"Well this is...." Twilight chuckled, chagrined.

"...Awkward," Rainbow Dash finished for her.

"Isn't it though," the newly crowned Princess Lulamoon said. She held her stiff pose where she sat for a moment longer, then reclined with a sigh before the magic mirror array, settling comfortably into the bedpillows. "Fie on it all. I'll be the first to say it; could we just let bygones be bygones? Back in, back in Ponyville I was..." she cleared her throat before continuing; "I was wrong for the things I did, took things too far... I'm willing to drop it all and start fresh if you are."

There was a certain air of relief in the muted responses.  "Like a wise old pony said, 'holdin' a grudge is like drinkin' poison and waitin' for the other pony to die,'" Applejack said. Her horn winked with light briefly. She gave a little twitch as her Element nudged her, and looked a little chagrined. "And... aw shoot, my Element ain't going to let it slide, is it?"

At Trixies' mystified expression, Celestia explained. "The six of them are... well, suffice it to say that they were the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony before their ascendance. Now as alicorns they are avatars of those Elements, embodying them... It makes them unique, even among alicorns. (My how strange it is to say that...) What dear Applejack is saying is that her own Element of Honesty...is giving her a bit of a nudge to be more honest about how events transpired." Celestia's voice turned a trifle wry at that. "Would that be a fair summary, Princess Applejack?"

Applejack grumbled and ducked her head behind her hatbrim. "Shoot," she said again. "You're right, Princess. We didn't exactly come out smelling like roses ourselves when we first met Trixie either." She sighed and raised her head to look Trixie's reflection square in the eye. "You may have been a showoff, but you were puttin' on a show. An' all of us were out there hecklin' you an' all but jumpin' out of our horseshoes for a chance to show you up. I woulda tanned Applebloom's tail for actin' the way we did. I'm sorry." Her delivery was straightforward, civil and polite; it wasn't courtly manners but it was more manners than most of the court would have shown.

"Yeah, I wanna apologize too," Rainbow Dash said. She flushed. "I just wanted to take you down a peg. Didn't think about how it felt-- not till it happened to me." Her memory flashed back to a purple-caped figure.

Trixie chose to reciprocate. "Trixie accepts your apologies," she said formally. She rubbed her forehooves together awkwardly. She was aware she was slipping into third person, but it was an old habit when she got nervous or intimidated. "Trixie would extend one as well. She had-- spent a long time playing the flamboyant blowhard as part of her act and... she... lost herself in the role, somewhat," she admitted with surprising meekness. "And the Amulet... believe me, when she found it, all she wanted was to rank up her magic a bit so she could start putting on better shows. But once she put it on...." she cast her eyes down. "She is... I am... sorry."

"As you said, darling," Rarity said. "What's in the past is in the past. We're, well we're practically family now."

"Maker save us all," Trixie said dryly. The others giggled.

Twilight crossed her forehooves and leaned in. "So tell us what you've been up to since you left Ponyville last," she said. "Celestia told us the basics, but I get the feeling there's a lot of details she left out.  I understand you're a mother now?"

"Adoptive," Trixie corrected.  "Thanks to Princess Celestia and Princess Sunset Shimmer, the paperwork went through the day after they found us." A look of contentment crossed her face. "Jasper was so happy."

"Well, he's got to be excited," Spike said. The adolescent dragon was sitting next to Twilight, "taking the minutes" of their meeting. "First alicorn prince of Equestria. Um, well, technically second, after Prince Shining Armor. Or does he not count because he's in the Crystal Empire?" He put his quill to his lip, thinking it over.

Celestia and Trixie looked at one another. Celestia gave an absolutely impish giggle. "Going by how the press are taking to him, our new Prince Jasper wins by a landslide."

"The latest media darling, huh?" Twilight chuckled.

"See for yourself. Oh, new trick with the mirrors, Twilight..." Celestia levitated up her compact and tapped it to her mirror.

Her image vanished and was replaced by a slightly shaky image of the view from a balcony. It took the watchers a moment to realize they were seeing a playback of something viewed from the perspective of the compact as it hung around the wearer's neck(1). The view changed as Celestia turned, to reveal a young colt standing next to her. He had apparently been groomed to within an inch of his life. He was wearing a short royal purple cloak of impeccable cut that just covered his shoulders between his wings, and a thin golden circlet on his brow. His hooves were polished, his russet red coat gleamed, and his purple mane had slicked back in a pompadour, making the horn on his brow stand out all the more. He stood tall and proud, carried his head high and kept a calm, regal expression on his face.

"Oh, he's going to be a heartbreaker when he grows up," Cadence cooed.

"Going to be?" Celestia quipped. At Cadence's curious look she just chuckled.

"Too bad he's too young for you, Lulu," Pinkie said sympathetically, patting her traveling partner on the shoulder.

"Pinkie--!"

"He's certainly got the royal bearing down quickly," Rarity commented.

Trixie waved a hoof. "We do a lot of short skits in our shows: HoofSpear, Mane of La Mancha, the Hearthwarming, all the classics," she said. "I told him to mix a little King Lament with a touch of a Tale of Two Princes... the tragically noble one that is."

In the mirror view, Celestia could be heard asking, "nervous?" Jasper caught his breath and nodded, briefly. "No need to be," Celestia reassured him. The view turned back, till the viewers were looking down over the rail of the balcony. The courtyard below, a touch out of focus, was a teeming throng.

There was a brief fanfare. "Welcome, My Little Ponies," Celestia said. "I am glad you are all here today." There was a round of cheers and applause. "It is my pleasure to finally grant your request for an audience, so that you could meet your newest prince. Would you like to meet him?"

The shouts of "yes," were loud, enthusiastic, and oddly high pitched.

"Then I present to you, Prince Jasper, Alicorn of Flame," she said. She stepped aside. Jasper stepped up on the dais and looked down over the courtyard, head high, mane teased lightly in the breeze, circlet gleaming, as regal in bearing as if he'd been to the manner born.

The courtyard exploded into hysterical screams.

"What the sam hill...?" Applejack spoke for them all.

Celestia's compact mirror apparently finally drifted into focus, revealing the courtyard below packed from end to end... with fillies. Unicorn and earth pony fillies waving signs and banners decorated with hearts and kisses, pegasus and batpony fillies giving the cordon of royal guards fits as they tried to fly up closer to the balcony, even a sea pony or two going into hysterics in the fountain. Scattered among the masses were a few adults with the longsuffering expressions of world-weary parents, but they were a vanishing minority.

"Allow me to present," said the real-time Celestia with wry amusement, "the Prince Jasper Fan Club."

The poor overwhelmed colt in the recording looked frozen in terror, his eyes round as balloons. Heroically, he put back on the aloof mask he'd been wearing and waved to the shrieking crowds. This only redoubled the hysteria.

"It would seem that the dear boy photographs nicely. He became the darling of the press the moment he and Trixie made their debut." Celestia went on as the image faded. "He can't seem to walk past a balcony or window in the castle without some mob of fillies starting a ruckus." It was doubtful any of those watching the recording even heard her; they were all laughing so hard at Jasper's expression in the image they were in danger of choking.

Trixie merely lounged back and feigned a sigh of annoyance. "It figures," she said to noone in particular. "Trixie gets all the way to Canterlot Castle, only to be upstaged by her assistant--!"

There was a groan from offscreen. "Aww, Princess Celestia," Jasper whined, "did you have to show them that...?" Good natured teasing and chivvying brought him out from hiding. He stood in front of the mirrors, blushing and looking like he wanted to disappear while the mares cooed and chuckled over him. He bore up under it, though. It was easy to see that under all the embarrassment he was pleased at the positive attention-- after a cruel foalhood full of hateful attention from the Filii Terram, more than one of them realized with a sad start, it must have been a wondrous change. He had no way of knowing it, but at that moment he gained a circle of adoring foster aunts, and heaven help any bully, brute or bigot who tried to lay a hoof on him.

"Already popular with the fillies, huh?" Dash teased. Jasper grumbled something and flopped down next to his mother, his face flaming like his mane.

"Not just the fillies, either," Trixie chipped in. She smirked slyly at Jasper, and made duck lips at him. "The maids and the court ladies think he's just adowwable."

"Mom--!"

"Got a kiss on the cheek from no less than Fleur De Lis," Celestia said.

"The fashion model? Dates Fancy Pants? Dude!" Spike exclaimed. The little dragon gave the mirror a thumbs up. Jasper buried his face in his forehooves, but there was no hiding the grin inching across his face.

After the laughter died down, Twilight spoke up. "So will you and Jasper... be joining the search?" she said.

"Actually, no," Trixie said apologetically. "Her maj-- ahem, Celestia-- thinks it would be better if we stayed in Canterlot and, well--" she fluttered her wingtips.  "took some time to smooth off some of our rough edges." She lowered her eyes a bit. "A life in front of the footlights does not exactly a royal debutante make."

"Plus," she added, "I would like to give Jasper... a little more stability than we've had these last couple of years. A regular roof over our heads, and maybe a chance to get him caught up on his education---"

"Nrrrgh. School," Jasper grumbled.

"Oh, it won't be so bad," Celestia reassured him. "There are more than a few colts and fillies here in the castle who need schooling, so we have a tutor for them all. Noble pony's children, and servants and staff too-- you'll fit in quite well with them. And one little filly in particular who's mother just got promoted to the royal delivery service...I believe you know her?"

"Dinky?" Jasper perked up immediately. Maybe going back to school wouldn't be so bad after all.

"As for me, outside my ah, sprucing up on my courtly etiquette," Trixie said, "Sunset Shimmer wants to work with me and study my illusions technique." She preened a little bit. "She says she's never seen such intricate or stunningly effective illusions, and the way they interacted with my natural alicorn obfuscation field... well, my methods may provide a clue in how to find alicorns that are still in hiding, or methods they may be using to amplify their own anonymity."

Twilight made a sound of curiosity. "Really? I would like to look at your notes myself, if you get a chance to send them to me..."

Trixie actually grinned a little. "Oooh, the legendary Twilight Sparkle wants to read MY notes?" She clapped her hooves together. "How gratifying!" Then she frowned. "How will I mail them to you, though?" she said. "You're on that tour..."

Twilight facehoofed. "Right, that is a problem...."

Rainbow Dash looked up. "Oh, well why don't you just--"

"Maybe if I sent a copy ahead to your next stop?" Trixie said.

"But guys, you can just--" Rainbow said.

"I'm not sure where you'd deliver them," Twilight said. "We do get postal stopovers, but scheduling them is so complicated...

"Surely the captain of the ship has mail for his crew?" Rarity interjected.

"Yes, but it's always had those problems, I'm told," Twilight said, chewing her lip. "It's one of the oldest problems plagueing the Equestrian Military. Mail getting misrouted, or lost... even with pegasus couriers it's a mess--"

"Guys..."

"Well what about--"

GUYS!" Everypony finally stopped talking and looked at Rainbow Dash. Wordlessly, the former pegasus finished writing something on a sheet of paper and then slapped it up against the glass.

Everypony stared, openmouthed. Then there were facehooves all around. "So... obvious..." Twilight groaned. "But how would we save--"

"Camera," Rainbow Dash said.

"Oh. Of course." Twilight rubbed her chin. "Maybe Quick Quill's Tracing Cantrip will work, too..."

Luna crowed with delight. "Won't the Captains of our proud armed forces hail this boon to their communications, Sister!" she said. "Brilliant, dear Rainbow!"

"And what it will mean for the private sector as well, when the mirrors trickle their way down to them," Celestia said. "Indeed, well done, Princess Rainbow."

Rainbow polished a hoof against her chest. "Hey, maybe you didn't notice, but I do have my moments," she said.

"So where are you all off to now, my little ponies?" Celestia finally asked.

"Oh, We're going to be arriving at our first stop soon," Fluttershy said. "The nature preserve at the Unicorn Mountains. The Colt Scout Jamboree is being held there this year." She clapped her hooves and gave a little squee. "Oh, it's going to be so wonderful seeing all those young ponies, watching them experience nature for the first time..."

Awkward glances, sly looks, and amused grimaces were exchanged.  Fluttershy was shy and sweet and demure and it was a source of perpetual bafflement to her friends as to how she could remain utterly oblivious to the absolute chaos she could wreak on the male population merely by walking in their midst. Then again, that chaotic potential was probably what made Discord's friendship with her possible...

More than one mare present quietly yet visibly reflected on the dynamics of several hundred awkward young colts just hitting puberty, a few dozen gung-ho woodsy stallion troop leaders, and one of the top five former supermodels in Equestria--- who also happened to be the most timid, easily panicked and gun-shy mare in the Equestrian hemisphere--- out in the wilderness together. Visions of everything from runaway male braggadocio to panicked stampedes flashed through everypony's mind. "Oh boy," was the murmured verdict from Spike..

"And the Filly Scout Jamboree will be joining us in a day or so too," Fluttershy added. "Oh, it's going to be so exciting!"

"Exciting is... ONE word I could use," Celestia murmured.

A few hundred fillies, plus a few hundred colts, all of whom were vaccilating back and forth on whether the other side all had cooties. Throwing one nature-loving ravishing beauty into the middle was going to be like tossing a breath mint into a jug of diet cola. Twilight Sparkle silently rounded her estimate of the potential mayhem up by a factor of ten. Another awful thought bubbled to the surface. "Um... are you worried about getting along with-- well, I mean, the animals out in the Unicorn Range aren't exactly as familiar with ponies as the ones in Ponyville or Canterlot. They might be a little, well, reluctant to make friends..." She winced as she said it.

Memories of the Canterlot elite fleeing for their lives from the stampeding menagerie-- or perhaps from the raging, screaming beauty in their wake-- flitted across several minds. "Oh boy." This time it was Celestia who muttered it.

Fluttershy blushed at the inadvertent reminder of her little 'incident' at the Grand Galloping Gala. "Oh, I know," she said. "But I've gotten better since... that time at the gala. And I'm pretty sure I know what went wrong that time..."

Not every pony looked concerned. Dash, for one, had an expression on her face that was positively evil. "Hey Flutters? You have a staff photographer, right?"

Fluttershy nodded. "I tend to avoid her, though," she confessed.

Dash's smile would have scared the Devil. "That's cool. Just be sure and tell her to take lots and lots of photos of the Jamboree."

Fluttershy smiled. "Oh I will. I'm sure we'll be talking about this Jamboree for years to come."

"Strewth," Luna said, carefully not meeting Fluttershy's eye.  

"AAaaaand so where are you and my sister headed next, Pinkie Pie?" Celestia eagerly changed the topic.

"Oh we've been cruising slow and easy," Pinkie Pie said. "Dropping "happy coronation" party balloons and favors and cupcakes whenever we pass over a town..."

Rarity looked puzzled. "How do you 'drop' balloons?" she pondered.

"You tie 'em to the cupcakes," Pinkie clarified.

"Ah, of course."

"Anyway, our first stop is sort of de riguer for any proper professional party pony," Pinkie said. "Maredi Gras. There'll be parades and dancing and food and they'll pick the King of Fat Shoesday and there'll be food and drinks and cakes with little dollies baked in them--" She gave the Princess of the Night a neck-cracking hug. "Ooooo, we're gonna have so much FUN!"

"Which means you and I shall be crossing paths," Rarity said with a smile. "As I am already right in the heart of Maredi Gras territory. Only befitting that two of we 'Mane Six,' as the ponies have taken to calling us, come together to celebrate little Necturus' coronation." She tittered. "The mayor of Neigh Orleans is in a giddy fit; they're going to fit Mudpuppy's coronation into the festivities. It seems 'King Felix' is going to be accompanied in the Grand Parade by a genuine princess this year."

"Where have you and Luna been, Pinkie?" Twilight asked, puzzled. "If Neigh Orleans was your first stopoff, shouldn't you and Rarity have arrived at the same time?"

"Celebrating National Pickle Week in Vinegar Stills," Luna deadpanned. "Woo, what a party." She tapped a jar next to her hoof. "Whereas that noble city hath but one major product, namely Vinegar, they make the most of it. Ne'er had I any notion that so many things are, or could be, pickled. Cucumbers, eggs, beets, watermelon, carrots, mangoes, lemons, peppers---"

"Ooo, pickled peppers?" Celestia said. "Send me some?"

Luna stuck out her tongue and wrinkled her nose. "Thee and thy cravings..."

"We shipped you a whole sampler crate," Pinkie said. "I picked out them all myself for you, Celly."

"So Pinkie Pie picked the Princess a pack of pickled produce?"  Spike said, grinning. Twilight gave him a longsuffering look.

"Don't say that again," she said. "Just... don't."

"Say it again? I'm not even sure I can write it!"

"YYYeah. As for me and my crew, same old, same old," Rainbow Dash said. "Heading out to do a show at Windy City. I'm kinda looking forward to it... there aren't that many pegasus cities that are actually built on the ground."

"That's only because Windy City, like its sister city Misty Mountain, sits on a mountain so tall it pokes up through the cloudline," Twilight pointed out. "It has a permanent ring of clouds around it and--"

"And totally mackin' updrafts and windcurrents, yeah," Rainbow Dash agreed. "Can't wait to feel that wind through my primaries. And they have all sorts of extreme sports out there, too. Any alicorn with a pegasus background... or just an itch in their wings... is gonna be out there. Shoot, there are tons of earth ponies and unicorns there just for the parasailing."

Applejack shuddered. "They're welcome to it. This Earth Pony is just fine with her hooves on solid earth-- or good sturdy oak planks."

"Hm. As I recall, they also have the second largest unicorn academy in Equestria there, after the one in Canterlot," Twilight said. "That increases the odds of finding an alicorn immensely."

"I gotta ask: what is it with unicorns and mountains, anyway?" Applejack said. " Canterlot, the Castle of the Pony Sisters up on that bluff-- Even Princess Platinum lived in a castle up on a mountaintop, way back when."

"Oh, that's just Rincewind Arcology Syndrome," Rarity said with a wave of her hoof.

Applejack gave her a bemused look. "Beg pardon?"

"She's right," Twilight said, giving a slightly embarrassed smile. "It's a sort of nesting instinct that affects unicorns, particularly ones that specialize heavily in arcane research like myself." She flapped a wing. "Or... unicorn like I used to be. Anyway. We have this sort of overpowering instinct to find a location to do all our magic in, fortify it, and build vertically. The higher the better."

"Like wizard towers," Spike offered helpfully.

Several ponies went "ohhh" as they got the idea. "And castles on mountaintops," Dash said.

"Castles with lots of towers, I might note," Celestia added with a chuckle.

"And trees with libraries in them?" Applejack said, with an amused look at Twilight. "Or book forts?"

Twilight nodded and sighed. "Or observatories at the top of towers," she said, remembering back to her quarters in the palace. "All unicorns are susceptible to the urge to some degree. If you look at Carousel Boutique, Rarity's bedroom is right at top, in that little cupola tower thingy. They say Starswirl the Bearded had it so bad he couldn't sleep away from home unless he built a pillow-fort on top of a stack of barrels. The going theory for the reason is that our ancestors got tired of the other tribes sneaking up behind them and popping paper bags while they were trying to study the workings of the universe." She shrugged. "Anyway... how are things going with you, Applejack?"

"Oh, highs and lows, I suppose," Applejack chuckled. "The Cherry Jamboree went well. No alicorn sightin's, though. And Applebloom had a bit of a rough time. Bit of a ruckus involvin' a beekeeper an' some colt's hat..."

The story earned chuckles and moans of sympathy from the listeners. "Poor filly," Rarity said. "No offense, Applejack dear, but she does seem to have a rather touchy stomach for a pony from your family's line of work."

Applejack smiled ruefully. "She's usually fine about most stuff," she said. "I mean, she'll dive into most mucky farm stuff, no problem. But then somepony'll hit her from a direction she wasn't expectin', and..." she shrugged. "It'll be a few days afore she'll look sideways at a jar o' honey, but she'll get over it. Leastways it wasn't as bad as when she learned about where milk came from. She wouldn't touch it for weeks. She finally came around, though."

"Lemme guess," Pinkie said with a knowing look. "Slice of chocolate cake?"

"Bingo."

"Wait'll she hears about mushrooms," Jasper muttered.

"She knows," Applejack said. "She got over it." She paused. "Big Mac ain't, though.... he still leaves the room when we order a pizza." She sighed. "Anyhow, our next whistle stop is a farm tool convention over in Little Bighorn. I ain't expecting much in the way of alicorn activity there, but you never know."

"And I... might have a lead," Twilight said. She looked a touch apprehensive. "But I'm going to have to be a bit... unconventional about investigating it... " she rubbed her hooves over one another, like a foal getting ready to ask for something she wasn't sure she could have.

"Go on," Celestia said, curious.

"Well I was doing a tour of the Manehattan Museum of Natural History," Twilight said, the words tumbling out. "--Such an amazing place! and what they have on display is just the tip of the iceberg... miles and miles of tunnels and storerooms full of artifacts and archives and exhibits... and, while the director was showing me around, I stumbled across-- or rather, Flash Sentry stumbled across--" she grimaced in annoyance. She'd told him to keep his hooves to himself... "Some data about unusual goings-on in a little place known as Hollow Shades.

"Very strange things, in fact. It's an old community, very secretive and apparently has a very, um, rich and vivid folklore. Ghosts, specters, strange incidents, inexplicable phenomena, reports of strange creatures, that sort of thing. They sent out researchers, even a couple of paranormal investigators, but... well, what they found was inconclusive.

"There's not much to go on, but Flash Sentry says something about the reports sets off his instincts..."

"And you trust his instincts?" Celestia said.

Twilight bit her lip. "I'm... learning to," she admitted. More truthfully, she thought silently to herself, was that she'd found herself arguing with him about it-- and rational or not, she'd caught herself sounding an awful lot like when she'd argued with Pinkie Pie about her Pinky Sense. Call it irrational but she wasn't willing to make the same mistake twice, even if it was entirely by chance. "Sometimes you have to accept that other ponies have instincts you don't, I guess. Besides, a wild hunch is better than nothing to follow."

"So what do you mean by 'unconventional'?" Celestia pressed.

"I'm not going to take the zeppelin in," she said. "The ponies there are reportedly reclusive and skittish, and they might not react well to a zeppelin full of guards and royalty bombing out of the sky on them. I'm going to go in, um, well, alone. Mostly."

"Alone?" Celestia sounded concerned.

"Mostly. Just myself and a couple of guards, undercover. We'll be posing as Equineology students from the Manehattan University. They've seen one or two students there before so we shouldn't be too alarming. A couple of panniers over my wings and I'm just another unicorn undergraduate studying the local folklore."

Celestia frowned, but nodded. "One request, please, Twilight. Well, two, actually."

"Anything, Princess," came the automatic reply.

"Bring Spike with you." Spike sat up and saluted smartly.

"Spike?" Twilight started to protest. "But he's--"

"A baby dragon, yes, I know," Celestia said with a sigh. "But more to the point, dear Twilight, he's a baby DRAGON. He's magic resistant, has scales like armor plating, can bite through diamonds, wade through molten rock and breathes fire. You really do underestimate him," Celestia chided.

"Spike, listen to me. I know you've spent your life being as careful as you can be to not hurt others. But over the centuries I've heard some of the legends coming out of Hollow Shades myself, and I am asking you-- no, telling you-- if you or Twilight are in danger, do not hold back."

"Are you sure?" Spike asked hesitantly.

"Cuts and bites and breaks and burns can be mended, Spike," Celestia said gently. "But nothing can mend the regret of inaction. Yes, I am sure."

Spike nodded. "I understand," he said.

Celestia addressed her former student. "As for my second request: Make sure that Flash Sentry is one of the ponies who accompanies you."

Twilight frowned. "Specifically him? Why? I know he's Captain of my Guard, but won't he be needed back on the ship to--"

"I know you dislike his somewhat slapdash approach to paperwork and organization, Twilight," Celestia interrupted, making Twilight blush. "But I have been routinely impressed with his instincts in a crisis. It is no fluke; he has senses and instincts, keen as any razor blade, that would do a veteran guard thrice his age proud. He expects the unexpected, and I would have no other pony to watch your back." She dimpled. "I wasn't just trying to play cupid when I promoted him to your Captain, Twilight. "

Twilight humphed indignantly. Her and Flash Sentry? Ridiculous. Nevertheless she nodded. Spoken aloud or not, she couldn't help feel a little safer knowing that the Captain of the Guard was going to be at her back.

"Very well, my little Ponies," Celestia said. "All of you, I wish you good luck. And be careful!"

1)Celestia had replaced one of the gems in her peytral with a notch for her magic mirror compact. Next Chapter: Chapter 31 Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 15 Minutes