The new Princesses were all currently roomed in the East Tower together, in quarters normally reserved for diplomats and visiting royalty from other kingdoms. The suites were capacious--- the smallest one could have held the entirety of the Carousel Boutique with room to spare-- and lavishly appointed. The opulent surroundings were doing little to set them at ease, however. The shock of their metamorphosis had passed, anxiety settling in its place. Now they'd had time to sit down and think about it all, the stress was making them more erratic by the moment. In the course of twenty four hours their lives, their knowledge of how their world worked, even their own bodies had been turned topsy turvy. Every aspect of change had brought with it a hundred questions they wanted to ask, and no answers were forthcoming.

In short, the mane six were starting to freak.(1)

The six of them had gathered-- or perhaps huddled-- in Twilight Sparkle's suite. They had dismissed the servants and were now scattered around the bedroom, fretting and plexing in the manner best suited to them. Twilight had taken to pacing around the room, muttering to herself. Rainbow Dash had become increasingly fidgety, flying from perch to perch and alternating between looking at herself in the many mirrors around the room as if searching for some blemish and staring cross-eyed at the tip of her own horn. Rarity and Applejack were commiserating together over the boutique and the farm. Fluttershy hadn't quit saying "oh dear oh dear oh dear" for the past half hour. Even Pinkie Pie was looking as nervous as a schoolfilly sitting outside the principal's office.(2)

The door to the suite opened and Princess Luna stepped in. Her mane was slightly rumpled and there were bags under her eyes. There was also, inexplicably, a bunny slipper on her back left hoof. She noticed it and kicked it off with a hint of annoyance. "Good day, my little ponies," she said. Her mouth quirked up into a smile. "No, that isn't correct, anymore, is it? I should say good day, my new kin." She seemed to take great pleasure in saying it. "We are sorry we left you here alone for so many hours, but--" she paused and yawned. "Forgive me... but there were many affairs of state to take care of due to this." Plus, I'd been up for almost twenty four hours and I was dead on my hooves, she thought to herself. Not that four hours of napping helped much. Darned snail klaxon false alarm...  "We--- Celestia and I--- are sure you have many questions..."(3)

That opened the floodgates. They gathered around the Lunar princess like a flock of frantic ducklings, talking over top of each other. "CEASE!!!" Luna finally bellowed. The floor itself vibrated with the force of her voice. They all leapt backward a step, clamming up instantly. There was a faint "eep" from somepony, then all was still. "Aherm. Sorry," Luna said. "Perhaps I should begin by answering some of thy most likely questions in advance?

"Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Twilight Sparkle: We have made arrangements for temporary replacements to fill thy positions of duty in Ponyville; librarian, veterinarian, and lead weather specialist. Thou wilt be interviewing candidates for a more permanent replacement at thy convenience; we shall only send hence those that meet thy expectations.

"Though, ahem, there is little rush to select a new librarian till a new library is built and stocked.

"Servants have been sent to ship thy belongings to the Palace, and to escort thy pets hither as well. With the exception of Rainbow Dash; moving pegasi will simply be towing thy cloud home hither. Fluttershy, fear not, there is more than plentiful room in the royal gardens for thy menagerie." The three mares in question sighed in relief.

"Fair Rarity, thy business is still thine own, but we would kindly suggest henceforth that thou sellest thy fashions through a proxy, under another name... lest thou be accused of using thy royalty to undue advantage." Luna held up a hoof, forestalling any objections. "Tis a bitter pill to swallow, we know; but wouldst thou be happy wondering if thy success was falsely earned?" Rarity frowned thoughtfully, but made no disagreement.

"Good Applejack..." here the moon princess paused. "I know thou hast strong ties with thy kin and thy land, and thy heart must ache at royal duty calling thee away from them. But it is not for all time; thou wilt be able to go hence to them at thy leisure, when all is settled. And when thou canst not be with them, as a princess thou wilt be able to send both money and strong backs to help shoulder the work. Thou hast not abandoned them; thou hast moved to a place where you can aid them from afar." Applejack's eyes were wet, but she nodded.

"And yes, there wilt be a coronation," Luna finished. "You wear a fancy dress, walk up the aisle, since there are six of thee, thou shalt all walk the aisle together, mine sister doth blah-de-blah, We present to thee Princess blah blah de blah, then she giveth thee a tiara,you ride the carriage, wave nicely at the ponies, the end. It is naught to perspire." Luna dismissed the whole thing with a roll of her eyes and a wave of her hoof. "We have already informed thy families; they shall arrive at the palace oer the next two or three days, and shall be staying in the guest suites for the coronation and the celebrations afterwords."

Pinkie perked up at that. "You mean there'll be a party?"

Luna smirked. "One or two," she said. "And I give our royal word that only one or two of them will be like the Grand Galloping Gala." There were awkward grins all around at that. "Does that cover all thy questions?"  The girls mumbled amongst themselves, but nodded."Truly? Art thou all certain?" Again, the new princesses all looked at one another, then at Luna, and nodded.  "Splendid. If any of thee needest me, I shall be in the spare room across the hall." She yawned immensely. "Sleeping. I bid thee good morrow." She left.

She went straight to her room and crawled into the immense four-poster bed that was waiting for her. She would have gone back to her own chambers, normally, but she had a fair notion of how things were about to go. "I give it an hour at most," she muttered to herself as she flopped onto the oversized mattress and fell asleep.

She was wrong. It was an hour and a half.

There was a creak and a sliver of light as somepony crept quietly into the darkened room. Luna sighed, but lay still. She had awoken the instant the door had opened, but let the intruder tip-hoof her way to the canopy bed. The bedcurtains parted. "Princess? Hey, Princess Luna!" a raspy voice whispered. An azure hoof poked her in the side. "Princess, are you awake?"

Luna let her eye crack open at that one. "Forsooth, and how would I answer in the negative?" she said.

It was Rainbow Dash, of course. Luna was surprised; she hardly expected the skyjockey to be the first. The stunt flyer was looking at her in puzzlement, obviously befuddled by the question. "Never mind," Luna groaned, sitting up. "What troubles thee, Princess Rainbow?"

The pegasus didn't meet her eye. She stood there, awkwardly rubbing one forehoof on the back of the other. "It's... kinda personal," she said.

"Personal?" Luna said. "How personal?"

"Personal personal." The pegasus' eyes were filled with vulnerability.

The weary moon princess smiled a bit. At that moment Dash reminded her so much of the countless colts and fillies she saw on her nightly dream-rounds, haunted by one childish fear or another. She patted the bed with her hoof. "Hop on up," she said. "We shall have us... what is the term? Some small girl-talk." The nervous pegasus looked over her shoulder then hopped in. Once the draperies had closed around them, Luna reclined casually and looked at her. "So... what is this 'personal' issue?" She said.

Dash looked down at her own fidgeting forehooves for several seconds. Just as Luna was about to repeat the question, the pegasus blurted out, "How tall am I gonna get?"

Luna raised an eyebrow. "Prithee?"

Dash fidgeted some more with her forehooves as she lay there. "I don't wanna sound like a dork or nuthin'," she said. "But I-- I can't stop worrying about it. How tall am I gonna be? How big am I gonna get? Am I gonna be as tall as you?As Celestia? Is my mane and tail gonna start doing that, that wavy thing yours and Celestia's do?  I mean, I'm already pretty spazzed out 'cause a this," here she tapped her own horn with a hoof. "How else is my body gonna change? I mean, you guys all make being all lanky and stuff look good, but long legs aren't really good for stunt flying and I'll never fit in a Wonderbolt's uniform like that--"

Luna chuckled to herself. It should have dawned on her that of all of them, someone as body-proud as the pegasus athlete would be alarmed at the changes in her body. "Calm thyself," she said, resting a kind hoof on Dash's own. "The 'lankiness' thou referrest to is the product of many centuries. Thou'lt be much as thou art for many ages hence."

"Are you sure?" Dash asked.

Luna nodded, smiling somewhat wryly. "Believeth me. I am barely my sister's junior, yet I am still laboring to catch up with her in growth." She chuckled. "And besides, if thy form does cause thee undue consternation---" a pale blue glow surrounded her horn and spread down over her body. When it faded, in her place lay an alicorn no taller or longer of limb than Rainbow Dash. "Thou hast other options," she concluded.

"Whoa!" Dash blinked, wings fluttering in surprise. "We can do that?"

"With practice," Luna said. She cast the spell again and slipped effortlessly back to her original form.

"Wait a minute," Dash said suddenly. "That was your real form?" Luna just smiled. "It was." Luna kept smiling. "It wasn't. ....You're not gonna tell me, are you." Dash's eyebrows drew down. "So not fair."

Luna chuckled. Let her wonder. "Does it matter?"

"Guess not." Rainbow Dash blushed. "I'm sorry to freak out on you like this..." She looked worried again. "Are there... any other um, changes I should be expecting? There are, um, rumors that I've heard from time to time. And, um."

"Rumors?" Luna arched an eyebrow.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, face flaming. "It's a stupid rumor. And-- what you said about stallions made me figure it was garbage, but--" she looked around as if searching for eavesdroppers and leaned in. "Okay, there are these guys on the weather patrol, see, and they told me once they'd heard... that the reason there aren't any alicorn stallions around is that, um, that all alicorns have-- h-have both-- " she sat up on her haunches and made several very bizarre and possibly arcane gestures with her hooves.

Luna's eyes bugged out. She stared at Dash in slack-jawed disbelief. "What?"

"'Cause alicorns are s'posed to be all the pony races in one, earthpony and pegasus and unicorn, right, and so they're also s'posed to be both female and--"

Luna gawped at her in horror. "What in Equestria???" She gagged. "Never in my--where in Equestria did they-- what is WRONG with ponies??"

"So I'm taking that as a no," the pegasus said neutrally.

"Absolutely no," Luna said scathingly. No wonder the polychromatic pegasus had been so rattled by her own metamorphosis, if that was the sort of scuttlebutt among the masses. "Pray tell, what other anatomical horrors doth the modern witling bestow upon us?"

Dash looked defensive. "Hay, it's not like anypony could walk up and ask--"

"No, no, forgive us," Luna sighed, her hoof to her forehead. She giggled suddenly. "The things ponies believe..."

"Tell me about it," Dash muttered. "You should hear some of the things ponies say about pegasi." She fanned her wings and looked at them. "I mean jeez, if my wings really did that, I wouldn't even be able to walk straight, much less fly."

It took a second for Luna to get the reference. She laughed. "Ahh, yon legend of the wing-boner," she snorted. "Be not too proud though; I am sure the tales the pegasi tell about earth ponies and unicorns are a fair match for it in silliness." I really should speak to sister about improving the quality of the health classes in our schools, she thought.

"Yeah," Dash agreed, tapping her horn. "Now that I've got one, I can't believe anypony ever thought that this thing was supposed to be--- well, you know. 'Sensitive,' " she made quote-marks in the air with her hooves.

"Well, thou knowest how some ponies think," Luna sighed. "If tis longer than tis wide, it must be a 'you know what.' " She smirked. "And if tis wider than tis long, tis a 'you-know-what' turned sideways." The two mares sniggered and snorted.

"I get the feeling I'm going to learn way more about pony biology than I ever wanted," Dash said, rolling her eyes.

Luna chuckled. "Fear not, Rainbow Dash," she said kindly. "Be they earth pony or unicorn or pegasus, ponies are far more alike than different. Thy body and mind will remain... fairly the same as always."

"Thanks Princess," Rainbow Dash said. She got to her hooves and hopped off the bed. "I'll let you catch up on your sleep." She trotted to the door. She looked back over her shoulder. "You know? You're pretty cool, Princess." She walked out the door, closing it behind her.

Luna lay back down, snuggling up with the pillows. I wonder what "they" say about the earth ponies?  was the last thought that crossed her mind as she drifted off to sleep.

"Princess Luna? Your highness? Are you awake?"

Luna groaned and rolled over. "Why do they always ask that?" she muttered. That was, what, thirty more minutes? Forty five? She found herself almost nose to nose with Princess Rarity. The white unicorn-- former unicorn, current alicorn, Luna reminded herself-- backed up a step, but no further. Her horn was glowing with a candlelight spell; her face was a portrait of distress. "What ails thee, Princess Rarity?" Luna asked.

Rarity sat down on the floor, her head hanging. "Princess Luna--- I-- I can't do this."

"Do what?" Luna asked.

"This!" She waved a hoof at herself. "Being a Princess. Being royalty. Royalty! I..." She shook her head. "It's not for the likes of me."

Luna sat up and regarded the fashionista. "And why not?" she said simply.

Rarity sighed. "Princess, I--" she stopped as Luna pressed a hoof over her mouth.

"Just Luna," the moon princess said. "We are sisters now."

"Luna." Rarity bit her lip. "You know of my ambitions. To be a great fashion designer, to move up in the world, to join the elite upper circles of Canterlot society."

"And move up you have," Luna pointed out. "Thou art a princess now, of Canterlot. Thou hast reached and surpassed those circles."

Rarity shook her head, smiling sadly. "Though not through my own efforts or virtue," she said. "I've been... jumped up to this place by a sheer magical accident." She flushed and bit her lip again. "And I've scarcely acted in a way worthy of a noble title.

"You'll recall some months ago I stayed as a guest of the palace, thanks to Twilight and Prin-- thanks to Twilight and Celestia. While I was here I found myself moving in the social upper circles here in Canterlot." She hung her head. "You know how I managed to fit in with all those rich and powerful ponies? By lying through my teeth. Of course it all blew up in my face. Fancy Pants was gracious enough to brush it off. But... I'm not so foolish as to think that Canterlot society has forgotten. Or forgiven."

"And thou fearest a backlash," Luna surmised. "Gossip. Backstabbing. Disdain. Cruel and hateful words." At Rarity's silent confirmation, she sighed. "I fear I may not be the pony to speak to in that regard," Luna said.

Rarity realized who it was she was speaking to. "Forgive me," she said, ears flicking back contritely. "I had forgotten about your own difficulties since your return." She stood up and paced in a circle. "But it's more than that. I fear my own shallowness just proves that I don't deserve this--"

She started at Luna's bark of laughter. "Art we speaking of the same upper crust ?" She mocked. "Dost thou know how few of those popinjays deserves their station in life? The sweeping majority are there by accident of birth, inheriting their wealth and their titles, the last noble accomplishment in their lineage centuries in the past. Those like good Sir Fancy Pants are rare, rare indeed. Thou thinkest thy own dissemblings shallow? There are nobles and courtesans-- some our own blood kin-- who are shallow as the sheen of water on a glass plate. Worse, they are vicious and petty, obsequious to their betters, condescending to their equals and hurtful to their lessers.

"Who among them hath faced dragons and manticores and changelings for our kingdom? Who among them could bear one of the Elements? Who among them helped redeem.... me.... from a place of terrible darkness? Thou art more than worthy of thy ascendancy, dear Rarity, much less thy title."

She reached out and put her hoof on Rarity's shoulder. "That is why we need more like thy friends... and thee."

"Why?" Rarity said plaintively.

"Because there are many in our court who could use a friend like thee, Rarity," Luna said. "From servants and staff to new nobles-- lords, ladies, dukes and duchesses--- lifted to their new station by my sister and myself, young and innocent and naive, desperately trying to make their place--- whom the more spiteful among the politicians and the nobles and the old money would pluck like vultures at a hapless lamb.

They could use a patron, someone who could take them under her wing; someone who..."

"Someone who had been where they are now?" Rarity smiled at the thought. Princess Rarity, patron of the nouveau riche...that would be rather grand... "Perhaps I could... find a niche, after all."

"Indeed." Luna scowled. "There are too many who are scorned for their humble beginnings. And too many who could heartily stand being taken down a peg or two." A certain blonde unicorn fop crossed her mind. "Mincing, preening blonde twit," she muttered aloud.

"Dare I guess who this particular blue-blooded twit is?" Rarity said dryly.

"Ah, that's right," Luna said. "The Grand Galloping Gala. Prince Blueblood was thy escort for the evening... Twilight Sparkle did fill me in on the gruesome details." She grimaced. "My condolences." The grimace turned into a smirk. "By the by; Thou knowest that the coronation will be followed by at least one royal banquet." Rarity nodded, not sure where this was going.  "All the nobility will be in attendance... twould be such a shame were thou not there... in thy new royal gown, of thy own design... freshly coronated.... and it would be such terrible bad manners to not re-make his acquaintance--- in front of all his friends and sycophants..." the smirk grew absolutely malevolent.

Rarity pictured it in her mind. Her expression of glee was priceless. "Oh, that is absolutely wicked!" she whispered. "Princess Luna, you are AWFUL!" her eyes sparkled.

Luna gave Rarity a sly look. "Well, what's the point of being the bad little princess if thou cannot enjoy it once in a while?" she said.

Rarity's cackle was anything but ladylike.

Luna didn't even bother pretending to sleep the fourth time. "Enter," she said, magicking the door open. On the other side stood Applejack, her hoof still raised to knock on the door. The farmpony gave her a sheepish grin. "H'lo, Princess," she said.

"Just Luna, please," Luna said. "Something troubles thee." It was a statement, not a question.

Applejack stepped into the room, doffing her hat. "Ayehp," she said. "This Great Master Plan thing of your'n and Celestia's."

Luna was surprised. Well, this one is far more straight to the point than the others, she thought. "Oh?" she replied. "How interesting. I would have thought Twilight Sparkle to be the one to first voice any concerns."

"Oh, she's voicing 'em, all right," Applejack said. " 'S all she's been talkin' about all day. All sorts of egg-heady stuff about population density this and longevity that an' socio-polly whatever. I think she's savin' it all up for Celestia, though. But... a lot of what she's been ramblin' about got me to thinkin' too."

"Prithee, unburden thyself," Luna said, waving a hoof at the bed next to her. Applejack awkwardly accepted the invitation, climbing up on the bed and sitting next to the lunar diarch. "So what hast thou been thinking?"

Applejack lay her hat on the bed before her. "As I understand it, this quest thing you're sending us out on-- it's not just to find other alicorns, just 'cause you want to find more alicorns," she said. "You're wantin' to bring all the alicorns together for their magic. So you can study it... and figure out how to...to make everypony immortal." She rattled her head briefly. "Sakes, that's world-shaking just to say."

"More or less, thou hast the gist of it," Luna asserted.

Applejack looked at her, her brow furrowed. "And, I mean, I don't wanna sound like a know-it-all, an' y'all are thousands and thousands o' years older than us, and have probably forgotten more than all of us combined will ever know, but---

"Are y'all sure this is right?"

Luna took a long, patient breath. "And why dost thou not think it right?" She asked.

"'Cause death is a part o' life," Applejack said brusquely. "Don't get me wrong; I would love more'n anything to... to wave this horn," she tapped the tip for emphasis "an' make Granny young and healthy again. Just for starters. But ain't that just me bein' selfish?  Wantin' her to keep on living, to heck with the consequences, cause I don't wanna let her go? 'She's waited a long time to cross over to the Great Fields on the other side, an' be with Granpa an' all her loved ones again. Would she thank me for making it so she had to wait so much longer... maybe even forever?

"An'... an' messin' with life, an' death. Like what Twilight's been fretting about. What happens when we run out of room for everyone? Or we unbalance the circle of life or somethin'.  What could we all be throwing out of whack?

"Ponies livin' forever-- it ain't natural--- whut, whut's so funny?" For Luna had begun to chuckle at the word 'natural.'

"What's funny?" Luna repeated. "Oh, naught but that a pony who lives in a world where the Sun and the Moon are controlled, and the weather itself is sculpted by hoof, should fret that something is not 'natural." At Applejack's uncomprehending scowl, Luna sighed. We have sheltered thee and thine far too much, my little pony, she thought. "My little pony, little if anything in Equestria is natural. And that is a good thing. Were we to leave Nature to its own design, all of our kingdom would be akin to the Everfree Forest.... worse, even.  Many things in life are 'natural'--- disease, pestilence, war, cruelty, greed, depravity--- but we do not abide them. Shall we cast aside medicine, arrest our doctors and nurses, because they 'thwart the natural order?'

           "If thou encountered a pony who was injured, or sick, and thou hadst the means to bind their wounds, the medicine to remedy their illness--- would thou not succor them? What is old age, but the accumulation of injury and ailment?

"Which is just? To kill, or to heal? To do harm, or to do good?"

"Any matter, thou miscomprehendeth what is being attempted. We are not attempting to unseat death. Such lies beyond any feasible power in this mortal universe. What we seek to cure is senescence."  Applejack's brow furrowed again. "Old age," Luna clarified. "Tell me, Applejack; thou hast a younger sibling?"

"Ayep. Applebloom. Still tryin' to get her cutie mark."

"Tell me, Applejack. Suppose thou were to discover that thy precious sister had been born with a terrible disease. Inherited in her very bones. One that doomed her to wither, and sicken, her mind falling apart, her body riddled with ailment, every day worse than the last and nothing to hope for but worse for tomorrow; a disease that would doom her to die in sickness and pain and delirium before the end of this same summer. Her life cut brutally short, all her ambitions and dreams and beautiful potential gone, and worst of all, both of you forced to watch as her mind and body shrivelled away? What risks would you take, what Hell would you dare march into, to buy back the years which were robbed from her?

Luna poked Applejack in the chest. "Know you this, Applejack; that is the very fate to which I and my sister have been doomed. You all are as our children, Applejack. No mother should have to bury her children. Yet that is what she and I have had to do, again and again and again, for thousands of years.

"All things die, Applejack. Someday, even my sister and I will die. Some fierce and terrible enemy, or some awful war, or mayhap merely a large boulder falling from above and crushing us. We cannot turn back death, we cannot prevent death from happening eventually. But we will not stand idly by while our little ponies suffer and die for no damned reason." she sat back. " For whatever reason, we were born without the, the sickness that makes our little ponies wither away after so bitterly few years. It would be a terrible wickedness, an explicit sin to not do all in our power to use that mysterious blessing to relieve the suffering of others.

"Think, Applejack," she pressed. "Think about what thou hast already said. Thou hast called it selfishness-- selfishness!-- to want to alleviate your grandmother's pain. Has our thinking become so backwards? That is not selfishness, that is compassion. Selfishness would be for us to hoard the blessing of restored youth to ourselves. E'en if it did not lengthen life by a day, is it not better that ponies spend their remaining years in health and vigor, rather than bedridden and in pain?  And if it lengthen their lives, what sin is that?"

"I-- I still don't know," Applejack said. "Anyway, is it even possible? You can't change nature."

Luna smiled enigmatically. "But fair Applejack, Nature is change. It always has been. We have a part, a small part, that we alone can affect. And change starts when we decide."

Applejack brooded. She thought of Applebloom, how as young as she was, how few years she had on this earth. She thought of Granny Smith, slow and tired and hurting, with only more aches and pains to hope for in the future. Really, was what the Princesses proposed to do any different than creating a new medicine, or a new kind of surgery? Was it any different than Granny getting a hip replacement, "thwarting the course of nature?"   Was she really so superstitious that she would deny either of them a better tomorrow? "You've... given me a lot to think about, Princess," she said. "I guess... I guess I'm on board with it. For now. If f'r nuthin' more than to find those lost alicorns."  She donned her hat. "Sorry to wake y'all."

"Tis fine, Applejack.," Luna said. She lay back down as the farmpony left. That was most likely the last visit she would have before nightfall, thank heaven. Twilight would save any questions for Celestia. And so long as she had her animal friends with her, Fluttershy would be right as rain. She blinked once, twice---

Her eyes blinked open. She was nose to nose with somepony with violet fur and eyes. "Somehow, even as I thought it, I knew..." Luna muttered. "Hello, Twilight Sparkle."

"I'm so sorry to disturb you Princess Luna but I've been going over the Plan I mean your and Celestia's Plan and I  realized there are all sorts of problems that it's going to cause and the more I thought about it the more problems I found and I'd talk with Celestia but she's too busy right now and Spike is overseeing the moving of all our stuff in Ponyville so I can't send her a letter so I've been making notes---" she waved a hoof-full of paper " ---and I just HAD to speak to one of you about---"

An indigo hoof suddenly corked her mouth. "Twilight."

"Yurph?" the frazzle-maned alicorn said.

"Calm down."

"Urfkrfh."

The indigo hoof was removed with a cork-popping sound. Luna regarded her sister's protegee with bleary eyes. Luna was long past the groggy stage at this point and well into sleep-deprived shell shock. She decided to keep it monosyllablic till her body dredged enough energy to operate her brain at full speed. "Notes?"

Twilight nodded.

"Splain."

Twilight sat down and began shuffling through her notes. "Well first off we have the biggy. What happens to these alicorns we find? I mean just the six of us and all of Canterlot is in an uproar. What if we find dozens? Or hundreds? We can't possibly make them ALL princesses--"

Luna snorted in amusement. "Prince." Her bleary mind concocted a vision of Prince Blueblood in a sparkling dress and tiara...

"Oh, right. Princes, too, um, alicorn stallions, right. but still-- just looking at the panic caused today, and extrapolating for increasing numbers of alicorns... and then there's the issue of landed titles and the dispersion of royal authority---"

"Noble families." Yay, four syllables. I'm getting better.

"What?" Twilight paused in the middle of holding up a detailed graph.

"We'll search their family trees," Luna said with an epic yawn. "Everypony's related to somepony. We'll put them in the noble family they're most closely related to."

Twilight tilted her head to one side, her eyebrow cocked skeptically."What if they don't have any nobles in their family tree?"

It was Luna's turn to look skeptical. "After thousands of years?" she said. "Thou art not unversed in the salacious ways of the upper crust, Twilight."

The purple alicorn blushed. She was naive, but not historically ignorant.  "But what if the nobles object?"

"To having an alicorn in their family?? Well then, in that unlikely event, there shalt be new noble houses in Equestria. Ones founded by alicorns. Any rate, thou art confident we shall find so many alicorns that this shall be an issue?"

Twilight "hmphed." "We used to have one alicorn Princess, when my parents were foals. Then we had two. Then you returned and we had three. Now we have nine. You tell me which way this trend is going." She shrugged. "Even if we don't find another alicorn for a thousand years, the number is only going up. Eventually the title of 'Princess'... or 'Prince'... is going to be as meaningless an honorific as 'the Princess of Whales' or 'Knight of the Bath.' "

"That is the intention," Luna muttered to herself. She and Celestia dreamed idly of the day when 'Princess' was no more reverent a title than 'librarian' or 'smith,' and she and her sister could move among their people without being feared or held in awe.

Twilight naturally didn't hear that. "And then there's the larger part of the plan, indefinitely expanding the lifespan of the average pony," she went on. "At Equestria's current birth rate, our food production will be insufficient to sustain our numbers within just a few--" the indigo hoof corked her mouth again.

"Twilight," Luna said as patiently as she could, "hast thou read of Malthus?" Twilight shook her head 'no.' "Malthus was a pony who lived a thousand years ago, prior to my own fall," Luna said. "He was a scholar and a philosopher and an economist-- though we had not that word for it back then--

"He was also an ignorant idiot, a misanthropist and a fool.

"He thought  famine and poverty made ponies virtuous. He proposed that ponies should be bred like cabbages for the most physically ideal results, and the physically inferior should be culled-- mind thee not that the pegasus would consider the earth pony 'inferior,' or that the unicorns thus regard the pegasi....  Worst, he was a buffoon who insisted that we would all starve to death because Celestia and I 'let' Equestria's population grow too fast, and that our numbers would exceed our farmers' ability to feed us all."

Twilight pulled Luna's hoof away from her mouth. "Oh, right, I read about him recently. He proposed a model he called 'the Parasprite Problem,' didn't he."

Luna nodded. " 'If parasprites double their numbers every hour, how long will it take a barrel half-full of parasprites to fill? Why, only one hour.'  This was supposed to be an analogy for how our own numbers would choke the life out of our land in a single generation, before we did realize it." She gave Twilight a shrewd look. "Pray tell, what was the problem with that picture?"

Twilight frowned, thinking it over... "Ponies aren't parasprites, Twilight," Luna finally said. "A pony doth not blindly breed, nor blindly consume. And parasprites do not farm, do not produce, do not create, do not innovate nor do they progress.

Twilight sat back. "But... was he really that far off?"

Luna deadpanned. "Twilight Sparkle, according to the scholarly predictions of Malthus, we all starved to death eight hundred years ago."

Twilight gaped, then snorted in laughter. "I'm guessing he left a few variables out of his equation," she snickered.

"Indeed," Luna said, her voice oozing sarcasm. "Malthus, the silly bugger, did not account for our farmers learning new and better ways to grow; he did not account for our ability to get more out of less land, or that we would have more land, period. He certainly did not account for the fact that, as our prosperity grew, our birth rate declined.... And even when the blessings of foals were abundant, we had more than a surfeit of food, and room, and love for all of them. I have lived thousands of years, Twilight; I have seen famines caused by war, by tyranny, by incompetence of economy, by ruinous taxation, but I am yet to see a famine caused by foals."

Twilight shuffled. "Still," she said. "Do we have a plan? Just in case?"

Luna grunted. "A few, and more than a few," she said. "But the chiefest among these is the faith in our little ponies to thrive, even in adversity."

"But--"

"Thinkest thou on this: how much of a handicap is placed upon us all, as a race, by the burden of old age? How much medicine, how many thousands of hours of labor and millions of bits, are spent upon shoring up aging, dying bodies? What is LOST to us-- how much wisdom and knowledge and experience and skill-- due to minds fading away? What great works are never made, songs never composed, masterpieces never painted, wonders never discovered, performances never played, due to sharp eyes growing dull, sharp ears going deaf, steady hooves and wings and horns growing feeble? Room and food for all the living? How much of a challenge will these truly be for us to solve, once our ponies are unshackled?

"Twilight, I will be raising the moon in..." Luna looked at the clock on the dresser and groaned. "In far too few hours. Look up at the sky and count the stars then, Twilight. Look at them, Twilight; a thousand thousand suns.... countless numbers of worlds lying fallow, waiting for us.

"They are ours for the taking--- if we do not shrink back."

Twilight blinked once, twice. Then, silently, she bowed and left the room.

As soon as she was out of sight Luna faceplanted in the pillows. "Maker, please," she groaned. "No more visitors..."

"Oh, um. Hello? Princess Luna?"

"ARgh."

"Eep! Oh, I'm very sorry..."

"blargh."

"...But the girls and I were going to order something up from the kitchen, if that's all right with you, and---"

"Arghlbargle."

"...Um. Never mind..."

"blurgh."

"...Are you sure you wouldn't like something yourse--"

"Garrrarrrrgh!"

".... eep! Right, never mind g'bye!"

"...Whimper..."

Luna awoke, once again. This time to... bouncing? The entire bed seemed to be jouncing up and down at regular intervals for no perceivable reason. Body aching with the agony of the unrested, she sat up and glared about. A certain pink, frizzy maned alicorn was using the bed as a trampoline. She was gaining some impressive height on each bounce, thanks to her wings-- passing above the strangely missing canopy and nearly touching the ceiling with her nose.

"Wakey wakey sleepyhead!" Pinkie Pie said.

"PINKIE!!" Luna yelled, her face red.

Pinkie paused in midair. "What?"

"I have to raise the moon in--" she looked at the clock. Oh no. She was late by half an hour! She scrambled to untangle herself from the covers.

"No ya don't," Pinkie said, still stuck in midair. Luna regarded her with surprise. "Princess Celestia already took care of that. She said you were gonna be kind of busy anyway."

"I am," Luna said fatalistically.

"Yup!" The pink pony resumed bouncing. "We already had the dress rehearsal for the coronation today while you were asleep, and since you were getting all  rested up Celestia said that there would be no better time than right now for you to give me my first lessons in controlling my special magic! Cause I really really wanna have a handle on it Ay-Ess-Ay-Pee, cause my family is gonna be arriving really soon and if they see I'm an alicorn now and I don't have a handle on my luck magic they're all gonna be like-- " here she slapped her hooves to her cheeks, bugged her eyes out and gave a drawn out wilhelm scream "-- and that would be bad..."

Luna faceplanted in the pillows, barely resisting the urge to scream as the pink pony-shaped superball continued to ramble.

And everyone thinks I'm the evil one, she thought.

1)Are you sensing a pattern? Good.

2)Pity her foalhood school teacher.

3)This was the plan--- Celestia would handle the panicking castle staff; Luna would handle the panicking princesses. Luna was going to regret letting her sister take first pick.

Next Chapter: Chapter 5 Estimated time remaining: 8 Hours, 44 Minutes