Moss covered towers and crumbling stone parapets peek out from the overgrown Everfree Forest, the first parts of the Castle of the Two Sisters visible from the east. An empty moat encircles the entirety, though adventurous plants have been sending shoots and feelers ever since Celestia’s aversion spell was broken by Nightmare Moon. As Twilight and Doug approach they spot two blurs of blue working the outskirts in a grid formation, High Winds and Misty Fly tasked with guarding Princess Cadance and now assisting with scouting for any approaching threats. More and more of the castle becomes visible, from the almost completely destroyed entrance hall to the relatively intact buildings in the back. Twilight can make out the hole into the library she explored when Discord betrayed them, the attached grand concert hall, the-

“Took you two long enough!” Rainbow Dash shouts as she buzzes Twilight from below and behind, just out of the alicorn’s sight. The pegasus laughs uproariously at the filly-like shriek, flipping head-over-tail and ending up with cerulean wingtips lightly touching lavender. “You didn’t get lost, did you?”

“I didn’t spot any rocs patrolling,” Twilight covers as she catches her breath. She hates that she was caught unawares. “We had to fly to their nesting grounds.”

“Still, you were gone a long time.” Rainbow Dash regards Doug with a swarthy smirk. “You didn’t stop for any activities, did you?”

Twilight can feel the eyes rolling behind her. “No,” Doug denies. It sounds weak, but that might have been because she nearly threw him.

“Wait, wait, wait. You got it down to during flight!?” Rainbow Dash whistles appreciably, leering at Twilight’s rump. “I didn’t think he was big enough to fly with no wings! Or, you know. No hands.” She deftly closes the distance, nuzzling the back of Doug’s head. He might have swatted her away, but both hands are busy keeping him nice and secure. “I can see going slow if that’s the case. Wouldn’t want ya to fall off, big guy.”

“He didn’t fly with no hands,” Twilight denies, more out of a concern that Rainbow Dash might imitate her imagination than actual opposition to intercourse during flight. It sounds exciting if impractical, at least enough to try.

“Did you use your magic?” Cadance asks as she pulls alongside Twilight, eyes twinkling and barely suppressing her smirk. Twilight glowers at their teasing. “I could use some pointers! Or a demonstration.” She playfully winks at Doug before waggling her flanks back and forth. “Sunshine, sunshine!”

“Ladybugs awake,” Twilight gamely replies, covering her eyes with her hooves and joyfully spreading them wide. “Clap your hooves and do a little shake!”

She spins around, as does Cadance, their rumps mashing together, the midair maneuver coming naturally. It takes a moment longer than it perhaps should for them to come apart (completely Cadance’s fault!), leaving Rainbow Dash unable to contain her snickering.

“Nothing happened,” Twilight half heartedly insists as they near the front gates where Rarity is testing miniature woven grass skirts on a disorderly group of small, colorful puckwudgies. The porcupine-like critters seem as unenthusiastic about their predicament as she is about the teasing, made all the worse by the (hopefully slim) possibility of Doug taking Cadance up on her offer. She needs to beat the alicorn at her own game to get the teasing to stop (and it better be just teasing!)

“Do I need to get Applejack?” Rainbow Dash snorts. “You expect us to believe you flew for two hours with him on your back and nothing happened? You spent the entire time… talking? What could possibly be so interesting?”

“Saddles,” Doug answers as he hops off, legs shaking from having held on for so long. He runs his hands along his inner thighs, groaning at the stiffness.

“Oh, come on! Saddles?” Rainbow Dash repeats at a shout, gawking at the two. “How can nothing happen when you’re literally talking about how to have sex?”

“We’re weird?” Doug’s eyes widen as Rarity stomps over, her light pink aura yanking the pegasus back. “Y-yes?”

“You mean to tell me,” Rarity demands, a horde of irate puckwudgies behind her, the gnashing teeth in wide mouths only slightly less fearsome than the scorned mare, “that you spent your time with Twilight discussing fashion?”

“Comparing technical designs,” Doug clarifies, to no avail.

Rarity dismisses his answer with a swift swipe of her hoof. “No matter. What you discuss with her is your own decision. But if you think you can get out of doing what I wish to do because you’ve already done it, then you have another thing coming!”

Doug grunts, which Twilight finds quite understandable; her own hormones flare up from time to time, made all the worse when she finds herself vying for her stallion’s limited time and he’s busy with somepony else. He steps forward, wrapping an arm around Rarity’s neck as she glares upward at him. “Do you know what a pommel is?”

Rarity frowns at the seeming non-sequitur. “The blunt end of a rapier?”

“That size, but on a saddle.” Doug makes a fist and rubs it into the thick of Rarity’s back. “Right about there. Gives the rider something to hold onto.”

Rarity twists her neck, calculating, her animosity gone. “Hm. A rider, you say? That would be impractical for hooves, at best. Or teeth. But for hands?” She chews at her lip; her horn lights, pulling out a pencil and pad of paper to begin a sketch.

“How are things going here?” Doug asks, looking up at the grand entrance with more than a hint of trepidation. The gray stone stairs leading up to the tall wooden doors are the only thing about the entrance that has remained intact: while the iron studded doors look serviceable the hinges have rusted shut, the ground is more wall than ornate tile, and the ceiling has likewise invited every stained glass window for a party on the floor.

“It’s not half as bad as I feared,” Cadance answers with an optimism only matched by Pinkie Pie. She walks up to the front doors, her magic wrenching them open with a horrific shriek that sends the nearby critters scurrying for cover. Or loosing a hail of quills in her direction, which she neatly dodges. “This is the worst of the damage.”

“Still,” Twilight says as she steps inside, surveying the scattered rubble. Her horn lights, but nothing happens, only a few shards of glass tepidly waving. “Oh.” She frowns; the stones are layered with spells, some of them concealing what the others are doing. If overpowered they would do as they were told, but it’s like overcoming friction when pushing something: anything less is negated, and then the task gets easier, but not by much. It would take an extraordinarily large initial output, more than she can safely bring to bear without risking her foals. “Restoration won’t work?”

“I haven’t tried everywhere,” Cadance confirms, “but most of the stone is warded for durability. It’s great while it holds…”

“...But terrible once broken.” Twilight grimaces. Even if they got the pieces back in place, a lot of the hornwork would need to be redone. “That’s a lot of work.”

“But not an insurmountable amount.” Cadance cracks her neck one way, then the other. “Here, help me shift some of them. See what we’re dealing with.”

“If the whole place is like this?” Twilight could see a team of builders spending a month and not restoring the castle to its former glory. Her School of Friendship seems a paltry lot by comparison, a foal’s plaything built of sticks and mud. Now, if they had their hooves on an artifact with the power of four alicorns, maybe they could heal the damage in one fell swoop! Alas, the Storm King snapped the Staff of Sacanas across his knee. Is that why Celestia crafted the artifact in the first place, she knew it could be used here? Twilight feels a little bad if that was the case.

Regardless, she tests one of the heaviest stones. Neither horn nor hooves make much progress, gaining a few inches and exposing a bright white floor. She sweeps a few of the smaller pieces aside, exposing more of the intricately tiled floor. Tiny cracks form spiderwebs much like the wispy cobwebs clinging to the corners. It makes her sad to see the pattern despoiled so, and resolves to do whatever it takes to return the castle to its once pristine condition. “You know, Applejack knows more about this sort of field work.”

“She does, but I wanted to get an estimate on how much there is to do.” Cadance smiles at Rainbow Dash. “Can you carry a message to High Winds and Misty Fly? Ask them to scout for more signs of collapse, places that need rebuilding, and make a list. Thanks!”

“Sure thing!” Rainbow Dash snaps off a quick salute before zooming into the air.

Rarity returns to a plain pink suitcase, pointedly staring at Doug. “Here,” she orders. He doesn’t look terribly upset at being used as a packmule and gamely picks it, initially surprised at the heavy weight. “This way!” the unicorn calls as she takes off to the biggest building at a swift trot, the three of them happy to follow.

The doors here are quite similar to the ones Doug buried in Castle Sparkle. They have to crane their necks up to see the top, yet are thin enough to only allow six ponies abreast if they don’t mind squeezing. The vertical design helps ameliorate the claustrophobia many pegasi feel at being trapped indoors, but the rooms themselves are not spacious enough to allow free flight, the dark corridors even worse.

A cobblestone path splits in three directions, with low (compared to everything else) corridors leading left and right while a staircase rises ahead. A short, unappetizing grass grows off to the sides and in between individual stones. Holes in the ceilings and walls allow a good amount of light to filter through. Otherwise, sconces shaped like gargoyles and ferocious beasts hold unlit torches inside gaping maws, snarling unicorns in place of horns, or at the end of eerily lifelike pony legs.

“I would have a word with the interior decorator,” Rarity remarks to Cadance as they take the staircase at a slow walk, putting to words the sinister feeling they are all getting, ears and eyes on high alert. “Too much contrasting light and dark.” She shudders as they enter a long, carpeted corridor with embossed portraits along each wall. “Thankfully, you’ll be taking over!”

“Aww, you don’t like it? I’ve always wanted a ~spooky~ castle!” Cadance grins before diving toward a thick cobweb, stirring up a cloud of dust as she nearly buries her muzzle in the sticky strands. “Come on out, little guys! No need to be afraid!”

An itching sensation creeps up Twilight’s foreleg as dozens of teal star-emblazoned black spiders peek out from their webs. She shrieks, stumbles backward and furiously shakes her leg, only for nothing to be there. She plops down on her rump, hyperventilating, which opens a trapdoor three paces in front of her.

Right underneath Doug.

Next Chapter: Ch. 141 - Inspired Learning, Part Five Estimated time remaining: 9 Hours, 44 Minutes