When Soul Mage came to, the first thing he saw was Gold Heart's face looking down at him with a look of relief in the process of replacing concern. The second thing he saw was that he was no longer in the Silver Halter's theater. He took a guess that he was in a backstage room, and from the pointed hat on the vanity and the posters on the wall, he narrowed that guess down to Trixie's dressing room. He moved slowly, knowing from experience that revival from unconsciousness usually came with a side order of nausea. He wasn't disappointed in that regard- his head spun and his stomach protested as he moved from his side onto his belly. He closed his eyes and took deep breaths until the world stopped moving, and then took a look around. He was definitely in Trixie's dressing room, but the only pony in the room besides him was Heart.

"What happened?" he asked.

"The Princess almost let her emotions get the better of her," Heart said, sliding a bowl of water over to him, "She pulled it back at the last second, but you and Trixie both took the brunt of her magical discharge. Trixie woke up a little while ago, and she's in Mr. Arch's office with Luna right now. They're probably talking about insurance and Trixie's future."

Soul took a few sips of water before asking his next question, "The audience?"

"Everyone got out all right," Heart answered, "AJ and Mac helped to move you and Trixie in here and then left for home, rather reluctantly, but they do have responsibilities."

"I understand," Soul said. He picked himself up, trying to move his head a little as possible until he was sure of his footing. He looked up and gave Heart a weak grin. "And here I was thinking a ticked-off Ashen Blaze had the strongest magic punch." The sound of the door opening made him swing his head around and then put a hoof to his forehead as his vision began swimming again. "Agh, bad Soul, no fast movement," he muttered.

"Are you ok?" he heard Luna ask.

"I'll live," the golden-yellow unicorn said, "What about you Princess?"

"I'm very sorry," Luna said, wrapping Soul's head in a spell that calmed his disorientation, "I've arranged to cover the costs of any damage I may have done, and Proscenium Arch assured me that Trixie's contract with him is still valid, so she can keep performing."

"No, Trixie can not go on again," the pale-blue unicorn said crossly as she entered the dressing room and walked around Luna to face her. "I've just taken a look at the stage, and my smoke machines are completely shot, a spotlight is broken, and one of the curtains is torn nearly in half. On top of that, I think you've done something to me- Trying to lift anything bigger than an apple gives me a splitting headache."

"That's probably just a temporary symptom of head trauma," Luna said, "It'll pass."

"Well, until it does, and everything gets fixed or replaced, I have no show! Thanks a lot, your highness!" Trixie snapped, seething.

"Hey!" Heart snapped back, "Show some respect, you! You're the one that goaded her into it!"

"No," Luna said, "It is partially my fault for letting her get to me." He looked down at Trixie, who struggled to maintain her angry expression. "I've already paid for the damage to the equipment," she said, "Perhaps there is something I can do for your lack of magic."

"They should be able to replace the drape and spotlight by the next show," Trixie said, looking thoughtful, "but it will be a day or two before the smoke machines can be fixed or replaced, and that means two shows will have to be canceled. And just how long will I…" she trailed off as a mist began filling the room. Everypony looked up to see that Luna's horn was glowing.

"I am the Princess of the Night," Luna said, "darkness, starlight, moonlight, mist, and the illusions they can create in the minds of ponies are all under my control." Trixie's eyes went wide as she realized what Luna was implying.

"I… I…" she stuttered, and then fell into a half-bow as she stared up at the Princess with shining eyes, "You would truly work the spells in Trixie's place? I… don't know what to say!" Luna just smiled and nodded. "Oh, thank you!" Trixie exclaimed, hugging Luna's legs.

"I think I know what the other guards will say when they hear about this,' Soul muttered.

"I wonder what Celestia would say," Heart replied quietly.

"Come back here tomorrow morning," Trixie said, releasing Luna and switching back to her stage persona, "We must work quickly if the Great and Powerful Trixie is to teach you her amazing tricks."

"I look forward to it," Luna said, "Come Soul Mage, Gold Heart, I think that's our invitation to leave." She walked out of the dressing room with Heart on her heels, but Soul stopped as he walked by Trixie and fixed her with a hard look.

"I'd be careful with that 'Great and Powerful' stuff if I were you," he said, "don't you dare forget who she is." He snapped his head back to the front and strode purposefully after the Princess.

Gale's income from the adding machines she'd adapted from Ash's research rejects had fallen considerably after the Z'nai attack, but she still made enough to afford the one-room apartment she rented on the south side of Canterlot. The entire industry of magically-enhanced items had taken a similar nose-dive, but was starting to recover as ponies began trusting the claims that the Z'nai were well and truly gone. Not that that interested Ash as he crouched on the roof of Gale's building, trying to locate her apartment and contrive a spell to gain access to it. The difficulty was increased by the fact that Gale lived on the third of the four residential levels with a fifth one dedicated to extra storage space. Getting inside wouldn't be a problem if he could see through the window, a simple teleport would do, but he'd have to see it with his own eyes. Personal levitation spells had never been easy for him, and even with his false Element necklace enhancing his available power they were outright impossible now. He could do a wall adhesion spell on his hooves, but he wasn't used to moving on vertical surfaces and he'd have a heck of time explaining himself if he was caught. Of course, the same would be true if he could levitate himself… Invisibility would remove that issue, and he could maintain two spells at once if he moved fast. With a confident smirk, he sketched out the spell patterns and activated them. After testing the strength of the adhesion spell, he took a breath and stepped over the edge of the building. He descended rapidly to the third floor and checked the first window, blessing his luck when he saw the unmistakable sign of Gale's occupancy- crystals, metal, and half-finished contraptions littered a designated work area and crumpled notes lay around an overflowing trash bin. Releasing the invisibility spell to run its rapid course to dissolution, Ash focused his energy on teleporting inside.

He landed next to the bed and dispelled his magic before beginning his search. He knew a bit about Gale's organization habits, which did exist despite the apparent chaos of the work area, but he wasn't sure where'd she'd keep such a valuable, and opinionated, piece of equipment. On a hunch, he started with the work area, discovering a desk underneath the largest collection of items. His target wasn't visible on the top of the desk, and Ash knew Gale would never bury it under anything, so he began opening the drawers. In the second drawer down he found it- a metal device that looked like a cross between half of a thick skullcap and a telephone headset, with a transparent green eyepiece thrown on for good measure. "Hello PC," he said, starting to pick it up with his magic. He was distracted by a tap on his flank, and he mentally slapped himself even before he finished turning around to catch a glob of yellow goo with his face. "Aiiiigh!" he screamed, falling to the floor as he scraped the offending substance out of his eyes. The goo seemed to travel up his face and congealed around his horn, and he hissed as he felt his magic energy being sucked out into the stuff. He rolled onto his back as he cleared his eyes and looked up to see a very disapproving Gale glaring down at him. Ash opened his mouth to yell at her, but all that came out was an inarticulate growl of frustration.

"Serves you right," Gale said, "You're lucky we're friends, or I'd have you arrested for breaking and entering."

Ash wanted to argue that he hadn't actually broken anything, but by the time he could speak again, a more important question sprang to mind. "Where'd you get magebane?" he demanded.

"There's a plant in the Everfree that's used to help young unicorns deal with magic-overload illnesses," Gale said, holding up a jar full of the goo, "Turns out the active agent in that plant is a dead-ringer for magebane, once concentrated. Now, I know what you're planning. Don't do it."

"Can't we talk about this after this stuff's done with me?" Ash asked.

"No," Gale said, dabbing some fresh magebane onto Ash's horn, "You'll just overpower me, grab PC, and run for it." She ignored Ash's glare as she wiped her hoof off on his chest and then fixed him with a stare of her own. "I know you've got a serious problem with authority," she said, "But you must have realized that Princess Celestia is not the kind of leader you should mess with. For one thing, she's powerful enough to move the stinking sun and moon! Even at your peak you couldn't match that, and you're nowhere close to that right now."

"You've never really seen my peak," Ash muttered.

"Item two," Gale said sharply, "She's a genuinely good person who deserves respect. You yourself have pointed how nice she's been after all the crap that's happened in connection to our being here. Heart and Soul are part of the royal guard for heaven's sake; she trusts us."

"Not enough," Ash pointed out, "Your points are valid Gale, and believe me when I say Princess Celestia's one of the few leaders I've met that I actually like, but she doesn't trust us enough to let PC do a simple, harmless scan on her. I'm trying to cover our bases here; the books are useless, I'm probably missing the source because I can't interpret half of what my spells have shown me, and there's a small possibility this is the forerunner of a much bigger issue."

"Can't you just tell PC what you saw?" Gale asked.

"Sure," Ash said, rolling his eyes, "I'd be able to give him maybe a tenth of what there is to examine, and a lot of that will be colored by my perceptions. He needs unfiltered input if he's going to be at all useful."

"If you're so sure of that," Gale said, "Then talk to Celestia about it. It won't be easy, I'm sure, but maybe she'll see reason if we talk to her about it together." She turned away and put the magebane jar back on the shelf she'd grabbed it from. "Well," she asked, turning back, "Are you going to get up? It's all worn off now." Ash looked up at his horn, which was now clean of any yellow goo.

"Actually," he said, his sarcastic humor returning, "I'm quite comfy down here. I think I'll take a nap."