Celestia looked at the empty plate before her, Luna mirroring her from across the table.

“Ever since my return, I do not remember the food being quite this…divine.” Celestia raised her head to look at Luna, who had spoken.

Celestia huffed through her nose. “It’s good, but never this good. Luna, did you replace any of the royal chefs?”

Luna simply shook her head.

One of the royal waiters smiled. “Oh, it wasn't the normal chefs, your highness.”

Celestia turned to face him. “What do you mean, ‘not the normal chefs’?”

The waiter nodded towards one of the guards in the room. The guard he motioned towards had a deep blush on his face, his eyes just barely wider than they should have been for a member of the guard.

Celestia straightened her back. Guards, cooking? She cast a surprised glance at Luna.

The lunar princess shifted in her seat. “I…have noticed several similar occurrences, but they were so rare that I thought nothing of them. Mostly it seems like ponies going outside the bounds of their normal lives. Branching out, as it were.”

“When did it start?” Celestia asked.

“Not a month ago.”

Celestia frowned. “How has Eclipse been?"

"Much better." Luna said, smiling. "It worried me when he refused to let us halt his training -- I must admit that I'm growing attached to him -- but the fact that he managed to approach us with his feelings helped his demeanor greatly. Since we started taking time after training to speak to him about his concerns, Feather Duster has actually managed to get him to leave the castle. He’s showing rapid improvement training-wise, as well. A brief investigation revealed that he has convinced Shining Armor to teach him some guard basics, hence his improved rate of physical enhancement. In fact, he's gone far enough that I'm skipping straight to teaching him how to exercise his magical abilities.

“Be careful sister.” Celestia cautioned, not wanting to rush their trainee. “Even he does not know the extent of his power, so let's not go pushing him to upsetting gravity in half of Equestria.”

Luna nodded. “I doubt he actually has that much power, but he wants to learn and grow as much as he can. We can help him.”

Celestia nodded. “Yes. When he finally got situated into Equestria, he became almost obsessive with learning everything there is to know. He reminds me so much of young Twilight, but he’s a more generic learner, rather than focusing on magic. I also think that he and the maid, Feather Duster, have grown close over time.”

Luna cocked her head to the side. “You do not know? They had been dreaming of each other for quite some time. It was quite cute, actually.”

“Luna, you didn’t…” Celestia began, frowning.

“It was just some unconscious nudging.” Luna sheepishly replied. “I only served as a catalyst, honest.”

Celestia smiled. “I’m more worried about what Cadence would do to you if she found out. You know that’s her job. Now, if you would excuse me, I must return to my duties.”

Celestia excused herself from the table to return to her throne room, where a stack of paperwork sat waiting for her, along with a pair of guards--possibly gardeners in disguise for all she knew--a quill, an inkwell and Celestia’s personal assistant, an older mare whom Celestia had an amount of faith in rivaled only by the element bearers themselves. She sat down, picking up the first paper. No sooner had she finished with it, than a third guard burst into the room.

“Princess! News from northern Equestria!” Said the exasperated guard, still running into the room.

“What is it?” she asked calmly, not quite sure what to make of the interruption.

The guard skidded to a stop, taking off his helmet in salute. “I am merely to tell you that…it has returned.”

Celestia gasped. “Find Princess Cadence and Shining armor. GO!”

The three guards bolted, beginning their search.

Celestia picked up a blank piece of parchment. “Dear Twilight…”

“Feel the magic flow into you. Let it seep into your body.”

Eclipse took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. A moment later, he opened his eyes. "Yeah, this isn't working."

“Drat." Luna said, smacking her hoof into a boulder. "That's the third failure in as many minutes! We're missing something, but what?"

"Well, tell me when you figure it out, huh?"

Luna turned to face him. "You should be trying just as hard as I--what are you reading?"

Eclipse glanced at her. "Daring Do, book three. Why?"

"Where did you get it?" She asked, her eyes narrowing with suspicion.

"Didn't I have it with me when we came out there?" Eclipse asked, though his face was scrunching up in confusion. It was clear that he didn't actually remember bringing the book with him.

Luna blinked several times. "What was going through your head when you pulled out the book?"

"Boredom, I guess? Just, I wanted to finish this chapter, but you called me out here for training..." His eyes widened with sudden revelation. "I left this book in my room. I remember leaving it in my room. How did it even get out here!?"

Luna clapped her hooves. "There's our missing link! Imagine something else you want!"

"Like what?" He demanded, shrugging. "I haven't exactly got experience with this."

"Apples!"

Eclipse stared at the Lunar princess. "Really?" He asked. "Apples? Really? That one word cannot be stressed enough right now. Really?" He sighed, covering his eyes with a hoof. "For so long, I respected you. I dreamed of meeting you in real life and when--in some freak twist of reality--I do, this happens. I don't know whether to laugh or cry."

Luna deadpanned. "I just reached through the space time continuum and killed your dog. The large, gray and black fluffy one that was kept at your grandparents house."

"You jackass!" Eclipse yelled, firing several red balls of energy at the princess. "Wedge was the best dog ever! And I was seven!"

Luna swatted away the energy blasts with a large force field, causing them to slam into various locations around the area. Their effects ranged from small explosions to jumping around incinerating whatever they touched. Eclipse took the brief moment it took for the energy to expire to realize that there was no way Luna had actually killed his dog.

Luna raised an eyebrow, waiting expectantly.

Eclipse stared at his hooves, before raising them above his head and slamming them down, resulting in a small tremor that knocked over a nearby statue and left the ground around him cracked and with several inch high changes in elevation. He looked up, his eyes still glowing red. For the first time that day, he actually felt the magic in his system.

Luna nodded once. "You are able to hold a massive amount of power, but it would seem that you take some time to recover it. It is likely that you can expend a great deal of energy with little drawbacks, but an extended bout of such usage will render you as nothing more than an ordinary earth pony for at least several days."

"Not caring, just realized can do magic." Eclipse grunted in return, not even bothering to use effective grammar. Instead, he was too busy juggling several orbs of chaos energy.

Luna beamed. “Excellent! Celestia will be proud of such a success! In fact, if she is not busy, then I shall inform her right away!”

As Luna turned to leave, a guard strode up to them. “Princess! Your sister requests an audience. She claims that it is urgent.” The guard motioned towards Eclipse with his spear. “She also wants to see him.”

Luna and Eclipse glanced at each other, but neither objected.

They found Celestia waiting just outside her throne room, speaking with Shining Armor and Princess Cadence. The three turned to face the two, and Celestia smiled as she saw her sister.

Shining Armor shook hooves with Eclipse. “I see you've been doing well.”

“Thanks to you.” Eclipse returned. “I would still be in the physical part of my training if you hadn't helped out.”

Celestia cleared her throat, grabbing the attention of all those present. “As I was explaining. The crystal empire has returned.”

Shining Armor seemed to be the one most confused by this revelation. “Crystal empire?”

Eclipse was mumbling to himself. “So I've been between seasons two and three this entire time…”

Celestia nodded, having not heard Eclipse. “It will take time to explain it all. Please, while we talk we must also prepare ourselves.”