The chariot dropped Twilight, Rarity, and Spike off in front of the castle. "Thank you ever so much," Rarity said to the pegasi, "I really do appreciate your generosity in allowing me to ride with you."

"Think nothing of it," the lead pegasus said, blushing slightly, "we'll be taking our leave now, if you don't mind." The chariot took off and flew away toward the guard barracks in another part of the castle.

"Well," Rarity said, motioning toward the castle doors, "shall we?"

"Shouldn't you be heading into the city to see Hoity Toity?" Spike asked.

"At this hour?" Rarity asked, appalled, "Oh, certainly not! This is hardly a good time to drop in. No, I'm afraid I'll have to accompany you for the time being."

"Hmph," Spike said, hopping off Twilight's back as they entered the building, "If you say so. Excuse me ladies, but I've just thought of something I must attend to." He ran off deeper into the castle. Twilight cast a glance at Rarity, and then lead the way toward the castle library on the assumption that Princess Celestia would meet them there.

"Spike is jealous, isn't he?" Rarity asked.

"Huh?" Twilight asked, looking back at her friend.

"Jealous of Ash," Rarity clarified, "It was cruel of me to insist on coming, and using such a piebald lie to justify it."

"It was," Twilight said bluntly, "but Spike will grow out of it eventually. I think he likes you only because you're so pretty, and for the gems you give him."

"Well, at least he's a good judge of beauty," Rarity said with a dignified air. Twilight smiled as she turned her head back toward where she was walking.

The royal library was one of the jewels of the Princess's castle, having held at least one copy of every truly worthwhile book ever written at some point throughout its history. The precise definition of "worthwhile" was hard to pin down; it of course contained both first editions and more modern, and thus publically available, copies of the works of every classic author, poetic genius, and scientific researcher to live under Celestia's sun, but it also had a section devoted to romance novels of… less than timeless quality, student theses on a variety of topics, and picture books aimed at little foals. Although never as busy as the city library or the one at the unicorn school, the royal library still saw small crowds of ponies browsing about at various points during the day and night. This was not one of those times. The only ponies present were Ashen Blaze, who had been dragged out of bed shortly after settling into it, and a brown earth pony mare who was moving up and down the aisles of books just slowly enough to read the titles. Ash watched this mare from a soft, but not actually comfortable, couch situated along the southern wall. "How on earth are you still so energetic Gale?" he griped.

"I thought you liked the night," Gale responded.

"Whatever gave you that impression?" Ash asked, "Just because I get along a little easier with Luna than Celestia, and my more powerful spells tend to have shadowy undertones does not make me nocturnal. Why are we in here anyways?"

"I don't know," Gale said, "my escort told me everything would be explained once the other researchers showed up."

Ash snorted. "Well then," he said grumpily, "wake me up when they get here." He lay his head down and closed his eyes. Just a few seconds later, his head jolted back up in response to the sound of the door opening and a voice calling his name in a sing-song manner. A myriad of expressions crossed his face as he turned to look, settling on a pleasant smile as he saw a white, purple-maned unicorn trotting over to him with a big smile on her face. "Rarity," he said, surprise mixed with a little apprehension in his voice, "what a surprise. And Twilight Sparkle," he added, tilting his head to look around Rarity at the lavender unicorn.

"Hello Ash, Gale," Twilight said, nodding to the unicorn and earth pony in turn, "What are you two up to?"

"I am seriously debating whether it is worth losing sleep to learn why I'm here, in this room, at this decidedly sleep-inducing hour," Ash said.

"Same here, but without the sleepiness," Gale said, "or the desire to leave."

"Which is not the same at all," Ash said, rolling his eyes.

"You're not here about the stars?" Twilight asked, confused.

"What about them?" Gale asked.

"The Princess is having trouble with them," Twilight explained.

"Did they not all come out?" Ash asked, "I haven't looked outside since lunchtime."

"Oh, they're all there," Twilight said, pointing toward the library window, "They're just not in the right places."

"Say wha?" The ash-grey unicorn got up from the couch and went over to the window, "But, they're stars," he said, "suns in their own right, for the most part, just very, very far away. Surely their positions are more or less fixed?"

"No, actually they aren't," Twilight said as Ash looked through the window and his jaw dropped.

"Well," he said, staring at the night sky, "there goes my entire concept of life, the universe, and everything." He turned away from the window to look at Gale, who had joined him at the window. "Gale," he said, "After I've mastered the intricacies of Equestrian magic, we're starting a space program. I must make sense of this."

"Aye aye Galileo," the earth pony said with a wry grin. Ash just gave her a weird look and went back to Twilight.

"So," he said, "the goddess of the day is having issues with the heavenly bodies of the night. No offense, but that doesn't seem all that strange to me."

"For a thousand years I controlled both the day and the night," said a voice from the library door. Everypony turned and bowed as Princess Celestia strode into the room, with Spike close on her heels. "This is the first time I have ever had trouble arranging the stars into their proper alignment," she continued, "even that first night after I was forced to seal Luna to the moon went by more or less perfectly. I need this mystery solved as quickly as possible, and the four… oh, five of you. Hello Rarity."

"Hello your Highness."

"Well, on more set of eyes can only help," Celestia said with a smile, "Anyway, I believe you have what it will take to not only find the source of the problem, but fix it."

"Question," Ash said, raising a hoof, "I'm not much of a book researcher, so am I really qualified for this?"

"You have a talent for creating spells," Celestia said, "We might just need you to modify a spell or invent an entirely new one to fix me."

"Tall order," Ash muttered, but then nodded with a determined smile, "but I welcome the challenge Princess Celestia."

The head of Luna's honor guard found himself in a pickle: the Princess had fled and absconded with the two newbies for a couple hours, breaking all sorts of protocols and simple common sense, but one did not lecture royalty. She had been very determined that the guards she'd taken with her, the so-called Impossible Twins, were not to be blamed or reprimanded for anything. Furthermore, the entire week's schedule was tossed out the window, quite literally, and the Guard was told to go off and entertain itself until the Princess felt like going to another city because tonight she was going to a magic show (put on by a no-name filly…) and was only to be accompanied by Heart and Soul.

Really, the whole idea that the Princesses could take time off from ruling Equestria and moving the sun and moon blew the guard captain's mind. Sure, a lot of unprecedented events had occurred in the year or so since Princess Luna had returned and the guard had to adapt to working for two princesses, but still… What was he going to do with himself? He'd been expressly forbidden from attending that magic show, and so avoiding the theaters altogether was probably a smart idea. One of his fellow guards had recommended a couple dance clubs, but he wasn't much of a dancer…

The guard's plight was the last thing on Luna's mind as she walked toward the theater district with her two escorts-turned-friends. They were walking because Soul Mage had humbly suggested that sitting on the Princess's back while she flew was awkward on many levels, and Luna decided that the night would be better if she tried to reduce how awkward ponies felt around her. Gold Heart had flown for a short time, but eventually came down to the ground, feeling it was unfair to fly when Luna was restricting herself to walking. The atmosphere around the group was rather light despite the concerns each held about appearances.

"You're quite sure the patrons won't be expecting some… adornments?" Luna asked.

"Beyond what you usually wear?" Soul asked, indicating the hoof shoes and neckpiece Luna was wearing. Heart and Soul had left their armor behind, considering it to be mostly ornamental anyway. "Honestly, you're probably over-dressed. The Silver Halter didn't look like one of the highest-class theaters in town, so we'll probably be fine."

"Besides," Heart said, "you're Princess Luna. No pony in their right mind would turn you away from anything for any good reason." Luna's smile took on a smug undertone.

As they neared the theater district, Heart spotted Applejack approaching from another street, accompanied by a large red stallion and a small red-headed yellow filly. "AJ!" the golden-yellow pegasus called out, waving the group over. The two trios met up and the Apples bowed, except for Bloom who simply stared at Luna until Applejack nudged her into a bowing posture.

"Good evening Princess," Applejack said.

"It is, isn't it?" Luna asked, looking up. A frown briefly crossed her face. "Except that Celestia's messed up the stars again… No matter. I take it these are Big Macintosh and Apple Bloom?"

"Eeyup," Mac said with a sedate nod, "Mighty pleased ta meet ya yer Highness."

"Wow, are you really Princess Luna?" Apple Bloom exclaimed, "That is so cool! Sweetie Bell and Scootaloo are going to be so jealous when I tell them I've met you! Oh, and maybe I'll tell Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara too, just ta humble 'em a little."

"All right," Applejack said, smiling, "Keep goin' on like that and we'll miss our show."

"Ok Applejack," Apple Bloom said, still staring at Luna, "I'm just so excited. Come on!" She ran off down the street, forcing AJ to pursue her so she wouldn't get lost.

"She's quite the ball of energy," Luna said, hiding a smile.

"Eeyup," Big Macintosh said, "I reckon we better follow them." He gave another quick bow and led the group toward the theater. They quickly caught up to Applejack and Bloom and arrived at the Silver Halter a few minutes later. Once again there was a small crowd gathered outside, and a short line for the box office. Murmurs and gasps rose up as Luna approached, and the ponies in the line tried to move aside, but the Princess waved them back and took her place at the end.

"Say," AJ said to Heart and Soul, "Y'all were with Celestia on her vacation week, right?"

"Yeah," Soul said.

"Was she as… considerate as Luna here?"

"I couldn't say," Soul replied, "with her, everything was set up ahead of time, organized, and frankly boring from our perspective. Luna's determined to be spontaneous, and probably wants to prove something."

"She wants to show everypony that she's not Nightmare Moon," Heart said with certainty, "Maybe that's why she's acting so unconcerned about the stars- Nightmare was apparently obsessed with the night, so Luna's trying to be casual about it."

"I'm not concerned about the stars because I'm on vacation," Luna insisted, rejoining the group and passing three tickets to Macintosh, who took them in his mouth, "Celestia will straighten out the problem. Now come on; they insisted on letting the six of us in early to claim out seats and take care of other matters." Soul fished out the tickets for Luna, Heart, and himself as the group walked into the theater. There were two ponies inside the door- one green-on-orange earth pony who checked and marked their tickets, and a tuxedo-clad mahogany unicorn with an half-open stage curtain for a cutie mark who grinned spectacularly at Princess Luna.

"Dear Princess Luna," he said with a courtly bow, "it is truly an honor to welcome your patronage of the Silver Halter this evening. My name is Proscenium Arch, owner and executive manager of this establishment of the arts." Heart and Soul exchanged a look over the pony's name but managed to keep their expressions blank.

"Thank you Mr. Arch," Luna said, "may I say, your theater looks very nice." It really did. The lobby they were standing in was carpeted in a lush red fabric that was gentle on the hooves and complemented the wood paneling and gilded trim of the walls and ceiling, the door into the theater itself were of solid oak carved with an artful pattern over which was hung a framed poster of the show depicting a pale blue unicorn with even paler blue hair wearing a conical purple hat decorated with silver stars and a matching cape that happened to cover her cutie mark. It was obviously Trixie; her somewhat arrogant expression and dramatic pose amid stylized smoke and sparks gave her away. Applejack had to shush Apple Bloom before the little filly blurted out a critical comment, feeling a bit hypocritical as she did so.

"You are too kind," Mr. Arch said, "This is merely a humble venue for up-and-coming performers like the one you will be seeing tonight. Speaking of which, I must inform you we are planning to announce your presence in the audience before the show begins, and of course you may have any seat you wish, although I'm sad to say we have no private boxes to offer you."

"Think nothing of it," Luna said, "and please, I would rather you not draw any extra attention to me. That may detract from the show and the star's attention to her act."

Proscenium looked disappointed, but he bowed and said, "As you wish Your Highness; enjoy your evening." He turned and walked off into the backstage area of the theater.

"Nice guy for an executive," Soul said.

"Eeyup."

After much discussion of factors like Luna and Mac's large sizes, the Princess's desire for a low profile, and the theater's shape and acoustics, the group settled into seats a few rows behind the center of the seating area, with the Apple family situated in front of the Princess and "guards." As the other attendees filed in several minutes later, Macintosh talked Apple Bloom into giving Trixie a fair chance and Luna briefly considered casting an illusion spell to hide her identity but discarded it upon realizing everypony coming in had already seen her outside. Once the theater was mostly filled up and the sounds of conversation began among the theater-goers, Soul leaned toward Heart and asked, "So, when does this start again?"

"Eight o'clock," Heart answered, "Why?"

"Just curious," Soul said cryptically, looking around for a clock. He frowned in disappointment when he couldn't see one, and then shrugged and settled into a more comfortable position.

Twenty minutes later the lights dimmed and Proscenium Arch stepped through the curtains up on the stage as the crowd fell silent. "Fillies and gentlecolts," he said, "Welcome to the Silver Halter for tonight's presentation by the Great and Powerful Trixie." A round of applause rose up in response and Mr. Arch smiled as he waited for it to settle back down. "To insure the safety of our performer and so as not to ruin anypony's experience," he said, "we ask that you do not take pictures- an especially not with flash cameras. Thank you. And now, it is my pleasure to introduce The Great and Powerful Trixie!" He galloped off to stage-right amid applause, and then the curtains rose upon the darkened stage. A mist rolled in from both sides of the stage, and after a few tense moments, a spotlight flared on as a whistling firecracker went off, sparking a spinning wheel of light that framed The Great and Powerful Trixie as she grinned out at the audience. The applause rose up again, more enthusiastically.

"Thank you," Trixie declared over the noise, "Prepare yourselves, Manehatten, to be amazed by the Grreat and Power Trrrixie, the greatest unicorn magician in all of Equestria."

"She ain't changed a bit," Applejack muttered.