcony of Celestia’s tower. They watched as the pony herself stepped out onto the marble, and bowed her head towards the horizon.

For a long minute, nothing happened, until Celestia cast her head and dropped her peytral and set her crown down as well. Her horn lit brilliant gold, and the sun sank to touch the ground.

The ambient noise in the gardens fell, as if the world were drawing breath to fall into a hush. Flowers opened around them, in that magical moment between sunset and twilight, and Celestia stood before the world. She looked nothing like a princess so much as a filly nervous before a recital.

The stone walls of the gardens carried her strong voice well, until the greenery echoed with it and the air seemed to hum in counterpart. Pale flowers opened, surrounding them with the scent of lavender and a sort of mournful music as the Lyric Lavender reached for Moon.

”Fate has been cruel, and order unkind…
How could I have sent you away?
The blame was my own; the punishment, yours.
The harmony's silent today...

But into the stillness I'll bring you a song-
And I will your company keep...
Till your tired eyes and my lullabies,
Have carried you softly to sleep…”

Celestia had a fine voice, proud and regal and mournful. She sang about loss and loneliness and guilt and regret, her words resonating in the twilight. Of the few that heard, there were none untouched.

The song lasted until the sun had fully set and the moon had risen, and Celestia stood speared by the accusing glare of the Mare in the Moon. As the song receded into silence, she gathered her symbols of office and adorned herself. No longer a lonely filly crying for a lost sister, she had again become the marble Princess the rest of Equestria knew.

“She misses her sister.”

Even as she spoke them, the words hit Twilight. Her coat darkened imperceptibly, tending more towards her normal lavender than her current gray-white.

Sunset scrubbed her face with the back of her hoof and stared at the moon as if seeking guidance in its light.

“Every day for the past thousand years, Squirt. And every night she sings, and asks a mare who can't answer her to forgive her that she's not the one locked in the moon. If she can carry on under that, then we can carry on as well.”

She smiled down at Twilight, and was met with the tiniest lifting of the corner of the filly’s mouth in return.

Cadance had been ten minutes gone with Twilight when Celestia landed on the turf with a soft whicker of wings. Sunset glanced upward and tapped a packet of paperwork.

“You knew, didn't you.”

Celestia laughed quietly, and nestled down across from the smaller mare. It had taken years for Sunset to master Celestia’s body language, but now she was broadcasting that she'd rather be beside her, that the gulf between them didn't exist.

“I always know when I have an audience, my gifted student.”

Sunset shook her head.

“No, about this. You knew. About the endowments that let Trixie attend your school despite her mother being a travelling magician. Why that exists. That Star Sparkle had named me guideparent, that Twilight was going to inherit the title and I was to act as regent until she was of age.”

Begrudgingly, she adjusted the collar of her jacket and shuffled over slightly, until their sides touched. Sunset scuffed a hoof.

“We're trying. I don't… I can't raise a foal, and I'd never ask Cadance for her to put her life aside. Just once I want to be the pony you think I am.”

Celestia smiled softly, and tilted her head down. Their cheeks brushed once, the nuzzle meant for family.

“You never cease to amaze me, my glimmering sunset. You're gifted and you are strong, I'm sure your talents are up to the task.”

They stayed there a while, watching the moon.

Cadance had just tucked Twilight into bed, and had cracked a weathered tome of bedtime stories when the door opened. Twilight’s eyes widened, and her coat flushed full purple before her eyes.

“Shiny!”

Sometimes Birthdays, Sometimes Hearth's Warming

By the time Sunset arrived at Sparkle Manor, the Moon had well risen and the streets were dark. She shouldered through the front door, which always stuck a little bit. She smiled as her hooves followed the sound of voices.

When she pushed the door to the sitting room open, she was struck by the thought that the scene before her wouldn't look out of place in a Normal Rockhoof painting. She was shocked when she put voice to face.

“Shining! When did you get back?”

The doofy colt before her mock-saluted with a grin. No, not a colt anymore. They were only five or so years apart, but Sunset had been twenty going on fifty when they'd met. Five short years had turned the skinny, leggy dork into a real stallion, and a slightly larger dork.

“Just this evening. I think I got in while you were all away. Month long furlough for… bereavement.”

Sunset nodded, staring at the floor. They were all three of them gathered near the hearth where a merry blaze crackled in the grate. This high up, winter never really left- during the daytime summer heat it skulked in shadows and crept back out when the sun set. She smiled and rested a foreleg over Twilight, taking in her mulberry coat.

“If I'd known snapping you out of that funk would be that easy, I would have asked Celestia to bring Shiny home early.”

Those amethyst eyes looked up at her, and the corners of her mouth tilted up. Sunset could see the warmth returning, that small spark of life burning brighter- but the filly’s eyes were still hard and edged, glittering with the reflection of life rather than glowing with it.

“I have something you all need to hear.” She dug through her saddlebag for the packet of paperwork.

“You're secretly a stallion.” Shining, the dork.

“Celestia is sending you on a mission to hunt down the terrible Snapper Snipe?” Shining’s grief had been expected. She suspected Cadance of falling prey to his worse nature.

“You're going to shave off all your hair and live as a dragon named Sparks?” Sunset’s jaw dropped at Twilight actually getting a dig in. She almost teared up at the tinkling laugh she hadn't heard in a month.

She chuckled despite herself and reached out, tucking a foreleg over the filly’s withers. She drew her into her barrel and rested her chin atop her skull, taking a deep breath.

“Well, Spike isn't setting everything on fire anymore so he's going to be coming home. The second thing is…” She took a breath, and her voice hitched slightly. “I went to see Miss Inkwell today, about the will. And… I've been named your guideparent, Twilight.”

The filly’s eyes widened. She hadn't considered in her grief who might care for her- but the choice was obvious. Shining Armor was a guard cadet and spent large periods of time in the Everfree Forest, the Frozen North, the Untamed West; hardening his body and learning to lead ponies. Cadance had her princess-training to consider, and generally didn't have the time to care for a child full-time.

Sunset, however… As far as Twilight knew, the older mare had no friends and no family aside from Celestia. Her schooling had only prepared her to be a professor, or an archmage- and the second hadn't been seen in Equestria for five hundred years. She was soulbound to a phoenix, a creature that lived forever, making her a mare who would never leave her.

Sunset withdrew slightly, and ground her forehooves in small circles, one against the other.

“Do you remember, Twilight? The first Hearth’s Warming that I came here? You were so small…”

Sunset Shimmer stood before the doors leading into Sparkle Manor. Almost unconsciously she adjusted her scarf and jacket, turning the collar up against the chill. A deep breath steamed from her as she reached up to tap the knocker.

After several moments there was a commotion on the other side of the door, and it sprang open to reveal her student, staring wide-eyed up at her with that intense gaze of hers before slamming facefirst into her barrel.

“Sunset!” The mare slid a little bit and allowed herself to be tugged by the tiny filly’s telekinetic aura. Twilight grew stronger every day, she noted with a quiet pride.

The inside of the house had been completely transformed from Sunset’s last visit, garlands and tinsel strewn almost haphazardly everywhere. A fire crackled in the hearth, the rest of the family gathering close under the lights wrapping the massive tree in one corner.

Twilight took her coat and scarf and hung them to dry, and Night Light gave her a mug of steaming mulled cider as Star dashed upstairs.

She returned and proudly offered her a wrapped package, that proved to contain the ugliest sweater Sunset had ever seen. A quick glance around, and she noticed everyone else watching her wearing similar sweaters.

Hoof-knitted, with a great deal of love and enthusiasm and only a modicum of talent. She begrudgingly dragged it on and settled down on a cushion, with Twilight immediately welding herself to her side.

Once everyone was situated and comfortable, Star Sparkle cracked open a battered hardcover copy of A Hearth’s Warming Tail, and began to read.

Sunset had of course read it before, and had listened to Celestia talk about her personal friend the real Snowfall Frost and how she came to value other ponies. But it was a little different then from now, starting on a new path and staring down the barrel of her past. You could change “Snowfall Frost” to “Sunset Shimmer” and never skip a beat.

“Your parents accepted me at face value. I never… had a family before, Twilight. It was the beginning of understanding a lot of things, like why you all wore and pretended to like those awful sweaters. Because Star made them, and wearing them made her happy.”

Twilight slowly nodded, and squeezed Sunset’s hoof in her own. She smiled softly.

“‘member… your last birthday?”

Sunset smiled. “When you broke into my tower and everyone surprised me?”

Twilight nodded.

Sunset gently stroked her mane. “Of course I do. You made the cake yourself. Best damn cake I've ever eaten…”

They talked late into the night, until Twilight was falling asleep on Sunset’s shoulder. She tucked the filly underneath her and let her conk out.

“There's something else I need to talk to you guys about, now that Twilight is asleep.” She paused, and checked for the tell-tale signs of a filly pretending.

“In the… will, there was some interesting things. Did you know that your parents were paying Trixie’s tuition?”

Cadance furrowed her brow, and Shining blinked.

“I did some more digging. Turns out… Felicity Lulamoon, Trixie’s mom, worked at the observatory with Night Light. And left for an undisclosed reason the year Twilight was born. Trixie’s birth was registered about eight months after she left, on Nightmare Night of that year. It's all in legalese but Raven helped me parse it. Trixie is your half-sister, Shining.”

She took a deep breath.

“With you being a stallion, and military personnel on top of it, you're ineligible to inherit. Twilight is too young, so as the guideparent it falls to me to determine the disposition of your parents’ estate. Raven suggested that I stop the tuition payments and the financial support that Felicity draws, to preserve the estate and because she has no legal claim to either. I have a lot of decisions to make, and… I need you guy's support behind whatever I decide, and your advice. I'm… I started out as an orphan, grew up a scholar, and now I'm a glorified nanny. I don't understand this thoroughbred crap.”

Shining and Cadance linked hooves, and the room fell to silence. After a few moments, Shining spoke up while keeping his eyes on the floor.

“Whatever you decide, obviously we're behind you one hundred percent. I trust you to do right by Twilight. If Trixie really is our sister, then we should do the right thing by her as well.”

Cadance smiled suddenly. “We can do both. I'll send Lord Pants a message to meet tomorrow if he can. You'll be filling the Sparkles’ Parliament seats until Twilight is of age. Fancy was one of their closest friends and allies, behind closed doors at least. They'd start huge rows and the others would shuffle allegiance to either side- with what they wanted to achieve between them. I trust you too, Sunset. I think we can do a lot of good, in honor of the Sparkles’ memory.”

They hashed out a brief battle plan to bring to Fancy Pants the next day. Twilight would likely wish to move fulltime to Sunset’s tower, leaving the Manor and the estate near the Everfree unused. Both were large enough to support a small staff, and Fancy would likely agree to converting both into group homes to catch the runoff from the already overcrowded Canterlot orphanges towards the mountain.

They also agreed that the support for Felicity and Trixie should continue- apparently Felicity and Star had been good friends despite the infidelity. Her tuition costs would be moved to a scholarship they planned to propose. The School for Gifted Unicorns should be for the gifted, not just the wealthy.

Sunset climbed the stairs with a heart lightened by love and the promise of good works. She slipped into bed with Twilight and nestled the filly against her barrel, kissing her forehead.

“Goodnight, my little starshine.”

Author's Notes:

terribly sorry for the delay

Turn Back The Clock

As Sunset adjusted the bodice of Twilight's tasteful gown, she reflected on the length of her own life.

Her low birth, crawling out of the orphanage, ascending to the top of the School for Gifted Unicorns. Earning a spot under Celestia’s private tutelage. Having Twilight enter her life at her lowest moment, when she otherwise might have thrown herself from the mountain city.

She closed her eyes and allowed images to flicker across her mind. Endless days of waking up with Twilight at her door or in her bed. Breakfast. The walks to school. Waiting, writing lessons. Walking home.

She tried to think of when she'd started to think of Twilight as more than a receptacle into which to dump knowledge. When her regard had transformed from the basic pony instinct of being nice to foals to some sort of affection.

Probably… Twilight’s sixth birthday.

The gate swung open, Sunset’s hooves crunching on the raked gravel walk leading up to the doors of Sparkle Manor. A small smile crossed her face. She diverted from her path towards a small pavilion that had been erected on the smooth lawn.

A few of Twilight’s classmates were in attendance; in those early days this just meant that Twilight was flanked on one side by a book held in a telekinetic aura and on the other by the perpetual grin of Betty.

She could almost imagine the minutes and seconds preceding her arrival. Cadance would have been gently implying that Sunset might not show. Twilight would have been adamant that the rituals of cake-cutting and presents would not begin until Sunset came.

As she approached, there it was. One expression of mild shock from Cadance, and a quiet stare from Twilight.

That intense expression slowly changed. A smile, as sweet and honest as the rise of the Sun crossed her face, showing the gap in the center where her front teeth were missing. She rose from her seat and dashed across the lawn to throw herself against her mentor.

She was wreathed in a simple pale-cream birthday dress, her mane pigtailed and tied in peach bows that waved in the slight Canterlot breeze.

“Sunset, you came.”

Zero surprise. Not a question, just a simple fillyish statement of fact. That was it, the moment. Sunset felt it like a punch in the gut.

One foreleg wrapped over Twilight’s withers, and she reveled in the noon sparkling in the filly’s bright eyes. She looked up. Cadance was ridiculously dolled up, Betty wore a dress that wouldn't look out of place on the wild frontier in a saloon, Moondancer was wearing a slightly nicer than usual turtleneck.

Star Sparkle and Night Light in fancier clothes than the rest, worn with a sort of scoffing ironicism. They were better than her, but didn't think they were. In their eyes she was already accepted, as Twilight’s mentor. They all trusted her with Twilight’s growth and wellbeing.

Sunset felt something stir in her breast she'd only had faint inklings of in Celestia’s presence, when the Princess Mask cracked. She was right where she belonged, and all was right with the world.

Surrounded by her favorite ponies, the party commenced. Moondancer brought her a book (surprise), Betty brought some trinket; beaten-silver and turquoise from the Buffalo.

Sunset had brought the most well-loved gift. An ornate box purchased at some expense. It had been the work of several months enduring filly-eyes and entreaties as to purpose, of stolen moments in research and manufacture.

When the lid opened, a reel of punch-paper turned on its spindles. As smoothly as Sunset could manage, a clockwork ballerina spun and cavorted, and the box emitted a song. Twilight became entranced, studying the device and conquering her instinct to dismantle it and find out how it worked.

A small piece of magic for a foal who bent the universe around her horn on a daily basis.

Those lines inspired a torrent of other memories.

Twilight had noticed her coat darkening along her hindlegs and her haunches, her pelt beginning to dapple. She'd been incredibly embarrassed about it and had desired the unthinkable for about three seconds; skipping school as the students were having photographs taken that day.

Five summers, watching Twilight approach a paired headstone. Together they peeled back the overgrowth from the epitaph; “As he watched the twilight sparkle, he knew this was meant to be, and everything would work out.”

These last few years, watching her stumble. Helplessly trying to prevent her from walking too closely in her own hoofsteps.

She tried to think of when Twilight’s attention turned inwards, her world shrinking to Cadance, Spike, Shining, Sunset. When she'd begun researching the mythology marking the early Celestial Era.

Now before her stood a moody teenager. Despite the best efforts of all, she'd foregone the company of other ponies. She'd begun to become cold. Sunset couldn't help but see parallels everywhere she looked.

Twilight giving up on friendship. Twilight becoming obsessed with the Elements. Her growing sense of duty.

Her first words to Sunset, in Canterlot the night before their trip had begun, had been “And the Stars shall aid in Her escape.”

The myth of the Sisters was true, if embellished. Twilight and Sunset were among the few who knew Luna’s real name. That the Elements had been used but were now dead.

She swore that Twilight was only currently doing her duty as Duchess Everfree in receiving Celestia because time and place. Close to the old Castle, on the thousandth anniversary, the longest night.

The ancestral home of the Sparkle Estate had long been converted into an orphanage, culling the unfortunate from across the settled zone. The vast wealth of the Canterlot Elite, prodded into action by Sunset and Fancy Pants, ensured the foals were well cared for and educated.

This however had left the small party at loose ends. The town was small enough that it didn't boast much for lodging, and the inn and all available space was devoted to revelers streaming in for Summer Sun. Neither Twilight nor Sunset wished to turn anypony out of their bed.

The town’s library was a technical part of the Sparkle holdings, and boasted an empty apartment in the upper floors. Spike, always happy to lend a claw, had devoted himself to making the space livable as the mares had retreated to the task of dressing Twilight.

“You're supposed to meet with the matriarch of the Apple Family- they're handling the catering for the event-, ensure the weather fits the schedule, and visit the mare who will be running the music. After that I suppose there will be the traditional night-party, and it'll wrap up Sunrise tomorrow. We'll be back in Canterlot tomorrow evening.”

Twilight was barely paying attention, staring out the window.

“If the Sun even rises tomorrow. It's Longest Night, Mom. She's coming tonight, I know it.”

Sunset took a small breath, trying to recollect when Twilight had started calling her mother. She'd changed and grown a lot in the last five years, but she had made her peace with the deaths of her parents quickly. Probably around the time she'd shorn off the mourner’s shag after the traditional year and a day.

She suppressed the impulse to curse, and her expression slid into the Mother Mask.

“Yes Twilight, I know. I've heard it every day for the last year. Before that it was Discord, before that it was Sombra. Now get going, and take Spike with you.”

She pecked Twilight on the cheek and pushed her to the door.

“But my research!”

“Will keep. Make me proud. Make some friends, starshine.”

Author's Notes:

Shoutout to my homegirl, Krickis.
Love ya dearly and oh so very queerly.

If You Wish For Peace

Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria…

My dear Twilight, there is more to a young pony's life than studying, so I'm sending you to supervise the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration in this year's location: Ponyville. And, I have an even more essential task for you to complete: make some friends!

As the door snapped shut almost on her tail, Twilight’s shoulders slumped grouchily. Spike beamed and gently patted his sister’s shoulder as he climbed onto her back, a checklist unfurled in his talons.

“Look on the bright side, Twilight. The Princess arranged for us to stay in a library. Doesn't that make you happy?”

Twilight took a deep breath to compose herself, straightening her back out as she rose to her hooves. She tilted her chin up carefully as if attempting to carry a stack of books atop her head. It was important to keep one’s snout lifted just enough to broadcast proud nobility, but not so high as to imply one was snooty. One of the many lessons impressed upon her by Celestia and Sunset in how to carry the burden of the Duchess Everfree title.

“Yes, yes it does. You know why? Because I'm right! I'll check on the preparations as fast as I can, then get back to the library to find some proof of Nightmare Moon's return.”

Spike shifted his weight slightly, careful not to wrinkle or tear Twilight’s dress with his claws. He tilted his head quizzically as he examined the itinerary.

“Then... when will you make friends, like the Princess and Sunset said?”

Twilight scoffed and rolled her eyes as she started off, her unshod hooves clicking pleasantly off the cobbles of the sparsely populated town square. “She said to check on preparations. I'll do my duty as Duchess of this settled zone, but the fate of Equestria does not rest on me making friends.”

Spike rubbed his face, before pointing to a pink pony that was merrily skipping towards them. Twilight noticed that she wasn’t merely hopping; there was a short flicker of magic when her hooves struck the ground, the cobbles sinking slightly and rebounding upwards on every hop. She was riding this effect, turning the stones where she would land into a springboard to assist her next skip.

“Maybe the ponies in Ponyville have interesting things to talk about. Come on, Twilight, just try!”

Twilight rolled her eyes again and stopped a polite distance from the approaching pony, who halted her skipping and was staring at her curiously. She cleared her throat and held out a hoof in greeting. “Um... hello?”

To the uninitiated, Pinkie Pie was a simple pony. A simple mind, with simple pleasures and simple thoughts. But beneath the veil of boundless energy and spirited enthusiasm lurked secrets.

The biggest secret was that she was frightfully intelligent. Nickerlite didn't have a schoolhouse as the only things a pony that lived there had to know could be taught by parents. The old stories, piety for the Mothers and veneration of the Solar Princess. How to cut and quarry stone, how to seek and find gems. How to properly care for a pearl-like Stone Seed and grow it into beautiful crystals.

Pinkie had the luxury of her Granny's shelf. Growing up it had seemed like the sum of all knowledge in Equestria was stored there.

Surprise Pie had been a Wonderbolt in her previous life, but had settled on the ground when her daughter married into the Plain Pony community. She found Igneous Rock perfectly courteous beneath his stolid exterior and felt him a perfect match for her only daughter. In the ways of Plain Ponies his family holdings had become Cloudy Quartz's upon their marriage, and Surprise had been expected to become the matriarch of the family.

Then had come foals, and Surprise had bent her wings to the task of grandmothering.

A dictionary, an atlas, a weather-beaten almanac. Books on mathematics, compendiums of myths and legends.

When Surprise passed away, much fulfilled in her grandchildren and with a wealth of experience behind her Pinkie had declared her intention to travel for Roamspringa. Friends of her mother's from the life before Nickerlite had settled in the nearby Equestrian town of Ponyville, and so there she went.

The first night she’d wept horribly. The second day she decided that since the Cakes were so kind as to board her and help her learn the confusing manners of Equestrians that she would learn their trade.

The third morning the Cakes had risen to find the morning chores already completed. Words she hadn't understood had gone over her head, and she'd looked them up in her dictionary later that night. They'd called her Prodigy. Autodidact. She was confused; she had simply followed the very easy instructions in the books stored in the kitchen.

They explained to her that she wasn't allowed to work for them, as she was too young. She'd countered that she'd done her share of breaking rocks before her Roam. Still, she respected the command of her guardians. So it was that she was pushed into Ponyville's schoolhouse.

She ended up being in something of an interval class, between the old marm retiring and Miss Cheerilee taking her place. She'd learned more and even more quickly than before, and when Cheerilee began to encourage the class to interact with one another more often she began to come out of her shell. She’d even befriended an earth pony who lived on the big farm on Ponyville’s outskirts, and a unicorn filly with a cute Whinnyapolis accent.

Now five years later, she’d been pushed gently out of the bakery. The Cakes had desired to get her out from underhoof while they prepared for the big Summer Sun Celebration and suggested she spend the day at the park, or her favorite place in all of Ponyville. The library.

As she approached the living tree, the door opened and a mare about her age was pushed out. A baby dragon followed, and they began to have a conversation as the other mare started walking in her direction.

Her first thought was to notice where makeup had been employed to cover dappling. Her second thought was that the other young mare was cute. Her third thought was of a portrait she'd seen in the front hallway of the Sparkle Home when she'd walked a pegasus filly there from school.

All of these occurred more or less simultaneously, and triggered a runaway thought train.

From Twilight’s perspective, Pinkie stood and stared blithely for maybe a tenth of a second before gasp-squealing and sprinting off.

Inside Pinkie's head however, information clashed together and a plot sprouted.

Twilight Sparkle, Duchess Everfree. She doesn't visit often, we should arrange a warm Ponyville welcome and invite as many ponies will come to meet her! If I throw a super fun party then maybe she'll want to stay. She seems so sad and lonely…

She raced off. I've got to get the girls together to stall her so I can prepare her surprise party.

Twilight cleared her throat awkwardly and blinked. “Well, that was interesting all right.”
Spike shook his head and snickered, patting Twilight’s cheek. He unfurled the itinerary and glanced over the contents. “Summer Sun Celebration official overseer's checklist. Number one, banquet preparations: Sweet Apple Acres. Oh, they drew us a map. Looks like it should only be fifteen minutes or so from the village center.”

True to his word, it did only take about fifteen minutes for Twilight to canter to the edge of town. Unfortunately, the Acres stretched on out of sight. “Okay, how are we going to find anypony here?”

Spike snickered and tapped the back of her head, pointing. She tracked the direction of his claw, and watched an orange Earth mare rear up onto her forehooves and balance for a second, before powerful hindlegs snapped into the bole of a tree. A brief flicker of magic at the point of contact spread across the tree and caused it to shudder, shaking its load of apples from the branches to land into carefully placed bushel baskets.

Twilight sighed as she broke into a trot. Her eyes widened and she let out a soft sound of wordless pleasure at the sensation of the good earth beneath her hooves. This land was well-cared for, and well-loved, and this was reflected in the way it happily accepted her presence. “Let's get this over with... Good afternoon. My name is Twilight Sparkle…”

The orange pony gasped softly and raced over. Grasping Twilight’s hoof in both of her own and shaking it so vigorously that Twilight felt like she was about to pop it clean from her shoulder.
“Well, howdy-doo, Miss Twilight, a pleasure makin' your acquaintance. I'm Applejack. We here at Sweet Apple Acres sure do like makin' new friends!”

Twilight tried to regain her balance after she’d been so thoroughly shaken, and get a word in edgewise into the midst of the rapid drawl assaulting her. “Friends? Actually, I—”

Spike stifled a snicker behind a claw as Applejack cut over her. “So, what can I do you for?”

Twilight cleared her throat and tried to set herself into order. “Well, I am in fact here to supervise preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration, as Duchess Everfree. And you're in charge of the food?”

Applejack tilted her worn brown Stetson back on her blonde mane. The hat and her sweet drawl, and the smile that crept across her face as honest as the breaking dawn reminded her of her childhood friend Betty. Twilight decided that despite their introduction she could like this mare. “We sure as sugar are! Would you care to sample some?”

Twilight smiled despite herself and rubbed the back of her head with a hoof. “Well… as long as it doesn’t take too long.”

Quick as a blink, Applejack rushed to the farmhouse and shouted from the porch. Her voice echoed and rolled across the verdant fields and tree-studded hills of the Acres, the land carrying her words farther than they should have reached. ”Soup’s on, everypony! Hurrup, we’ve got guests!”

Twilight squeaked in surprise as one of the biggest stallions she’d ever seen lifted her off the ground and sat her in a chair. The clearing rapidly filled with ponies, and just as rapidly a trestle table was set up and covered with a tablecloth, before an assortment of dishes were piled up.

Applejack beamed sunnily and sat next to her. “Now, why don't I introduce y'all to the Apple family?”

Twilight vaguely recognized that she’d been sat on one end of the table, directly across from a seat that seemed reserved. Her lessons in decorum had taught her that when two important ponies were present for a meal they would be placed at opposite ends, with the most important members of their retinue lined up on the right and left hooves. “Thanks, but I really need to hurry…”

Applejack waved her off and began rapid-fire pointing out the ponies setting up dishes and cutlery as they filled the seats around the table. “This here's Apple Fritter. Apple Bumpkin. Red Gala. Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Caramel Apple, Apple Strudel, Apple Tart, Baked Apples, Apple Brioche, Apple Cinnamon Crisp…”

The huge stallion from earlier sat at the other end of the table on the right-hoof side. “Big McIntosh…” A small yellow filly took the seat on the other side, waving cheerfully to her and Spike. “Applebloom, aaaaand… Granny Smith. Up'n'attem, Granny Smith, we got guests.”

The oldest mare Twilight had ever seen shook herself awake from where she’d been napping in a rocking chair on the porch. She popped her neck and grumbled to herself as she puttered towards the other end of the table. “Wha..? Soup's on? I'm up, here I come, ahm comin'...”

The wizened green mare settled into her seat with the air of royalty taking up her throne. Her eyes slowly opened and stared in the direction of Twilight and Spike, before glancing myopically towards Applejack.

“What’s your name again? Speak up, child. Blast my eyes if’n y’all don’t look familiar.”

Twilight scuffed a hoof on the cushion of her seat. “T-Twilight Sparkle, ma’am. Duchess Everfree of House Sparkle.”

A small spark of recognition flared in the older mare’s eyes. “Shoot, AJ, these ain’t guests. These is family. Young Twi here owns all the land in these here parts, and the big house up over yonder.”

Twilight nodded shyly. Her entire life had been marked by ponies either snorting derisively or trying to suck up to her based on the relative positions of their families in the hierarchy of Canterlot. She managed to mumble out “Yes’m…”

She tapped her hooves together awkwardly, glancing around and edging her chair backward and preparing to rise from her seat. She could feel the eyes of the gathered ponies, her nominal tenants, pinning her in place. “W-Well, I can see the food situation is handled, so we'll be on our way…”

Applebloom’s eyes grew watery and she leaned forward, pouting. “Aren't you gonna stay for brunch?”

Twilight felt a part of her die. “Sorry, but we have an awful lot to do…”

The collective ponies sighed and slumped slightly, and she felt even worse. They weren’t trying to entertain her out of responsibility or duty, but because she was considered a part of their family. Granny Smith’s eyes narrowed, and she leaned over her plate. “Child, it has been nigh onto five years since a Sparkle sat down at my table.”

She smiled softly. “Y’all look just like yer ma. I knew her when she was your age too, sitting in that same chair all stiff an’ proper like. I hope y’all an my AJ can grow as close as she an’ our Bright Mac did.”

Twilight’s eyes widened a little bit, and she blinked back a tear. Even five years later the loss of her parents still haunted her, and her eagerness to get on with the itinerary was quickly overshadowed by her desire to hear about her mother from this mare. She felt a sense of belonging here that she’d only felt in the presence of her birth parents, or in quiet study watched over by Sunset. “I’ll stay.”

The Acres shook with the cheers of the gathered ponies. Hooves were linked together, and Applejack cleared her throat. “Twi, would you like to say grace?”

Twilight’s voice cracked slightly. “I-I would.”

Prepare For War

All in all the meal ate up about an hour and a half. By the end of it Twilight was uncomfortably full and sleepy, her hooves dragging slightly with each step. Spike hadn’t ridden on her back on the way back into town, which slowed them even further.

“Food's all taken care of, next is weather.”

Twilight winced and stifled a burp, pausing to rub her stomach. “Ugh... I ate too much pie…”

Spike glanced over the itinerary sheet a little closer, squinting. “Hmm, there's supposed to be a Pegasus pony named Rainbow Dash clearing the clouds. Forecast is for clear skies all the way until Sunrise tomorrow, and then a light sprinkle.”

Twilight’s full belly was making her a little grouchy. She glanced upward at the clouds dotting the sky around them and raised an eyebrow. “Well, she's not doing a very good job, is she?”

Spike suddenly hopped back and waved at her, about half a second before a blue blur bodily slammed her into a mud puddle.

The pony rose to her hooves and shook herself off, chuckling sheepishly. “Uh… Excuse me…”

Twilight slowly rolled onto her hooves and struggled to rise. Whelp, not full anymore. Ew.

The pegasus laughed softly and reached out, pulling her onto her hooves. “Lemme help you.”

She tapped her chin thoughtfully for a few seconds, before taking off and sprinting into the sky. She returned within seconds dragging a cloud pregnant with rain, positioning it directly over Twilight, who managed to just barely begin to shape the words ‘don’t you dare’ before she kicked the cloud and the water rushed out to sluice the mud from her coat.

The rainbow-maned pegasus landed next to her, chuckling to herself as she took in Twilight looking like a drowned rat. “Oops, I guess I overdid it. Um, uh, how about this? My very own patented Rain-Blow Dry!”
As she chattered, she took to wing again and soared tight circles around Twilight, wind whipping in a cyclone and practically tearing the water off her body. As well as shredding her dress, and tousling her mane in all directions. The mare landed and rested a hoof against her chest, puffing up proudly. “No no. Don't thank me. You're quite welcome.”

She finally settled on the ground, fidgeting with signature pegasus nervous energy. When rose-colored eyes opened and took in the ragged mess of Twilight's mane and the dress hanging in tatters, the prismatic suddenly burst out into raucous cackling. This sent Spike over the edge, who had been barely restraining his own laughter.

Twilight rolled her eyes and scoffed. “Let me guess. You're Rainbow Dash.”

This put a lid on the other mare's composure, and the pegasus snapped upward and took to wing, puffing her chest out proudly. “The one and only! Why, you heard of me?”

Twilight glanced at the clearly clouded sky and back at Dash, raising an eyebrow. “I heard you were supposed to be keeping the sky clear. I'm Twilight Sparkle, and I'm in charge of the preparations for the Princess’ Sunraising tomorrow.”

Rainbow shook herself and settled down on one of the clouds, stretching out as if she were about to nap. “Yeah, yeah, that'll be a snap. I'll do it in a jiffy. Just as soon as I'm done practicing.”

Twilight raised a single eyebrow. “Practicing for what?”

“The Wonderbolts! They're gonna perform at the Celebration tomorrow, and I'm gonna show 'em my stuff!”

Twilight chuckled darkly. “The most talented flyers in all of Equestria?”
“That's them!”

Twilight smirked and shook her head. “Pfft! Please. Captain Spitfire would never accept a Pegasus who can't even keep the sky clear for one measly day.”

At the clear challenge, Dash suddenly snapped bolt upright, wings flared in an aggressive display. “Hey, I could clear this sky in ten seconds flat.”

Twilight's smirk grew, and her eyes narrowed. “Prove it.”

Half a second of staredown later, Dash erupted from her perch and burst the cloud in the process. The air shrieked shrilly but allowed her to pass. Twilight's jaw slowly dropped as the prismatic mare blasted through cloud after cloud faster and faster by the second.

Instead of slowing, the mare simply plummeted back towards Earth, snapping her wings out. She lifted herself in a few tight loops, bleeding off speed as quickly as it had been picked up. “Loop-de-loop around, and wham! What'd I say? Ten. Seconds. Flat. I'd never leave Ponyville hanging.”

Twilight blinked, her mouth hanging open dumbly as her brain clocked overtime working over the physics of what she'd just seen.

Rainbow laughed and gently closed her mouth, causing the unicorn to blush at the contact. “You should see the look on your face. Ha! You're a laugh, Twilight Dapple. I can't wait to hang out some more.”

Without another word, she tore back off into the sky and left a ripple of tortured air behind her.

Spike blinked slowly and peered at his older sister, who seemed locked in place. “Wow, she's amazing!”

He maintained his composure for all of three seconds, before reaching out a talon to bat at Twilight's windblown curls, stifling childish giggles. Twilight grunted and lifted the itinerary from him, trotting off in the direction of town hall. Spike chased after her.
“Wait! It's kinda pretty once you get used to it!”

They made good time to the town hall, and Twilight shoved the doors open with a frustrated burst of telekinetic might. They both stopped short at what they saw within.

Somepony with an exacting taste and eye for detail had attacked the gathering space. Silk was very much in evidence, and ribbons festooned wherever bunting didn't stretch. In short, it looked perfectly ready for the arrival of the Princess and the catering tables.

Spike broke the silence with a dreamy “Decorations. Beautiful…”

Twilight swallowed and glanced around. She didn't think anything in this town could compare to Sparkle Manor back in Canterlot, or the actual castle spaces she'd seen, but somepony surprised her by bringing a little of that royal opulence here and meshing it with smalltown charm.
“Yes, the décor is coming along nicely. This ought'a be quick. I'll be at the library in no time. Beautiful indeed.”

Spike shook his head and patted her shoulder, pointing at a mare murmuring to herself as she compared samples of ribbon. “Not the décor, her!”

Twilight froze. Her legs locked together, and she trembled. Spike said something to her that she didn't quite catch, and she slid him forward and tilted her chin up to inspect the ceiling. She dropped to her haunches to try and hide the dappling along her hindlegs.

Spike cleared his throat and mustered all ten years of manly courage he could muster. “E-Excuse me. My sister and I-”

The vision of pure beauty tutted. “Just a moment, please! I'm 'in the zone', as it were. Oh, yes!”
She selected one length of shimmering ribbon and tied it carefully into place. “Sparkle always does the trick, does it not? Why, Rarity, you are a talent. Now, um, how can I help yo-”

In speaking, she turned to face the pair. She noticed Spike, but her eyes slid right off him as she fixated upon Twilight with a yelp as if a rat had wandered in. “Oh my stars, darling! Whatever happened to your coiffure?!”

Twilight trembled and blushed helplessly as she was put in the spotlight. “Oh, you mean my mane? Well, it's a long story. I'm just here to check on the decorations, and then I'll be out of your, hah hah, hair!”

Rarity beatboxed briefly and snagged Twilight in an aura of telekinesis, dragging her along behind her as she made for the door. Her voice was still shrieky, as if Twilight had suggested that they scatter moldy hay over her hard work.
“Out of my hair? What about your hair?!”

Spike snickered to himself as he followed the pair at high speed back out into Ponyville.

“Wait! Where are we going?! Help!” Twilight struggled, but in her mild panic she couldn't quite break Rarity's grip.

Rarity's morning had started off normally enough. She'd risen, partaken in a light breakfast, and had cantered over to the town hall to begin her decorations. Naturally right when she was in the middle of a rather tetchy placement, the doors had burst open to admit Pinkie Pie.

At the best of times the younger mare was a rambunctious hoofful that reminded her sometimes of her frequently demonic younger sister. Today she was extra-excited and babbling rapidly about something. Five years of friendship had however taught Rarity how to handle the Pink.

On her next revolution, she caught the mare in a haze of aura and brought her close. She gently rested hooves on either of her cheeks, and gently applied nose to nose. Two pairs of sapphire-blue eyes peered into one another, until Pinkie's breathing matched that of the unicorn and she finally calmed down.

“Now, darling, please. Tell me what you need. Slowly.”

Pinkie took a deep breath and tapped her hooves together. “Okay so this morning I was at the station watching trains and I noticed that there was an extra red-eye from Canterlot coming in at six. I waited and it came on time and two ponies and a dragon got off and went towards the library and I went home but Missus Cake told me that I should go see if the book on thaumic physics I requested came in so I went to the library and I got there just as the younger one was coming out and it was her! The Duchess Everfree herself (the younger not the elder sadly passed these five years and not the Regent Sunset Shimmer either although she got off the train too) and RARITY SHE'S SO CUTE and she looks really really sad and lonely so I want to do something really really nice for her like show her all the ponies of her demesne like her and want her to be here and not just because she's here representing her name and the Princess so I. Hatched. A. Plot.”

Rarity stared for several seconds and blinked, until her train of thought caught up to Pinkie's. She mentally inserted pauses and excised excessive information- it was a consequence that one's own mind tended to run a little strangely and quicker than normal within the vicinity of the Pink. “Alright darling. What's the plan.”

Pinkie took another deep breath. “Okay so I zoomed super fast to the Acres and told Applejack to be right out close to the road because it'll be about brunch time when she gets there but Granny Smith'll be able to con her into eating with them since nopony can resist her fried chicken salad and then I told Rainbow Dash to do something and I left Fluttershy alone since she'll stall her by being Fluttershy but I need you to tie her up at your boutique until about four or so so that by the time she's done with Fluttershy it'll be getting dark and when she gets back to the library I'll have it all set up and ready and everypony in town will be there and we'll throw her the best Night Vigil party she's ever seen and she'll make lots and lots of friends and want to move into the library and be our best friend and we'll go on a ton of adventures!”

That was then. This was now.

The mare had arrived with the uncanny accuracy of a Pinkie prediction, just as Rarity was finishing up. Just as told, she was an absolute darling if a little shy. A lovely lavender shade of coat, with deeper spots sprayed across her snout and down the back of her neck. She rather looked like she'd sat in paint; splotches of near-black covered her haunches down almost to her knees on either side. She'd put on a rather theatrical fuss in ushering Twilight out of the hall and to her own boutique.

Armed with a near infinite number of failed and simply darling outfits, enough cosmetics and beauty equipment for a ballet company, Rarity could stall Twilight indefinitely. She led her around with a rapidfire patois, from the mirror dais back to makeup and mane stations, outfit after outfit, and found something ill-suiting with each one. Enough of a detriment to justify starting completely over from scratch.

“No, no, uh-uh. Too green. Too yellow. Too poofy. Not poofy enough. Too frilly. Too... shiny.”

Finally she settled Twilight into what she felt would be a decent replacement for the Amareni dress that had been hanging in rags off her when she’d entered. Her mane had been put back into perfect order, with a razor-straight fringe just millimeters off from those gorgeously expressive eyes of hers. Now that she was examining her more closely, Rarity noticed that what she had taken to be makeup was actually coat pattern- Twilight had rather fetching splotches around each eye that reached to her cheekbones and appeared as natural eyeshadow. Rather than cover up the dappling of the smaller mare’s coat, Rarity had chosen a simple blue and white dress set with a scandalously low number of gemstones with a matching necklace and bracelet.
“Now go on, my dear. You were telling me where you're from.”
Truthfully, Twilight hadn’t been able to get a word in edgewise and had endured the constant attention with what was either good humor or just plain shyness. She managed to squeak out something about Canterlot as Rarity was pulling the cords of the dress’ corset tight, and was taken by surprise when Rarity released them with a sudden gasp.

Rarity glanced briefly at the clock on one wall of the boutique, and took a gamble. Canterlot ponies came basically in three types. Actual titled nobility tended towards humility, thoroughbreds tended to lean on their names and fortunes in an attempt to emulate nobility, and the nouveaux riche tended to be uptight snobs. What little she’d gleaned from the society pages and Canterlot’s Whom’s Whom had told her that Twilight would be solidly in the first type. She took a deep breath as she prepared to send her on her way without appearing to do so.

“Canterlot?! Oh, I am so envious! The glamour, the sophistication! I have always dreamed of living there! I can't wait to hear all about it! We are gonna be the best of friends, you and I…”
She draped herself dramatically against Twilight’s side, and allowed her eyes to fall naturally upon the gemstone sewn at her throat. “Emeralds?! What was I thinking? Let me get you some rubies!”

Rarity chuckled to herself as she heard the sound of cloth being flicked away and the adorable little mare saying something to the rather charming drake as they sprinted out of her shop. She smiled softly as she began to clean up the detritus of the repeated makeovers.

Party Time

After a couple blocks, Twilight glanced over her shoulder. Confident that she was not about to get foalnapped again, she slowed down. Her face was still flushed heavily from the attention that had been lavished upon her, and she admittedly felt better than she had before.

She took a deep, calming breath. “Spike, what's next on the list?”

Spike cleared his throat as he was snapped out of his reverie by the sound of his name2. He pulled the scroll from his backpack and trailed a claw down it. “Uh, music! It's the last one!”

At a fairly sedate pace they approached the parkland making up the other half of Ponyville's center, moving towards what sounded like a flock of birds attempting to sing fanfare. They broke out of the bushes into a secluded grove, where a butter-yellow pegasus pony made conducting motions with her forehooves before an orchestra of songbirds of all sizes.

The pair listened in silence until the birdsong died away, leaving the grove quiet aside from the wind. Twilight cleared her throat and approached, waving a hoof to get the pony's attention. “Hello!”

The pony's reaction wasn't dissimilar to that of her birds, all of whom gave startled squeaks and squawks and flew off in a scatter. The pony's wings clamped to her sides and she landed, staring at the ground. Twilight swallowed a lump in her throat.

“I didn't mean to frighten your birds. I'm just here to check up on the music and it's sounding beautiful. I'm Twilight Sparkle.
What's your name?”

The pony scuffed a hoof on the ground and mumbled something. Twilight put on her best friendly smile and leaned in, perking her ears to hear easier.
“I'm sorry, what was that?”

The response was for the pony to shrink back a little bit, her voice growing even quieter if such a thing was possible, before letting out a helpless squeak. Twilight blinked, letting the stupid grin fall off her face as she watched the birds return and settle back on the pony before her. She scuffed a hoof across the pleasantly soft grass and puffed her cheeks out.

“I can understand social anxiety. I used to have a few close friends, but then something bad happened and we drifted apart. Your birds are back and the music sounds lovely, so I guess I'll leave you be.”

She turned and started to take a step, not noticing the way the pony's eyes sparkled when she noticed Spike riding on her back.

She definitely noticed the sweetly soft and slightly breathless voice of the pony Dapplering up at high speed. “A baby dragon! Oh, I've never seen a baby dragon before. He's sooo cute!”

Spike smirked at his older sister, who rolled her eyes as she started to walk back in the direction of the library. He leaned across Twilight's haunches until his nose nearly touched the suddenly sociable pony's. “I'm Spike.”

The pony took flight, her voice taking on a suddenly giddy tone. “Hi Spike, I'm Fluttershy. Wow, a talking dragon! And what do dragons talk about?”

Twilight groaned and tried her best to tune out their inane chatter as she trudged along.

Sunset's ears twitched as she heard the door chime jingle. She poked her nose out of the cellar stairwell and crossed the main reading room, leaning to check the door. She grunted and re-locked it.

“I know there's no way that you finished the whole list in less than half an hour, Twilight.”

She spun around at the quiet clatter of somepony attempting to sneak, and cocked her head when she found nopony there. She cleared her throat and made a point of staring ahead, grabbing a couple books in a telekinetic field and directing them towards their spots on the shelves. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed a blur of motion.

When she turned, she noticed that a banner now stretched across the reading room where it would be easily visible from the doorway, with “Welcome To Ponyville” daubed on it in Earthen Ponish runic script.

She cleared her throat and closed her eyes, stabbing around at random with telekinesis. Her efforts were rewarded with the loud thump of somepony suddenly no longer moving at speed, and a slightly squeaky “oof”.

She opened her eyes and stared down at the tangle of limbs before her. The other pony gathered herself up and smiled sheepishly.

“Sorry I was trying to decorate without you noticing. You must be Sunset Shimmer, I'm Pinkie Pie.”

Sunset narrowed her eyes and reached to grasp one of Pinkie's hooves. “Charmed. What are you doing here?”

The pink pony smiled sunnily as she shook the offered hoof. “Well see I bumped into Twilight as she was coming out of here and I thought she seemed lonely and like she didn't really have a place so then I thought I could show her that we'd welcome her here and that Ponyville could be her place so then I decided that I could throw a simultaneous ‘Welcome to Ponyville' and Night Watch party and so then I asked around where Twilight would be saying but Applejack said she didn't know and Rarity didn't know and Rainbow Dash was taking a nap but they all agreed to stall her while I got ready and Mayor Mare said she knew but made me promise not to break anything or make too much of a mess so I came over here to set up for Twilight's party so she could see that she had lots and lots of new friends to make here in Ponyville.”

Sunset blinked under the high-pitch, high-volume, rapidfire chatter. She took a deep, calming breath, and sat down, mental machinery chugging to parse through the pony's spiel. “Oh...kay. That all makes a certain kind of sense, I guess. Twilight could definitely use a boost since she thinks I don't believe her.”

Pinkie cocked her head, looking up from the task of spreading a cloth on the low central table of the reading room and setting up snacks and drinks. “Believe her about what?”

Sunset breathed out. “That Nightmare Moon is returning, tonight.”

Pinkie shook her head and smiled even wider than she had before, until her head seemed about to unhinge. Her voice dropped into the rolling rumble of Plain. “Keep ye the Watch of Nights. In the thousandth year of Sol Invicta, on the Longest Night, verily shall she make her Return. Yon stars shall loose her bonds, and she shall bring with her the wings of Nighttime Eternal.”

Sunset was impressed. She smiled a little and laid out a star chart she'd been in the process of concealing. “One interpretation is that these four stars are what the myth means. Tonight they shall align behind the Moon for the first time in one thousand years. Hopefully nothing happens and it's all just an old mare's tale.”

Pinkie nodded to herself as she watched Sunset roll up and put away the star chart. She shrugged a little and shoved her nose back into her saddlebags, rooting around for a moment. There was a clink of glass as she withdrew two bottles of cider and set them on the table.

“Well there's not much use in worrying about maybes! Que sera sera, either she Returns or she doesn't. Do you want to help me set up for Twilight's surprise party?”

Sunset almost answered in the negative. Her thoughts rolled back to a music box and the tiny dancer within, and the expression of unbridled joy on Twilight's face that had been missing for years.

“I think that between us, we can make this a Night Watch to remember.”

Twilight grumbled but bore the brunt of the chattering going on behind her. Not a minute too soon, the trio came across the front steps of the library tree, and she paused before it, turning and putting on her sweetest tone. “I am so sorry, how did we get here so fast? This is where I'm staying while in Ponyville and my poor baby dragon needs his sleep.”

Spike managed to get out a grumble about how he didn't really, before Twilight shifted her weight and dropped him bodily to the ground. He glared daggers and she smirked as she lifted him up with her nose. “Aww, wook at dat, he's so sweepy he can't even keep his widdle bawance!”

Fluttershy gasped and swooped in, gathering him up into her forelegs and cradling him against her barrel. “Poor thing, you simply must get into bed!”

Twilight cleared her throat and snatched him up in a field, drawing him back onto her withers. She opened the door behind herself and backed inside, hoping that the pegasus could take the hint. “Yes, yes, we'll get right on that. Well, g'night!”

Fluttershy looked like she was about to say something or offer assistance, just as the door slammed in her face. Twilight was struck by a sudden thought that the door made her really angry, but she couldn't put her hoof on why.

Spike raised an eyebrow. “Huh. Rude much?”

Twilight planted her forehead against the door and sighed. “Sorry, Spike, but I have to convince the Princess and my mom that Nightmare Moon is coming, and we're running out of time! I just need to be alone so I can study without a bunch of crazy ponies trying to make friends all the time. Now, where's the light…?”

She groped in the growing darkness of Nightfall, until her hoof struck the sturdy metal button that would click on the lights. She was grateful that this small town at least had electric lighting available. The lights came on with a cheerful snap, and she turned to face the reading room.

She managed about half a second of surprise before she was assaulted with a wave of sound, a crowd of ponies all shouting Surprise!

The loudest and most enthusiastic culprit was a mass of Pink right in front of her face. As Twilight gritted her teeth and pushed towards the crowd, the pony followed her, at one point cycling around in front and bringing their noses close enough to almost touch.
“I'm Pinkie Pie, and I threw this party just for you! Were you surprised?”

Twilight rolled her eyes as she folded her ears against the din of music and ponies in cheerful conversation. “Very surprised. Libraries are supposed to be quiet.”

Pinkie Pie blinked slowly, but stayed welded to her side. “Well, that's silly! What kind of welcome party would this be if it were quiet? I mean, duh, bo-ring! Y'see, I saw you when you first got here, remember? You were all "hello" and I was all,” her face warped in an expression of comical surprise, and she seemed to gasp in all the air in the room. “Remember? Y'see I've never saw you before except from your picture at the Foal’s Home and if I've never saw you before that means you're new, 'cause I know everypony, and I mean everypony in Ponyville!”

Twilight groaned and did her best to ignore the chatter building speed and volume directly into her left ear. She could actually feel brain cells dying. She glared at Sunset, who smiled back at her. She grabbed a bottle at random from the table and began pouring a cup, praying for alcohol.

“And if you're new, that meant you haven't met anyone yet, and if you haven't met anyone yet, you must not have any friends, and if you don't have any friends then you must be lonely, and that made me so sad, then I had an idea, and that's why I gasped so loud! I must throw a great big ginormous super-duper spectacular welcome party and invite everyone in Ponyville! See? And now you have lots and lots of friends, and your mom even helped!”

Twilight managed about one deep sip that drained about half her cup before her brain really engaged. Her tongue was overwhelmed by the taste of apples, but also fire. She gagged and coughed, feeling her face redden.

Applejack slapped her on the withers and chuckled dryly. “Are you all right, sugarcube?”

Twilight gasped for air and raced off up the stairs into the librarian's apartment, tears streaming from her eyes.

Pinkie smiled and congratulated herself on a job well done. “Aww, she's so happy she's crying!”

Spike picked up the bottle that Twilight had dropped, squinting at the curling script printed on the label. "Granny Smith's Special Liniment, one hundred ninety proof. What's that mean?”

Pinkie's eyes widened, and her ears drooped a bit as she began to panic. Applejack chuckled.

“Special reserve, brought out jus for Miss Twilight's party. Granny credits her livin so long ta swillin a big cup every day. Put some fluff on yer barrel.”

Vicious Lies

After Twilight had thrown up for the second time that day, she'd staggered in slowly increasing drunkenness to her bed and fell into its embrace. After several minutes, she grumbled and rolled over onto her side, clutching her pillow tight. She was starting to become of the age that she wished for the warmth of another pony against her, despite the standoffish gulf that had yawned between herself and others in the last five years.

She sighed heavily and listened to the muffled thumping of music coming from the library below. The clock over her head ticked away, measuring the minutes and seconds that remained until Nightmare's Return.

Her ear pricked as the door on the bottom floor of the apartment clicked open, letting in a slash of light from downstairs and allowing the noise to increase. She groaned softly and pushed her face into the pillow.

“Go away, Spike.”

There was no response but a muffled giggle, and the soft clicking of pony hooves on the stairs. She tensed as the bedsprings creaked with the weight of another, and trembled a little bit as blessedly warm forelegs wrapped around her barrel. She turned her head and buried her nose into a mass of pink candyfloss.

“All the ponies in this town are crazy! Do you know what time it is?”

Pinkie giggled and pulled her tighter. “Maybe, but we're happy. It's the eve of the Summer Sun Celebration. Everypony has to stay up, or they'll miss the Princess raise the sun! You really should lighten up, Twilight. It's a party!”

Twilight sighed. She slowly relaxed into the embrace, closing her eyes. It was… nice, to be held like this. “Ugh, here I thought I'd have time to learn about the Elements of Harmony but, silly me, all this ridiculous friend-making has kept me from it!”

Pinkie frowned a little bit, as they both turned to stare at the moon and the stars moving into alignment behind it. She began to speak, and Twilight joined in after the first few words. "Legend has it that on the longest night of the thousandth year, the stars will aid in her escape, and she will bring about everlasting night."

Twilight shuffled around to face Pinkie, pulling away so their muzzles weren't quite touching. The pink mare smiled wryly and rested a hoof on Twi's barrel.

“I believe you, Twilight. But… what if they're wrong?”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Well as nice as being right would be, I really hope that I'm wrong and it's all an old mare's tale.”

Pinkie stared at her with uncharacteristic solemnity. “My family in Nickerlite was entrusted with a book. A copy of Predictions And Prophecies written in the third century by a madmare named Absinthe Quill. Some of her writing was ideogram, and the translated copies parse it as “stars”. In the book we have, it's a symbol.”

She laid a hoof on Twilight's mark. “It looks like this. What if you're supposed to “aid in her Escape”? Meaning, what if you're supposed to free the Sister from her long torment?”

Twilight smiled and closed her eyes. “It's a nice thought, that I'm some legendary chosen hero. But it's extremely unlikely, no matter how many of Absinthe’s predictions have come true.”

Their quiet conversation was interrupted by the quiet click of the door opening again. Sunset's voice called up the stairs.

“When you two lovebirds are done making out, it's time to watch the sunrise.”

They both stared at one another in shock, before breaking out into shared blushing giggles. Pinkie leaned in and pressed her lips cheekily to the blaze just beneath Twilight's horn, hopping out of bed and clearing the fifteen foot drop to the bottom floor of the apartment in a single leap.

Twilight blinked slowly and rubbed her forehead, before squealing quietly in delight and rising to follow.

None of them noticed the moon flicker briefly, the image of the Mare disappearing as the stars slid behind it.

It only took about fifteen minutes for the party, which seemed to consist of the full population of Ponyville, to trickle over to Town Hall for the event. By some magic, Twilight managed to stay close to Pinkie and by extent the mares she recognized from her preparations the day before.

Pinkie was bouncing, vibrating like a clockwork toy with an overwound spring that might explode and fly apart at any second. She began prancing in place. “Isn't this exciting? Are you excited, 'cause I'm excited, I've never been so excited— well, except for the time that I saw you walking into town and I went all GASP but I mean really, who can top that?”

A phalanx of Royal Guards stepped out before the curtained viewing platform, resplendent in the golden armor if their order. Horns were raised to lips, and they blew the fanfare of Celestia Sol Invicta.

The mayor unfurled a scroll upon a lectern and adjusted her glasses, leaning over to read her prepared speech. “Fillies and gentlecolts, as mayor of Ponyville, it is my great pleasure to announce the beginning of the Summer Sun Celebration!” She paused to allow the clatter of stomping hooves and cacophony of pony cheers to die back. “In just a few moments, our town will witness the magic of the sunrise, and celebrate this, the end of our yearly Longest Night Watch! And now, it is my great honor to introduce to you the ruler of our land, the very pony who gives us the sun and the moon each and every day, the good, the wise, the bringer of harmony to all of Equestria…”

Fluttershy moved into position and chirruped softly to her birds, gesturing for them to warm up syrinxes. She conducted them through the aria she'd written for the occasion, a flourish building just as the curtains swished open. The mayor turned and gestured towards the central dais.
“...Princess Celestia!”

The dais was quite empty, missing one expected Princess. Once the gathered herd got over their dismay, they began to converse in low tones to one another. Rarity stepped up onto the dais and began poking around the curtains. The mayor swallowed nervously and waved her hooves placatingly.

“Remain calm, everypony, there must be a reasonable explanation!”

Rarity raised hooves to her mouth to shout over the building panic. “She's gone! She was just here a few moments ago…”

She yelped at a sudden collection of magical energy just inches off her tail. She scampered off the platform and sought refuge with her friends, the gathered ponies backing away from the wispy smoke condensing into a solid form before their eyes.

The mare was tall, and slender. She tipped her head up in a cackling laugh of triumph as blue steel-shod hooves struck the floor with the finality of a coffin lid slamming shut. Her teeth were jagged and sharp, more like the maw of a dragon than the friendly fanged smile of a pony. Her icy blue eyes constricted in reptilian slits beneath a steel war-helm, as she gazed across the ponies before her.

Twilight pressed against Pinkie, and sought the comforting presence of Sunset. “Oh no... Nightmare Moon!”

The black mare's voice rang out across the sudden silence. It was silk hiding a razor. Soft, feminine, seductive with the promise of a dagger in the ribs. “Oh, my beloved subjects. It's been so long since I've seen your precious little sun-loving faces.”

Dash had had enough. Her wings whirred threateningly as she took flight. “What did you do with our Princess?!”

Or tried to, at least. Applejack clamped teeth on the flier's tail and jerked her back to Earth.

Nightmare Moon’s evil visage tracked to the source of the outburst, and she broke out into a low chuckle. “Why, am I not royal enough for you? Don't you know who I am?”

Her head snapped back and forth in the dumb silence. She gritted her teeth in a sudden rage, hooves clacking back and forth with enough force to splinter the wood of the platform. “Does my crown no longer count now that I have been imprisoned for a thousand years? Did you not recall the legend? Did you not see the signs?”

Almost as one Sunset, Pinkie, and Twilight swallowed heavily. Twilight stepped forth, suddenly feeling very small under the withering stare of the goddess before her. “I did. And I know who you are. You're the Mare in the Moon – Nightmare Moon!”

The gathered ponies gasped in shock and horror. The most skittish had already stormed the doors and fled.

Nightmare Moon chuckled lowly. “Well well well, somepony who remembers me. Then you also know why I'm here.”

Twilight shivered under her stare. “You're here to... to…” She swallowed heavily against the knot growing in her throat.

Lightning flashed behind Nightmare Moon as she rose, her cackling laughter shaking the rafters. Her voice echoed with cruel joy at her own assured victory. “Remember this day, little ponies, for it was your last! The Night shall last forever!”

Her cackle doubled in volume, drowning out the terrified screams of ponies rushing for the doors. Within seconds, the Hall had emptied.

Nightmare's laughter was cut short by a voice. Only Twilight and her friends remained in the hall. Sunset settled her jacket over Twilight's shoulders.

“Not if I can help it.”

Twilight clutched at her. “M-mom, she'll…”

Sunset laid a soft kiss on her forehead and gently shoved her. “Know that I love you forever and always, starshine. Run. Make me proud, Twilight.”

She turned her back and began gathering magic, as Nightmare blinked in confusion at somepony actually defying her. The last thing Twilight saw was a storm of lightning bolts coursing into Sunset, as Pinkie physically dragged her into the relative safety of Ponyville.

Sunset smiled wickedly as she rose to her hooves. The burns inflicted by the shock already healing across her body. “Good shot.”

Her eyes blazed with power as she stared Nightmare down. “Did you really think it would be that easy? You just stroll in, lock Celestia in the sun, and instantly win?”

Her voice echoed, the volume increasing with magical amplification.

“My name is Sunset Shimmer, daughter of the sun. I bend the world around my horn, and I am your doom.”

Nightmare was beginning to panic as lances of sunfire speared her legs to the platform.

“Celestia taught me the most powerful spell she knew. The secret of the Unconquered Sun. As her daughter, I invoke it.”

Her magically amplified voice must have shaken the very heavens.

“SOL INVICTA! CELESTIA'S SUNFIRE SOULFLARE!”

The world whited out with a subsonic roar that shook the Earth as an orb of pure power exploded from the tip of Sunset's horn.

Set Fire To The Rain

In her cage, Celestia thought about domains.

She was white, and her sister a dusky blue. Obviously this meant she was Light and her sister was Dark. Day and Night. That she was warm and empathic and her sister was cold and aloof.

Nothing could have been further from the truth.

She thought back to their foalhood. As far ad memory-palaces went, Celestia's was a vast and echoing manor of many rooms. Some corridors lay dark and dusty, others had channels cut over the long years from daily repetition. She thought of parents she could no longer clearly remember. She remembered the great freeze and the abandonment of their ancestral home.

Of the things she remembered the most, she remembered hunger and cold. Clouds that she could not break. Plants that refused her sister's entreaties. She remembered…

Celestia stood on the balcony. Her symbols of office lay upon the ground before her. She breathed in the clean, cold air of Canterlot. She breathed out the dust of unspent years.

There had been no singing tonight. She had merely raised the Moon and left it to its own devices.

The Mare faded, just as she had seen it would. She turned to greet her sister. But, no. Not her sister. The twisted thing she had become.

Tired, aching frame tilted head and prepared to do the needful.

The other glared at her. Set a hoof beneath her chin. Forced her to meet eyes she hadn't seen in ten centuries.

Celestia closed her eyes. In the eyes of the other she had seen the hatred and rage of Nightmare Moon. The deep, yawning sorrow of the forgotten Princess Luna.

The terrified, starving foal Midnight Moon.

“Please. Don't hurt my ponies.”

Nightmare's eyes narrowed. There was no need for words, she was simply passing judgment upon a wretch who had avoided it for a millenium. Chains lashed the emaciated white form before her. With a blink, she was gone.

Magnetic currents stirred her wings. Small wisps, creatures of pure joy, scorched her with their well-meaning contacts. She deserved every ounce of it.

She had turned her sister into a monster. Because of Nightmare Moon, nopony remembered the cold brutality of the Unconquered Sun.

Her wings flared, and she allowed the currents to lift her. Tongues of the purest fire in the universe lapped at her, cleansed her of her long sins. Her hooves met something that might well have been steel, and she was thrown back. As she floated in a sea of plasma, she dreamed.

Princess Luna was the patron of the mad and artistic. Her ponies were the dreamers, the believers, those who looked upon the night with wonder. She guarded the gates of Dream, and many ponies’ happiest moments were spent in her embrace. She was the healer, the lover.

Celestia brought forth the Sun. Any who thought this meant she was warm had never left their fertile valley. They didn't know of the brutal fury of the desert, or the uncaring indifference of the tundra.

Her ponies were the fierce. Those for whom the Fire of life burned brightly. Her hoof was seen in the warlike, the violent. She was the mother of the harsh truth. Her domain was the gates of Death.

Ponies remembered Celestia the Kind. Scholars might recall the War Princess, the Unconquered Sun.
Only one remembered the filly who had lifted the sun through sheer fury where seven unicorns could barely lend horn to the same task.

She regained her strength and flew upward for another assault on the barrier. She felt it in her heart, like a knife. The solar winds bore her aloft, as she examined what she had felt.

Somewhere, a phoenix had blazed herself out.

Twilight's blood ran cold at the shout. She turned, stared into the raging ball of flame that the Town Hall had become. Nothing could have survived that fury. A soft pink hoof rested on her shoulder and muttered something about a library. She couldn't move.

The soundless cacophany washed over them. Windows trembled and shattered. The cobbles of the square ran liquid. And then it was over, and the false dawn was gone. She charged into the inferno, shrugging off her friends. Of what consequence would a little heat be to someone so cold?

She returned, trudging. She shook off a layer of ash and revealed unscorched coat. Her friends gasped, and she couldn't meet Spike's eyes. Curled in one foreleg, held against her chest, she held something that glowed like the setting sun.

Rarity gently unfolded her foreleg, and leaned against her. Helped her hold the broken shards of a pony together. In one second, the Nightmare had been eradicated but Twilight's personal nightmare came true.

“Darling, while I appreciate a nice gemstone as much as the next mare that was simply foolish.”

Twilight held it out for inspection. A star sapphire, perfectly faceted. The light within ebbed and glowed. Spike curled his talons around it and tugged gently. It was a gemstone, but not. Rarity gasped as she realized what it was. Applejack pressed her Stetson to her breast.

A gemstone but something much more important. Something which by rights should be attached to something not quite bone, and never seen outside a pony. Something precious and indestructible.

In her hoof, Twilight held the life of her mother.

“There's nothing else left. No ashes.”

The grieving party made their way back to the library. As good a place as any. They set Twilight down and someone gave her a cup filled to the brim. She sipped at the peppered liquor, watching Spike as he built a blaze in the hearth.

A claw pressed, nestled the star sapphire into the midst of the flames. She watched out the window as a haze collected and lanced off towards the forest. Nightmare had survived that most final assault.

A tome was pressed between her hooves. She glanced up into the smiling face of Pinkie Pie. She took a deep breath and tore another page from Celestia's playbook. She marshalled her thoughts and schooled her expression to a carefully blank mask as she began to read.

“There are six Elements of Harmony, but only five are known: Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Honesty and Loyalty. The sixth is a complete mystery. It is said, the last known location of the five elements was in the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters. It is located in what is now the Everfree Forest.”

She closed the book and set it aside. She gathered Sunset's jacket around herself and breathed in her scent. She let out a soft breath and downed the rest of the cup. It burned, but that was okay. The warmth spread through her bones.

Twilight called upon the heat that burned in her breast. She begged herself for the resolve to do what must be done. She rose and shuffled towards the door. Five mares followed in her wake.

The journey to the edge of the town was met with total silence. She paused at the edge of the Forest, and thought about the mission ahead. She gently pulled Pinkie back and turned to face the other five.

“I appreciate the offer of help, but I'd like to do this on my own.”

Applejack simply chuckled. “No can do. We're not lettin’ any friend of ours face that spooky forest on her lonesome.”

She was stunned. She barely registered a chirpy voice calling and asking if she was coming. She turned and followed the others into the midst of the forest.

You will pay, Nightmare.

They traveled, ears twitching at every noise. There was a clear path, a trail through the darkness. She cleared her throat and her voice rose, shaking.

“So, none of you have been in here before?”

Five heads shook almost in unison. Rarity gagged at the very thought.

“Heavens no! Look at all this… muck and rot. Simply dreadful.”

Applejack mused. “And it ain't natural. Folks say it don't work the same as Equestria.”

Twilight raised a brow. “What's that supposed to mean?”

Rainbow chuckled darkly from her place somewhere over their heads.
“Nopony knows. You know why? 'cause everypony who's ever come in has never come out!”

They paused at the edge of a ravine. Twilight pawed the ground nervously, and glanced along. None of them noticed the darkness seeping into the ground.

“Maybe we should find another way down. I'm not looking forward to trying to scrabble down all this mess.”

She took a step back, and the earth shuddered beneath her. The narrow spit of land they stood upon crashed down, and they slid towards the edge. She only just barely managed to catch herself on the edge, and Applejack filled her world as she released whatever grip she'd caught and slid towards her.

Strong forelegs caught her own and held her up, as her hindlegs cycled and tried to find purchase.

“Applejack! What do I do?”

She stared into green eyes, and watched as she glanced around. Eyes closed.

“Let go, Twilight.”

Twilight struggled anew, kicking off pebbles as she tried to get back up. “Are you crazy!?”

Applejack shook her head a little bit. “No Ah ain't. Let go an’ push with everything ya got in you.”

Her face split in a broad grin. “What Ah'm tellin ya is the honest truth. Let go and y'all will be safe.”

Twilight closed her eyes as tightly as she could. She could trust Applejack, couldn't she? She mustered all the courage she could, and kicked off from the wall.

She shrieked in terror for about half a second before forelegs caught her. She opened her eyes to the smiling faces of Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash gently setting her on the ground.

The smoke vibrated with barely contained fury and rushed on ahead of the party. If a deadfall couldn't kill them, one of the many Everfree predators would be up for the task.

Speedrun

The next challenge proved as easily overcome as the last. She had harmed a Manticore and trusted in its blind rage to tear them to shreds. But the caretaker had pulled the thorn from its paw and mollified it.

Twilight questioned her bravery as they left behind a monster reduced to a purring kitten.

“How did you know about the thorn?”

“I didn't. Sometimes we all just need to be shown a little kindness. Manticores aren't monsters, Twilight. They're wonderful, misunderstood magical creatures.”

The smoke boiled and pressed on. Maybe one of her forgotten toys would suffice.

They made good progress through the next stretch of woods, but were brought up short when they were suddenly dumped into pitch darkness. There was a lot of jostling and cursing as they pressed into a defensive huddle.

Chains rattled in the darkness around them, and a sibilant susurrus arose. It seemed to be all around them, driving them together, causing reason to flee. Twilight closed her eyes and lit her horn. She opened them and squinted. Their way was blocked by a ponyquin.

They turned to flee in the direction they had come, halted by two ponyquins. Twilight felt a breath on the back of her neck, and her skin crawled. She slowly turned back around, and her nose touched a ponyquin's.

Peekaboo.

There were no eyes. The merest suggestion of a snout. The face split open in a terrifying grin, showing rows of wicked teeth that stretched too far back.

I see you.

That seemed to be the cue for panic to set in and the screaming to start. Except for one.

Twilight uncovered her eyes and watched as the thing backed up, avoiding the clear peals of Pinkie's helpless laughter. A sharp hiss rose and teeth gleamed on all sides.

“Pinkie! What are you doing!”

Pinkie's hooves glowed, and music echoed. With every step, the beat sped up. Twilight's jaw fell at the refrains of a Heartsong.

“Oh girls, don't you see?”

She bobbed her head and swayed her hips.
“When I was a little filly, and the sun was going down…”

She embraced Twilight and Rarity. The shamblemares seemed transfixed, heads cocking.

“The darkness and the shadows, they would always make me frown!”

She was truly, actually dancing now.

“I'd hide under my pillow, from what I thought I saw! But Granny Surprise said that wasn't the way to deal with fears at all!”

Rainbow spluttered. “Then what is?”

Pinkie bit back a little snort and reached to grasp the offered forehoof of the largest shamble. They swayed and circled in a complicated sort of dance.

“She said; Pinkie, you gotta stand up tall! Learn to face your fears! You'll see that they can't hurt you, just laugh and make them disappear!”

She clutched the shamble mare. “Hah! Hah! Hah!”

Its head cocked. “Peekaboo?”

Her friends gasped as she turned to face them with a massive grin. The thing behind her seemed to smile as well, and followed her as her song threaded and guided. As the soft whispery-wind voices of the shamblemares joined in a chorus and the six fell into helpless laughter.

She finally collapsed against the side of the lead shamblemare, hooking forelegs around her neck.

“And tell that big dumb scary face to take a hike and leave you alone and if he thinks he can scare you then he's got another thing coming and the very idea of such a thing just makes you wanna... hahahaha... heh...

Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaauuuugh!”

The music faded, and the shamblemares melted into the forest. The lead paused and placed hooves over her face, and Pinkie mimicked the gesture.

“Peekaboo!”

As they pressed on, Twilight prodded Pinkie in the hip. “How did you know?”

“There are things that want to eat you. She could have killed us at any time, but she didn't. The way she smiles, she just wants us to have a good laugh.”

The group was a happy, chattering clump all the way to the edge of a raging river. A river serpent whose talons were longer than a pony wept on the shore, his long tail lashing the waters into an uncrossable rampage.

They asked him to cross, but he was inconsolable. They asked him what was wrong, and Rarity shrieked as he revealed his face. The vain thing had been paid a visit by Nightmare, and one side of his glorious moustache had been torn off.

The party facehoofed, until Rarity rounded upon them.

“You're all being much too hard on the poor dear! Fluttershy, imagine not having a mane to hide behind!”

Her cannon swiveled as if were the artillery piece and not anatomy. She pointed at each of them in turn.

“Rainbow Dash, imagine somepony came along and bleached you white. Pinkie Pie, imagine those adorable curls laying lifeless. Applejack, imagine your hat destroyed. Twilight, imagine there was something ponies pointed and laughed at and you covered with makeup to hide the shame.”

She rounded on the serpent, and drew a discarded scale like a rapier. Moonlight glinted along the razor sharp edge, and the collected ponies gasped as she sundered her own perfectly coiffed tail and wound it into the ragged ends of the moustache, making him whole again.

The serpent gasped and the ponies began to ford the river, only to be lifted out of the water and given safe passage across his back.

“Rarity, your beautiful tail…” Twilight prompted.

Rarity sniffed, her hooves rising a bit higher than was necessary. “It's fine. Bobbed tails are in this season, and it will grow back. Besides, look at how happy he is at how smashing he looks.”

She gestured towards the serpent, who was using the calm water as a mirror to curl the other half of his moustache and carefully dye it the same royal purple.

“Giving reflects joy both upon the giver and the receiver, Twilight.”

They shared a small smile as they re-entered the forest.

Eventually they came to the edge of a cliff. Across a yawning gap, they could see the ruins of the old castle. They found the bridge lying in ruins, and Pinkie kicked a pebble off the edge before turning to face her friends.

“Now what?”

Rainbow gave a demonstrative wiggle of her wings, before diving into the ravine. “Duh.”

Pinkie snorted. “Oh yeah.”

Although nopony was watching, on the other side of the chasm Rainbow Dash executed a perfect three-hoof landing and pumped the free one before coiling the rope held in her jaws around the bridge support. As she looked across, she heard her friends call her name.

Her ears twitched as another voice called her name. She reared up and held her forehooves in a perfect stance, ready to bite and fight. Three ponies slid to a stop and fixed her with smirks.

They were clad in the raddest jumpsuits she'd ever seen. Yellow-lensed goggles hid their eyes, as they circled her.

The forepony whispered in her ear with a voice of silk and razors. “We've been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the best flyer in Equestria.”

Dash cocked her head. “Who?”

She chuckled. “Why, you, of course.”

Dash puffed her chest out. “Really?! I mean... Oh yeah, me.”

She nodded. “Rainbow Dash. We want you to join us, The Shadowbolts. We're the greatest aerial team of Nightmare Moon, and soon we will be the greatest in all Equestria, but first, we need a captain. The most magnificent, swiftest, bravest flyer in all the land.”

Dash chuckled. “Yes, it's all true.”

Knowing she had Dash in her grip, the mare smirked and whispered into her ear. “We need... you.”

Dash exploded into the air in a shower of loose feathers. “WOOHOO! Sign me up. Just let me tie this bridge real quick and then we have a deal.”

The Night Mare flexed her leathered wings and grit her sharpened teeth. “No! It's them or us.”

Twilight called across the ravine, and squinted. “Rainbow, what's taking so long? Oh no. Rainbow! Don't listen to them.”

Mist closed in and blocked sight. The mare tilted her head. “Well?”

Dash sighed. “You... Thank you! For the offer, I mean, but I'm afraid I have to say no.”

She turned her back and tied the bridgelines taut, and gave them a tap to show the other side it was safe. She raced back across to join her friends. The ponies vibrated with rage and misted, the black vapor rushing into the stones of the Castle.

Dash landed on her hindlegs and struck a triumphant pose. “See? I'd never leave my friends hangin'. With ya all the way, Twi.”

They shared a small smile and crossed the chasm.

There before them was the Castle, looming dark and foreboding over the party. They gulped collectively and pressed on, through crumbling corridors and stairwells to the old throne room. On one side of the room, two chairs stood proud beneath banners of Sun and Moon. In the center stood an orrery, and the ponies tugged the stones free and set them in a circle.

Pinkie did a quick count. “One, two, three, four... There's only five!”

Dash cocked her head. “Where's the sixth?”

Twilight sat down before the five spheres of stone. “The book said: when the five are present, a spark will cause the sixth Element to be revealed.”

Applejack rubbed the back of her head. “What in the hay is that supposed to mean?”

Twilight shook her head, and gathered magic in her horn. “I'm not sure, but I have an idea. Stand back. I don't know what will happen.”

Applejack nodded and pulled the others to a safe distance away. “Come on now, y'all. She needs to concentrate.”

Twilight gasped and the others shrieked as the stones began to orbit. A black mass snatched them, feeding them into a teleport rune hastily erected in the center of the vortex. Twilight swallowed, and dove into the mist.

When the flash of magic cleared, Twilight and the Elements were gone.

Twilight and the Elements were cast out of between somewhere else in the castle. Pitiful threads of magic tugged from the hearts of the stones, and Nightmare stood anew between them. Twilight gritted her teeth, and dashed forward. Nightmare cocked a brow and broke into a slow canter, leveling the evil spike of her horn at heart-level. At the last second, Twilight copied the trick and disappeared, sliding to a stop on the other side of the room.

She sent a wave of electricity through the stones. Nothing happened. Nightmare cackled. She raised her forehooves and brought them down, and the stones shattered into tiny fragments.

In her mounting despair, Twilight felt something not unlike indigestion.

Back at the library, Spike coaxed the jewel from the flames. The heat had breathed new fire into its heart. He took a breath.

“Here goes nothing.”

He breathed out, the hottest fire he could manage. Between his claws, something that was not quite gemstone melted and was sent.

Twilight backed away from the Nightmare until her haunches bumped the wall. She grimaced as she felt her horn ignite on its own. A wave of unimaginable heat rushed from her, and smoke spiraled before her. Something had been sent.

In the midst of the flames a pony shape collected into being.

Sunset opened her right eye, and kept the left one closed. Twilight could tell that she hadn't fully reformed by the way it appeared that socket contained nothing. She stood between the Nightmare and her daughter.

”Get away from her, you bitch.”

Ready To Die

This is your time to pay
This is your judgment day
We made a sacrifice
And now we get to take your life
We shoot without a gun
We'll take on anyone
It's really nothing new
It's just what we were born to do

It was Nightmare's turn to step back. She stared in abject horror at the monster before her.
“This cannot be! I barely made it out of the Soulflare with my life! You can't have survived.”

Sunset shrugged. “I'm soulbound to a phoenix. As long as she lives, so do I.”

She chuckled lowly as she shrugged back into her jacket. She settled down on her haunches and pushed her hooves into the pockets, shaking her head with a dark smile.

“Got a question for ya. Do you think even the worst pony can change? That anypony can be a good pony, if they just try?”

Nightmare didn't reply, merely taking a step forward with her horn charged with magic. Sunset chuckled at the quiet click of her shodding.

“Alright. Lemme ask a better question. Do you… wanna have a bad time? Because if you take another step forward, you're really not gonna like what happens next.”

Nightmare took another step, baring her sharpened teeth. Sunset glanced in the direction the sun should have risen from, and let out a sigh more weary than her thirty years should allow.

“Sorry mom.”

She tipped her chin and smiled. “I gotta give you credit, it's a beautiful night, Luna. The nightflowers bloom, owls are hooting… On a night like tonight fillies like you…”

Her left eye, the empty socket, snapped open. The glow of her carbuncle shone through, splashing turquoise light across everything.

”Should be burning in hell.”

Spears of turquoise magic sprang into being, and launched themselves to impale Nightmare. Twilight couldn't watch, but she had to pay witness to her mother preparing to take a life.

Bloodied, Nightmare rose and lashed out. Sunset deftly sideswiped the attack.

”GOLDEN GLIMMER'S GLISTENING GRAVITY GLOBE!”

She flicked her hoof. Nightmare's eyes widened as she rocketed backwards and shrieked in agony as she slammed into a wall that had sprouted spikes.

In the throne room, the others saw the flashes of magic, heard the shrieks. Hearts quickened as they raced through the corridors towards the high tower where the battle raged.

Truthfully, Sunset's attacks had little more impact on a mare who could stand against the Sun than a papercut. The problem was that there was a lot of them. Every counterattack was sidestepped or deflected, and every time she found secure footing the Nightmare would be slammed into sturdy granite.

“Whatever you're going to do, Twilight. Do it quickly please.”

Trusting in her daughter's safety, she threw herself fully into the attack. Her voice rose mockingly.

“Y’know Luna, I've been thinking. About you and me. Was this pre-ordained? Was this meant to be?”

She knocked aside a blade of force. “No more trying to escape, the sunrise holds no more appeal!”

Nightmare managed to nearly touch noses with her. “Do you even know if you are still real?”

Then she was flung backwards as her point of gravity shifted to the far wall. Paving stones rose to block her acceleration, forcing them to shatter against her body.

Twilight rubbed the sides of her head as she stared at the shards surrounding her. This was her entrance exam all over again. An impossible task, and no idea how to accomplish it.

Over the battle sounds, she heard voices. Her eyes widened, and a tiny spark glittered from her horn. She looked at Sunset, then her own reflection. Of course. The spark.

Five ponies talked over each other, calling encouragement. She focused on the words and let them fill her heart.

“Don't worry Twilight, we're here.”
“Don't worry, we'll be there.”
“Kick that prehistoric nag's butt Twi!”
“I don't care if she's royalty, if you don't give her a good seeing-to then I will!”
“Yay…”

Sunset flung Nightmare across the room. She skidded the last few feet on her face. She let herself drop in the same direction and slammed into her, wrapping forelegs around her neck and slamming that sparking horn with her forehoof.

Twilight's chest swelled as her friends slid into position behind her. She was the greatest arcanist since Sunset Shimmer. She bent the universe around her horn. She couldn't be stopped or tamed. “You think you can destroy The Elements of Harmony just like that? Well, you're wrong, because the spirits of The Elements of Harmony are right here!”

Nightmare Moon coughed up a mouthful of blood and spluttered. “What?”

The shattered remains of the Elements around her shimmered and trembled.

“Applejack, who reassured me when I was in doubt, represents the spirit of... honesty!”

Stones flew and circled her orange friend.

“Fluttershy, who tamed the manticore with her compassion, represents the spirit of... kindness!”

The caretaker backpedaled, but stood resolute as she was named and chosen.

“Pinkie Pie, who banished fear by giggling in the face of danger, represents the spirit of... laughter!”

Pinkie hopped in place and reached out to touch one of the floating blue gemstones with a hoof.

“Rarity, who calmed a sorrowful serpent with a meaningful gift represents the spirit of... generosity!”

Rarity grimaced at the dirty things, but accepted the gift.

“And Rainbow Dash, who could not abandon her friends for her own heart's desire represents the spirit of... loyalty!”

Nightmare scrabbled, struggled, was stricken as a hoof impacted something not quite bone.

“The spirits of these five ponies got us through every challenge you threw at us!”

She managed to cough. “You still don't have the sixth Element! The spark didn't work!”

Twilight closed her eyes and smiled. “But it did! A different kind of spark. I felt it the very moment I realized how happy I was to hear you, to see you, how much I cared about you. The spark ignited inside me when I realized that you all... are my friends!”

She joined their ranks as slivers orbited her as well. “You see, Nightmare Moon, when those Elements are ignited by the... the spark, that resides in the heart of us all, it creates the sixth element: the element of... MAGIC!”

Sunset grit her teeth, but rode out the coming storm. She watched as the shards fused. Were infused. The universe trembled as six forms were flooded with quintessence, as tass formed solid into gemstones encrusting necklaces. She fought back a tear at the sight of her daughter in a beautiful tiara, her star blazing brilliantly from the crown.

Calling upon reserves, Nightmare threw Sunset. But there was nowhere to run. A blazing rainbow of pure power surrounded her. Black poured from her body, snatched away and burned.

The world went white, and time ground to a stop.

In the nameless space between, two ponies stood before another. The larger scuffed a hoof. She cast a shadow in the face of the other's brilliance, that flickered and split into two.

On the one side, a far-too skinny and badly undersized earth pony foal trembled with hypothermia and sadness.

On the other, a haughty black alicorn stood her ground and glared at them.

Twilight reached out. “Take my hoof, Luna. Your long nightmare is finally over.”

The Princess rested her hoof on the smaller mare's.

The earth pony could have taken a cast stone or a harsh word. The Nightmare could have withstood spears of iron and defiance.

In the glittering, swirling blackness of the omnimorphic spell, Twilight held the hooves of the Princess. She spoke with words as new as coursing blood. As old as the bones of mountains.

In the midst of the Spell of All Things, she wove a tapestry of land and light and shadow. Where ponies turned to the rise of Moon and Sun with equal joy. Where they lay among the lush grasses and watched the stars.

Where they gathered in their masses and stood the long vigil every year. Praying to the gods that no longer walked the Earth that a Princess they did not remember would return whole.

She spoke of beauty and pain. She painted a portrait of a sister cried out in song day by day and year by year. The sister growing more slender by the day, wasting away in pools of silver moonsblood. She spoke of ponies without number waiting to accept her back into the herd.

“It's time to come home, Luna.”

Luna nodded. Side by side and hoof in hoof they walked, and the apparitions of who she once was vanished.

When the light vanished, the six were sprawled in a ponypile atop the Princess. Sunset managed a single thought before she dropped from the exhaustion of magical expenditure and her rebirth from ashes.

Oh no, she's cute.

Homecoming

In her cage, Celestia felt a shift. A vast expenditure of magical power. She felt a tugging in her chest as her magic yearned to again twine with that of the Spell of All Things. The chains blocking the sun dissipated slowly. She soared on wings of flame, her mane and tail crackling coronas of sunfire. She barreled towards the corona and tucked her chin, shearing through and rocketing towards her home. Tears streamed behind her, as her hooves stirred the ether and propelled her to higher speeds.

The sun broke over Equestria's western ranges, and the ponies rejoiced. A sunbeam lanced into the castle's windows, and she raced down it towards her destiny. Towards the sister she'd once lost.

The group of ponies were stirring slowly, all of them groaning and shaking out exhaustion. Rainbow pressed her face into her hooves and grumbled, Pinkie nosing under her wing to hide from the light.

Fluttershy glanced towards her closest friend and gasped at the raiment sparkling at her throat. “Oh Rarity… it's so lovely.”

Rarity gave her newly restored tail an experimental flick and embraced it against her chest with a squeal of joy. “I know! I'll never part with it again.”

Sunset smiled as she approached and lent her horn to helping ponies out of the pile. She felt renewed, herself. She laid a hoof against the left side of her face. Spike's flame had been hot enough to restore her, but not enough to fully complete the job. She smiled a bit wider as she felt everything in place- her vision no longer half ghostly mage-sight.

Fluttershy shook her head. “No. Your necklace. It looks just like your cutie mark.”

Rarity glanced down at the violet gemstone sparkling at her throat. “What? Ooh. So does yours!”

Twilight leaned on her mother and smiled as she watched her new friends fuss over the new jewelry and revel in the small hurts repaired by the Elements’ magic. Applejack nudged her and flashed a crooked smile.

“Gee, Twilight! I thought you were just spoutin' a lot of hooey, but I reckon we really do represent the Elements of Harmony.”

The breaking sun finally reached the windows, throwing the rubble of the battle site into stark relief. All seven turned towards the sound of clicking hooves shod in gold. The soft, warm voice of their Princess filled the room.

“Indeed you do. As my sister and I once did. The omnimorphic spell is a heavy burden, but I'm sure you can shoulder it better than we did.”

Twilight gasped and raced forth. Sunset followed at a more sedate pace, but with no less emotion. Now that the crisis was past, the held breath was allowed to be released and they were free to worry about what had happened to her.

“Princess Celestia!”
“Mom!”

The six gasped softly and dropped into the lowest bows they could manage, as the pair nestled under a wing apiece.

Celestia smiled, the expression as kind as her dawn. “Twilight Sparkle, I knew you and Sunset would rise to the task.”

Twilight blinked slowly and freed herself from the embrace of down. “But... you told me it was all an old pony tale!”

Celestia shook her head. There was no evidence of the marble statue that sat upon the throne, this was a new Princess. A mother, a grandmother. A sister and a friend. “Sunset and I told you that you needed to make some friends, nothing more. I saw the signs of Nightmare Moon's return, and I knew it was you who had the magic inside to defeat her, but you could not unleash it until you let true friendship into your heart.”

Her face fell. She swallowed, and her voice shook. The mare she had been once upon a time shone through as she gazed upon her sister. “Now if only another will as well. Princess Luna…”

At the sound of her name, the Princess started awake. She rose to her hooves, kicking aside the shards of the Nightmare's armor. She carefully stared at the ground, withers hunched up under the withering gaze of the Unconquered Sun.

In the fading timeless mist of the Spell, the world looked like a reel of film exposed twice. They saw at once the Solar Princess and the petulant Lunar, and a sorrowful Pegasus reaching for her Earth sister.

The younger sibling was smaller, barely taller than an adult pony. Splotches evoking the spray of stars in the night sky scattered her dusky navy coat, and her darker blue mane hid her face from view.

Celestia's voice trembled with emotion. “It has been a thousand years since I have seen you like this. Time to put our differences behind us. We were meant to rule together, little sister. Will you accept my friendship?”

Pinkie gasped and clung to Dash, chewing on a hoof. Sunset smiled and slid a foreleg over Twilight's withers, bringing her daughter in close.

Luna seemed like she'd remain silent and defiant… until she suddenly launched herself forward and buried her muzzle in her sister's chest and clung to her like a sailor might the mast of a ship in gale. “I'm so sorry! I missed you so much, big sister!”

Celestia joined her sister in crying, pressing her close. For the first time in a thousand years, the sisters embraced. “ I've missed you, too. Every night for a thousand years I was reminded of my failure.”

The Town Hall and its preparations were a faintly smoking crater, but Ponyville had a more important task than any township had ever held. A reception for the returning Princess. By the time they reached the edge of town, every gathered pony knew what had happened. Pinkie rushed on ahead and did her best to help.

The square was repurposed to hold the event. Every musician gathered to play for the Celebration, and for Luna. Every restaurant, every pony whose mark talent had anything to do with food combined their larders and efforts to a feast befitting the visitors.

Twilight broke off from the celebration early, as she watched another pair of ponies pay their respects to the emotionally overwhelmed Lunar Princess. She sighed and turned away, her hoofsteps heavy as she approached the library. She had to clean, then pack, and prepare for her return to Canterlot. As a filly she'd never wanted to come here, but now she didn't want to ever leave.

Celestia caught up with her, and lifted her chin with a hoof. “Why so glum, Twilight? Are you not happy that your quest is complete and you can return to your studies in Canterlot?”

Twilight scuffed a hoof and looked away. To remove her chin from Celestia's hoof was unconscionable. “That's just it. I… I let friends drift away once and forgot how wonderful friendship feels. I don't want to leave and give it up again.”

Celestia's eyes closed and she smiled. She gently folded her forelegs around the small mare and nestled her adoptive granddaughter close. “Spike, take a note, please. I, Princess Celestia, hereby decree that the unicorn Twilight Sparkle shall take on a new mission for Equestria.”

Her eyes tracked to Luna, currently giggling and blushing as Sunset bowed stiffly and kissed her hoof. She should have seen that coming from miles away. “She must continue to study the magic of friendship, and will assist in Luna's rehabilitation. She must report her findings from her new home in Ponyville, where she shall take up her title and possession of the Golden Oaks Library. The unicorn Sunset Shimmer shall remain as well, to more closely guide Twilight Sparkle and retain oversight of Dame Everfree's various holdings.”

Spike blew on the ink to dry it, and furled the scroll tightly. He fixed the image of Celestia's secretary Raven Inkwell in his mind and carefully flamed it on its way.

Twilight broke off and bowed lowly as she could manage. “Thank you, Princess Celestia! I'll study harder than ever before.”

Pinkie nudged Sunset as the latter approached, sniggering softly. “See? What did I say! We throw her a huge party and she'll never want to leave!”

The party eventually broke up, and again Pinkie's talent came into full effect during the cleanup. A chariot touched down in the town square, and the ponies gasped. On one side was a member of the Solar Guard resplendent in his golden armor. On the other, a pony with the wings and tufted ears of a bat.

Luna bowed stiffly before mounting the steps to the chariot, nestling into the padding. Celestia followed shortly after and draped a wing across her back, looking slightly like a mother swan as she did so.

Twilight bade goodbye to her friends for the afternoon as they broke off to catch up on badly needed sleep, and bent herself to the task of neatening the library. As the sun began to set and the moon to rise, she leaned over a lectern and began composing the first of what promised to be many letters.

The Sisters passed the remainder of the day napping, welded together at the hip. After a thousand years locked away, Luna's appetite was healthy and her mind relatively sound. Celestia still pushed her into meeting with a small lime-green pegasus, at least for an hour.

Luna was secretly relieved that of all the changes she had seen this day, the order of Heartmenders yet lived.

When the appointed time came, they met together on the balcony overlooking the garden. They nestled together as a pair of horns lit gold and blue, the heavenly bodies shifting in perfect Harmony as they were always meant. In the last second both were in view. The sunset shimmered, the twilight sparkled, and the first vestiges of starlight glimmered.

Luna gasped as the Lyric Lavender opened and echoed its mournful music into the stillness of the deepening night. Celestia shifted as if she might speak, but Luna cut her off with a voice choked in emotion. She reeled words into the moonlight, the recurring thread of her long Nightmare.

”How my deeds pain me as time stretches long. How could I hurt them this way?”

A silver-shod hoof found Celestia's jaw.

”So rest easy now, my punishment's mine. The weight of my crimes are my own.”

Her voice gathered strength and shattered the silence. For all those long thousand years, the song had been an unknowing duet.

As the night deepened, Luna nestled into Celestia's side and watched over her rest. She couldn't tap her full strength just yet, but she could ensure her sister slept easy for the first time in a thousand years. She spun a dream, of a pony named Morning Sun and the foal who would follow her anywhere. She told her the story of the eternal love of Midnight Moon.

She was startled when a curl of smoke washed from her horn, and ashes collected into a scroll that appeared with a snap. Spying her mark printed into the ribbon, she opened it and began to read.

”Dear Princess Luna.

Today I learned that the past isn't as important as the future. That everyone deserves friendship, and it can be found if you just have the nerve to seek it out.

I hope you'll be my friend.

Faithfully yours, Twilight Sparkle.

P.S., Sunset hopes you'll visit soon. She won't admit it, but she does.”

Luna smiled, near in tears. Hidden in the furling of the scroll was another object, a flat sheet of glossy paper- a “Photograph” of Sunset, Twilight, and all their new friends in Ponyville.

“I will, Twilight Sparkle.”

Author's Notes:

https://youtu.be/P6T7v74UAWs

Ticket Turmoil

Author's Notes:

From the moment Sunset opened her eyes, she knew it was just going to be one of those days. She rolled out of bed and all four hooves found the floor with a quiet click. Yawning widely, she trotted across the loft apartment to peer into Twilight's bedroom. Empty, the linens and bedspread taut enough to bounce a bit off.

She rubbed her face and slowly started down into the library. That was empty as well, the door even locked. In the small kitchen she found a cup of coffee and a covered plate. She peered under the lid and smelled buckwheat pancakes.

As she settled down to her breakfast, she found a note beneath the plate. She began to munch and sip, and tugged it free to read Spike's scrawling penmanship.

Mom,
Applejack asked if I would go out and help her pick a stand of Golden Delicious apples at the orchard.
-Twilight.

She let out a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding. Twilight still remained inside reading or researching on most days, but her new friends had a fairly good success rate at drawing her out.

She smiled and sipped her coffee, as she looked out the window. It was a gorgeous midsummer Tuesday.

Twilight was miserable. She was hot, she was tired, and she was outside of her comfort zone. But, one only had to twist their hooves into the yielding soil to feel the thrum of the Earth.

This place, these orchards and farmlands, had basked in joy and love for centuries. It was impossible to be unhappy here. The warmth traveled up her legs, the Earth singing with every step and washing away her weariness. She leaned forward, tugging with all her might at the traces of the cart she pulled behind her.

It had been hard, backbreaking work, but she felt better for having performed it without magic. She couldn't ever harvest as much as Applejack had, since the farmer had a couple dozen pounds of pure muscle and Earth pony magic over her, but the trees still responded to her touch and shook their payload loose.

Spike had scampered across the ground, gathering up the fruit that hadn't fallen into their bushel baskets, and had helped to load up the carts. Twilight smiled as she watched Applejack pull a short train of carts to her single one, the Golden Delicious apples sparkling like freshly minted bits.

“Ah can't thank you enough, Twi.”

Twilight sniggered as they neared the barn, where their load would be taken into the cellar. “I was happy to help. Mom keeps bugging me to leave the library and hang out with my friends. Plus, we did make that bet with Big McIntosh.”

Applejack let out one of her whooping, cackling laughs. “Whoo-ee, I can't wait to see him trot down Stirrup Street in one’a Granny's girdles.”

They lined the carts up in the barn, and Twilight blushed as her stomach growled noisily. Applejack chuckled as she helped her out of the traces.

“I guess it's about lunchtime. Granny should have somethin’ ready ta eat by now.”

As they left the barn, Spike retched and belched out a cloud of smoke, rubbing his nose in mild annoyance as it coalesced into a scroll. They looked at him with interest as he unfurled it and cleared his throat.

“Ahem… Hear ye, hear ye. Her Grand Royal Highness, Princess Celestia Sol Invicta of Equestria, is pleased to announce the Grand Galloping Gala to be held in the magnificent capital city of Canterlot, on the twenty first day of Spring Moon in celebration of the Unification and the new Era of Harmony…” He shuffled the page in his claws, skipping the stuffy language. “Eh… yadda yadda… Oh, here. ...cordially extends an invitation to Twilight Sparkle plus one guest.”

Twilight and Applejack shared an expression of shock, before Spike coughed up another cloud of smoke that formed into two gold-leafed tickets. Elaborate scrolling penwork labeled one “Dss Twilight Sparkle of Everfree”, the other simply “Guest”. Applejack gasped, and one could practically see the bit symbols in her eyes.

“Land sakes… if I had an apple stand set up, ponies would be chowin' our tasty vittles 'til the cows came home. Do you have any idea how much business I could drum up for Sweet Apple Acres? Why, with all that money, we could do a heap of fixin' up 'round here. We could replace that saggy old roof, and Big McIntosh could replace that saggy old plow, and Granny Smith could replace that saggy old hip!”

Twilight and Spike exchanged a look.

“Why, Ah'd give my left hind leg to go to that gala.”

Sunset paused in her self-appointed task of re-shelving books. She'd felt a disturbance. She glanced out the window, a migraine beginning to burn deep in her skull.

“Someone just said something really dumb.”

Twilight let out a breath and separated the “Guest” ticket, holding it in a sheath of telekinesis. “Oh, well in that case, would you like to--”

Anything she might have said was drowned out by the whicker of wings as Rainbow Dash slammed to the ground between them.

“Whoa! Are we talking about the Grand Galloping Gala?”

Twilight closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Her stomach growled and she began poking through the apples for a snack, trying to ignore the inane babble rising behind her. She loved her speedster friend, she really did, just whenever she opened her mouth Twilight could actually hear her brain cells committing suicide one by one.

She bit into an apple and turned around, chewing as the babble stopped. A nearby stump was playing host to a hoof-wrestle. She swallowed, and took another bite, chewing while watching the proceedings with some interest. Finally she cut in.

“Ahem. Girls, these are my tickets, I'll decide who gets it, thank you very much. Whoever has the best reason to go should get the ticket, don't you think?”

Which was exactly the wrong thing to say. It should have resulted in each of them calmly making their best arguments. Instead, they jostled to be the one about two inches off her snout, and shouted in her face. Really, they did actually have good reasons to get the ticket over the other. The problem is that Twilight couldn't see why the other shouldn't.

She slowly backed up as she polished off her apple. “I'm… gonna go. I'm going to think about it over lunch, and then I'll get back to you with my decision.”

They fell to arguing between themselves again as she sprinted off in the direction of the library. She might have been a full grown mare of fifteen, but in times of stress there was nothing quite like the safety and comfort of her mother.

The rest of the day ended up being just as awful as it had begun. Each of her friends that learned of the extra ticket all had good reasons they should go, and she couldn't decide between any of them.

Pinkie simply wished to attend the biggest party in all of Equestria. Rarity had a dream of her perfect fairytale ending. Fluttershy wanted to visit the Menagerie. Then they began to try and bribe her with showers of gifts and favors. Sunset had taken one glance at the growing argument and since her advice wasn't requested she shoved them back into the sunshine.

Then some random passersby learned of the ticket and it slowly evolved into a full town-wide riot.

Sunset watched Twilight sprint off ahead of a crowd of clamoring ponies, and turned on the remaining five with slowly building fury.

“It's definitely Tuesday. You five, in the library. Now.”

The five mares shook at the same tones that had faced down Nightmare Moon without a shred of fear.

Sunset paced, and tried to remind herself that these were Twilight's friends. Smoke curled up from where her hooves touched the wood floor of the library, and her mane sparked every so often. She took a deep breath and faced the five staring at their hooves.

“So. Take it from the top, please. Slowly.”

Rarity cleared her throat and glanced along the row, apparently being elected spokespony. She stepped forth and scuffed a hoof. “This morning, Twilight received an announcement for the Gala, and two tickets. We… got a little carried away with our desires for the extra tickets. We overwhelmed the poor dear and… we feel just terrible.”

Sunset ground her hoof against her face to try and crush her migraine. “So I assume that each of you had good reasons.” She pointed at each in turn.

Applejack cleared her throat first. “Uh. Money.”
Rainbow had the decency to look ashamed. “Wonderbolts.”
Rarity rolled her polished hooves together in slow circles. “Prince Blueblood.”
Pinkie scuffed a hoof and muttered. “Party…”
Fluttershy practically whispered. “Animals…”

Sunset's migraine grew. “Okay. Those are all really stupid reasons. I'm going to explain why they're stupid and try not to lose my temper. Then we're going to find Twilight, and you're all going to apologize.”

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “Applejack. The event is catered. At best we can talk to Celestia about Sweet Apple Acres getting on the catering list and some staffers so you can focus on networking and sales.

Rainbow Dash. I've been to a few Galas. The Wonderbolts generally don't “talk shop” there, and you'll be lucky to get a word in edgewise with everypony else trying to get their attention.

Rarity. He's gay.

Pinkie. The Gala is a formal event, not a rave. Unless you want to hang out with the snootiest ponies you can imagine, you will either not have fun or ruin the night for everypony else.

Fluttershy. The animals in the Menagerie are very skittish and do not approach ponies. You won't be able to interact with them and I can see you getting frustrated.”

Each pony managed to look more downtrodden and more like a kicked puppy than they had before, if such a thing was possible. Moping was interrupted by the snap-crackle of teleportation, and Twilight dazedly locked that infuriating front door and leaned against it.

”Apologize.”

Twilight turned to see her friends approaching, and Sunset fuming behind them. She shrank back slightly. “I can't decide, I just can't decide. It's important to all of you and I just can't stand to disappoint any of you, and giving me gifts and doing me favors won't make any difference, because you're all my friends and I wanna make you all happy and I can't, I just can't!”

Applejack glanced over her shoulder at Sunset and scuffed a hoof. “Twilight, sugar, I didn't mean to put so much pressure on you, and if it helps, I don't want the ticket anymore. You can give it to somepony else. I won't feel bad, I promise.”

One by one, the others apologized for their behavior and expressed that they didn't want the ticket either. Sunset let out a deep breath and relaxed, moving to embrace Twilight.

“That was very big of all of you. I'm disappointed in you, Applejack, and you, Rarity. You're both twenty, you should know better. But I'm proud that you owned up to your mistake.”

She gently nuzzled Twilight. “Spike, take a letter. I think we've learned something we can share with Princess Luna.”

Twilight cleared her throat as Spike prepared to write. “Dear Princess Luna,
I've learned that one of the joys of friendship is sharing your blessings, but when there's not enough blessings to go around, having more than your friends can make you feel pretty awful. So, though I appreciate the invitation, I will be returning both tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala. If my friends can't all go, I don't wanna go either.”

Spike furled the scroll and sealed it, and sent it with a puff of flame. The five moved forward to press in close and nuzzle one another, and he gagged a bit.

Applejack narrowed her eyes. “Well wallop my withers, Spike. Isn't that just like a boy? Can't handle the least bit of sentiment.”

He waved a claw and closed his eyes as he belched out a tongue of flame and a curl of smoke. A scroll landed on the floor, and he puzzled over it for several seconds before handing it off to Sunset.

“Ah Luna doesn't have the tightest grip on Modern Ponish. She writes…”

”Duchess Twilight Sparkle of Everfree,
Mine intention was for thou to be accompanied by Sunset, or in the case that she doth acquire her own ticket by a date. We do not wish to break up thy herd, and have sent a replacement of eight tickets.”

Sunset barely contained her sniggering laughter. Twilight froze, and the rest slowly grew more flushed as she continued reading. Finally, she caught sight of their faces and erupted into cackling laughter.

Apple*ucked Season

Author's Notes:

Equestria runs on five-day weeks and twenty five day / five week months. Wednesday and Friday are never mentioned in the series and are subsequently removed.
The week begins on Sunday/Sun's Day, followed by Moon's Day / Monday, named after Celestia and Luna respectively. Taken as deific figures, Celestia would evoke Odin and Luna would evoke Frigg/Freya, and Wednesday and Friday are the only days never mentioned in the series.

The sun slowly rose over the Western mountain range, casting its golden glow upon the fields and hills of Sweet Apple Acres. A pair of siblings sat side by side in the growing dawn, and the smaller whistled.

“Boy howdy! I got my work cut out for me. That there is the biggest bumper crop o' apples I ever laid eyes on.”

The elder rolled his eyes. The shenanigans of last Tuesday had left him with broken ribs from a too-tight girdle. “Too big for you to handle on your own.”

Applejack squinted and prodded him in the side. “Now you hush, go and rest up. Trust Applejack to haul in all these apples.”

Big Mac rose to his hooves and chewed a stalk of hay as he squinted towards the horizon and tallied trees.

“One pony, plus hundreds of apple trees, times the dozens of apples on each tree… Just don't add up, Jack.”

Applejack scrunched her nose and stamped a forehoof. “Now look here. Just cos you got yer fancy high school diploma don't mean y'all can use yer fancy mathematics to muddy the issue! I said I could handle this harvest and I'm gonna prove it to you. I'm gonna get every last apple out of those trees this applebuck season all by myself!”

Life in Ponyville had become almost routine. Sunset woke, and zombied her way through morning ablutions. She trotted downstairs to find Spike had cooked either pancakes or oatmeal depending on what the fresh fruit situation was. She would then assist Twilight with library tasks, or go out into town on her own.

She slid on her jacket and saddlebag, and gathered her bit purse. She ventured beyond the sanctity of the library and glared at the infuriating front door.

“One day. I'll figure out why you annoy me so much.”

She turned and headed towards the open-air market, unfurling the shopping list. The market was a little more hectic, but Filthy Rich was too greasy for her to visit Barnyard Bargains and something in her brain cried when she walked down Two Things Avenue.

She turned up her collar and looked away as she passed by the still-smoking crater of Town Hall. The ponies of Ponyville had no hard feelings, but the sight of it reminded her of the single instant of agony as she burned until only the core remained.

“Let's see. Roses from Daisy. Lilies from Rose. Daisies from Lily…”

She stopped in front of an empty lot, where there was a friendly orange or red Central Equestrian pony every day from Sunrise to Moonrise. She cleared her throat and glanced towards a passerby as she felt the ground begin to vibrate underneath her hooves.

“Excuse me. What day is today?”

The scruffy colt thought for a moment. “Tuesday.”

“Thank you. That's what I thought.”

Many ponies thought that Rainbow Dash was lazy due to her frequent napping. They weren't exactly right; as the Weather Captain for the Everfree Settled Zone she was always “on call”. Sometimes she didn't see her own bed for days on end, and when you gotta crash for forty winks any cloud will do.

She was roused from a lovely dream about the torrential downpour they'd broken up the previous night as it had rolled out of the Everfree and threatened the town. She rose, pushing exhausted muscles into action and looked around for what had woken her. A dust cloud, made by a whole herd of cows charging.

Lungs that could shout over the winds of the coastal nightmare called Hurricane inflated, and a voice that could drown out lightning echoed over the sleepy burg. One word, two syllables.

“Stampede!”

At the cry, all hell broke out. When cows were frightened, they tended to lose reason. When one ran, the rest tended to follow. Just like ponies.

The vibrations of their impending doom grew ever closer by the second, the more skittish ponies fainting outright, the Mayor shouting from her temporary tent office to try and regain order.

Framed by the rising sun was Applejack, rearing up. Sunset swore she could hear a fanfare… and glared at Pinkie Pie, who sheepishly hid a trumpet behind her back.

The pony and her trusty collie charged, the dog nipping at hooves and barking to press the herd tighter together. Applejack dove right into the midst of the crushing hulks, and pulled sharply on the horns of the lead cow. At the last moment, the stampede turned away from town and slowed to a walk. Applejack hopped down and exchanged a few heated words with Mary-Jo, the spokescow, who responded in her cheerful drawl. Just like that, it was over and the cows returned to their pasture.

Ivory Scroll had been the unopposed mayor of Ponyville for nearly twenty years. She did so through her unrivaled understanding of politics. Sunset watched as gears turned, and the machinery of the mare's brain switched over from disaster management to celebration. She cleared her throat.

“So… Miss Mayor. About… how frequently would you say something like this happens?”

The mayor thought. “Oh, once a week or so. Just about every Tuesday.”

Sunset rubbed her eyes. “Of course.”

The rest of the day was spent in clamorous preparation. It didn't do to carry out a major announcement in front of the Town Smoking Crater, so a stage had been hastily erected in front of the library. Twilight had started to prepare a speech, but Sunset acted on a feeling and held her back from the stage.

Sure enough, the Mayor's speech was interrupted by crosstalk and other ponies supplying irrelevant details about Applejack. Apparently she was going to be all over town in the next few days. Sunset wondered how a farmer could find time to be several miles off the farm and not selling anything and the farm stay afloat.

Finally everyone was settled down, and the curtain was pulled aside to reveal the… entirely sufficient work of Brass Cast of Trophies and Tchotchkes. Sunset rubbed her forehead as an eye twitched, and she nudged Twilight in the ribs. Her daughter seemed a little put-out that she hadn't gotten to read her speech.

“I wonder what the annual trophy budget is, or if they hoof them out to whoever averts the most weekly disasters in a year.”

Twilight snorted despite herself. “It does sound like Applejack is overextending herself a bit.”

Right on cue the farmer shuffled up to the stage and blinked stupidly as the Mayor chattered in her face, looking like the walking dead. The second Ivory Scroll turned back to the collected ponies, she promptly fell asleep.

Twilight glanced aside at her friends, who split between sharing concerned expressions and watching Applejack mumble something that sounded like acceptance before dragging the trophy off the stage and heading back towards the Acres.

“Was it just me, or did Applejack seem a little…” She glanced towards the sky as if Celestia herself would give her the words to phrase it delicately.

Rainbow raised a brow as Applejack made it out of sight. “Tired?”

Fluttershy chewed the inside of her cheek. “Um. Dizzy?”

Rarity scrunched the bridge of her snout and pursed her lips, one hoof indicating her mane. “Messy? She's normally rough and tumble but she usually looks a bit more put together.”

Sunset snrked softly. “Probably just got into Granny's “Special Liniment” a little too heavily.”

Pinkie snorted a little. “Nah, she looks fine, considering.”

All eyes turned towards her, with a simultaneous “Considering what?”

The pink mare's ears pinned back slightly. “Well, she's a farmer, right? And they have a lot of different apples in the orchards. They start taking in the honeycrisp and the golds now in early Reaping, and the whole of the Acres has to be harvested by Nightmare Night.”

Six pairs of eyes blinked slowly, more used to Pinkie's random obtuse commentary than anything actually grounded in reality. She met the blank stares and tilted her head. “What? Petriculture runs on mostly the same timetable. Geode-stones tend to be the best right now and sometimes explode after Nightmare Night.”

Sunset blinked slowly. “Remind me to never think too hard about growing rocks but the rest makes sense. Doesn't she have a huge family though? Why is she so tired?”

Twilight pursed her lips. This was one of those moments, part of the social contract of friendship. Applejack obviously needed their help.

Twilight watched, aghast. Applejack had carefully arranged buckets. She stepped forward, leaned into her forehooves, and kicked back at empty air. She tried again. And again. Finally she managed to kick one of her buckets, sending it sailing off across the Acres. She sighed, and appeared a few inches off Applejack's snout with the crackle-fizz of teleportation.

She shouted her name, but the pony was asleep. This close she could see the frazzle in her mane, the way she seemed a few shades paler than normal, and the exhaustion clear in her peacefully snoozing face.

She sighed and shook her shoulder, ducking back as the farmer snorted awake with a shudder. “Applejack, when was the last time you slept?”

Applejack stooped like a clockwork soldier beginning to wind down, and began mechanically lifting fallen apples into a basket. “Uh… Sun's Day.”

Twilight pressed a hoof into her snout and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. “Applejack. It's Thursday.”

The farmer snorted and dragged herself over to the next tree in line. “Huh. Never could get the hang of Thursdays.”

Twilight shook her head a little and reappeared next to her friend with a cheerful ‘pop’. “Applejack, I can't really say anything since I'd probably forget to eat and sleep if it weren't for Mom and Spike, and if it weren't for you girls I probably wouldn't leave the library. But when it comes to you skipping sleep for four days, you need to admit that you need help. Why are you doing this all by yourself? What about all those relatives that were here when I first came to town?”

Applejack snorted and managed to solidly connect with the bole of the tree. Her hindhooves fitfully sparkled greenish, and the tree barely trembled, but the apples still dropped… all over the ground instead of into the baskets which she'd left about thirty feet away.

“Well Big Mac snapped a couple ribs in Granny's girdle, Granny's too old an Bloom is too young. And the rest of ‘em were here to help with Summer Sun, they're doin the same all over Equestria. So, uh, I'm on my own. Which means, I should really get back to work.”

Twilight rubbed her forehead slowly. She was starting to understand why her mother had taken to near-constant chewing of willowbark. “Well… if you say so. I'll let you get back to it, but I'm going to be checking up on you and making sure you're sleeping. Or do you plan to keep this up all the way until Nightmare Night?”

Applejack sighed, her withers drooping a little as she dragged a basket over and began placing the apples inside. “That's what honest work is all about, Twi. Ya keep pushing until the job's done. It's the Earth pony way.”

Twilight sighed and patted Applejack on the shoulder, leaning in to brush their cheeks together. “If it's that important, I'll drop it. Seeya, Applejack.”

In retrospect, Twilight should have been a little more insistent. The remainder of the day resulted in an exhausted Applejack causing; Rainbow Dash shattering a window and destroying a bookcase as well as breaking her collarbone and spraining a wing, a hit to the Corner's reputation and forty-nine cases of food poisoning, several hundred bits worth of property damage between hungry frightened bunnies and panicked ponies.

Like a sane, mature pony, Twilight asked for help. Specifically, she asked for Sunset to accompany her to the Acres. When they arrived, they found Applejack by following the faint sounds of futile thuds and low cursing.

Twilight glanced over her shoulder for support, and sighed. “Applejack. We need to talk. Enough is enough.”

Applejack didn't seem to hear her, and brushed past her to the next tree. Twilight glanced back at Sunset and let out a deep sigh, teleporting in front of Applejack and halting her with a hoof on the nose.

The farmer squinted and scrunched her features up slightly at the crack of sound and the tap. “Uh, Twi… ain't y'all afraid you'll… teleport inside of somepony?”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Please, Applejack. I've been doing this since I was a foal. Splinching isn't a big deal. Mostly. Almost never fatal. Anyway, this is about you. I promised that I'd come back. Your applebucking hasn't just caused you problems. You trying to work while exhausted has over-propelled Pegasus', practically poisoned plenty of ponies, and terrorized bushels of brand new bouncing baby bunnies. I don't care what you say, you. Need. Help.”

Applejack looked like she would dig her hooves in again. Sunset shifted to go for the nuclear option of getting Granny Smith. Then she glanced across the Acres and took it all in. Four days of constant work, and only a few hundred trees cleared. Three months of this ahead of her, all the way until Nightmare Night and the season change. She took her hat in her forehooves and sighed. Her voice was an uncharacteristic tiny squeak.

“Okay, Twilight.”

Twilight rubbed her forehead and glanced up at Sunset. “I'm not taking no for an… answer? What?”

Applejack turned her hat, inspecting the worn felt. “I said… okay. Yes, Twilight. Please. And Sunset. And… everypony. Please.”

Twilight rubbed her shoulder. “I know it's hard, Applejack, but it's the right thing to do. Let's get you into bed. Me and Sunset will put these apples up, and we'll all come out tomorrow.”

Saturday broke to seven ponies watching Sun's rise. Applejack looked a little better for a good night's sleep, and she was pressured into less strenuous tasks. Over the course of the day ponies filtered onto the Acres and lent a horn, or a hoof, or a wing.

That night, Sunset sat on Twilight's haunches and pressed forehooves into the smaller pony's sore shoulders. “I think you've got a letter for Luna, hm?”

Twilight groaned. Even with the work being cut into sevenths, and then more and more as ponies came to help, it was still rigorous and there was still three months of it to go. At least they'd made a big enough dent that the Apples wouldn't need as much help in the coming weeks.

“I think I do. Spike… take a letter.

Dear Princess Luna,
My friend Applejack is the best friend a pony could ever have, and she's always there to help anypony. The only trouble is, when she needs help, she finds it hard to accept it. So while friendship is about giving of ourselves to friends, it's also about accepting what our friends have to offer.
Your faithful friend, Twilight Sparkle.”

Spike blew to dry the ink, before furling the scroll. He inhaled sharply and breathed out again, burning it to ash and sending it to the Princess.