Rainbow Dash sat quietly in the cloudatorium as she watched the mare prattle on about ocean currents.

In truth, were it a better time, Rainbow would actually have found the lecture reasonably interesting.

But this wasn't a better time, because – for some reason – somepony had decided to host the weatherworkers' summit at the last possible moment. Rainbow hadn't even known it was legal to hold mandatory meetings this close to Heat Season.

The Spring Holiday was the time when most mares went into heat. But most did not mean all. Some mares went into season early, and others late. Unfortunately, Rainbow had always tended towards the former.

As such, she had gone into heat yesterday.

Thus it was a very horny, frustrated, itchy and irritable Rainbow Dash attempting to pay attention to a lecture she'd rather not be here for.

Stay Cool Rainbow, it's just one more day. Then you can go home and have Twilight cast her magic on you.

And so, Rainbow Dash set in to wait out the remaining uncomfortable hours.

“Achem.”

Rainbow's left ear flicked towards the sound, but she otherwise continued to focus on the speaker. Well she continued to attempt to, whether she was actually succeeding at that was highly debatable.

“ACH-HEM.”

Rainbow turned her head towards the rude mare, “Yes?” she asked, unable to keep her irritation out of her voice.

Sitting behind and to the left of the chromatic mare was a haughty pegasus dressed in the most unbearably pink outfit that Rainbow had ever seen. The mare spoke in a shrill, unpleasant voice, “Can't you tell that you're disturbing ponies.” the mare's muzzle scrunched up as if she was smelling a particularly unpleasant odour.

Which, to be honest, was certainly the case; from what Rainbow understood, her heat musk was particularly pungent.

Nonetheless it was considered extremely vulgar to comment on another pony's scent, especially the scent of a mare in heat.

Rainbow stared at the pegasus for a second, “Mare, are you for real? I don't want to be here any more than you want me to be. If you want to complain, go complain to whichever pony scheduled this summit.”

Rainbow inhaled softly through her nostrils, secretly scenting the mare. As old 'Uncle' Ironsides had always emphasized, ponies had the strongest sense of smell of any of the world's many races, and, while most ponies did their best to pretend that wasn't the case, those unfortunate to grow up in Cloudsdale's Undertown did not have that luxury. There was an astonishing amount of things that one could learn about a pony from her scent, and that fact had saved Rainbow's life more than a couple times.

The first thing that made itself evident was that the mare wore way too much perfume; enough that it was offensive to the nose. Even more unpleasant, it was neither the exotic imported perfumes favoured by the unicorn nobility nor the soft flower scents preferred by less wealthy ground ponies; it was one of the harsh synthetic scents Skyborne pegasi were infamous for. The mare was outright bathed in the perfume marketed as 'Sunshine Storm'; a name that had absolutely no correspondence to its scent. All in all, it was utter nose-sore, and was fairly strong evidence that she was attempting to hide something; this mare was far too old to think it smelled good.

“'Mare'?” Sneered the mare, “I'll have you know I'm a Lady, peasant.”

“Cool,” Rainbow said dismissively, “so am I.”

“Of what house.” demanded the mare.

Rainbow rolled her eyes, this 'Lady' hadn't even introduced herself yet she demanded so much; Rainbow was far from an expert in noble manners, even she knew that talking down to another noblemare like this – even a low ranking noble – was widely considered unacceptable. “House Loyalty.” Rainbow replied honestly, it might be a house with one member and no lands, but it was still a house, with all the rights and entitlements that came with that.

Rainbow inhaled; the thing about ponies who try to ignore their own sense of smell, is that they often underestimate just how good a pony's nose is at ignoring scents. They think that with enough perfume nopony will be able to smell their shame.

It did not work like that; it was incredibly difficult to completely overwhelm a pony's nose. At least without chemicals unpleasant enough that their use counts as assault.

As such Rainbow managed to ignore the perfume and scent the mare's scent queues, 'pheromones' if you were an eggheaded bookpony like Twilight. From them Rainbow could tell that this was an irritated, disgusted and angry pegasus mare in her mid to late thirties, overweight, under-exercised, no major health conditions and a few weeks out from going into heat.

Admittedly, most of that could be determined just by looking at the mare, but, well, there were many situations where one would smell a pony before seeing her. A packed cloudatorium just wasn't one of them.

The mare scowled and made a dismissive huff, “Well, I've never heard of any 'House Loyalty'.”

The next scent Rainbow picked up from the mare was sex musk, an infamously difficult scent to remove. A fact that made most skyborne mares' tendency towards promiscuity all the more baffling for the polychromatic mare. And this mare was no exception to that stereotype, as – despite the mare's obvious attempts to cleanse herself from the scent – Rainbow could smell at least three different stallions on her. At least she doesn't smell like a bucking Undertown brothel like a certain heiress to House Hurricane.

And then there were the weaker scents: ozone, rainbow, assorted foods, smog and raw sewage. Everything expected of a Cloudsdale pegasus who had never even touched earth. “That's strange, Lady who still hasn't introduced herself, considering I was the one to return your magic after that entire 'Tirek' episode a few months back.” In truth, Rainbow didn't recognize the mare in the slightest, but she had been the one to return magic to the ponies of Cloudsdale.

The mare flinched, that entire incident had been particularly difficult for skyborne pegasi. Thankfully, the centaur had not stolen their cloudwalking abilities; if he had, there would have been very few survivors. However, a cloudcity became significantly less friendly for a pony who could neither fly nor cloudshape, and that was before considering the question of food. The cloudcity was rather dependent on imports to feed her ponies; imports that were shipped in by air-freighters, large airships that required magic to run.

If Rainbow were in a more rational mood she'd stop right there, but heat-struck mares were not well known for being rational, “So, does your husband know about the other stallions? Poor bastard, to be stuck with such an unfaithful wife.” she asked in a conversational tone. In truth, Rainbow wasn't certain that this mare even was married, but between age, apparent wealth and noble status it seemed better than even odds. Also, single mares were a lot less likely to go out of their way to hide their indiscretions, Celestia knows that Aura Hurricane certainly didn't.

Of course, part of that might just be House Hurricane. The Founding Pegasus House had always given Rainbow the creeps; there was something deeply wrong with them in a way that she could never put to words. Something more than just having a turbo-slut psychopath as their heiress.

Then again, Mother had never been terribly concerned about hiding her sluttery either, and she was married.

The mare looked at Rainbow in shocked confusion that morphed into rage as she realized what had been said, “How dare you, you repugnant little commoner,” she reared back her right forehoof in most telegraphed punch Rainbow had ever seen, “I'll put you in your place.”

A crotch shot, really mare? Rainbow shifted slightly, raised her left wing in defence and stopped the other mare's hoof dead.

The pink-clad – supposedly noble – mare's eyes widened in shock, blocking a hoofstrike with a wing was one of those things that was all-but guaranteed to put a pegasus in the hospital.

Rainbow Dash smirked, but she was Rainbow Bucking Dash, she was just built different. A flick of her wing sent the other mare's hoof to the right.

The unnamed assailant, on three hooves and very overextended, toppled over under the cerulean mare's push.

Rainbow got to her hooves and lazily turned to face the mare, spreading her wings wide in aggression, their length crackling with red lightning as very clouds beneath her hooves turned black and rumbled with thunder; the short-term-construction-grade cumulus had been partially altered into cumulonimbus, “You want to go, bitch?”

The other mare stumbled to her hooves and huffed, poorly hiding her fear, “Well, I didn't care about this lecture, anyways.” she sneered before turning tail and leaving the cloudatorium at a rushed canter, ignoring the snickers of more than a few mares.

Once the mare had left, Rainbow looked around, finding that everypony in the cloudatorium was staring at her; she blushed incandescently in embarrassment.

The speaker cleared her throat, and stared piercingly at the irritated mare.

Rainbow blushed harder and waved a wing, “Yeah, yeah, I'm done. Continue.” she stated before settling back into position.

The speaker continued her lecture.

Rainbow returned to attempting to pay attention. Coolest mare in Ponyville are you Dash? Took the provocations of one slightly aggravating mare to make you lose that Cool.

Prince Twilight Sparkle lingered in the antechamber of the Castle of Friendship, a single hoof resting on the large golden door.

“Uh, Sparkle, if you're having second thoughts, you can just ...” Umbra paused, “... not. Put it off for a day or two.”

Twilight shook his head, “No, I have to. Delaying for a day becomes delaying for a week which becomes delaying for a month which becomes delaying forever.”

“Sparkle, I've known since you were very small, you were never one to procrastinate. Quite the opposite, in fact, you had a tendency to rush into things.”

“And you think I'm rushing this?”

“Uh, yeah, basically.”

Twilight shook his head, “Maybe, but I can't delay. It feels like there's a Sword of Damocles hanging over my head, I need to get this over with.” he sighed and placed his forehead on the door, “It's just ... going out there,” he gestured towards the door with a wing, “makes this,” he gestured towards himself with the same wing, “feel more real. You understand?”

Umbra paused and looked at the stallion in confusion, “I'm sorry, but I really don't.”

Twilight sighed again, “To the ponies out there, I'm still Princess Twilight. If I go out there, it's like what's left of her ceases to be.”

“Sparkle,” Umbra spoke slowly, “in my experience, the opinions of the common Equestrian have very little correspondence to what's real, for better or worse. And well ...” the mare approached the stallion and placed a hoof on his shoulder, “You are her, at least in every way that matters. If your friends don't recognize that, then they're not very good friends. And, well, who the buck cares what some random Equestrian civilian thinks.” Umbra paused, briefly nuzzling into the stallion's neck, “Come on Sparkle, let's go back upstairs where you can mourn your lost marehood in safety, and then tomorrow – if you're feeling better – you can introduce yourself to the world.”

Twilight lifted his head off the door and stared at the mare, “You really think this is a bad idea, don't you?”

“I do,” Umbra nodded, “Don't take this the wrong way, but you're really ... unstable. Understandably so, considering how ... destabilizing this entire change has to be for you. You need time to centre yourself before making such a big leap.”

Twilight sighed, “Shadow, you've been uncharacteristically quiet in this exchange, what do you think?”

“Well, I ain't much good at that philosophy bullshit, but I never had much use for 'would have's', 'could have's' or 'should have's'. I find that dwelling on such things just distracts from what's important, ya know? It's so much better to roll with the punches and make the best of what is and not worry about what isn't.”

“'I am not very good' Shadow, 'I am not very good'.” The alicorn idly corrected, before turning back to Umbra, “I'm sorry Umbra, but I can't, I have to do this.” he stated before pushing the heavy gold door open with a hoof.

Sunlight poured into the antechamber.

Twilight shivered slightly – the embrace of Celestia's Sun held little of the comfort it once had – and trotted awkwardly into warm mid-spring air.

Both twins followed the stallion, Umbra muttering about 'damned stubborn stallions'.

In a bright magenta flash Eta Team was suddenly in a large, busy room carved from stone; nearly a thousand kilometres from the forest in which they had spent their last few weeks.

Captain Twilight Aura looked around the room; recognizing Arrival Bay B almost instantly.

Aura smirked in pride; as the captain of a specialist team she rarely had cause to use any of the larger teleportation terminals in the Twilight Manor, but the spoils from Eta Team's latest adventure certainly warranted it.

She glanced around, seeing many ponies working busily around the room; the vast majority were unicorns – of which about half had the obvious features of a Twilight – but Aura spotted a couple thestrals and a single earth pony.

The largest contingent of them were wearing the insignia of House Twilight's Logistics Department, swiftly loading Eta Team's various material acquisitions onto their hover-sleighs, which were then taken to be processed elsewhere.

As was standard practice, Eta Team had packed up every single thing from the smuggler's caravan, regardless of value. The only things left were a scattered fire pit, a buried latrine and a thin layer of fine ash from the self-destruction of a disposable long-range teleportation circle.

A couple weeks and not a sign of today's events would remain.

However, not all the ponies in the room were from Logistics, there was about half a dozen from the Equine Resources Department fussing over a hooffull of prisoners. Somewhat odd considering that the prisoners had been first into the teleportation circle.

Aura looked closer and found that a number of their captures were still trapped in a hard amber coloured substance.

Ah, that made sense, while Aura had had the foresight to have a number of bottles filled with changeling saliva – the solvent that dissolved their resin – she had significantly underestimated the bug-ponies' production of resin. She should have figured that a species that consumed something as immaterial as Love would bite their collective hooves at something as base as the conservation of mass.

Finally the unicorn turned her Team.

Crack Shot had already disappeared to go and do ... something. Honestly, Aura had no idea what the surly stallion even did during his free time. And – as curious as she was – it really wasn't her place to pry. If Enforcement came to her with suspicions of misbehaviour that would change, but until then, the stallion had been with Eta Team even longer than Aura had, and that deserved a level of trust.

Flare was standing with that aloof, almost bored, expression she typically defaulted to, but Aura could tell that her little sister was feeling rather pleased with herself. Understandably so, they had managed a significant blow against the filthy pony-eating rebel scum.

The three pony trainees were looking sick from the teleportation; long-range teleportation was somewhat of an acquired taste. Sanguine clearly had the worst of it and looked very close to vomiting, hardly surprising considering that this was only her third trip. Midnight was doing her best to look unbothered, but Aura could definitely spot a distinctive green tinge to the mare's cheeks. Even Twilight Swordcant looked rather ill, which was ... odd.

Aura wondered how many times the mare had even travelled by long-range teleportation, as – judging by her nausea – it couldn't be more than a dozen times, and likely far less than that. As a Twilight – even a branch Twilight – she should have had almost free range of House Twilight's teleportation network, it should have been trivial for the mare to get enough experience with the method of travel to get over the nausea. That she hadn't ... well that indicated politics; Aura hated politics.

And Lepidoptera? Well, the changeling princess appeared completely unbothered by the teleportation and was currently burying a couple logistics ponies in an endless barrage of questions. In retrospect, it kind of made sense that a species that lacked anything even resembling a digestive system would be immune to nausea.

Standing still several body lengths away from the princess and gazing impassively at the logistics ponies surrounding their charge, were the imposing figures of the two praetorian caste changelings – far closer to plus-sized earth mares in build than to either the willowy princess or the marelet low caste favoured by Chrysalis – that had come to Twilight Manor with Dora.

In all honesty, Aura found the changeling's version of royal guards to be rather unsettling. While they were clearly intelligent and capable of following complex orders, whatever was responsible for deciding the traits of the various changeling castes had decided that they didn't need anything that even resembled a personality. It was just cool emptiness all the way down.

They kind of reminded Aura of her father. And that was never a good feeling.

Aura lit her horn, reached a thin thread of magic out to the princess and brushed against her carapace.

Dora stopped asking her questions and turned towards Aura in askance.

Aura made a gesture with her head at the increasingly frustrated ER ponies now casting a wide range of spells at the encased prisoners to ... mixed ... results.

Dora looked confused for a moment before recognizing what her captain wanted of her. The young ling and her guards buzzed over to the ER ponies and started spitting on and licking the prisoners to free them from their encasement.

If Aura didn't find it so fascinating, she would probably find it somewhat disgusting.

The prisoners, of course, did not find the sudden appearance of three of Equestria's 'enemies' to be a very heartening experience. Aura let out a small laugh as several of the smugglers whinnied in terror; even the grumpy ER ponies couldn't help but find this development amusing.

It was honestly a shame that none of the smugglers would remember this experience once ER was done with them, but, well, Opsec trumps schadenfreude.

Aura watched as the ER ponies, now with changeling assistance, efficiently freed the prisoners and got them wrapped in chains and – when necessary – nullifier horn rings or wing locks before marching them off to the holding cells.

It was extremely amusing to watch the last mare – an earth pony – of the lot's expression turn from smug superiority to confusion, horror and pain as soon as she managed to get her hooves on the stone floor. Clearly the mare had thought that House Twilight had underestimated her earth pony magic, but, in fact, it was her who had underestimated House Twilight.

After all, it was rather difficult to draw strength from the earth when in the Domain of a hostile Genius Loci.

Of course, the mare's mistake was totally understandable; House Twilight was the only known inhabited geomantic manse in Equestria. And with geomancy having gone extinct with the vanishing of the Stalwart of Broken Stone, it was completely unknown to the common Equestrian.

Unfortunately, none of House Twilight's many attempts to resurrect the art had borne any fruit. Hay, they had barely been able to get any earth ponies to even attempt it.

The earth tribe's bias against magic had long been a point of frustration among unicorns. House Twilight did their best to not let that taint their opinion of the tribe, but, well, that was hard, having seen so many angry mobs hunting innocent unicorns with deranged accusations of 'witchcraft'. An infuriatingly common sight on the fringes of Equestria, where House Twilight typically operated.

How exactly an entire tribe of ponies – one of the most innately magical races in existence – could somehow convince themselves that magic was 'unnatural' had long boggled the minds of House Twilight's best sociologists.

Not for the first time Aura wished she could get her hooves on whoever had started the outrageous tribalist superstition that unicorns burned their souls to power their magic; to return even a small portion of the pain that her Lies had visited on innocent unicorns, mares who were only trying to pay Celestia's extortionate tuition. But, alas, the unknown mare was doubtless many centuries dead.

“So what's first on the list for today, Spike?”

A couple moments passed without a response.

“Spike?”

A cough came from the left, “Uh, Sparkle ...”

“Yes Umbra?”

“... maybe look behind you.”

Twilight stopped and did as his guard suggested, finding no Spike ...

... wait, no; that was Spike in the distance, panting as he waddled as fast as he could, the scroll containing today's list held in one claw.

“What? Why is Spike so slow today? I'm not trotting any faster than usual.”

“Are you?” Umbra asked with a raised eyebrow.

Twilight looked at Umbra in askance, “... yes.”

“Because, while your cadence might be the same, your stride is just a tiny bit longer than it once was.”

A couple moments passed before Twilight blushed in embarrassment, looking down at his now much longer legs. The term 'foal chasing legs' came to mind, something Applejack had not shut up about reference stallions, but so did 'prey chasing legs', a term – albeit less sex specific – that the Twilights used instead. The dissonance between those two terms was honestly pretty funny.

A couple moments passed.

“Wait up ... Twilight ... don't ... leave me ... behind.” Spike spoke between huffs.

Twilight shook his head and lit his horn, casually penetrating the wyrmlings surprisingly strong magic resistance, enforcing his magic on Spike's Domain and levitating Spike to place him on his own withers. “You okay?”

“I'm ... fine. Just ... need ... to catch ... my breath.”

Twilight resumed trotting, looking around the rolling green hills just outside of Ponyville. Twilight was glad that the castle was outside the town proper; fresh air and a brisk trot was exactly what his nerves needed right now.

The four trotted in silence for several minutes.

“Where to first, Spike?”

“Uh ...” Spike said, unrolling the scroll, “... looks like Applejack is maring the stall in the market today.”

Twilight nodded, he had already known that – it had been barely 20 minutes since he had written the list – but Twilight had always found routine comforting, and if there was ever a time he needed comfort, it was now.

“Great, the market,” Umbra grumbled, “no doubt filled to the brim with crowds of near-heated mares of questionable moral character, joy.”

Twilight sighed and shook his head, “Calm down Umbra, it won't be like that.”

“Aura, Flare, you're back!” Shouted a familiar voice followed by a loud kraak-oom and a bright burst of blue.

Suddenly there was a mare nuzzling into Aura's neck, her fur tingling with soft static shocks.

Aura lifted her forehooves off the ground and wrapped around the interloper before rearing back, lifting the smaller mare clear off the ground, “Spark, how's my baby sister today.”

Spark squirmed in Aura's grasp, “I'm not a baby, I'm a perfectly adult mare.” she whined.

“Then why are you so small?” Aura replied with a smirk as she nuzzled into her electrified fluffball of a sister.

“I'm not small, I'm perfectly average.” Spark replied in outrage.

“Maybe for an Equestrian unicorn, but we Twilight's have to hold ourselves to a higher stature.” Twilights were quite a bit taller than the national average for unicorns; hay, they even had a couple centimetres on the median earth pony.

“Ha ha ha, funny, now put me down, Aura.”

“Okay ...”

“Now, Aura.”

“Fine.” Aura dropped her sister, before falling to all fours.

Spark managed to make an awkward landing before turning to the three pony recruits, “Now, big sister, why don't you introduce me to your fresh meat?” the mare gave a predatory smile.

Aura sighed, “Eta Team, this is my littlest sister, Twilight Spark, she's technically with Research and Development, but she often acts as support staff for Eta Team and even occasionally goes on missions with us.”

Sanguine stared at Spark in confusion, “Wait, we go on missions with a civie?”

Aura chuckled, Equestrian military and their hangups. Although, considering the temperament of the average Equestrian, Aura could hardly blame them. “I don't think any Twilight could be described as anything even approaching a 'civilian'. We have a couple individuals who are considered 'non-combatants', but that's not really the same thing.”

Spark stared at the small blue unicorn in fascination.

Sanguine tilted her head at Aura, “How do you mean?”

“Do you remember how we rescued you?”

“I don't think I could ever forget.” Sanguine shuddered slightly, “It was incredibly metal, more than a little bit terrifying and ... strangely arousing,” she paused, “I'm still not sure what to think about that.”

Aura couldn't help but snicker.

Spark stalked around behind Sanguine, her tail wagging softly in anticipation.

“What kind of gnarly mind magic were you on that you ran down gryphs like they were the prey species? Or was it drugs? I have heard some nasty stories about roids, but I'm like 90% sure that 'mad enough to rip a pony's throat out with her teeth' was hyperbole.” she paused, “Probably.”

Aura hummed in amusement, “No, not drugs, your first guess was closest, except the spell in question was cast over a thousand years ago, is permanent, breeds true and doesn't have an off switch.

Sanguine paused, and stared, “Wait, do you mean ...” she trailed off.

“What you saw in the rebel camp was an honest expression of our nature. We might look like ponies, but ...” she tapped her head with a hoof, “... in here, we're mostly wolf.” Aura smiled a sharp, toothy smile, “We Twilights put a lot of effort into passing as normal ponies; sometimes we can almost manage it.” Aura paused, “And then there's a wide range of other changes to our psychology and physiology. Suffice it to say, we're born for conflict in a way entirely unlike any other race or tribe or kind.” Aura gave a glance at Midnight, “Thestrals included.” and that's saying something, as the nocturnal tribe was the descendants of Nightmare Moon's magically enhanced supersoldiers.

If anything, Aura was underselling the Twilights' martial tendencies. A Twilight actually had a psychological need for conflict, for violence. Without it, her mind would ... deteriorate.

Thankfully, hunts, duels and war games went a long way towards staving off the worst of the symptoms, but House Twilight did its best to keep her ponies up to date on their prescription of recreational combat ops. If not for Eta Team's recent recruits, the smuggler caravan would have likely been descended upon by several dozen pent up wolf-ponies.

Some of the smugglers might have died, but that was a risk House Twilight was willing to take.

Not like they deserved better, any mare who took the blood-soaked gold of literal pony-eaters was a Traitor to ponykind and deserved only death.

Hay, the only reason Eta Team had taken them prisoner was because they were more valuable alive than dead. A number of the mares in the caravan had significant bounties from either the Equestrian Crown or some noble house; and the Gryphonstone Crown had a standing bounty of ten Gryphmarks for any individual providing material aid to the rebels.

“Suffice it to say, House Twilight has never had a problem with rats.” Aura smirked, “If anything we occasionally release some rodents into the manor to give our foals something to entertain themselves with.” Aura smiled softly, reminiscing, fondly remembering the rat hunts she partook in with the other foals; it was always a heady feeling to become one with the pack and hunt.

Sanguine looked deeply uncomfortable, remaining silent for a moment before speaking, “What could possibly cause ponies to do such a thing to themselves?”

Aura looked at Sanguine in mild confusion before sighing, “Caribou.”

Flare made a small nod, “Caribou.”

Swordcant scowled, but didn't disagree.

Spark settled into Sanguine's blindspot, readying to pounce.

Sanguine tilted her head, “Caribou?”

“When the descendants of the survivors of the Razing of Everfree came out of their exile in the Everfree Forest, they found that the Ponylands had been conquered by the caribou clans. The native ponies had been put into bondage and were being horribly abused; slavery, rape, torture, murder. The survivors – naturally – were outraged and attempted to fight off the Caribou, to free their pony kin ...”

Aura sighed, “... it did not go very well; the caribou had had several generations to entrench themselves, were far more warlike and had a seemingly endless number of slaves to be used as sacrificial fodder for their fell magic. Even worse, the ponies had been so beaten down that it was like they wanted to be oppressed.”

Sanguine looked confused, “I think I need more context, when are you talking about?”

Aura blushed slightly, “Ah, yes, sorry. So I assume you're familiar with the Nightmare Rebellion, when Nightmare Moon attempted to overthrow Celestia?”

“Of course.”

“Well, it didn't go nearly as well for the Celestines as your history class told you. Nightmare Moon had conquered nearly all of Equestria and marched upon the City of Everfree – Equestria's capital – with her forces. Celestia was able to banish the Nightmare with the Elements of Harmony, but that did nothing about the hundreds of thousands of Lunatic Cultists that had marched into the city with her.” Aura paused, “Let's just say that they were less than happy about their goddess's banishment, and took their rage out on the city and her populace. Hence, the 'Razing of Everfree'.”

“I know about that. CSGU teaches about the Razing, but ...”

“They told you that there were no survivors? That a city with nearly a hundred thousand inhabitants was slaughtered to the last pony?”

“Well ... yeah.”

“Well, that didn't happen. In fact, House Clover had first prophesied about the Razing and started planning an evacuation before the rebellion had even begun. By the time that the Nightmare's forces had reached Everfree, much of the civilian population had already been evacuating, and by Princess Celestia's final confrontation with the Nightmare, most of them had escaped. Of course, not everypony managed to escape, tens of thousands were still murdered, but that was far less than the entire population of the city.”

“Okay, ponies escaped the Razing of Everfree, but where do the caribou fit into this?”

“I assume that you were taught that after banishing the Nightmare, Celestia immediately reestablished Equestria.”

“... Yes.” Sanguine replied slowly.

“Then – as much as I hate to say this – you have been lied to. The previous falsehoods could have been a result of assumptions and misunderstandings, but the attempt to erase an entire era of history couldn't be anything but deceit. Celestia did not immediately reestablish Equestria, Celestia disappeared for hundreds of years to go do ... something; we have theories about what she was doing, but they aren't relevant to this conversation. The fact of the matter is that for at least three hundred years – likely much longer – ponies were left with neither any alicorns nor a nation to call their own. This period, starting with the banishment of the Nightmare and ending with Princess Celestia's 'Third Founding' of the 'Second Principality of Equestria', is known only as the Dark Age.”

“That sounds ominous.”

Aura chuckled, “That it does.”

“So, you 'Twilights' were among these survivors?”

“In a way; the survivors split into four groups. The pegasi, led by the weatherworkers' and the sky-architects' guilds, along with the Everfree Pegasus Clans and the minor pegasus houses who had avoided the civil war, formed one group. The earth ponies, under the guidance of the geomancers', masons' and delvers' guilds as well as the Everfree Earth Clans formed the second. The unicorns however were split; the magesmiths', artificers', alchemists' and what remained of the elementalists' guilds were offended at being left out of House Clover's evacuation plans and formed their own group with the remaining Solar and Lunar Houses and most of the city unicorns. Meanwhile, House Clover took the mages' and archivists' guild, the hedge-mages' society, the Everfree Unicorn Clans, the Arcane Houses and a number of Crown Departments charged with matters arcane or esoteric.”

“And you Twilights are descended from the third?” Sanguine said, glancing at Flare.

“I mean, technically yes, but not in the way you mean, my dear sister is a bit of a red herring; elemental alignment is a very recent thing in House Twilight.”

Flare chuffed in amusement.

“The four groups of survivors would eventually become the first Orders Stalwart, a series of chivalric orders established to protect the common pony from the many threats of the Dark Age. They became the Orders Stalwart of Skyhaven, Broken Stone, Starfall and the Pillar of Twilight, respectively. The 'Pillar of Twilight' being the proper name for the lonely mountain upon which both the Twilight Manor and Canterlot are built.” Aura scowled, “I have no idea where the name 'Canterhorn' came from, but it is fantastically wrong. It has been the 'Pillar of Twilight' since before the Founders staked the City of Equestria.” she growled out. “We Twilights do not look kindly upon attempts to rename the mountain from which we take our own name.”

There was a brief pause.

“Of the four groups of survivors, it was the group who would eventually become the Twilights that had the hardest time. We were the descendants of librarians, researchers and mages, of Arcane Houses and the few Everfree Unicorn Clans. We didn't have a single martial bone in our bodies, lacked population compared to the other three groups and were almost entirely unicorns of arcane alignment. Being aligned with pure unaspected magic is great for versatility, but we just don't have access to the freeform quasi-spells that elemental alignments – and to a lesser degree, solar and lunar alignments – are known to pop out at the drop of a hat. We have to cast our spells properly if we want anything to happen, and that takes time and focus, two things that are scarce in combat.”

“However, what we did have was a love of magic, a scholarly culture and most of the Forbidden Section of the Royal Archives of Everfree, carefully preserved over the generations. We managed to devise a method to match – and even surpass – our brethren Orders Stalwart.”

“The thing you have to understand is that caribou magic is based on sacrifice, of giving something of value up and receiving something of lesser value in return. Minor spells are accomplished with burnt offerings – food, incense, whatnot – to their 'gods' – really just tumorous egregores contaminating the thaumosphere with their presence – but more significant works require blood, they require death. Either animals, or, more often, sapients.”

“Uh, that's pretty ...”

“Inefficient? Wasteful? Boring?”

“Not exactly the words that come to mind, no.”

“Well, they're true. Depending on the quality of the spell in question, only about ten percent of the power released by a sacrifice is actually used for the spell, the rest is diverted to feed the insatiable gluttony of their aforementioned 'gods'. And nearly everything they are capable of doing with equine sacrifices could be accomplished by unicorn circle casting, expending nothing but power; hay unicorns of exceptional power could probably manage many of their greater works alone. If that was all there was to caribou magic, I would be happy to dismiss it as the worst tribal or racial magic in existence.”

“But that isn't all there is?”

“Exactly, there more. Caribou can sacrifice things that aren't physical: personality traits, virtues, vices, parts of one's psyche or soul, fundamental aspects of an individual's nature. The possibilities are endless. Caribou mystics sacrifice their sight for greater insight, craftsbucks give up their aggression for skill, and their warriors ... well they sacrifice so, so much of themselves in pursuit of martial power.”

Sanguine looked uncomfortable, “That sounds pretty ... Dark.”

“Grey actually, but then again almost all actually interesting magic is at least Grey ...” Aura paused, “Caribou warriors sacrifice their fear of death, their mercy, their capability to feel pain, love, joy, empathy, even occasionally their very sapience, everything holding them back from becoming the greatest tools of violence possible, traded for further martial power and skill. Everything, that is, except one thing.”

“And that is?”

“Well, the thing about sacrificial magic is that what is given up has to be, well, a sacrifice. That is, it had to have value, and there's this big thing that the caribou just don't value.” Aura paused, “Contrary to ponies, the caribou absolutely despise their nature as a prey species. If you can believe it, they actually think that their completely natural prey instincts are the result of a curse by the wolf god Fenrir, the antagonist deity of their pantheon. Their warriors could give up their fear of death, of injury, of pain, of so many things, but they could never give up their fear of the wolf.”

“Okay ...” Sanguine felt slightly sick, she had a terrible idea of where this was going.

“So, naturally, the ponies who would become the Twilights did the only thing a sane and rational being could do in their situation;” Aura gave a smug smile, “they used corruption magic to imitate the caribou's own magic and sacrificed their very nature as a prey species to the Fenrir, receiving the spirits of an ancient species of long extinct direwolves in return.”

Wow, that's so much worse than I could have imagined.

“And with that one act, the tides turned; armies of hardened, murderous reavers broke in the face of our howls. Many froze, others fled, some even keeled over dead, their hearts having exploded in terror.” Aura smiled maliciously, her face radiating naked aggression, “Courage is not the absence of fear, it is the strength of character to carry on in spite of fear; it turns out that giving up your ability to feel fear only leaves you unable to deal with it. We hunted them, we ran them down, we slaughtered them, we watered the thirsty earth with their blood, we drove them from the Ponylands and we fed their filthy, tainted souls to the unending, ravenous hunger of the Fenrir instead of the fell 'gods' of murder and slaughter and rape and pillage that owned them before.”

Sanguine stared at the mare in horror.

Aura stared back, slightly confused; it was clear that the Equestrian mare was deeply disturbed, perhaps even horrified, but it wasn't like anything Aura had told her was that distressing.

It was, in fact, exactly like that, thought Prince Twilight Sparkle as he trotted with a stiff slightly shaking gait into the centre of Ponyville, his ears pinned back defensively as his eyes darted across the crowd of ponies. Umbra was right, this was a bad idea.

It had started fine enough; they had trotted into the outskirts of the town where a few ponies were. They had stared, of course; oh, they had stared.

And more than just stare, there were the physiological reactions. Dilated pupils and nostrils, panting, snorting, salivating.

Even if Twilight had been noseblind, their lust would have been obvious.

And he was not noseblind. He could smell the unmistakable pheromones of lust and arousal from the mares.

One had even flagged her tail and presented, her nethers winking, making no mystery of what she wanted from the stallion.

It was a ... novel ... experience. One that – strangely enough – the newly made stallion didn't hate.

If anything he had felt flattered and aroused. Even more, the knowledge that he could just take a mare publicly in the middle of the street carried a heady weight to it.

Not that he was actually tempted to do so ... much. After all, some random civilian earth mare of loose character was a poor choice for his first wife.

But then he moved deeper into the town.

A few mares became a few dozen became a few hundred, and before the stallion knew it the crowd had reached a critical mass; he was no longer surrounded by a group of individuals, but by a proper Herd.

As the stallion's eyes flitted across the deindividuated mass of mare; his nose burned with the overwhelming scent of lust, arousal, excitement and anticipation, no longer capable of discerning the scent of any given pony.

In this time, he couldn't help but remember the warnings from his fillyhood, from before his apprenticeship to Celestia, a warning that he now felt deep in his bones. There were few things in the world more dangerous than a proper pony Herd.

There was this common thought amongst the races of the world that the prey races were just less capable of violence than the predator races. It was especially popular with modern Equestrians; living under the Pax Celestia for a thousand years had made them take great Pride in their pacifism.

But it was a misconception. In the wild, predators fought for food, a loss meant they went hungry, but for prey, a loss meant they died. Things only got worse when considering social prey, where the death of a few individuals was oft an acceptable loss to protect the Herd.

And despite their civilization causing them to believe that they were above such base impulses, Equestrians were far, far closer to their animal roots than they were willing to recognize.

A pack of wolves, when confronted with a difficult fight, would flee from danger and go hungry, a herd of ponies might flee. But when they didn't ...

... well there were stories ... stories of manticores or chimera or cragodiles or even young bucking dragons being crushed under the force of the thousand hooves of the Herd. Of course, each time, many ponies had died as well, but that was hardly a consolation for the predator in question.

There were few things in existence that even approached the danger inherent to a modern pony Herd, their prehistoric instincts further reinforced by a positive feedback loop of pheromones and Harmonic magic.

And Twilight found himself right in the middle of one.

It was only by force of will that the stallion was able to avoid barring his teeth in an inequine snarl or spreading his wings in a threat position. Being surrounded by the Herd was stomping heavily on his 'fight of flight' instincts, instincts that were heavily biased in the 'fight' direction. Thank you ancestors.

The last thing he needed was for the Herdmind to reclassify him as a Threat instead of ... whatever he was to it. Fixation? Prospective mate? Could a composite collective organism even view an individual in such a way? Just how sentient even was the Herdmind? Twilight had never even heard of a Herd formed from lust before; although it stood to reason that it could happen with any emotion that had corresponding pheromones.

Twilight shook his head, that wasn't important, and turned his attention to his companions.

Shadow and Umbra were prowling – in an almost predatory gait – in circles around their prince; horns lit and surrounded by a dozen blades of liquid shadow each. They were trotting the metaphorical knife's edge, attempting to enforce a perimeter against the Herd while avoiding setting it off. But there was only so much that two mares could do against the weight of the Herd, every second they were being pushed closer to the stallion they were protecting.

He could feel Spike shaking in terror.

“Please Twilight, do something, I-I don't want to d-die.”

Suddenly, he felt a burning lance of white hot fury flow through him and his mind shifted; he lit his horn and thoughts flitted through his mind at incredible speed as his caster's cortex – the part of the brain that controls a unicorn's spellcasting – came online.

Situation deteriorating.

Estimated 14 s until perimeter failure.

Estimated 17 s until contact with hostiles.

Rules of Engagement: Self-Defence

Spell Type: Nova

Spell Alignment: Force

IFF Type: Blacklist

IFF: [self, son_spike, cousin_shadow, cousin_umbra]

Range: 100 m

Targets Acquired: 237

Impulse: 10 kNs/Target

Total Impulse: 2.37 MNs

Interval: 5 ms

Force: 474 MN

Likelihood of Target Survival: Low

Expected Casualties: Acceptable

Sanguine forcefully pushed down her horror, and found herself conflicted. She glanced down at her flank, at her Mark, a knife swinging in a bloody arc – a Bad Mark, a Talent in bloodshed and violence, a Talent that had gotten her banished from Equestria – and then turned to the larger mare's flank, at her Mark of a six pointed star in a magic circle, a Talent for magic; a good, normal and admirable Talent for any unicorn.

Yet, despite that, the mare displayed a bloodthirsty predatory smile, showing inequinely sharp teeth. It was clear that despite lacking a Talent in bloodshed, this mare was not lacking in either willingness or ability.

The small unicorn mare had no idea what to think about any of that.

“Now, of course, corruption magic is decidedly odd, it lets a unicorn imitate other kinds of magic in a way, but the imitation is never perfect. For example, a unicorn can use corruption magic to take power from the earth much like an earth pony draws strength, but taking that which is not freely given will blight the land, making it less able to support plant life for years, perhaps even longer if enough power is drawn. Honestly, it isn't very useful; channeling power directly from whichever plane your magic most closely aligns with is safer, easier, yields more usable power and doesn't carry any undesirable environmental effects.” The utility greatly improves if in the domain of a friendly Genius Loci, but mentioning that would produce more confusion than clarification. Especially considering that geomancy was completely unknown to the general Equestrian populace.

“Caribou sacrificial magic, while permanent, has never been observed to be hereditary. But it just so happens that the corrupt unicorn imitation of that magic is; something that our ancestors discovered when they sired and birthed rather wolfy foals. What followed was an embarrassing amount of unreasonable angst about how they had 'cursed' their entire bloodline.” Aura rolled her eyes, “Eventually they managed to get over their melodramatic whinging, and realized that our wolfyness wasn't actually the curse they thought it was. Then we decided that if we were going to be wolfponies, then we were going to be the best wolfponies that we could possibly be. Thus the Total Lupequine Enhancement Project, where – using biomancy – we devised countless different enhancements to our bodies and minds over the next dozen or so generations.”

“At the beginning of the Dark Age, those who would become the Twilights were the least capable of combat, but by the mid Dark Age – even with dozens more Orders Stalwart being founded – the Stalwart of Twilight were unambiguously the most capable, and it wasn't even close.”

Sanguine sighed and closed her eyes, attempting to process what she had just been told. “So your ancestors used dark magic to recreate another race's grey magic and accidentally cursed their own bloodline. Then they decided that the curse wasn't so bad and decided to double down with even more grey magic. And now you're an entire bloodline of some kind of magically-enhanced wolfpony super-soldiers?”

“Yup,” Aura replied happily, popping the 'p', “I knew you were a bright young mare.”

Sanguine sighed, “And they never thought that Forbidden Magic might be Forbidden for a reason?”

Aura quirked an eyebrow, “Forbidden by whom, exactly? Putting aside their illegitimacy, cowardice and incompetence for a second, the Council of Magi wouldn't be founded until many hundreds of years later, and the Mages' Guild had been rendered defunct after the Razing of Everfree. In honesty, we were – and still are – the only legitimate heirs of the guild, the only legitimate benefactors of the Clover Treaty, having been descended from the only surviving guild-members.”

Sanguine felt the distinctive signs of an oncoming headache as she stared at her commanding officer turned madmare. The idea that a mare could seamlessly segue from bragging about how her ancestors had magically altered the minds and bodies of their entire bloodline 'countless' times – abusing dark and grey magic to do so – to declaring that those same ancestors were the sole rightful executors of magical law; not recognizing that the former should preclude the latter, was ludicrous.

Not for the first time, Sanguine wondered just how she had ended up in this situation, and gazed unfocused at the far wall.

A moment passed.

“You okay?” Aura asked with concern.

“Huh,” Sanguine shook her head, and turned to Aura, remembering a rumour from her time in CSGU. “I remember stories of Twiggles hunting the wildlife in Princess Celestia's gardens.”

“'Twiggles'?”

“Oh, sorry, Twilight.”

Twilight Aura raised an eyebrow, “I'm afraid you're going to have to be a bit more specific than that.” she replied with a hint of humour, despite having a pretty good idea of whom the smaller unicorn was referring.

“Uh, Twilight Sparkle. Is it weird that everypony refers to her by her family name?”

“Considering that there's well over a thousand different Twilights, absolutely.” Aura paused, “Do keep in mind that Sparkle is a bit of a sore point for a lot of Twilights, there are quite a few of us that feel like she was turned against us by the princess. I'd also recommend against throwing around that nickname too much, we Twilights are very proud of our name and its use might result in some unfortunate misunderstandings.”

“Huh.”

“Although I am happy to hear that Sparkle didn't stop hunting when she was taken into Celestia's delicate clutches. We Twilights don't do very well without our entertainment ...” Aura spoke the word in a way that left no doubt that she meant 'violence', “... our minds decay into stress and neurosis. And hunting is an excellent way for foals to both blow off steam and hone their stealth, speed, endurance, ferocity, agility and perception. Even more, it teaches fundamental life skills like leadership, cooperation, pursuit, tracking, small unit tactics and asymmetric warfare.”

Sanguine stared at the mare for a moment before coming to a realization, “Ha, ha, ha, funny,” she said dryly, “You got me.”

“What?” Aura asked in confusion.

“You're bucking with me, right? Making all this shit up to mess with me.” As much as Sanguine wanted to be outraged at the deceit, the only thing she felt was a strong sense of relief. In retrospect, it was obvious that the ever escalating series of outrageous claims was just the mare yanking her chain, even if it had taken an unreasonable amount of time for her to catch on.

Aura stared at Sanguine with a slightly offended scowl, “Of course not, I would never do such a thing. As the commanding officer of this team, it is imperative that my subordinates can trust me, and I would never jeopardize that for a cheap laugh at your expense.”

Sanguine stared at Aura for a second, coming to the realization that she was being completely sincere. The blue mare was struck silent; she had no idea what to think.

Spark pounced.

Just as Twilight Sparkle was about to release his spell, there was a roaring crack of thunder as a gale ripped through the streets, followed by heavy sheets of frigid rain.

For the first time in way too long – although it couldn't have been much more than fifteen minutes – Twilight breathed a breath of fresh air, untainted by marelust, as the rain ran off his waterproof fur and feathers.

As if a spell broke, the Herd ceased and the street rapidly cleared, mares galloping away to escape the rain.

Twilight unweaved his prepared spell, letting the threads of power dissipate into the ether, but kept his horn lit just in case.

Then, as sudden as it had started, the wind and rain stopped.

Twilight heard a quiet sob and his left ear swivelled back, Spike he thought, before levitating the wyrmling off his withers.

Spike's expression was of mortal terror, tears streaming down his scaled cheeks.

Twilight reared up and wrapped the baby dragon in his forehooves and wings; his ears were swivelling, scanning for any possible Threat.

Spike started bawling, his tears wetting the stallion's feathers in a way that rain couldn't.

Twilight nickered softly to the wyrmling, rubbing his back with his alulae, “It's okay, Spike; you're safe now.”

“I ... I thought they were going to kill me.”

“I would never let that happen, Spike.” Twilight spoke with an intensity that surprised himself, I'll kill any who try.

Neither spoke for several minutes as Spike cried his stress out.

Twilight's first conclusion was that it was merely the irrational, unfounded and unreasonable fears of a child. Celestia had often spoken of how fear could prevent a pony, indeed any creature, from thinking clearly.

Yet there was something that just seemed wrong about that conclusion, something Twilight couldn't quite put his hoof on.

After a couple moments, Twilight realized something. Spike didn't smell afraid; despite how obviously terrified he was. Instead he just smelled of the smoky, slightly metallic scent that Twilight's mind just labeled 'dragon'. Sure it was the individual dragon smell Twilight associated with Spike, sure it was stronger and slightly different than when he was calm, but it was not the kind of difference that Twilight could intuitively recognize as 'fear'.

Ponies could not recognize dragon pheromones, it stood to reason that the converse was also the case. And, well, historically, there was only one reason why a dragon would ever encounter a pony Herd.

Of course Spike had thought they were trying to kill him, he had none of the context that would have told him that anything else was going on.

“I'm so sorry, Spike. I should never have put you into that situation, I should have recognized the warning signs of herding and gotten us out of there.”

“It's not your fault, Twilight.” the wyrmling spoke, looking up at Twilight with a look of hurt and betrayal, “But why? Why would they ...”

Twilight sighed, “Would it help if I told you that they weren't after you?”

“What?”

“They were after me.”

“But, you're a pony, an alicorn princes... prince. Why would they want to kill you?”

“They didn't. Want to kill me that is. They were after me for a different reason ...” The stallion trailed off awkwardly, he really didn't want to elaborate too much about the literal rapeherd that they had just encountered to the prepubescent dragon.

“What were they after?”

“That isn't important right now.” Twilight replied slightly too quickly.

Spike's eyes widened in realization before narrowing in anger, “How dare they?” he wrung his claws in anger, “Why I want to ...”

Twilight looked at Spike, whose fear seemed to have been forgotten in his adorable protective anger, “You don't need to protect me, Spike, I am more than capable of protecting myself.” Twilight winced, remembering the lethal force he had been seconds away from unleashing, if anything, ponies need to be protected from me.

“But ...” Spike pouted.

Twilight laughed lightly and ruffled the wyrmling's spines with a wing as he released him from his embrace.

“Is everypony okay down there?”

Twilight looked up to see a narrow stormfront, depleted of its rain; the head of a grey stallion visible over the edge. “I take it you're the one responsible for the wind and rain? Thank you for your intervention, that almost got pretty ugly. Thunderlane, correct?”

The pegasus flew down to meet the alicorn, “Uh, yeah, and it's no big deal, anypony would have done the same.”

“But ‘anypony’ didn't do it, you did. That was rather quick thinking on your part, so thank you.”

“It was the least I could do, I couldn't watch while that happened to another stallion, especially not a friend of Dash.”

“A friend of Dash?” Not 'prince' or 'liegelord' or even 'hero of Equestria', but a 'friend of Rainbow Dash', interesting.

“Well, yeah, she might be a bit of a hardflank, but I owe her so much, more than I can explain; we all do.”

Twilight tilted his head, wondering what the story behind that could be, and who exactly was meant by 'we'. “So, does 'that' happen often to stallions?”

The other stallion winced before making a so-so gesture with his wings, “Ehhh, not exactly ... and I've never even heard of it happening in open air, but in enclosed spaces with poor ventilation? Yeah, it sometimes happens, even seen it a couple times ...” He shuddered heavily, implying he had more than just seen it.

Great, I just love being special. “I'd never heard of herding instincts resulting in that.”

Thunderlane chuckled awkwardly, “Mares tend not to like talking about it ...”

Umbra scoffed, “Ah, a fetid gaping wound in society ignored, all because it's impolite to talk about it, how distressingly Equestrian.”

Twilight rolled his eyes; from the way the twins talked, one would think that they were Twilights, “Umbra, you were born in Canterlot.”

“Irrelevant.”

Thunderlane glanced between the two ponies, “Uh, hello?” he said somewhat awkwardly.

Twilight turned back to the stallion, “These two are Umbra and Shadow, they're my guards, and they are very grateful to you for your timely intervention.” he said, giving a side eye to the two mares.

“Oh, uh, right. You did good avoiding the herd call, that's pretty difficult.”

“Only to ponies who are weak of mind.” Umbra replied dismissively.

Twilight facehooofed.

“Yeah, and while Sparkle here might be a total studmuffin, we ain't cousin-bucking degenerates ... well I'm not, the jury's still out on Umbra here.”

“Excuse me!” Umbra shouted in outrage.

“You are excused,” Shadow replied quickly before turning to Thunderlane, “Nice to meet you Thunderlane,” the mare purred, sauntering seductively towards the stallion, “I'm Dame Shadow Star, sworn to the Great House Twilight, personal guard to His Royal Highness Prince Sparkle of House Twilight, veteran of both the Gryphon Civil War and the Changeling War and part time supervillain. It's nice to meet you.” she leered while reaching out a hoof for a shake.

Thunderlane blushed, “Uh, I have a marefriend.”

“I'd be very surprised if you didn't; do you want another? I'm sure I could talk her into sharing.”

The stallion froze, barely comprehending what he had just been told.

“What in tarnation is going on over here. Ah don't know what you featherbrains are doing, there ain't any rain or wind on the weather schedule.”

“Oh, look, literally anything else.” Thunderlane said, turning towards the furious mare, “Sorry about that, Applejack, something important came up.”

“Important? Important?! Ah have a hundred mares half frozen to death because you got it in yer head to have an unscheduled rainstorm.”

“Oh, what a travesty; truly, my heart bleeds for them.” Twilight replied in a sarcastic deadpan before adopting a more serious countenance, “Stand down, Applejack; Thunderlane here produced the storm on my behalf. He acted nobly and decisively to deescalate a dangerous situation, he does not deserve the scorn you are giving him.”

“And just who are you to decide that? Mares are going to get sick because of this fit of whimsy.”

Umbra scoffed, “Maybe they should try not being weak. Ponies do have fur.”

Applejack's eyes narrowed, “You.” she spit out.

“No, it's actually me you're thinking of, she's the boring sister.” Shadow interjected lazily.

Twilight let out a deep, wolf-like growl, “Well, they better consider it a learning experience, because I was going to do much worse than just get them wet; how's that for whimsy? As for who I am, I am Magic.” The alicorn lit his horn and spread his wings as he Pronounced his Mantle.

Applejack froze as she was suddenly assaulted with the undeniable knowledge that this pony before her – who she had previously failed to recognize – was her good friend Twilight Sparkle.

Twilight stared at the earth mare for a second and sighed, he probably shouldn't have done that. Celestia would be disappointed in him for abusing Pronouncements; Twilight felt his blood run cold, how could he do such a thing? Why was he such a Bad Pony? Mantles weren't toys to be used however he wanted; they were a heavy responsibility, only to be used in dire need. Yet he had spoken a Pronouncement because he was annoyed. What kind of pony does that ...

A hoostrike to the shoulder broke him out of his neurotic spiral.

“Watch ...” Umbra spoke with a hint of amusement, pointing a hoof.

Shadow was sneaking up upon Applejack from the side, reaching hooves towards the earth mare's hat ...

Suddenly Applejack whirled around, aiming her hindquarters at the dark unicorn before performing a textbook perfect Apple Clan patented 'Applebuck'.

Shadow danced to the side, dodging Applejack's hooves by a hair while laughing, “Be careful where you're waving those kickers, Applebuck, you could hurt somepony with them.”

Twilight sighed, the antipathy between Shadow and Applejack had been a near constant vexation for the alicorn for the last couple months. It was not enjoyable to have your guard and close friend at each other's throat.

The rivalry had started shortly after the twins had become Twilight's guards, with what could only be called a faux pas.

House Twilight believed that each individual was their own agent, therefore mares were free to approach unattached stallions without anypony's permission.

That was not the case in Equestria; at least, not for stallions. A mare was obligated to get the consent of the stallion's 'legal guardian'. Consent that could be – and often was – denied for any reason.

Applejack, in particular, was a stickler for such rules. After the love poison incident, it had taken months for her to even speak to Cheerilee, and even to this day there was a level of distrust aimed at her. Never mind that the schoolteacher had been just as much a victim as Big Mac.

So when Applejack had happened upon Shadow flirting with Big Mac, the earth mare had come to the conclusion that the unicorn was a mare of poor moral character – a poacher and a whorse – and nothing Twilight did or said could do to disabuse her stubborn friend of the notion.

Applejack's constant attempts to get Twilight to discharge the twins had been a severe aggravation for the last couple months.

Just who did Applejack want Twilight to replace the twins with? It's not like Twilight had a guard because she had wanted to. As alicorn royalty, it was demanded that Twilight had something roughly approximating a guard.

Twilight could have just grabbed a bunch of random civilians and declared them the 'Dusk Guard', 'Magic Guard' or something. But well, that's effectively what Cadance had done with her now defunct Heart Guard, choosing guards based upon their ability to 'spread love' rather than martial ability.

And Celestia's Royal Guard wasn't much better, being composed entirely of pretty boy stallions trained more in marital arts than martial.

The changeling invasion had proven both worse than useless.

Most of the Heart Guard's recruits, from the very beginning, had been changeling infiltrators – being emotivore empaths had apparently given them a hoof up on Cadence's tests – and the ones who weren't were quickly replaced.

It had been the Heart Guard that had been responsible for Cadence's seamless foalnapping and replacement.

And then the Royal Guard had folded like wet paper in the actual invasion. Even Shiny's shield spell – a truly impressive abjuration – had only given a false sense of security against an enemy that had already been among them.

So forgive Twilight if she had wanted guards who could actually fight if need be.

The twins were actual veterans of actual wars – including against the changelings – were unflinchingly loyal and – due to their shadow alignment – had a wide variety of spells to make themselves imperceptible at will. That last point meant that Twilight had managed to live a relatively normal life despite being followed around by two guards all day, every day.

So, no, Twilight was not going to replace his guard because Applejack disapproved of one of them.

That said, Twilight dearly wished that Shadow wouldn't go out of her way to aggravate Applejack so much. The unicorn had up and declared Applejack to be her 'archnemesis' shortly after the inciting incident.

Normal, sane ponies don't do that, but the world gave up any hope of the twins ever being normal when they got adopted into House Twilight, and likewise, sanity had been a goner when they joined the same team as Twilight bucking Flare.

Twilight Sparkle was somewhat of a fan of Daring Do, so when she had actually met the apparently not fictional mare, she couldn't help but notice that one of the series' villain teams corresponded concerningly well with the strike team that was mared by no less than four of her cousins.

That she had caught Shadow casually chatting with Doctor Caballeron, in a way that indicated a level of familiarity, might have had a part in making the logical leap.

'Part-time supervillain' indeed.

And no, the fact that 'Doctor Caballeron' was actually 'Twilight Mirage', a distant cousin with a talent in illusions didn't help, nor did the fact that the 'Ring of Destiny' that she was selling was actually a carefully constructed forgery, with the real one already locked up in Twilight Manor.

Bucking Flare, it's all her fault. 'Infernator' of the Evil League of Evil – and what catastrophically stupid names those were – was the second villain to appear in the series after the monkey-dog thing Ahuizotl, first appearing in book two.

And no, Twilight still wasn't sure what exactly Ahuizotl even was. He had thought that he was a fictional species, a brainchild of the esteemed author A. K. Yearling, but no, apparently he was real.

Twilight had liked Daring Do better when it had been fiction. The world had made more sense.

Twilight was broken out of his griping by another hit from Umbra.

“Why don't yah ... just ... stay ... still, whorse.” shouted Applejack between heavy breaths, before charging Shadow.

“Ole! Ole!” Shadow pirouetted out of Applejack's charge, laughing, “Make me, Applebuck.”

Twilight glowered, “ENOUGH!!!” he lit his horn and levitated both feuding mares, overpowering their respective Domain of Self with brute magical force. For most unicorns, such a feat would be almost impossible, for Twilight Sparkle, it was trivial.

Applejack squirmed with all the force in her muscles, but she lacked any skill with Domain enforcement, so she was easier to hold than Rarity, who had a fraction of the earth mare's strength or magical power.

And Shadow's attempts to slip out of his grasp by making her Domain ... 'as slick as shadow' if Twilight read the Intent correctly was stopped by a look.

“The two of you will stop fighting now, or so help me Celestia, I will be giving you remedial friendship lessons together for the next three months. Twenty hours a week.”

“Ah don't have time fer that, ah have a farm to run.”

“Then it doesn't sound like you have the time to attempt aggression upon my guard, does it?”

Shadow snickered.

Twilight's gaze snapped to the mare, “And you will stop harassing Applejack, she doesn't want to be your 'archnemesis'.” The stallion paused, “And if you ever call me ...” Twilight grimaced in disgust, “... 'studmuffin' again, I'm hanging you from the parapets by your tail.”

Applejack mouthed 'studmuffin' silently in confusion before finally coming to the realization that the strange stallion she hadn't recognized and her good friend Twilight Sparkle were, in fact, one and the same, “Twi, yer a stallion.”

“A real master of the obvious, aren't we today?” Twilight spoke in a harsh sarcastic tone.

Applejack flinched.

Twilight sighed, “I'm sorry, that was uncalled for, I didn't mean it that way ...” he looked into the distance, “... I've had a stressful day so far, but that doesn't excuse my lashing out.” he released both mares from his magical grasp.

'Twi, why are you a stallion?”

Twilight sighed, “It's a long story.”

“It was magic wasn't it.”

“Of course it was magic, but you have no idea how little that narrows it down.”

Suddenly Sanguine felt hooves wrap around her barrel and lift her off the ground.

“Aura, what were you doing hassling me about my height when you have this adorable ... little ... marelet ... in Eta Team?” Spark squeed, “Look at her tiny little hooves, her tiny little horn, she's like a mare built in miniature.”

Aura sighed, looking at her sister and the squirming pony in her grasp.

“Let me go you brute.”

Spark looked soulfully at Aura, “Can I keep her? I want to hug her and pet her and squeeze her, and call her George.”

“No Spark, you can't 'keep' one of my soldiers.”

“Awwww ...”

“If you don't put me down, I swear to Celestia I'll stab you.”

Spark paused, “Is stabbing ponies your Special Talent?”

Sanguine froze.

Aura sighed and facehoofed, “Spark, she's Equestrian.”

Spark's eyes widened, then squeezed Sanguine tight, “I'm so sorry; that must have been hell, to be raised among such detestable, hypocritical pacifists.” Spark spoke the last word with a surprising amount of disgust. “Stabbing ponies is a perfectly good talent; stars know that there are more than a few ponies that desperately need to be stabbed, like those bastards of House Hurricane. They need to be stabbed over and over and over, until their insides become their outsides.”

And now they're casually advocating for the murder of an entire Founding House. Sanguine had no idea how to respond to any of this. This is my life now.

“Could you please put her down, Spark?”

“Fine,” Spark sighed and put down the mare.

Lepidoptera darted in and caught the emotionally exhausted mare.

Sanguine gave the changeling a thin smile; just yesterday the bug-pony had been the strangest part of her new employment. Such thoughts seemed quaint now.

“Now, Spark, not that I'm complaining, but it seems unusual that you would meet us here; aren't you usually busy with your tinkering?”

Spark smirked, her tail wagging in amusement.

“Something happened while we were gone, correct.”

“Some things.”

Aura sighed, “Well?”

“Well ...” Spark smugged at her older sister.

Brat, Aura scoffed, shaking her head, “Well, spit it out. What has transpired during our mission?”

“Well, a certain mare has been seen in Vanhoover, inquiring about the legends of the Ghostwolves.” Spark waggled her eyebrows.

“'A certain mare'?” Aura asked, before coming to a realization, “Daring?”

“Aye.” Spark waggled her eyebrows.

Aura glanced at Flare and found the mare was – as expected – literally vibrating in excitement, her uncaring facade all but shattered, “Go on.” Aura said with a smirk.

“AHAHAHA, THE INFERNATOR RIDES AGAIN!” Flare shouted in triumph before disappearing in a burst of flame.

A couple of the logistics ponies chuckled as Spark smirked.

“Vat vas that about?”

“So there's this pegasus, she has quite a Talent for unearthing things long forgotten: ancient temples, legendary fortresses, mythical libraries, that kind of thing. But she's ... uh ...” Aura trailed off.

“... a bucking idiot.” Spark finished.

Aura sighed, “Well, let's just say that she's the kind of mare to leave a staff designed to blow up the sun in the Manehattan Museum of Equine History. I mean, we're pretty certain that the Staff of Inevitable Darkness doesn't work as advertised – although we're not going to test it for obvious reasons – but well ... Daring had no way of knowing that.”

“Wait,” Sanguine, “You're talking about Daring Do, the adventure book character?”

Aura scoffed, “Yeah; then there's the entire part where she publishes her adventures as fiction novels.”

“The Daring Do series is nonfiction?” Sanguine sighed, it was somehow one of the least absurd things she'd heard today.

“Eh, more like 'inspired by real events'.” She paused, “So – due to her improbable ability to dig dangerous things up – House Twilight had always kept a close eye on the mare.” Aura sighed, “And then – during a routine observation mission – one pony got bored ...” Aura glanced at the scorch mark left from Flare's teleportation, “... and sauntered up to Daring, claiming to be 'The Infernator' from the 'Evil League of Evil' and just started monologuing at the mare.” Aura scoffed, “It was absurd, she claimed to be an operative of the 'Parliament of Flames' fighting for the freedom of fire from their 'pony oppressors'; any sane pony should have recognized it as nonsense, but no, not Daring; Daring believed her.”

“And that's how we became supervillians in a foals' adventure series.” Spark nodded sagely.

“Of course, it wasn't long until the other teams did something similar.”

Of course, Sanguine scoffed.

“And now the majority of Daring Do villains are actually Twilight teams.” said Spark.

“And the Ghostwolves are Northwestern Equestrian folklore resulting from our continued gatekeeping of the caribou menace, quite a few Twilights have been eagerly awaiting the day our wayward adventurer discovers them.” Aura shook her head with a soft smile, “She's in for an exciting time, I imagine. It'll be a lot of fun.”

Yes, 'fun', Sanguine sighed.

“And Sparkle's now a stallion.” Spark smirked, deliberately dropping a non-sequitur.

Aura went to nod before recognizing what Spark had said, “What?” She turned to her sister.

“Sparkle's a stallion now.” Spark smiled innocently at her older sister.

Aura glared at the mare, “When? Why? How?”

“Dunno; sometime in the last couple days; we only found out last night when he woke the manor with a howl that could be heard all the way from Ponyville.” Spark smirked, “As to why and how, it's Sparkle, I ain't got to explain shit.”

Aura sighed, “Sparkle is just an exceptionally powerful ma ... stallion and an alicorn. Sh ... he is subject to the same laws of magic that anypony is.”

“Then why is Sparkle an alicorn?”

Aura scowled, “You know I don't know the answer to that. We just don't have enough information about the metamorphosis to even posit a hypothesis.”

“Ha, checkmate Celestines.”

Aura facehoofed.

“Also, father's standing by the door; he's doing that thing where he forgets how to be an animate being and transmogrifies into a statue. I think he might want to talk to you.”

Glancing at the door, Aura realized her sister was right. Their father, the 'esteemed' Twilight Frost was standing there, completely stationary. Even worse, he was staring at Aura with a cold intensity that was all too familiar. Not for the first time, Aura felt glad that the stallion had as little involvement with his daughters as he had. “Show the rookies to the rooms Spark, I'll see what father wants.”

“Aye, aye, capitan.” Spark slammed a hoof into her chest in mock salute, “We will forever remember your sacrifice.”

Aura rolled her eyes and trotted over to the stallion. It was only with an act of will that managed to avoid shivering under his cold gaze.

She halted two body lengths from the stallion and stared directly into his eyes, “Father, to what do I owe this pleasure?”

Despite being of roughly equivalent height, the stallion still managed to look down on Aura, “Captain, High Lady Velvet wishes to speak with you.” he stated in his trademark cold monotone before turning and leaving the room in a stiff mechanical trot that was more reminiscent of an automaton than any living being.

Buck, Aura scowled; while she had never quite bought into the mystique surrounding High Lady Twilight Velvet, Head of House Twilight and Duchess of Twilight, it was undeniable that Aura's aunt was unstable and more than a little bit unpleasant. Even worse, she was not the kind of mare that Aura could casually disregard the summons of; the title of head of house demanded respect, even if Lady Velvet had done nothing to earn it.

Thus, an unhappy Aura followed her cold father to what may very well be her doom.

“So yeh done cast another of this Starswirl fella's spells and now yer a stallion?”

“Yes.” Twilight scoffed, “The last time I cast a Starswirl the Bearded spell, it gave me wings. This time ...”

“... it gave you a cock.” interrupted Shadow.

“Thank you, Shadow,” Twilight replied in a sarcastic deadpan, “Your input in this conversation has been truly invaluable, I don't know what I would do without you.”

“I dunno, probably die.”

Twilight snorted derisively.

Applejack looked between Twilight and Shadow; the words they spoke to each other were harsh, unfitting for either a prince or his guard. Yet, there wasn't any heat in those words, and they displayed a familiarity that couldn't have been the result of the mere months the mare had been Twilight's guard.

“So, when yah fixin' to make yerself a mare again?”

Twilight froze, for some reason he hadn't expected that question. Why hadn't he expected that question? He should have expected it. “I'm not.”

Applejack recoiled, “What? Why?”

Twilight paused, uncertain what to tell his friend.

He could just tell her 'because Princess Celestia said so'. It would be the truth.

Or would it? It had been the reason why Twilight had burnt his notes yesterday, but, strangely, it no longer felt true. Like it had somehow become a half-truth overnight.

Even worse, saying such a thing would set Applejack upon the Princess. The mare had a strong – if not always correct – sense of fairness and a lack of respect for status. She would interfere, in that blunt uncompromising way Applejack was want to do.

Applejack didn't need to know, nay it was better if she never knew. It would save untold grief. Not to mention it would save the mare from the possible retribution were she to go too far.

Twilight immediately felt disgusted with himself. Princess Celestia was wise. Princess Celestia was just. Princess Celestia was merciful. She would never hurt a pony for disagreeing with her, no matter how rudely.

Twilight could tell Applejack a platitude about how 'a magical effect was harder to reverse than cause' or how such a spell didn't exist. They would both be true statements, but as responses to Applejack's question, they would both be lies. They merely made the endeavour more difficult, not impossible, and the difficulty of the task had never been a factor in Twilight's decision.

Twilight wanted to tell the Truth, but how could he when he didn't even know what the Truth was?

“Remember Twilight, the Flesh is the seat of Lies, it is only through the Light of Intellect that one can determine the Truth.” Princess Celestia spoke gently, “In Truth, you are not a filly, you are not a pony, not even are you a unicorn, you are a mind trapped in the carceral power of Flesh.”

“I don't understand.” Twilight looked upon Princess Celestia in terrible confusion.

“You will.” Princess Celestia smiled softly.

Twilight felt strange ...

... it was like, for the first time in 19 years, for two thirds of his life, Twilight felt like he fit in his body.

For the first time in 19 years, for two thirds of his life, Twilight was more than a disembodied mind trapped in flesh.

For the first time in 19 years, for two thirds of his life, Twilight was.

“Because, Applejack.” Twilight spoke with tears streaming down his face, “I am a stallion.”