Desires and Expectations: Unreachable Dreams and Heavy Duties.

Chapters

Introduction: A Little Change in History.
Chapter 1: Choices and Stalkers.
Chapter 2: Apologies and Gentle Smiles
Chapter 3: Letters and Insinuations
Chapter 4: Explosions... (Part One)
Chapter 5: Blue Elephants and a Missing Princess
Chapter 6: Lavender and Sun Rays
Chapter 4: ...and Time Traveling (Part Two)

Introduction: A Little Change in History.

Day 3 (afternoon).

"Passion~!" a certain indigo princess called for her love in a sing song voice. When she didn't receive an answer she immediately knew the pony she was looking for was once again submerged in books, unable to hear her call. Just like a certain lavender mare. An idea popped into Luna's head. She approached the focused mare slowly, careful not to make any sound, and right next to her ear she whispered... "Chocolate"

"What?! Where!" it had worked. Passion looked frantically around the room with sparkling eyes, looking for anything resembling the delicious and famous dessert.

"Well, I finally got my mare back!" Luna said in a false hurt tone, rolling her eyes.

"O-oh! Luna! I'm sorry..." she muttered, her head hung low in shame. Luna levitated the books she was reading back into her bookshelves and approached Passion with a loving gaze, sitting next to her and wrapping a soft indigo wing around her.

"I understand you are worried, and that you want to know more about yourself." she caressed Passion's cheek, which had some bandages on, with a hoof "But you need to rest. Do it for yourself and... for me."

"A-alright" the injured mare nuzzled the princess' coat lovingly, her face as red as a tomato, taking a moment to inhale her love's scent which provoked more old memories to come to the surface of her mind, revealing other aspects of herself "Thank you, Luna... But it wouldn't be a bad idea to actually eat some chocolate, right?"

"Not in the least!" Luna proceeded to make the order, and then she turned back to Passion, remembering she had something important to tell her.

But she would not tell the whole story. She knew Passion would try to stop her.

"There is something I wanted to tell you. You see..." Luna began, behaving like a little filly trying to confess to her parents that she had eaten the whole cookie jar. "There is a mare named... Sun Rays and another mare named Lavender. The situation is that these two mares have been showing a lot of... affection lately towards each other..."

"You're trying to match them?" Passion shot her an accusing look "You are, aren't you" Luna's mischievous grin and silence was enough confirmation for her "And how do you know this? Are you sure you're not mistaking anything?"

"Lavender is one of my most loyal soldiers, and I know quite a bit about her. Sun Rays is a researcher at the University. And no. I'm not spying them" Luna claimed calmly after detecting the implication. In that moment, the servants arrived and bowed, offering the small tray of chocolate cookies. After the servants left they resumed their conversation, Passion already munching on a cookie she held magically. "And I am very sure there is something in both their hearts. They're just too naïve to realize it." while Luna kept protesting about the two mares, a particular memory came back to Passion, and she gasped in horror.

I can't believe I partook in this!

"Alright, Luna. I understand" the princess looked at Passion with amazement. She was surprised that she had actually allowed her to nudge the couple a little bit that easily. Too easily "But please" Passion was looking at her in the eye with a serious expression "do not even think about making that love potion again!" they stared deeply at each others eyes. And then Luna broke into hysterical laughter.

"So you do remember!" the princess said when her laughter went down to light giggles.

"Y-yes..."

"Do not fret. I am not interested in destroying another kingdom." Luna assured the scarlet maned mare (who was going through her fifth cookie) still with a smile plastered on her face.

"Promise me"

"I promise" they shared a comfortable silence which was only occupied by Passion's munching, until Luna broke it again "I feel awful for that prince..."

Obviously, Luna was being sarcastic. Though she was sorry about the kingdom's downfall, watching how the earth pony prince obliviously stared at the bottle that sat at his desk in his office which had a note saying 'This will make thy romantic life less miserable', his sparkling eyes and his hopeful smile, how he offered it to the alicorn princess he was in love with, and how things had gone horribly bad was very amusing. Because, no, that love poison recipe was not in any book, specially not in any an earth pony could own; that disaster was not the poor prince's fault.

But Luna is the princess of the night, co-ruler of Equestria.

And she does have a protective and caring big sister, who is also the ruler of Equestria.

And they can meddle a little bit with history. As long as it is for the greater good, of course.

"Th-that's horrible" muttered Passion with guilt, mindlessly eating her ninth cookie. Luna looked at the plate, it only had one single cookie left. Just before the chocolate lover could grab it, Luna levitated it away from her magical grip "I-I'm sorry! I didn't realize I was about to eat them all... Wait. Why are you grinning?" without any warning, half of the cookie was shoved inside Passion's mouth. Luna started leaning slowly...

And she took a small bite of the other half. She munched, still very close to Passion's muzzle.

The poor mare was dying under Luna's provocative stare and she could do nothing about it.

She was lost inside the endless maze of the princess' teal eyes.

Little did Passion know that there was no such a soldier named Lavender, or a researcher named Sun Rays. Luna knew the two mares who were unknowingly in love with each other perfectly... Well, at least one of them, but the other one was easier to read. After all, who wouldn't know their sibling?

As Passion suffered under her princess' teasing, a certain unicorn mare suffered under her heart's confusion. But the mischievous Princess of the Night had nothing to worry about. Her plan was already in motion.

She definitely had nothing to worry about.

Definitely.

It was harmless.

No love potions, no magical artifacts. All that she did was convincing 'Tia to invite Twilight to a study session and take a free week while she took care of court so they could get time for themselves! Then everything will flow on its own! She even had Passion's approval, and the Princess of Love herself originally had the idea!

So why did she have this terrible feeling that something was going to go horribly wrong again?

Author's Note

This story is a sidestory of Spark: Book One, located between Chapter 4(which will be Day 1) and Chapter 7(Which will be the last day).

Chapter 1: Choices and Stalkers.

Two days before…

Day 1 (evening)

“Twilight!” pouted my dragon assistant, Spike “at least drink some hot chocolate! You’ll catch a cold!” I ignored him. I knew he meant well but right now I just needed to cry it all out into my pillow “at least dry yourself!”

“Spike, please… just... leave me alone” the pillow covering my head muffled my words, but I spoke loud enough for Spike to understand.

“Ahh… Okay Twilight…” I could hear the sound of glass being laid on the wooden night table next to the bed and the sound of his footsteps leaving the room. Then, I heard the door closing. There was complete silence in the room, asides from the strong rain outside.

Luna…

That’s the only thing I could think about. At the time, I hated and loved that name; I was really angry. Ever since that ‘Golden Passion’ appeared, my possibilities with Luna had vanished, it was all her fault! But I couldn’t believe I attacked her earlier. Attacking ponies wasn’t very… me.

I knew from the very beginning that it would be difficult for Luna to have interest in somepony like me, even if I had saved her from Nightmare Moon, or taught her the magic of friendship. But even if I neglected the possibilities, I was happy, happy because it was easier to fall in love with a friend, than to fall for your own mentor and motherly figure.

I admitted it. I had at least felt a certain attraction for the Goddess of the Sun and Princess of Equestria since I was a young filly, and those feelings tortured me. So I was happy; I felt Luna had freed me from that torture. Yes, it still hurt, but at least a little less.

A couple of days before, I had spoken about the matter with Rarity. Of how much I wanted to hang out with Luna, of how much I wanted to ask her about her constellations (yes, studying is romantic for me), to watch her smile, to hear her voice, to believe there was a possibility for us to be together…

But what Rarity told me… hadn’t left my mind.

“Darling… are you sure? Are you sure your feelings for Princess Luna are real? Are you sure you are not trying to… let us say… ‘mask’ your feelings towards Princess Celestia? Because I haven’t met anypony yet who one day says they love somepony and the next say they love another and isn’t lying…

And you, my dear Twilight, are a terrible liar…”

I am a terrible liar… Maybe she’s right. Maybe. But then... I’ve been lying to myself this whole time? Well, only I would believe my own lies, right? Wait, that doesn’t make any sense at all! I’m supposed to know I’m lying to lie!

Stupid Twilight! Jumping from one princess to another? Seriously? Not even your own shadow would believe that! And what's the difference?! They're both untouchable!

What am I doing?! I really need to talk to Silver right now...

I had blamed my problems on that pony, Golden Passion, when the only responsible for them was me, me and myself, for building up fantasies to ‘protect’ myself and Celestia from my unrequited feelings, when the only thing they did was to cause more harm. At least it only harmed me… and at least that was what I thought.

I had decided I needed to recover, to unmask all lies, and to live the truth, no matter how painful it could be. Maybe something good would happen the next day? That’s what I hoped. I lifted my head from the moist pillow and saw a small baby dragon happily snoring in his nest.

He probably didn’t want to disturb me… so he sneaked into his bed… Oh, the poor guy…

I rose up from my bed to give Spike a motherly kiss on his forehead and returned. I lifted the covers over my body and slowly drifted to sleep with a small smile in my face.

Day 2 (morning)

Last night I was completely determinate to change, forget that drama with Princess Luna, find Golden Passion, apologize, and be happy.

But that was last night.

I couldn’t have felt worse that morning. For some reason, my head hurt as if manticore had been shaking me up and down the whole night. My eyes were still puffy and they hurt also. I didn’t dare to move an inch from my bed. And also, Spike was right, added to my headache, there was a cold. I was facing the wall hugging a pillow. When I turned around I saw Spike giving me an ‘I told ya’ look.

"Spike, stop- you're not helping!" I tried scolding him, but my headache only allowed me to whisper. I tried relieving the frustration by squeezing the pillow harder.

"Whatever" he rolled her eyes, arms crossed "want me to bring you some medicine?"

"Please. And also a hay sandwich" Spike nodded and started making his way towards the exit. I sighed and then, right before he left, an idea popped into my head. "Then you can go to Rarity's if you want."

"Wait, What?! Who's going to take care of-"

"I'll close it down. Don't worry" I stood up, grabbing a hoofkerchief with my magic and cleaning my nose with it.

"W-well, whatever you say Twilight!" Spike tried to feign disappointment in his voice and suppress the smile that threatened to creep up his face, failing miserably "Be right back!"

"But before! You must do me another small favor"

"W-what else?" Spike turned with a fearful look and a nervous smile. I knew he was afraid I had changed my mind, but I really just wanted a small favor.

"Could you please go fetch Silver for me?"

"So... what's wrong Twilight? Why was Spike in such a hurry?" A lilac coated, black maned unicorn mare asked me after our quick greeting.

“Oh. You know. Rarity” I rolled my eyes, making way for Silver to enter the library.

“And… are you sick or something? No need for me to take you to the hospital?” Silver asked, concerned. My annoying physical state must have been noticeable in my features. I motioned her to sit in the kitchen. Then, she prepared them both some tea.

“No, it’s just a cold. Anyway, I want to talk to you about something…”

After my deep chat with Silver I was starting to think she was some sort of sage or genius. The idea she had given me was just a pure manifestation of intelligence and cleverness, yet also of obviousness and stupidity from my part. I still wanted to crush my head in frustration against my desk asking myself ‘Why in the name of all holy things didn’t I think of this before?!’ Because, of course the princess of love herself would be able to help me!

The best foalsitter in the history of foalsitters, the princess of the Crystal Kingdom, and my sister in law, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza! Cadence! Of course she’d help me. All I had to do was to send her a letter!

Hm… I can be honest with her… but I don’t think it will be safe to talk about it via letters… after all, Spike isn’t connected with Cadence yet, which means I would have to send it through mail, which also means I would have to take the risk of somepony reading the letter out of curiosity, which means that it will create the biggest scandal in Equestria! I could pay a visit, but it would be a really long trip to the Crystal Kingdom, but I don’t have to tell Cadence that the two ponies involved here are the Princesses…

I wanted to tell Cadence the whole truth, she was somepony I really trusted and that I knew that would understand me and help me. She was an expert in relationships, and one of the reasons I wasn’t good at lying was because I couldn’t bear that guilt. And that meant having that weird and horrible pain in my chest that would cause me sleepless nights. I decided to use code stallion names, so she could at least take the hint.

Day 3 (morning)

It was the next day that I decided to be happy and forget my dilemma while waiting for Cadence’s response. I could understand the amount of time it took, since mail isn’t as fast as having Spike sending the letters with his flames, and the Crystal Kingdom was a little far away from Ponyville and to that, adding that Cadence now had a kingdom and my brother to take care of…

Take care… of my brother?

D-dirty thoughts go away!

That morning, I had the marvelous idea of trying to cook for once. I had avoided cooking or anything related to it since the last time I did it… and ended blowing up the whole kitchen at Canterlot Castle. I had asked Spike for some lessons, and expected his reaction.

“Who are you and what did you do with Twilight?!” he demanded defiantly, pointing a finger at me. I just stood there, confused.

“Spike, it’s me, and I’m being serious here” I answered with a stern tone, but it seemed that it was not going to be easy to get through my assistant.

“Prove that you’re not a changeling or something” Spike challenged with his eyes looking at me defiantly.

“Alright, what do I have to do?” I returned the glare, expecting some personal question to come out of him.

“Who gave you and when was your first kiss?!”

“…I… never had one?” it was more like a question than a statement. I was absolutely confused at Spike’s ‘test’, and also a little flustered. My cheeks were burning, since the fact was almost embarrassing. Most mares had already had their first kiss a long time before.

“Okay, it’s you” and he went back to normal, I sighted in relief, I had no plans of continuing such a pointless discussion “so, what do you wanna learn?”

“Um… anything simple for breakfast” I had no idea of what to begin with. I was really nervous at the idea of cooking after the disaster at Canterlot Castle, and I felt it was going to be a little more risky since I was going to cook inside a… giant tree.

“…Hm…” Spike scratched his chin in thought. It was a kind of adorable sight “some eggs and hay bacon won’t hurt…”

“Hey, it isn’t bad at all!” Spike complemented the final results of my cooking, and it seemed to be surprisingly good, since he was wolfing down the whole plate “great! Now I don’t have to wake up early to make breakfast!”

“But I still need a bit of practice… and you are the best cook here after all! We could take turns”

“Deal!” Spike kept eating as I watched him with a huge grin plastered on my face. I was really relieved and happy it turned out to be a success, and part of it was thanks to my assistant; my number one assistant. But then I heard a crash outside and went to check. I opened the door to find a slightly dizzy Ditzy Doo; though everypony knew her with her nickname: Derpy Hooves.

“OH, HI!” Derpy greeted while picking up some scattered letters.

“H-hi, Derpy” I answered a little nervous and worried. The crash seemed harsh and some of the letters were scattered in places I wasn’t sure she would find them. I was relieved that Ditzy didn't seem to have suffered any damage.

“I have some mail for you, Miss Sparkle! Here!” she handed over a letter that was between the few that had stayed safely in her saddlebag. I picked it up with my magic.

“Thanks, Derpy! And I suggest you look between the bushes over there”

“O-oh! Thank you, Miss Twilight! Well, see ya!” and she stormed off to the bushes I had signaled her. I closed the door behind me and opened the letter.

Cadence!

"Dear Twiley

I report to Miss Sparkle that I have successfully understood the code names!

And this is quite the dilemma you’ve got on your hooves... it could clearly make quite the scandal… I don’t think we can discuss such things via mail so I have attached a spell that will help you. Sorry, Twiley. I cannot leave the kingdom so, could you use that spell to come?

Oh, and the spell includes some materials. Don’t worry about getting them; I’m pretty sure your friend Rarity has some.

Your friend,

Cadence"

A crystal-projected spell?! This is so great!

Noon.

“Spikegoingtocrystalkingdomberightback!” I couldn’t care less if Spike had understood or not. I was and always had been happy to visit Cadence. She was one of the most fun mares to be around with! along with Pinkie Pie, of course! Even though things could get out of control sometimes and understanding her was nearly impossible.

I leaped into the portal projected by a sapphire I had gotten from Rarity, and it was sure easier and less consuming spell than teleporting since the gem amplified the magic used, meaning I needed to use a smaller amount.

“Twilight!” a familiar voice called my name, and when I opened my eyes I immediately knew who it was.

“Cadence!” I ran to her hooves and shared a brief embrace. Then, we proceeded to do our unique hoof-shake.

“Sunshine, sunshine. Ladybugs awake. Clap your hooves and do a little shake!” we sang in unison as we danced. I felt how the old memories came back to my mind. We laughed just like the old days when I was a filly and she was my foalsitter.

I finally decided to take a look at my surroundings and noticed I did not recognize them at all. It looked like a bedroom designed for somepony very important. My brain put the pieces together in a matter of seconds. This was Cadence and my brother’s bedroom. Cadence seemed to have noticed my thoughtful look as my eyes darted around the place.

“I thought we could use a little… privacy for such a discussion.” Cadence said, walking towards one of the windows and closing its curtains with her magic. “So I thought my sound-proof chambers could be a good choice. I still can imagine the sort of scandal that would happen if this conversation were to be heard by any... undesirable audiences.”

A sound-proof spell?! I really have to ask her about these spells later!

“Ha, ha, ha, ha… Y-yes…” I agreed nervously, sweat began to form in my forehead. Regret began to invade me; maybe it was a bad idea to even begin to consider something so delicate?

“Don’t worry Twilight. You are with a friend here. I would never judge you.” Cadence reassured me and then walked towards her makeup vanity, then motioned me to sit in front of it. “Come! A little makeover will help calm your nerves!” I hesitantly did as my old foalsitter had told me; how could some makeup and a brush help me talk about not knowing which of the two princesses of Equestria I was in love with? It didn’t make sense, but once again, this was Cadence we were talking about; she knew what she was doing and I trusted her.

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and felt how the different brushes ran through my face and mane. I began talking with a lot of stuttering and hesitation, but with details. Tears escaped my eyes, ruining the makeup Cadence had applied, but she didn’t mind in the least. She calmly wiped them away and trapped me in a motherly hug, which was more than welcome.

“I’m awful, Cadence! Awful!” I kept sobbing like a little heartbroken filly that was being slowly calmed down by her foalsitter’s caressing hoof.

“No, Twilight. This is normal. Believe it or not a lot of ponies have lived the same thing, but… not with the princesses. I think” suddenly, and for some reason, Cadence’s caresses stopped, the hoof she previously used to stroke my mane now scratched her chin in thought.

Then, her eyes sparkled just as my friend Rarity’s would when a new idea for a dress ‘descended upon her from the heavens’, as she liked to put it. This hopeful shine in Cadence’s eyes considerably helped calm my nerves!

“Alright, Twilight. I’ve got a wonderful idea!” Cadence suddenly exclaimed, standing up and wiping my face from the ruined makeup she had applied.

“Really?” my voice was being muffled by the towel , but I paid it no mind “What is it?”

“Don’t worry about it!” Cadence said with a grin that began to actually worry me. She put the towel aside, activated the portal again, and began pushing me towards it “Just be patient and relax, dear!”

And with a goodbye and a flash, I was back at my library. As expected, Spike stood there with a blank expression which reflected all the questions he wanted to ask, but before he could stress me even further, I walked towards my bedroom with a look which said…

‘Not now’

I rolled my eyes when I realized I had forgotten to ask Cadence about the spells. Could I honestly be anymore stupid?

Right after Twilight left, Cadence levitated a quill and a scroll and began writing…

"Dear Auntie Luna"

Evening.

Passion had a huge smile plastered on her face as she walked through the afternoon streets of Canterlot. It was very interesting when she heard the sleepless city was just as, or even more active than in daytime. Quickly her thoughts drifted to Luna, her Princess of the Night. It seemed like the situation that happened a thousand years ago wouldn’t repeat since now she wasn’t the only pony admiring the grandness of Luna’s beautiful night.

Ponies in fancy outfits shot glances at the foreign mare of unkempt mane and disgustingly short tail (which wasn’t THAT short but wasn’t long enough to touch the ground), but said mare paid them no mind. She was there to explore the city just like Princess Luna had told her to do, not to get into trouble by initiating meaningless arguments with the snooty and arrogant rich ponies. They weren’t worth it.

Suddenly, a particular scent caught Passion’s nostrils. She looked in the direction the scent seemed to be coming from and saw…

“’Doughnut Joe’s’” Passion read aloud, and then, she already knew what to do for the evening.

She entered the establishment and the scent got stronger. A cream coated, brown maned stallion stood behind the counter. He gave Passion a gentle smile.

“Welcome to Doughnut Joe’s! I haven’t seen your face around before. Are you new?” the stallion asked and Passion stood there awkwardly without knowing what to say.

“W-well… yes. Kind of.”

“Well, miss, what are you doing? Come on! Take a seat!” the relaxed pony urged the nervous Passion, and she did as she was told. She hesitantly sat in front of the bar. “My name is Joe and as you must’ve already guessed but I’m the owner of this nice humble place.” He began cleaning the counter “And you?”

“I’m Passion. Golden Passion. Pleasant to meet you.” She answered, her face still neutral and her movements insecure.

“The pleasure is all mine, beautiful young lady” the complement made Passion uncomfortable, but at least Joe didn’t seem to have any bad intentions “You have an order?” he pointed at the menus over the counter with his muzzle. Passion took one with her golden magical grip and began reading, skipping through this and that image of a delicious and elegant looking dessert. The names looked pretty sweet and tasty too.

“Um… yes. I would like a… chocolate doughnut.” Passion ordered awkwardly, feeling like she had ordered the most simple of things out of such a fancy menu.

But I don’t think I am capable of eating that ‘Donutopia’…

“Extra sprinkles?”

“No, thank you.” Silence followed afterwards. Passion’s gaze skipped through the empty establishment “Is it usually this empty?”

“In the evenings, yes. At day is when I get most of my business since most of my frequent customers are from Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. At this hour they could be enjoying their free time or doing homework or… who knows?” Joe finished with a brief mischievous grin and gave Passion her doughnut.

“Thank you.” Passion took the first curious bite into the delicious looking doughnut. She hummed when she felt the familiar and comforting taste of chocolate over her tongue and the soft texture of the dough. Quickly, her bites grew in size.

“He, he. I’m glad you like it” Joe said proudly, familiar with the language ponies normally use when their mouths are completely stuffed, or their concentration completely immersed in what they are eating. “So, I take it you prefer chocolate?” Passion hummed in affirmation “Good. I’ll keep it in mind next time you come around.” At this statement, Passion swallowed.

“I am not quite sure if I’ll be able to come again anytime soon…” she muttered melancholically.

“Oh, so you’re a busy mare. That’s cool, that’s cool.” Joe noticed Passion’s expression and quickly knew what she needed. He prepared a cup of milk and put it on the counter in front of the cloyed mare. Passion gave Joe a thankful look “What matters is that you’ll come here sooner or later. Say, if you manage to answer me this question perhaps I might give you a special discount next time I see you around.”

“Go ahead” Passion said after a giving her cup of milk a gulp.

“Do you perhaps know who ‘Twilight Sparkle’ is?” as soon as he finished his question Passion knew she was getting her discount.

“Yes, I do. She is a lavender unicorn mare with a pink streak across her mane. Personal protégé of Princess Celestia” Passion answered confidently, almost as if she had gotten the answer from some sort of book, but then she shied away “…I-if I am not mistaken”

“No, no!” Joe suddenly seemed even more cheery “You are one hundred percent correct there! As I promised you’ll get your discount, but I’d be very thankful if you could do me a small favor.” Passion nodded, indicating she was willing to help him out “next time you see her, could you bring her here? It’s been a long time since we’ve last seen each other and last time she dropped something. Also, there’s another important thing I’d like to tell her.” Joe was now ranting desperately, but Passion was still going to help him happily.

“It’s fine. I’ll do it” she answered gently and with determination. Joe beamed at her.

“Hey! Thanks! You are a very interesting and kind mare, you know?” Joe prepared another chocolate doughnut and offered it “Want another one? It’s on the house!” Passion briefly thought on refusing, but… it was chocolate… and it was free…

“Alright. Thank you again” more silence came afterwards until Joe spoke up again.

“By the way, how did you two meet? You and Twilight” he asked curiously, but Passion cringed at the question.

“It was a rather… interesting meeting. I’d prefer not to talk about it” Passion muttered, her eyes fixed on the bitten doughnut.

“Oh, I see. Sorry ‘bout that” he apologized and silence ensued once again. “Hey, now that I think about it, you have a very interesting accent there.”

“Hm?”

“It reminds me of Her Majesty, Princess Luna. Sort of. It’s almost as if you were in the process of adapting yourself to modern speech…” He muttered thoughtfully, but Passion decided to ignore this.

“…It’s getting late” Passion muttered, eating the rest of the doughnut in one bite “It was nice meeting you. I’ll bring you Twilight if I can” she already had the idea of asking Celestia to invite her to Canterlot; whatever Joe had to show her seemed very important and could be enough reason to bring her here… probably.

“Thanks again, Golden Passion! See you soon!”

Passion left the doughnut shop just as two ponies entered. She looked up at the sky and saw the moon was high up, indicating it was around eight. She began walking towards the castle, and found that what she heard was true; this city was sleepless. However, as she approached the castle the streets began to be more and more isolated, and Passion could feel the uncomfortable sensation of somepony following her. Her steps remained calm, as if she hadn’t noticed anything at all. She was really tired at the moment; there would be time to pry further into this matter later.

When she returned to Princess Luna’s chambers, in which she was staying in for the time being, she found Luna sleeping soundly. Passion chuckled; she seemed to be very tired after her first day in court after a thousand years. Probably the most annoying nobles out there had decided to show up just to torture her princess.

She levitated the necklace she had around her neck which camouflaged her wings and put it on a nearby night stand. Her wings fluttered and stretched and then she walked towards her beloved’s sleeping form.

Passion’s lips pressed against the tired mare’s forehead, her body laid on the same bed and pressed against Luna’s, her wing wrapped around her indigo coat.

And, soon enough, the golden coated mare fell into the abyss of sweet chocolaty dreams along with her beloved princess.

Chapter 2: Apologies and Gentle Smiles

Day 4 (morning).

Golden Passion walked through the castle's halls. As she did, she could feel many memories of one of the most beautiful yet shortest phases in her childhood come back to her mind. She welcomed and smiled fondly at them. She remembered how precious they were to her and locked them in her heart, not to be forgotten again.

She gave slow and steady steps as she admired the architecture and the solitude the halls provided her. This time, she was one hundred percent sure it was fine to explore the castle, since Luna herself had told her to do so while she attended court. Passion smiled once more remembering her princess's enthusiasm at the idea of going back to work after a thousand years of leaving Celestia by herself.

When Passion came back to reality she realized she was approaching a door which was being watched by a pair of guards. She slightly lifted the necklace that hung on her neck and looked at it. The necklace was enchanted to make her wings appear invisible and nopony would suspect her... well, that is overestimating. At least the guards would suspect less of her.

At the other side of the big door with beautiful cravings sat an alabaster princess who, for the first time in... who knows, had nothing to do.

"Your Majesty, a strange mare-" Celestia chuckled, immediately knowing who it was.

"Let her in" and the doors opened, revealing a nervous Passion slowly entering Celestia's study. Once the doors were closed, Passion finally let out the breath she was holding.

"How can you stand all this... privacy invasion?" the nervous mare asked, having not too fond memories about the same guards.

"It's for security, so it is actually necessary. Even if they are not really effective when it comes to facing Nightmares or Gods of Chaos" Celestia joked, though she seemed distant, something that wasn't quite normal and Passion knew this. The princess watched her morning sun looming over the skies, and didn't notice the golden coated mare surveying the bookshelves.

"It's... a lot neater than I remember" Passion remarked with a very low tone, as if not wanting to break the peaceful atmosphere they had.

"Well, Lulu sneaked up here last night and arranged everything... Though I do appreciate her efforts to give me some time for myself and make me forget my duties, I feel this place that I used to have as a sanctuary rather... unfamiliar." Celestia sighed and her gaze met the cold floor "I have a lot of time in my hooves right now, but I can't seem to find it any use."

"You're a workhorse" Passion joked and the old princess chuckled.

"Well. You, my dear fiery warrior, are not exactly the life of the party." Celestia retorted, and both ancient mares exploded in laughter. Celestia was enjoying her old friend's company, but this old friend reminded her of another friend of hers.

"So, you really don't have any ideas on what to do?" asked Passion after the laughter subdued. Both mares were looking at the scenery outside the window, showered by the sunlight.

"Actually, I do." Celestia's horn lit up and a scroll, a quill and a bottle of ink were levitated towards her "Excuse me for a second, my dear." the younger alicorn nodded with a calm smile before Celestia began her letter.

"My Faithful Student"

...No, no.

"My Faithful Student Friend"

And suddenly, the princess had an idea for a little, harmless prank.

"Golden Passion, would you be a dear and fetch me another scroll?" a moment later, the princess had already finished her letter and was focused in giving it the last touches. She had to rewrite the whole thing since it had a lot of scratches (due to a lot of second thoughts), and this was something not very characteristic of the secure and decided princess.

"Sure thing... No, wait. Can't you do that with your magic?" Celestia ignored Passion and she kept the quill dancing around the scroll, fixing this and that word. "...Fine” Passion grabbed a scroll from a drawer in Celestia’s desk and walked towards her. She took a small peek at the mess of a letter Celestia had in her magical grip and gasped at what she could figure out.

“’Tia… sometimes you can be so… so… cruel” Passion muttered with a blank expression “You are telling her to come here half an hour from now?!” she was a little worried about the poor victim, but at least she was going to be able to fulfill the favor Joe had asked her the night before.

“She’ll be fine” Celestia chuckled regally “I promise I will keep an eye on her and will intervene in case anything goes out of control… again.” Yes, she was referring to that time when she enchanted her doll, and a well concealed shiver went down through her spine at the memory. Celestia proceeded to rewrite and send the letter and just some seconds later both alicorns sat in silence, without knowing what else to do.

“So…” Passion awkwardly tried to break the unbearable silence. They both shared a couple of glances which showed their indecision on what to do while waiting for the arrival of a certain lavender unicorn. Then, a particular object caught both of the mares' attention.

“Princess Celestia of Equestria” the commander began her threat, glaring daggers back at the Sun Goddess. Of course, the princess didn’t stay behind. I dare say that the Princess’ stare was even more deadly. While the commander’s features irradiated anger, pride, courage and tenacity, the Princess’ stare was filled with…

Calmness. Yes, calmness. As if every little twitch that the fierce warrior’s muscles gave was in her plans. Every situation: wrapped around her hoof. Every little soldier: puppets she could control with ease. Any common pony would squirm in agony under that gaze. However the courageous commander would feel irritated. 'How could she wipe out that cocky grin from her face?' She would ask herself. And I repeat: would. Because this time, this time she was sure she was…

“I shall win this time! I will not allow you to defeat me!” the air surrounding the clashing mares was filled with so much tension I felt I could poke it with the tip of my lavender horn. I sat some inches away from them, watching the entire scene with awe. Next to me sat Princess Luna, who was as painfully calm as her sister.

“D-do you think Passion will win?” I whispered to the Princess next to me.

“I highly doubt it” Luna answered nonchalantly. I was a little surprised since she didn’t seem to be supporting her… marefriend too much.

“I’m sorry for intruding, Princess but I’ve been wondering… Why don’t you… um… support her?” I finally allowed the questions in my head to be asked, with a little embarrassment and nervousness.

“And why don’t you support ‘Tia, Twilight Sparkle?” the cryptic princess answered back with another question. I must admit this was quite irritating, but also that the question had caught me off guard.

Because she can handle this.

Because she doesn’t need me.

Because I believe in her.

Because I lo…

But only silence came, and Luna’s attention went back to the two mares in front of us. Of course I wouldn’t say such irrational things! It didn’t even make any sense at all!

Wait, If I actually… lrmph… her, then doesn’t that mean I would actually support her?

But when I looked closer, I could see the Night Princess’ lips curled into a very slight smile… a victory smile, just like her sister’s. I gave up; she was too much for me. Both of them. Then, I realized I actually was sitting in the same room with the two mares who, by just thinking about them, could make my day as worst as being in Tartarus itself for just five minutes.

…If they only knew… They’d banish me from Equestria! Or maybe I could be sent to the moon!

I turned my gaze at the two mares locked in their fierce battle. It was clear that the world around meant nothing to them right now.

“Jaque!” Passion shouted in joy and delight in a foreign language with a strange accent. On the board I could see that most of the soldiers were gone, the white king was surrounded and escaping seemed impossible. But the princess chuckled. Her horn began glowing with a soft golden light, and a white piece on the chess board moved. And, as if by magic…

“Check mate~” Princess Celestia sang in victory, and Passion froze. Luna giggled and I could only feel how all my positive feelings towards the princess simply skyrocketed.

Such… cleverness…

“WHAT. THE. BUCK!”after several seconds of silence, Passion yelled in disbelief.

“Watch that vocabulary, young filly” the Princess scolded the shocked mare sternly, just like a mother would.

“S-sorry ‘Tia” Passion retreated with a blush across her cheeks. I could only feel sympathy for her though it had been far worse with me; I had only lasted 3 minutes because of Princess Celestia’s pity…

Luna rose with graceful practiced movements and turned to look at Passion right in front of the doorway. They shared glances which spoke a thousand words for them. I helplessly burned with curiosity to know what they were saying and just how they could tell each other so much with simple eye-contact!

Worst of all, I would not dare to ask the princess for help. I would rather eat diamonds and rubies with Spike, which would result in a severe digestive problem. And that certainly wouldn’t help in the slightest with the current problem at hoof.

“Well, dearest sister, congratulations for your victory. I shall be retiring for court” Luna said, already outside of the room, but before she could close the doors, the princess still had something to tell her.

“Please, Luna, don’t hesitate to come for help if-“

“’Tia, don’t worry about me” she assured her concerned sister with security in her eyes and a calm grin. I looked at the princess, already formulating what to say, but Passion seemed to have noticed and shot me an ‘It’s something they should solve’ look. The princess sighed in an attempt to calm her nerves down. “It is already my second day of court. I shall be perfectly fine by myself. I am well aware a problem may rise and I will ask for help if required, but you should really, really trust me a little bit more, sister…”

“Yes, Luna… I am sorry… I just…”

Passion was standing beside me. I stood up as well and she signaled me to follow her. Though confused, I did as she said and followed her out of the room, still looking back at the princess’s unusual insecure and helpless demeanor.

Luna reentered the room and closed the doors behind her. For a moment I thought it wouldn’t be a good idea to neglect a princess’s duties, but then I remembered all the tragic incidents that occurred thanks to miscommunication. The sisters had to solve this; I remembered when Princess Celestia had summoned me because of a presumed terrorist, who resulted to be her old friend Golden Passion, that was in her castle and things almost got out of hoof.

A sigh escaped my lips and, as a result, a hoof had taken my shoulder. I lifted my gaze which had been fixed on the floor and met Passion’s gentle eyes.

“Is something wrong, Twilight?” she asked with her unique accent which maybe had resulted from the long process of adaptation to modern ways.

For a moment, I was lost thinking of the many possible things this young looking but actually old mare had lived. Probably she had been confined to a restricted area and began to grow disconnected from modern society. If that was to be the case, then she and Luna would actually have a lot more in common that anypony who barely knew them could think.

“Twilight!” Passion’s voice woke me up once again from my theory-forming state “You are honestly starting to worry me” and just the last thing I wanted happened; blood began to rush into my cheeks, making my embarrassment noticeable.

“I-I’m fine… I… just…” my gaze lowered once more, but before it could meet the floor it was caught by something shiny hanging from Passion’s neck; some sort of necklace. My gaze moved slightly to the left and noticed her wings weren’t there “wha- Your wings. What happened to them?”

“Oh, they are there. Why?” Passion at first had a questioning eyebrow raised, but then her face lit up as she remembered something “Oh! This necklace you see here” she pointed at said object with her hoof “is encha-“

“Enchanted?! How?! Who did it?!” I would have tackled the mare onto the ground if it weren’t because we were actually inside a castle, right in front of Princess Celestia’s studio. I thanked whoever else I could think of for making Celestia dismiss the guards when I arrived; it had saved me some embarrassment I didn’t actually pay attention to at the moment.

“I believe it is magic only Luna can use” she answered considerably calmly, but her face still showed confusion and surprise “but it is an illusion spell which hides my wings. By the way, don’t worry about anypony listening to our conversation.” This last comment made me come back to reality… again.

“I’m really sorry!” I imitated my friend Fluttershy, backing away trying to hide my face from the embarrassment. Unfortunately, I did not have her abundant mane…

Great, Twilight! Just great! And you actually expected to have something with either of the princesses. Amazing.

“Really. Don’t worry about it” I couldn’t believe Passion’s patience and thanked whoever raised her “I have heard you have an amazing talent and interest for magic, so if I can I’ll ask Luna about this spell later. For now I have something to tell you. I took you out here to ask you something: I wanted to invite you somewhere both as an apology and a thank you gift.”

“Huh?”

“You know, I wanted to apologize for what happened a few nights ago…” Passion trailed off, but she did not need to finish the sentence for me to know what she meant. In fact, I was thankful she didn’t finish it.

“There’s n-no need to do that, really” I reassured her with even more embarrassment than before.

“Yes I do. There somepony who wants to see you… Oh, I forgot to tell you I wanted to take you to ‘Doughnut Joe’s’”

“Where?!”

Noon.

Passion and I sat in silence in the giant dining room, eating relatively simple food. For some reason neither of us had a lot of appetite at the moment, so we had asked for small portions of food.

There was nopony else besides us in the dining room; the princess was in her chambers and Luna was already in court. Things seemed to have ended up well between the two, but the princess still needed some time to think. At least, that was what Passion had told me to calm my nerves. I trusted her words because I knew she understood the princesses more than I’d had been able to understand them at the time.

“So, you will be doing an experiment with Celestia?” Passion asked, giving her dandelion sandwich a big bite after finishing her question. For a moment, I thought of how amusing it was that, even though she was supposed to be royalty, her mannerisms when eating weren’t really the… best.

“Oh, yes! Though it has been studied before I don’t think it’s been studied enough” I inwardly facehoofed; nothing will ever be studied enough for me! “Well, it has to do with the influence of crystals in magic and the many things we can do with them. Your necklace really called my attention and I’d like to study it later with the princess”

“I’d be more than glad to give it to you if I didn’t need it to cover myself. I’m really sorry”

“No, it’s fine, really!” I took a sip of my apple juice, my only cover at the moment. I felt guilty for bringing up the necklace in the first place! Now I had made her feel like she owed me something...

“But if I am not mistaken it illusions have something to do with playing around with light... I don't know. I did not study that field of magic. Only the very basics.” Passion said thoughtfully, her eyes darting through the room and her mouth taking another bite from the sandwich.

“I see…” I regretted not having any scrolls or quills nearby for taking notes, so I did my best at trying to engrave it into my brain “So, which field of magic did you study?”

“Defensive and Offensive spells. Mostly Offensive” Passion nonchalantly answered.

Having finished her sandwich she proceeded to take the plates and the empty glass to the kitchen, probably to wash them herself, until a chef, after gasping in horror, stopped her and took the dishes himself back into the kitchen. She shot me a ‘what was that all about?’ look and returned to her seat.

I thought it was pretty strange a pony would focus on Offensive spells, but I thought it would be rude and invasive to ask further questions. Silence took place and I thanked I still had some sandwich left; something to keep my mouth occupied on. Fortunately, before I took what could be considered the slowest bite taken in pony history (because it was the last), Passion spoke up.

“Joe wanted to see you. That’s the second reason I invited you there” Passion suddenly whispered “I don’t know why, but it seems to be important.”

“I wonder what it is…” I had to admit I couldn’t really wait; I really missed Joe, however I also had a study session to attend to in a few minutes.

I used to visit his Doughnut shop in a daily basis when the princess urged me to relax and get to know Canterlot (with guards escorting me, of course). Being the unsocial mare I was I had nothing else to do than to read books and the place I chose to do so was Doughnut Joe’s. The owner, Joe, was really patient, relaxed and a good listener, so I didn’t have that many problems that I did have with the other ponies when it came to maintaining a normal conversation.

“Thanks for inviting me, by the way”

“In exchange, I should thank you for accepting to accompany me.” Then, I realized there was something else very amusing about this mare; she did not practice many mannerisms on the table, but she pretty much behaving like a… gentlecolt?

“Miss Twilight Sparkle” a royal guard suddenly spoke, another one behind him “Princess Celestia requests your presence”

“Well, time to go” I sheepishly smiled at Passion, standing up and allowing the servants to pick up the dishes and thanking them “I guess we’ll meet later”

“Best of wishes” I ignored the unnecessary formality of the expression and gave her a thankful smile before walking towards the guards. For some reason, I felt like I was ignoring something really important.

Afternoon.

“Princess… are you alright?” the princess stood in her balcony without her regalia, a sight that I did not always see. She gazed out to the landscape, not turning back to look at me. Her silence worried me; had things really gone well?

“Yes, my faithful student” I couldn’t believe those words. Everything contradicted them; her actions, her tone of voice, even the words themselves! She was doing nothing, just staring out at the empty landscape, but that was exactly what was wrong! She was doing nothing!

Yes, I admit it. I was waiting for a hug. That hug we always shared every time I came to visit or vice versa.

“I… am sorry” suddenly, almost as if she had read my thoughts, she turned around to approach me and gave me the hug I had longed for. However, ignoring the blush appearing on my cheeks and absentmindedly nuzzling her chest, I couldn’t stop asking myself ‘why is she apologizing?’ Of course, at first I thought she had noticed how distant she was behaving with me, but then I felt like there was some other meaning, some other reason behind that apology.

Definitely, I wasn’t prepared for this. Princess Celestia with a pained tone and expression? I felt both scared and privileged to be witnessing this; this was something not everypony could see which probably meant she trusted me. She had always had to give that calm, gentle and strong image of herself to her little ponies.

But I had no idea of how to react, what to do or what to say about this… revealing behavior. What if I did something wrong? What if I failed?

“Twiilght” Celestia broke the embrace, her gentle expression had already returned “would you like to come inside and catch up? Or would you prefer to jump to the experiments right away?”

“I think…” something had changed. Something felt different and… off. I couldn’t believe this calm escapade anymore… I had questions, and both as a scientific and a pony, I wanted answers.

‘My Faithful Friend’ the header of the letter said. No, it did not say 'Student’ like it was accustomed to, it said ‘Friend’ and when I read that word I couldn’t have felt happier. Sure, my feelings were different, but… I was her friend; not a just student, not just a little pony. I was her friend.

…But in that moment, I had no idea if it was a good idea to believe that and get my hopes up. Maybe this Celestia I’ve always known hadn’t been Celestia, but Princess Celestia. Maybe that sad mare I saw staring at the beautiful landscape, acting as if my presence had been completely unimportant was the real Celestia…

If that was the case… did I ever mean anything else to her?

No. Don’t start this again.

Even if I was starting to doubt the princess, I’ve always doubted myself; building hypotheses and believing in them, completely forgetting that they were nothing more than that, hypotheses, unproved, baseless theories built up from speculation.

So, what does a scientist do? Test these hypotheses.

“I think I’d like to chat a little bit about the past days…” we walked side by side back to the inside of her chambers and sat together on her cushion. We spoke about many different subjects. I told her about Passion’s poems and how romantic they were. We laughed and joked when I commented these poems were directed at her sister, Luna. Oh, how beautiful her smile was. It felt really nice to be the one responsible for that laughter... However, while we conversed, something that interrupted our laughter had slipped up my mouth…

“And, Celestia, it seems like…” I paused and covered my mouth with my hoof. Color rose up to my cheeks once more and I cursed the ridiculous connection between the nervous and circulatory system. “I-I’m sorry, Princess. I-“

“Don’t be. Actually that little ‘accident’ will be another victory for the day!” I giggled nervously; that was the only answer my brain could formulate. Not logical at all.

A victory?

I was confused. I did not know what to think of her behavior, but at least I understood what else had changed; what felt so odd.

My point of view of her. It had changed.

Sunset.

“Twilight!” Joe waved his hoof joyfully and I quickly took a seat in front of the counter, forgetting that I had left Passion behind “I’ve missed you around here!”

“Joe! How have you been?” I asked him, he was already serving my old usual order.

“It’s been the same as always. Though I’m sure you can’t say the same for yourself.” He handed me my strawberry doughnut with extra sprinkles. It was somehow surprising that I had always asked for extra sweetness, but I only ate from one to two and the sweet taste and soft texture calmed me down after a long day of studies “For dear Celestia’s sake, I did see you at the train that one time of the Dessert Competition, but now that I take a good look at you..” he released a whistle “I can honestly say you really have grown up into a fine mare. No less, one that has saved Equestria two? Three times?”

“I-it’s nothing, really. And it wasn’t just me, my friends were there too” for an instant, I could feel how much I really missed those mares. Joe simply chuckled as if giving up.

“Hey there, Passion!” Joe greeted my magically disguised friend still awkwardly standing and uncomfortably looking at all the ponies sitting and talking around, paying no mind to the new customers. “Come, sit! You know you are always welcome here!”

“Sorry” she simply apologized, her eyes still darting around the place. Joe was preparing something else; in a matter of seconds a chocolate doughnut lacking in sprinkles was on the counter in front of Passion.

"So, how did you meet?" I asked.

"I was just taking a stroll through the town and I just happened to have found this place..." Passion explained sheepishly. Her cheeks had taken a deeper shade and understood that perhaps she didn't really happened to have stumbled upon

"Thank you by the way. For bringing Twilight here as I asked, I mean" then, he began approaching a door that seemed to lead to his room or some sort of storage room. “Now, for what I wanted to speak with you, would you please follow me?”

“Passion can’t come?”

“That’s up to you to decide” I nodded. I believed he was actually asking if trusted her or not.

“Alright, ladies. Please, come”

Passion and I shared confused glances, but in the end we followed him to what seemed to be both a kitchen and a storage room. There were ingredients to make not only doughnuts but also different kinds of desserts and there were also different boxes gathered up in a corner. Sweat began forming in my brow, even if the place was well conditioned; I was nervous for what Joe had to tell me. What could be so important to demand such privacy?

‘I still can imagine the sort of scandal that would happen if this conversation were to be heard by any... undesirable audiences.’ Cadence’s words from the previous day echoed through my head… It only made my nerves go haywire. Almost.

“The princess came here a few nights ago” and that was what had finally triggered my insane mode once more in that day, the first thing was reading that Princess Celestia had invited me to Canterlot in half an hour from the moment I received the letter.

“WHAT?! WHEN?! WHAT DID SHE DO?! WHAT DID SHE TELL YOU?! DID SHE GIVE YOU SOMETHING?!” I tackled the poor stallion. Fortunately, before I could yell any more nonsense, Passion grabbed me forcefully and covered my mouth with a hoof. Joe went outside and apologized with the customers. How many times would I make a fool out of myself that day?

I noticed another amusing thing about my new friend: she was as, if not more, strong as Applejack herself. Though it could be problematic since she doesn’t seem to control that strength very well; I had to tell her to release me because she was hurting me. I imagined her working in Sweet Apple Acres… and all I could see were miles and miles of knocked trees… and a sobbing Apple family.

“Please Twilight” Joe returned with a troubled expression “avoid doing that again…”

“I’m sorry, I just…” I slumped into the floor and sighed in frustration. Passion sat beside me and suddenly I felt something feathery wrapping me. I tried to see what it was, but it was… invisible?

Oh, right. Her wings… wait, isn’t this a little risky?

I shot Passion a concerned glance, and she responded with more gentleness and a wink. Really, how many times have I written the word ‘gentle’?

“Anyways, I was really nervous. She was very different from usual and… she seemed very… sad or distressed…” Joe went to look for something in one of the drawers and pulled a scroll out of them; a scroll with the princess’ seal! “She dropped this.” I took it with my magic and began skimming through the words clearly written by her “I-I was too scared to open it and read it, but even more to go and return it… I-I mean, what if she suspects I’ve read it and throws me into a dun-“

“She’s not like that” I closed the scroll, a strange feeling overflowing in my chest. I had to fully read and analyze this letter’s content in the solitude of my old chambers. “Thank you” I said with a somber tone and began walking slowly towards the shop’s exit. I had a lot of thinking to do in my room.

Evening

“T-Twilight!”

“She’ll be fine” Passion assured the nervous Joe even though she had no idea of what was going on. Well, maybe she did have one but… it was just too crazy. “I’ll pay for the both of us.”

“Alright…” Joe sighed and the two of them returned to the shop area “I owe you your discount” for the first time in the past minutes, Joe smiled.

“I think it’s time for me to go” she quickly ate the rest of her doughnut and put the bits on the counter.

“Keep a close eye on that mare! Weird stuff can happen if she gets out of control”

“I will”

Already out of the doughnut shop, Passion could see evening had already settled in and she could do nothing but think about how fast time could flow, but that didn’t matter at the moment; she had something to do.

She began walking through the dark, but still busy streets of Canterlot. Ponies in elegant dresses walked past her, shooting the same disgusting glances of the day before; she couldn’t understand entirely why. Sure, she wasn’t wearing any dresses, she hated how they weighed down on her. Also, her tail wasn’t that short. If she let it reach the ground it could become quite troublesome.

‘Ignore them’ she thought; more important tasks were at hoof. Her walking continued until she stood in front of a completely desolated and dark alley. Ears twitched. There was something here and there was only one way to know what.

Already submerged in the darkness of the abandoned alley, Passion could see a shadow dashing around her. She stayed calm and showed no signs of fear, but it’s not like it was too hard to do.

“You know it’s not working, right?” Passion nonchalantly remarked and her statement seemed to have served its intended purpose.

“Buck! It never works!” from the shadows, came a bat winged stallion; one of Luna’s guards! Fangs stuck out of his mouth, his ears were pointy and his amber eyes glowed in the darkness.

“What is it that you want” she did not ask, she demanded to know.

“I want you to disappear!” the night guard said with venom, already in his fighting stance. Passion simply rolled her eyes; somepony wanting her to vanish from existence was not anything new at all.

“Alright. What did I do to you now?”

“You took my Luna away from me!” he vanished into the shadows and tackled Passion from behind. However, Passion casually dodged it; it was a very predictable move, as predictable as this guard’s behavior. She and Luna always knew there would be ponies finding out and disagreeing about their relationship even if they did their best at hiding it, and were prepared for whatever that would have to come.

“Your Luna?” Passion added this to her list of the most absurd things she could have heard.

“Yeah! You’ve never deserved her! You’re not even able to… please her properly!” Passion facehoofed inwardly; it was very comical, but sad at the same time that ponies nowadays related sexual acts with absolutely everything so easily! Obviously, their relationship only being a couple of days old, still needed some time before going to something more… intimate. Even so, she felt the need to tease the stallion just a little further.

“I don’t require having that atrocity of yours between my legs to make my princess shout in delight” she said with a cocky grin plastered on her features “Now I know that thing is just for show; you’re not even stallion enough to confess! Why do I even bother arguing with the likes of you?” This false arrogant behavior was the only useful thing she had learned from nobles.

“Maybe because you know you’re not good enough for her!” sure, Passion always thought Luna was too good for her… but Luna wanted to be with her; she wasn’t an object and was free to think and do as she pleased as long as it wasn’t outside the law and ethics. So, as long as Luna was with her... she had no objections. Passion would do everything in her power to make her happy.

“Are you good enough for her then? If that were to be the case then you and I wouldn’t even be here standing.” The cockiness had whipped from her features and replaced by seriousness “Now, if you try to do any other stupidity then I shall…”

“What? Tell Luna?”

“No, I’ll take care of you myself” she shook her head side to side, removing the scarlet mane covering her left eye. The stallion gasped in terror when he saw said eye, for reasons not even Passion herself was aware of… yet. “Then I’ll tell Luna. Is that clear?” the stallion nodded firmly and disappeared into the darkness.

With another movement of her head, the mane was back into its previous position. Passion sighed in exhaustion and her ears dropped. She laughed that the stallion didn't even give his name; not that she cared about it. Suddenly, they perked up again when she could hear somepony shouting…

“WATCH OUT!” before she could respond a bottle fell on her from the air and its contents poured all over her. Luckily, the glass hadn’t made any new wounds on her coat.

However, she still had things to worry about. The bottle had not come from any normal place and its contents weren’t normal at all either.

In a flash, Passion’s gender was swapped.

Author's Note

I'd be glad if you left your opinion on the comments.
Thanks for reading!

Chapter 3: Letters and Insinuations

“I don’t understand. Why now? Few times have been in which I’ve allowed my kingdom to see my tears, very few. The last time I had shed tears, only the elements and my sister had witnessed this. Now, for some reason, a stallion whose name I can’t even remember is seeing the manifestation of my emotions. I cannot care less which kind of psychological damage I’ve done to this pony now.

Such is the place where my subjects hold my image. Such altitude it has. Just the small peek into my very core; a small peek into a moment of weakness, can shatter a pony’s sanity. This situation I am in is what almost shattered my own sanity when I had to send my only friend and sister to a very faraway place.

The very same situation almost deceives even me to think that I could handle everything; that I was perfect. Oh, sister, my sister. Could you ever forgive me? It has been years since Twilight and her friends freed you, but I still cannot express how sorry I am. I cannot.

I should have trusted you. I almost repeat that unfortunate incident from a thousand years ago. For how long has this weakness and arrogance been consuming my common sense? Can you tell me, dear sister? You, who has come to know my soul, my heart, my mind better than myself?

How I wish I could tell you all of this directly, but I am afraid I am not ready to burden you with my troubles again. The only words I can rely on you are those of apology. You were right, and I must say I am very glad you were.

She is alive. She is back. She is fine. Golden Passion has been safe all this time. Perhaps we all owe her the fact that our kingdom is not suffering an invasion right now. However, this is how I repay her. By treating her badly and sending her into a dungeon.

She even helped you take a better control of Nightmare Moon with a simple speech composed of words only that who loves you more than anypony or anybody else can take from the depths of their heart.

I must say, I am very proud to see you—“

“Enough!” I yelled, throwing the letter across the room before I could keep reading. From the very beginning I knew this letter wasn’t supposed to be read by my eyes, but the damned curiosity… I just needed to know…

But if I wanted to know, if I really loved her, I would have waited until she was ready to tell me herself! I am not worthy of her friendship, or care. Probably, she already knows I’m betraying her; maybe it was a test and I’ve failed it!

At least I had to make it up by handing it to the one it was directed to and properly apologizing. I was willing to face the wrath of the moon, but I was not ready to face the disappointment of the sun. It would have to wait until the next morning though; Luna was probably busy with court right now… or taking a break.

Suddenly, I heard someone barging into the room.

“Twilight!” Spike shouted in worry “Are you okay?” I turned to look at him with an empty expression which quickly changed into a small smile.

“Y-yes…” I approached him and wrapped him in a hug. I knew he was confused, but I smiled even more when he wordlessly hugged back, understanding that it was what I needed at the moment…

“Twilight… Are you sure you are okay? Want me to call the girls?”

“No. I’m fine as long as you are here, Spike”

A while later, Spike was already fast asleep. I wish I could say the same for myself, but I was actually shifting uncontrollably in bed unable to get that letter out of my head. It was as if something was tempting me to keep reading it, to finally understand at least a minimal part of my princess’ mind.

I stood up and groaned. Taking the letter in my magic I finally set my mind to find Luna and deliver her this letter. It didn’t matter if I was left waiting for court to end the whole night; I just wanted to get rid of it before it could keep tempting me further.

Walking through Canterlot’s dimly lit hallways sure was fascinating and nostalgic, being it a while since I’ve walked through these corridors. The only source of light was Luna’s moon, which hung at a descent height. Probably it was around eleven.

Soon enough, I was already in front of the room where court was being held. I thanked my mental map from my childhood which guided me through the dark maze; otherwise it could have already been morning before I reached my destination.

The guards which lacked in distinctive characteristics, simply stood there with their stoic expressions completely ignoring my presence. It sure was intimidating…

I gulped and gathered enough courage to ask them about Luna, but they kept ignoring me. I simply gave up and started wandering around the castle aimlessly.

Something in my hooves took me to the Canterlot gardens. The moon’s silver light gave the natural filled place an eerie air, its light reflected by the flowers of every color of the rainbow, which were scattered throughout the gardens.

Standing in front of one of the statues, I remembered the strolls I took with my mentor as a filly in this very same place. All those spells I practiced, all those proud smiles from my mentor, and all those comforting caresses she gave me when I failed and nearly thought on giving up. I eventually made it through, of course. I had to, to make her proud.

I groaned, realizing how easily the princess took a hold of my thoughts. I kept walking, not thinking twice of returning to my bedroom and sleeping. I simply walked, my head hung low and my hooves acting at their own accord. My head lifted, and my eyes caught the glimpse of a distinctive sight…

“Luna…” I muttered identifying the owner of the body whose hoof was caressing one of the flowers. The Night Princess had a small smile and tired eyes on her face. Right when she began to walk away I was snapped away from my trance and began to gallop towards her “L-Luna! Wait! Princess Luna!”

“Twilight Sparkle?” she answered to my calls and I finally stopped my galloping, standing in front of her gasping for air. I felt so shameful for not being able to stand even the slightest physical activity. “What are you doing here?”

“W-well… I…” composing myself, I straightened my neck and looked at Luna in the eyes with the friendliest gaze I could muster “Can… can I join you for a walk?”

“Why, of course!” she agreed between light and regal giggles. Our stroll began in silence which I used to formulate a proper explanation and apology, even if I knew things would go everything BUT according to any plan I could put up together in seconds.

“Taking a break?” I broke the silence with a question I would ask any of my friends. Sure, I considered Luna my friend, but the idea of treating a princess so casually still felt a little overwhelming.

“Yes. Even though night court isn’t as busy as day court, it can still prove itself to be… quite challenging, for it is not the amount of nobles that visit which determines how tiresome a session can be…”

“But how annoying the noble is” I finished Luna’s polite complaints and we both chuckled.

“Indeed, Twilight… indeed” silence ensued again, but it was Luna’s turn to talk “So, why are you up and about so late at night, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“I… couldn’t sleep.” I lied, knowing the lies wouldn’t be standing forever “Though… there’s something I wanted to give you” the walking stopped and the princess’s teal eyes gave me a questioning look “Th-this…” I levitated the scroll towards her and I noticed her surprise when she saw her sister’s seal.

“Hm? Couldn’t ‘Tia have delivered this to me herself? Is she perhaps taking too seriously her small vacation?” Luna joked, which caused a slight pain to take place in my chest.

“N-no… You see… a couple of nights ago… She… I… Princess I’m sorry!” I slumped into the ground, covering my head with my hooves in a protective manner. My wording was so awkward due to my nerves that the princess obviously interpreted it the wrong way.

“You and my dear sister are together? Is that all?”

“Wh-what?! No!”

I wish!

“Then, please, calm down and rephrase that” must have been my imagination, but I detected some disappointment in her tone. I stood up once again, my face still low to cover the blush across it. I began to explain the whole situation and even when I finished, Luna still carried a small smile.

“How can you still be smiling? I… Aren’t you angry?” I nervously asked.

“Do you perhaps want me to be angry?” she threw one of her cryptic questions. My response was to shake my head vigorously. “In that case…” she glanced at the letter in her magical grip “even if this does contain personal, private information you shouldn’t mind it too much. Believe me when I tell you 'Tia trusts you.”

“I-I see… then…”

“But I believe you will not rest peacefully unless I forgive you, so you shall wait until next morning.”

“What? Why?”

“I need to figure out if there is really anything to forgive, Twilight Sparkle” Luna cryptically said with a victory grin, walking towards the castle's inside.

There were many things to forgive. The fact that I used her to protect myself from reality was something I still needed to apologize for. I still didn’t know if Luna, as much as I, was trying to avoid the subject for the sake of saving us both from some awkwardness, but I was thankful.

Luna went back to court. I went back to my room. And slumber did catch me. I still cannot understand why it was so peaceful, something really warm and soft soothing me in my chest. What I do remember was being half asleep and seeing a shadow pointing its horn towards me.

Maybe it’s true. The Princess of the Night does guard us from bad nights of sleep…

Day 5 (morning).

“Alright. Calm mind. Think of something.” Passion, now with her…his new deep stallion voice, muttered to himself, still inside the same dark alley, sitting down on his haunches.

Last night, she… he decided to sleep since he was aware he couldn’t return to the castle in the state he was in. He couldn’t fly back, he couldn’t walk casually into the castle…

But now that he was well rested he could feel a set of ideas popping into her head. He needed to use all he learned about nobles, but where in the name of Origin was he going to get a nice suit?

“Now that I need Rarity, she is not here… fantastic.” Suddenly, her stomach did the last thing she needed for it to do. It grumbled.

He didn’t know how much time was left until the refined ponies who lived here started to get suspicious (or tired) of him and accused him with the guards. He needed to plan something to get to Canterlot without attracting and convince the sisters that he was Golden Passion, but turned into a stallion by some strange potion that fell from the sky. At first he thought Luna was probably searching for him… her, but that probably would be even more problematic than helpful at her… his current condition and Luna probably hadn’t even noticed his absence, having to attend both day and night court. Unless, of course, if she had decided to take a break specifically at her chambers.

Even more possibilities started crawling up into the poor mare/stallion’s mind, but before he became even more paranoid and caused a whole mess with his last-resource-war-strategies, a refined voice pulled him back into the considerably more peaceful reality.

“Mister, are you alright?” a mare voice asked with the typical refined accent. He looked up and saw a white coated, pink maned mare with a concerned look in her eyes. She was taller than most mares and had a model-like contexture. There was something about this mare… she didn’t seem arrogant or disgusted at him, and actually she wasn’t wearing any special dresses…

“Uhm… I am afraid I find myself in quite a difficult situation, miss” Passion stood up, cleaning the dust from his golden coat.

He wondered how could somepony notice her in such a dark place (even though the daylight was strong) and concluded it was probably because of the catchy combination of colors he had which clearly made a contrast; golden colored coat and dark red mane. However, he had much more important situations at hoof, for example, coming up with a back story; no, he was not going to tell this mare he used to be a mare until he got caught up in an argument with one of his marefriend, Princess Luna’s, night guards and a bottle containing a gender bending potion fell on him from the sky.

She would either laugh and leave, or politely tell him he is insane by leaving him in a psychiatric and apologizing for his subconciousness’ bad omen.

So, this back story which would explain his current situation had to give him a chance, a reason to get to court… oh, how more lucky he could get? Luna was taking care of court! She would definitely believe him!

“And what might this awful situation be, sir? Is it anything I can help with?” Passion was surprised; probably this city had its fair share of kind hearted ponies. He had to admit he had been judging without being completely familiar with Canterlot’s inhabitants.

“W-well… I was robbed and left with nothing…” then, he would have to denounce the act at the court right?

“Oh! I am very sorry! My name is Fleur De Lis and if it is alright with you I would be more than happy to give you somewhere to stay in until we can denounce this case. Would you also be as kind as to give me your name?” surely, this mare’s hospitality was giving Passion’s perspective of Canterlot a 180 degree turn. However, this was actually a freak-out time. She/he did not have a name for her/his stallion counterpart; he was not only thinking of the present, but also of how he was going to deal with ‘the sudden disappearance of a golden coated, red maned stallion’. Suddenly, something in her subconciousness decided to save her.

“Oh, forgive my awful mannerisms, Miss Fleur De Lis. My name is Gallant Palas” he gave a respectful bow.

“Please, Sir Palas, you can just call me ‘Fleur’. No need for so many formalities”

“So, Twilight, are you proposing we can create magic similar to that of the Elements of Harmony using crystals?”

It was early in the morning at Princess Celestia’s chambers. Spike was still happily snoring at my old room, just as expected, and the princess was casually drinking some tea while listening to my explanations. The morning sun, which she had just risen right before I arrived to the room gave the bedroom a warm atmosphere which would have made anypony want to go straight back into bed.

Let’s ignore the fact I was slightly annoyed at being too late to watch the spectacle of Princess Celestia raising the sun.

But, even if things were calm and relaxed this morning in the castle, I couldn’t have felt more exited. At first there was some awkwardness between me and the princess, but once I started talking about my ideas on our experiment all that embarrassment melted away.

“Yes, and maybe it cannot be used to banish evil creatures, but probably it could provide a whole city with energy for months!” this was big. I was doing my best to explain my theories to the princess without robbing them of sense, as I usually did when I wrote down all my ideas. Only I can understand my notes.

“And I take it we will need six different crystals?”

“Precisely!” a pang in my chest made me remember the letter. I saw the princess sitting on her bed before me wearing a small smile and compared her to the princess who wrote the words I read the night before. I wanted to know more than ever exactly how many nights ago this letter was written…

Just who are you?

The letter mentioned the princess and Passion had come into terms with each other, which would answer the question I forgot to ask Passion the day before. The last time I had spoken with Passion before coming to Canterlot Castle had been five days before, when the princess had kicked her out of the castle. That leaves me with the question: what happened the day after? Probably, this letter had been written four to three nights before. Maybe a day or two was enough to get Passion and Luna together… and considering they are both alicorns they have probably met before.

Seriously? Love at first sight? I’m a scientist! Not Rarity!

Um… no offense.

So that meant, in that span of one/two days Passion and the princess could have solved their conflicts. The princess had enough time to realize Passion was actually an old friend of hers or whatever and represented no threat to her kingdom… But if the letter had been created just four to three days before… was the princess still in pain? And what kind of pain was this exactly?

“Twilight?”

“A-ah! Y-yes princess?” I inwardly scolded myself for staring at the princess for such prolonged periods of time while thinking back to that cursed letter. I tried to form a smile which would mask my frustration, but I knew I actually looked really stupid.

“You were saying?”

“Of-of course!” I cleared my throat in an attempt to gain some time to reorganize my thoughts “Well, the balance between the six different charges has to be strictly equal. If something happens to this balance then, well… For something I compare this energy to the Elements of Harmony…” I giggled, but clearly my pun was simply awful “I-if the charges are unbalanced then many disastrous things can happen…” the princess casually took a sip of her tea.

“This isn’t the first time this idea has been proposed” I honestly did not know how to react to this statement “But, out of all of them, you have been the only one who has come so far, my faithful student”

Student…

“I guess it’s only logical… me being one of the Elements and all…” I chuckled, ignoring something very warm growing in my chest. However, this something wasn’t the pleasant type of warm… I think a proper word for this could be… Burning. Something burning with intensity. All I knew is that it had to do with…

Student…

“Well, I am aware you would like to begin this experiment as soon as possible” the princess said knowingly, taking the last sip if her tea and standing up.

Student…

“Yes, princess” I simply responded without objection, swallowing many of the words I wanted to say. Or, better said, scream and shout at the princess.

Student…

“I suggest we should test this on a scale model before doing an actual experiment, but before I’d like to give a few touches to you theory. Now… if you would please give me your notes there are a few ideas I’d like to discuss with you.”

Student…

“Y-yes! Of course!” from a pair of saddlebags which lay on the floor, I took out a small notebook “Here”

Student…

“First, we need to determine exactly which kinds of crystals will provide the exact amount of energy we…”

I obediently listened to her explanations as the student I was, until Luna came to pick us up for breakfast. She had another victory grin, and she shot glances at me every time Princess Celestia turned to look somewhere away from us. I was only confused; what in Equestria was Luna insinuating? Did it have anything to do with the contents of the letter?

Now I was frustrated. Something in me regretted not reading the letter completely when I could, while something else assured I had done the right thing by giving the letter to its rightful receiver. Again, both of these ‘somethings’ were parts of me and I had no idea of what was really going on. Probably I would go insane before figuring it out!

Through breakfast I decided to completely evade and forget what had happened the night before. The time was filled with light laughter and, if I was really not going insane already, jokes which indicated something from Luna. Insinuations.

Just what did this mare know? What did that letter say?

But there was something else Luna, the princess and I wondered…

“Have any of you seen Passion?”

“R-really, Miss Fleur” Passion, now known as Palas by the inhabitants of the fancy house he was currently staying in, indirectly complained while his hostess, Fleur De Lis, fixed his dark red mane and dressed him up in outstanding attires which belonged to her husband, Fancy Pants, all at the same time “It is not necessary to… do this…”

He was slightly nervous. He still wore the necklace that camouflaged his wings, but it was nothing more but an illusion; not purely physical. His wings were still there, and he could do nothing to make them go away. So with his own magic he took care of adjusting the suits so the wings wouldn't be noticeable, as uncomfortable as it could get. He also had to take special care to his mane; he had to maintain the mane that covered his left eye right where it was. He didn't want to scare Fleur away with the terrible scar he still probably had...

This is why I hate suits...

“Hm, no. I think your style is more… antique” however, Fleur was actually too concentrated to actually pay attention to Palas’s complaints. He had asked for Rarity? Well he got one.

“Is this actually necessary?”

“Of course! It is obvious you have to present yourself with a proper image before the princess!” Fleur said as if it were something logical while she kept taking out countless attires from the closet. Of course this wasn’t as logical to Palas; he knew the princesses in a different perspective. They were dear friends (well, Luna was a little bit more) he could hang around with casually and informally. However, something else had caught Palas’s attention.

“What do you think of Princess Luna?”

“Why, I think she does her job very well, speacially with the sky every night; it is quite the masterpiece and it is so romantic as well! Also, I’ve heard she has taken both night and day court for a week. While I believe she just wants to do a nice gesture for her sister to give her some time to relax, not everypony is taking it the same way.” Fleur expressed with some disappointment and sadness as she fixed one of the attires on Palas. How could ponies still believe Luna was trying to take over Equestria after five years? It was ludicrous!

“W-why? I personally believe she is just as good ruler as her sister! Whatever conflict they had they could have solved it long ago!” Palas tried to defend both sisters, obviously knowing the reality of the situation.

“Yes, I think so too. But ponies believe Luna is… too immature” Fleur commented on a hushed tone while giving the last details to Palas’s mane and suit.

Immature? Because she is the youngest of the two sisters? Well, she is still much, much older than these foolish ponies who can’t even manage their life’s indulgences! They’ll see…

“Well, I’m done!” Fleur said in a sing song voice. Palas took a look at himself in the mirror and stroke a pose just to take a better look at himself…

A shriek coming from the entrance of the room startled both ponies. Fleur just stood there, agape, while Palas was in a fighting stance.

“Oh. My. Dear. Celestia! He is just so handsome!” a mare he had never seen before was standing there, screaming nonsense. Unfortunately, there were many other mares behind this one as well.

“…No…” Palas muttered “Not like this…”

Chapter 4: Explosions... (Part One)

Day 7 (early morning).

I walked into the laboratory which was located on top of one of Canterlot Castle’s towers. It was around 4 in the morning, and not even the beautiful, regal, graceful, powerful, untouchable… etcetera, Princess Celestia herself was up. I was just too nervous. Then again, it’s expected of me, Twilight Sparkle, to be nervous about an experiment that could change Equestria in an unpredictable way.

I marveled at the six gems that stood on each of the six pedestals, using a light spell. The magenta light that emanated from my horn was reflected by the six different gems that were protected by another spell which prevented any impurities to damage the quality of the precious gems. The effect it had was truly entrancing… like the princess’s eyes…

I decided to review the minuscule still important details; the exact position of the pedestals, the strength of the magical barrier protecting the gems, the angle of the mirrors… I had already checked all of these things five times in a row, but I needed something else to occupy my mind on so it would not drift back to Princess Celestia and her recent distancing…

Every time I remembered that, my chest would hurt and I would start regretting everything I’ve done; something must have made her want to drift further and further apart from me, something I’ve done. Probably she noticed the glances I shot her the day before while she gave the theories the last touches… I just couldn’t control them! At first I was lucky to have theories to explain two days ago so I could distract my mind from the beautiful goddess of the sun calmly listening everything I said right in front of me.

Even in my dreams, the princess would take a hold of my thoughts, so sleeping wasn’t really an option. On top of my torturing feelings for Princess Celestia, I had my nervousness for the experiment. I had reasons to be checking again and again and again the details; if even the slightest thing was out of place… Who knows what could happen.

Literally, who knows? Nopony has tried this before.

This only made it even more dangerous; there were no guides I could follow, or references, or anything. At least there were this and that book talking about the properties of magic, which helped a lot. It also made me think of how strange and mysterious this world of ours is; our magic’s properties, which are actually the characteristics of this mysterious force of ours that can manipulate reality and can differ slightly or greatly from pony to pony, are actually tightly tied with our personalities and such. This is exactly why I compared this experiment to the Elements of Harmony; the magic’s properties have to be in perfect balance, in perfect harmony.

What was the purpose of this? This harmony would probably give this magic abilities, uses or properties a unicorn's magic doesn't have. Maybe we could be inventing a source of power; some force that may improve technology itself...

Something interesting was that the princess said that I had to be the one providing the magic. At least it just had to be a beam, but it had to be a very powerful one. This was one more reason to be nervous; but this decision had to be made fast and very early in the stages of planning so we could determine the position of the gems.

The beam was going to be aimed at a diamond which would fragment the magic into 7 different beams with their respective properties. These properties would be balanced by 7 different gems and mirrors would guide those balanced beams into another crystal specially polished and molded to combine the 7 beams into one, harmonious, and possibly white, beam of pure energy. This intense, concentrated beam‘s energy would be dispersed by a spell which would act as a barrier, and would be cast a few moments before the experiment started.

Put this way, it’s not really that complicated, but if I went into detail about the gems, the properties and magical theory then it would be a written headache.

I sighed after finishing my measurements and walked towards the laboratory’s window, admiring the dark night sky. It was around five thirty; Princess Celestia was going to raise the sun in some minutes.

Groaning, I wondered how my thoughts could drift back to the princess so fast; I could be reading about… biology and somehow I would relate it to the princess. Somehow. Probably I would start comparing the beauty of the butterfly, the elegance of the tiger, the grace of the eagle, the strength of the lion, and the intelligence of the owl to the princess’s own attributes. She was all of this and even more…

It was useless though; the Princess didn’t want anything to do with a pathetic, weak pony like me. Sure, probably I was more powerful than most unicorns, and I could learn a spell by simply watching it being casted once, but what did it matter if I was weak at heart?

I looked back at the crystals. Luckily, my thoughts didn’t change towards the princess, but I began to think about my friends. I loved them, I missed them, and I needed them right now more than ever… Here, I felt all alone; not even the princess was by my side. She now felt so… distant…

There we go… back to the princess. Great.

Without any other measures to check, or theories to review I had to find a way to spend the next hours without going completely insane. At least there were a fair amount of books here with me…

Noon.

Finally, after a day of standing party after party with shrieking rich mares and snooty ponies, Palas was going to court. His hatred for parties and other social events had been reaffirmed. The only positive thing gotten out of this was that his social awkwardness had diminished a little. Still, he had wasted a full day that could be spent in something more productive. Fortunately, there hadn’t been any uproar caused, or guards searching through every corner of Canterlot… yet. Maybe Luna thought he had gotten too caught up in exploring the city, or that had discovered some sort of cave system and decided she should just wait until he returned, knowing his adventurous and curious spirit…

If that was to be the case, that was definitely better than anything. He had time to fix all of this before ponies went insane. He would get into court, request a session with Princess Luna, use their super special secret eye-contact language and then everything would go back to… no, normal is not the word. Everything would go back to the way it used to be. Yes, that’s more accurate.

Palas had insisted Fleur to allow him to go alone, but the generous mare had insisted and pleaded otherwise, claiming it could be dangerous and completely rude to leave somepony in need to themselves, so he had no choice but to accept unless he wanted to spend another day surrounded by mares who seemed to be in heat.

They were (finally) about to enter Canterlot Castle when something in the corner of Palas’s eye caught his attention. He turned his head to see a… mare trying to sneak into the castle?

“Hey!” Palas, completely ignoring his brain, Fleur and the guards, obeyed his instincts and gave chase to this mysterious mare.

Once he got closer, he could take in her details; black shaggy mane, red coat, green eyes and circles under them. This mare was a Pegasus, but one of her wings was wrapped in bandages. She also had a pair of heavy looking saddlebags. She seemed not to pay too much attention to her personal appearance…

But that wasn’t important. Palas was chasing what could possibly be a real terrorist or a spy, but then he noticed he was also being chased by angry guards. Then, when he heard them something about ‘Her Majesty’s sacred garden’ and ‘Not the flowers’ he realized he was also making a mess of a perfectly kept garden dedicated specially to ‘Tia.

That wasn’t important either. He could repay by fixing the garden himself when he turned back to being a mare…

He also noticed the mare’s physical conditions weren’t the best; he was almost about to get her. Only a tackle and the job was done. However, before he could do anything, the black maned mare’s eyes were fixed on an open window at the top of a tower.

Her wings unfurled, the bandages falling loosely on the ground. Then, she flew directly towards the open window.

Some minutes earlier…

It’s finally here…

No, this experiment hadn’t been planned from one day to another. It had taken months to get the spells and to put the theories together, but most importantly, to find other researchers and scientists willing to help me with this experiment that could revolutionize the whole Equestria. And it had all been a headache; a worthwhile headache.

Aaaand I’m about to relate headaches with the princess. Though I must admit she had come to represent an ‘enjoyable’ headache to me…

Scientist ran to and fro, doing last minute preparations; adjusting sensors, readers which would register the information the sensors grabbed… Meanwhile, I was taking care of purifying the air and casting the barrier which would disperse the white beam and keep protecting the gems from impurities, and eliminating the other barriers previously placed around the gems themselves; all of this had to be done very carefully and fast so no impurities managed to enter in the process. I was so focused I forgot the princess was there, watching everypony’s every move, especially mine. I had to do my best, no errors, no slip ups. They weren’t allowed in this laboratory, not today.

Sure, there was still this burning desire to please the princess, but I wanted to do something for myself as well for once. Something I could take pride in. However, being the annoyingly modest mare I was, that wasn’t going to be easy.

After doing everything I had been put in charge of, I and some other scientists took care of installing the sensors which would analyze important factors which would improve the theory. There were also guards inside and outside the laboratory, just in case something went wrong; because if something did go wrong, it just wouldn’t be wrong, it would be horribly wrong, taking into consideration this experiment involved high levels of both magic and energy.

Suddenly, I was starting to regret not considering doing this somewhere else less risky, yet the air of the tall tower was purer than anywhere else I could have come up with. If I did this somewhere else like a forest, where the air was indeed pure, if something went wrong we could probably be destroying natural habitats, and making Fluttershy very angry in the process. If we did this in a desolated place, like mountains or canyons, or even a desert, it would be tougher to keep the gems’ purity, but it would be safer, even though it was meaningless: did it matter for it to be safe if there was nothing to be safe from? Did it even make sense?

No, Twilight. Too late for regrets…

I needed the princess’s comfort right now, but I wasn’t going to receive it. I knew… until…

“Everything will go alright, Twilight” the princess whispered in my ear. There was no physical contact, or eye contact. She was just there, right next to me, her eyes also marveling at the structure of the experiment; the gems, the mirrors, the diamonds. However, just her words, her tone, her concern were enough to relieve me. I knew I wanted much, much more, but this was okay… I looked up at her, though her eyes refused to leave the gems.

As long as she was there with me to reassure me, even as a friend, mother or mentor, it was okay.

She wasn’t wrapping me up in illusions, but telling me what she believed… she believed in me; she believed I was capable to terminate this experiment to success… and that was enough for me.

“Thank you, princess…” I whispered with a lot of meaning behind those words. There were so many emotions I wanted to convey, but it was impossible to do so using such simple words which could mean a wide variety of things…

I sighed, gathering strength and relieving stress. I closed my eyes and focused for a moment… until I finally heard the words I’ve been impatient to hear for hours.

“Everything’s ready, Miss Sparkle!” a researcher taking care of the readers announced, and I nodded with determination burning in my eyes.

“Alright, everypony!” I began, my insecurities still lingering. All the researchers and scientist turned to look at me; their focus on me just increased my nervousness “I… I have to admit that I am nervous and scared, probably as much as you all are…” I shyly began, chuckling a bit. Not a good start for a motivational speech, that's for certain

“Yet, I am here. I’ve always believed I was a coward because I was always afraid of the challenges ahead of me even if I had, in the end, easily busted through them and they all ended in success. I never admitted this, but sometimes we need ponies around, to remind us that bravery isn’t about not being afraid, but about pushing forward regardless that your fears and concerns are struggling to hold you back” I looked to the princess and she responded with a nod, which gave me enough confidence to continue. My eyes still fixed on the princess as I said “These ponies will also remind you that you are more than capable of doing anything you task to yourself… that you are not just an ordinary pony, that chance or pity weren’t the things that brought you to this fateful place, and on this fateful day…

“But…” my eyes returned to the crowd of scientists and researchers, burning with renewed determination “that this is where your abilities come in... Each of us has come to learn one thing or to do another, but this something will have a huge impact on ponies around you. Every action you perform causes great strides in our history, every action a mark, so that everypony is important in this world.

“This is an experiment that hasn’t been attempted until today, so we are treading on unexplored and unstable grounds which may break apart under our hooves. There may be many dangers here, considering we are dealing with highly concentrated energy, but if we do our best, if we fight against our fears… I can tell you now, everything will go perfectly fine! You are here because you are capable, not chance, or destiny!

“So don’t think we will fail! There is a possibility of mistakes, but it 'Is minimal, and it will stay that way if you trust your abilities! Alright let’s do this! For Equestria, and for a brighter tomorrow!”

Cheers could be heard across the room, cheers which filled me with pride and anticipation. My shyness returned immediately and I gave a few steps back as color rose up to my cheeks. I couldn’t believe I had say all those things; Rainbow Dash would be rolling in the ground, laughing at the cheesiness of my words!

The researchers turned on the machines and I readied my mind and magic for the powerful beam I had to cast…

“Hold on!” one of the researchers said “The window is open…” she had an embarrassed smile on her face and I nodded with a knowing smile, motioning her to go ahead and close it. Such little details were actually important; if a slip up from our part didn’t cause the experiment to fail probably an external factor would. She closed the window and I refocused… However, right after I shot the beam…

This wasn’t going to end well. The window had been closed in the last minute by a pony in a lab coat and this mare was about to crash against it, which was going to be really, really painful, both for her and for whoever was inside. And maybe she could also be destroying any experiment these scientist or whatever were doing. It was too late for her to turn around.

Palas couldn’t fly, or else he would blow up his cover. He dashed into the castle, evading every guard who stood on his way and recurred to his old mental map. Many things had changed since the last time he had visited… which was a couple of thousand years ago, so it was only natural, but he still was going to successfully make his way into the tower the mare was going to crash into. In the distance, he could hear sounds of glass breaking… and a moment later…

An explosion?

Author's Note

Yes, I actually spent some hours building up some magic theory that you probably couldn't understand with this explanation.

But it'll make sense soon enough.

Next part will be up tomorrow... or the day after tomorrow...

PS: Sorry if the "motivational speech" wasn't that motivating... (Did the cliffhanger work?)

Chapter 5: Blue Elephants and a Missing Princess

Day 8 (morning?).

"No, Spike... I don't want to eat blue elephants..."

My eyes shot open and I frantically looked at my surroundings. This wasn't the cave... and... Where in Equestria was the princess?!

No, Twilight... No time to panic! Think logically about this! The last time you went bananas things only got worse... That's the last thing the princess needs!

I was inside some sort of prison cell, just that instead of iron bars, there were... wood bars. Outside stood an earth pony whose coat was painted with strange designs of various colors (mostly white, blue and red). He also held a lance and wore a necklace made of bones and rope and a bandana with a decent amount of feathers attached to it. His expressionless face reminded me of the royal Canterlot guards...

It took me a while to remember why I hadn't just teleported out of there, or even easily broken the wooden bars. One, of course, I couldn't use magic. My horn was burnt.

Two, I was actually safer here than out there.

I had awaken in the cave, but I couldn't find the princess anywhere. Knowing she had a lot of injuries all over her body I obviously panicked and went outside in a desperate attempt to find her. I ended up being chased by the biggest dragon I could have ever seen in my entire life, which was around twice the size of the one me and the girls had to face on top of that mountain. The last thing I remembered was tripping and being surrounded by five or six ponies that looked just like the one guarding the cell outside... All of them earth ponies...

Even though here I was safe from ridiculously gigantic dragons, I had to find the princess. Of course, I could negotiate with whoever was the leader here, but it seemed like these ponies didn't speak Equestrian at all... Everything was so primitive about this place...

When I actually thought about it a little more, this dragon was probably the reason why the princess didn't want me to go outside no matter what... And she was really tired... Could it be that we had somehow appeared there and Princess Celestia had to carry me all the way into that cave while being chased by that dragon? And judging by the nature of the injuries she had, probably she had already been injured when she had to run away...

A shiver ran through my spine at the simple thought. There were so many different emotions filling my heart...

Suddenly, the leather curtains were lifted and revealed a small indigo coated filly being escorted by another painted pony. This filly didn't have any marks or jewelry and she seemed strangely familiar... Something else confirmed my suspicions; she seemed to be an alicorn, but lacked her cutie mark. I dismissed my hypotheses, they were just too crazy.

The filly started doing a strange dance in front of the guard as she babbled random syllables and did strange sounds. Somehow, this dance was very alike to the hoofshake Cadence and I always did when we saw each other, but some other moves were added. Probably every movement meant something, and when two or three were put together they acquired a whole new meaning... Could this be their language?

The guard also did a dance of his own, and after a couple of nods he opened the cell. I cautiously gave a step forward and, after seeing they only stared at me, completely walked out of the cell. The filly gestured me to follow her and a few moments later we were already walking through the village. I could see the natives casually greeted her; this filly seemed to be very popular here, but why would she help me out?. I wanted to ask the filly a dozen questions, but I kept quiet knowing she probably didn't speak Equestrian either...

"You're not from around here, are you?" the little filly asked curiously, but before I could answer... "Well, duh! You're a unicorn! And you don't have paint on your coat with those crazy designs or wooden sticks pierced through your skin! That's just ridiculous and pointless! Aaand it looks like it hurts too... which just makes it more pointless!" I felt relieved, finally there was somepony here that I could communicate with! "Anyway, I'm Luna!"

"Y-y..."you're who?! It almost looked like I was imitating those ponies, muttering nonsense, but no coherent words could come from my mouth. I could only stare at the hoof the 'princess' innocently offered with the cutest eyes.

"Oh. Maybe you can't speak Equestrian either... That's too bad."

"N-no! I can! I-I... my name is..." had my hypotheses been true...? If that was the case then I had to be extremely careful with what I did or said, otherwise it could have severe consequences. I had to avoid changing anything here, or being any sort of influence to anything at all... unless this was actually meant to happen. I couldn't take that risk though, for now it was better to keep the world from hearing the name 'Twilight Sparkle' yet. "Lavender. I'm from the East and things are more advanced there." I carefully shook the small hoof.

"Really? I thought some Eastern ponies spoke 'Chinese' or 'Japanese' or something like that" at this point, I was sweating bullets and asking to whoever resided in the heavens why did I have to forget something so trivial precisely at this moment, and why was such a small filly so smart! Well, filly or not, this is Princess Luna we're talking about! Though... the informality of the natives actually told me Luna probably wasn't a princess at this time... "Honestly, I don't know how they come up with those weird names for their kingdoms! I don't even know where Equestrian language itself came from at all!"

"Haha... well, about that..." Suddenly, my brain started to work just in the right moment "I'm a... researcher! Yes! A researcher and I was sent here from Japan to study this place, so... I've studied enough Equestrian... and, actually my name is 'Murasaki'" I mentally thanked for that one time where I was so bored I suddenly took a random book from the language shelf and began reading even though I didn't understand most of the foreign words.

"Awesome!" As soon as Luna turned around to continue the walk, I sighed in pure relief. I felt bad for lying to her, considering she was technically a more adorable version of Luna.

"By the way, how did you know I was imprisoned?"

"Oh, the natives told me!" Luna answered calmly. It seemed like people here were actually nice and not savage, heartless creatures "They were asking me if it was okay to kill you and eat your meat!" Okay, I take it back. It was kind of disturbing she was telling me these things with such a cheery and nonchalant tone " And even though I understand these are harsh times for them, I decided to take you out. But that doesn't matter. Anyway, Mukasa... Musa... Lavender! How did you end up... here?"

"W-well... I was being chased by a dragon, tripped and fell here-"

"You stepped into dragon territory?!" Luna abruptly turned around and looked at my with those two huge orbs.

"Um... I don't know?"

"Alright. Dragons may be big and scary, but they're actually pretty nice... as long as you don't step into or touch their property. It's pretty funny that Mommy and Daddy never told me this," her parents? "but I learned it through my sister that accidentally made this mistake..."

"Your sister?" suddenly, my heart pounded with anticipation. What was the princess like as a filly?

...No... no fantasizing!

"Yup! My big sis Celestia!" she spoke her name with sweetness and pride, her chest puffed. "Wanna meet her?"

"Well, I... I'd better not" it was very tough to refuse, but I did not want to involve myself with this world any further; it was already too dangerous as it was.

"Awww!" little Luna pouted with big sparkling eyes, it almost made me change my mind if I didn't know what was in danger here "Why noooot?"

"I... um... have a lot of studying and researching to catch up on" that actually translated to 'I have a lot of searching to catch up on. I mean, the future princess of Equestria is missing and if I don't find her soon it's either suffering for the rest of my life, or your future self making me suffer for the rest of my life! Or both!'. I sheepishly smiled, trying with every fiber of my being to look at anything at all but at the filly's eyes. My eyes darted, landing on the dirt, then on the beautiful blue sky, and lastly at many of the exotic, big and colorful flowers had been long since extinct in the future "You know... All that time I wasted in that cell..."

"Okay..." She sulked and I dared to look at her; probably I wasn't going to see Princess Luna the same way when I returned... "So, at least do you wanna eat something? You're probably hungry!" Luna offered with renewed energy.

"Um... well... Why not? I guess..." I could find the princess in the way, and even get some food too.

When we reached the outskirts of the small village, Luna began to 'talk' to another native. He seemed a little younger and more expressive than the rest, he was even a little goofy and laughed a little with Luna before coming towards me.

"His name is" she did another strange, but shorter dance "Which means 'Spike' in Equestrian" Luna did yet another dance, probably introducing me to the stallion.

"That's..." I muttered, feeling memories of Spike, my assistant, striking me hard. I really missed him, as my library and all of Ponyville, that little crazy, but nice town that taught me the meaning of friendship, as well ... now who knows when we were going to get back to the future... "That's a nice name!" Luna did another dance, probably translating what I had said to the young stallion named Spike. He blushed and clapped his hooves with a huge smile in response.

We resumed our walk, entering further and further into the jungle. The flora and fauna here felt very foreign and the need to actually study this place began to invade my mind, and it probably wasn't going to leave me alone until we left. Putting that aside, the fruits were bigger and had even stranger colors, while the trees were even taller. Spike seemed to be very attentive and aware of his surroundings; if everything had these colossal proportions and weirder appearances, the animals could be the same. Whether that was good or bad... it was up to nature itself to prove it. Though I think it's just logical that this size wildlife had wasn't very beneficial since evolution actually took place. I could only be surprised at the vast knowledge Luna had about the wildlife here.

Suddenly, I realized almost stepped on the smaller version of Luna due to being lost in thought about how different things were. It was very ironic, while everything had become bigger, the princess was actually smaller.

We had stopped in front of a palm tree which had some big, blue and almost perfectly round fruit growing. Spike did another dance while pointing at the fruit.

"Spike asks if you wanna eat that blue fruit you see over there. The natives call it some weird name that's impossible to pronounce, so I call it 'blue elephant'. You know... because it's big, sturdy, round, and blue!" Luna explained "Though I don't think you can eat one by yourself. Seriously, it looks bigger when you have it in front of you than up there!" It wasn't necessary, I could already feel the weight on my back... but probably it was worth it, as long as I had some food with me to eat in the way or to share with the princess if I found her.

"Buuuuut" Luna began again "Even though it has a lot of sweet juice inside, it can be a pain to open it! Plus, some may even by dry and may have these nasty bugs inside..." she stuck out her tongue in disgust. Taking in account what this amazingly knowledgeable filly had just told me, it probably wasn't really worth to take the risk...

"In that case, I'll look for something simpler and smaller... I'm sorry, Spike" I smiled apologetically at the stallion, even though I knew he couldn't understand me. I wanted to keep it simple and direct in case Luna wanted to translate it "I don't want to eat 'blue elephants'"

Evening

I was walking back towards the cave, now with saddlebags overflowing with provisions. Luna and Spike had provided me with a decent amount fruits and vegetables, water, and even scrolls, pens and inks! Though I had no idea of how I was going to write without my magic... My hoofwriting was a little sloppy. No, very sloppy.

Probably, with these materials, I could actually study the wildlife here and write a whole history book speaking about it! I just wondered why Princess Celestia hadn't come up with that sooner! Oh, right, busy with her kingdom...

I was starting to question if going back to what seemed to be dragon territory was a good idea, but I had to look for the princess. Yes, sure, she could be far, far away at this moment. Worst case scenario, she got tired of me and returned to the future, leaving me here to fend for myself and probably leaving an eternal scar in the fabric of time itself. I was getting nervous and extremely depressed just by thinking about it...

But now that I thought about it, what could have brought us here? What or who could have enough power or ability to teleport us through time? Not even the concept of time itself was well developed and any spells related with it were kept in secret in the Royal Canterlot Archives! Precisely because they could have severe consequences in the flow of time and reality itself!

Wait... Why do I feel like I'm forgetting something really important?

The experiment! Just what happened to it? The more I thought, the more I felt like I needed to find the princess. Not only because she could be in danger, not only because ~~I wanted to be her hero~~ she could be injured, not only because ~~I missed her~~ Princess Luna could be worried sick back in the future, but because I wanted answers. I needed them. Though, I was scared to know the truth... There was this scarce possibility that the experiment had ended in failure, or something had gone wrong, or probably some side effect had resulted in a... a portal. A time portal. But most importantly, if this was the case... that meant it was all my fault and mine alone... I couldn't bear with that.

Images of the princess's hurt body flashed through my mind and I just asked myself... Was I really responsible for this? No, I was not afraid of the punishment I could receive, just the simple idea of causing harm, bother, inconvenience or any form of trouble to the princess made me feel... sick.

I groaned and stomped at the pain I felt in my stomach; this always happened whenever I felt extremely guilty. Then I thought, if I had really caused all of this, I had to fix it no matter what. Sighing, I began running at full speed towards the cave (that now I notice was in an extremely tall mountain) that now was in my field of view. My heart began to beat faster and harder; if Luna was right, and if I had understood her properly... this was dragon property. I stopped right in front of the entrance and looked up to find a cloud of smoke coming from the peak of the rocky mountain...

Definitely, there's a dragon here. Probably the same gigantic dragon that attacked me before.

I entered the cave to find I could see absolutely nothing. As soon as I tried using a light spell the pain that countered my efforts reminded me of my condition. It wasn't necessary, though. There was no fire at all, which meant... this cave was empty, and I had run the risk of stepping into a dragon's place for nothing.

My only consolation was knowing I'd have a long, funny story for Spike when I got back home...

Well, time to go back to finding the princess...

"Alright. As I was saying" the goddess kept talking form the heavens as Princess Luna (no, not the filly. The adult one) was already making measurements and collecting remnants of the crystals. Apparently the goddess could somehow return them to their original state. Luna only had to take care of keeping the portal opened, Mello would be ready to close it afterwards.

According to Mello, the crack could actually close itself, but she had mentioned something about 'the universe being too young and undeveloped in these details, so if we were to leave it to close by itself... it could end up being a little awkward and weird stuff could happen'. Luna thought it was a little weird for any kind of 'deity' to speak so informally and casually... And she also thought that probably this entity knew more than she/it wanted to tell.

"This actually happened because a mare named Brain Storm crashed through the window and then, this and that thing got out of place and... 'caboom'." If this goddess had been talking about some kind of nonsense Luna would be annoyed, but at least she was getting a very vague explanation about what had actually happened. This vagueness alone was enough to irritate her, but she had to be patient; Mello was helping her and this was better than being all alone, dealing with angry subjects and probably another mental breakdown because of this.

"Turns out to be that this mare wanted to sneak into the castle to look for a recipe to make..." she trailed of, and Luna clenched her teeth. She imagined herself yelling at full volume with her Royal Voice...

"TO MAKE WHAT?!"

But that was her imagination.

"Luna, you're a little tense" the princess only shrugged and rolled her eyes "I'm going to show you a form of entertainment from Nicardia!" Suddenly, a kind of box appeared in front of Luna's hooves, and some sort of black board was attached on one of the walls. "C'mon! Take a break!"

"H-how do you know about Nicardia?!" Luna could only stare at the box with shock. These things actually existed? How much had she missed from this mysterious and chaotic technological kingdom?

"I told you I knew a lot of stuff..." Mello answered nonchalantly, which only increased the princess's irritation "Anyway, in my world they called this 'box' a 'Nintendo 64'. So technically, Origin is only copying from... let's call them 'other worlds'. Basically, this is a machine... or whatever, that you use to play games, in other words a video game console. You attach it to the TV; that 'board' you see in that wall over there."

"...I do not have time for this nonsense" Luna muttered, resisting the urge of kicking the strange object far, far away from her, and returned to her measurements.

"Actually, you do. Remember that one time where your sister stepped into a dragon's place?" Luna scratched her chin in thought... she had heard of this before... of course she had! Yes, she remembered this! And this was no good news.

"You mean... Celestia and Twilight are..."

"Mhm. And because of how much the world has changed from that time to this time, it's probably gonna take them a while to find a way to return, and you're almost done, if I'm not mistaken." The princess began to reconsider; this could turn out to be something foolish and a waste of time, but she was not going to know for sure unless she actually tried.

"Alright. I..." she sighed "suppose I will try it once I finish."

"Yay! I'm gonna see a gaming Luna!"

"Pardon?"

Author's Note

Yup, gaming Luna.

Chapter 6: Lavender and Sun Rays

Day 8 (midnight)

It had all happened just too fast.

Somehow, I was now holding onto Princess Celestia's neck, who was flying at full speed. The princess's mane was all over my face, not that I minded; it had a nice, relaxing scent and that was precisely now that the same gigantic dragon from before was chasing us yet again.

No, I did not find the princess; the princess had found me instead, and it seemed like she was even better than before since she had leaves covering her wounds. She had probably bandaged herself... Our eyes met, and a second later...

"'Tia!" the indigo coated filly called her sister's nickname, filled with enthusiasm at finally seeing her sister again after a whole day of wandering through the jungles and tribes by herself. Sure, she wanted to be a big pony already, but that didn't mean she wanted to be away from her dear sister! She jumped on her big sister's bed to greet her.

"Lulu!" the tallest alicorn caught her sister in a feathery and warm embrace both had longed. She wasn't that tall; she was still considered a filly by her parents. Her mane was pink, lacking in the other pastel colors her future self had, and even though it wasn't flowing, it was still silky smooth and a sight to behold.

"So, how did it go?! Did you make it?! Did you make it?! Just tell me already!" Luna bounced up and down in the bed, and Celestia gave her little sister a sweet smile.

"Mom did not raise the sun today."

"Amazing! So that means you made it, right?!"

"...With dad's help... Yes." the soon-to-be ruler of the sun seemed crestfallen, disappointed with herself. "It was more difficult than I thought..."

"Hey! don't worry!" Luna hugged her, trying to comfort her "You're amazing, sis! You'll make it if you practice a lot!"

"Y-yeah. You're right!" little Celestia beamed once again thanks to her sister's positive attitude and cheerfulness. Her smile seemed to lit up all the room "Anyway, how was your day, Lulu?"

"Oh, it was okay..." Luna trailed off, until she remembered the highlight of the day "Oh! I rescued a mare named Lavender that was about to be eaten by the tribe nearby!"

"A mare? Could you tell me more?"

"She was veeery different. I mean, her coat wasn't painted with those weird drawings, and she spoke Equestrian!" the more Luna explained, the more concerned Celestia felt. She nodded, telling her sister to go on. "She was a... unicorn! Yes! And a researcher from the east!"

"A researcher?" She felt a little bit more at ease "There have been a lot of those lately. I just hope they don't damage the beautiful nature here." Celestia said calmly. "Anyway, well done, Lulu! And what did you do with her?"

"Well, Spike and I gave her food and--"

"You and Spike?!" she knew it was just a matter of time before the fatal mistake came.

"Yeah! What's the matter?" Luna asked, oblivious to the severeness of the situation.

"Spike is part of the tribe, right?"

"Yeah..."

"And that food you gave this mare came from the tribe's resources, right?"

"...Sis, you're scaring me." Celestia sighed and facehoofed.

"Luna, have you forgotten?" the indigo alicorn looked both confused and scared under her older sister's scolding gaze "Do you know why tribes prefer to eat visitors instead of helping them?"

"B-because... normally, visitors are low on provisions when they visit a tribe, and since the tribes have a hard time gathering resources they would rather barter with these visitors, but they don't have much to offer in exchange of the provisions... So... the tribes eat them to give their deaths some meaning, because without food they'll die eventually anyway?" Celestia just nodded and it all made sense to Luna...

"Probably this mare is far away now. The tribe won't bother in looking for her... so they will just eat the one responsible."

"...Spike."

"Twilight. You can open your eyes." The princess's soothing voice told me. I could feel she had lowered her speed considerably, her flight now reduced to a gentle glide. I still wondered how she could fly slightly faster than an angry dragon with her wings in such a condition... Speaking of dragons, I didn't seem to hear his roars anymore "He gave up on us."

"I-I s-see..." I reluctantly opened my eyes, and found a breathtaking, yet slightly scary sight. I could see the giant jungle that now looked like a green stain. There were a few mountains standing here and there, and I even could see more gigantic dragons flying below us. I just hoped they wouldn't see us. Above us was the night sky, that was as beautiful as in the future, and right in front of me I could see the princess's distant gaze...

"Father and mother used to be in charge of raising and lowering the moon and sun respectively." she muttered, though I didn't know if she was actually talking to me "Lulu and I only had to study, practice, obey father and mother, and... have fun, I guess..." even though she chuckled, I knew she actually felt lonely. "No princesses, kings, or queens. The different tribes took care of themselves, and we would intervene if there was a threat that involved the other, more powerful species."

"So... there was no Equestria..." I muttered, and finally understood how much we had gone back in time.

"I am very old, Twilight." The princess said, still with her lonely smile. It at least told me she was actually speaking to me "But that is not the case here. Actually, this world is very young. Very. And I know less than what you think." she paused to take some air "I presume this is the time I began to learn how to raise and lower the sun... without frying everypony."

"So, you actually had to control its temperature?" probably this whole 'raise and lower the sun' thing had more to it than what it seemed... The princess actually made it look pretty simple. But, again, it was very foolish of me to think this would be easy. After all, it was for something that not anypony could carry out this task...

"There are many vital factors to take in account, yes." She smiled serenely "These factors are what make the day and night different. Luna has to be careful of things I don't when she brings the night forth and vice-versa."

"But, wait... with 'the other species' do you mean the dragons and griffins?" unconsciously, my grip around the princess's neck had relaxed and I had completely forgotten about our current situation.

"Yes, there are many more, of course... but the dragons and griffins are special for.. certain reasons. Though I think the griffins still hadn't arrived in this time..."

"Wait. 'Arrived'?" wasn't she supposed to say, 'appeared', or something like that? Unless she refered it as in arriving in what was going to be in the Equestrian territory in the future.

"Twilight, dragons, griffins and some other creatures are alien species." The princess was basically saying dragons, griffins and who knows how many other creatures had come from other planets in the early stages of ponykind development? If it were anypony else telling me this I would just... I don't know what atrocities I would have done to them, but this was the princess... I trusted her. "Hold on." She warned as we began our descent and I reaffirmed my grip. The area we were going to land on did not seem much different from the one we were previously on; jungles and a couple of mountains.

Once the princess landed, I began to debate how I should dismount myself without falling and looking like a total idiot... Right, levitation. Why hadn't I thought about that before? I tried casting the spell... but I met pain once more. I winced and the princess seemed to notice this and I was soon enveloped in a golden aura... a warm golden aura. Memories of my days as a filly, studying until midnight, flooded my mind. I remembered the princess scolding me, but I was too sleepy to listen to her properly. The last thing I remembered was that warm golden aura, cradling me sweetly into sleep...

"Th-thank you" I sheepishly told the princess, who just gave me one of her sweet smiles in return. My heart warmed, so I quickly turned my attention to the improvised saddlebags to see if anything had spilled out during the... during the flight. I almost panicked until I saw nothing had been lost or damaged.

"Where did you get those?" I froze. The world crashed into pieces. Probably I was overreacting, but... Yeah, I was going to tell her that her sister's younger self and a native named Spike gave these to me. And then she would ask, how did you find them? And I would tell her that I had gone searching for her and that gigantic dragon began chasing after me. I tripped and fell and a bunch of natives found me and locked me up to eat me later until your sister rescued me. Yes. I would tell her that with all the calmness in the world...

"Twilight?" I couldn't hear her calls. I just stared at her. Her coat was white once more, and the places with wounds now had a healthy rosy color. The more severe or deep wounds were covered by green leaves. Even her wings looked better. The wound in her head looked almost as if it had never been there in the first place.

I could just stare at her. Contemplating how foolish she'd think I was if I told her the whole story; because I had gone out to look for her, thinking she might be in trouble, thinking she might need me... But she didn't. I had gotten into trouble because of my foolish ideas. She was a princess that has probably gone through more hardships than I could ever imagine; of course she was going to survive this wilderness that she had already lived in thousands of years ago...

"Is something the matter, Twilight?" I didn't realize I was staring into empty space until the princess's words brought me back to reality. I didn't realize she had come to my side and wrapped a wing around me until I met her eyes. I didn't realize I had been crying until she wiped my tears away with her bare hoof.

"...Your sister and a native named Spike gave these to me." I simply muttered, looking into the princess's eyes. I did not see her crown, or her regalia. I could just see her smile, and her alabaster coat, illuminated by the moonlight. It gave her a surreal aura... Until she exploded in laughter.

"So it was you!" my tears ceased, but I still looked at her with confusion "So, Lavender, the japanese researcher, right?"

"Wh-what?" It was pretty obvious; I had told this information to Luna... which would be also told to her big sister, Celestia... But then, this means...

"Anyways, Lavender" she began walking, her head high. I immediately dried my tears and followed her. "I have to admit I feel like I could eat a mountain of doughnuts right now. So as soon as we find where to camp you should start preparing something to eat."

"P-princess!" blushing a little, I joined her melodious laughter. I enjoyed seeing this side of her.

"My name is not 'princess.'" She stopped walking abruptly and turned her head slightly to look at me from the corner of her eyes...

"...Celestia"

Princess Luna sat in front of the 'tee vee' that hung on the wall, and a strange device that weird, probably fake goddess who called herself Mello called a 'control', in her magical grip. One could tell by her expression that she was not amused.

So far she felt annoyed at this thing. The characters kept yelling at her (as if they had any right to do so), while Mello kept telling her to stop yelling back at the 'tee vee'. She seemed to be controlling this weird coat-less thing with four limbs, yellow mane and strange green clothes. Mello called them 'humans'. Somehow, Luna felt she had heard this name somewhere.

This 'human' she accidentally named 'Luna', was actually a 'boy', or the equivalent of a foal or colt in ponies. Ironically, she was riding a horse. Suddenly, two parasprites, though Mello called them fairies, startled the horse and the boy fell to the ground. Another strange creature made of wood appeared, called a Skull Kid (he wore a rather strange mask), took away the boy's strange musical instrument, a blue ocarina, and started playing with it.

Anyway, suddenly the boy woke up and started chasing the Skull Kid that ran away with his horse, and it took some minutes for Luna to figure out which buttons to press. Then, she found the Skull Kid, and the foolish thing turned the boy into some... woody creature that looked like a deformed mannequin! It even tried to get him stuck there forever! Then one of those stupid parasprites came and started making fun of him. But the princess laughed maniacally when it got stuck with the boy because of its own foolishness, left behind by the Skull Kid and the other purple parasprite!

However, the yellow parasprite had the nerve to ask her help! The game didn't give poor Luna another choice though (she couldn't kill the annoying thing anyway). She had to go through and help this annoying fairy.

After half an hour trying to get across that cursed cliff using those annoying flying flowers, she finally arrived to some strange building, but before she could get out, she met another 'human'. It- he requested the boy to find his 'mask' in three days in return for turning him back to a human. Though he first had to find his 'precious item'. Probably that instrument that foolish kid stole him.

For some reason, when this strange, and rather scary human said the word 'time' and it was boldfaced, she had a bad feeling. It wasn't surprising though, after all the time related problems they had now...

Luna left the building. After more ranting from the paras- fairy, Luna was finally able to move freely... She was inside a town with more humans in it, and an annoying dog that kept attacking her! There seemed to be some construction in progress. She walked a few steps forward.

"Hey." Mello suddenly said "Press the yellow 'up' button." Luna began searching the device in her grip until she found the yellow button. The screen suddenly 'zoomed in'. "You're now in some sort of view mode. Now, move the analog stick to the left... There" She turned around, now she was looking at the tower she had just come out from; it looked like a clock tower.

"What's the purpose of this?"

"Just follow me. Now, move it down..." She did as she was told; she looked up... and the atrocity, the insult she saw couldn't be explained with words.

"Just... WHAT. IS. THE. MEANING. OF. THIS?!" The mighty angry princess yelled with her Royal Voice, throwing the controller across the room "Who dares insult the beauty of my moon with this atrocity?!"

"The Zelda: Majora's Mask creators."

Day 9 (morning).

After a while walking, I began feeling how exhausted I actually was; probably adrenaline from the persecution had made me feel full of energy for a brief moment. I could also sense that the princ- Celestia was feeling weary as well. So, as soon as we found somewhere to camp, we ate some simple fruit and went straight to sleep.

The next morning, I couldn't have felt more pain in all of my body. I just couldn't stand up; it hurt as much as if... I can't even compare it. I wasn't really used to all the physical activity I had done the day before... I made a mental note to help Applejack in the farm more often when we made it back.

I looked at my surroundings and... the princess was nowhere to be seen. Again. It was both good and bad that the pain was holding me back from running to look for her. On the other side of things... at lest I wasn't about to panic. I was about to explode in rage. How could she be that insensible? She knew that if she suddenly disappeared I would obviously worry.

"Oh, you're awake." I yelped in surprise when I suddenly heard the mare in question. I wanted so badly to get up and confront her; no matter how much I loved her this was annoying. But even the smallest twitch from my limbs could make it hurt.

"Prin-Celestia!" I began my protest. It wasn't easy to get used to call a princess by her name, but I felt like it was somehow considerably easier for me since I could see her in a new perspective "W-why do you leave like that?! I-I mean... you know I get all scared and-"

"I was exploring the terrain, Twilight. I apologize. It was unexpected that you woke up this early." Her horn lit up. "If it can make it up, then..." a basket with fruits I couldn't name, but that looked appetizing levitated from the princess' back towards me "I hope this will suffice." I stared at the plate, searching for an answer. I have to admit I was tempted to pretend to be 'difficult', but my stomach decided to answer for me.

"...Yes." The p- Celestia chuckled and put the plate in front of me. My first instinct was to levitate the fruit into my mouth... "Ouch!" I was never going to get used to not having my magic. Ever. I was fearful of the look Celestia had, but before I could protest, or even plead... fruit was shoved into my mouth.

This.. is so... humiliating...

"Don't worry, Twilight" Celestia said between giggles; it just made me feel worse. Useless and pathetic. I, a grown mare, was being fed by the Princess of Equestria herself. "In the mean time, I have a story to tell. Would you like to listen?" My interest had been piqued, so I nodded as I munched on some fruit. Probably this would distract me from my embarrassing situation.

"Yesterday I left for almost the same reason as I did today; to explore. It wasn't supposed to take me too long since I only had to remember the lands I had walked through long ago. But I also went out to look for some herbs and food. I managed to get some herbs to treat my lighter wounds and was even planning to stay out a while longer to gather some fruit... Until, well. I remembered something amusing. I had- oh, don't worry Twilight, I already ate. As I was saying, I had come across those territories in the past and discovered dragons were rather protective with their possessions. That mountain and anything surrounding it belonged to one of them, and if you have noticed it already... they can be almost twice as big as the dragons in our future."

"B-but... why?" I asked "I mean... if they are so big does this mean the planet they came from was much bigger than ours? That would actually explain why they are smaller in the future, right? But wouldn't this process take millions of years?"

"I am not sure myself, Twilight. This universe is bigger than you think, and there are higher powers pulling its strings. It is better if we stop talking about this, alright?" I nodded and another piece of fruit levitated into my mouth "Good. Now, I returned to the cave and saw you weren't there so I went to look for you." If I hadn't been eating, I would have exploded in laughter at the irony of our situation "I could hear the dragon's roars so I decided to follow them and I almost stumble upon one of Luna's favorite tribes. It wasn't a bad idea to search for you there first since the natives could have caught you. I decided to disguise myself with a spell, knowing it was dangerous if I suddenly appeared as an alicorn.

"I made myself a pink maned earth pony and tried to imitate the paintings on the native's coats. Also, I was quick to remember Luna's lessons on their language, but I wasn't quite fluid on it. I had to be careful of what I said; ancient ponies took things very seriously. When I stepped into the village, they mistook me for the leader's daughter, who was a fierce and exceptionally beautiful warrior. Her name was Sun Rays." I could only think that it was not surprising that they had mistook her for that native... My ears began to twitch, distracting me from my thoughts.

Probably it was me, but as Celestia was telling her story I could hear somepony screaming in the distance...

"Lavendeeeer!"

Chapter 4: ...and Time Traveling (Part Two)

There was a throbbing, annoying, unbearable pain in my head. The thought of shoving my hoof into my skull to take out whatever dared to disturb my brain crossed my mind, but I knew the only thing I was going to achieve was killing myself by transforming it into soup.

I was lying on an uncomfortable, cold and hard surface. Humidity could be smelt in the air and a very little amount of light passed through my firmly closed eyelids, indicating the room’s illumination was actually very dim.

Wait, why am I sleeping?

I was supposed to be doing one of the most important experiments of pony history at the laboratory, seeing the whole process right beside Princess Celestia! Why was I sleeping in such an uncomfortable bed? Why was I even sleeping in the first place?! The headache was the only thing that kept me from getting into freak-out state.

Probably it was all over already and it was nighttime, judging by the little light. Maybe I was very disoriented for not having any memories… Or maybe I became fatigued and fainted, and was carried to my room so I could rest.

I needed to find anypony that could tell me what exactly was going on… after dealing with this headache. I groaned, trying to get up with the pain in my head. It was tempting to simply lie back and sleep until the pain faded, but I needed to know before my brain could build up the craziest possibilities.

“T-Twilight, be careful” my heart jumped in both joy and fear when I heard the princess’s voice. She spoke in a hushed tone, but her voice… echoed? Her words made me feel a little confused; probably one of my theories was right and I had fainted due to fatigue… Still, I needed to make sure.

“Be careful…? With what?” I finally opened my eyes slowly and found the most painful sight I could have ever laid eyes upon.

The princess was sitting in front of me with no intentions to move from her spot, her body covered in wounds and bruises. There were even places where she lacked her alabaster coat, her skin exposed and it did not quite have a healthy color. I swore I could even see shards of glass sticking out of her skin… Blood covered her face, which seemed to have been coming from a wound on her head, right beside her horn. Her wings looked awful as well; feathers were burnt and there were some areas that even lacked them. Her mane was a complete mess and her expression seemed very tired and pained; probably because of her terrible wounds… I just wondered where her regalia were.

Just by looking at her like in such condition made me feel awful as well. I did not want to throw up, or felt disgusted, but it hurt to see her like this… I immediately felt the need to do something about it, whatever was needed to replace that pain from her features with… that gentle smile I’ve always loved. No, not the fake princess smile she always gave to her subjects, but the real ‘Celestia’s’ smile that I had only seen a very scarce amount of times. And every time I’ve wondered if I had been the cause of those rare expressions of genuine joy.

“Princess…” I muttered out of shock, and she turned her head away in… shame? “Wh-wha… Are you alright?!” the princess thought for a little bit and answered…

“…Yes” I felt as if I was being lied to. No, probably I was. How could somepony be like this and say that they were okay?! I had to do something, definitely. The princess was everything but okay.

“L-let me- AUGH!” I tried using my magic, but only pain came in response.

“I told you to be careful” she scolded me, still with a hushed tone since she was too tired to even care about raising her voice, but her gaze was still stern “Your horn is burnt.”

“Wh-what?! My horn?! How am I supposed to-“ my panic ceased when the princess gave me a ‘calm down’ look. I sighed in exasperation and lowered my head in defeat “H-how am I supposed to… treat your wounds? If I don’t do something…” I muttered between sobs; now I not only felt nervous, confused or scared, but I also felt helpless and utterly useless! The princess couldn’t use her own magic because probably that would worsen that awfully looking wound on her head… but then, what other choices were there?

“With your hooves” she responded calmly to my inner turmoil. I felt as if I had been put to another test; using my hooves when I had relied on my magic for my whole life?

Silence came afterwards, only interrupted by my sobs which subdued with time. I finally dared to look at my surroundings and saw we were inside a cave, not very small, fortunately. Probably there would be a few resources scattered around. In the middle there was a small crackling fire, its light created shadows that flicked with the flame itself.

“A-alright… I’ll need some herbs…” I stood up and began pacing through the cave until I realized: if the princess was like this, in what sort of condition was I? She did warn me about my horn but she didn’t say anything else about any other wound so probably I wasn’t that bad.

“You only have some bruises. Nothing to worry about” she answered my thoughts “And I strongly advise against going outside.”

“Why?” more questions had risen. Princess Celestia’s warning made me curious about what there could be out there… Probably we were in a deserted place with dangerous and unpredictable creatures. The Everfree Forest? How could have we gotten there in the first place?

“Just… don’t go out there, Twilight”

“Alright, princess…” I lowered my head and lost myself in my thoughts, looking for some solution to this ordeal. I had read enough books about medicine when I had nothing to do so I possessed enough knowledge to do this, but if I didn’t have the resources needed then it didn’t help… If her wounds weren’t treated and bandaged then they could get infected and… We needed help, but…

Wait, how will she get out to public light?! It would be chaos!

I turned to look at the princess, and she was already lying on the cold surface, fast asleep. Just what happened? What could have left her so tired? I wasn’t going to bombard her with questions now, however. I had more important things to take care of than bothering the princess to fulfill selfish desires of subduing my own torturing curiosity, with or without medicinal herbs. The princess was surely going to explain everything later so we could think of something together.

I explored the cave and saw a couple of things scattered across it. They seemed to be form the laboratory, and some of these things were completely destroyed. I found a piece of white cloth which was half burnt and some sort of bucket that probably used to be something else. I perked up my ears in an attempt to catch the sound of water dropping… Placing the cloth inside the bucket and taking it with my mouth, I followed the sound and found the small puddle I was looking for.

I took the cloth out of the bucket and submerged the latter into the puddle, filling it with water. Awkwardly, I took the cloth with my hooves and tried washing it; I wasn’t going to worsen the situation by infecting the princess’s wounds with a dirty cloth. While doing so, I thought of how we could actually grab things with our hooves… and that both Applejack and Pinkie Pie were amazing, having to deal with everyday tasks without magic aiding them…

I paused when I saw my reflection; the tip of my horn was black which indicated it had been burnt just as the princess had told me, but the rest of my body only had minimal bruises here and there that could heal within a span of a couple days… Nothing at all compared to the princess’s condition. Why was this? Weren’t we in the same place at the same time? It was completely logical that we had both taken the same damage… but we didn’t.

“Twilight!”

A voice… a familiar soothing voice in the middle of the chaos of dancing lights.

Something big, soft and warm obscured the chaos.

I tried casting a spell, but something incredibly powerful countered.

I shook my head, waking up from the trance I was in and felt the previous headache coming back even stronger than before. Closing my eyes shut, I waited until the pain faded and decided to focus fully on the current and more important tasks at hoof, which was proving itself to be... challenging.

After washing the cloth, I walked towards the princess’s sleeping body and began to carefully wash the blood and cinders out of her, before perfectly white, coat. I poured my whole heart into those awkward and unstable movements, trying to avoid hurting her by approaching a wound too much; but also, though difficult to admit, fantasizing about how it would feel like to actually caress her tenderly.

I admired her form; she was simply beautiful, even in this state. I couldn’t remember the last time I had seen the princess sleeping, and seeing her in such a weak state… It was adorable. Yes, adorable. Adorable and fascinating. Her every breath, her every movement. It was fascinating.

Yet, I felt that I was betraying her somehow; I was staring at her whole body, marveling at it, and even touching it even if I actually had a good reason. It felt forbidden somehow…

“Twilight… there’s no need to do this…” the princess muttered, half asleep. Suppressing a yelp, I kept going silently and ignoring the princess’s masked complaints. My heart pounded against my chest, the sudden waking of the princess had scared me to death; I felt as if I had been caught stealing from the cookie jar by my mother. Then, she flinched and I knew I had touched one of her wounds.

“I-I’m sorry” I apologized in a whisper and then saw one of the various shards of glass piercing the princess’s skin “Princess… if we leave the shards like this…” I trailed off, not daring to finish the rest. She sighed in understanding.

“…Go ahead”

It was a very slow and awkward process, and I knew it was painful for the princess. I knew she wanted to rest more than anything, but this had to be done or else we would regret greater things later, and the princess acknowledged this.

I pulled the glass out slowly and carefully using my mouth, ignoring the metallic taste of the princess’s blood as much as it discomforted me. Being aware that I could worsen her wounds with a bad movement and that I could hurt myself as well didn’t help at all; the nervousness could make me shiver, reducing my precision and increasing my chances of error, so I tried distracting my thoughts.

Remembering a certain book I had read ‘out of curiosity’, I had to do my best to restrain from chuckling which could have been catastrophic, considering I was working with my mouth. ‘That book’ said something ridiculous about the princess’s blood tasting like the sweetest honey. Some other books even claimed her blood… was blue?

Feeling the need to chuckle unbearable, I spit out the shard I was currently holding between my teeth into the bucket and giggled as low as I could; it seemed like my attempts to shift the direction of my thoughts to relax my movements proved to be counterproductive. The princess looked at me, confused, but she still seemed to be half asleep, the constant pain of the shards being pulled out of her flesh being the only thing keeping her from her desired rest… I felt really guilty about this.

“I’m sorry, I just remembered something…” I apologized, my smile whipped away, but in return I saw how the princess’s lips curved up into a small smile…

Her lips… n-no…

“Care to tell me about it? I’d like to have a laugh as well” I immediately blushed and began sweating bullets. Did I really have to do this? Probably it would make her smile even more, but it could make her uncomfortable and angry as well…

Should I take the risk?

“Well…” I began, taking the cloth again and cleaning the new blood that came from the wounds “There’s… this book and somewhere it said something about your blood tasting like honey…” I sheepishly said with words not worth at all of an important essay to be delivered to the great ruler of Equestria herself. This is what nerves do to you. I also avoided doing eye contact and tried to hide the blush across my cheeks.

“And what does my blood taste like?” a cryptic and somewhat obvious question was delivered at me and even though I knew the answer I didn’t know if this was what I was supposed to say. I could sense her grin without having to look at her face.

“It tastes… I-it has a metallic taste… It’s warm and red too… Just like anypony else’s” my eyes widened and my cleaning halted; I had an idea of what the princess wanted to hear. I finally looked at her in the eye and restated my answer “It’s like anypony else’s” she nodded, and once again I felt different. An odd feeling I had a few days ago…

“What else did those books say?” she asked, her grin even bigger than before. Something inside my head told me she had read each and all of them and that she had laughed heartily at their contents. It seemed she was enjoying seeing somepony else laugh at this foolishness as much as she did and for the same reasons.

“That your coat couldn’t be penetrated even by the sharpest of swords, or cut by the purest of diamonds” I dramatically repeated the book’s entry, imagining how Rarity herself would do it, even if I couldn’t do it half as good as her. Glancing at the shards of glass inside the bucket I started formulating my answers.

“And what does my current situation tell you about this?”

“That this statement is the product of the vivid imagination of a pony deprived of any form social life.” I joked “In other words, it’s completely false. Your coat is like… anypony else’s”

“Anything else?”

“’Such was her wisdom, even death bowed before her in fear, because she would flawlessly and easily bring the end upon her enemies with a single blow, no matter how powerful. Those who dare to besmirch her name by using the loathsome word ‘mistake’ in the same sentence shall be brought to justice’” alright, even I wanted to laugh at this. Every entry I spoke made much less sense from the other and went further and further apart from reality.

If she can kill anypony so fast then how come they even had the opportunity to lay a sword or anything sharp on her coat? And if she can’t be cut, how do they know how her blood tastes like?

“Alright, princess. This is just ridiculous” I deadpanned and that odd feeling in my chest intensified. Something had changed again… The princess’s melodic giggles reached my ears and filled me with delight.

“Yes, my dear”

I stood up, knowing I had to clean the cloth and the bucket and get more water to keep cleaning the princess’s coat. I turned back to tell the princess something, but once I saw a certain sparkle in her eyes...

“W-why…?” the princess kept smiling and that certain feeling hit my chest again. The princess was expecting something… but what? This feeling…

I see…

But before I could answer to this shine in the princess’s eyes…

“Oh, just one more question, Twilight. Why were you reading those books?”

Touché.

“I… uh… ha, ha… I’ll be right back, princess…”

“Twilight!”

A voice… a familiar soothing voice in the middle of the chaos of dancing lights… in the middle of the roaring explosion.

Something… white and feathery embraced me.

I tried casting a spell, a barrier, but some strong magical force seemed to have been attracted to my horn, almost as if it was a magnet.

I gasped in pain, but the feathery thing embraced me tighter and a pair of hooves joined it.

“Time Stop!” a voice boomed from the heavens, rivaling the Royal Canterlot Voice itself, and everything around Princess Luna froze. The princess of the night could do nothing but to carefully watch her surroundings as she prepared herself for anything that may jump out. Whatever it was, it must’ve been incredibly powerful… First, an explosion. Now, time was stopped… This could be in Luna’s list of biggest threats to the universe’s stability.

“Who is this?!” Luna demanded using her Voice, but the only response she received was her surroundings’ colors draining away, replaced by a grayscale. The princess looked down at herself and noticed she still had her indigo color on her coat.

“Easy there, Your Majesty!” a female’s voice spoke from above, echoing through the castle. Her tone was mocking and nonchalant “I’m no enemy! If I where I would have killed you all a long time ago! …Unless I wanted to see you squirm in agony before bringing you to your ultimate end. By the way, forgive my mannerisms. I’m… well… call me Mello. Goddess of whatever you want to call me Goddess of.”

“A goddess?! Stop this foolishness! I would have known—“

“You’re not supposed to know” Luna cringed in frustration. Probably this ‘goddess’ really didn’t have any bad intentions. Perhaps she also knew what was happening right now… “Luna, Princess of the Night, mighty Co-ruler of Equestria. Yes, I know.”

“Ho-“

“I know a lot of stuff…” the princess sighed, trying to keep her composure. “Now, if you wanna know what happened to your dearest sister and her student, please follow…” suddenly, a ball of darkness appeared before Luna “this… thing. I never came up with a descent name for it…”

“Something happened… The experiment!”

Luna flew out of the window and watched something that would probably witness only once in a very long time. All of Equestria was frozen, standing still, painted in shades of black and white; very different from the usual colors that provided the visage with every color of the rainbow.

Every animal was completely still, even birds and butterflies hung in midair. From the air, she could see guards standing like statues which could adorn the gardens, but their expressions were somehow alarmed. She also spotted a white coated mare, with a very familiar cutie mark design, and her body with the contexture of a model… hadn’t she seen her somewhere?

As Luna neared the tower where she had been told the experiment was taking place, she could see the gardens were a complete mess, and the tower’s window was broken… And she felt something strange in her whole being the more she approached it.

“There has been a rip in time itself. Celestia and Twilight have been… sucked in by that crack.” Mello explained a bit more seriously.

“So… ‘Tia and Twilight Sparkle are somewhere in the past? Or future?” Luna asked, landing inside the laboratory. Once she laid her eyes on the place… “Goodness…” she muttered. It was definitely total chaos; luckily there was actually no pony there. Probably Celestia had teleported them outside. However, that wasn’t exactly what took out Luna’s breath…

In the place where the experiment was supposed to be standing, there was literally a crack. There was a light coming out of the crack and the space surrounding it looked… distorted, almost if the time surrounding it was moving, but irregularly and slowly. If she looked at her surroundings, she would notice the frozen, black and white fire and sparks.

“Don’t get too close.” Luna gave a few steps back, obeying the unseen owner of the voice. A few feet away from the crack, she could see stains on the floor… If it weren’t because of the lack of color she could have been one hundred percent sure that stain was… blood. Whose? She had no idea.

“They are in the past. The future is… let’s not talk about that. Anyway, I still have to locate them; I had to act fast since a rip in time is not something very common and it has to be dealt with as quickly as possible.”

“Why can I still move?” Luna asked dryly.

“I allowed you to move. Figured you could help me with this. We need to maintain the crack open for a while but must be ready to close it once those two come back. Might take a while for them to return so this temporal stop in the flow of time will save you a lot of trouble of ponies saying ‘Oh, the Princess disappeared! It must be Nightmare Moon!’” her dramatic tone did not amuse Luna at all. She just wanted to get straight to work and get her sister back.

She began thinking… if this was the experiment’s fault… had she made the right decision with Twilight? A pony who blindly pursued dangerous dreams which could bring Equestria to chaos? If that blood stain belonged to her sister… if something had happened to her… Oh, that Twilight was going to hear her.

“What do I have to do” Luna demanded her answer drily, approaching the bookshelves and readying herself for the sleepless days of research she’d have to go through to get her beloved sister back… if there was really anything to recover.

“First of all, don’t blame stuff on poor Twilight. The experiment was going to go completely fine if it weren’t because of… Nevermind, that’s another story I might entertain you with later on.” The princess was not going to make any promise of this kind; she was angry, who else could she be angry at than the owner of the experiment herself? She hadn’t been careful enough… “Second, promise me that whatever I tell you here, whatever you see here, and even my existence will not be known by anybody else that belongs to this universe...

Or else...”