"Okay, I get that you have to play most of this close to the chest, but can you at least tell me what the cloud is for?" Rainbow Dash prodded at the fluffy white mass that sat between Twilight and the dizzying distance to the ground.

"We can't exactly go walking into Ponyville. The place is probably crawling with out of uniform guards just waiting for one of us to slip up and try going home or contacting one of our friends. For all I know, Celestia warded the entire town to detect our bio-magical signatures the second one of us enters the city limits."

"Is that even a thing?"

"No idea. But it pays to assume the worst."

"So this cloud..."

"I figure that any such wards probably wouldn't stretch up indefinitely. They'd probably be dome shaped, so if we keep high enough altitude we might be able to keep out of the area of effect, while also staying out of sight. Of course, I could be totally wrong. It might a be a vertical cylinder, in which case we better be ready for a quick getaway, but you have to take some calculated risks at some point."

" And there's also the chance that there's nothing there in the first place, and we're doing all this for nothing."

"That too, but better safe than sorry. Let's get going. Not too fast though. Try to make it look like it's just a stray bit of wild weather drifting in from the Everfree."

Rainbow Dash grabbed the edge of the cloud and gave a slow and steady push, directing it toward Ponyville. When they eventually crossed the city limits, Twilight held her breath, as if expecting sirens to go off. After a minute with no noticeable catastrophe, she permitted herself to relax the slightest bit.

"Okay, park us over Sugarcube Corner. Let's try to do this quick before any weather pegasi come to clean up an errant cloud."

"Don't worry. It's the post-lunch slump. Everypony is slacking off and chit chatting. Nopony is gonna come bother with a single cloud this high up for at least an hour." The cloud drifted to a stop directly over Sugarcube Corner, now looking about the size of a sugarcube. "Alright, we're here. Now what?"

"Move us South a bit. Little more. Stop." Twilight pulled out a pair of binoculars and peeked through the bottom of the clouds."

"Sooo?"

"I need to get a message to Pinkie Pie. Without going down there, and definitely without using magic, because I'm almost certain that detecting my active magical signature is something Celestia can do."

Rainbow Dash glanced over the edge. "How are you gonna pull that off?"

Twilight pulled out a quill and sheet of paper, scribbling calculations as she glanced between the sheet and the binoculars and stopping only once to lower down a length of string to gauge the presence of any wind. Finally, she pulled out a second paper, containing a simple message with a location and a promise of a "fun surprise". Rainbow Dash watched as Twilight neatly folded it into a paper airplane.

"Seriously? No wonder you said this plan was crazy."

"I guess now would be a bad time to say this is probably the least crazy part that I'm most confident in? By the way, I'm gonna need you to give me a soft breeze that way." Dash complied by rhythmically beating her wings. "Softer. Little softer. Just a bit stronger...there. Just like that."

Twilight enveloped the note in her magic, held her breath, and threw. The paper missive glided gently down, down, down. Soaring unnoticed over the busy market square full of townsponies attending to their daily errands. Twilight watched through her binoculars as it glided perfectly into the open window of Pinkie's bedroom.

"Yes! Okay, let's get out of here."

Twilight's horn pulsed and they both disappeared in a flash, leaving the cloud behind. There was a second bright flash as they reappeared at the location described in the letter.

"Alright, now we just have to wait for—"

"Hiya Twilight!"

"—AAAAHHH!" Twilight jumped a foot in the air, spun around, and landed in a defensive crouch, horn illuminated and pointed straight at the bouncing form of Pinkie Pie.

"Oh, and hey Rainbow Dash!"

"Hey."

"PINKIE!" Twilight shouted as she attempted to get her heart out of her mouth and back into her chest. "HOW DID YOU GET HERE?!"

"I walked. Duhh. It's not like there's any train tracks nearby, silly!"

"WHY ARE YOU HERE?!"

"Oh! Well, my knee was feeling pinchy, then I got two eye flutters, an ear itch, and both my back legs fell asleep. That meant it was finally my time to shine! Not a moment too soon if you ask me. So I just followed my nose tingle until it led me here."

"So you didn't even see my note?"

"Silly Twilight. Notes are for hearing, not for seeing. Do I taste like I have synesthesia to you?'

"My message! You didn't get my message?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, so...probably not? I've been here for about 30 minutes anyway."

Twilight rubbed her temples with her hooves. She had been away from Ponyville for so long that reacclimating to Pinkie took a while.

"A-Anyway, as much as I'd like to catch up, I kinda need to ask a favor. Two favors, really."

"Sure thing!"

"First, I need you to deliver some packages for me." Twilight pulled a bulky parcel out of her bags. "Just drop this off at the post office, but be sure to give this," she pulled out a small envelope, "directly to Spike and tell him to send it to Celestia immediately. It's very important."

"Okie dokie!"

"And secondly, this may sound a little odd, but I need a—"

"One helium filled party balloon coming right up!" Pinkie reached into her mane and pulled out a single red balloon that had, against all reason, remained perfectly inflated despite it's long sequestration. "Phew! It feels like I've been holding onto that thing for YEARS!"

"But...how...?" Before Twilight could pick her jaw up off the ground, Pinkie was already bouncing off into the distance.

"Thanks for the narrative relevance!"

Twilight continued to stare dumbfounded for several seconds before shaking her head and giving up on trying to make sense of what just happened. As she glanced at the balloon in her grasp, another wave of confusion swept over her face.

"Who the hay is Check Off?"

Celestia glowered at the papers on her desk. As much as she tried to focus on the routine issues of state, her mind kept wandering back to Twilight's narrow escape during their last encounter. It didn't help that one of said papers regarded a dispute over an insurance claim for a steamroller that had disappeared and later been found smashed and incinerated a few kilometers from the outskirts of Baltimare.

The search for Twilight was consuming an ever increasing number of resources. There was no shortage of untamed corners of Equestria where a desperate pony could hide, and it wasn't as if she or Luna had the time to personally sweep every inch of wilderness trying to sense her magical signature.

Then there was the matter of what to do with all the changeling prisoners from the raid on the destroyed hive, and the personnel shuffling from the exposure and capture of an alarming number of spies. The royal arcanists were hard at work on the solution of feeding them, looking into a promising theory that they might be physically capable of generating and sharing love with each other, forgoing the need to prey on other sapient species entirely. Not terribly long ago, she would have reached out and tapped Twilight as a director for such a research initiative.

Celestia's brooding was interrupted by a puff of green flame, followed by the materialization of a rather thick envelope. Eager for a distraction from her other work, Celestia caught the envelope in the air with her magic and opened it. She bolted upright from her seat when she noticed Twilight's familiar horn writing. The message itself was quite short. A time (2 days from now), a location, and a request for parley. There were two other documents attached, one appearing to be some kind of printout from a medical scanner, but they were quickly set aside to be examined in detail later. There wasn't a second to waste.

Grabbing a quill, she scribbled off a quick return message to Spike, asking where he had gotten this envelope. She folded the parchment, grabbed a stamp from her desk, and stamped a large red 'URGENT' across it. With a golden flash, it was gone. Twenty long seconds passed before a second spout of flame delivered a reply. Apparently Pinkie Pie had just arrived at the library bearing the previous envelope with directions to send it immediately.

An hour later, Celestia had a mostly reconstructed timeline of Pinkie's movements for the day, cobbled together from her various spies, informants, and operatives. Though Pinkie was notoriously difficult to keep eyes on consistently, she had been spotted sometime in the mid-afternoon entering Ponyville from the northeast bearing a large package and headed in the direction of the library. She left with the same package and later arrived the post office, leaving without it.

Mail schedules were consulted, and four hours later the package was intercepted, checked for traps, and having every part of its contents inspected by a team of analysts in a secure location. The package itself had been addressed to the Manehattan mail distribution center and contained a dozen smaller envelopes, each addressed to the mayor of a different city (except for one construction worker and two coffee shop owners, all living in Fillydelphia) and containing a letter and a seemingly mundane item. One was a screw, another a length of string, another a small glass vial with a black dot painted on the end. The letters themselves ranged from inane comments on the weather, to a thank you note for a Hearth's Warming sweater, to a review of a school play, to utter gibberish. While the items were subjected to tests for any hidden enchantments, code breakers poured over the letters, and another team of analysts searched for any kind of connection between the recipients.

Whatever Twilight was planning, Celestia would be ready for it in two days time.

Twilight finished wrapping the last of her packages. Her real packages, of course, not the decoy she had sent with Pinkie that would keep anypony watching chasing their tails for weeks. These she would drop off later, in a post office somewhere far away from Ponyville. She briefly wondered if anypony would ever appreciate the sheer depths of detail she had put into that much misdirection. She had gone so far as to lightly brush each note with sediment and vegetation clipping from different regional biomes just to confound any attempt at forensic analysis of trace contaminants on the paper to narrow down where they were written.

With the last piece of tape in place and the packages tucked into her saddlebags, Twilight stood up and waved over Applejack to talk privately. "There's...something I need to ask of you."

"Twilight, you know I don't want no part of this scheme of yours."

"I know. I wouldn't put you in that position. I just wanted to ask you...to look after Dash for me."

"Come again?" Applejack raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

"Just keep her safe while I'm gone. In the best case scenario, everything works out and I can just freely come back for her. But...well I've been trying not to emphasize it too much lately, but there's a pretty good chance I don't come back at all. If that happens, I want to be sure somepony is looking out for her. That if anypony tries to drag her away for more tests, she'll have somepony in her corner to back her up. And most of all, I want to make sure she isn't just...left alone. That you, that all of our friends will be there to make sure she's okay."

"Yeah, I think I can manage that. Don't you worry, Twilight. I'll look after her. Fluttershy will to." She glanced over to where Fluttershy was silently standing next to them.

"Umm! I swear I wasn't eavesdropping!" Fluttershy waved a hoof in front of her in a flurry of apologies. "But, umm, yeah. We'll all be there for her if...if...oh, but please do come back safely!"

"I'll try. And thanks. This makes it a lot easier to focus on everything I have to do next."

"And one more thing!" Fluttershy cut in.

"Yes?"

"I...you know, just in case I don't get another chance to say it. I wanted you to know that I...I'll be fine too. You know that I loved you."

"Fluttershy..."

"And it hurt a lot that things didn't work out for us, but I understand. I just wanted you to know that I don't resent you for it or anything, and that I think I'll be okay from now on. So, just in the off chance you were worried about that, don't be."

Twilight smiled and pulled her into a hug. "Thanks Fluttershy. That really does mean a lot to me, actually. There's a part of me that still wishes it could have worked out. And even though I was still obsessed with Dash, that part of me really did care about you. You're a wonderful pony and a wonderful marefriend, and I'm sure you'll make somepony much more deserving than I very happy." From over Fluttershy's shoulder, Twilight shot a quick glance at Applejack, who either failed to notice or pretended not to, though Twilight thought she saw a the faintest tinge of red suffuse the orange cheeks.

The moment was interrupted by a brash voice yelling out. "If you three are done having your secret meeting behind my back, can we get on to the next part of the this plan I apparently don't get to know anything about?"

Twilight looked up at Rainbow Dash and gave a sad smile. "Now I head out. From this point on, I'm on my own."

"Wait, what? You're just leaving? What about me?"

"You stay with Applejack and Fluttershy. After three days, head back to Ponyville. Stay with one of them."

"I can put her up for a while." Applejack reassured.

"What about that whole thing about Celestia possibly detecting us?"

"Three days from now it shouldn't matter anymore. If everything works out well, I'll meet you at Sweet Apple Acres."

"And if it doesn't go well?"

"Then...then it still shouldn't matter. There won't be anymore running."

"No!" Rainbow Dash shouted. "That's not good enough, damnit! You promise me you're coming back!"

"Dash, I told you there would be risks. There's no way I can promise—"

"NO! I don't care! Either you promise me right here that you're coming back to me or I'm not letting you leave. I'll call this whole thing off! Don't think I won't!"

Twilight closed her eyes and gave a defeated sigh. "Alright then."

"I mean it. Don't just humor me."

Twilight placed each of her front hooves on either side of Dash's head and looked her straight in the eye. "I promise we'll see each other again."

"R-Really?"

Twilight placed a hoof over her eye. "Pinkie promise."

"A-Alright then." Rainbow Dash looked unsure for a moment before giving a nod and leaning in for a hug. Applejack and Fluttershy soon joined in.

"So long Twi, I'll take it from here and keep an eye on these two."

"Oh, do be careful!"

"Remember! You promised!"

Twilight waved goodbye to her friends before disappearing in a flash. She only had two days to finish getting her affairs in order.

Celestia stood in the middle of the barren field, bathed in the light of the setting sun. This was the meeting place specified in Twilight's letter, in precisely the middle of nowhere. This far from any civilization, there was clearly an expectation of negotiations breaking down in a big way. No matter, that was what the one way interdiction field surrounding the area was for. As soon as Twilight teleported in (clearly her plan given the open visibility for miles around and the small x on the ground before her) the only way she would be leaving was in chains.

Celestia's innate sense of time counted down the seconds. As soon as the final second expired, there was a bright flash and Twilight appeared directly over the mark, something floating at her side. Twilight wasted no time in turning to look her in the eyes and bark out an order.

"Tell them all to fall back right now!"

Celestia answered with unflappable calmness. "Who exactly are you talking about, Twilight? We're the only ones here."

"Your backup. The guards, Luna too. Tell them not to try anything and to fall back at least 2 kilometers. For their own safety."

"Twilight—"

"Now! You see this?" Twilight brandished the object floating by her side.

"An ordinary party balloon?" Celestia asked, now legitimately puzzled.

"Yes. An ordinary helium filled party balloon. Encased by an inverted radial gravity spell, as strong as I could make it, and kept in check by a thin shell of a nullification barrier. I think you know what'll happen if I lose concentration for a moment and stop maintaining that barrier."

Celestia paused for a moment. "I'm sure I haven't a clue what you're—"

"Don't. Something always bugged me about my astronomical studies. Certain things about orbital mechanics and details about the mass and energy output of the sun never quite added up. You were always evasive on the subject, but as your student I had access to most of the restricted section of the library and was pretty good at sneaking into the parts I didn't have access to. I could still tell there were pieces missing. References to works that didn't seem to exist, but after enough reading on some 'officially discredited' theories on sub-molecular physics, I managed to piece together a pretty good idea of how you do it. It was just to satisfy some academic curiosity, and I never felt the need to bring it up, but now I suggest you order them back or else find out how well I can translate theory to practice!"

Celestia stood silent as a marble statue, trying to get a read off of Twilight's face. Twilight glared back, the balloon in her magical grip constricting down to half its previous size under the bright glow. Celestia fired a shower of green spark high into the air. All around them the grass began to move. Royal guards that had arrived and set up position hours ago rose from the ground, the sod covers falling from their backs and the camouflage spells fading as they fell back to a safe distance.

"That means you too Luna," said Celestia.

Celestia's shadow began to waver before slowly rising up off the ground like paint dripping in reverse, forming into the Princess of the Night.

"But Sister! Surely I cannot allow you to—"

"I will be fine. Fall back for now. I will take care of this." Her face softened for a moment as she turned to face her sister. "Please, Luna."

With a face that left no doubt about her disapproval, she grumbled a reply of "very well", shot Twilight a look that could shatter diamonds, and took flight to regroup with the rest of their forces.

With her ponies and sister safe, Celestia turned her gaze back to her once faithful student. "How did you detect them?"

"I didn't. I just assumed you wouldn't show up alone without overwhelming force already in place."

"You must know how foolish this is Twilight. You know that won't hurt me. That flame and heat cannot harm me. And you cannot escape now. I don't need backup to subdue you. It's time to surrender."

"First of all, I don't know that. It's entirely possible that's just a myth that you have no reason to discourage. Second, there's a fair amount of raw concussive force involved. Third, hurting you isn't the point. I came here to talk and I plan to either leave here voluntarily, or not leave here at all. So keep your distance, don't make any sudden movements, and keep that horn unlit, and let's just talk."

"Very well, then. Tell me your villainous demands, then answer me this. What happened to you Twilight? What happened to the wonderful little filly I took under my wing, who shone with a radiant inner light and unimpeachable moral compass and sense of justice. What foul forces or ancient artifacts corrupted her into...this."

Twilight flinched as if struck. A look of genuine hurt crossing her face for a moment, before being replaced by confusion and anger.

"What are you talking about?! Nothing happened to me. I didn't open any ancient tomes, start experimenting with 'dark magic' and suddenly turn evil. And you know I've always been a consequentalist, and thought that evil being some ontological force you could catch like a disease was utter tripe. I simply fell in love, which slightly reordered my priorities. I understand exactly the problem with what I did, and I chose to do it anyway, but that didn't change anything else about who I am. It didn't fundamentally alter my personality and turn me into a cackling villain bent on taking over Equestria. Just because I chose to do one problematic thing doesn't mean I'm obligated to go around kicking puppies now. I'm still me. This is simply who I was the entire time. I don't want to take over Equestria. I don't want to hurt anypony. I'm not suddenly going to turn into Sombra!"

"Funny you should mention that," Celestia's face shifted from its blank slate into a scowl "after what you cast on Luna."

"A simple tool used in defense. And given her preferred tactic of attacking ponies with nightmares, I figure that turnabout is fair play. She was only under the effect for a few minutes, anyway. If I can take that, I'm sure she can." Twilight tried not to dwell on the irony of just what that fear had been at the time.

"11 hours, 2 minutes, and 36 seconds," Celestia replied, ice creeping into her voice.

"W-what?"

"That's how long I spent trying to undo the fused spell matrix that kept my little sister trapped and screaming until her voice gave out. Of course, I don't know how many minutes or hours passed before I found her."

Twilight took a step back, so surprised that she nearly lost concentration on her spell and turned the surrounding field into blackened glass. Her ears flattened against her head and her eyes filled with such genuine seeming contrition that Celestia was taken aback for a moment.

"That...that wasn't supposed to happen that way. I didn't exactly get to test it out first and...is she okay?"

"She will be fine now. Though I'm surprised you care." Celestia glared back coldly, still racked with the memory of that long day.

"Of course I care! Haven't you heard what I've been saying? I don't want to hurt anypony. That includes you and Luna. And no matter what you want to believe, I don't hate either of you. I understand completely why you have to chase me. Why what I did is illegal and absolutely should be. I just fight back because I simply don't want to be caught. Because then I'd be apart from Rainbow Dash and simply couldn't bear that."

"So therefore the rules simply shouldn't apply to you? Are you really that egotistical, Twilight?"

"No, that's not what I'm saying at all. I don't think that I deserve any special exemption. It's not about deserving at all. I can make all sorts of arguments about how my initial crime didn't really harm anypony, but I still know that letting something like that go unpunished sets a terrible precedent. A world in which ponies are allowed to run around doing what I did would be a disaster. I run and fight and try to escape consequences simply because I can. Because enduring those consequences, being locked up and separated from Dash, no matter how well deserved, would simply be intolerable for me. I'd honestly rather be dead, but preferably stay alive and free if at all possible. I know that means I'm not the noblest of ponies, but I'm not malicious. I don't want to hurt you or Luna or anypony else. Which is why I came here to at least try and work something out."

"Oh?" Celestia cocked a single eyebrow. "And what exactly do you propose?"

"Well, I doubt at this point that a profuse series of apologies and community service is going to be enough. Unless...?"

"No."

"I didn't think so. In that case, I'll agree to up to 3 years sentence with open visitation followed by parole and supervised restriction of magic use for as long as you deem necessary. I sent you the brain scan proving Rainbow Dash is no longer under any magical influence. You can verify it yourself, and after I get out I can continue to be with her so long as she wishes it."

"No deal," Celestia replied abruptly, with hardly a moment's pause.

"In that case, I'll accept exile so long as Dash can come with me."

"No."

Beads of sweat began to form in Twilight's mane as a note of desperation began to creep into her voice.

"5 years imprisonment if I can just see her twice a month! Afterwards, indefinite service to the crown with a horn lock as long as we can—"

"Not going to happen."

"What about—?!"

"No. No deals. You don't get to dictate the terms. You don't get to keep what you stole. Whatever happens, you and Rainbow Dash will not be going anywhere near each other again."

Twilight growled as she brandished the balloon in her magical grip.

"You'd best reconsider that position, because that's just not good enough. We either leave with an understanding, or I don't leave at all! And if you're saying that any further talking is pointless..."

Celestia placed a single hoof forward.

"HOLD IT!" Twilight shouted in response, the barrier around the balloon flickering dramatically.

"I don't believe you Twilight." She placed another hoof forward in front of the first, causing Twilight to take a half-step back. "I know you better than you think. You're not the suicidal type."

"Then it looks like you really don't know me all that well, after all. This is your last warning. One more step and this thing goes off!"

Celestia's raised hoof paused briefly in the air as she caught a glimpse of the ferocity in Twilight's eyes. The two stared at one another for seconds that felt like hours. When Celestia's hoof finally continued forward and struck the ground, the last thing she heard was a faint whisper of "please forgive me Dash" before a blinding flash of light and the deafening roar of a nuclear shock wave surging outward.

When it had passed, along with the rebounding boom of displaced air rushing pack in to the area, a somewhat more bedraggled looking Princess Celestia, panted heavily and stood in the center of an enormous disc of black glass. There was no sign of Twilight Sparkle to be found.

One last chapter to go. Meant to finish this off sometime yesterday, but I needed a break after watching the finale and nostalgically watching through some of the great works of fan material while sighing wistfully.

It's super late and I have work in the morning so against my better judgement I'll post now and give a quick editing pass later for typos.