Back in Ponyville, Doug pulls his chair next to Celestia at the breakfast table. He’s amazed at the ability of the mare to, despite towering above everypony, slip into the background. Maybe it’s how her mane ceases flowing and her wings tuck against her barrel, or some sort of spell that diverts their attention, or just an automatic deference the ponies pick up on that he misses. And it’s easy to see why she wants to stay out of the way as five remaining foals, Meringue absent, file into the kitchen. Each scampers to the closest spot and begins messily devouring anything in hooves’ reach, and squirming to reach anything that isn’t.

He doesn’t particularly want to bother the Princess, not with her glazed expression, a commonality when she tends to matters remotely. Lemon, however, has no such compunction against interrupting her thoughts. As Hedge delivers Doug his second stack of pancakes, and the other fillies their first, the yellow mare brazenly jumps onto the table with a sizzling plate. The pungent smell breaks Celestia from her trance, the alicorn apprehensively looking down at the chunks of yellow speared with long sticks.

“Sooo, I know you exclusively eat cake,” Lemon starts with a combination of attentiveness and impertinence otherwise only found in her dam.

“Correct,” Celestia replies, guarded. She sniffs; it certainly smells delicious, and a couple other ponies are eyeing the plate with great interest. “And what is this?”

“It’s yuca! Meringue found some at the market when she was out with dam,” Lemon explains with a wide grin. “I fried it up on a kebab!”

“A yuca kebab,” Celestia echoes, eyes twinkling. She lifts one of the sticks, inspecting the fried, potato-like substance. A smile slowly spreads across her muzzle. “You know, most foreign dignitaries would attend to my dietary specifications with their own takes on desserts, often styled as cakes. I must say, never before have they attempted something as audacious as this.”

She takes a bite, Lemon’s grin growing wider, and nods approvingly. “To what do I owe the occasion?”

“I wanted to cook something special for them,” Lemon says as she gives a short bow, and points at Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo, then motions toward two crates next to the door. “Plus, I was listening to Apple Bloom talk about Sugar Belle, and how they mostly cooked with hay. Mostly.” She gags. “They don’t even use sugar!” She gags again for good measure as Hedge dutifully returns with full plates of yuca for everypony. “So I saw the yuca and I thought, ‘Hey! That grows just about anywhere!’ So they could grow it at Our Town!”

“Wow,” Apple Bloom says, somewhat astonished. “Ah wish Ah could be that positive.”

“Yeah,” Sweetie Belle says dourly. “Me, too.”

“Ah, cheer up, Sweetie,” Scootaloo counters. “This’ll take your mind off it!”

Sweetie Belle doesn’t seem to believe her, sinking lower, yet can’t keep herself from munching on the yuca.

Lemon turns back to Celestia. “And it had to be something you could eat, of course!”

“I appreciate your consideration,” Celestia replies, inclining her head. Lemon beams all the brighter, skipping back to the stove, as the front door opens.

“Good morning, everypony!” Starlight Glimmer greets with a wide, saccharine grin, so wide as to be downright creepy. Applejack follows her inside, chipper even for the farmpony. “I trust you had a pleasant night?”

“You’re awfully cheerful,” Doug remarks, waving. His gaze lingers on the swirl of magic on her flanks.

Starlight must have noticed, because she gives her tail an alluring swish. “Just getting back into character. And you know what that means.” She turns to the Crusaders. “We don’t want to miss the train, now do we?”

“No, Miss Glimmer,” Apple Bloom and Scootaloo chorus through mouthfuls of pancake and yuca. Sweetie Belle takes the time to finish her bite, her reply subdued. “No, Miss Glimmer.”

“Good!” Starlight regards Applebaum as the young mare hops down. “Oh, are you planning on coming to our little village as well?”

“Just to Canterlot,” Applebaum replies. “Got a message saying they could use me.” She notices Applejack’s hard, inquiring look, and rolls her eyes impetuously. “It’ll just be readin’.”

“Yeah, well, those stallions ain’t exactly the sedentary type,” Applejack counters with a huff. “Ah trust ‘em ‘long as Ah can see ‘em. And right now, they’re a good bit off.” Even so, she dips down to give her foal a quick nuzzle before she can take off to her room. “Ah’m just worried.”

“Ah know.” Applebaum returns the nuzzle, zipping away and quickly returning with packed saddlebags, her exploding apple cutie mark embroidered on the sides. “Y’all ready?”

“Methinks Twilight will want to say goodbye,” Doug adds, thinking of how she misses Spike. “Plus, I need to get a run in.”

“Lemon and Hedge, go get your dams.” Applejack grins as Doug rubs at her ear, flicking his backside with her tail as he brushes past her. “Rest of ya, let’s clean up, lickety-split! Don’t want to keep the train waitin’!”

Doug frowns when he realizes the bathroom is occupied, a low grumble coming from within. “Hey, Diamond Tiara?” he asks tentatively, rapping his knuckles on the bathroom door.

The faint, unsettled whine barely abates, and he cautiously pushes the door open, wary of interrupting anything… personal. Fortunately, for both of them, the young mare is merely staring at herself in the mirror, furtively pushing a hoof into her purple mane and desperately trying to get the white streak to line up perfectly.

It’s tough, but Doug holds in his smirk; even if her mane was a complete bird’s nest, he doubts Pomarbo would care. Or notice. “You okay?”

“Hey!” Diamond Tiara exclaims, yet doesn’t move. He expects some sort of admonishment, but instead her head dips down slightly. “Sorry, Mister A. I…”

Diamond Tiara growls, snorting through clenched teeth as her mane again fails to obey her every whim. Apparently Rarity thinks this is a bigger deal than he does; she brushes the human out of the doorway with a friendly chuckle.

“Darling, let me take care of this. Go run.” With a flick of her horn she shuts the door behind her, her voice now muffled. “Now, there are a few things we can do to really spruce it up. Did you want it flat against your back, or more free flowing?”

“Thanks, Miss Rarity. Now, which do you think he’ll…”

Doug rolls his eyes, taking off a ways behind the two fillies going into town. They’re glad to be outside and getting some exercise in the cool morning; plus, it’s always fun watching the pegasi clear out the dark, spent clouds from last night. He peels off as they get close to Ponyville, taking the northern route along the outskirts while the fillies head into the market square.

The barren field where the Golden Oak Library used to stand, under which lays her new castle, isn’t so barren any more. Seemingly overnight the entire place has been transformed, with a hospital-sized pit dug out of the ground around the entrance, like a single giant hand reached down and scooped. Half a dozen hard-hatted earth ponies are hard at work hauling huge stacks of lumber, drywall, and concrete. Four unicorns, horns ablaze, aim chutes of flowing concrete, directed by a pair of safety orange clad pegasi. Colorful changelings, covered in patches of dirty gray, bolster their numbers, hard at work either mixing the concrete and loading it onto the chutes or on the ground and making sure it spreads evenly.

Doug picks his way through the crowd of curious onlookers, many fellow Ponyvillians audibly wondering about the latest addition to their town. He ignores the sign out front advertising Cater Construction and advising everypony to stay back, that this is a work site; he slips down and navigates a thin strip of unpoured land to get to the propped-open entrance. A dark blue stallion wearing a yellow hard hat, cutie mark of the same, offers him a friendly wave before going back to overseeing everything.

“Hey, Twi,” Doug greets the empty area as he descends, finding the well-lit chamber and clearly marked railways much easier to navigate than the perfectly clear crystal from before. Even so, looking down unnerves him, much like when he jumps on a cloud; an instinctual part, that lizard-brain, refuses to believe that there is, in fact, a platform where his foot is about to come down. Closing his eyes doesn’t help, but gripping the railway does, and he hastily crosses to the far wall and descending staircase.

The giant stone table still dominates the center of the room, illusionary mountains and forests dotting the landscape. The detail is incredible, from the gold and alabaster city jutting out from the lonely mountain in the center, to the rivers and waterfalls pouring down toward the sleepy town at the edge of the overgrown Everfree, all the way to the helm-shaped Mount Aris around which swirl a misty, silver moon and black cloud and blue heart-shaped crystal. On the opposite side, blueprints remaining unsoaked by the ocean-stained stone, sits Twilight Sparkle.

A lavender ear flicks, but her focus doesn’t shift from the rolled-out papers. “Hey,” she replies absentmindedly, before a long yawn rips her muzzle open, and she goes back to studying as if nothing happened.

“Hey, I like what they’ve done with the place.” Doug admires the decorations the fillies spread out along the bottom. Apparently Diamond Tiara got them to intermingle, even as it is obvious who brought which decoration. He can certainly see Scootaloo riding her scooter over the hay stacks and garden supplies that would spruce up the outside - if they weren’t building something else - or slaloming back and forth among the baking utensils. He notices a few sheets and pillows making a rough bed, all neatly folded, and either unused or Twilight is as fastidious as always. Judging from the yawn?

He frowns at the lack of reply and yawn. He approaches, somewhat cautiously, and inspects the blueprints. It’s a school, possibly, one wing containing a dozen classrooms split over two stories. The second has dormitories overlooking a central plaza, with administrative buildings located in between. Twilight barely acknowledges him, even as he stands next to her and points. “Did you spend all night on this?”

“Is it morning already?” Twilight stares upward, focusing on the small square of light, her ears twitching. “Oh, good, it sounds like they’re already working.” She grins at Doug, nudging her head forward and clearly fishing for ear scratches. “It’s amazing what you can accomplish on Official Princess Business, even at four a.m.!”

“Twilight,” Doug starts, though his heart isn’t really into the admonishment.

“What?” Twilight asks, visibly annoyed. “They claimed they didn’t mind, not at all, not for a Princess. I’m sure they would have done the same for any of their other customers.”

“Sure.” Doug reaches an arm around her, squeezing her, and she huffs before visibly relaxing. “But, wow! You’ve made a ton of progress! And in, what, one day?”

Twilight nods. “More like two, and two nights. I worked on it all the way from Klugetown, but I really made progress when I was working at Applejack’s yesterday.”

Doug blinks. Twilight didn’t seem terribly distracted yesterday, just subdued if anything. He finds the farm work engaging enough, but certainly prefers being able to chat with Applejack during. “Really?”

“Yeah! You see, the work on the farm...” She trails off, looking guilty. “Don’t tell Applejack. Okay, tell her if you want, I’d say the same thing to her face. But harvesting apples, especially if I’m not using magic? It’s just enough to keep my body busy while my mind is free to work through everything else.” She waves a hoof at the blueprints, then up above. “So I drafted all these and sent a copy off to Hard Hat. He’s the foremare up there, and he built Ponyville General Hospital. Applejack recommended him.”

“Yeah, he helped out with the Carrot House as well. Or at least Cater Construction did.” Doug finds his attention wandering to the map. “Oh, I was supposed to tell you. The Crusaders are leaving with Starlight on the morning train, heading back to Our Town.”

“I hope they’re able to help everypony there,” Twilight says with a sincere sigh. Her wings splay out, helping push herself on top of the Cutie Map, careful to avoid stepping on the blueprints. She traces a line from Canterlot, through the Hollow Shades, to the barren area around Our Town. If they squint, they can even make out the two rows of drab buildings in the shape of an equal sign. “And speaking of helping everypony?”

Twilight chitters to herself, shaking her head. “Or, I should say, everycreature.” She motions to the Frozen North, past the Crystal Empire, and Yakyakistan. Then to the east, locating the griffons and dragons on the barely-visible continent, only the western edge displayed. “I can’t wait for everycreature to arrive! It’s going to be great, teaching them Friendship, and about Harmony, and…”

Twilight trails off, her hoof pausing as it points to Mount Aris and the two cutie marks swirling about. Not just Princess Luna’s.

But also Princess Cadance’s.

“Um, Doug?” Twilight stammers, the human speechless. “What are those doing there?”

Next Chapter: Ch. 82 - Divide and Conquer, Part Three* Estimated time remaining: 19 Hours, 2 Minutes