Princess Twilight Sparkle's 505th Birthday

by Autumnschild

Rating: everyone
Tags: Alternate Universe, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Princess Cadance, Rarity, Other, Adventure, Twilight Sparkle
Length: 102028

The sequel to Princess Twilight Sparkle's 500th Birthday

Five years have passed since the events of that fateful morning. Smarty Pants and her friends set off on an adventure of a lifetime to discover the secrets of the past when they awaken a… oh wait, that would be spoiling it!

Many questions from the first story will be answered! New questions will arise. Lunch will be had, pies will be thrown, blood will be kept inside bodies because seriously, ew blood, you guys.

Notes:
- Cover art commissioned by HAK2. Check out his other stuff, too.
- This is a story in the Birthdayverse.
- This story was written and completed (except for the epilogue) before Season 4 of MLP:FiM aired.
- Many thanks to my faithful Pre-Reader and all around super-duper best pony, Blood Lord go read his story, too!

Published 2013-07-22 23:50:01 UTC
Last updated 2013-12-02 06:07:21 UTC

Prologue

Smarty Pants loved flying by royal carriage. She remembered the first time she flew with Princess Twilight Sparkle some five years ago when the Goddess became her mentor. She was so excited she fell out of the carriage. It was a good thing that Princess Twilight was the Goddess of Magic; otherwise it would have been a very short tutelage.

As great as it was flying by carriage, the twelve year old found herself wishing she was a pegasus. She felt the wind whistle through her red mane and it felt good. She could only imagine what it felt like to soar through the bright blue sky on wings of her own. Though watching the duo of pegasi stallions pulling the carriage in their golden armor almost made up for it. She blushed and diverted her attention to her terrified friend.

Smarty Pants scrunched up her face and let out a sigh. Sandy was wrapped around the left foreleg of Princess Cadence as she quailed in fear.

“Sandy,” Smarty Pants called over the rushing wind, “How can a pegasus be scared of flying?"

Either Sandy couldn’t hear her or she chose to ignore the question. Smarty Pants looked up at the Goddess of Love who offered the earthpony a soothing smile, but she wasn’t about to let it go. Smarty Pants wanted answers.

“Sandy.” Smarty tried poking the lime green pegasus, but she only clenched her eyes tighter and hugged the Princess’s leg as hard as she could.

Cadence shook her head and leaned down to nuzzle the scared filly.

“While I appreciate a hug as much as the next Goddess of Love, Desert Rose, would you relax your grip just a tad? I can’t feel my hoof anymore.”

Sandy let go as soon as she heard Princess Cadence use her full name, but she didn’t open her eyes. Instead she dropped to the floor of the chariot, wings tightly clamped to her back. She was only called by her full name back when she was living in the orphanage. Smarty winced sympathetically. She knew how Sandy disliked the name, but it looked like Princess Cadence had no idea.

Usually, Smarty Pants was thrilled to discover she knew something one of the Princesses didn’t know. Like two years back when she found a diary that belonged to Princess Celestia buried in the garden. It was mentioned in a journal written by an anonymous member of the royal guard several hundred years ago.

In the guard’s journal, she read about how the Goddess of the Moon hid her sister’s diary as retribution for the ‘alfalfa incident’, whatever that was. She remembered how she and Sandy snuck into the east garden late one night with nothing but shovels and the promise of hidden knowledge. Sandy wasn’t usually one for defacing royal property, but she had just earned her dust devil cutiemark and she wanted to put it to use.

The Solar Court had just raised the sun when a guard patrol finally found them. The girls probably would have gotten jail time or at least a stern talking to, were it not for the fact that they were so darn cute. The adorable fillies were fast asleep cuddled-up together with their excavated treasure among the piled corpses of many a rhododendron.

When Smarty Pants shared the books and her Weekly Research Report with Princess Twilight, the two of them had an impromptu research/slumber party in the Royal Archives. They had cupcakes, a pillow fight, and the Princess even showed her how to make a bookfort. It was nice.

What made it super nice was getting to do late night research with the Princess. With her three sources – the firsthoof accounts of the Princess, the anonymous guard’s journal, and the diary of the Sun Goddess – Smarty Pants painted a mental portrait of the previous pair of Princesses.

To the outside world, they were the Sun and the Moon; constant and perfect. Their rule was absolute. Their word was law. And yet they weren’t loathed as tyrants, they were loved as liberators. There were none of the riots or threats of secession that lead Princess Twilight and Princess Cadence to form the Senate centuries ago.

To a small inner circle, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were constantly trying to one-up each other with foalish pranks. Well, constantly was a bit of an overstatement. For immortal beings where time is never truly of the essence, whole days, months, or decades could go by without a new incident. But each practical joke was met in kind and the bar was raised.

Smarty Pants let out a snort. She still didn’t understand how or why Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were playing a game of hide-and-seek that was almost half a millennia old. She may be twelve, but she was a world class seeker. She was going to find them. She was going to find them for Princess Twilight, and it was going to be the best birthday present ever.

Sandy opened an eye from her prone position on the floor of the flying chariot and saw the look on Smarty Pants’ face.

“I’m sorry, ok? I’m not used to flying this high. Or this fast. Or at all.” She wrenched her eyes closed again.

Tearing her eyes off the golden manes of the stallions that pulled their chariot, she turned with a jerk to look back at her cowering friend.

“Huh?” she said, eyeing her friend quizzically before she realized what happened. She sank down to the pegasus and gave her a big hug.

“Sorry Sandy, I was thinking about something else. You’re fine! Don’t let it get you down, ok? You’re my best friend and we’re here with a Princess. What could possibly go wrong?”

Sandy sat up and returned the hug. A bit more forcefully than Smarty Pants thought the moment warranted, but her shaking told the earthpony that it had more to do with her fear of heights and less to do with her apology.

“S’okay, Smarty.” Said the quivering filly “I know you didn’t mean it. I just wanna be done with flying for no— OH MOMMY, WE’RE GONNA DIE!”

As she spoke, there was a sudden rumbling sensation that shook the entire chariot. They had landed. Not that the greener-than-usual pegasus noticed, what with her eyes jammed shut again. Smarty Pants, bluer-than-usual from the tight hug around her neck, did her best to comfort her assailant when she heard a set of hooves approaching.

“Hiya Cousin Smarty Pants! Who’s the barnacle?”

Sandy heard the voice too. Her eyes popped open and she gasped in delight. They had landed. Her wings lost all of their tension and she leapt into the air only to flutter to the ground, where she began rubbing her head in the fresh orchard dirt.

“Oh ground, I missed you. Let’s never be a part again.”

The newly arrived red unicorn gave the strange pegasus an apprehensive smile. “So… how was the flight?”

Smarty Pants walked up and hugged her cousin. “Uneventful.”

Honeycrisp smiled until she saw Princess Cadence sitting in her chariot. “Stars’ Garters, it’s a Princess! Where’s my manners!” she said as she bowed deeply “It’s ever such an honor to have you here at Sweet Apple Acres, your Majesticness. Would you like to come on up to the old homestead for lunch? Mom‘ll be so surprised, I bet her water’ll break the minute you walk through the door!”

Cadence paled and one of the stallions of her chariot team let out a ‘bleh’ before his partner elbowed him.

“Uh, no thank you, My Little Pony. As… appetizing as that all sounds, I’m on my way to Cloudsdale for the weekend. I’m just dropping off Smarty Pants and Desert Rose for Princess Twilight since it’s on the way.”

“Aw, shoot. Ok well, you have yourself a hay of a weekend, Your Highship. But next time you come through, you best be hungry. We Apples don’t take kindly to folks skipping out on our hospitality.”

The Princess nodded in blank understanding before she waved goodbye to Smarty and Sandy. As the chariot took off down the dirt road and up into the sky, Honeycrisp broke the brief silence “She seems nice. A bit stuck up, but nice all the same.”

Smarty Pants laughed as she helped Sandy to her hooves. The pegasus straightened out her pale green mane before addressing her friend’s cousin. “I-I can’t believe you said that to a Princess! You’re so brave!” She looked past the two ponies and into the orchard itself. “Or crazy.” She muttered.

Honeycrisp looked hurt at Sandy’s words. “Shoot, I did it again, didn’t I? Sorry. Pop says it’s my honesty. That it runs in the family. Mom says I’m just plain rude.”

She walked up to Sandy and offered a hoof. “Desert Rose, was it? Pleasure to make your acquaintance. I’m Honeycrisp.”

Sandy didn’t take the hoof, she chose instead to hug herself around the middle. “Actually, it’s Sandy, if you don’t mind.”

Honeycrisp looked at her empty hoof with a furrowed brow as she tried to understand if there was something wrong with it. She looked over to her cousin who rolled her eyes and mouthed ‘later’.

“Right. Sandy. Well Sandy, welcome to Sweet Apple Acres, Equestria’s oldest and longest running Apple Orchard! Ever had a Sweet Apple Acres Apple?”

As she asked she walked over to a tree and gave it a light buck. An apple fell out of the tree and she nabbed it out of the air in a red cushion of magic before it hit the ground.

Honeycrisp was a unicorn but she was an Apple and darn proud of it. She was easily half-again as big as her cousin Smarty Pants even though they were just a year apart. It didn’t help that Smarty Pants was the older of the two.

Sandy took the offered apple in hoof and sat to enjoy the treat. “Oh, yeah! My mommy’s the Royal Pastry Chef in Canterlot. She makes the best apple pies using these!”

Another apple flew out of the tree in a red blur and hit Smarty Pants in the head with a thump. “Ow!” she winced, and rubbed the spot with a forehoof. “What the hay, Honeycrisp?”

“That’s for laughing at me earlier, Pants. Don’t give me that look, filly. You’re a big strong earthpony, you can take it.” She looked out into the orchard, her face neutral. Smarty Pants didn’t respond. She knew better.

She knew that Honeycrisp felt like the black sheep in the family. Every Apple for generations had been either a Pegasus or an earthpony, and here she was, a unicorn. She was big like an Apple and she could buck like an Apple. But she tearfully confided in Smarty Pants during her last visit that she didn’t have the strength or the endurance of an earthpony. It was her deepest shame that she wasn’t born one.

When Smarty Pants told her cousin that she couldn’t understand what was so great about being an earthpony and how she wished she was a unicorn, the hooves started flying. One black-eye, a bloody-nose, and a wrecked tree house later, they both decided it was best to agree to disagree.

As the three of them ate in silence Sandy sensed something was amiss but she didn’t say anything. When they finished their snack, Smarty Pants and her friend gathered up their saddle bags and followed Honeycrisp deeper into the heart of Sweet Apple Acres. She was the first to speak again.

“So! What do you wanna do first, cuz?” Honeycrisp started counting off activities with her hooves as she walked. “We got apple picking, we got hog wrestling, we got lunch, we got the old tree house that needs repairing, we got—“

“Ever heard of the Sun and Moon Goddesses?” interrupted Smarty Pants.

Honeycrisp turned and looked at her cousin like she had two heads. “What the who what now?”

Author's Note

IT BEGINS

Chapter 1

The girls talked as they made their way down the dirt road to what Honeycrisp called ‘the homestead’ of Sweet Apple Acres. Really, it was a small town in and of itself. As they passed the southern boundary of the northern orchard, they found the bustling micro-community. Besides the trio of massive barns, the largest windmill Smarty Pants had ever seen, and a pair of grain silos large enough to comfortably house a dozen ponies each, most of the buildings were laid out in a wide ring around a central fountain.

The fountain wasn’t ornate by any stretch of the imagination. It was clearly for everyday use. A fact made readily apparent when a portly yellow stallion with a green mane sauntered up to it to gather water into a rolling cistern. The landmark feature of the fountain was a bronze statue of a mare rearing up on her backlegs. She wore a fierce smile and a wide-brimmed hat that reminded Smarty Pants of the stories she read about settler ponies.

As they passed the fountain, the two city fillies took in as much country life as their eyes could see. A two-story green house to the left had a yard full of chickens clucking and carrying on as chickens do. In the fenced yard adjacent a farrow of pigglets wallowed in the mud around a drowsy mother sow. A pair of earth pony children chased a hoop with a stick around an old oak tree. A gaggle of old mares sat under the awning of a brick house, knitting and carrying on about plans for the next barn raising before harvest.

Farther down the ring a busy gathering of ponies was taking place. As expected, most of them had apple-themed cutie marks. Smarty Pants watched as the ponies loaded wagon after wagon with fresh produce and canned goods. This one had a decorative board fixed to the back of it that read ‘Manehatten’. That one read ‘Seaddle’. One of the wagons was less of a wagon and more of a sled strapped to four pegasi. Its sign read ‘Canterlot Castle’. One of the pegasi, an orange stallion, saw Sandy and gave her a huge grin.

“Well bless my hitches. Howdy, Sandy!” he said with a wave. “Fancy seeing you here! We’re about to head out to the castle for our weekly delivery.”

“Hi Mr.Appleseed!” She waved back as the three fillies came to a stop. “It’s nice to see you, too! Me and Smarty Pants are visiting for the weekend. Tell mommy that I made it here just fine, okay? I don’t want her to worry.”

Appleseed laughed. “Powder Puff? Worry? I don’t think that unicorn has an anxious bone in her body, but I will. You enjoy your stay, you hear? I’ll be back soon. Kiddo, be a good host and get our guests to the house in time for lunch, okay?”

Honeycrisp nodded an affirmative. “You got it, Pop!”

They waved their goodbyes as Honeycrisp led Smarty Pants and Sandy along the inside of the ring towards a small rancher with an old dog sleeping on the front porch. When Honeycrisp opened the squeaking front gate to her home, the dog opened an eye and slapped his white tail on the ground with a single thump.

“Hey Walter, who’s a good boy?” asked Honeycrisp.

The dog answered by stretching out all his limbs from his spot on the porch. Then he was still again, sleeping like good dogs in sunbeams do.

Just beyond the dog, a screen door behind them opened with protesting hinges.

“Hello Smarty Pants, it’s good to see you again. Is that your friend, Sandy? She looks just like Appleseed said she would.”

Smarty Pants looked at Honeycrisp’s mom, a gray earth pony with an anvil and hammer cutie mark, as she leaned against the door frame. She was crazy pregnant.

“Whoa!” shouted Smarty Pants as she ran up the porch. “You’re so pregnant!”

Merry Hearth smiled at the filly. “Yes I am. Wasn’t I pregnant the last time you came to visit? It couldn’t have been that long ago.”

“Well yeah, but now you’re crazy pregnant! When are you due?”

Sandy fluttered her wings in excitement. “Is it a boy or a girl?”

Smarty kept pushing for answers. “Do you have any names picked out?”

Sandy turned again to face a disinterested looking Honeycrisp and shook her by the shoulder. “Aren’t you excited about being a big sister?!”

Smarty Pants poked Merry Hearth in her soft belly. “What about Smarty Pants? I think that’s a good name, what do you think?”

Honeycrisp let out a groan and smacked her forehead into the first step leading up to the porch. Walter thumped his tail at the excited ponies.

Merry Hearth laughed that brash-and-yet-endearing sort of laugh that only farmfolk seem to be able to conjure up. “You girls are so silly. Come on inside and wash your hooves. Lunch is ready.”

The three fillies went inside. Smarty Pants and Sandy hung their saddlebags on pegs in the entryway and followed Honeycrisp to the washroom. It was just like a picture out of an adventure story she wrapped up the other day, about dangers on the frontier. That reminded her of the whole point of being here this weekend.

“Hey Honeycrisp, do you have a map of the area? Something with the farm and Ponyville on it? Maybe part of the forest, too?”

“Huh? Yeah, I think so. Pop’s big into maps, says grandpa was a cardiographer, whatever that means.” Honeycrisp moved on from the sink to dry her hooves.

“Cardiographer? You mean cartographer. Yeah, that’ll work. Do you think Appleseed will mind if we borrow it?” She caught the towel as Honeycrisp threw it to her.

“I dunno, you’ll have to ask him. He should be back soon. Canterlot ain’t that far off.”

Smarty Pants offered the towel to Sandy, who was still scrubbing dirt out of her muzzle.

“Thanks,” said the lime green pegasus.

“Come on, Pants. Mom made mashed potatoes and creamed corn, your favorite.” Honeycrisp made a gagging sound and crossed her eyes, which made the other two ponies laugh.

“I heard that, Missy!” came a warning from beyond the hallway, “Food’s getting cold girls, get a move on.”

The three came around the dining room corner and sat at the table. The room was a simple affair, by the standards of the two Canterlot girls, but Smarty Pants thought that it was nice. It reminded her a bit of home, back in Farrington. The wall between this room and the kitchen was full of portraits of ponies most of whom were long gone.

Smarty Pants did a double take when she thought she noticed Princess Twilight in one of the oldest pictures in a place of honor over the mantle. Yeah, it was definitely Princess Twilight alright. She had the wings and the horn and the pink stripe in her mane and everything. She was just… Way shorter. And her hair wasn’t flowing with immeasurable power. It looked like she and three other ponies were all bridal maids for some lucky bride. She’d have to file that away and ask her teacher about it later. For now there were mashed potatoes and creamed corn.

Smarty Pants was far from a picky eater. If it was edible, she’d ed it. But there was a special place in her heart for good old fashioned farmpony food. They worked hard and ate well. It just felt right in her earth pony bones.

She heaped a mountain of smashed spuds on to her plate and pressed her spoon into the center of it to make a crater. The other ponies watched in morbid fascination as Smarty Pants talked to herself as she poured a steaming ladle full of hot creamed corn into the depression.

“Surrrrrg— oh no, it’s going to explode!” the bizarre little earth pony mumbled to herself. “Oooooh-noooo, the mountain is a volcano! Everypony for themselves –pssssssssssh”

Honeycrisp laughed so hard, she fell out of her seat and onto the dining room floor.

Smarty Pants looked away from the yellow dribbling horror on her plate, and her ears perked up. Everypony just stared at her, except for the hysterical unicorn on the floor. Wide eyed, Merry Hearth held a spoon full of mashed potatoes frozen in the air in front of her open mouth, apparently forgotten. The little light-brown pony blushed so hard she thought she’d be pink for the rest of her life.

“Um, these potatoes are delicious, Mrs. Hearth.” Offered Sandy, mercifully.

“Thanks Sandy,” the older pony smiled gratefully at the young pegasus for changing the subject “but you don’t have to call me Mrs. Anything. You can just call me Merry. Everypony else does.”

“Ok… Merry. Thank you," she said fluttering her wings happily in her seat. She loved it when adults treated her like a pony and not like a foal. It was one of her favorite things.

Merry regained her composure before she addressed her daughter’s lack-there-of. “Honeycrisp, get off the floor sweetie and finish your lunch.”

Smarty Pants gave Sandy a bashful look as she shoveled her mashed potato mountain one spoonful at a time into her gaping maw. They both let out a surprised ‘eep’ when they heard the screen door screech open and then slam closed from down the hall.

“Bendy, Kiddo, I’m home!”

“We’re in the dining room, dear. Wash up and have some lunch with us.”

“You got it!”

The girls ate in silence as they listened to Appleseed make his way around the house. They heard him trot over to the washroom and run the water. The sound of the loose towel rod squeak made Smarty Pants wonder if they had any mineral oil at all in Sweet Apple Acres, or if the sound of protesting metal was just part of the country experience.

A few hooffalls later, and a fresh-faced Appleseed joined them at the table. He leaned over to give Merry a kiss on the cheek as he helped himself to the potatoes. Merry returned the gesture before making a sudden intake of breath, reacting to a sharp pain in her side.

Appleseed shot up to his hooves and his wings flared on instinct. One of them smacked Honeycrisp in the side of the head. “What is it? Is it the baby? Is it time?!”

“N-no, no! It’s not time. The baby’s just kicking, is all. Put those things away and finish your lunch. I swear you’re so jumpy these days.” Merry made a silly face at her husband, calming him immediately.

“Sorry,” he said, lowering his wings and turning to see his daughter rub the side of her cheek where his wing hit her. “Sorry, Kiddo. I guess I got a little worked up.”

Honeycrisp put her hoof down and flashed a challenging smile at her father. “It’s okay Pop. I’m tougher than I look,” she said before bopping her dad with a foreleg.

Appleseed put Honeycrisp in a headlock and gave her a noogie. “That’s my girl!” he crowed before she struggled free to smack him on the muzzle with a mean right-hook.

“Hay now, no rough-housing at the table! We have guests," said Merry with a frown and shaking her head in disapproval, before adding, “Appleseed, don’t you encourage her. It’s not ladylike.”

Chastised, both ponies returned to their meals, but it didn’t stop them from exchanging the occasional jab. When the matron of the house wasn’t looking, of course. Sandy giggled at their antics.

“Oof!” said Appleseed, who caught another right hook.

Merry Hearth sighed heavily and gathered her empty plate to take into the kitchen. Before she left, she shot a stern glare at Appleseed, who was smiling back sheepishly as he was being pummeled in the ribs by his daughter, who was herself oblivious to the all-seeing eyes of her mother. He stood up to follow her into the kitchen.

“Aw, Bendy, don’t be that way! Bendy, come on.” Before either pony could leave the room, Sandy asked a question.

“Bendy. That’s a cute nickname. How did you come up with it, Mr.Appleseed?”

Before either pony could answer, time crawled to a stop for Smarty Pants. Colors seemed to fade and objects in the periphery of her vision blurred into unimportance. Everything was thrown into sharp relief. She could count the moments between each heartbeat. This sensation, whatever it was, was familiar to her. It happened whenever her brain kicked into overdrive.

It meant that an important revelation was about to come to light.

Smarty Pants thought about Sandy’s question. She watched Appleseed fidget, a nervous smile on his face. She looked at the bright blush growing across Merry Hearth’s face. She looked back at the pregnant mare’s husband. She looked back at the pregnant mare. Revelation came.

“oh. OH! UH, HAY GIRLS! WE HAVE A TREEHOUSE TO FIX! WHO’S READY TO GO? SANDY? OKAY COOL, THANKSFORLUNCHBYE!” The panicky earth pony knocked her chair over as she fumbled her way around the table in order to grab the lime-green pegasus filly in her forelegs and run for the front door.

“Smarty, what are you doing?! Don’t forget our bags! Where are we go—“

The three ponies that remained in the dining room heard the screen door slam open and its hinges scream in protest. Walter let out a half-hearted woof. Honeycrisp sat there looking at her food.

“Hey Pop, do you have a map of the area we can borrow? Smarty Pants wants it for something.”

“Sure thing, Kiddo.” the relieved stallion said. “I’ve got one in the study. It’s rolled up with a blue ribbon to keep it closed. Help yourself.”

“Thanks Pop.” She excused herself from the table and made her way for the study. Before leaving the dining room she turned to face her parents. “Also? Super gross.”

The treehouse and the tree it occupied were situated in Honeycrisp’s backyard, by the large blackberry thicket that lined the back end of their lot in the homestead. Several feet below them at the base of the tree, Walter snored peacefully in his dog house.

The cool evening air was filled with the songs of crickets and the gentle babbling of the fountain in the center of the homestead. The gentle soundtrack of farm life was punctuated with the occasional tinkle of the wind chimes that hung at the back of the house and sporadic bursts of laughter from three young fillies. The sunset had come and gone, but the girls were just getting started.

The treehouse was in a sorry state when they first climbed its step ladder earlier that afternoon. It was filled with sticks, leaves, and glass from a broken window. The treehouse looked like it had barely survived a war. When Smarty Pants remembered the fight she had here with Honeycrisp, she guessed that it wasn’t all that far off.

It took about an hour to clean it out, get a tarp over the unicorn-shaped hole in the roof, and board up the window, but they took pride in their work and finished it without any outside help. Afterwards the girls took stock of their supplies and set about making it home for the weekend.

Sandy was a firm believer in being prepared, and she was certain she packed the essentials. In one of her saddlebags, she brought her favorite pillow, a toothbrush, a hairbrush, and her diary. In the other saddlebag she pulled out half-a-dozen sugar scented candles, a bag of trail-mix, and a small magically sealed paper box with a note from her mommy on it.

Smarty Pants turned her saddlebags upside-down and dumped a pile of books, paper, and writing materials onto the floor. Smarty Pants was a firm believer in being prepared, and she was certain she packed the essentials. Honeycrisp lit each of Sandy’s candles with a fizz of magic from the tip of her red horn after Sandy found good spots for them around the treehouse.

“So.” Honeycrisp asked while re-braiding her golden mane, “How did you two become friends? Are you a nerdy bookworm like Pants too, Sandy?”

Smarty Pants bristled, but Sandy laughed softly before answering. “I met Smarty Pants a few years ago when I came to live at the castle with my mommy. We’re the only kids there.” Sandy’s eyes went wide at her last statement. “That's not to say that we’re just friends because we’re the only kids there! We get along really well, even though she’s an earth pony.”

She did it again.

“I mean, it’s not bad that she’s an earth pony, she’s just really nice for an earth pony is all.” She couldn’t stop her own mouth. Her eyes were wide and she was trembling. “Not that earth ponies are bad, oh gosh no, I mean I’ve met some bad earth ponies but I’ve met some lovely ones too and—“

Sandy felt a pair of strong forelegs pull her back down to the floor. She didn’t remember flying into the air. She was still talking. Luckily, something was stopping her from forming words. She regained control of her breathing and felt her stream of consciousness ramble to a halt.

A moment passed and Smarty Pants pulled her hoof out of Sandy’s mouth and wiped it off on her hip.

“Ew.” stated Honeycrisp.

Smarty Pants shot her cousin a dirty look before telling the story as she remembered it.

“Sandy showed up at the castle a few years ago. She used to live in an orphanage in Cloudsdale, but she was adopted by the Royal Pastry Chef. Your dad knows her. Anyway, I walked into the kitchen to get a snack while reading all about hydrodynamics— Interesting stuff really— when I bumped into this filly.”

“I was learning how to make cupcakes from my mommy.”

“She was covered in flour.”

“I’d never baked anything before.”

“I asked her if she wanted any help and we ended up baking for the rest of the day.”

“We got to make muffins for a Princess!”

“You know, come to think of it, I don’t think those muffins were any good.”

“She almost ate a whole one!”

“Maybe next time we should make muffins with blueberry and cream cheese instead of blueberry and bleu cheese.”

“Or crêpes! We could stuff them with raspberries and tartar sau—“

Honeycrisp derailed that train of thought right there. “Smarty Pants! You… uh… you remember when we first met last summer, dontcha? At the library?”

Smarty Pants did remember. “Hay yeah, I remember, Honeycrisp. How can I forget the little red bookthief.”

“Little red bookthief?! You stole it first, Pants!”

“Like fun, I did. I was going to check it out!”

“It was already in my hooves, you little liar!”

The two cousins butted heads and neither was willing to give any ground. Each snort and stare was met in equal measure. Smarty Pants scuffed a front hoof along the floorboards, ready to charge the red pony that was almost half again as large as she was. A menacing heat began to seep out of the unicorn’s horn.

“W-what are we fighting about?” Asked a timid Sandy from under her sleeping bag, ears pinned to the back of her head.

Smarty turned with a jerk to look at her friend before Honeycrisp could shift her weight and both ponies tumbled into a pile on the floor with a creaky thud. Walter let out a woof and the tree was momentarily silent.

“Sorry, Sandy,” apologized Honeycrisp.

“Yeah. Sorry, Sandy,” agreed Smarty Pants, “seems like we’re always ready for a scrap.”

“You started it,” said Honeycrisp setting the bait. But Smarty Pants wasn’t biting. She had her other friend’s feelings to consider. She knew how much the pegasus hated confrontation.

“Forget all that,” Smarty Pants said as she shoved herself back up to her hooves. She walked over to her pile of supplies and fished out an old rolled up sheet of parchment as tall as she was long. “Let’s talk about why we’re here, now.”

“Why we’re here?” asked Honeycrisp from her spot on the floor as she played with her pigtails. “Aren’t we here to hang out this weekend?”

Smarty Pants unrolled the parchment on the floor in front of the three girls. “Ostensibly, yes.”

“Gesundheit” said Honeycrisp.

Smarty Pants walked past her cousin and grabbed the map with the blue ribbon tied around it from its spot against the wall. Removing the ribbon, she dropped it on top of the other parchment on the floor.

“Remember my earlier question before lunch about the Sun and Moon Goddesses?”

“Yeah, but what’s that got to do with the map?” asked Honeycrisp, suspiciously.

“I’m getting to that. Anyway, Sandy, you’ve heard of them, right?”

Sandy was reading the note on the white paper box with a smile on her face. She looked up when she was addressed. “Huh? Sun and Moon Goddesses? No, I’ve never heard of any Goddesses besides Princess Twilight and Princess Cadence.”

“Well there were two more of them. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. They had the power to lift the Sun and the Moon, all by themselves!”

“No way, you’re making that up!” accused Honeycrisp. “It takes hundreds of ponies to raise the moon and it takes even more to raise the sun! No way two ponies could do it alone.”

“Oh they could, but that’s not the half of it. They ruled Equestria before the Senate even existed, from a castle deep in the Everfree Forest.”

Honeycrisp looked uneasy at this and shot up to her hooves. “H-hay now I don’t like where this is going. What’s two dead Princesses got to do with us?”

“Oh they’re not dead, Honeycrisp.” Smarty Pants gave her cousin a fierce grin. “They’re hiding.” She raised a hoof and brought it down on the stack of parchment. “And we’re going to find them.” Smarty Pants rolled the two parchments together and then tied them with the blue ribbon.

The red pony scoffed. “You’re joking. Tell me you’re joking.”

Smarty Pants didn’t say anything. She walked over to her pile of supplies and started to pack.

Sandy stared wide-eyed at her friend as Honeycrisp stood up on her backlegs.

“You’re serious. You can’t be serious! Right now? You want to look for a pair of missing Princesses that I’ve never heard of before. At night. In a castle that I’ve never heard of before. In the middle of the Everfree Forest?!“

Smarty Pants smiled to herself and kept packing. Sandy looked back and forth between the two girls before she scrunched up her nose and fluttered her wings with determination. And then she started packing, too.

“This is crazy! You’re crazy! You’re both crazy! There is no way I’m going with you two. Do you even got a plan? What am I saying? You’re little-miss-perfect Smarty Pants, of course you got a plan. Well you can count me out, cuz. There ain’t no way, no how, you are getting me to go anywhere near those woods. Not now, not ever!”

“Welp,” cheered Smarty Pants, “Here we are. The edge of the Everfree Forest!”

“Horseapples.” Cursed the sullen unicorn.

“S-so, what’s the p-p-plan?” asked the pegasus over the sound of her knocking knees.

Smarty Pants smiled at her friend and rubbed her left foreleg in what was hopefully a soothing manner. If these woods were half as scary as all the stories said they were, they’d need all the courage they could muster up and then some. A unseasonably warm breeze from the direction of the farm boosted her spirits before she answered.

“Honeycrisp, can I see the maps again?”

Her cousin sighed dejectedly and her horn lit up. The two maps floated out of her saddlebags, the blue ribbon was untied, and they both were opened in the air, floating next to Smarty Pants.

The earth pony stood up on her hindlegs and put on a pair of thick rimmed glasses. “This map on the left is the map that Appleseed made,” she said tapping the map with a collapsible pointer she fished out of her mane. “Here’s the Sweet Apple Acres swimming hole, here’s the Everfree Forest, here’s the Golden Oaks Library, and over here is the old train station.”

Smarty Pants turned to the other map and continued. “This map on the right is over 500 years old. It was commissioned by the department of—“

“Get on with it, Pants.”

“Right. Here’s the Sweet Apple Acres swimming hole, here’s the Golden Oaks Library, and over here is where they were just breaking ground on the then-new train station.”

“And?”

“Jeez, Honeycrisp, you have no flair for the dramatic, do you?”

“Nope.”

Smarty Pants leveled her eyes at her cousin and smacked the map with her pointer. “Here is the Everfree Forest.” She looked at the map and slid her pointer to a big red circle. “And this is the Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters.”

“So?”

“So? SO?! So we have two maps with legends depicting distances! Two maps separated by hundreds of years that share common landmarks! We can deduce where we are on this map,” she said, slapping first map with her pointer, “and we can use these common landmarks to figure out where the castle is and the most direct route to it!”

“What, like with math and stuff?”

Smarty Pants facehooved, but also ended up smacking herself in the face with her pointer. “Ow, dang it… Yes, with ‘like math and stuff’, Honeycrisp. Don’t worry I already did the math. All we have to do is walk this way," she said aiming her pointer into the forest, "for about an hour, and we’ll be at the castle!”

Sandy was unable to contain a yawn as she spoke. “An hour? Smarty Pants, we’ve already been walking for almost an hour. Don’t you think we should head back and try again in the morning after a good night’s sleep?”

Smarty Pants’ left eye twitched. “No! We’re so close! And tomorrow’s Princess Twilight’s birthday! I have to find them tonight so I can—“

“Is that what this is all about? You’ve got us out here, about to walk into the Everfree Freakin’ Forest in the middle of the night, to gift-wrap a pair of old princesses for your perfect teacher?”

Smarty Pants didn’t answer. Instead she puffed out her cheeks and walked into the forest.

Sandy walked after her friend, but turned to Honeycrisp before entering the forest proper. “That wasn’t very nice, you know.”

“Yeah I know,” Honeycrisp sighed, “come on, let’s go get her before something else does.”

The three of them walked for an hour. Then another hour. To her credit, it wasn’t until halfway through the start of the third hour that Honeycrisp voiced her concern.

“Okay, do you remember when I said this idea was crazy? Well I was right and now we’re going die to death out here.”

“I know it’s just ahead, I can feel it! Can’t you feel it?”

“You asked me an hour ago if I could feel it. If it weren’t for my magical floating heat lamp, we wouldn’t feel anything! I mean, look at the frost on the ground here, Pants! The ground shouldn’t freeze at this time of the year! What if the Frostmare is out here, huh? She’ll freeze us, unhinge her jaw, and swallow us whole!”

Smarty Pants sighed. “The Frostmare is just a myth, Honeycrisp. I didn’t know you were so superstitious.”

“She is not a myth, my cousin saw her once.”

Sandy piped in “Hey, girls, I think—“

“Oh your cousin saw her once? Well I’m your cousin too, and I say that she doesn’t exist. That’s one true and one false. And according to the rules of logic, a statement that is both true and false must be false.”

“Smarty Pants, Honeycrisp, we’re in a clearing and there’s some big doors her—“

“Don’t you use your fancy ‘ipso facto’ mumbo jumbo with me, Pants. This isn’t some social club in Canterlot.” She looked around nervously. “This is the Everfree Forest. Everypony I’ve ever heard of who’s gone in has either never come out or been changed for the worst. Forever.”

“The doors are pretty heavy, I don’t think I can open them by myse—“

“Oh? Is that where we are? The Everfree Forest?” Smarty Pants gave her cousin a dumbfounded look before glaring at her. “Look Honeycrisp, I’ve been preparing for this trip for months.” Smarty Pants walked up to her cousin and started poking her in the chest to punctuate each statement.

“I know how to avoid Poison Joke. I know how to read the tracks of Timberwolves. I even know how to imitate the territorial call of a hydra. If that doesn’t scare off the manticores and the cockatrices and the ‘Frostmares’ then nothing will, ok?”

The magical fire floating next to Honeycrisp brightened in intensity and heat with each poke.

As calmly as she could, Honeycrisp answered. “You walk us into the Everfree Forest, in the middle of the night, and tell me three hours in that I shouldn’t be scared.”

Smarty Pants was sweating from the heat coming off the fire, but she wasn’t about to back down now. Honeycrisp continued.

“My parents don’t even know we’re out here! Of course I’m scared! This place eats ponies alive! If you think that manticores and hydras are the worst of it, well then, you’ve got another thing comin—“

“GIRLS!”

The sudden shout echoed through world around them. The two cousins turned to look in stunned silence at the glaring pegasus.

“Sorry. Um, there’s a set of doors here. They’re really old. Made out of some kind of metal and stone. The lock’s rusted shut, but I think we can open it if w—“

A bloodcurdling shriek pierced the night air from somewhere in the forest beyond. The ponies felt a wave of raw arcane energy blast through them and reverberate off the door. Honeycrisp’s fire went out and her eyes glassed over. For a terrifying moment they stood there in cold dark silence.

A bush on the far edge of the clearing rustled and the girls huddled together. Without the benefit of Honycrisp’s magic their teeth began to chatter uncontrollably. Their eyes adjusted to the darkness and they could make out hazy clouds of breath that came out in ragged gasps.

Suddenly, Honeycrisp stepped forward. “G-get behind m-me.” Smarty Pants couldn’t tell if her stuttering was fear induced or if she was witnessing the onset of hypothermia.

The unicorn strained her will and a red glow slowly crept up her horn. She pushed and pushed like she knew how to do, but something was stopping her. She fell to her forelegs to catch her breath.

“W-what’s g-going on? W-why can’t you use y-your magic-c? Chattered Sandy.

“I d-dunno. S-something’s f-fighting it.”

The ground quaked with a thunderous step somewhere out in the darkness and the forest became unnaturally silent. Smarty Pants looked past her friends. Whatever this was she hadn’t planned on it.

“T-the d-door. Sandy, h-help me move the d-door.”

The two ponies turned to face the metal monstrosity behind them and gasped. Where once was just a set of massive double doors held fast with a rusty lock, there was now a thin wall of ice growing thicker by the moment.

“H-Honeycrisp, we’re in t-t-trouble here!”

Honeycrisp turned to look at the girls and saw the door. She cursed under her breath. “H-horseapples. I t-told you c-coming here was a bad-d id—“

Another bush, a closer bush, rustled.

“S-stay back!” she yelped. “W-we have fire and w-we’re not afraid to u-use it! I’m an A-apple!” she added, as if that was somehow scarier than ponies able to magically wield fire.

The bush rustled again, and a lone figure broke through into the clearing. Its wooly white coat glistened in the frosty starlight. Its tail wagged.

Honeycrisp shot up to her hooves and she ran forward to embrace her old dog. “Walter! Oh, Walter, who’s a good boy? You’re a good boy. I’m so happy to see you!”

As if by magic, the sight of the loyal old watchdog, who must have followed them for several hours, warmed the girls like no fire could. Walter continued to follow his pony back over to the two other ponies. Walter liked them too. Walter was a good dog.

Smarty Pants could think clearly again. It was time to act. “Ok, I don’t know what that is out there, but it’s bad news. See this pattern on the door?” She pointed through the clear ice wall, still growing over the set of doors.

“This symbol marks that we’re at the northern gate of the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters. We must have wandered around to the back side of it sometime in the night. If we can get through this door, the warding magics that keep this place safe from…” She exchanged a frightened look with the two other ponies. ”Scary things... will keep us safe, too.”

There was another thunderous step somewhere in the distance. It sounded closer. It felt closer.

Sandy turned to her new friend and best hope for survival. “Honeycrisp, can your magic get through this ice? I don’t have anything to chip away at it in my bags and Smarty Pants only has books and quills.”

The red filly furrowed her brow. “I don’t know. But I’m sure as hay gonna try!”

She grunted with effort and glorious heat began to radiate off of her. “I did it!” she grinned, “I have my magic again!”

As if to confirm the revelation, the shriek broke through the black night a second time. Though there was no paralyzing wave of power this time around, the booming steps became a booming gallop. Whatever it was it was moving faster and it was definitely heading this way.

Walter turned his attention away from the girls and walked to the middle of the clearing. He squared his shoulders, lowered his head, and let out a rolling growl. Walter was a good dog and that was a bad thing.

Honeycrisp focused her heat magic on the thin wall of ice, and it melted away in moments, leaving a bone-dry set of metal and stone doors, held together with a rusty lock.

“W-what do we do now?” She asked nopony in particular.

“First we keep calm.” Answered Smarty Pants, though the fear in her voice betrayed her. “Next we shove!”

The three fillies threw their combined weight at the doors but they only managed to shake some of the rust off of the lock and the hinges.

“It’s no good!” quailed Sandy, her wings fluttered involuntarily giving Smarty Pants another idea.

“Sandy, can you fly over the top of this gate? Check if there’s a key on the other side.”

“Right!” The little filly hopped up and over the gate without a second thought. The booming hoof falls were getting louder. They were getting closer. Walter was now barking his head off at the thing rampaging for them with his hackles raised and his old yellow teeth bared.

Honeycrisp said nothing and fidgeted uncomfortably in silence. An exasperated voice called out from the other side of the wall. “There’s nothing! Just brambles and weeds! Oh mommy, what do we do? I’m scared!”

“J-just stay there. You’ll be ok!” replied Smarty Pants. She might not be able to spare herself or her cousin, but maybe Sandy could get back to Canterlot and send for help. Or a bag to put all the extra pony bits in. She shivered.

“Buck this. We’re getting in there, now!” Honeycrisp’s red horn glowed white hot and she gritted her teeth in pain. A solid beam of heat shot from her horn into the old lock and the clearing lit up like high noon. The pony churned her hooves in the dirt trying to gain purchase against the metaphysical forces at play in her horn.

That damned shriek cut through the air once more, sounding their inevitable doom. A second wave of magic hit with enough force that it made Smarty Pants dizzy. She heard a thump. Honeycrisp was passed out in the dirt.

Looking at the door she saw the light of the still-glowing lock was quickly fading and the thin wall of frost was trying to retake the warm-to-the-touch door. Smarty Pants smiled grimly to herself. Whatever that thing was it wasn’t smarter than she was. She knew what happens when you superheat metal and then cool it quickly.

She turned to buck the lock with all of her freaky earthpony strength and they slammed open revealing a startled pegasus on the other side. She grabbed her cousin, who was just starting to stir and pulled her past the gate. Honeycrisp came too as she was being dragged through the gate. She heard Walter barking. She panicked.

“W-walter? Walter! Walter, come here boy! Come on Walter, let’s go buddy!”

Walter was a good dog. He heard Honeycrisp call him and he liked Honeycrisp. She was a good pony. She was his pony. But there was a bad thing coming. And Walter wasn’t going to let the bad thing hurt his pony. So he stayed there and he barked.

“Sandy,” yelled Smarty Pants “help me shut the doors!”

The two friends each picked a door and started pushing. Honeycrisp wasn’t strong enough to stand yet, but she tried anyway. She fumbled on unresponsive hooves.

“Walter! Walter, come! Come on boy, please!” She pleaded.

The doors were closing. She watched and screamed her dog’s name over and over again. She watched as something darker than nightmares slithered into the clearing, its body a mass of spikes and odd geometry. She watched as the old dog charge forward into the blackness. She watched as the doors closed.

Chapter 2

Walter charged at the bad thing. He didn’t know what it was or why it was bad, but that didn’t matter. Walter only knew that it had scared his pony. He bit it. He bit it because good dogs are brave and they bite bad things. Walter was a good dog.

Curiously, this was exactly what the bad thing absolutely did not want. The bad thing recoiled on its dozen or so legs and spinney tentacles in sheer terror as Walter clamped his jaws down around one of its appendages. This caused the bad thing to squeak a confusing squeak.

Squeak!

Walter shook his head and a plume of black smoke roiled in all directions from the bad thing. Walter bit down again.

Squeak!

With every shake of his head, the bad thing shrank a little smaller. Walter was excited because he was biting a bad thing that squeaked. This was the best bad thing ever. The bad thing, on the other hand, was frightened out of its little pseudo-mind. But that was nothing new really, Nighttime Nanny was always scared.

Several hundred years ago, when Princess Twilight inherited Princess Luna’s Moon Tower in Canterlot, it came with some of the Night Princess’ responsibilities. To their credit, most ponies were fairly understanding when it came to her inability to lift the moon. Even more so with the creation of the Lunar Court. But the moon was only one of Princess Luna’s domains. There was also the realm of dreams and nightmares.

This realm that Twilight was powerless to enter. For the first time since the Lunar Rebellion, nightmares ran rampant through Equestria. It was a grim time in need of a far-reaching solution. Nighttime Nanny was supposed to be that solution.

Nighttime Nanny was the prototype for a would-be line of enchanted dolls that used magic to syphon nightmares out of a nearby sleeping pony. As a prototype, Nighttime Nanny was given a few additions including a rudimentary magical cortex, a dream viewer, and an etherium repeater so the Princess could observe the metaphysical forces at work and fine-tune the doll prior to production. In hindsight this was a bad idea.

Twilight activated the doll for the first time late one fateful night, and it collapsed in a trembling heap and cried its little button eyes out. The enchantments inside the doll were too powerful. Instead of draining a nightmare out of a single pony sleeping nearby, it absorbed nightmares from a much larger radius and a much larger sample size. Like say, all of Canterlot.

The little doll could feel nightmares, true. But it could also feel other emotions. Primarily fear. And fear hurt. It didn’t understand what it was, where it was, why it was, but it was terrified. It was in pain. It ran.

As it ran, ripples of the nightmares it felt flashed over its tiny form. The powerful magics at work inside the doll twisted and altered its appearance into an ever-changing engine of fear. The night was alive with terror. Ponies all over the city tried to hide from the little doll at the center of a boiling sea of madness. Twilight would have stopped it sooner, if she hadn’t blacked out from magical backlash as soon as she activated the poor thing.

Whenever Nighttime Nanny passed within a few yards of a unicorn, the etherium repeater triggered an uncontrollable polar reaction in the pony’s horn. A group of visiting Ice Mages from the Crystal Empire began spewing fire. Members of the Solar Court cast shadows in all directions. Sugar poured out of dentists. Things got worse before they got better.

Nighttime Nanny ran nonstop for days without the need for food or sleep or breathing. It screamed its fluffy little head off until it found a nice secluded spot, without any ponies, where it could cower until the end of time.

Ponies politely asked Princess Twilight to refrain from helping with the nightmare issue again.

Squeak!

Nighttime Nanny didn’t know much. In fact, it wasn’t capable of many of the higher brain functions with such a simple cortex. But it did learn a few things over the last few centuries. The closer a pony is to Nighttime Nanny, the more Nighttime Nanny hurts. Scaring a pony makes it go away. Those were good lessons for the little doll. Tonight, it learned a few new things.

Squeak!

The fuzzy white thing is not scared of Nighttime Nanny. The fuzzy white thing liked to bite and shake Nighttime Nanny, which made it's magical cortex squeak. Whenever it squeaked, it tickled Nighttime Nanny. It had never been tickled before. It felt okay.

Squeak!

The three girls walked through the decrepit castle in weary silence. Sandy walked next to her newest friend and draped a wing over her for comfort. Honeycrisp frowned but remained silent. They walked without the light of her magical fire. They didn’t need it. It was dawn.

Whatever that thing was that came upon them in the clearing last night, it never tried for the door. They heard the sounds of a fight but it ended sooner than the girls felt comfortable with. Afterwards there was a series of bizarre squeaks, the rustling of bushes, and then silence.

The despondent companions walked through the ruined castle on a route Smarty Pants had memorized long ago thanks to a series of blueprints she found in Canterlot’s Royal Archives. First they walked past the larder, third door on the right. Then they took a left at the millennial ballroom, avoiding the skeletal remains. Finally, they turned right into a warzone from a bygone age.

“Whoa. What happened here?” asked Sandy, her wings fluttering uncontrollably.

This was the courtyard of the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters. One of the major crossroads of Equestrian history. The girls were witnesses to the aftermath of a titanic struggle between sanity and heartbreak.

“The Lunar Rebellion happened.” Answered Smarty Pants. “Ask me about it when we’re out of here, ok?”

To the North stood the original Sun Tower of Princess Celestia. It was the template for the nearly-identical tower that housed Princess Cadence’s royal chambers in Canterlot and it was their destination.

To the South, where the first Moon Tower of Princess Luna should have been, was a void. The tower itself had long ago collapsed into the courtyard. Whether its collapse was caused by conflict or old age, who could say?

“What makes you think we’ll get out of here alive?” asked Honeycrisp in brooding detachment.

Smarty Pants pinned her ears back and wrapped her usually wavy tail around one of her hindlegs. “Honeycrisp, I—“

“Save it, Pants.” Honeycrisp snorted. “I’m so mad I could spit fire. Don’t you dare apologize right now. Let’s just get what you need for your precious Princess and get the hay out of here.”

Smarty Pants nodded sullenly, her red mane flat against her head. She moved on with the other girls in tow.

“Walter was a good dog.” Offered Sandy.

Honeycrisp pushed the pegasus’ wing off of her and looked away from Sandy.

“Is. Walter is a good dog.” It was all she had to say on the matter.

Sandy frowned at the brush off, but continued to walk next to Honeycrisp. An idea hit her.

“Oh hay!” she said with as much pep as she could, “You know, whenever I’m sad, mommy says I should sing a song! Honeycrisp, do you want to sing a song?”

Honeycrisp gave Sandy a pained look. “Please, can we not do this right now, Sandy? I’m exhausted. Besides, I can’t carry a tune in a bucket.” Sandy nodded and trotted ahead to Smarty Pants who was already standing at the entrance of the Sun Tower.

Though the outer door had rotted away some time ago, the interior was remarkably preserved. After walking past the timeworn sentry point, they made their way up the large stone spiral staircase three abreast. It was wide enough that at least a dozen ponies could have walked side-by-side to the very top of the tower.

Every three floors, there was a landing obstructed by thick wooden doors with bronze reinforcements. They were locked, but after some experimentation, bargaining, pleading, crying, acceptance, and magic, they found out how to get through them. Finally, they pushed through the smoldering rubble of the ninth and final set of double doors.

Smarty Pants shook a great deal of soot and grime out of her mane. “Thank goodness for your fire magic, Honeycrisp.”

Honeycrisp wobbled woozily on her hooves. “Hay, yeah! Those doors didn’t stand a chance against an Apple.” Sandy and Smarty Pants nodded in agreement at the proud mare and looked about their surroundings.

The top floor foyer was smaller than its mate at the top of the Sun Tower in Canterlot. To the left was a door with the symbol for the Sun and a rainbow, just like the one to Princess Cadence’s study. Directly ahead of her was a set of double doors with the Sun on each one, no doubt the Royal Chambers of the Sun Goddess. To their right was an intricately designed door with the Sun and Moon on it. Smarty Pants had no idea what room this was. That excited her.

Sandy looked at her friend’s twitching tail and knew what was coming.

“Smarty Pants, can we take a break? I’m tire—”

“Oh my goodness!” the excited earthpony shouted. “We made it to the top! Okay, let’s see. If I remember correctly, the doors are sealed with magical wards. But we should be able t—“

A sharp whistle snapped Smarty Pants out of her rambling. “Hay! Equestria to Pants, come in, Pants! We’re tired. We’re hungry. You smell bad. We’re taking a break.”

Smarty Pants frowned at her cousin, but she... Ugh. She did smell bad. She trotted in place and looked around for a towel or a washroom or… anything that would help, really.

Honeycrisp rolled her eyes at the ditzy earthpony and turned to her new friend. “Sandy, please tell me you’ve got something to eat in one of your saddlebags.”

Sandy reached into her left saddlebag with a wing. “Oh what I’ve got is much better than just something.” With a flourish, she pulled out the small paper box. “Ta da!”

“It’s… a box.” Said Honeycrisp matter-of-factly.

“Not just any box.” Replied the happy pegasus as she opened it. The room was suddenly filled with confetti and streamers. To accompany the colorful paper storm, they heard three loud clicks, the jingling of bells, and a… kazoo? When the joyful cacophony died down, the girls were treated to a welcome sight.

Barely fitting in room with them stood a wide table covered with cakes and treats. Fresh muffins, doughnut holes, and a plate piled high with apple fritters sat in its center. Just to the side, next to a stack of plates and cups was a punch bowl full of juice.

“Sandy! What is this?” Honeycrisp blinked several times and shook her head. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. “Am I dreaming?”

Smarty Pants laughed and elbowed her cousin. “Only if we’re having the same dream. You’ve never seen a Traveler’s Succor spell before? Sheesh, what kind of unicorn are you?” She meant it as a good natured jab, but she regretted it even as she said it.

Honeycrisp knitted her brow. “Well excuse me for not keeping up with the magical times, Pants.”

She sat down at the table, finding a free spot beside the intricate Sun and Moon door. She shot a look at Smarty Pants and continued. “Working on the farm doesn’t really lend itself to a whole bunch of extra reading time. Plus, I don’t know a whole lot of unicorns, seeing as I’m the only one on the homestead.”

Sandy looked up from her half-eaten apple fritter and addressed her two friends with a giggle. “Hey Smarty Pants, I think your cousin should come visit us in Canterlot. There’s a whole bunch of unicorns there. I’m sure they teach magic and stuff.”

“Oh yeah,” Honeycrisp snorted. “I’m sure there’s a ton of sophisticated ponies that just can’t wait to teach a ‘charmingly rustic’ unicorn like me. I’m lucky I can levitate apples and burn leaf piles.”

“Besides,” she pawed a forehoof on the floor unconsciously before continuing, “we don’t need no magic at Sweet Apple Acres.”

She leaned against the door behind her and promptly tumbled through it into the room beyond.

“Ouch! Hay! I thought you said these doors were all locked!”

“Well I thought they were! I mean, the diary said they would be. But, you know, it’s not like I can just cast ‘Detect Magic’.” Smarty Pants tapped her head where a horn should have been.

She walked into the room and offered a hoof to help her cousin up. The offer was bruskly declined.

“Oh come on, don’t be like tha—“

“Don’t push it, Pants!” snapped Honeycrisp. “I have just had the worst night ever and it’s taking every little bit of willpower I’ve got to keep from burning this tower to the ground.” She fumed and pointed at the trio of bright orange flames on her flank. “These ain’t just for show.”

Smarty Pants backed away as her cousin scrambled to her hooves. She took a deep breath and let it out with a snort. “So. Where are we? Is what you’re looking for even in here?”

Smarty Pants stepped away from her cousin. She had no idea where she was.

“I have no idea where I am. This room isn’t in the blueprints.”

She walked over to the door to try and figure out the pattern on it. Like many other doors in the Sun Tower, there was a Sun on it. But oddly enough, this one had a Moon on it, too. There was also something else here. Some pattern behind the Sun and the Moon that she didn’t recognize or understand.

At its core, it was a hexagon with gems inlaid at each of its six corners. The hexagons repeated over and over again over the entire surface of the, just behind the Sun and the Moon. What did it mean?

She looked around the room for the first time. It was surprisingly bare to warrant such an ornate door and key location in the Sun Tower. It made her nervous. Her tail twitched.

In the center of the room was a perfect circle drawn in white chalk. The circle was inlaid with complex runes in shapes and patterns that Smarty Pants had never seen before. It wasn’t bright, but looking at it for too long hurt her eyes just like she was staring at the sun. Inside the ring there was the unerringly perfect outline of a hexagon that matched those repeated on the door. Sitting inert at the center of it all was a single hoof-sized shard of clear crystal. Something about it made her left shoulder twitch. It was a twitch that meant twouble.

“Honeycrisp,” Smarty Pants whispered, trying and failing to keep the panic out of her voice, “Close your eyes and give me your hoof. We’re leaving this room, now.”

Honeycrisp couldn’t tear her eyes off of that beautiful crystal. There was something about it that called to her. It was a beautiful song, tranquil, full of promise, and yet somehow sad. It was so pretty. She wanted to touch it. But she was an Apple. And Apples didn’t listen to singing crystals before and they weren’t gonna start now. She forced her eyes closed.

“G-get… Outta… My… Head!” She grunted the words through clenched her teeth and her head snapped back like an elastic band. Smarty Pants caught her as best she could and the trembling ponies left the room.

Sandy was leaning against the table with half a muffin in hoof and a silly grin plastered across her face. Her usually fidgety wings were limp at her sides, brushing against the floor.

“Heya girls, how’s it goin’?”

Smarty Pants dragged her cousin over the table and plopped down beside her. She smiled wearily at her friend.

“Don’t go in there, Sandy. There’s this circle that hurts when you look at it.”

“There’s a crystal that sings in your head, too.” Groaned the not-so-little red unicorn. She rubbed the base of her horn before she buckled into a weary pile on the floor.

Sandy finished her muffin and looked across the table at her silly friends. They were being so silly. “Okay, don’t you worry. I won’t go into the scary talking shiny rock room. You got it. You wanna try door number two,” she pointed lazily over her shoulder, “or is it my turn to play with the scary things?”

Smarty Pants looked at Sandy. Something was going on with her friend but she couldn’t put her hoof on it. “Uh. Yeah, go ahead. That should be the study. Don’t touch anything that glows and call us if you need help, ok?”

Her stomach grumbled and she realized she hadn’t eaten in hours. She reached for a doughnut hole. “We’ll be out here if you need anything.”

Before Sandy could respond, Smarty Pants took a bite of her tiny treat. Her eyes went wide. “Oh, wow.” She marveled.

Sandy laughed and nodded at her friend. “I know, right? Mommy makes the very bestest best treats.”

This was the finest doughnut hole Smarty Pants had ever eaten. It was like the… king of the doughnut holes or something. She knew that food created via the Traveler’s Succor spell was said to relax the body and mind, but this was amazing. This was nice.

The aches and pains from the previous night melted away with every nibble. A knot in her back worked itself out with a few pleasant twitches. She didn’t even realize it was there until it was gone. It felt wonderful. Her teeth felt cleaner. Her breath felt fresher. She raised a foreleg and sniffed. Yeah, no. She still stank. Oddly enough, that was okay. She giggled.

After finishing that first glorious doughnut hole, she had a second and then a third. With each bite weariness left her. She felt like she just woke up from a long nap. This was super nice.

She felt peaceful. Unnaturally peaceful. A small part of her tried to worry about this new sensation. Smarty Pants tried to worry about how she was letting her guard down. About the strange crystal in the other room. She tried to worry about these things but really, she couldn’t be bothered about anything.

She couldn’t bring herself to worry about that silly old dog, Walter. She didn’t worry about how she and the girls were going to get back to Sweet Apple Acres. She just felt that everything was going to be ok. She smiled and leaned over to watch her grumpy-wumpy old cousin sleep on the floor next to her. She heard a bump and the familiar sound of books hitting hardwood flooring from the study.

“Haha, whoopsie!” giggled her sweetly-sweet friend, Sandy.

Smarty Pants looked at the open door and nodded several times. Still nodding, she turned to the sleeping form next to her. “Shhh, you sleep. I’ll go check it out.”

She got up and stumbled over to a pile of books just inside the study. As the dust settled, Sandy poked her head through the center of the world’s laziest bookfort. She held an old green book in her mouth by its spine. Smarty Pants laughed.

“Silly Sandy, you’re supposed to read books.” She emphasized the word read by booping the pegasus on the nose “Not eat books.”

Sandy’s eyes went wide when she was able to focus on her friend. “Hmardy Famth, A fhoup a pook!”

Smarty Pants cocked her head at her friend in a bid to better understand her. “What?”

Sandy spit the book out and it hit Smarty Pants right in the face. “Smarty Pants, I found a book!”

Smarty Pants peeled the slobbery book off of her face and nodded in understanding. “Oooh, I see.”

She didn’t recognize the image on the cover. That’s because it was blank. Nor did she recognize the text on the spine. It was blank too. Luckily most of the pages inside weren’t blank. The hoofwriting was super pretty, but all the words were upside down. That made it really hard to read.

Sandy fluttered out of the pile of books and landed beside her puzzled looking friend. She looked at the book. Then at her friend. Then back at the book. Then back at her friend. She rubbed her chin as if pondering some grand question and gasped with enlightenment. Then she took the book out of Smarty Pants’ hooves.

“Hay! I was reading tha—”

Smarty Pants marveled as Sandy turned the book around and put it back in her hooves. Suddenly, and entirely unexpectedly, the words were no longer upside down. She could read again! She turned her heavier than normal head and squinted at her friend. She didn’t see a horn, but…

“Are you a wizard?” she asked skeptically.

“Yes.” Answered Sandy.

Smarty Pants let out a depressed sigh. “Everypony gets to be magic but me.”

Her friend laughed and gave her a nuzzle. “So what book is this? It was sitting on the top shelf and it looked really important since it was glowing and all.”

Smarty Pants turned page after page, going backward in time with each page, since she inadvertently started at the back.

“It’s Princess Celestia’s diary!” the earthpony gasped.

Sandy gasped too, because she wanted to fit in. “Really? How can you tell?”

“She signed each entry with her name.”

Sandy’s mouth made a little ‘o’ and she gave her friend another nuzzle. They heard a thump from the foyer, but neither turned to investigate. Instead Smarty Pants mumbled aloud as she scanned its pages.

“H’okay, let’s see here. Abandoning the castle, yadda yadda yadda. Angst and ennui, blah blah blah. Learning how to raise the moon, whine whine whine. A detailed, never-before-published, firstpony accounting of the battle between Princess Celestia and Nightmare Moon as told by Princess Celestia and so on and so forth…”

“Anything good?” Asked Sandy.

“No, not real—wait. What’s this? The Beacon of Order?” Smarty Pants tapped a hoof page with sketches of the door to the other room, the perfect runic circle on the floor, and crystal itself. She quickly scanned the page. Ominous words and phrases jumped out at her despite the fog that had settled over her mind.

‘…failed experiment...’

‘…abandon immediately…’

‘...extermination event…’

Suddenly, the muddled serenity that overcame her when she ate the doughnut holes had vanished. In it’s place was adrenalin fueled terror just roaring and waiting to go. She looked around the study as if for the first time. She noted the pile of books in front of a collapsed bookshelf and her friend who was still dreamily nuzzling her red mane.

A thought of terrible significance thundered in her consciousness from the back of her head. Something thumped from the foyer not moments ago. This was important and it needed to be investigated now. She handed the book to Sandy and gave her a sober look.

“Sandy? Sandy, listen to me. Sandy. I need you to focus, ok? I know it’s hard. Here, hold this book and don’t let go of it, ok? It’s really important that you hold onto this ok? I have to check on Honeycrisp.”

Sandy nodded vigorously but she dropped the book anyway. “Whoopsie.”

Smarty Pants groaned, picked up the book, and jammed it into one of Sandy’s saddlebags. She prodded the pegasus. “Stay here.”

She trotted into the foyer. When she got there she saw the worst thing she could possibly imagine. She saw nothing. More precisely, she saw nopony.

“Oh, horseapples.” She cursed under her breath and broke into a gallop for the open room beyond.

She reached the door just as it slammed shut and its edges began to glow with red magic. She pounded on the door. “Honeycrisp! Honeycrisp, I need you to open this door, ok? I need you to fight it!” She beat on the door, but there was no answer.

“Hay!” she yelled as she continued to knock. “Who’s the big strong Apple around here, huh? Are you going to let some shiny rock tell you what to do?”

She heard a pitiful whimper from the other side of the door and the magic border faded slightly. Hopefully, it would be enough. Smarty Pants spun in place and threw all of her strength into a single buck. Her cousin needed her. Equestria needed her. This was important.

Smarty Pants leapt through a shower of floating splinters and into the room. A small cyclone was gathering in the chamber, but the chalk and the crystal appeared undisturbed. The smell of burning ozone filled the air and Smarty Pants locked eyes with a panicked Honeycrisp.

She watched as her cousin pushed against the compulsion in her horn with all her stubborn might. Step by trembling step, her body made its way towards the glowing circle. Smarty Pants moved in-between the unicorn and the coercing crystal. She put her front hooves on Honeycrisp’s shoulders and started to push.

“Honeycrisp, focus on me. Listen to my voice, ok? I’m going to talk and you’re going to listen and it’s going to be okay because if I keep talking then you can’t listen to the Beacon ok? Don’t listen to the Beacon. It’s very bad and we never should have come here. You were right all along, Honeycrisp. How’s about that, huh? I never tell you when you’re right but this time you’re right.”

She paused to take a breath and noticed that they were almost through the door. Well, the door frame. They were moving through the cloud of wood and gems that used to be the door as they spoke.

“We’re doing great, Honeycrisp. Listen to my voice. We’re almost out of the room. Look at me, no don’t look at the crystal. That’s right look at me. We’re going to get out of here and we’re going to go find Walter, aren’t we? What do you think of that?”

Honeycrisp’s wide eyes trembled and she slurred out a warning as her horn lit up. “B-b-behhhind. Behind y-you!”

Smarty Pants turned to look over her shoulder and saw the crystal speeding through the air towards her and her cousin in a red cloud of magic. She panicked, and swatted the gemstone away when it came within reach.

The crystal was warm to the touch, like an egg in an incubator. But there was more than just the physical sensation of touch. There was a will that worked against her own in the crystal.

She felt compelled to organize. Everything around her reeked of disorder and anarchy. It was her calling to not only bring order to the world, but to become part of a larger whole. She felt the need to submit and obey. She felt the pangs of abandonment. She felt the anger that came from a destiny unfulfilled. She felt the intoxicating rush of being so close to a resolution to every problem in one tidy little red package. Then contact was broken and she felt numb.

Sandy leaned against the doorway to the study and giggled in spite of herself. Her friends looked so silly, cowering there on the floor. The way that Honeycrisp looked so tired. The way her face looked drained of all color as she held her cousin. Smarty Pants looked silly too, the way she tried to crawl away from whatever that thing was on the table.

Sandy especially liked the way her friend’s eyes looked sorta glassy as she stared at the bright pillar of light jutting out of the center of the snack table. Sandy thought that it looked like there was a pony there for a moment, but it was gone pretty quickly. It was probably nothing. Even the ear-splitting sound of exploding wood and stone that happened when the pillar burst through the Sun Tower’s roof sounded kinda silly. She tried to giggle as she covered her throbbing ears, but her heart just wasn’t in it.

Moment by moment, Sandy was feeling less okay about this whole business. She felt okay, but it wasn’t a normal kind of okay. It was kinda weird, and that was worrying. She wanted to be near her friends because her friends would probably make her feel better. She fluttered across the room and sat between Honeycrisp and Smarty Pants. She didn’t know why she didn’t notice it earlier, but they both looked so sad. She just had to hug them.

The burst of light and sound ended as abruptly as it began, and the ponies sat there in the muted silence that followed. Smarty Pants looked to her cousin and asked her if she was okay, but even in her own head those words sounded like she was speaking with a mouth full of marbles. The ringing in her ears didn’t help matters, either. A pair of light green wings wrapped her and Honeycrisp up in a warm hug.

The three of them sat there for a long time, not daring to move. Eventually, Smarty Pants shifted her weight, and Sandy lifted her wing to adjust. It brushed against a table leg and a small tea spoon fell to the floor with a soft plink, and the double doors to Princess Celestia’s royal bedchamber exploded open.

A bizarre creature stood in the doorway in a poorly fitting pink bathrobe with its bushy white eyebrows and goatee done up in curlers. A black sleep mask covered its eyes. With an angry mutter, an eagle’s claw shot up to its face and ripped off the little silk mask to reveal yellow eyes with red pupils.

Blinking to adjust to the light of the room, he spotted the little nap defilers. Ponies. Of course it was ponies. It was never bears or goats or those charming bear goat hybrids now, was it?

“Oh, for goodness sake. What does a God of Chaos have to do to get some decent sleep around here?”

Smarty Pants stared at the bizarre creature as it trundled his misshapen body over to the three ponies. Something clicked in the back of her memory. Did he say God of Chaos?

“Discord?” She gasped.

The draconequus stopped in his tracks and he frowned mightily at his accuser. “I’m sorry, have we met? I’m terrible with names when it comes to mortals. Really, what’s the point in even having a name if you’re just going to decide to stop breathing one day, hmm? You might as well name breakfast sandwiches or pets.”

“We do name pets.” Answered Sandy

Discord threw his head back and let out a huff. “See, this is what I’m on about. You…”

He gestured at the gaping hole where the ceiling, attic, and roof used to be. “Wow. When did that happen?”

“Just now,” said Smarty Pants with a shrug. “Didn’t you hear it?” For his answer, the room went pitch black.

The three girls huddled together. Somewhere in the darkness above, a spotlight burst into life. In front of the three confused fillies was an old white desk. Across the desk sat the strange creature, Discord. He was wearing aviator sunglasses and a vest with shiny badge on it. He pulled a pink water gun out of the vest and set it on the table. Then he took off his sunglasses and put them on the table. He cracked his neck to the left and then to the right.

“I’m asking the questions around here.” He pulled a new pair of heart shaped sunglasses out of his vest and put them on. He continued.

“What year is it?”

“484 AC.” Answered Smarty Pants automatically. She loved a good quiz.

The sound of a pony dismissively clicking her tongue against teeth caught her attention and she turned to look at her fuming cousin. She understood how she felt. Something big was going on and they didn’t have time for this. Still, quiz!

A sudden slam snapped her attention back to the desk. Discord leaned on the table with both arms, drumming his various digits to some unheard tune. He stared out into the darkness beyond the girls.

“Almost thirteen years. Not as long of a nap as I was hoping for, but not bad.”

He slid the sunglasses up to rest against his mismatched horns and looked back at Smarty Pants.

“Why are you here?”

Smarty Pants thought about the question for a moment. If the stories she’d heard about Discord were true—

“They’re true.” He said apropos of nothing. He pulled a pair of glow-in-the-dark sunglasses out of his vest and slid them over his eyes.

“Today is my teacher’s birthday. I’m trying to help her find clues about where her teacher is.”

Discord slouched in his chair and brought his chin to rest on steepled hooves. Claws. Paws. Whatever they were. “And pray tell, just who is this teacher of yours? She must be somepony quite special to—“

“Princess Twilight Sparkle.”

Discord sat up with a jerk and flung the glow-in-the-dark sunglasses into the darkness, where they presumably glowed. “Ha! You? An earthpony? The prized protégé of ol’ Sparkplug? Will wonders never cease?”

“Hay! You leave her alone ya big bully. She knows way more about magic than—“

“Than who, firebug? Than you? Why, there’s no doubt in my mind that little Miss Studybuddy here knows more about magic than some hillbilly farmer from the middle of nowhere.”

Discord ignored the flustered tirade that poured out at him from the two cousins. Instead, he turned his attention to the cowering pegasus.

“How about you, sweetie? Anything you want to contribute to our little ruckus here? I’ve got a folding chair in the other room if you feel like hitting somepony over the head.”

The pegasus let out an ‘eep’ and tried to shrink beneath the table. Discord frowned. That reminded him of something. Or somepony. What was it? Oh, this was going to eat at him all day.

Well, it would have if his train-wreck of thought wasn’t diverted by a knock on the door behind him. Another Discord stuck his head in the room. Smarty Pants once again smelled burning ozone and her eyes went wide. She reached over and put a hoof on each of her friends. “We’re in trouble.” She whispered.

The new Discord was covered in burns and he let out wisps of black smoke when he spoke. “There’s a visitor here for the red unicorn. He says he’s a Mister The Beacon of Order.”

Discord frowned at his doppelganger and tried to dismiss him with a wave. “Tell him to take a number.”

There was a blast down the hall followed by a scream. “He’s uh… he’s very determined to speak with her.”

Discord sighed and snapped his talony fingers. The four of them were back in the ruined upper foyer of the Sun Tower.

“Alright, what’s all this abou—“

A beam of white light hit the draconequus in the chest and he fell to the floor. A collective of clear voices in startling synchronization responded to his unfinished query in a patient and measured tone. “Omega level threat recognized. Entity established as Discord. Attack initiated.”

Discord propped himself up on a furry paw and tried to chase the stars from his eyes. That hurt. It took a lot to hurt a god. He looked at the hole in his chest and realized that it wasn’t something he did to himself. He tried to will it away, but it stayed right where it was.

He jumped to his feet and stuck an eagle arm through his latest body piercing and looked behind him at his wiggling talons. “That’s going to leave a mark.”

He glared at the new threat and dodged two more shots from it’s horn. From far away it looked like any other stupid unicorn. It might as well have been frolicking in a field eating flowers and waiting for death to hurry up and do the world a favor. But up close was a different story. It lacked any of the subtle imperfections that made every special snowflake special.

And yet, despite its unerringly perfect symmetry, it lacked any kind of standout features. It was average in every way. Well, except for its complete lack of hair. Or mane. Or skin. There was just white blandy sameness. Discord hated it.

Another shot hit Discord in the gut and he now had a matching set of holes. He’d make a joke about it, but he was fairly certain he’d just lost a primary funny bone. This was rapidly getting serious. Discord hated serious. All in all, this was not his favorite way to wake from a nap.

He stiffened up and growled at his foe. “Alright, that was your warning.”

He pulled the pink water gun out of his vest and aimed it at the Beacon. “If you lay down and die now, I’ll go easy on you.”

He started priming the pump action on the pink water gun as menacingly as possible. “I’m warning you! This baby will shoot up to 50 feet and the water in here is really cold. Ice cold, even. So you bette—“

There was a zap, and Discord now had a third hole in his torso. “Oh come on! I wasn’t done monologuing! You don’t shoot the villian mid-monologue!” he scoffed “What kind of hero are you?”

“Uh, Discord?”

The holey menace looked down at the little brown earthpony addressing him.

“I don’t think it’s a good guy.”

As if to reiterate her point, a shot fired from the Beacon’s horn. A shot aimed at Princess Twilight’s star student. Smarty Pants watched her life flash before her eyes.

She remembered asking for a pet human for her sixth birthday, only to be told they weren’t real. There was the memory of her first meeting Princess Twilight in Farrington when she was seven. She recalled losing her last baby tooth when she was ten. She looked back fondly at the chariot ride here and the stallions that pulled it, before any of this madness started. She remembered all these things in an instant. And then Sandy jumped in front of her.

The beam hit her in the side and the green pegasus fell to the ground in front of her two friends. They called her name and pleaded with her to be alright. She didn’t move.

Discord looked at the crumpled green Pegasus and felt something stir in his chest. He sensed something. A presence he’s not felt since... He furrowed his brow.

In the blink of an eye, he scooped up all three fillies in his forelimbs and they disappeared from existence.

The Beacon of Order calmly turned and began to walk down the stairs. It needed to find more unicorns.

Moments later, Discord and the three little ponies materialized back into the world. He stood in the royal bedchamber that sat atop the Moon Tower. The Moon Tower in Canterlot. A familiar purple alicorn stood in the room, facing away from him.

“Twinkletoes, we’ve got a problem. A big problem!”

The Goddess of Magic groaned and stomped her hoof, but she didn’t bother to face him. “I know, Discord.”

Discord stared daggers into the back of her head. “You know?! How could you possibly know?”

Twilight stepped aside and turned to face the draconequus. “I know because you just told me.”

Discord looked beyond her to see that there was, in fact, another Discord. He floated lazily on his back while he picked his teeth with a claw. He gave his hole ridden counterpart a casual wave.

“Hi me, how am I today?”

Author's Note

Many thanks to Blood Lord, my pre-reader. He is best pony.

Chapter 3

~Earlier That Morning~

Princess Twilight Sparkle couldn’t believe how perfect her life was today of all days. She rarely got the opportunity to sleep in since taking residence in the Moon Tower but when she could she relished in it. True she’d been awake since dawn, but that was only because the Solar Court needed to dip into her magical reserves to get the sun up. Just like they did every day.

She hummed dreamily as she stretched in bed. A warm bed with freshly laundered sheets, her favorite time-worn comforter, and the warm splash of sunlight across her back, well… it just didn’t get much better than that. Today, life in Equestria shimmered. It was her 505th birthday and she had an agenda of items long overdue. Nothing was going to—

There was a knock on the double doors that lead into her bedchamber. Her eyes shot open, and all the joy and comfort of the last few moments drained out of her through the sinking feeling in her chest. Did she imagine it? Maybe she imagined it.

There it was again, that knock. Okay, she wasn’t imagining it. She went through a mental list of who it could be. There was Quick Name, the captain of her Arcane Guard. He was usually stationed in the foyer outside of her royal bedchamber, but knocking wasn’t a thing the surly pony was known to do.

If he wanted her to know something, he’d walk right in like he owned the place and tell her. Really, it vexed Twilight most of the time. On a number of those occasions, she had been in the shower. But he was a good soul, a stalwart protector, and friend for over 20 years. She’d miss him when he retires next month. No, it probably wasn’t him knocking.

The knock came a third time. Twilight studied the sound. About a minute had passed since she heard the first knock. On average, there was twenty seconds between each knock event. So far, the median number of knocks per knock event was two and a half. This lead her to believe that it wasn’t Cadence, as her knock events were usually separated by ten second intervals with a median of two knocks per event. Close, but no Heartbutt. Plus she left yesterday afternoon with the girls.

She waited twenty seconds from the last knock and nothing happened. Seventeen seconds later, there was a fourth knock event. This one had seven knocks to it. She let out a pained gasp.

What kind of monster would do such a thing? Her previous data points were now skewed by this new outlier. No matter, statistics could handle it. She’d just—

Not four seconds later the door rattled with a flurry of knocks. She counted twenty-five. Thirty-seven. Forty-two. She lost count when she realized that some of the knocks were overlapping each other. It was madness! It was chaos! Wait, chaos?

Oh, horseapples.

“Go away!” She shouted, but the knocks continued all the same.

No. No no no no no. Not today. Today was her day. She had so many plans! The list! Oh, Sweet Celestia, what about her poor checklist? She needed an escape route. Desperately, she looked around her chamber and spotted the closed doors of her balcony. Oh yes. Those would do nicely.

“Uh…” She cleared her throat and continued, her voice dropped a few octaves. “Princess Twilight isn’t here. So… I guess you’ll just have to go away and never come back.”

She rolled her eyes at her own foalishness, but she didn’t stop moving. She crept ever closer to the freedom promised by her balcony. She was so close.

The doors opened, revealing the God of Chaos in all his ridiculous glory waiting on her balcony. He held out a bouquet of roses that she recognized as some of her favorites that grew in the courtyard far below. He was wearing a red and white pinstriped bellhop’s outfit.

“Flowers for a... uh…” he looked down and turned over the little card tied to the bouquet. “Tubelight Spackle!” He smiled at her in that rueful way that only he could manage. Twilight looked longingly at the morning sky beyond him. She sighed.

The double doors glowed purple and slammed shut. Twilight went about casting lock after magical lock onto them. Celestia herself couldn’t get through—

There was a flush from the washroom, and Twilight instinctively faced the sound. Discord sauntered out, wiping his hands on his pinstriped pants.

Her wings flared to their full extension. Her horn glowed and her royal war armor began to materialize around her. The Chestguard of Theurgic Might. The Bracers of the Four Foundations. The Sparkly Tiara of Supreme Clarity.

“First and last warning, Discord. Get out.”

The draconequus put on a show of looking hurt by her display of power. “Hey now, that’s no way to treat a guest. I’m just here to wish my favorite purple pony a happy birthday.” The bouquet of flowers popped back into existence, floating in front of her face. The card read:

Happy 505th Birthday

Princess Tubelight Spackle

She recognized the hoofwriting and she knew it wasn’t Discord’s. She’d file that little note away for later. Discord opened his mouth to speak, but she’d had enough of his dodging.

“I haven’t seen you since the lich incident in Sibearia, over twelve years ago. You only bother to show up when you break something and I need to fix it. Well not today, pal. I’ve got a checklist full of things to do today, and not one of them says ‘Clean up after Discord’.”

Discord pouted at the accusation. “Why Princess Spackle, I’m shocked. Your accusa—“

The air around him fizzled and popped electrically. He looked confusedly at the Goddess of Magic as she glowed with mystical power.

“Whoa Nelly, what are you doing?!” For his answer he was teleported away from the comfy confines of the tower.

When his head stopped spinning, he found himself floating in the sweltering air over a ruined hellscape. It reeked of sulfur and the black sky above him was lined with jagged rocks. Below him was an endless red sea of gibbering teeth, horns, and spikey bits. The demons of Tartarus were ready for war.

He blinked in amazement and let out a whistle. “She actually sent me to Tartarus.” He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Whatever happened to ‘don’t kill the messenger’?”

Discord shrugged and flew off towards the skull shaped plateau at the center of the boiling mass of lumpy evil. If he’s here, he might as well check in on his poker buddy before heading back to inform Ms. Ungrateful McSmartpurple of the coming catastrophe.

A few minutes later, he landed on the flat outcrop high above the endlessly shrieking hordes below. It was barren, save for the countless skulls that comprised it. As he walked across the powdery floor to the two figures hunched over the table in the center, he giggled at the feeling of ancient bones crumbling beneath his feet. It tickled.

Before him were two figures, locked in ageless combat for the fate of both Tartarus and the world above. There was Grymgore the merciless ruler of Tartarus, who was hell-bent on drowning the sun in a sea of blood. His opponent was none other than Shining Armor, former Captain of the Guard at Canterlot Castle, former co-ruler of the Crystal Empire, husband of the Goddess of Love, and poker buddy of Discord.

Grymgore moved a bony hoof through the shallow sandbox on the table between them. “Draw.” He said in a gurgling voice that sounded like a swamp venting gas.

Discord looked down at the box and watched as Shining Armor picked it up in his magic and shook it lightly from side to side to clear the board. He put it back down and drew two parallel lines in the center of the sand with a hoof. Then he repeated the process with a new set of parallel lines perpendicular to and intersecting with the first two.

He put an ‘X’ in the center square. “Your move.”

Discord chimed in. “Still playing for the fate of Equestria, I see.”

Grymgore turned his boney head up to look at the unexpected voice as he drew his ‘O’.

Shining Armor glanced over his shoulder and smiled at the Draconequus. “Oh, hey Discord!” He cocked his head to the side in thought “It’s not Wednesday already, is it?”

Discord sighed. “No, it’s Saturday. I was banished here by your sister, that’s all.”

Shining nodded in understanding and turned back to the tic-tac-toe game. He furrowed his brow and rubbed a forehoof under his chin before nodded to himself with great purpose. Then he placed his second ‘X’.

Shining Armor turned around to face his Wednesday Night poker buddy and laughed “What did you do to her?”

“What is it with you ponies and your accusations, hm? No, I didn’t do anything to Princess Twilight. All I did was show up on her birthday and give her flowers. Then she banished me to Tartarus.”

Upon hearing the name of his old enemy, Grymgore was once again distracted by the garish entity chatting away with Shining Armor. He put his second ‘O’ somewhere on the grid.

Shining Armor didn’t apologize; instead, he turned around and studied the board. He groaned. That old goat put an ‘O’ right where he was going to put his ‘X’. He was clever. Too clever. They’d been playing ever since Shining Armor offered the game as a means to end the Siege on the Gate over 400 years ago.

They agreed to the terms. The game: Tic-tac-toe. The stakes: Victory for Grymgore meant that his army would spill over Equestria, with Shining Armor as his trusted lieutenant. If he lost, the old devil was oathbound to never again march to war against the world above. Every game has been a draw, and they’ve been playing nonstop. Well, ok, they don’t play on Wednesdays, but otherwise it’s nonstop.

He placed his ‘X’ in a corner, and motioned for Grymgore to take his turn.

As the he plotted his next action, the undisputed ruler of Tartarus listened in as Discord interrupted the delightful screams below with more of his incessant banter.

“I mean, I didn’t even get to tell her about the… you know what, never mind. I can see you’re busy. I’ve got to get going. Places to see, ponies to be, you know how it is. I’ll see you Wednesday. Oh, and do bring some bits this time; I’m not taking any more I.O.Us.”

Grymgore placed his ‘O’. “Your move.”

Shining Armor waved goodbye as Discord disappeared in a burst of light before returning to their game. “Huh.” He scratched an ‘X’ into the sand and smirked. “I win.”

Princess Twilight was sitting at her writing desk, going over her checklist for the day. As she did so, she idly traced a hoof through a wide circular indentation roughly in the center of the desk.

Item 1: Review the checklist. Check.
Item 2: Order breakfast in bed.

She took the list with her in her magical grip and turned to walk over the bed. She stared incredulously at a newly arrived draconequus lounging on said bed. He smelled vaguely of rotten eggs and damnation.

“Shining Armor says hi.”

Twilight snorted. “Why are you here? So help me Discord, I will turn back you into sto—“

He cut her off with a wave of his lion’s paw. “Your little Smarty Pants and her two friends are in danger.”

Twilight took the words like a punch to the gut. She wasn’t expecting that. She stood there with her mouth open, struggling to find words. How did Discord know Smarty Pants? What did he do?

“What did you do?!”

“They went to Celestia’s old tower in the Everfree Forest.”

Twilight had heard enough, she turned and started galloping for the open balcony. Her wings unfurled and they began to beat the air furiously.

He snapped his talons and the balcony doors slammed shut. Twilight spun in place to stare daggers at him. Discord sat up on her bed and threw his legs over the side. His mood shifted along with him, and he gave the Princess an intense look.

“They found something up at the top of the Sun Tower. Something called the Beacon of Order.”

Twilight looked to the bookshelves lining the room. She’d not heard of that before. What was it?

“It’s a weapon from a different time. A time when chaos ruled the world.” He explained with a sad smile to himself. “Good times.”

Twilight cleared her throat.

“I, uh, I mean not that I’m not enjoying myself now, it’s jus—“

“Tell me what happened!”

“Right. Sorry. Where was I? Oh yes, well. The Beacon isn’t a pony. It’s not a draconequus either. It’s some kind of living enchantment dreamed up by those pesky pony princesses of yours. Why they never used it against me, I’ll never know. The thing’s got quite the kick to it. Did you know that it took three days for me to recover my full strength?”

“Days?” asked Princess Twilight with a puzzled look on her face. “When did the girls find this beacon?”

Discord scoffed. “You ponies think so three dimensionally.” He snapped his fingers again and the balcony doors opened once more. “Wait for it…”

Right on cue, the mid-morning sky darkened and a pillar of light, bright as the sun, shot into the sky from the South. Twilight threw a hoof in front of her face to shield her eyes from the intense glare. She watched as a shockwave raced across the ground from the epicenter deep in the Everfree Forest. When it reached the castle, she wished that the broken glass that accompanied the blast was the worst of it. No, the worst part was the voices she heard in her head.

She blinked away tears and shook her head. It had been brief, but the sensation was unnerving. The voices had called out to her for help. They asked her in harmonious unison to lend her magic to their great cause. To aid the Beacon of Order.

Discord sat there on the bed holding the sides of his face as his eyes rolled around in his head. “Oof. I never get used to that. But, on the plus side, you got to experience why they named it the ‘Beacon’ of Order. Not a very creative name, if you ask me. Does right what it says on the tin. I would have named it Debbie.” He fell back onto the bed. “You know, just to keep an air of mystery about the whole thing.”

Twilight ignored him and stumbled over to look over the railing of her balcony. Far below she could see a unicorn member of the castle staff unconscious on the ground. Briefly, she extended her magic into the city below and felt other ponies in the same sorry state. They were all unicorns. She let out a heavy breath.

“I’m not getting through my checklist today, am I?”

“No, I’m afraid not.”

“You’re from the future, aren’t you?”

“Maybe.”

“Will we make it?”

Discord gave her a broad smile “Don’t we always?”

Resigned to her fate, Princess Twilight summoned her checklist from the floor. It floated merrily in front of her and then it burst into flames. Its ashes drifted away on the breeze along with Twilight’s birthday plans. Suddenly a new entity materialized in the room, just behind her near the balcony.

“Twinkletoes, we’ve got a problem. A big problem!”

The Goddess of Magic groaned and stomped her hoof, but she didn’t bother to face him. “I know, Discord.”

Discord stared daggers into the back of her head. “You know?! How could you possibly know?”

Twilight stepped aside and turned to face the draconequus. “I know because you just told me.”

Discord looked beyond her to see that there was, in fact, another Discord. He floated lazily on his back while he picked his teeth with a claw. He gave his hole ridden counterpart a casual wave.

“Hi me, how am I today?”

The newly arrived Discord opened his mouth to say something, when Smarty Pants leapt out of his arms.

“Princess!”

The Princess extended her wings and eagerly scooped the filly into a hug. She smelled like burnt leather wrapped in old sweatpants, but it didn’t matter. Smarty Pants was okay. She thanked her own starry flank she was okay. A little red unicorn clear her throat.

“Yeah, hugs are great and all, Pants, but Sandy’s hurt.”

Smarty Pants jumped down and ran back over to her friend, who was now draped over the unicorn’s back.

Twilight’s ears flattened against her head and she turned to look around the room. “Discord, wha… You’re gone. You’re both gone. Great.”

Twilight gently wrapped the green pegasus in a purple aura and carried her over to the bed. She set Sandy down and removed her smoldering saddlebags. One was fine, but the other had a perfectly symmetrical hole burned into it.

Sandy stirred and tried to look around, but her light green mane was matted to her face. “Where am I?” She winced at the pain in her side. She brushed the hair out of her eyes and looked over at the nasty saddlebag shaped bruise. “Ow.”

Princess Twilight smiled softly to herself and shook her head. Girls would be girls and these three were starting to get into all kinds of trouble. At least she and her five friends had the decency to finish school before they started saving the world. She tapped her horn to Sandy’s side and the bruise vanished in ripple of purple light across her body.

The confused filly sat up. She realized that she didn’t hurt anymore and she fluttered her wings excitedly. “I feel... Okay!” She smiled. Then she noticed the Princess for the first time. Her wings clamped to her sides and she curled up into a little ball on the bed. “O-oh my! Princess Twilight. How nice to see you. What brings you here? Where is here?”

“Yeah, hey, where are we Cuz?”

Before Smarty Pants could answer her cousin, the Princess responded. “You’re in my royal bedchamber at the top of the Moon Tower in Canterlot. And you’re safe.”

The pegasus shot into the air at this, flittering just over the bed. “Canterlot? We’re back in Canterlot?”

The Princess nodded with a small smile on her face.

Sandy looked at the Princess and then out the open balcony. Her mommy was down there in the royal kitchen. She could go see her. She wanted to see her. She needed to tell her how brave she’d been. She needed to tell her all about their scary adventure and how she didn’t even cry all that much.

“Oh, um. Can I, um…”

Twilight’s small smile broke into a broad grin and a soft chuckle. Sandy’s saddlebags were lifted off the bed in a magical aura and put back on the excitedly flapping filly.

“Go on Sandy. Tell Powder Puff that Honeycrisp, Smarty Pants, and I will be joining you two for breakfast in just a bit, okay?”

Over near the writing desk, Smarty Pants let out a happy gasp and spun in a tight circle. She loved Powder Puff’s baked goods, they were the best in Equestria. They were super nice. Her cousin raised an eyebrow at the bizarre little earthpony.

Sandy flew over and hugged the Princess instinctively. When she realized what she was doing she released the startled looking monarch and laughed sheepishly, her cheeks a bright crimson. Then she zoomed out the balcony and dipped towards the ground below.

Honeycrisp turned away from the scene with her eyebrow still raised and asked Smarty Pants a question. “I thought you said she didn’t like to fly?”

Smarty Pants shrugged and started to walk towards the two doors that led to the foyer outside of the Princess’ bed chamber. “I can’t be right all the time Honeycrisp. Where’s the fun in that?”

Honeycrisp followed her, but just as they reached the doors the Princess stopped them.

“Uh, Girls.”

They both turned to look at the Goddess of Magic as she wrinkled her nose at them. “Ah. Hmm. How to put this delicately. You both stink.” She nodded in the direction of her washroom. “Go hit the showers and then we’ll get breakfast, ok?”

The two fillies sniffed the air around themselves and gagged. Honeycrisp tried to get the smell out of her nose with a snort as she followed the Princess. “There is no way I’m gonna turn down a hot shower after the night I just had.” She looked over her shoulder at Smarty Pants, who just stood there with a torn look on her face.

“And in Princess Twilight’s personal bathroom! Wait until mom hears about this, she’s gonna… gonna… Smarty Pants, are you coming or what?”

Smarty Pants stood there and frowned at the Princess, clearly conflicted. “That Beacon of Order is bad news, Your Majesty. We need to get out there and stop it!” She stomped a forehoof to punctuate her statement. “We...” she hid her face behind her red wavy mane. “We don’t have time for showers.”

Twilight looked incredulously at her protégé. “Oh, you don’t have time for showers, but you have time for breakfast.”

Smarty Pants puffed out her cheeks and blushed, but still hid her face as best as she could.

“That’s different! There’s always time for baked goods!”

Twilight laughed a good natured laugh and lifted the silly little mare into the air with her magic and deposited her on the washroom floor.

With a wink, she concluded her argument. “Bathe. Eat. Save the world. The order’s important, Smarty Pants. Remember that. You two stay in my chambers until I get back. I’ll just be a moment.”

Twilight walked out of the washroom as the hiss of warm water from the shower head filled the room. She marched with purpose towards the entrance to her bedchambers. As she walked, a blank sheet of parchment and quill materialized beside her and a new checklist was written at the speed of thought. Today was going to be a long day.

The doors opened with a magical whim, revealing the foyer beyond. On the ground lay two unicorns guards, one unconscious, the other rubbing his horn and muttering to himself. She watched as the captain of her Arcane Guard, Quick Name, help him to his hooves.

“Princess.” He offered the gruff salute with a quick bow of the head.

“Quick Name.” She addressed the dark gray unicorn as she walked over to assess the unconscious guardsmare. “There’s been an event.”

He grunted in acknowledgement.

She tapped the unconscious mare with the tip of her glowing horn, and she woke with a start “ORDER! BEACON OF ORDER. MUST… huh?” She looked around, blinking. “Oh, my aching horn. What happened, Quick?”

He ignored Ruby Star and finished helping the stallion Spellbound back to his hooves. Then he bellowed.

“Arcane Guard, Atten-tion!”

The three highest ranking members of her personal guard stood at attention in a straight line. They stared forward into some far off horizon. Princess Twilight tapped her forehead with a hoof and let out a sigh.

“Quick Name, you know you don’t have to do that every time I leave the room.”

Nopony moved.

“Okay, okay I’ll play along. At ease, gentleponies.”

Ruby Star and Spellbound slumped to the ground. Quick Name still stood there with his thousand yard stare. Twilight had long ago stopped trying to figure him out.

“Quick Name, I want you to head to the telegraph office and send a message to Ponyville. Tell them to evacuate everypony to Canterlot. Then I want you to have the folks in the telegraph office relay the message to every town within fifty miles of the Everfree Forest. Report back to me when you’re done.”

She frowned, and added “I’m afraid that I’m going to need your combat skills today.”

Quick Name’s two top lieutenants shared an uneasy look, but he simply nodded and turned to walk down the stairs.

Ruby Star looked up at the pony she swore her life to protect. “H-hey, what about us, Princess?”

Princess Twilight offered her a smile “Ruby, Spellbound, I need you two to help organize.”

Ruby frowned at this. She hated organizing. She didn’t join the guard to organize. She joined the guard to kick flank with mystical powers. She sulked as she brushed an orange hoof through her disheveled white mane.

The light blue stallion smiled. He didn’t have any particular interest in organization, but heck, if the Goddess of Magic needed somepony to swallow hot coals, he’d be the first with a fork. This was his chance to really show her what he could do. It was going to be perfect.

He stood up as straight as he could and saluted. “Yes Ma’am, right away Ma’am!” He made an about-face and started walking for the stairs. He was stopped by a tug on the tail.

Ruby spat out a mouth full of blonde tail and she put on that sickly-sweet voice that annoyed him so much. “Spellbound, sweetie.” She walked up to him and gave him those half lidded eyes that made him nervous. She bopped him on the head with a forehoof. “She hasn’t even told us what to organize yet.”

“Oh, right.”

Princess Twilight closed her eyes and shook her head before finishing. “Thank you Ruby. Spellbound, head down to the House of Commons and find the Senate Undersecretary. Tell her that we need to summon the available members of the Emergency Council. I’ll be there after breakfast.”

Ruby cocked her head at that. “Twilight, toda—Ouch, hay!” She glared at the blue pony who just elbowed her in the ribs. She groaned, but continued.

“PRINCESS Twilight, Your Grace, today’s Saturday. Won’t the Senate be empty?”

“Very likely,” Princess Twilight replied, “that’s why I need Spellbound to talk to the Undersecretary. She’ll know of any available Emergency Council members that haven’t left Canterlot this weekend. You’re dismissed, Spellbound.”

Once more, he straightened up. “Yes Ma’am, right away Ma’am!” and he hurried off down the stairs with a goofy grin. The two mares sat in silence as his hooffalls got farther and farther away.

Twilight stood and flapped her wings once before refolding them to her sides. “You shouldn’t push his buttons like that, Ruby.”

Ruby chuckled nervously and her ears flattened. “Heh heh. Yeah. So! Um, what did you need me to do? Should I go get a bunch of guards and go beat the stuffing outta—”

Princess Twiilight took a step back and spread her wings to their full length to add the necessary gravity to the task she was about to give the fiery mare. “Ruby Star, I need you to oversee the evacuation of Canterlot and our incoming refugees.”

Ruby’s green eyes sparkled. “Whoa.”

Princess Twilight smiled down at her. “Can I trust that you’re the right pony for the job?”

“Am I?!” She reared up on her hindlegs and kicked her forelegs in gleeful abandon. “Oh yeah, I am!”

“Excellent. First, we need the evacuation shelters in the crystal caverns beneath the castle cleaned out and stocked up. We may end up with thousands of ponies down there before the day is over. Got it?”

Ruby swallowed hard at the news, but she nodded.

“Next I need you to inform the Solar and Lunar Courts to set up defenses along the battlements. Hopefully we won’t need them, but if the castle comes under siege they’ll maintain a protective magical barrier.”

“What about the guard? Wouldn’t they be better suited for castle defense?”

Twilight nodded. “Normally yes, but we need the rest of the guard to assist with evacuation efforts. We’re going to empty every town within 50 miles of the Everfree Forest. That’s going to require unicorn teleportation teams, along with both pegasi and earthpony charioteers. The Solar and Lunar Court ponies aren’t built for that sort of work.”

Ruby snorted fiercely. “Alright, leave it to me and the guard, your highness!” She threw a quick salute and turned to gallop down the stairs.

“Oh and do be careful, Ruby. Spellbound would be lost without you.”

The orange mare laughed fretfully but still managed to trip on her own hooves as she passed the top-most step. Twilight winced at each thump as Ruby fell down the curved stairs until she hit the first set of sealed doors two floors below. There was silence.

“I’M OK!”

Twilight let out a sigh of relief and teleported to her next destination.

When Twilight reappeared, she noted how much Sweet Apple Acres had changed over the years. Where once there was just a home for a single family and hooffull of outbuildings, there was now a whole farming community. Applejack would have been proud to see everypony working together to deliver apples and other produce all over Equestria. She gave a nod to the bronze statue of her old friend.

A nearby gasp pulled her back into the present.

“It’s Princess Twilight!” a crowd of nervous muttering ponies started to gather around her at the fountain. A little white filly fluttered up to her on tiny wings and started peppering her with questions.

“Printeth, Printheth, did you thee that bright light thith morning? What wath that thing? Ith it bad? Pappa thayth that ith bad.” The young girl’s father pulled his daughter back to earth and smiled bashfully at the Goddess of Magic. She smiled back before beginning.

“Good morning My Little Ponies. Tell me, has anypony seen Merry Hearth?”

The Apples and extended family looked around anxiously amongst themselves and a chubby yellow earthpony was the first to speak up. Twilight groaned internally. Every generation had an apple that took on the role of Head of the Family. Jolly Green was no exception. He was just an insufferable jackass.

“She and Appleseed went inta town lookin’ fer the girls.” He turned his head and spat a grass stalk out of his mouth. “But don’t you worry none, Princess,” he said with a dour chuckle “I’m sure dem girls is just fine.”

Twilight ignored the past-his-prime patriarch and closed her eyes. She reached out with her magic to search for her friends Merry and Appleseed. She tuned out the questions and stares from the ponies around her and focused.

Soon even the sounds of the windmill and Applejack’s fountain faded from her awareness. There was only an ethereal echo. She felt her consciousness floating and she drifted through the flowing tides of magic that bound the world together.

Each pony has a magical signature that’s uniquely their own. They’re all born with it. It’s almost like a hoofprint, but it’s more akin to a voice. Drifting across the ley lines of Equestria, she could see many magical signatures at once. There was Cadence in Cloudsdale, a bright pink. There went Quick Name, with his steely gray aura trotting through the streets of Canterlot on his way to the telegraph office.

Her unseen consciousness flowed around pony after pony looking for two specific magical signatures. It’s a surefire way to inconspicuously pick somepony out of a crowd. Especially if that crowd is spread out over a few hundred miles.

It also helped that, since they couldn’t sense or see her, there was no bowing or scraping. She could just watch and study her little ponies all day from the comfort of her royal bedchamber and nopony would ever be the wiser. It was the ideal research environment for objectively studying the Equine Condition.

There they were. She could feel the signature warmth of Merry Hearth and the love she had for Appleseed, Honeycrisp, and her unborn child. She could also feel the carefully masked nervous energy of her pegasus husband. They were in the Golden Oaks Library in Ponyville.

“I found you.”

Her eyes went wide. She didn’t say that. Her voice didn’t sound like hundreds of ponies harmonizing.

She willed herself to take in the bigger picture and noticed that she was being watched from deep within the Everfree Forest. A white tendril of pure light reached across the ley lines of Equestria and somehow brushed her consciousness. It was brief just like before, but it was terrifying. Just like before.

The powerful will had somehow pierced the magical vale and learned to spot others. To her knowledge she was the only pony who knew how to do that. Suddenly another prismatic tendril from the Beacon of Order lashed against her.

With each caress, its siren song to order became all the more tantalizing. She realized now that without the right knowledge or tools, confronting the Beacon would spell disaster for all of Equestria. She had to research this thing from a safe distance and figure out how to beat it. She had to leave. Now.

Twilight closed her sixth sense and the sights, smells, and sensations of the physical world came rushing back. She squinted against the brightness of the mid-morning sky. She addressed the crowd with readily apparent urgency.

“Okay Apples, listen up. Something nasty is on its way here from deep within the Everfree Forest. You’ve got an hour to gather some essentials and head for the Ponyville train station. You’re being evacuated to the shelters beneath Canterlot Castle.”

The murmurs turned to shouts of confusion and panic. Two ponies took to the skies and started flying right for Canterlot. Others grabbed their children and hustled into houses or worked themselves into the harnesses of their carts. Not all of them moved though. A certain pudgy yellow stallion knit his brow and let out a snort.

“Princess Twilight, we right appreciate the warnin’ and all, but your suggestion tha—“

She gave the stallion her most imperial stare, and the rest of his words died in his throat. Other ponies around them stopped what they were doing and watched the exchange.

“Jolly Green? Three things.” Twilight said as she took a step forward.

“Thing the first: I have known each and every one of you standing here today since you were foals. I’ve watched you grow and I’ve cared for you all just like I promised Applejack I would.”

She took another step and his eyes widened. “Secondly, you know that there’s nothing I wouldn’t do if I could keep you all from having leaving Sweet Apple Acres. The only thing I can offer now is my protection in the city.”

She took a final step. “And thirdly, Jolly Green.” She leaned in until she was almost nose to nose with the quivering pony. “It was not a suggestion.”

There was a bright purple flash and she was gone. The ensuing silence was broken by a cough somewhere down the ring of houses.

“Okay, ya’ll heard the Princess!” shouted Jolly Green, “Let’s git this show on the road! Ah want all hoofs moving folks.” He turned to address a trio of lollygagging’ teenagers “You three, go round up the elders.”

He looked at the statue of his distant aunt high above the fountain and spit. “They sure did make ‘em stubborn back then.”

Merry Hearth glared back at her equally frustrated husband as they exited the Golden Oaks Library. “Okay Appleseed, where do YOU think the girls are?”

“Jeez, I don’t know, Bendy. Maybe they’re wit- PRINCESS TWILIGHT!” Merry followed her husband’s wide eyed stare and then bowed as deeply as she could. Considering how pregnant she was, it wasn’t actually all that deep.

Twilight smiled warmly at her two friends. “Hi Merry, hi Appleseed. So good to see you. Listen, about the girls.”

It was at this point that Appleseed absolutely lost his composure. “OH PRINCESS TWILIGHT, WE LOST THEM! WE LOST THE GIRLS!” He collapsed to the ground in a sobbing pile of pony.

Merry cradled his head and softly nickered at her overly dramatic lover. She shook her head apologetically at the Princess.

Twilight chuckled nervously. “Uh, no. It’s ok. They’re with me. At the castle. The girls. The girls are with me at the castle.” She offered the couple an embarrassed grin.

Appleseed pulled his head out of his wife’s tender grasp. He wasn’t crying anymore but his lower lip still quivered. Merry sat up and started involuntarily rubbing her belly. “Wait, how did the girls get to Canterlot?”

Twilight walked over to Appleseed to help him get him on his hoofs. “It’s a long story. Hopefully with a good ending. I’ll tell you all about it as we walk over to the train station, come on.”

The married couple exchanged a confused look.

“The train station?” asked Appleseed. Merry shrugged at him and they made to follow the Princess through the old town, hoping for more answers.

A few minutes later Princess Twilight teleported back into the empty upper foyer of the Moon Tower. Her explanation to Merry Hearth and Appleseed went about as well as she expected. Almost.

She didn’t expect Appleseed to faint when she mentioned the bruise on Sandy. Who knew the usually overconfident pony would be so squeamish? Speaking of the unexpected, she also hadn’t expected the Beacon of Order to be able to peer beyond the physical world. She definitely hadn’t counted on his ability to find her floating through the ley lines. The disparity between what she knew and what she didn’t know about this new threat was worrisome.

She knew the Beacon was looking for unicorns and wanted their magic, but for what purpose? Discord said it was a weapon created by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna to use against him in the Age of Discord. Was that true? Why would they make a weapon like that when they had the Elements of Harmony?

She had a sudden unnerving thought. As the Goddess of Magic, did that mean that she was a priority target for the Beacon of Order? After all, if you believe those crazy ponies from the Cult of Mysteries, Twilight was the physical manifestation of magic. Judging by what she just experienced, that was highly probable that the Beacon wanted to get its hooves on her.

She frowned. They were at a serious disadvantage here. The Beacon knew some of her tricks, but how? And how many? She knew next to nothing about it. This required research and research required time. Would they have enough time?

Twilight suddenly discovered that her heart was racing and she was panting nervously. She was starting to panic. She needed to reel it in.

She straightened her posture and brought a hoof up to her chest while taking a deep breath. She let it out and pushed her hoof forward, as if to clear a path for her own thoughts. She smiled.

Future Discord said that they made it through this, right? The fact that he was able to travel back in time from a couple of days in the future to warn her put her at ease. She needed to remain calm. Panic was one of her oldest greatest enemies, and she couldn’t let it win today. She had to be calm. Serene. She had to be the perfect Princess to help Equestria get through this new crisis.

They would make it. She opened the double doors to her royal bedchambers. What she saw made her smile and forget all her troubles.

A scrubbed clean Honeycrisp was fast asleep on her bed. Her red coat sparkled and her two blond pigtails shimmered. The little filly clearly got into her makeup cabinet and helped herself to some eye shadow. Funny, the curt unicorn hadn’t struck her as a stickler for appearances. Well, you learn something new every day.

A recently dried Smarty Pants sat at her writing desk. She was reading the latest addition to Princess Twilight’s personal collection; a book on the civil uprising that led to the creation of the Senate. It was titled The Battle in Seaddle.

There was an unnecessary romantic subplot thrown in to sell a few more copies, and it wasn’t an accurate retelling of events by any stretch of the imagination. She would know, she was there. Even so it was a good read, despite opening old wounds.

Smarty Pants turned to look up at whoever opened the door and smiled warmly at her mentor. She waved but said nothing. She hoped to avoid waking her cousin. She shivered and remembered Honeycrisp’s threat to burn down the Sun Tower a few hours ago in the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters. She wanted to avoid that fate at all costs. Princess Twilight on the other hand seemed content to poke the bear.

Honeycrisp became conscious and aware of the repetitive jabs to her midsection at the same time. She opened one eye and was about to growl something she couldn’t take back when her brain, keenly bent on survival, desperately reminded her that insulting a Princess was a bad idea.

“Good morning, Honeycrisp. Are you hungry?”

Before she could answer, the red filly’s stomach answered for her. She offered a sheepish smile to the Princess and nodded.

Princess Twilight turned to head back through the double doors, both girls in tow. “Very well then. Let’s go check in on Sandy and Powder Puff and see if we can’t fix that.”

She turned and gave Smarty Pants a wink “I’m thinking waffles.”

Author's Note

Special Thanks to Bloodlord, the best prereader money can buy, and he's doing it for free! Very exciting. I do hope you like chapter 3, I've worked really hard on it. Sadly, chapter 4 is not going to show up next week. It'll show up the week after, at the earliest. Apologies, but the wait will be well worth it. It's going to be fabulous.

As always, comments, critiques, rampant speculation, and input on misspelled words or grammatical errors are always welcome.

Thanks for reading, see you in two weeks!

-Autumnschild

Chapter 4

The Goddess of Magic and the two young fillies walked out of the Moon Tower and into the spacious Celestial Courtyard. Honeycrisp, the not-so-little red unicorn, was visibly gob smacked by the sight. Where as war, age, and decay had deformed the courtyard of the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters into a sad pile of rubble, Honeycrisp couldn’t imagine that such a fate could ever befall this sacred place.

The walls were lined with gems and precious metals the likes of which Honeycrisp had only dreamt of. An elaborate gate, wrought of a silvery metal was their entrance into the courtyard proper. At its apex, a jade relief depicted a massive dragon, studded with purple sapphires, sleeping peacefully near a small tree with a door in its trunk.

She turned to look at the moon tower behind her. Honeycrisp noticed the winding spirals of carved runes flowing from the ground all the way to the top. Whatever their purpose was, she couldn’t say, but she could feel the power emanating from them, like the heat coming off of a hot stovetop.

“Come on, Honeycrisp! Waffles!” shouted Smarty Pants from a ways into the courtyard.

Honeycrisp turned and walked through the gate and into the courtyard itself. The polished stone beneath her hooves gave way to a well-worn earth path. All around her hedges bloomed with every shape and color of rose imaginable. It smelled heavenly. She reached her cousin and the Princess and let out a contented sigh.

“Peaceful, isn’t it?” asked Smarty Pants “The Celestial Courtyard is the Princesses’ own private retreat. Princess Twilight’s side is full of these roses. Oh, and one tree. Come on, let’s catch up.” She added with a broad smile.

Honeycrisp nodded lazily and followed her cousin over to the Princess, who was studying a perfectly maintained crystal rose bush with a befuddled look on her face. She saw the two girls approach out of the corner of her eye and she turned to match their pace.

“This is your first time in the castle, isn’t it Honeycrisp?”

“You bet, Your Worshipfulness!”

“Well how about a brief tour on the way to kitchen, hm?”

Honeycrisp’s pink eyes sparkled “That’d be great! Thanks Princess!”

The three ponies followed the dirt path for a few minutes until they came to the center of the courtyard. Here the two halves of the courtyard stood in sharp contrast. On Princess Twilight’s side stood row after row of knee high rose bushes, on Princess Cadence’s side the ground was mostly grass save for the occasional crystal statue.

Floating just a few feet off the ground in the center of Cadence’s half of the courtyard was snow-white cloud bank with a rainbow fountain. Honeycrisp had heard of the rainbow fountains in Cloudsdale from her dad, but his stories didn’t do this fountain justice. To see one for the first time and for it to be as beautiful as the personal rainbow fountain of the Goddess of Love… well it was a magical experience for the unicorn.

Thinking of her dad, a sudden surge of panic hit her in the gut. Her ears flattened against her head and she turned to face her cousin.

“Mom and Pop! Pants, my folks don’t know where we are!” With wide eyes she looked this way and that impossibly looking for her parents, as if they’d be standing here in the Celestial Courtyard.

Smarty Pants started trotting in place and breathing short sharp breaths. “Oh no. Oh no!” She turned to face her unusually serene looking teacher. She leapt up onto her hindlegs and grabbed Princess Twilight just below the neck with her forehooves.

“Princess Twilight! What if they go into the Everfree Forest to look for us? What if the Beacon of Order gets them!”

The Princess offered a calming smile to her protégé and her country cousin. “Relax girls, it’s already taken care of. While you two were cleaning up, I teleported over to see Merry Hearth and Appleseed, told them what was going on, and got them on the next train for Canterlot. They should be here in a few hours.”

Smarty Pants crumpled into a pony pile as relief washed across her features. Her Aunt and Uncle were safe. Their unborn foal was safe. It was all going to work out.

“Y-you told them what was going on?” Asked Honeycrisp. “D-did you tell them everything that happened in the Everfree Forest?”

Princess Twilight gave the worried unicorn a knowing look. “I told them that you three were safe with me at the castle, that a new threat was coming out of the Everfree Forest, and that Sweet Apple Acres and the rest of Ponyville were being evacuated to Canterlot.”

She walked over to Honeycrisp and poked her with her a wing. “Anything more than that, you’ll have to tell them. Come to think of it…” she turned to look at Smarty Pants “I’d love to hear what you three were doing in the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters. Perhaps you’d care to enlighten me over breakfast?”

Smarty Pants and Honeycrisp shared a worried look. Smarty Pants got up from her little ball and nodded to the Princess.

Princess Twilight smiled at the two nervous girls. “Now, how about that tour?”

Twenty minutes later, the three ponies stood before a set of ornate double doors. The doors were made of a dark wood and had rectangular panels that made them look like giant chocolate bars.

“And here we are at the kitchen. Well, the pastry kitchen. Truth be told, there are seven kitchens here in the castle. Sandy’s mother, Powder Puff, is our head pastry chef.”

Smarty Pants rocked back and forth on her hooves in barely contained excitement. “Ooh, I can’t wait to see what she’s making today!”

Two royal guardsmares stood at attention. With a nod of her head, they opened the doors revealing the sights and smells of the pastry kitchen beyond.

“Bleh! What the hay is that smell!” Honeycrisp scrunched up her nose and tried to physically fight off whatever the horrid new stink wafting out from the kitchen was. “It’s like… moldy hay wrapped in sweaty hooves!”

Smarty Pants and Princess Twilight both sniffed the air, but didn’t smell anything out of the ordinary.

“You seriously don’t smell that?”

The Princess and her Protégé both shook their heads. Smarty Pants looked to the guardsmares for any sign that they smelled something peculiar, but they stood there staring into some unseen horizon, stoic as usual. Until the Princess addressed them.

“Bubbles, Buttercup, would you take Miss Honeycrisp to get some fresh air? Oh, and when she’s ready, please escort her to the East Breakfast Nook. We’ll be there shortly.”

The two guards saluted and accompanied a thankful red unicorn back out the hallway they came down.

Twilight walked into the kitchen with her pupil in tow. To her left were rows of stoves. From the nearest, a tray of freshly baked doughnuts floated out of the oven wrapped in a white magical aura. On its stovetop a pot of glaze was being stirred by an autonomous spatula.

The next stove top had a rack of muffins cooling on it and a mixing bowl danced above it, as a new batch was being stirred into existence. Another stove was set up to can preserves, as sealed glass jars full of colorful mixtures were lowered into a pot of happily boiling water.

Another stove had a large pot full of whatever soup Powder Puff was making today.The white pudgy unicorn always had some soup or stew coming together. She was good soups but she was great at making baked goods. Hence the cupcake cutiemark. After all, one can’t live on baked goods alone.

Though you’d never know it with her chubby frame. She always said that ‘You can’t trust a thin chef. Even more so if it’s a pastry chef.’ Powder Puff was one of Smarty Pants’ favorite ponies in Canterlot.

“Smarty Pants! There you are! I was just telling Mommy about how we met that scary Disco guy!”

Sandy hopped down from her chair and rushed around a prep station where a roller was having its way with a bit of lumpy dough. She tackled Smarty Pants in a hug and the two fillies went down in a giggling pile. Twilight looked past the two girls to Powder Puff, who couldn’t hide her worry from the Goddess of Magic.

“Good Morning Princess.” Powder Puff said with a nod of her head from her spot at the table. “I’d bow, but I’m in the middle of whipping this meringue, and if I don’t get it just right it’ll be ruined.”

Twilight smiled at her friend. “It’s quite alright, Powder Puff. I don’t much care for unnecessary pomp and circumstance anyway. Any chance you can whip us up a batch of waffles? We’ve got three hungry fillies to feed.”
The white unicorn smiled and a passel of waffle making supplies floated over to an unused prep station by the window.

Sandy untangled herself from her friend and fluttered over to the prep station. “Can I help, Mommy?”

“Sure sweetie, will you get the eggs, butter, and syrup out of the pantry for me?

“Hey, wait up, I’ll help!” shouted Smarty Pants. She ran past the Princess and the two fillies disappeared into the larder.

Content with the quality of its peaks, Powder Puff stopped whisking her meringue and left it to her magic to complete the dish.

“Princess. Can I… can I have a word with you?”

Twilight blinked in slight confusion at her friend as she made her way over to her counter. “Of course, what’s the matter, Powder Puff?”

Powder Puff crossed her forelegs on the table and took a deep breath before continuing. “Twilight, Sandy’s all I have. She’s my little girl. I know this Beacon of Order nonsense isn’t over yet, and I’m sorry for that, but can you promise me that you won’t let anything harm my Sandy?”

Twilight had never seen Powder Puff so worried before. She patted her forehooves with a reassuring hoof of her own. “Powder Puff, my dear friend, you have my word as a Princess of Equestria that I will not let any harm come to any of them.”

A loud crash from the pantry punctuated her statement.

“We’re okay!” The two girls shouted in unison.

Powder Puff chuckled to herself. “Well… They do seem resilient, don’t they?”

“They do indeed.”

“I’m sorry to be such a worrywart.” Powder Puff turned her attention down kitchen towards the pantry and focused her magic. Two flour coated ponies floated out of it along with a dozen eggs, several sticks of butter, and flagon of syrup. “I’ll finish up here, Princess. Why don’t you and the girls head out to the East Breakfast Nook and I’ll have the waffles out to you in a jiffy.”

The white aura surrounding the Smarty Pants and Sandy shifted to a pale purple and the two powdery ponies floated out of the kitchen behind Princess Twilight.

“Bye, Mommy!” Sandy waved a dusty forelimb at her adopted mother and Powder Puff smiled back proudly.

The three ponies entered the East Breakfast Nook and Smarty Pants couldn’t help but laugh at the sight. It wasn’t the room that was funny. Honeycrisp was standing on her hind legs on the table, her forelegs pressed up against the glass of the adjacent window that looked out over the bustling city of Canterlot. It was clear from her awed expression that she’d never seen anything like it before.

Canterlot hadn’t changed very much in the last few hundred years. It was considered the cultural center of Equestria and the world at large. Though the finest fashions now came from the Crystal Empire, the latest trends in the culinary, performing, and literary arts still came from old Canterlot.

Like a ring of cobbled streets and hallowed halls, the city now circled the entirety of Canterhorn Mountain and no longer just stuck out of its west side. The oldest and richest neighborhoods remained in the shadow of Canterlot Castle, but the city’s industry, night life, and its import and export center were all on the newer Eastern half of the city.

Directly outside the window stood the second tallest structure in Canterlot; the Senate. The Senate had two halls joined by a massive dome. The two halls, the House of Commons and the Noble House, worked together as the true ruling power in Equestria. Anypony could be elected to the House of Commons, though one must be of one of the 63 recognized Noble Lines to serve in the Noble House.

Princess Cadence, much to her sister’s chagrin, cared little for the Senate and instead decided to live life as a figurehead. A mascot of ponydom, if you will. Princess Twilight, though a member of the Sparkle Noble Line, has served in the House of Commons since its inception. Every 6 years she runs for re-election, and every 6 years she wins by a landslide. It was only within the last 100 years that she accepted the internal nomination for Secretary General, and ever since she’s been re-elected to that too.

It was a bit worrisome actually. If she was there constantly and consistently, then was the new republic any better than the old monarchy? She knew that ponies could govern themselves. Maybe next year she wouldn’t run for re-election. But then again, there was still so much work to do! There was—

“Bwhahahaha! What in the hay happened to you two?”

Princess Twilight was pulled out of her musing by Honeycrisp’s raucous laughter.

“We were gonna help Mommy make waffles, but—“

“It turns out that a pile of flour bags doesn’t make a very good ladder.”

Honeycrisp blinked at that. “Ooh-kay. When do we eat?”

Princess Twilight chimed in at that “Soon. Smarty Pants, why don’t you lead the girls to the washroom to wash your hooves for breakfast?”

Her prized pupil nodded and the three girls left the room.

Twilight took a seat and summoned up the morning’s first cup of coffee. She loved this room. She commissioned it to be an exact replica of her old dining room in the Golden Oaks Library in Ponyville.

It was on moments like this, when everything was still, she felt like she really was back in Ponyville all those years ago. She could almost hear the voices of her friends from just beyond the corner. Was it Rarity stopping by to ask for her help in sizing a new dress? Maybe it was Fluttershy coming by for morning tea and a bit of gossip. Or was it Rainbow Dash on her way to show off her latest moves? Dishes rattled in the distance and she turned with wide eyes.

“Spike?” she whispered.

A cart full of waffles, cream, syrups, butters, plates, and utensils was wheeled in by Powder Puff.

“What’s that, Princess?” she asked over the clatter dishes and cups

“Oh, I’m just imagining things. These looks great! Thank you so much, Powder Puff. Will you be joining us for breakfast?”

“Oh, no, not today Princess. I have a whole heap of baking to do today and I’m sure you girls will be busy enough without me fretting over little Sandy all morning. Send the cart back if you need more, ok dearie?”

Twilight nodded as the pudgy unicorn turned to leave the nook, humming to herself as she walked back towards her beloved kitchen.

After another moment, the three fillies walked back into the room where they were greeted with the glorious sight. A stack of waffles as tall as Sandy. Boats and bowls filled with heavy cream and freshly churned butter. To top it all off, there were three wide ceramic jugs filled with three heady syrups.

“Dig in, girls.” Twilight regretted the words as soon as they left her lips.

The voracious ponies descended on the table like a pack of half-starved wolves. There were no screams. There was no time.

Mercifully, it was over in a moment. Twilight looked at the ravaged table in equal parts studious appreciation and abject horror. Telekinetically, she pulled a few stray bits of waffle from her mug and took another sip of her coffee.

Sandy burped a tiny burp and flushed with embarrassment. Ever so quietly, she muttered “Excuse me.”

The four ponies sat in uncomfortable silence as the lone cart in the room began to shimmer with purple energy before it wheeled itself back towards the kitchen.

“So, girls. Tell me about last night.”

Smarty Pants laughed nervously. “W-what’s there to tell, Princess?”

Honeycrisp had enough of Smarty Pants beating around the bush. She was going to tell it straight. “You see, Princess Smarty Pants had this idea about going into the Everfree Forest to find some old Godde—“

“Good old fashioned Poison Joke!” Blurted Smarty Pants with a desperate look on her face. “Right girls? Poison Joke? That’s what we went into the forest for, remember?”

The Princess let out a sigh, shut her eyes, and furrowed her brow. “I was afraid of that.”

She opened her eyes and looked imploringly at her student. “Smarty, you are on your way to becoming the greatest Seeker I’ve ever known. And you’re only twelve. That’s high praise from somepony like me.

“But every year on my birthday you go and do something dangerous in search of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Do you remember when you fell into the catacombs last year and broke two ribs? We didn’t find you for a whole day! What if we never found you? You’d just be another skeleton down there.”

Smarty Pants didn’t say anything, but she turned her head to look out the window. She huffed and Princess Twilight continued.

“Your heart is in the right place, but you’re not ready yet. You know that. I need you to wait until you’re older before you start looking for them again, okay?”

At this Smarty slammed a hoof into the table and looked down at her reflection in the polished table. “I was so close.”

Sandy reached over and rubbed her friend’s back. Smarty’s brow furrowed with a frown, but she wouldn’t make eye contact with the Princess. Honeycrisp clicked her tongue against her teeth as she continued to stare out the window.

Smarty Pants sniffled. “I was so close this time. We… we found her diary in the Sun Tower.” she said as she rubbed her hoof.

Princess Twilight straightened up in her seat with wide eyes. “You found another one of Princess Celestia’s Diaries?”

Smarty Pants nodded as she idly traced the table’s wood grain with a hoof. “It’s in Sandy’s right saddlebag.”

Sandy watched as the Princess closed her eyes and took a breath. When she let it out, Sandy’s saddlebags popped into existence above the table. The green book she found in Princess Celestia’s study floated out of the bag and floated down in front of Princess Twilight. A second pop resounded through the East Breakfast Nook and the bag was gone again.

The Princess studied the cover of the book and turned it over to show the girls. “Did it always have this hole burned into it?”

Sure enough, a roughly hoof sized hole had burned about half way through the center of the book.

“Horseapples,” muttered Smarty Pants, “I bet that happened when Sandy saved me from the Beacon’s magical blast.”

“Yeah,” Honeycrisp chimed in, “I’m surprised it didn’t go all the way though the book like it did Discord though.”

The Princess gave the girls a worried look. “Well, Discord told me that it was a weapon designed to fight him. Maybe it has something to do with—”

“Did somepony need more waffles?” Asked an overly cheerful Powder Puff as she wheeled in a fresh batch on the returning cart.

Smarty Pants flopped back in her seat to stare at the ceiling and raised a hoof. “Hit me.”

A tall stack of waffles landed on her plate and she busied herself with smothering them in the rest of the blueberry syrup and butter. Smaller stacks made their way onto Honeycrisp and Sandy’s plates. As Powder Puff wheeled her trolley back out of the room, Twilight buried her nose in the diary.

She flexed her magical will and sent a simple fix-it spell through its battered pages. The first quarter or so of the pages mended as would be expected, but the spell seemed to slow to a trickle and eventually die out. Frowning at the book, she tried the spell again, with a bit more power, but it refused to repair itself beyond what it already had.

“That’s odd. Well, I can still make out most of this.” She looked up at Smarty Pants. “This is an incredible find. Well done!”

Smarty Pants blushed slightly at the compliment, but still worked to maintain her pout. She wasn’t about to let a little thing like praise from her beloved mentor ruin her rotten mood. Sandy clapped happily and her fluttering wings rattled the cups in their saucers. “Honeycrisp and I helped, too!”

Princess Twilight laughed a gentle laugh. “And you both have my thanks, My Little Ponies.”

Honeycrisp and Sandy hoof-bumped each other and shared in a laugh. It was an adorable sight that chipped away at the last of Smarty Pants’ foul mood.

“So, Princess, what does it say? I remember reading something about how the Beacon was a failed experiment that the Princesses locked away in the Sun Tower because it was so dangerous.”

Princess Twilight read silently for a moment. As she read her face became more and more distraught. By the time she answered the question her ears were flat against her head with worry.

“Breakfast is over girls.” She pushed her chair away from the table and started walking for the exit. “We need to get to the Senate, right now.”

The three girls exchanged anxious looks with each other. “W-why? What’s wrong?” asked Sandy.

The Princess turned and said mournfully “There’s no way we can stop the Beacon of Order.”

The four ponies gallop past the Castle entrance, startling staff and guests alike. Their large dome of the Senate looms ahead of them in the midmorning sky.

Smarty Pants puffs out a question to the Princess between breaths. “Princess Twilight, why can’t we stop the Beacon?”
Eyes ahead on the path to the Senate, she said “According to the diary, the Beacon can only be stopped by a two-part verbal spell. The first part needs to be whispered into the Beacon’s ear by Princess Celestia. The second part needs to be shouted by Princess Luna.”

Honeycrisp ran alongside the Purple Princess and asked “Why can’t we just have two other ponies say the magic words?”

Twilight turned her head to look at Honeycrisp. “Because they didn’t write down what those words are! Only they know them.”

Sandy, half running, half gliding on fluttering wings offered her own thoughts to this revelation “Oh, Mommy.”

Twilight turned her head towards the lime green pegasus. “’Oh, mommy’ is right! And to make matters worse we—“

“Watch out!” a voice called out.

Twilight looked straight ahead and saw that she was just about to crash head first into a wooden stall full of cabbages. She gasped and instinctively teleported beyond the obstacle. Her path once again clear, she continued with her breakneck pace.

Sandy jumped over the stall and glided safely to the ground at running speed. Honeycrisp teleported around the obstacle, like the Princess did, but she looked more fatigued after the fact. She’d never teleported at a run before.

Smarty Pants, and the cabbages, were not so lucky. Smarty Pants did what earthponies do best when met with an obstacle. She crashed right through that sucker at full speed, scattering wood and leafy greens in a wide radius. She shook a particularly ill-fated cabbage out of her wavy mane and ran ahead.

“My cabbages!” cried that same voice again.

“Sorry!” shouted back Smarty Pants. As she caught up to the others, the Princess continued.

“We know what it’s designed to do! It’s looking for a unicorn because it can take control of other ponies, and with a second unicorn it can cast magic twice as fast!”

“How?” asked Sandy nervously.

“That’s the scary part. All it needs to do is communicate with another pony. It can magically compel others to obey it.”

As the reached a wall and took a left through an alley way, Honeycrisp thought back to the two times the Beacon spoke to her in her head, and how she almost gave in each time.

“You mean it can take control of more than ONE?!” shouted Honeycrisp in alarm.

“The Princesses designed it to seek out every living pony for use as weapons against Discord.”

Smarty Pants shook her head in disbelief. “That’s awful! Why would they do such a thing?”
The four ponies skid to a stop in front of the massive steps leading up to the Senate dome’s entrance. Twilight turned to face the girls.

“It was a dark time… A desperate time. If they didn’t stop Discord, then there’d be no Equestria now. There’d be nothing but Chaos.”

As the girls walked up the stairs behind Princess Twilight, Honeycrisp added her two bits. “Well hay, if it was designed to fight Discord then let him fight it. He’s on our side now… right?”

“He’s been on our side for almost 500 years. But he’s not a citizen of Equestria. I can’t order him to fight the Beacon. But that alone isn’t what makes me hesitant to let him fight it. The Beacon is designed to beat Discord, not just fight him. According to Princess Celestia’s Diary, the Beacon is a magical construct built using a forgotten school of magic called Memetic Harmonization.”

The doors to dome, flanked by a dozen members of the specialized Senatorial Guard flew open as the four ponies approached it. They walked through without harassment or acknowledgment into the empty chamber beyond.

“Memetic Harmonization?” asked Honeycrisp, “What the hay is that?”

Blue light filled the room and with a poof of magic a new figure appeared the room. The figure’s voice, flippant and self righteous, answered Honeycrisp’s question from her magnificent podium in the center of chamber.

“Memetic Harmonization is a school of magic that pre-dates the Magic of Friendship. It came to Princess Celestia in a dream over 1500 years ago. Working together with her sister, Princess Luna, the two Alicorns created a new type of defensive magic that adapted to any kind of assault, keeping the caster unharmed.”

Princess Twilight smiled at the blue hologram standing in the center of the wide marble room. “Yes… Thank you, Trixie.”

The hologram gave a curt nod, though still managed to look down her muzzle at the Princess. “Sparkle.”

Honeycrisp stared at the cart-sized golden pyramid structure that Trixie’ s hologram stood on. It was studded with priceless gems and lined with silver runes. And there were three large white pearls, or things that looked like pearls, orbiting the main structure in floating elliptical orbits. To the country unicorn, it looked like some kind of fountain but there was no water or rainbows to be seen.

“Princess, what was tha—“ a purple wing lightly bopped Honeycrisp on the snout.

“No more questions until we leave the Gateway of Knowledge, ok?” Princess Twilight threw the confused country mare a heartfelt smile.

Honeycrisp nodded and the girls walked through a set of massive open arches. The arch was made of marble like the rest of the room, but it was carved to resemble planks of wood. Honeycrisp marveled at the intricate wood grain carved into each ‘plank’. At the apex of the arch was a wooden statue of an earthpony, rearing up on his hindlegs, holding a hammer high in the air. Below his feet, a bronze plaque read:

HOUSE OF COMMONS

Once out of the main room under the central dome of the Senate, Honeycrisp turned to look at Princess Twilight.

“Can I ask my question now?”

That same haughty voice called out from behind them. “Yes!”

The Princess ignored the shouting hologram and looked to Honeycrisp as they walked further into the House of Commons side of the Senate.

“Go ahead, Honeycrisp.”

“So, why does the Beacon need to mind control other ponies to beat Discord? It seemed to be doing a good job of filling him with holes on his own.”

“Well,” said Twilight, “Discord gets his powers from strife, disharmony, and chaos. If ponies don’t fight each other, if there’s no strife or disharmony, then Discord’s powerless.”

Smarty Pants gasped “So if all the ponies are of one mind…”

The Princess nodded gravely “Then there’s nopony to argue about anything, and Discord becomes powerless.”

The group had walked for some time through the unusually empty halls that wrapped around the Assembly Chamber the House of Commons, and stopped in front of a modest wooden door labeled ‘Undersecretary’. Princess Twilight turned to look at the girls.

“Um, excuse me, Princess.” Said Sandy, “But if we can’t find Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, and the Beacon mind controls all the ponies… what happens then?”

“After it accomplishes its primary objective and beats Discord? Nothing. Nothing will happen for a very long time. Possibly forever.”

Chapter 5

Three ponies and a Princess walked out from under the somber cloud of ‘what-ifs’ and into the hectic atmosphere of the Senate Undersecretary’s office. Several ponies were shouting at each other around the desk in the center of the cramped, scroll filled room. Seated behind the desk was the Senate Undersecretary, Straight Lace, with her head buried beneath her hooves.

Smarty Pants, Honeycrisp, and Sandy stood beside Princess Twilight as they tried to make heads or tails of the situation. The tiny room, filled with scrolls and ponies as it was, was no bigger than one of the bathrooms in the castle. The shelves along the bookcase-lined walls were jammed tight with stacks of paper, books, and nick-knacks. Abandoned quills and half written notes littered the floor and a pony couldn’t get very far in without trailing paper wherever they went.

It was more like a janitor’s closet in size and smell. Indeed, the mop and bucket leaning against the portrait of some long dead bureaucrat, clutching a heavily dented thermos, didn’t do much to dissuade anypony of that opinion. How the room was able to hold the seven ponies around the desk, let alone the four that just walked in, only physics could say.

Sandy turned to say something to her friends, but they didn’t hear her. There was too much shouting from the ponies around the table.

A gruff looking pink pony with a close cropped white mane was currently the loudest of the rabble. “Snack Face, if you are insinuating that the might of the Equestrian Army is not up to the task of dealing with whatever this Beacon of Order can throw at- uACK!”

The seapony he was shouting at splashed the grumpy general with an errant wave from his portable aquasphere.

“General Iron Sights, we’ve been over this a number of times. My name is Snack Bar. Admiral Snack Bar of the Grand Equestrian Navy. And I’ll have you know that I was insinuating nothing of the sort. I was merely suggesting that our evacuation efforts should not bury our fellow citizens dangerously underground, far from the freedom of the open and inviting seas. Why, we should send them to the coasts where the generous and benevolent Seaponies will welcome them with open hooves.”

“Oh, I rather like that idea, Admiral.” Shouted a new voice over the others. All but one of the ponies at the desk turned to face the white pegasus mare who went with that voice. Though this didn’t stop anypony else from shouting whatever it was they were going on about.

A notable exception was Ms. Lace. Straight Lace was the current Senate Undersecretary, and this was her office. This was her private space to get away from the workaday worries of the world, and she was the only pony at the desk not shouting. She was too busy trying to teach herself how to teleport far away from here.

Sadly, Ms. Lace was not going to learn how to teleport today because she was an earthpony. Instead she reached into the top drawer of her desk and pulled out the bottle of Emergency Council Gin. If she couldn’t teleport away from here, she could at least try to drink herself far far away.

The white pegasus from the Bucklands continued. “You know, the coast sounds quite lovely. I dare say I could use a seaside holiday.”

The Admiral beamed at his new ally. “Thank you Senator.” She nodded politely to him, though everypony was still shouting.

“Hang on a second” A surly voice that had previously just been part of the background din roared over the competition to draw the attention of the ponies at the desk who were not actively slugging back shots of Under Secretary’s Little Helper.

“What’s wrong with evacuating underground? It’s a time honored tradition! If it’s good enough for digging up gems and metal then it’s good enough to—“

Spellbound, an elite member of Princess Twilight’s Arcane Guard cut off the Senator from Farrington with his own endorsement “Yes! Look, this is Princess Twilight’s plan – To evacuate to the caverns under Canterlot. It’s not up for discussion, when she says jump, we ju—.”

“Yes, thank you Spellboob." said the white mare patronizingly. "We all know you’re quite infatuated with Princess Twilight, but I’m afraid that this is a representative democracy, and if we have a differing of opinion, then we’ll need to vote on the mat—“

The third and final senator in the room, a nervous looking unicorn from Manehatten with his back to the door cleared his throat. “Speaking of Princess Twilight, where is the good Secretary General? I’d love to do whatever it is we’re here to do and then get home before they decide to shutdown the train service.”

“I’m right here Mr. Miles.”

Six ponies; three earthponies, one unicorn, a pegasus, and a seapony, turned at once to face the Princess and the room fell silent. Except for the audible gulping that came from Ms. Lace.

The good General Iron Sights nudged an increasingly sloshed Straight Lace and pointed at the Princess. Her eyes focused, and what was a big purple blur became a big purple Princess. Ms. Lace dropped the bottle to floor with a sputtering cough.

It’s a well-known fact that being caught drinking on the job by one’s boss has the unfortunate side effect of sobering you right the hell up. But Straight Lace didn’t mind at this point. The Princess was here, and she was going to make it all better.

She shot up to her hooves and leapt over her desk and the surrounding gaggle of ponies “Oh thank the stars, Senator Twilight, I am ever so happy to see you.” When Straight Lace reached the Princess, they exchanged hugs.

Princess Twilight smiled brightly at her longtime companion before furrowing her brow in mock condemnation. “Isn’t it a little early to be hitting the bottle, Lacy?”

Straight Lace released her Princess from the hug and turned to face the six ponies standing around her desk. “Do you see them?” she pointed a hoof at the bashful looking group.

“Do you see this?” she gestured to the tiny office they were all standing in.

“They’ve been in here bickering and shouting over each other for nearly an hour.” She sighed heavily and trundled back towards her desk.

Spellbound opened his mouth to protest, but Straight Lace jammed a cyan colored hoof into it. “An hour!” she shouted.

The room was silent until she was once again seated in her chair, at which point she picked the bottle of Emergency Council Gin up off the floor and put the cork back in it. With finality, she added, “Confound these ponies they drive me to drink.”

The white pegasus mare, Rosie Island, turned to look at the Princess. “A thousand pardons, Your Grace but could you, Spellbound, and your entourage step outside for just a moment while we get the room ready for the Emergency Council Meeting?”

Twilight nodded and turned with the girls to leave the room. As soon as Spellbound walked out the door it slammed shut behind the five of them. Princess Twilight turned to the lone stallion and said “Good work, Spellbound. Would you wait out here with the girls until I’m done with the meeting?”

Spellbound nodded vigorously.

Smarty Pants turned to her mentor and asked “Hay, wait a minute, can’t we go in with you?”

Twilight offered a reassuring smile to her charge and was about to answer when the door was opened by a cloaked figure. The room beyond was pitch black and smelled of burning incense, a definite improvement over janitorial supplies. Though the girls couldn’t make out the face of inside the enchanted cowl, the cyan hooves sticking out of the bottom left little to the imagination.

“Enter.” Said the hooded figure. The words echoed through the minds of those present and were not truly spoken. It was an unnerving sensation for Honeycrisp, who felt something similar back at the Sun Tower when they first confronted the Beacon of Order.

Princess Twilight walked into the dark room beyond and the door shut behind her, leaving Smarty Pants and her two friends back safely inside Equestria.

Princess Twilight had been a part of this ritual before. In fact she was its origin. However she noticed how it had changed a little every time it was necessary to summon the Emergency Council. What was once a gathering of friends in search of good council had become weighted down with pomp and circumstance. One of these decades she was going to have to reel it back in.

A deep magenta light began to fill the oddly cavernous room from here she stood. Where before there were bookcases jammed with papers here there was only darkness. Gone were the old stained carpet, desk, and hardwood floors. Instead it was cold stone, hewn from living rock.

The light continued to materialize on the floor and it coalesced into the outline of her cutie mark. Lining the cutie mark stood six ponies. Well, five of them at least. One of the cloaks looked like it was draped over an overgrown water ballon, which was clearly an aquasphere. They stood equidistant from each other and the Princess in the center. There was no wind in this dark place, nor windows or doors for that matter. It was as if everything else had faded away, and the seven ponies here were the only living things in the whole world.

Floating above them in the darkness were countless points of lights that looked like stars, but felt much closer. One of the stars burned brighter when a robed figure spoke.

“Step forward, Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight sighed and took a step forward. As she did, the ponies around her began to sing. Well… not really sing so much as drone. They droned on and on in a joyless chant about the Magic of Friendship. They sang about sharing kindness and the strength of their faithfulness. As they approached the second verse, Twilight had to stop them. She had to stop them or she wouldn’t be held accountable for her actions.

“Okay! Well. This is… awful. Anypony mind if I turn on some lights?”

In a flash, the room was filled with pure white light from sources unknown. The hooded ponies gasped and blinked at the sudden brightness of it all.

“And, while those robes are pretty amazing –what with the talking inside my head and everything— they’ve gotta go too.”

Another flash and now nopony had any clothes on. As it should be.

“Oh my!” exclaimed Long Miles, the Senator from Manehatten, as he frantically went about trying to cover his shame. He was never without his hat and he was overly sensitive about his bald spot.

To his right, Rosie Island's lower lip trembled as she held back tears.

“Rosie," Twilight sighed, "I’m sure it is a lovely ceremony, but we need to get this meeting to order.”

“Maybe we could do the ceremony after the emergency is behind us?” offered Admiral Snack Bar. “She really did work hard on it.”

The Princess gave a nod and smiled at the surrounding ponies. Rosie Island grinned appreciably at the compromise.

Princess Twilight closed her eyes in concentration and a large black board, a map of Equestria, and Princess Celestia’s old diary materialized into the room. Somewhere in the distance, music began to play and the six previously robed ponies began to bob and sway in time.

“Alright everypony,” smirked Princess Twilight as the first verse began, “let’s brainstorm.”

Smarty Pants sat staring at the locked door that led to the Undersecretary’s office.

“I can’t believe she just left me here.” She turned to look at Honeycrisp, who raised one eyebrow at the brown earthpony.

Quickly, Smarty Pants corrected herself. “Us. I can’t believe she left us here,” she laughed nervously.

Sandy gave her friend’s shoulder a pat “Oh this isn’t so bad. Who wants to go into a dark room filled with ponies that talk inside your head, anyway?” Her wings fluttered involuntarily.

Smarty Pants nodded and turned to look back at her cousin, who was making her way down the hall.

“Hey, Honeycrisp, where are you going? We’re supposed to stay here with Spellbound until the Princess comes out.”

Honeycrisp kept walking but answered back over her shoulder. “I’m not going far, cuz. I just want to see that freaky blue ghost pony again.”

Sandy looked at Smarty Pants, who in turn looked at Spellbound.

“Freaky blue ghost pony?” asked Spellbound.

“She means Trixie in the Gateway of Knowledge.”

“Ah. Well, I don’t know why anypony would want to talk to that old windbag, but you girls go on ahead. I’ll come get you when the Princess comes out.”

The two fillies said their thanks and trotted off to find their unicorn companion. As they walked, they could already make out the hologram’s booming voice answer Honeycrisp’s first question.

“Why, the Great and Powerful Trixie is more powerful than you could possibly imagine! She is now a perfect hologram able to perform her magic and share her knowledge without your petty mortal needs like sleep or food or companionship.”

“Well if you’re so great, how come I ain’t never heard of you?”

The flickering Trixie offered only a sneer with her response “Judging by your deplorable use of a double negative, one must also assume that you ‘ain’t never’ heard of many things. Grammar for one.”

“Why you…” Sandy and Smarty Pants both felt the air get warmer as a small fireball shot out of Honeycrisp’s horn at the blue apparition. Trixie laughed haughtily as it passed through her and dissipated harmlessly against the magic-proof wall on the other side of the room.

“Another thing you’ve never heard of? Holograms. Pity really, it was an excellent shot.”

Honeycrisp started to charge her horn for a second attack, but Sandy hopped in front of her before she got too worked up.

“Honeycrisp, what are you doing?” asked Sandy. Trixie answered instead.

“She was about to shoot another fireball at the Clairvoyant and Immortal Trixie.”

Smarty Pants sighed and kept her eyes on her cousin. “Don’t ask any questions in this room, unless you want Trixie to answer them. She’s the holographic keeper for the Gateway of Knowledge. It’s one of the Princess’ inventions. If anypony comes to the Senate with a question, they can ask it here and Trixie has to answer them.”

“But what if she doesn’t know the ans—?” Honeycrisp tried to stop herself from asking by jamming her own hoof in her mouth, but that ship had already sailed.

“Ha ha! There is no question you can ask that Trixie, the Wise and Spectacular, cannot answer!”

“Actually, that’s not true,” offered Smarty Pants. This earned her an indignant growl from the ancient hologram.

“She can’t answer rhetorical questions, and she can’t answer questions that nopony knows the answer to.”

Honeycrisp grinned wickedly “Hay Trixie, what are next winning lottery numbers?”

Trixie said nothing, but puffed out her cheeks with a scowl.

Sandy turned to face Smarty Pants “Does that mean that she might know how to stop the Beacon of Order?”

“Hay, yeah! That’s a great idea! Honeycrisp, we—“

Honeycrisp wasn’t listening to either Sandy or Smarty Pants, but was focused on trying to get Trixie’s goat. “This is great! Hay Trixie, hypothetically, if I said you weren’t so Great and Powerful—“

The soft, omnipresent, humming that had previously filled the room with background noise died out, and Trixie winked out of existence.

“Hey! Where’d she go?”

“Away. And good riddance, too.”

“Ugh, Honeycrisp!” shouted Smarty Pants “You always do this. We could have asked her about the Beacon of Order, but no, you had to go and make her disappear.”

“Oh come off it, Pants. She started it!”

“She has feelings too, you know.” Said a concerned Sandy.

Honeycrisp sank her lower half to the ground with a thump and rubbed her eyes with a groan. “Okay, okay, I’m sorry.”

Nothing happened.

"I said, I'm sorry."

Still nothing.

“Did… did I break her?”

Trixie popped back into existence, along with the humming. “No!” If holograms could look like they had been crying, Trixie would look that way now. “You did not break me, you ruffian, now go away,” and she disappeared again, along with the humming.

Honeycrisp’s ears flattened back against her head, and she frowned mightily.

“I’m… I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. Well, I mean I… I guess I did, but I was just caught up in the emotion of it all, you know? I’m not so good at apologies, but we need your help.”

Honeycrisp cleared her throat and continued. “I don’t know nothing about you, Ms. Trixie. But I think that maybe you can help us. Is there anything I can do to change your mind?”

Trixie didn’t materialize, but her voice called out from the jewel encrusted pyramid that made up the hologram’s pedestal. “I can’t forgive you unless you say ‘Trixie is Great and Powerful’.”

Honeycrisp groaned and was about to protest, when Smarty Pants punched her in the shoulder.

“Alright, alright.” She stood back up and said with as much flourish as she could “Trixie IS Great AND Powerful.” She stuck out her tongue as if the words tasted foul in her mouth, but it did the trick.

There was a sudden burst of fireworks, blastpops, and wizzmaples. When they faded, they revealed the star spangled hologram in all her semi translucent splendor.

“Trixie is, isn’t she?” Bright eyed and bushy tailed, she looked down her muzzle at the three fillies. “Ask me your questions and I’ll tell you no lies.”

Smarty Pants took a step forward. “Do you know about the Beacon of Order?”

Trixie’s hologram looked off into some unseen horizon. “Just a moment… No. Trixie does not know about the Beacon of Order. Tell me about it.”

Smarty Pants sighed “Well, it’s a powerful magical construct. It was built by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna as a weapon to defeat Discord. Back during the Age of Discord, before the Lunar Rebellion.”

“Interesting,” pondered Trixie as she rubbed her chin with a hoof.

The three girls nodded, and Smarty Pants continued “The Beacon uses Memetic Harmonization to adapt its defenses to whatever kind of attacks Discord could throw at it.”

“Hmm. Sounds like an effective tactic. You say that the ‘Beacon uses’ not that the ‘Beacon used’. Am I to assume that this is not for a history class?”

Honeycrisp swallowed hard before she answered “Well, yeah. Didn’t you feel it talk in your head earlier this morning? I thought every unicorn in Equestria felt that.”

Trixie stared at the little red unicorn like she had two heads. “Trixie is only going to say this one more time, Oh Unobsevant One. Hologram.” She stuck a hoof through herself to reiterate her point “I do not have a head. I am no longer bound to my long expired mortal frame. I am immortal and eternal! Beautiful in my ephemerality."

Smarty Pants cocked her head at that. “Doesn’t ephemeral mean only lasting for a short time?

Trixie squinted at the little know-it-all and her voiced boomed through out the halls. “So what? Do you want a cookie? What is your question, Trixie does not have all day!” she punctuated her command with a bolt of magical lightning.

Like a dam bursting, Sandy spilled everything in rapid fire bursts. “We awoke the Beacon of Order sneaking around the Sun Tower in the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters and it wants to destroy Discord, but he’s good and not bad, but that doesn’t matter to the Beacon because it wasn’t created to know the difference! And in order to beat Discord, it needs to mind control everypony in the world!"

She took a deep breath and contuned, "And it can talk inside your head so it’s really easy for the Beacon to take control of everypony and we’re really really scared and only Princess Luna and Princess Celestia can stop it, but we don’t know where they are and if we can’t find them then it’s the end of the world!”

The little green pegasus fell backwards as her wings buzzed frantically. The intensity in her eyes as she stared off into space was not lost on the rest of the ponies and holograms in attendance.

“Right. What she said.” Offered Smarty Pants with a nod.

Trixie grimaced. “Well. That sounds terrible.” She stood there thinking for a moment before continuing. “It uses mind control you say?”

“Uh huh” said Honeycrisp, “and it’s supposed to get stronger with each pony it controls.”

Trixie nodded to herself “Mmhmm, Mmhmm. And you say only Princess Celestia and Princess Luna can stop it?”

"Yes." Smarty Pants stood there staring into the distance. Suddenly, her smile threatened to surpass the physical limitations of her face. “Yes… Yes! That’s it! Do you know where the former Princesses are?” The light brown earthpony spun in a tight circle in anticipation of Trixie’s answer.

“Unfortunately, no. They’ve masked themselves from detection in the physical and metaphysical realms. I’m unable to detect them.”

Smarty’s wavy red mane deflated with Trixie’s words.

“But…” tantalized Trixie. “I have a lead.”

Smarty Pants’ hair sprung back into place and her eyes went wide. “You… you have a lead on where the Princesses are?”

Defying all known physical and magical laws, Smarty Pants found a way to leap up onto Trixie’s podium and shook her brusquely about the shoulders. “Tell us tell us tell us!”

“What manner of sorcery is this?! Unhoof Trixie this moment you… you… Trixie Toucher!”

Suddenly reminded of the impossibility of what she had done, Smarty Pants fell through the apparition and back down the pyramid to the floor below.

Trixie cleared her throat and tried to unruffled her coat, but was unable to touch her own form, no matter how many times she tried. She was not a happy hologram at the moment.

“Ugh. This better not be permanent. Where was I? Oh yes. 40 years ago, there was a fire in the Rainbow Factory in Cloudsdale. Rumors tell of a mysterious dark blue Alicorn who helped put out the fire and organize rescue efforts. The fire raged for several hours, but when it was finally put out, the Alilcorn vanished.”

The three girls listened with rapt attention. Okay, so only Smarty Pants was really paying attention. Sandy was still recovering from her minor panic attack, and Honeycrisp was too busy trying to figure out how her cousin managed to grab the annoying hologram lady when her fireballs went right through.

Trixie continued, “After the fire, only one pony was reported missing; The mare who had been in charge of the plant’s night shift for several years before the incident. It was reported that the mystery Alicorn knew the names and supposed whereabouts of everypony who worked the night shift and helped rescuers find each and every one of them. Some ponies think that the night shift director and the Alicorn may have been one in the same."

Trixie leaned down conspiratorially and looked around before continuing. “Rumor has it that when the plant’s owner asked where the night shift director was, the Alicorn reportedly answered ‘I’m fine.’ And then? She vanished. Neither pony was ever seen again.”

Smarty Pants stood on trembling legs. “That. Is. AMAZING! We have a lead!” She turned to face the other two fillies. “Girls, do you know what this means?!”

Sandy, still on her back, smiled sheepishly. “It means we’re going to Cloudsda—“

“IT MEANS WE’RE GOING TO CLOUDSDALE!” Interrupted Smarty Pants. “Come on girls, let’s go get the Prin—“

At that moment, the wide doors leading out of the Gateway of Knowledge and into the streets of Canterlot slammed open, and a gray unicorn stallion ran through the room and towards the House of Commons.

“What the hay was that all about?” asked Honeycrisp.

Smarty Pants flattened her ears against the back of her head. “That was Quick Name.” She turned to look at Honeycrisp who was still looking as confused as ever. “He’s the head of Princess Twilight’s Arcane Guard.”

“I wonder where he’s going in such a hurry?” asked Sandy.

Trixie shrugged and said, “He’s probably going to see Twilight Sparkle and HEY!”

The three girls ran off after Quick Name.

Trixie sighed and went back to trying to smooth out the fur on her chest. As the girls turned the corner and out of her field of vision, she harrumphed. “Not even a thank you? How rude.”

Quick Name threw open the door to the Undersecretary’s office with his magic and ran in. “Princess Twilight, there’s… I’m not familiar with the kind of thing I’m seeing here.”

Twilight put down the roll of tape and turned to look at her old friend, protector, and close confidant. She looked back at the activity in the room. Rosie Island beamed as she stood there with her newly affixed cardboard tube horn. Straight Lace was still humming the chorus of the song they had just finished singing while she painted Princess Celestia’s cutiemark on Rosie’s derrière.

To her right, General Iron Sights stood stiff as a board and sweat dripped down his face. He was trying desperately to be somewhere, anywhere else. But, like all other earthponies before him, he couldn’t teleport. Instead he stood there as the others slathered him in navy blue paint and taped cardboard wings to his back.

Princess Twilight sat down and tapped a hoof to her chin. “You know, this seemed like a much better idea while we were singing.”

The other ponies stopped what they were doing and looked around the room. The world was in danger and they were playing dress up. Apologies were muttered, towels were given, and cheeks were reddened with embarrassment.

The three fillies slowed to a trot and walked into the brightly lit stone room, wondering all the while where the old Undersecretary’s office with the scrolls and the desk and the mop went to. Before they could ask any of their questions, Quick Name shared some very bad news.

“Your Highness, there’s trouble at the telegraph office.”

Princess Twilight’s developed a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach as she turned back to face Quick Name. “What sort of trouble?”

“When I reached the building, it had already been barricaded by guard forces. Apparently, the incoming telegraph operators started shouting about the Beacon of Order and attacking co-workers. Somepony got out and alerted a unit of the city guard. By the time we arrived, the building had already been cordoned off and surrounded.”

“What?” asked Princess Twilight, “How is that even—”

Smarty Pants gasped. “The Beacon of Order controls other ponies through mind control, right? Well what if the Beacon is able to spread its mind controlling message in other ways besides talking to them? Like what if it’s able to spread it through—”

Princess Twilight’s eyes widened in alarm as she finished Smarty Pants’ thought for her. “The telegraph lines.”

Magic burst from her horn and an instant later the room was minus onePrincess.

Twilight Sparkle burst back into reality at the city guard barricade in front of the telegraph office. The scene was one of eerie joviality. Scores of ponies from the nearby train station or adjacent market square had gathered to watch events unfold. Ignorant to the dangers that lurked inside the telegraph office and they had gathered to gawk at the commotion.

At the first the Princess went unnoticed, until she approached and subsequently passed the barricade’s perimeter. A guardsmare addressed her “Princess Twilight?! I must ask that you to get back behind the perimeter. This is no place for a—“

She ignored the guardsmare and continued straight ahead. As she walked, she began to glow ever so faintly and she phased right through the wall in front of her.

“Horseapples.” Finished the guardsmare. She turned to face her fellow guardsponies. “Look alive ponies, Princess Twilight has entered the building, I need a rescue team assembled, STAT.”

There was nothing out of the ordinary about the inside of the telegraph office, aside from the lack of ponies. Princess Twilight stood in the main room where ponies would queue up and wait to send their messages. There was a sign detailing the different rates and services. Two bits for a short message, five bits for three, and ten bits for notary services.

Across the room, she could see that the four stations where telegraph service ponies would have been standing to assist folks on any other day. Beyond the stations on the back wall were two doors -one on the left and one on the right. The right door lead to the alley behind the building. The left door lead to the back office where the telegraph operators worked. Disconcertingly, she could hear the ‘rata tat tat’ of several telegraph machines.

The Goddess of Magic took a deep breath and cast a cone of silence around herself. The world became still. Hearing no sounds and no noises, she could no longer hear her own breathing or the beating of her heart. It was not a spell she enjoyed casting, but it was necessary, considering the threat she faced.

Calmly, she walked towards the door on the left, already planning out the phases of her experiment. Just before she entered the next room a piece of parchment and a quill pen popped into existence behind her head. She was going to do this right and she was going to take notes. The quill moved of its own volition as she entered the room.

SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL OF PRINCESS TWILIGHT SPARKLE
EXAMINING THE BEACON OF ORDER
EXPERIMENT ONE: ESTABLISHING A CONTROL GROUP

In the next room, twelve outgoing telegraph machines were manned by twelve different ponies. Twilight prided herself on knowing and befriending as many ponies as she could, and she recognized a number of faces, even though their eyes stared ahead dull and lifelessly. None of the ponies had yet to see her or at least acknowledge her presence in any way she could discern visually or magically.

Directly ahead of her eight ponies tapped away at the outgoing telegraph machines. Off to the right, four ponies wore headphones plugged into the incoming telegraph machines as they furiously transcribed coded messages back into the written word. Twilight knew she’d need to get those papers after this was over. So far the Beacon had been several steps ahead of her. If she could get those documents, then maybe they’d be on even footing for once.

A beam of purple energy shot from her horn and hit the closest outgoing telegraph machine operator. She didn’t want to hurt her little ponies, and the blast would do little more than administer a small shock to the system. She braced herself for the coming fight.

Instead, the pony that she hit with the beam stopped what she was doing and immediately collapsed into a pile. The Princess gasped in alarm, and though she didn’t hear it, it was apparent that others did.

She watched as they faced her and motioned in her direction. It was unnerving to see them move and act so deliberately while their eyes still stared off, unfocused into the distance. Instead of attacking the Princess, the ponies stood there and tried to talk with the Princess. When talking failed, she felt one of the unicorns probe at her magical mental barriers. She smirked.

It was going to take a lot more than that to get into her head. She zapped him with the same blast that incapacitated the previous pony, but when it hit him nothing happened. Puzzled, she tried again, and again there was no result.

Oh. Oh right. Memetic Harmonization. The whole defensive adaptation thing.

She laughed to herself, though she didn’t hear it. As four of the ponies lined up to approach her at the same time, she mused on a new hypothesis. The Princess conjured up an age spell, and a prismatic burst of energy hit each of the four. When the dust cleared, there were two unconscious toddlers on the ground and two ponies still came at her. Though one of them was now a toddler, the other was completely unaffected.

As the two remaining ponies approached her, she hit them both with an anger spell. Interestingly, there was no discernible reaction in the ponies. She went through several other emotive spells. Happiness, love, sadness, giddiness. There appeared to be no change in any of these cases. She nodded to herself and updated her notes.

MY SEARCH FOR A CONTROL GROUP CONTINUES. FOR SIMPLICITY’S SAKE, I AM GOING TO REFER TO THE PONIES THAT FALL UNDER THE CONTROL OF THE BEACON OF ORDER AS CORRUPTED PONIES. I SEE NO OTHER WAY TO MEANINGFULLY IDENTIFY THEM AS A GROUP AND I BELIEVE THE TERM ACCURATELY DEMONSTRATES THE DIRE NATURE OF THEIR CONDITION.

IT APPEARS THAT ANY SPELL THAT AFFECTS A CORRUPTED PONY’S PHYSIOLOGY CAN INCAPACITATE THE VICTIM. UNFORTUNATELY, ONCE A SPELL HAS BEEN USED AGAINST A CORRUPTED PONY SUCCESSFULLY, THE BEACON’S MEMETIC HARMONIZATION REDUCES THE VIABILITY OF FUTURE APPLICATIONS OF THAT SPELL TO A NEAR ZERO SUM.

INTERESTINGLY, MULTIPLE CORRUPTED PONIES CAN BE AFFECTED BY THE SAME SPELL AT THE SAME TIME, IF, AS STATED PREVIOUSLY, IT IS THE FIRST TIME THE SPELL HAS BEEN CAST ON ANY CORRUPTED PONY.

WORRYINGLY, THIS WILL MAKE FIGHTING AGAINST THE BEACON THAT MUCH HARDER, AS I CAN ONLY IMAGINE THAT INDEPENDENT UNICORN ATTACKS AGAINST CORRUPTED PONIES WILL STRENGTHEN THE WHOLE OF THEM. OUR BEST EFFORTS AGAINST THIS NEW MENACE WILL REQUIRE STRICT COORDINATION AND CONTAINMENT.

Twilight felt an odd sensation in her left forehoof and looked down. The remaining conscious toddler had begun to gnaw on her.

Ew.

Instinctively she teleported the toddler away and into a crib that she materialized into the room. The toddler was out by the time it hit the mattress. Twilight groaned in frustration.

Great. Just great, Sparkle. There goes teleportation. Now they’re all immune to it.

She looked away from the napping toddler, and noticed that the rest of the ponies, even the previously unaware incoming message operators were furiously carving something into the floorboards. It appeared to be a perfect circle that was inlaid with complex runes in shapes and patterns that…

Wait, is that... A summoning circle? Oh horseapples, it is!

With a silent shout, lightning roared from the tip of her horn and hit each of the ponies. Some went down, four stayed up. The circle was almost complete. She cast a simple fixit spell onto the circle, and the wood floor healed itself of its arcane carvings. Realizing they’d have to start all over again, all but one of them opted to charge the Princess instead.

She dodged each blow as they came, choosing to not hit back in case their adaptation included physical attacks as well. Besides, she had plenty of magic up her sleeves. She extended her will onto all three of their faces, and two of the ponies grew mustaches. One of them fell over, but the other two pressed on.

While dodging a clumsy left hook, she noticed the smell of something burning. The one pony who wasn’t fighting her had set a corner of the room on fire. It wasn’t hard to do, what with the dry paper supplies and machine oil stored in the room. The whole building was going to go up like a tinderbox.

Thinking fast, she sent a bolt of eldritch might into the two ponies attacking her, and they both dropped to the ground. She dropped her cone of silence and the rush of various sounds including her own heart beating in her ears caught up to her.

The lone pony slowly walked towards the fire, chanting “Order over chaos. The Beacon will save us. Order over chaos. The Beacon will save us.”

The Princess hit her with a ziplip spell, and the poor thing fell to the ground. Gathering her notes as well as her thoughts, she frowned as the fire spread all along the back wall, fully consuming the translated messages from the incoming telegraph stations.. She wouldn’t have time to save the papers and get everypony to safety. Cursing to herself, Princess Twilight wrapped up each of the unconscious ponies in magical auras and exited the building.

Once outside, it was apparent the jovial atmosphere from earlier had evaporated, burned off by the fire that even now tickled the roof of the telegraph office.

As she lowered the twleve unconscious ponies to the ground in front of the emergency medical ponies the city guard had on standby, she released those poor corrupted souls from the magical spells she put on them. Mustaches disappeared, lips were unzipped, and toddlers grew to adults in the blink of an eye.

She turned to scan the building for anypony she might of missed. As she reached out into the ether, she again felt the prying presence of the Beacon of Order, scanning the ley lines for any sign of her. Sensing that the building was empty, she quickly pulled her innerself back into the physical realm.

Overhead, a group of Canterlot Weather Patrol ponies hauled in some rainclouds filled to the brim with water to douse the flames. As they worked to combat the flames, the Princess turned to the Guardsmare who had previously tried to stop her from entering.

“Holly Berry, you are aware that there is a general evacuation order, are you not?”

The pony looked nervously at the irked Goddess. “Err… Yes, Your Highness. Though I received the order no more than an hour ago.”

“Ah. Well then, can you tell me why all these ponies are standing around out here, instead of being evacuated to the shelters beneath the castle?”

“It’s uh… not my department?” Officer Berry answered hesitantly.

The Princess said nothing, but her twitching left eye said everything.

Holly Berry stood still for another second before deciding that not being turned into a frog was the better part of valor. She spun around and ran into the crowd of ponies - guard and civilian alike - and began organizing their evacuation efforts.

The Princess began organizing her notes when she heard a small, pained voice. She looked down and tried to identify the source of the sound. Then, she spotted him. The first pony she hit with the static shock spell. He was lying on the ground, being treated by medical staff, but he was still trying to get her attention. She leaned down and gave him her ear.

“It’s taken Ponyville.”

“The Beacon?” asked Twilight.

The stallion nodded as best he could, but it looked like it took a significant amount of energy to do so.

“It has control of the telegraph lines. It has a train, heading south towards Hoofston. It… it…”

The Princess nodded emphatically. “Yes? What else?”

“It’s coming here. Tonight. It wants your power to... fight… Discord.” With that the poor stallion passed out, and two emergency aid workers got him loaded onto a stretcher to go along with the others. Princess Twilight blipped once more out of existence.

Back at the Undersecretary’s office, the room was once again its original size, with ponies gathered around Straight Lace’s desk. Mercifully, instead of shouting at each other, they were engaged in idle conversations. The General and the Admiral were having a spirited discussion on the potential application of strategic pie launching facilities located in designated bakery platforms out at sea. Mr. Miles and Ms. Island were discussing which of their children they were most proud of.

Quick Name said nothing as he stood guard over the room, and Spellbound fidgeted with his guard uniform nervously. Sandy and Straight Lace struck up a conversation about shortbread recipes, and Smarty Pants was going through a stack of old scrolls. Honeycrisp had left the room to go bug Trixie some more, and she was the only one not there when the Princess teleported back in with an exasperated grunt.

Smarty Pants leapt up and ran to her mentor and offered her a hug, which was gladly returned.

“Was I right? Was it the Beacon?”

“Yes, Smarty Pants, you were right.”

The little filly spun around in a tight circle, giggling to herself. She loved being right.

“Though I’d rather you weren’t this time. Several ponies were hurt, and the telegraph office is burning down as we speak.”

Smarty Pants stopped in her tracks and eeped, offering a barely audible apology.

Princess Twilight walked to the desk. “I have it on good authority that the Beacon of Order is on its way to Canterlot. It’ll be here tonight. I don’t know what kind of force it has with it, but I do know that it’s taken control of Ponyville.”

A wave of concern washed over everpony present. This was ill news indeed.

“Additionally, the Beacon has commandeered a train in Ponyville, and has sent it south to Hoofston where it can establish a base of operations in the southern part of the country. To make matters worse, we have no way of warning them because…”

The concern morphed into dread, and the Princess continued.

“Because the Beacon has taken control of our nation’s telegraph lines. This means that its influence can spread at a much faster rate all over Equestria. Without access to the telegraph lines we’ve lost our primary method of communication. We need options. What do we got?”

There was silence. Soon, the silence erupted into panic.

“I have family in Hoofston!”

“Without the telegraph lines, how can we—“

“Tonight? The Beacon of Order is going to be here toni—“

“Can’t we just give him Discord and be done with it? What has he ever done for us anywa—“

“Nono, I think our idea was good before! Someone help me get these cardboard wings back o—“

A sharp whistle cut into the din and the room went silent. Quick Name cleared his voice and offered a suggestion.

“Princess, if I may.”

“Of course, Quick Name.”

“Princess, twenty years ago, before we had the telegraph, when the Emergency Council needed to send a warning message to all of Equestria, we used eclipses of various length, did we not?”

The Princess smacked herself in the head. Of course! It was so simple! Years ago, before the advent of the telegraph, and long after dragon’s fire fell out of use due to ethical concerns, the Solar and Lunar Courts would create a solar eclipse. The length of the eclipse would tell ponies all over the world what kind of emergency it was and whether or not they should come to Canterlot’s aid or…

“We can use a three minute eclipse!”

Smarty Pants tilted her head to the side, trying to wrap her brain around the new concept. “Huh?”

Princess Twilight smiled and felt the burden of helplessness float away. “I can’t believe I forgot. Years ago, whenever there was an emergency like this…”

Sandy’s eyes went wide “There have been emergencies like this before?”

General Iron Sights laughed and ruffled the green pegasus’ mane. “Sure have, missy! Seems like there’s some big catastrophy that threatens the whole world every now and again. The last one was a little over a decade ago. Why, I bet you weren’t even a twinkle in your mother's eye back then, haha. You should thank your lucky stars for that, though. It was a doozy.”

Sandy fixed her mane as best she could and muttered “I’m fourteen years old…” but the General didn’t hear her. The Princess continued her explanation.

“When the need was great, we here in Canterlot could send a message by creating an eclipse. A three minute eclipse means ‘don't talk to strangers, get indoors, and wait for the all clear.’

“What’s the all clear?” asked Smarty Pants.

“It’s another eclipse. That one’s only a minute long though.”

“That’s great, Princess!” offered Spellbound as sincerely as he could. “Though that doesn’t do anything about stopping the Beacon, it just warns the rest of Equestria. What next?”

Princess Twilight lowered her head until it almost touched the ground. “I don’t know, Spellbound. We need Princess Celestia and Princess Luna to stop the Beacon. Unless we find them, I don’t know how we’re going to do.“

“Princess?” ask Smarty Pants. She scuffed a forehoof along the floor as she continued. “We uh… we have a lead on Princess Luna.”

The Princess' head shot back up “You do? Really? She galloped over the short distance to pick up the little earthpony, and she began to shake her up and down excitedly. Up. And down. And up. And down. Over and over again.

“Smarty Pants, you sneaky little thing you, why didn’t you tell me sooner? This is great news!”

Smarty Pants tried to answer, but instead her face changed from a delightfully light shade of brown, to a decidedly queasy shade of green. The Princess noticed a bit too late
and set her back down on Straight Lace’s desk.

"Oh dear." said Twilight

“Hork!” gurgled Smarty Pants

“Oh my!” whispered Sandy

“Oh no!” shouted Straight Lace

Say what you will about the constitution of earthponies, but when they throw up all over the place, they really throw up all over the place. Needless to say, it was a good thing there was a mop, a bucket, and an immortal Goddes of Magic in the room because anything less wouldn’t have got those stains out.

Laying there, prone on the desk and waiting for the room to stop spinning, she offered four words.

“Cloudsdale… Rainbow Factory… Fire…” and she fell unconscious.

Just then a hyperventilating Honeycrisp ran into the room, barreling past Quick Name and wrapping herself around Princess Twilight’s foreleg.

“FROSTMARE! IT’S THE FROSTMARE! SHE ATE MY DOG AND NOW SHE’S GONNA EAT ME!”

The rest of the ponies in the room stared at the strange little unicorn. But as they did, they all noticed an icy draft waft in from the door.

“Hello everypony, I… I’m sorry does anypony else smell that? That awful vomity smell. Mixed with body paint and… waffles?"

Princess Twilight turned the face the familiar voice with a perplexed smile on her face. “Rarity? Is that you?”

The Crystal Empress stood to her full height, looking ever the same as she always has, except for her crystalline coat and mane. When she spoke, vapor left her mouth and with each word the room felt a little colder.

“Well of course, darling, who else would I be?”

A Timely Interlude

~Meanwhile~

Discord sat in his favorite chair, a roiling bed of live corgis wrapped in red satin, as he listened his past self ramble on.

“So you’re me.”

“Yes.”

“From the future.”

Discord sighed, “Again, yes. Look, we’ve got an appointment to keep, can we skip to the part where I believe me?”

Past Discord, floated upside down in the air before his future self, rubbing his temples. “But how is that even possible? I’ve never traveled through time before. How did you do it?”

He got up to his mismatched feet and snapped a claw. The corgi recliner winked out of existence with a bark, and he walked over to face himself, stopping only a few inches from his own beady eyes.

“I’ll get to the how in a moment. For now let’s talk about the why. I’m here,” he paused to poke his upside down double in the chest with a claw. “Because I… or rather, you, are it.”

“I’m it? As in… Tag, you’re it, I’m it?” past Discord tagged his future doppelganger right back. “Well now, you’re it.”

Future Discord groaned and the pocket dimension they were in sagged with his agitation.

Past Discord didn’t care for the serious look that washed across the other’s face. He knew enough about himself to know that a serious Discord was a danger to himself. When he was serious he had a tendency to get all… redeemed-villain-turned-heroish.

Future Discord turned away from him and clapped his hands together. On the second clap, the lights dimmed and the sound of a reel-to-reel projector started up behind him. A screen popped into existence and the two Discords watched this morning’s events play out.

They watched the scene unfold, as Discord stood in the ruined foyer of the old Sun Tower. He already had two holes in his chest. They watched as he pulled a pink water gun out of his vest and aimed it at the Beacon. The three girls were huddled in fear just behind him.

Future Discord waved a hand at the screen. “Do I remember this?”

“Of course I do, that just happened an hour ago. Those beams didn’t hit me in the head after all.”

The Discord on the screen started talking, and they turned to watch. “I’m warning you!” The image on the screen said as he primed the pump on his pink watergun. “This baby will shoot up to 50 feet and the water in here is really cold. Ice cold, even. So you bette—“

There was a zap, and the Discord on the screen now had a third hole to match the holes in Past Discord. Future Discord summoned a remote control out of the air and paused the playback. The image on the screen was of Discord’s face, a flash of panic frozen for the two to see.

Future Discord clapped again, and the dim lights of the pocket dimension brightened considerably. Past Discord shivered as the temperature dropped and a cloying fog rolled in from all directions.

Past Discord stood there, scratching his chin. “So… this is about the Beacon of Order.”

His future self nodded and began to walk out into the fog. He beckoned his duplicate to follow.

Past Discord huffed, and moved to jog ahead of the other. Passing him, he spun around and pointed an accusing claw in his face. “Oh, come off it. That Beacon’s not such a big deal. Why the gloom? Why the cold? With the two of us, I’m sure we can take him. Here, have a hot cocoa and let’s talk about all this before you walk off in a huff.”

Discord summoned a small pink cloud out of the ether and a cup fell out of it. The cloud then released it’s hot, chocolatey contents into the cup before poofing out of existence. He handed it to his compatriot, who smirked as he took the proffered cup. He took a sip and his smirk became a foul grimace.

“This tastes awful.”

Past Discord wiped the sweat from his brow and heaved a sigh. He was out of breath. His hot chocolate spell always cheered him up. Was it really awful? He tried to summon a second cup to taste for himself.

Try as he might, with the whole of his magical might, all he was able to summon was a shot glass of warm skim milk. Panting with frustrated fatigue, he frowned mightily. “Okay, maybe the Beacon’s attacks took more out of me than I was willing to admit. But I’ll recover with time on my own, right?”

Future Discord moved around the still glowering draconequus and continued to make his way into the fog. Calling out over his shoulder, he added “You can lie to yourself all you want, but you can’t lie to me.”

Past Discord opened his mouth to offer a witty retort, but a cup of foul, vaguely chocolate flavored liquid soared through the air and hit him in the snout.

“Come on, me, there’s something I have to show you before I go.”

Spitting out the last of that awful drink, he sulked as he marched forward. As he walked, he noticed the ground change beneath him. What at first felt like sand or snowy cloud, now felt like cobbled streets, like those in Canterlot.

His brow furrowed as he continued to walk. The pocket dimension he was in was starting to feel less… manufactured. There were the tell tail signs of reality sneaking in. The chirp of birds, the breeze, the feeling of normalized gravity. They were all there. But that couldn’t be.

He’d never been able to simply walk out of a pocket dimension before. He’s always had to teleport his way between them. That was the whole point of pocket dimensions! They weren’t just rooms in the real world that you could walk between. They were on different planes of existence!

Flummoxed as he was by this apparent impossibility, he didn’t’ see the white pony he walked into until he had already walked into her.

“Hey lady, watch where you’re…”

The pony, like a life sized statue, fell over with a meaty thud, and he stepped back in alarm. When the pony made no effort to get up, he moved closer to get a better look.

He was right in his initial thought that it was a mare, but everything after that had been wrong. She wasn’t white, she was brown. She was just very pale. He recognized this little pony.

As pale as the fog that coiled around him. He watched as the mare took shallow breaths, and he felt for a pulse. It was there, but very weak.

Her limbs and muscles were locked in the standing position, even she laid there on her side. Her milky-white eyes staring straight forward, a hint of gold in her irises. Although the young mare had a calm look on her face it was unnerving considering the situation.

“Are you okay?” asked Discord. There was no answer, only her shallow breathing.

Discord rolled his eyes and strained to pick up little the pony. “Up we go.” He said as he tucked her under the crook of his left arm. Once again he walked forward into the fog.

As he walked, the fog around him began to dissipate ever so slightly, and he could make out the forms of even more ponies. Each and every pony stood rigid, breathing ever so slightly.

What confused him the most was how they all appeared to have been doing something before they all decided to stand there, being all rude and silent. He came across several sets of ponies that had clearly been fighting against each other, what with the pie remnants and magical scorch marks that peppered the ground and walls around him.

Absent mindedly, he found himself petting the wavy red mane of the pony he held under his arm in an attempt to relieve himself of his new found apprehension. Apprehension he acquired when he realized he was standing in the Grand Central Plaza of Canterlot, South of the castle itself.

The plaza was filled with hundreds of ponies, each one standing with that serene look on their faces as they each stared straight ahead. Standing in front of a pale herd of ponies, stood his future self, a look of shame in his eyes.

“What… what is this?”

“This is the reality of my world. Three days from your time.”

“Three days? This happened in three days?”

Future Discord started to nod, but corrected himself. “Actually, it’s been like this since… oh say mid afternoon on the first day.

“Is… is it like this everywhere?”

Again, future Discord nodded.

“So the Beacon of Order wins?”

“Mostly.”

Past Discord stopped petting his pony and screwed his eyes up in frustration at his unhelpful future self. “What do you mean mostly?”

“Well he didn’t kill me. So, you know, I’ve got that going. Which is nice.”

“How did you escape?”

“Magic.”

“Ah.”

The two were silent for a few moments. Or hours. Really, the only way to track time was the steady breathing of ponies that surrounded them. And if he was being honest with himself, Discord thought that focusing on that collective sound was more than a little unnerving.

“So, why did you bring me here?”

His future self sighed and offered a sad smile. “The same reason my future self visited me three days ago.” He pointed beyond the ponies before them and farther into the courtyard. “Go talk to them.”

“Them?” he asked with no small amount of trepidation.

“Them. Go on, I’ll be waiting for me here. Oh, and if they ask me how I got here, play dumb.”

“Bu-wha? Got here? Who’s going to—“

“Good job, just like that, now go! I don’t have much time left here.” He shoved his past self towards his destination in the center of the court yard.

Uneasily, Discord made his way through the pale ponies and ahead to meet his fate. As he walked, the fog gave way above him, and he was able to see the dull gray sky above. He cursed under his breath as he saw the unmoving solar eclipse.

“Discord? Is that you?”

He stopped in his tracks and looked towards the familiar voice that called out to him. He dropped his pony. Before him, trapped in two identical crystalline pillars, were Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.

“Celestia? Luna?”

The pillars jutted out of the ground as if they had spawned from beneath their hooves. The crystal structures wrapped around the two goddesses to contain them and prevent them from so much as moving. Only their heads and necks were exposed. Each wore a crown of the same jagged crystal that snaked its way up around their horns, robbing them of their magic.

Their bloodshot eyes and the damp, salty streaks that matted the otherwise soft fur that ran down from their eyes revealed much to the God of Chaos.

“What. What happened?”

“What do you mean, what happened?” asked Luna gruffly. “You were there, were you not? We revealed ourselves after the Beacon of Order corrupted Twilight Sparkle.”

Luna swung her neck to indicate beyond her shoulder, and sure enough, standing just a rigid as the other ponies, was Princess Twilight Sparkle in her ancient war armor. Her skin was a pale purple, and her breathing was even and measured. Her unblinking eyes stared ahead into the crystalline prisons of her betters.

Though her face was twisted into the same false serenity as the rest of the ponies, it was clear to Discord that she was crying.

Curtly, Luna finished her statement. “It used her magic to trap us.”

“Then it killed you,” said Celestia, numbly. “We watched as it hit you with every other unicorn and Alicorn here. Cadence, Twilight, and Rarity included. How did you survive?”

“Uh… magic?” offer Discord weakly. Changing the subject, he asked “Where is the Beacon now?”

Luna turned her head to the left and spat, hitting an inert piece of crystal a few yards away. “After it completed its objective, the termination spell in its cortex activated. Now it’s just another ugly rock.”

With fresh tears, she turned to her sister, who she could only see out of the corner of her eye. “Oh Tia, why did we ever make that damnable thing? Why didn’t we destroy it when we had the chance?”

Luna continued to bluster and rage in her clear prison, begging question and answer alike from her royal sister. Celestia simply weathered the tirade as best she could, beyond the occasional flash of emotion that played across her face, she stood unmoved.

As the Princess of the Night continued bemoaning their shared fate, Discord picked up a rock and walked over to Celestia’s prison. When he reached her, he started to chip away at her crystal cage.

“What are you doing?” asked the immortal Sun Goddess.

“I’m freeing you, what’s it look like I’m doing?”

“Why not use your magic?”

Discord pulled away and focused his magic into his free paw. The air around it sputtered and fizzed, but nothing else came of it.

“That was supposed to make a deck of cards. I got nothing. Why don’t you use your magic?”

Luna was first to answer. “The Beacon drained us of most of our magic before imprisoning us. It’ll be a week before our powers are restored. By then, our little ponies will die of starvation or dehydration.”

Celestia’s voice cracked in desperation. “And we’ll have no choice but to watch it happen.”

Nothing else needed to be said. Discord returned to chipping away at the crystal with his rock. Save for the constant sounds of rock against crystal and the breathing of the ponies, the world was silent.

Time passed before Celestia spoke again. “Discord, stop.”

The draconequus froze in mid swing and lowered his arm. He looked at his clawed hand, red and raw from effort, and then he looked at the undamaged crystal. He hadn’t even scuffed it’s clear finish.

He let loose a guttural roar of frustration and threw the rock off into the fog. A pane of glass broke in the distance.

“And this is where I come in.” The three gods turned as one to address the new voice in the fog. A moment later, and the three could see it was Discord. Or rather, the Discord from this time.

“This is no time for games, fool.” Luna spat her words at the pair of Discords. “Either release us with your magic or be gone and leave us to our mourning.”

The Discord from the past, with indignation in his heart and three holes in his chest, sneered back. “I’m not doing anything you old crone, he brought me here from my time, three days in the past. All I did was wake up from a nap this morning and find the three little fillies had started all of this mess outside my bedroom door.”

Eyes wide at the explanation, Celestia looked up “Wait, say that again?”

Discord harrumphed. “Okay, okay, so it wasn’t my bedroom door, it was yours. In the old Sun Tower. But you weren’t using it! Heck, nopony had seen hide nor hair of your royal rump for almost five hundred yea—“

“No, not that. The part where you said the other Discord brought you here from the past.”

“Guilty as charged,” said future Discord with a dismissive wave. The air around him started to crackle. “By the way, my time spell is running out of… well, time. You may want to hurry this along.”

“Tia,” asked Luna. “Does this mean what I think it means? Can we fix this? Can we stop all this from ever happening?”

“Discord,” said Celestia.

“Yes?” asked both Discords at once.

“Just that one,” she nodded in the direction of the Discord with the holes in his chest.

“I see now a way to right this wrong, but it will require your assistance. I can’t force you to do this.”

“Sixty seconds till the spell ends,” stated the Discord without holes in his chest, the air around him began to swirl.

“Will you help us? Will you save our ponies and all of Equestria?”

Past Discord looked down at his hands mentally weighing his options.

“Fifty seconds.”

He clenched his raw hand a few times before looking the Sun Goddess in the eye. “I will.”

“Excellent. Come closer so I can kiss you.”

“What?!”

“Sister!”

“Forty-five seconds.”

Celestia turned to catch her sister out of the corner of her eye. “Our horns are useless right now, and time is of the essence. If we’re going to grant Discord the power he needs to break this cycle, we’ll have to do it through a kiss. It’s the only way, and you know—.”

She was cut off by a surprise kiss on the lips.

“Thirty-five seconds.” The air around the four gods began to whip and stir.

Discord pulled away. “I don’t feel any different. Did it work?”

Celestria frowned. “No, because I haven’t prepared the spell!”

“What? Why not?”

“You startled me, you old goat!”

“Hay now, let’s not get into who’s old around—“

“This is your thirty second warning, folks.” A tearing sound filled the air, and a portal opened some fifty feet behind them.

“I’m ready,” said Luna, urgently. “Get over here and let’s get this over with.”

Discord approached the deep blue Princess of the night with trepidation. They had never been particularly fond of each other, but if this was going to work he’d have too…

His mind went blank as their lips touched. A searing pain burned through him from tip to tail. The holes in his chest sealed, and the pain fell away, replaced with a rush of energy.

He opened his eyes, not that he remembered closing them in the first place, and saw that Luna looked similarly uneasy about the exchange. Her once ethereal hair now limp, and very much real, hung heavily from her head and neck.

“Twenty seconds.”

The portal now sounded like a distant waterfall, and the newly healed Discord could feel it pulling at him as he turned to face the other Princess. She eyed him with equal parts hope and despair.

He kissed her.

Their kiss was brief, but powerful. His lips tingled, and his mind burned with the heat of the midday sun. His chaotic nature warred with the harmonious origin of his new power, and he felt like he was in danger of tearing himself apart, just by existing. If it weren’t all so thrilling, he’d have already have done so.

The energy rushing from the Princess also came with the knowledge of time-walking, a spell that could alter the flow of time as easily as one could walk from one room to another. A spell that would irrevocably change the fate of the world. As their lips continued their short-lived embrace, Discord could feel Celestia’s thoughts and fears as if they were his own.

Her concerns about sharing such a powerful spell with a being of pure chaos were first and foremost in her mind. Sure he might be able to use it to save the world, but the other Discord behind him told her that he’d already failed before. How far back did the time loop go? How many times have they failed? What if they succeeded this time? If they did succeed, what was to say that Discord wouldn’t use that power for ill in the future?

Their lips parted and Discord grabbed his head to steady himself. Though the contact ended, his internal tug-of-war between harmony and chaos raged on.

“Ow,” he said, as his eyes lolled about in his head.

“Indeed,” agreed Celestia through the puffy pink mane that enveloped her head.

“Ten seconds.”

“So. This is it, huh? Use the power you gave me to beat the Beacon of Order, or time-walk back three days and start the loop all over again?”

The two Princesses nodded.

“Okay, I can do that. I think. I hope.”

“Five seconds!” shouted future Discord over the now roaring portal. Past Discord could no longer resist its pull.

Luna’s eyes went wide with a sudden thought. “Discord!” she shouted, “Find us in the past! We will help you! Tell us what you know!”

Celestia’s eyes went wide. “Yes! We will both be in Canterlot after the dragon attack.”

“Dragon attack?”

“Three seconds!”

“Oh yes,” nodded Luna. “It was quite spectacular.”

“Two…”

“To find us, you’ll need to know our aliases,” shouted Celestia through her mass of pink hair. “Honestly, I’m not sure how we stayed hidden for so long, since we both wo—“

There was a loud sucking sound, followed by an implosion. The portal disappeared and only three gods remained.

“And he’s gone.” Discord brushed himself off and walked over to the princesses.

He snapped a fuzzy thumb to a furry forefinger and several chisels and hammers appeared. He then pointed at the two Princesses and the floating construction gear went to work chipping silently away at the two crystal masses.

“It’s not much,” he said with a sad grin, “but it’s the best I can do. That time-walking spell really takes it out of you. I should have you both free in a few days.”

Luna yawned. “We… I thank you, Discord. I am exhausted and my power drained. I fear I may fall asleep where I stand.”

Celestia nodded, “Agreed, dear sister. Though I gave most of my remaining power to Discord, I feel... hopeful. Perhaps we can correct the mistakes of the past and prevent this future from ever happening.”

Luna said nothing. She was already asleep.

Celestia chuckled a small humorless laugh, and Discord cleared his throat. “So. If I fix this in the past, what happens to us?”

Celestia took a ragged breath. “Time is like a river, Discord. It is shaped by events and blockages. When the Beacon of Order is defeated in the past, the river of time will change course. This timeline and our failure will cease to be, and a new brighter future will flow on along a new path.”

“I see. Will it hurt?”

“Does it matter?”

“I suppose it doesn’t.”

“Tell me, Discord,” Celestia asked with a yawn, “did we almost win this time around?”

Discord nodded. “We were so close. Twilight and the others, they almost did it. And then?... Then we zagged when we should have zigged.”

Celestia smirked. “Don’t you mean ‘zigged when we should have zagged?’”

Discord shook his head. “No, that’s what the me before me said they did.”

“I see. And what did you tell you this time around?”

“Nothing.”

“I see.”

They stood in silence for a few minutes as the crystal was ever-so-slowly removed in tiny flakes. Eventually, Celestia followed her sister into fitful sleep and Discord walked over to the pale brown pony lying rigidly on her side. He picked her up and dusted her off.

“You know,” he said as he walked the little pony over to her beloved mentor, “we almost did it.”

Soon enough, he stood in front of the unusually pale Goddess of Magic and let out a sigh. Discord set Smarty Pants down in front of the silently crying Princess Twilight Sparkle. He sat himself down next to her and with a grunt of effort, he produced a handkerchief out of thin air. He dried the tears from her face.

“Hello, Sparkplug. It’s me. Discord.”

There was no response, so he continued. "We, uh, we almost had him, eh?”

Still no response from the good Secretary General, but she wasn’t crying anymore. Discord took that as a good sign and carried on.

“This is really hard for me. I’m not usually one for apologies. But I wanted you to know... That is to say... You know...”

He took a breath and his voice took on an unusually serious tone. “Twilight, I’m so sorry about all this. I’m sorry about lying to you on your birthday, I just… I just couldn’t bear to tell you the truth at the time, you know?”

“SMMM”

Discord looked hard at Twilight, and realized that she was trying to say something.

“SMMMMMMM” She tried again. Her breathing became ragged and new tears started to pool in her eyes.

“SMMMMMMMMMaaaaaaah”

“Smarty Pants?” asked Discord. “She’s here. She’s right here. She’s going to be fine. We're all going to be fine.”

Chapter 6

“Rarity!” Twilight rushed forward and hugged her old friend, ignoring the bitter cold that came with touching her. “What in the wide world of Equestria are you doing here?”

“Well it’s your birthday, silly! Why wouldn’t I want to see my dearest friend on her birthday? Oh, speaking of which…” She levitated a small pristinely wrapped package out of the hallway behind her and presented it to Twilight. “Happy Birthday.”

Twilight offered the glimmering white unicorn a broad grin as she opened the package. “Oh, Rarity. You didn’t need to do tha— My brush!” she gasped. “Oh Rarity, this is my favorite brush! I lost it years ago. How did you find it?”

Rarity tittered. “Actually I was hoping you could tell me. It all happened late one night, some five years ago, when this brute of a brush came crashing through my bedroom window and impaled itself into my favorite self-portrait. Oh, You know the one. It had that...”

As Rarity spoke, Twilight had a sudden flashback.

Five years ago? On my 500th birthday? Wasn’t that the night that Smarty Pants came in with the cake? There was the headboard incident, the drinking contest, the horrible burp,the shower, the… oh Celestia, I dropped that brush on my horn and then…”

“…uite the scandal in the Empire. Rumors spread like wildfire that I had gone into one of my tantrums again. Did you know it took me two days to convince my little ponies to come out of their fallout shelters?”

Twilight pinned her ears back against her skull and chuckled nervously. “Heh heh. You don’t say.”

“I do say, and… oh, my,” sheepishly, she looked around at the other ponies in the room. “I just walked right in and took over the conversation, didn’t I? Terribly sorry.”

She laughed at her own shortcoming, before continuing. “You know, being the Immortal and Infallible Ruler of a Glorious Empire does tend to go to a girl’s head. But that’s no excuse for rudeness! I’ll wait outside for you Twilight, dear.”

The Crystal Empress turned and walked out the door and the temperature in the room began to rise back to a comfortable level.

“Your Grace?”

Twilight turned to face her stoic friend and leader of her Arcane Guard, Quick Name.

“What is your plan?”

Twilight rubbed her chin in thought for a moment before answering. “Well, we know that the Beacon of Order is on its way here tonight. We also know that finding Princess Celestia and Princess Luna is our only hope of stopping it.”

Smarty Pants, eager to reiterate the information she and the two fillies discovered earlier, said “And the last Princess Luna sighting was in Cloudsdale!”

Princess Twilight nodded at her apprentice. “Correct, Smarty Pants.”

“The telegraph systems have been taken over by the Beacon and its corrupted ponies. So outside of an eclipse, we don’t have any means of long distance communication,” grunted General Iron Sights.

Straight Lace looked up from her desk, where she was still scrubbing away, hoping to get the vomit smell out. “Twilight, do you still want us to organize that three minute eclipse?”

Twilight started to nod, but stopped half way through. “Yes… though, thinking on the good General’s words…”

A fresh scroll and a quill filled with ink materialized before the Princess and she began to write furiously.

“Are you making a list?” asked Smarty Pants.

Twilight, focused on her writing, didn’t look away from the paper when she answered the light brown earth pony. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of this sooner. I’m writing a message to Cadence explaining everything that’s happened and what we’re planning. Since she’s in Cloudsdale, I’m telling her that you and I will be there soon.”

She wrapped up the message and gave it a once over for penmareship, spelling errors, and proper grammar. Honeycrisp said something, but she missed it. With a poof, she sent the letter along zipping along its way to her Alicorn sister.

“What was that, Honeycrisp?” asked Twilight.

“I said ‘I’m coming to Cloudsdale too’.” She answered with a snort.

“Why do you want to go?” Smarty Pants asked her red cousin.

“A bunch of reasons!” she counted them off one by one on her hooves. “My Pop’s always going on and on about the Rainbow Factory there, and I want to see it. This Beacon nonsense is partly my fault. No respectable Apple is gonna let some other pony fix their mistakes. Pants here is gonna need somepony with a lick of sense to help her and watch her pl—“

Twilight stuck a hoof in the unicorn’s mouth. “Okay, okay, you’re in.”

A green pegasus fluttered in between her unicorn friend and the Princess. Though she quivered slightly, she had an uncharacteristic intensity in her eyes. Shemuttered something from behind her wings.

“Er… Come again?” asked Princess Twilight, patiently.

Honeycrisp stepped up and roped a foreleg around the pegasus’ neck. Looking at the Princess, she grinned fiercely. “Sandy said she’s coming too!”

Sandy grinned appreciably at her newest friend. Smarty Pants walked over to the other side of her and patted her on the back.

“Way to be, Sandy!” She turned to look at her beloved teacher. “Can we all go?”

As if sensing weakness, the three girls activated the power that all adorable fillies have. With wide eyes, they pouted as one.

“Gah!” Twilight reeled back, trying in vain to tear her eyes away from the heartwarming sight. “There should be a law agai—“

“PLEAAAAASE!” they begged in unison.

“Okay, okay! You can come, just… Meet me outside.”

The three girls giggled and pranced in place before galloping out of the room. Twilight laughed softly to herself as she turned to follow them out the door.

“Uh, Princess Twilight?”

The Princess turned to look at Spellbound, still standing at attention next to his superior. She tilted her head to the side and smiled. “Yes?”

Spellbound swallowed hard. The Princess, his Princess, stood there gazing at him as her dark hair coiled and rolled through the air around her head, like it was floating in some kind of water, or something.

“Can I come, too? I mean, I did everything you asked me to do! Maybe I can help your research efforts in Cloudsdale, or—”

“Spellbound.” As soon as she said his name, his mouth went dry and his heart soared. Oh, he could stare into those eyes all day.

“I need you to stay here with Ruby Star. Find out what she needs done and do it.”

The stallion, still a youth in the eyes of his peers, deflated immediately. His shoulders slumped and his own gaze fell to the floor.

The Princess started to turn to leave again, before remembering one last thing. “Oh and I need you to find Discord. Either one of them.”

Spellbound, momentarily forgetting his own pity party, looked up in confusion. “There’s more than one Discord?”

Twilight sighed. “Yes, there’s one from the future too. Anyway, go find a Discord and tell him that he’s in charge of Canterlot’s Defense.”

Incredulous gasps filled the air.

“Princess, you cannot be serious!” bemoaned Quick Name.

“Discord? In charge of defending all of Canterlot?” bellowed General Iron Sights. “I’d rather eat my hat than take orders from that… that…”

“Yes I quite agree, General.” The seapony, Admiral Snack Bar, huffed with agitation as he splashed around in his aquasphere. “Why, the first thing any cadet in the armed forces learns is how to fight against Discord and his nefarious tricks! Putting him in charge of defense of the capital? Treason I say!”

The murmuring ponies began to rise in volume, and Twilight was worried they were about to start shouting again. She tried to get their attention but failed on multiple occasions. She watched as Straight Lace pulled the cork out of her bottle of Emergency Meeting Gin, and something snapped .

“We don’t have time for this!” shouted the Goddess of Magic.

The Princess stomped a hoof and a peal of thunder rolled through the cramped office of the Senate Undersecretary and everypony went silent. Straight Lace dropped her gin. Rubbing a hoof along the bridge of her muzzle with her eyes squeezed shut, Princess Twilight ranted on.

“Let’s see a show of hooves, folks. Who traveled back from the future to tell me that they already beat the Beacon of Order? Hmm? Anypony? Go ahead and raise a hoof if you did, no need to be shy.”

Nopony raised a hoof.

“No? Well then, my vote goes to the God who already beat the thing. Anypony want to nominate a different candidate? No? Discord it is. Meeting adjourned.” The Princess left in a huff.

Princess Twilight grumbled to herself as she approached the doors that left the Gateway of Knowledge and lead out to the streets of Canterlot.

“Ponies. Can’t live with them, can’t banish them to the moon.”

Twilight glanced over her shoulder and saw the shimmering visage of Trixie standing on her pedestal, trying to flatten the somehow ruffled fur on her chest.

“Well, I could, I just wouldn’t want to. It’s rather messy.”

Trixie’s eyes went wide and she looked up from what she was doing to squint at the Alicorn. “You can banish ponies to the moon? Since when, Sparkle?”

“Since always,” lied Twilight, “It’s one of the perks of living in the Moon Tower.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

As Twilight turned away to take a deep calming breath, she peppered Trixie with questions. “Tell me, Trixie, any new plans to best me?”

“Curse you, Twilight Sparkle!” Trixie’s hologram sat with a huff. “Yes. Trixie has hundreds of plans to defeat, humble, and humiliate you. Dozens of them are new, since the last time you asked.”

“Anything I should be worried about?” Twilight asked nonchalantly as she casually inspected a forehoof.

Trixie grimaced as she tried desperately to not answer the question. But as the holographic steward of the Gateway of Knowledge, she knew that her cortex was programmed to always answer a question truthfully when she was able to. It usually wasn’t a problem, but then again Twilight Sparkle usually didn’t ask her questions.

“I might… definitely… have three… four that would work.”

Trixie tried tp cover her own mouth as if it would somehow stop her from offering additional information. “Would… you like to… know what they are?”

The poor hologram was panting at this point, and the constant hum that reverberated through the room was more like a dull whine as the clockwork in Trixie’s holographic projector worked against itself. One of the doors leading out into the city was gripped in a purple glow and opened on its own.

“No, you can keep your secrets for now.” Twilight tossed a wink at her old rival. “It’s been too long since I’ve had to match wits with the Great and Powerful Trixie.”

She walked out the door and it shut behind her.

Leveling her eyes at door after it shut, Trixie squared her jaw. “Just you wait, Twilight Sparkle. Just you wait.”

Standing on the steps leading into the Senate building, Twilight looked around for Rarity and the girls. It was harder to spot them than she thought it would be, what with the veritable sea of ponies moving through the streets.

“Princess! Princess, over here!”

Twilight spotted her friend, her prized protégé, Sandy, and the red barnacle-like unicorn that stuck desperately to her feathered friend, not daring to make eye contact with Rarity. They were standing on the other side of the street out of the one-way-flow of traffic.

A moment later Twilight teleported over to them.

“Hi Princess!” said Smarty Pants cheerfully.

“Hi Quick Name!” said Sandy, looking just to the Princess’ left side.

Princess Twilight looked to her left and was surprised to see the Captain of her Arcane Guard standing there looking for all the world as if he had always been there. She opened her mouth to say something, but thought better of it.

“So, off to Cloudsdale are we?” asked Rarity “It’s been years since I’ve been there. Oh, this is going to be so exciting!”

Twilight looked to her friend with wide eyes. “You’re coming too?”

“Well of course, darling. It’s the End of the World again, isn’t it? What kind of all-power Empress would I be if I didn’t see to the needs of Equestria at large?”

Twilight, genuinely taken back by her friend’s sincerity, stammered. “Rarity, that’s…”

“Not to mention that things are so dreadfully boring right now in the Crystal Empire.” The ice-cold Empress stated flatly. “Why, I’d wager that a pinch of danger and a dash of roughhousing is just what the doctor ordered, yes?”

“Princess?” asked Smarty Pants, gesturing to the countless vaguely distressed looking ponies who walked past them. “Where are all these ponies going?”

Twilight looked up and around. Every street and thoroughfare around them was filled with ponies walking towards a singular location; the castle. Some carried bags, some pulled carts. All of them looked anxious.

“We’re evacuating everypony to the shelters in the crystal caverns beneath the castle.” she said with a small sigh. “It’s the safest place to be in Canterlot in an emergency after all. Did you know that It can hold thousands of ponies and has enough food and supplies to last for weeks?”

Nopony answered, and the group fell silent as they watched as the parade of apprehensive ponies file off into the distance.

Sandy hugged herself with fluttering wings and asked the question on everypony’s mind. “Everything’s going to be okay, right?”

Princess Twilight looked down at the little green filly and gave her a brave smile. “Yes, Sandy, we’re all going to be fine. Come on, let’s get to that castle. We have a flight to catch.”

As the mid-morning faded into noon, Twilight, Rarity, Quick Name, and the three girls entered the Western Sky-Chariot Hangar of Canterlot Castle. Curiously, they were not alone.

“Mommy!” squealed Sandy. The pegasus zipped through the air and plowed into her adopted mother, Powder Puff, bowling them both over.

“Hello Sandy, off on another adventure?”

“Mmhmm! We’re going to Cloudsdale.”

“So I heard.”

“Really?” asked Princess Twilight skeptically.

Powder Puff giggled. “Word travels fast around the castle.” She threw a wink to Quick Name, who immediately began to busy himself with preparing a large chariot for their trip.

“Uh huh.” Concluded the Princess.

Powder Puff’s white horn gave off a brilliant glow and a small white box floated over to Rarity, who grabbed it with a magical aura of her own.

“I packed you all a lunch. Can’t save the world on an empty stomach, after all!” she smiled sweetly at the assembled ponies.

“The chariot is ready, Princess.” Instructed Quick Name with a curt salute.

“Okay ponies, let’s find us a Princess.”

Twilight’s entourage walked over to the chariot and started filing in. Quick Name climbed in first, followed by Honeycrisp, who practically wrapped herself around one of the stallion’s back legs in her effort to get as many ponies as possible between herself and The Frostmare.

Smarty Pants was next on chariot. “Come on, Sandy!” she called out to her friend.

Sandy gave her mommy one last big squeeze, and then fluttered away “Coming!”

Rarity and Powder Puff exchanged a brief hug and the crystal white unicorn made her way onto the chariot, pretending not to notice the fearful look in Honeycrisp’s eyes.

The Princess took a step towards the chariot, when she felt a hoof tap her on the shoulder.

“Princess? Another word, if you’d be so kind?”

Twilight turned and smiled at her Chief Pastry Chef. “Of course, Powder Puff.”

The two ponies took a few steps away from the rest of the group, and Powder Puff looked Twilight in the eye with such unusual seriousness that Twilight felt she might wilt under the chubby mare’s scrutiny.

“Princess, Sandy hasn’t been to Cloudsdale since she left the orphanage. She didn’t care for it there. I’m counting on you to be there for her if she has any… problems.”

“Of course Powder Puff. You have my word I’ll take care of her as if she were my own foal.”

Powder Puff kept her stare fixed on the Princess’ face, looking for any sign of deceit or weakness. Finding none, she smiled.

“And take care of yourself too, dearie. You look like you haven’t eaten days.”

Happy to be back on familiar ground with the chef, Twilight grinned. “Hay, that’s not fair! You fed me waffles this morning. It’s a wonder I’m not a big fat ball of fur the way you feed me.”

“Yes,” smirked the pudgy baker as she started off down the hall back towards the castle proper, “will wonders never cease?”

Twilight scrunched up her face in thought. Did Powder Puff just say what she thought she said? She looked down and began to absentmindedly poke at her midsection.

“Twilight, if you’re worried about your figure, I’d be happy whip up something sliming for you when we get to Cloudsdale.” Rarity tapped a hoof to her chin. “Perhaps something black... With a corset?”

Twilight groaned at the good natured ribbing and turned to get on the chariot. She sat down in the center of the chariot and her horn gave off a soft hum as it and chariot both began to glow. Like a shot, the chariot took off into the air towards their destination.

As they flew, the wind began to whip and roar around them. Just as the sound was getting to be unbearable, a purple bubble expanded from the tip of the Goddess of Magic’s horn, and the air inside the chariot was as still as any spring day at Sweet Apple Acres.

The first hour of the flight was uneventful. The two ancient rulers chatted about their various kingdoms. Sandy desperately clutched one of Quick Name’s forelegs because she was terrified of heights. Honeycrisp gripped one of Quick Name’s backlegs because she was terrified of Rarity. Quick Name suffered in silent dignity.

As Twilight talked with Rarity, she couldn’t help but noticed how intently Smarty Pants watched the two of them.

“Yes, Smarty Pants?”

“Oh. Uh, nothing. Sorry.” The little filly looked away and tried to hide under her wavy red mane.

“Nonsense, dear,” dismissed Rarity as she ran a brush through her deep purple mane “You’ve been gawking at us talk this whole time. Come now, what’s on your mind?”

“Are… are you the Rarity that was friends with Twilight and Fluttershy and Applejack and Pinkie Pie?”

“You forgot Rainbow Dash, darling, but yes. I was good friends with all of them. Why do you ask?”

“Well, you see…” Smarty Pants grabbed her mane with one forehoof and started petting it with the other. “I’m, uh. Princess Twilight told me that you were mad at Pinkie Pie for marrying Fancy Pants.”

Rarity blinked in equal parts confusion and surprise. “My goodness, that was so very long ago.” She turned to address her oldest friend, a look of hurt in her eyes.. “Twilight, do you tell all your personal students the awful truths of my distant past?”

“No! That is… ugh.” Twilight winced. Wracking her brain looking for a solution, her eyes flew open and she smiled broadly. “Perhaps it would help if I properly introduced you two.”

Twilight coughed slightly into a hoof and sat up with regal purpose, facing Smarty Pants.

“Lady Smarty Pants, may I present to you The Crystal Empress Rarity Belle, Ageless Guardian of the Northern Wastes, Former Bearer of the Element of Generosity, and Owner of the Carousel Boutique in Ponyville.”

Smarty Pants took Rarity’s proffered hoof in a dainty hoofshake.

“A pleasure.”

“Likewise.”

Twilight turned to face Rarity, her poise maintained.

“Your Grace, may I present to you, The Lady Smarty Pants, The Most Faithful Student of Princess Twilight Sparkle, Direct Descendant of Duchess Pinkie Pie, Duke Fancy Pants, Lady Fluttershy, Mr. Big McIntosh, and Distant Niece to Ms. Applejack.”

Rarity’s grip on the little girl’s hoof tightened ever so slightly and she widened her gaze considerably to take in the girl, as if for the first time. “Truly?” she whispered.

Still managing to hide ever-so-slightly behind her mane, Smarty Pants nodded. “You’re not mad at me, are you?”

Rarity released the girl’s hoof and brought her own to her chest. “Mad at you? Darling, why would I be mad at you?”

“Because you were mad at my really-great grandma and my really-great grandpa for getting married.”

“Sweetie, that was so long ago. I could never be mad at you for that. And look at you! You’re simply adorable! Why, now that it’s been brought to my attention I don’t know how I didn’t notice it sooner. There’s so much Applejack in you. And Pinkie Pie. Oh, and the way you hide behind your mane like that...”

“Fluttershy.” finished Twilight.

Rarity laughed her chime-like laughter and began excitedly clapping her front hooves together. “Oh, this is so exciting! We should go to the spa! I’ve so dearly missed my spa dates with Fluttershy.”

The icy-white crystal unicorn hoisted the light brown filly into the air with her magic to get a better look at from every angle. “Twilight, do you think this Beacon of Order fellow can wait long enough for us to stop by the Ponyville spa? It’s simply been ages.”

Twilight frowned. “Ponyville’s… not an option right now.”

Rarity set the girl down and turned to face her friend. “I recognize that tone, Twilight Sparkle. What aren’t you telling me?”

There was a moment’s hesitation, long enough for her to take a deep breath, andthen Twilight told Rarity everything she knew. How the girls awakened the Beacon. How Discord appeared from the Future to warn her. How she can’t look Beyond the Vale without the Beacon finding her.

As she talked, she described how the fight in the telegraph office went down. What the Beacon did to ponies to corrupt them. Rarity learned of Ponyville’s fate, and the impending fates of Hoofston and Canterlot. She was told everything.

As they spoke the joviality of the riders was bled out of them far above the surface of their treasured world. When Twilight finished there was a lull in the conversation. Were it not for the near-constant fluttering of Sandy’s panicked little wings, there’d be no sound at all.

“So that’s what we’re up against then, is it?”

Twilight nodded.

Rarity took a deep breath of her own and scrunched up her muzzle before she let it out with all the grace and charm of an enraged hog. “Oh, when I get my hooves on that Beacon, I’ll… I’ll…”

The fillies in the chariot shared a shriek of alarm, as they watched the unicorn’s stature shift and change to match her emotional state. The soft crystalline hairs of her white coat bristled and fused together like a jagged coat of clear rocky armor.

Her luxurious purple hair no longer bobbed and weaved happily with her movements, but clung to the nape of her neck and the top of her head like an oversized helmet. The tail of the Ageless Guardian of the Northern Wastes began to ice over from the tip. Where it brushed the floor a trail of frost was left in its wake. Rarity’s horn grew another foot in length, and hooked barbs of ice began to sprout out of the horn in random directions.

Perhaps the most frightening aspect of her change was the hollowing her voice and the dimming of her eyes. She sounded far away and everywhere at once, and the girls trembled at the bitter cold that seeped into their bones. And then just as suddenly as the change had begun, it was over.

The Crystal Empress was back to her beautiful self and the only sign left that anything out of the ordinary had happened was the lingering cold in the fillies fur. Rarity summoned a brush out of thin air and sat on her rump to brush the frost out of her tail.

Blushing furiously at her uncontrolled outburst, she tried to change the subject. “S-so! Who knows a fun game to pass the time, hmm? Girls?”

Smarty Pants stared at Rarity with equal parts astonishment and wholesale curiosity. “How did you do that?! Can you teach me how to do that?”

“No games then?” asked Rarity, obviously ignoring the over-eager little pony. “All right, how about a song?”

“N-no! No singing, p-please!” stammered a still terrified Honeycrisp.

Rarity gave the little trembling unicorn a half-lidded stare. “Alright, little one, out with it. You’ve been terrified of me from the moment I first laid eyes on you. Running about all higgled-piggledy when I walked into the Senate. Have I wronged you in some way?”

Angry at the her fear of the immortal mare, Honeycrisp spat back at the icy monster. “You ate my dog!”

Rarity stared at the bizarre little pony with a blank expression. “I ate your dog?”

Honeycrisp leapt forward and pointed an accusatory hoof at the former element of generosity. “You’re the Frostmare!”

Twilight Sparkle smacked herself in the face with a hoof.

“Ah! I see. You’re an Apple, aren’t you.”

Honeycrisp nodded. Bolstered by family pride, she released her death grip on Quick Name’s hind leg.

“Jolly Green told me that you live in the Everfree Forest, and that you cast your frost magic on our apples when you’re angry!”

Rarity leaned in to face Twilight, who was rubbing her muzzle. “Jolly Green?”

“Current patriarch of the Apple family.” Whispered Twilight “He’s also an insufferable a—“

“But, Honeycrisp” said Sandy, “Rarity lives in the Crystal Empire. It’s hundreds of miles from Sweet Apple Acres.”

Honeycrisp puffed out her cheeks in indignation. “So? She could use her magic to—“

“Are you even listening to yourself, Honeycrisp?” asked her earthpony cousin “That thing we saw in the Everfree Forest was black and tendril-y, not white and crystal-y. Sure there was that frost magic, but any unicorn can do ice magic.” With a casual shrug, she added “Even you.”

Filled with competing emotions, Honeycrisp fumed. “Even me? Even me, Pants?”

Honeycrisp didn’t need a know-it-all earthpony telling her what she was doing wrong. She could feel the heat burning in her cheeks and her hair catch alight as she threw a punch at Smarty Pants. She was only vaguely aware of Smarty Pants’ protests and she kept on swinging.

The little red unicorn was a little hot under the collar and quick to anger, but nothing lit her fuse quite like somepony poking fun at her magical shortcomings. It wasn’t like she wanted to be a unicorn. She felt something cold and soothing wrap around her, but she raged on.

What good was a unicorn on a farm anyway? She couldn’t buck like an earth pony. She couldn’t haul like an earth pony. Worst of all, she couldn’t grow anything like an earth pony. It wasn’t until she heard herself sobbing into an unfamiliar purple mane before she realized she was crying at all.

Rarity nickered softly as she patted Honeycrisp on the back and the young mare cried into to her mane. She worked to cool the young mare down with her magic and calm her down with her words and actions. Soon, Honeycrisp’s magically flaming mane died down and her hair returned to its usual color and texture.

Twilight removed her protective bubble around Smarty Pants and frowned. “Are you all right?”

Smarty Pants nodded, though she rubbed the sore spot on her chin from Honeycrisp’s first punch. It was the only one that got through before the Princess put up the barrier, but it hurt. However making Honeycrisp cry hurt more.

Quick Name studied the interaction between Rarity and Honeycrisp as Sandy clung desperately to his left foreleg. Rarity lowered the girl back to the floor of the chariot, and she grumbled as she wiped the tears from her pink eyes.

“Feeling better?” asked Rarity.

“I’m fine.” She lied.

“You’re lying. I can tell.”

“So?”

“So I see that you’ve got some trouble controlling your temper. And your magic.”

Honeycrisp turned her back on Rarity and tried her best to ignore her.

“You know I used to have problems controlling my magic. And my temper too.”

Honeycrisp didn’t say anything but she sat up a bit straighter, betraying her interest in the subject.

Rarity dried her mane and offered the little pony a compassionate smile. “Well, I know just how to pass the time then. Who wants to hear a story? Perhaps the story about how I became the fearsome ‘Frostmare’ of Apple legend?”

Honeycrisp winced at the appellation, but Rarity continued with her usual grace. “And, as luck would have it, it’s also a tale of how I saved the Crystal Kingdom Empire and my friendship with Pinkie Pie at the same time."

Twilight cocked an eyebrow at her old friend. “Aren’t you laying it on a bit thick?”

“Oh please Twilight, who doesn’t like a story with a little… dramatic flair thrown in, hmm?”

Rarity cleared her throat, and began to tell her tale.

With a resounding bang, Discord re-entered the world of the now. With a splash, he entered the Rainbow Fountain on Princess Cadence’s side of the Celestial Courtyard. He screamed a girlish squeal of pain as spicy liquid rainbow splashed in his eyes.

He flopped around in the light-emitting spectrum of pain juice until he managed to roll to his left and fall out of the fountain. With a grunt he got to his knees and snapped two claws together. In an instant, the entire Celestial Courtyard was vaporized to ash. He sank to the ground and rolled onto his back.

Moments passed and he was able to blink the rest of the awful spiciness out of his eyes. Looking up at the sky, he screamed for a second time, only this time it was curses instead of screams of pain. The events he saw in the future were coming to pass. And so far, it looked like it was his fault.

His vision was blocked by fog that extended all around him throughout the whole of the courtyard. He smacked himself in the face. Of course vaporizing a rainbow fountain was going to create fog.

He rolled to his feet and stood in the ash, the hauntingly familiar feeling of the cobblestone subfloor under his feet gave him pause. He looked skyward huffed a mighty breath upwards through the fog. An opening to the sky cleared, and his eyes widened.

The sun and moon were about to form an eclipse.

He started running.

As he cleared the courtyard’s main entrance into the Millennial Ballroom, he nearly bowled over two ponies running in the opposite direction.

“Discord!” Spellbound called out in surprise as the draconequus kept running and phased through him and Ruby Star.

“Can’t talk now, need to stop the eclipse, ta ta!”

“No, Discord, wait!” Ordered Ruby Star. She spun about on the ballroom’s polished floors and tried to gallop after him, even though her momentum carried her the other way.

“Look, I’m always happy to see fans and sign autographs for 50 bits apiece, but I really must be—“

“Princess Twilight sent us to find you!” shouted Spellbound as he scrambled to keep his balance. He grabbed onto Ruby Star, and the two ponies collapsed in a pile.

Discord rolled his eyes and snapped his claws again. Two pink poofs later, and he was running down the hall with a pony under each arm.

Addressing Spellbound, Discord asked “Alright, Blue, you found me. What did old Sparkplug want?”

From under his other arm, Ruby Star answered. “The Senate Emergency council has put you in charge of Canterlot’s defense.”

Discord slammed to a halt and dropped the two ponies to the ground. He spun around and stared at Ruby Star. “Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

“They put me in charge of defending the capital?”

“Yes, sir.”

A tiny part of Discord’s mind exploded. If Spellbound or Ruby Star were at all curious about the smoke wafting out of his ears, they were too polite to say anything about it. Discord shook his head and blinked several times. Somewhere in the distance, a pane of glass broke.

“Alright, I’ll take the job.”

The two members of the Arcane Guard, helped each other to their hooves and shared sigh of relief.

“Red, Blue, you’re both with me.”

“We have names, sir.”

“And I’m… orange, not red.”

“No time, Red. We need to stop that eclipse at all costs!”

Ruby Star and Spellbound exchanged a look of confusion. “We do?”

They turned to look back at Discord, but he was already off and running down the hall. “We do!” he called out over his shoulder. “And after that, we need to get ready for the dragon attack!”

Spellbound looked back to where Ruby Star used to be standing. “Did he say dragon attack?” he asked the empty air.

But his pretty orange partner was no longer standing there. She was already running after Discord.

Chapter 7

The Crystal Empire. Jewel of the North. First Bastion of Ponykind. Sombra’s Fall. All those names and more have been given to the peaceful kingdom. But none of those names described the frozen wasteland that Rarity and the other Elements of Harmony found themselves in on that day.

A purple shield of magic surrounded Rarity and her two of her closest friends, Applejack and the newest member of the Royal Family, Princess Twilight Sparkle. A ball of hail, as large around as a wagon wheel, smashed into the barrier.

“Twilight?” called Rarity over the roar of the gibbering Windigos. “This isn’t working, we need to get our heads together and come up with a new plan.”

The Alicorn mare, now in her thirties, stood almost a foot taller than her two friends. Regal though she was, she mumbled a few choice expletives as she riddled another Windigo with holes. Her purple horn still glowing from the magical bursts, she heaved a sigh.

“I know this isn’t working, Rarity, it wasn’t my plan in the first place!”

The cry of a reborn Windigo pierced the air far above them in the swirling vortex of ice and hatred.

Applejack stepped in between the two “Don’t go jumpin’ down Rarity’s throat there, Twi. These Windigos are messin’ with our emotions, remember? The angrier we get, the stronger they are.”

“Right. You’re right. I’m sorry, Rarity. Let’s fall back to the palace. Cover your ears girls, I’m going full Luna for this one.”

Applejack dove to the ground and pulled her hat down over her ears. Rarity summoned up a tasteful pair of earmuffs from her saddlebags that matched her snow boots and, careful to keep her mane in place, put them on. She nodded to the Princess, who took in a deep breath.

“RAINBOW DASH, WE’RE FALLING BACK TO THE PALACE. GET THE WONDERBOLTS OUT OF THERE.”

Applejack hopped up to her hooves and brushed the snow off of her withers. “Dang, Twi. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to yer Canterlot Caterwaulin’.”

Twilight shook her head, and tried to lessen the ringing in her own head. “You and me both.”

The three ponies watched a dozen blue and yellow streaks peal across the sky from the arcane tempest high above them and flew straight for the center of the Palace District. Far outpacing the others was a familiar rainbow colored trail leading the way.

As they watched, Twilight’s barrier took renewed attacks from the Windigos. Her use of the Royal Canterlot Voice, coupled with the sudden disappearance of their airborne enemies, lead to a concentrated Windigo effort to bring down the local Alicorn. Twilight responded by reducing most of the attackers to snowflakes.

As the three mares entered the magical shield protecting the Palace itself, Rarity couldn’t help but be overcome with dread. The Palace was the very core of the Crystal Empire, and at the center of its streets and thoroughfares beat the very heart of the kingdom. It’s been said that ‘As the Palace goes, so goes the Empire.’ If that was true, then the Crystal Empire was indeed in dire straits.

In its prime the Crystal Palace had many spires and each one rivaled the height of the twin Sun and Moon towers in Canterlot Castle. As it rose into the air, the many spires eventually gave way to a single glittering monolith. It was a feat of crystalline engineering long lost to ponykind in its millennia long absence. That peerless tower, the pride of the crystal ponies, was now scattered about the ground like so much rubble.

The three companions stopped at a huge crystal wall and Twilght’s horn lit up. She strained at the effort but the Crystal before them began to melt away, providing safe passage into the defender’s camp that was once the foundation of the Palace itself. After passing through, Twilight reignited her horn and the liquid crystal bubbled back up the wall to seal their entrance.

“Land sakes, Twilight, I knew yer magic was good, and gettin’ better all the time, but makin’ walls outta melted crystal? If I didn’t see it fer myself, I’d say it was impossible.”

Twilight wiped the sweat from her brow and smiled at her friend. “Well, it’s a little known fact that all crystalline solids are actually really slow liquids. Melting the crystal would take too much effort, and release all kinds of nasty gases into the air. So I just give it a little nudge timewise to age or de-age the crystal as needed. Actually, if you want to get into the specifics of it, I’ll need a—

Applejack put a hoof in Twilight’s mouth. “Maybe another time, Sugarcube. Let’s save the world first, okay?”

Twilight nodded sheepishly and followed after her two friends as they hurried down the well-guarded corridor. It was long as two hoofball fields, but it just just wide enough for about 8 ponies walking side-by-side. As a defensive measure the corridor had four heavily fortified checkpoints, each with a dozen or so guards.

As a whole, the Palace, the corridor, and the Equestrian Games Complex were referred to as Sparkle Base Alpha. The name started as a joke, but after the second day it wasn’t so funny. Not when the Windigos breached the barrier for the first time and collapsed the Palace’s spires onto itself.

Twilight recalled how the Crystal Heart was rushed into the Equestrian Games Complex, where it’s large open lobby was sealed off and converted into the new nerve center of Sparkle Base Alpha.

After it was sealed off, the only entrances into Sparkle Base Alpha that weren’t timshifted crystalline walls were the heavily defended corridor and a single open window. It was left open so pegasi could move in and out of the nerve center; which happened quite a bit with Rainbow’s Wonderbolts here on the scene.

So long as the new and improved barrier stayed up, no Windigos would get in.

Applejack, Rarity, and Twilight passed the final check point and the 3 mares were ushered through the iron doors at the end of the corridor. They entered the nerve center of Sparkle Base Alpha just in time to feel a slight tremor ripple through the complex. Twilight made a quick observation and frowned. When the Windigos’ attack on the barrier became more intense, the beating of the Crystal Heart became more erratic.

The Crystal Heart, when powered by love and kindness, sustained the ponies of the Crystal Empire. It made them fertile and brought prosperity to the land. But if the Windigos got their hooves on it, they’d surely turn it into some kind of weapon. Or worse.

“Twily!” shouted an obviously exhausted Prince Shining Armor as he rushed to his sister’s side. His horn glowed continuously as he pumped ever more of his magic into the barrier protecting his kingdom. Twilight nuzzled her No-Longer-Bigger-Big-Brother-Best-Friend-Forever.

“You two catch up, I’m gonna check on Pinkie and Fancy Pants.” The orange earthpony started down the way towards the hoofball-field-turned-mess-hall before turning to face her uneasy looking friend. “Uh, Rarity, yer welcome to join us if’n—.”

“No! Er, no thank you, Applejack, but I’m… not hungry at the moment. You go on ahead.” Rarity pawed absentmindedly at the broken and lifeless jewel in her Element of Harmony necklace.

Applejack shrugged, but couldn’t hide the concern on her face. Rarity’d have to come to terms with Pinkie Pie eventually, right? She shook her head to right her train of thought. She had more pressing matters. She continued down towards the mess hall.

“Hey NLBBBBFF, what’s our status?” Twilight asked Shining Armor.

As she did, she tapped into her magic reserves and made a connection to him through the ley lines of their world. Shining let out a sigh of relief as he felt his Alicorn sister share in the heavy lifting of supporting their barrier.

“Eh, not great,” he said with a humorless chuckle. “We’ve got too many hurt ponies. Some physically, some emotionally, some both. Nothing incurable, thankfully, but that last attempt at getting to the train station left us at half of our combat capacity.”

Twilight grimaced, but nodded. “How soon until we can get our numbers back up?”

Shining Armor shut his eyes shut and rubbed the bridge of his muzzle with a hoof. He composed himself and started counting off what info he had on his hooves.

“Fluttershy, bless her heart, is working with our limited medical staff to treat whatever physical ailments they can. And Pinkie Pie’s whole family is in the Mess Hall throwing the best ‘It’s-Not-Really-The-End-Of-The-World-But-Let’s-Party-Like-It-Is’ party they can to keep spirits up. But as for time frames? I don’t know, you’ll have to ask them.”

As if to reiterate his grim assessment, the two siblings heard some poor soul from the squash-courts-turned-infirmary break down into a vigorous coughing fit, followed by an urgent request for his mommy.

A moment later and Twilight felt a familiar tingle roll up her spin and top off at the tip of her horn. A scroll popped into existence between them. It was bearing the royal seal of Princess Cadence. Twilight opened it up and gave it a quick look, Rarity, still standing next to her, looked on as well.

They both gasped.

“Oh my, she’s… quite flexible, isn’t she?” offered a flustered Rarity.

“ARGH! I didn’t need to see that!” eyes screwed shut tight, Twilight slammed the scroll shut and jammed it into her brother’s chest, almost knocking the wind out of him. She ran off towards the infirmary, her cheeks a furious red.

Rarity gave Shining Armor a half-lidded glance before trotting off after her friend. “It’s for you.”

Thoroughly confused, Shining Armor opened the scroll and shut it, blushing immediately. He shot a quick glance about the room and, as nonchalantly as possible, tucked the scroll away in his royal coat.

Fluttershy, heavily pregnant with her 6th foal, caught the queasy look on Twilight’s face as she and Rarity entered the squash courts.

“Twilight!” she roared out in a whisper, being sure not to disturb the ailing ponies around her. Softly, she galloped over to her purple friend. “Are you feeling alright? You’re not ill, are you?”

“No, Fluttershy, I’m fine. I just saw something that I can’t unsee.”

Confused, the canary yellow pegasus cocked her head at her two friends. Rarity cut off further discussion by giving Fluttershy that subtle nod that told her she’d hear all about it during their next Spa Day. The magical torches throughout the complex momentarily dimmed as the barrier outside sustained another attack.

“If we live that long,” muttered Rarity.

“Ow! Watch it, lady. Not cool,” grumbled a mare two courts down. Fluttershy, Twilight, and Rarity, recognizing the voice, walked over to the source of the commotion. They discovered a cyan pegasus with rainbow hair standing on a makeshift hospital bed and brandishing an IV drip stand like a spear.

“Rainbow Dash? What the hay are you doing?”

“Twilight, these ponies are crazy! They want to inject me with stuff!”

The dark blue nurse stomped her hoof. “I told you it’s an IV! It’ll help speed up the healing process for your eye.”

“Your eye?” asked Fluttershy with growing curiosity.

She was on her friend in a heartbeat, holding her head in a vice like grip. When she got a good look at the left side of her head, she gasped. It was worse than she thought.

A wicked gash, from the bottom of her ear all the way down the side of her cheek, split the left side of her face. Her eyelid was swollen shut. Fluttershy wasn’t sure if it was repairable or not.

“Your eye!” shouted Fluttershy.

Rainbow Dash winched. “Geez, you don’t need to scream at me, my ears are fine.”

Fluttershy wrestled her irritable friend down to the bed with a helping hoof from Twilight’s magic.

“Rainbow, you have to let Nurse Soft Touch give you that IV.”

Rainbow Dash started to protest “But I—” only to realize her mistake all too late. Even before she became a mother five times over, Fluttershy was a Master of The Stare. Now that she had so many hooves running about Sweet Apple Acres in her stead, her staring arts had moved beyond the realm of legend and straight into myth.

Rainbow Dash laid down on the bed and administered the IV herself.

“Wow,” marveled Twilight.

Fluttershy smiled demurely as she went about tending to the wound on Rainbow’s face.

Trying to take her mind off of her discomfort, Rainbow Dash turned to look at Twilight and Rarity with her good eye.

“So— Ow! So, did we take the train station?”

Twilight shook her head. “No, we didn’t. And we won’t get another chance at it any time soon, our remaining forces have been reduced by almost half.”

Rainbow Dash sucked in a lung full of air through clenched teeth. “Bummer. Well, on the bright side, we didn’t lose any of my Wonderbolts this time around. Plus, I think I’m the worst off, what with this baby.”

She pointed a hoof at her eye and sighed. A thought hit her and she sat up straight, wings flared out.

“Hay, do we have any cool eye patches around here?”

Fluttershy rolled her eyes and kept working to clean the cut on her slightly deranged friend.

The sound of a throat being cleared drew the attention of the ponies in the room. Standing at attention outside of the doorway was a green pegasus in a blue and yellow flight suit. “Permission to enter, Captain.”

“Granted, Lieutenant,” said Rainbow Dash, Captain of the Wonderbolts. As soon as the mare entered, Rainbow added “At ease.”

Lightning Dust’s shoulders visibly slumped, though she kept a stoic demeanor about her. “I brought you some provisions from the mess hall.” She walked up to the side of the bed and pulled a tray off her back with her teeth.

The tray, laden with goodies, came to rest on the bed and Rainbow Dash began to eat like she’d never seen food before.

A look of genuine concern flashed across Lightning Dust’s features when she got a good look at Rainbow Dash’s face. “How’s the… uh… eye, Ma’am?”

Rainbow Dash beamed at her “I’m going to get an eye patch!”

Lighting Dust’s stomach dropped out from under her, only to be quickly buoyed by Fluttershy.

“Don’t do that to the poor mare.” She turned to look at the frazzled green pegasus “She’ll get to keep her eye. She just needs a few days with the right medical treatment, and she’ll be fine.”

Fluttershy up-ended a bottle of hydrogen peroxide into some gauze and slapped it on the bed-bound pegasus’ cheek. “Isn’t that right, Rainbow Dash?”

Rainbow Dash answered by screaming bloody murder and vowing revenge a thousand times over.

As if reacting to her rage, the building once again shook from the Windigos’ ongoing assault on the barrier beyond the Palace walls.

Fueled by her pain and her frustration, Rainbow Dash slammed a hoof down on the bed. “What the hay, why is this so hard? We’ve been saving the day for what, ten years now? We used to have this kind of thing wrapped up in a day, two tops. This is the fourth day of this. Ugh.”

She thumped her head back down onto her pillow and the tips of the wings beneath her fluttered with agitation.

Rarity rubbed a hoof along the crack that bisected her ruined Element of Harmony, forlornly eyeing the undamaged Elements in the room with her.

“We… can’t worry about that now Rainbow,” admitted Twilight, trying her best not to look at Rarity. “We don’t even know why the Windigos came back in the first place.”

“I bet it was Discord,” grumbled Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy didn’t answer, but her brow furrowed in a way to suggest that she didn’t outright disagree with the idea.

“What we need now is a new plan for getting to that train station,” said Twilight as she started to take charge once more of the situation. “We’ve got too many sick and wounded to make a stand here and now. We need to get these ponies out of here and try again later.”

Rainbow scoffed. “Why can’t you just magic up a couple of Princesses and Spike or something so we can beat them here and now?”

Twilight shut her eyes, trying desperately to push away the recent memory of her sister-in-law’s scroll. “These Windigo vortex funnels have popped up all over Equestria, remember? Celestia’s in Canterlot fighting off the threat there. Luna’s in Manehatten doing the same, and Cadence is hopefully very, very far away fighting something that requires a lot of clothing.”

The cyan pegasus raised her good eyebrow “And Spike?”

Rarity cut in “Little Spikey-Wikey is sleeping, remember? The Windigos made it so cold that the dragons all fell into early hibernation.”

“Little Spikey-Wikey?” asked a new voice from the doorway, “Rarity, the boy’s a head taller‘n Princess Celestia now.”

The room had quickly become overcrowded. At least in Rarity’s opinion. Surely it had nothing to do with a certain back-stabbing pink pony who stood next to Applejack.

A little yellow unicorn colt with freckles clung to his mother’s pink foreleg. He waved a silent hello at the Goddess of Magic and blushed furiously.

Twilight smiled at the infatuated colt “Hello, Sun Spots.”

Pinkie Pie nuzzled her youngest son’s mane and giggled softly. “Alright, my little sunshine, go check with daddy and see if he needs your help keeping smiles on faces, okay?”

Sun Spots hugged his mother’s leg tightly before he scampered out of the room back towards the mess hall. Most of the mares shared a good natured laugh.

“Star’s Garters, Pinkie Pie, if you’n Fancy Pants didn’t go and make the sweetest little guy.”

“Aw, thanks Applejack! You know he gets that from his daddy? I wasn’t born as sweet as he was, that’s why I eat so much suga—“

The party pony was cut off as Rarity shoved her way through the door, knocking back both her friend Applejack, and the other pony.

“Hay! Rarity! Come on, don’t be like that!” shouted Rainbow Dash from the bed. Twilight had to restrain her with her magic to stop her from flying out the door and after her.

Pinkie Pie smiled sadly to herself and looked at the floor. She didn’t dare make eye contact with any of the other girls. It was hard. It had been hard for years. But it was all about to change. Even if she hadn’t known for a long time, she could just tell.

Applejack picked her hat back up off the ground and put it back on. “Still?” she asked nopony in particular before turning to shout down the hall. “We still gotta do this, Rarity? Pretend that everything’s ok when yer element’s all busted’n all ours are fine? It’s been seven years girl, get over it!”

“Oh,” whispered Fluttershy “I don’t think that’s fair to say, Appleja—“

“Way to go, Applejerk, let’s just ruin any chance of snapping her out of it by yelling at her. Good thinking!” snarled Rainbow Dash.

A thud shook the building, but it went unnoticed by the two fiery mares.

“An’ just what was I supposed to do, featherbrain? Tell her that I’m okay with her treatin' one of her best friends like a load of horseapples? Cause I ain’t and you know I don’t lie.”

“Let’s try to stay calm girls, remember that fighting only helps the Windi—“

“Featherbrain? Better a featherbrain than a fair-weather friend!”

Applejack stomped a hoof and scuffed it back, ready to charge the bedridden mare. A strange glimmer in her eyes. “What did you call me?”

Rainbow Dash had that same look in her good eye, a sort of red haze. She continued to egg on Applejack despite the fact that she was actively being restrained by Fluttershy and Lightning Dust. Twilight tried her best to ignore the scuffle as she poured more and more of her magic into the magical barrier.

The orange earthpony didn’t remember leaping over her Alicorn friend, or Rainbow Dash’s kick to her jaw that put her flat on her back. But she did remember the earth-shattering roar of the Windigos.

Outside, the Windigos felt the tumultuous emotions at work in two very powerful psyches from deep within the hated complex. They worked their collective magic upon those psyches and pushed them further and further. They used that anger to build strife, which greatly increased the strength of their assault.

They attacked the barrier over and over again, now throwing themselves bodily against it, ignoring the pain that came from contact. They could feel the fear of the ponies huddled together in the palace. They could feel their hope fade. New Windigos from the birthing vortex aided them in their final push.

The battered barrier flickered and waned, and eventually, collapsed. The Windigos had done the impossible. They were through the barrier. They were going to win.

Applejack rolled back onto her hooves and worked the kinks out of her jaw. “What in tarnation hit me?”

“I…. What just happened?” asked Rainbow Dash as she looked around the room with her good eye.

Twilight’s knees buckled and she collapsed in a heap. “The barrier... fell.” She said between breaths.

Rarity was cradling an unconscious Prince Shining Armor when the other Elements of Harmony came in to the nerve center of Sparkle Base Alpha. Worryingly, Twilight Sparkle hobbled in, supported by both Applejack and Pinki— the Element of Laughter.

“I think the barrier’s down,” offered Rarity with no hint of a smile. Twilight nodded, confirming her fears.

A pegasus flew in from the windows high above the nerve center. In a panic, she shouted to any and all who would hear her. “The first checkpoint has fallen!”

Ponies began to panic and wail. This was it. This was the end of all things.

Princess Twilight raised a hoof, silencing the room. “Alright, ponies, listen up! All non-combat forces retreat to the mess-hall. All able-bodied guards on me, now! I’m sealing off the infirmary and mess hall in less than a minute!”

All around the Elements of Harmony, disharmony clattered and clanged as ponies of every kind rushed to their new locations. Goodbyes were shared, tears shed, hugs exchanged.

“Hey, uh, Twilight?”

The Goddess of Magic turned to look at her flight-suited friend. She was wearing a black eye patch in the shape of her cutiemark. “Where did you… nevermind, what is it?”

“What do you want me to do with the Wonderbolts?”

Twilight smirked. “You’ve never asked me before. They’re your Wonderbolts, remember? You do with them what you think is best.”

Rainbow Dash considered this for a moment before nodding to herself. “Lieutenant Dust!” she called out over the din. A heartbeat later and her number one wingpony was standing at attention in front of her.

“Ma’am?”

“You’re acting Captain of the Wonderbolts. I want you and the team out back getting ponies from the infirmary to the mess hall. If… If the girls and I don’t make it, save as many ponies as you can. Children are your first priority. Understood?”

“Ma’am.” Saluted a misty eyed Lightning Dust. “Come back to me in one piece, ma’am.” Rainbow threw her a wink and dismissed her.

Twilight wrapped her unconscious brother in a field of magic and shuttled him back through the doorway and passed him off to a pair of unicorn nurses. When no other ponies ran through, she focused her will on the archway between the nerve center and the rest of the complex. She filled it top to bottom with crystal, several feet thick. Either the day would be theirs, or the ponies on the other side would eventually run out of breathable ai— No. They would win the day.

As the ringing in her horn subsided, she heard the pegasus scout call out again. “They’ve passed the third checkpoint.”

A soulless whinny cried out, and the guards at the windows dove for cover as a lone Windigo pushed into the nerve center. Twilight wrapped it in a magic bubble and ground it into fine white dust with a flicker of effort. The remaining pegasi barricaded the window with thick iron shutters.

“Come on, earthponies, let’s get to it!” hollered Applejack.

“Pegasi, get your feathered butts over here!” ordered the Captain of the Wonderbolts.

“Unicorns, get into the starburst defensive formation!” commanded the Goddess of Magic.

Of the fifty or so ponies left, most of them were of the Crystal/earth variety, and flocked to Applejack. She rallied her folk into a nested V formation aimed at the massive iron doors with the erratically beating Crystal Heart nestled in its center. Fresh spears and armaments were distributed. This is how all the earthponies prepared.

That is, except for Pinkie Pie. She busied herself filling pie tins with shaving crème. She had a whole mess of them and she made even more with each passing moment. She hummed a merry tune, but her eyes gave away the concern she felt for the safety of her friends, her husband, and her children on the other side of the wall.

Rainbow Dash and the other pegasi ordered themselves in a loose cone formation, originating from the Crystal Heart and aimed at the door. Each pegasus was issued a new set of wing blades and a partner, except for Rainbow Dash. Being the odd-pony-out, she would jump in and help whatever two pony team needed help the most. This is how all the pegasi prepared.

That is, except for Fluttershy. Being as pregnant as she was she knew she would be a danger to herself and her unborn foal should she get in hoof-to-hoof combat. She hung back with Twilight and felt simply wretched being unable to help.

The remaining ten ponies were all unicorns. They moved into the starburst defensive formation with no small amount of trepidation. Known as a last resort of unicorn kind, the starburst formation focused energy from a powerful source (like the node of a ley line or a particularly powerful rune circle) outwards towards an enemy.

It worked like a ring of cannons and it hurt like Tartarus. It was considered to be a last resort because it was just as potent against the caster as it is against the targets. Luckily they weren’t hurting for energy sources, what an Alicorn at their center. They muttered their prayers to the presently meditating Goddess of Magic and steeled their resolve. This is how all the unicorns prepared.

That is, except for Rarity. Rarity was staring into the sad looking Crystal Heart. Her thoughts a thousand miles away.

Twilight stood at the center of the defenses and reached deep into the ley lines. Soaring across the flowing tides of magic that seeped out of the very matter of her world, she searched frantically for Princess Celestia’s magical signature. She had one nasty trick up her sleeve and if it was going to work she needed to be ready when those doors came down.

They were all in position. The heavily barred iron doors boomed with the dark fury of the Windigos. With each thump against the iron, the Crystal Heart stammered and pulsed in futility. Somehow, it knew. It knew its end was near. And everypony knew it was no longer a matter of if they’d get through, but when.

Rarity stared into the heart as its beating oscillated fitfully. She watched it sputter and, finally, plunge into darkness. It died a panicked death. In that moment, Rarity learned that all things must fall. That there is always an end. The doors were ripped from their hinges and a chill like she had never felt before pierced her to the core. The end of the world had come.

The earthponies never stood a chance. The glacial blast of frozen air that chilled the blood in Rarity’s veins froze the stalwart defenders in their tracks, Applejack among them. A V shaped pony-high wall now surrounded the remaining guard forces.

The pegasi fared a bit better, having natural immunities to intense cold. They held back the first wave of airborne Windigos. But they could not hold. A touch here, a kick there, soon frozen pegasi fell clattering to the ground to share the honorable fate of their earthpony compatriots. Rainbow was the last to fall, but fall she did when a Windigo attacked her from her newly blind side.

The unicorns, tapping into the very stuff of magic itself, stood their ground despite the gnawing pain in their horns. The Windigos circled the unicorns, spinning round and round as fast as they could. For each one that dropped fresh spirits would charge in from beyond the ruined iron doors. It took less than a minute, but they fell too.

Rarity, no longer able to ignore the cries of those around her, tore her eyes away from the dead heart of a dying empire in time to see Fluttershy encased in a clear tomb of ice, her wings and legs wrapped protectively around her distended midsection.

A voice cried “Rarity, watch out!” and Rarity was shoved to the ground. She rolled with the impact and chanced a look back. There, frozen in the very spot that she had just been standing, was a tear stricken Pinkie Pie, her hair frozen in long limp strands for all eternity.

It was just her and Twilight now. She felt the wind cut as the Windigos galloped faster and faster in their hellish vortex. She felt the frost creep up her hooves and spread to her knees. She felt these things, but they didn’t matter. Nothing mattered anymore.

“Not like this,” she said to herself. “Not like this.”

The ice was up to her neck now, and though the proud braying of the Windigos reverberated in her ears, she heard nothing. She felt nothing. And then she looked again at Pinkie Pie as the ice passed her chin.

She thought she could just make out the hint of a smile. Always a smile. Even at the end of it all, that blasted mare would always smile. Always be there for her. Always forgive Rarity’s inability to forgive. Rarity found herself smiling too as the ice passed her lips. She took one last deep breath and closed her eyes.

Thank you, Pinkie Pie.

Now there was only Twilight Sparkle. Who, in actuality, was one of the first bodies to be encased in ice. But her true self, her ethereal self, still sped along the ley lines of Equestria looking for that light in the darkness. She was becoming more and more aware of the cold, and that was a bad sign. She wasn’t yet sure if she was immortal, and she didn’t want to test it out just…

There you are.

Having won the day, the Windigos slowed their assault. Instead of bashing their grim trophies into pieces, they turned instead to their work of coaxing unlife into the still heart of the Crystal Empire. They circled it, a legion of horse sized spirits, each a demon in its own right, uttering their grim rites. The heart had already iced over, but a sinister darkness began to grow from deep within its core.

A tremor went unnoticed. Then a rumble. Then a sound, as if from miles away begins to stir from deep within the frozen Alicorn. Few if any of the Windigos called for caution. Few if any heeded the call.

Twilight’s eyes began to glow and cracks began to form in her icy shell. A boiling hiss bled out of every crack and the sound became a roar. The Windigos turned as one to secure their prize. But it was too late.

Through the ley lines of Equestria, Princess Twilight Sparkle had tapped into the molten core of the Sun through its very avatar. A corona of blistering heat flared into life, bathing the world around them in flame. In the blink of an eye, not a single snowflake, drop of water, nor mote of steam could be found with a fifty foot radius. The walls around them were purified with tongues of fire and the very stone beneath their hooves was baked into a single solid mass.

The smell of sunbaked earth was the first thing Rarity remembered after the freeze. Her coat felt warm and freshly dried. Though she was surprised to be alive, she took an accounting of each pony there.

There was Applejack, helping Rainbow Dash to her hooves. There was Fluttershy, tending to a wounded pegasi. There was Pinkie Pie, starting all over with her shaving crème pies. It was as if they had all awakened from the same horrible nightmare. She smiled. Then Twilight fell over.

“Twilight!” called Fluttershy. She was the first to reach the Element of Magic. Though the others were not far off the mark.

“Ow. I’m fine, I think.”

“What in tarnation happened back there?”

“We… we were all captured in ice by the Windigos,” sputtered Rarity, not daring to make eye contact with Pinkie Pie.

Fluttershy wiped the sweat from her brow. “How did we survive? How did it get so warm in here?”

Twilight chuckled absentmindedly. “That’s my fault. Sorry.”

“Sorry, nothing. That was awesome! The walls are all melted and… oh wow, look at what’s left of the doors!”

The six friends looked to where Rainbow was pointing only to find two bubbling pools of liquid iron.

“Wow. We’re… not getting our deposit back on the rental, are we?” asked Twilight flatly.

The six friends laughed and hugged. Oh, what a relief it was to be in good spirits again.

Rarity caught something out of the corner of her eye. Or rather a lot of something. She stopped laughing and pulled herself out of the group hug. Her five friends turned to watch her, and then no pony smiled.

As if drawn to the terrible site, the white unicorn moved ever forward until she was upon it. The Crystal Heart, or rather what was left of it, lay scattered about its pedestal in countless pieces.

Twilight nervously clapped her forehooves together. “Okay, so the Crystal Heart was destroyed. No big deal, right? He heh heh, maybe we can fix it? I mean, what’s the worst that—“

A cacophony of howling filled the air. It was the gut-wrenching sound of Windigos being reborn from that damned vortex. But this time it sounded like there were countless scores of them.

“Here we go again. Form up, earthponies!” shouted Applejack, as she moved to the front lines to face death a second time that day. Resolutely they stood at her side, a nested V of crystal and earthponies, ready to give their all to fight the good fight. Again.

“Up and at ‘em pegasi, we can’t let those earthponies show us up!” Rainbow Dash nodded the challenge to her orange friend.

“That a fact? Well I reckon my earthponies’ll drop twice as many of ‘em than your pegasi do this time ‘round.”

Rainbow Dash did a quick loop in the air and grinned at Applejack. “I’ll take that bet. Loser buys the winner a baker's dozen of Joe’s best?”

Applejack nodded and the two mares shook on it.

“Yo, Twilight!” the brash pegasus called out to her Alicorn friend, “Got any more of that sunny goodness from Celestia? We could really use some kind of warm…” she gestured a sort of whirling motion with her hooves “Fire… Look I don’t know, just make with the magic.”

Twilight giggled at her friend’s antics, but saw the wisdom in her request. Sticking her tongue out in concentration, she focused on the seemingly infinite power of the ancient Alicorn that she had tapped into once before and tried to funnel it into the business ends of the weapons around her. It was like trying to drink from a fire hose.

Spear tips and wingblades hummed with heat and began to glow a bright red. Sweat appeared on many brows, but nopony was complaining. Twilight was sure the outcome would be different this time around. She marched to the front of the V formation and took her unicorns with her. They would be the rocks that the Windigo wave would break against, and break they would.

As the ponies continued to prepare, the ground began to quake. Rarity mused on the fact that nopony was willing to acknowledge the truth of their situation. That the Crystal Empire was falling piece by piece into the icy grip of the Northern Wastes.

The girls all knew what would happen if the Crystal Heart was broken. They were warned ahead of time by Princess Celestia. Without the power of the heart, it not be long before the earth opens up beneath their hooves to swallow up what hasn’t already been destroyed by the Windigos.

Rarity, lost in her own thoughts, found herself idly kicking at the pieces of the broken heart. It’s all over, isn’t it? The Crystal Kingdom is crumbling apart and the Windigos are screaming towards them once again. What’s the point in trying?

“Sad, isn’t it?” asked a surprisingly sincere voice. Rarity turned her head to look at the speaker. It was Pinkie Pie. She sat nearby, filling pie tins with shaving cream. “It was such a generous heart, providing for so many ponies for so many years. And now it’s broken.”

Pinkie Pie stopped what she was doing and looked Rarity in the eye. “I’d give anything to fix that broken heart.”

Rarity looked at Pinkie Pie, really looked at her, for the first time in years. When did she get those wrinkles and laugh lines around her eyes? She’d known the mare for over a decade now, but when was the last time they talked, just the two of them? Gosh, it had to have been before her… wedding to Fancy Pants.

Had she really held a grudge against one of her dearest friends for so long?

Pinkie Pie watched as a subtle transformation took place in Rarity’s eyes. Where there was once a placid stillness, there was now recognition. Observation. Interest. Pinkie Pie blinked away happy tears. Today was the day it was all going to turn around.

“Hi, Rarity. I missed you.” And the silly pink pony hugged her dear friend. Rarity hugged her back. It was a nice hug. It meant a lot. It said a lot.

The moment passed, and Pinkie Pie sat up. She nodded over to the broken Crystal Heart “You do what you need to do.” Then she nodded towards the pile of pies next to her “I’ll do what I need to do, and we’ll get through this. You’ll see.”

It was not long before the Windigos were upon them. Fueled by the bitter poison of revenge, they exploded against the ponies' defenses. But the defenses held. Like drops of water thrown into a furnace, the Windigos vaporized one by one against the wall of Twilight and her unicorns.

The wall held for several minutes, before enough of the unicorns began to fatigue. Twilight called out to Applejack to prepare her lines. Applejack nodded, and in the blink of an eye the unicorns were teleported behind the nested V of Applejack’s earthpony warriors. Their heated spear heads cut through demon ice-flesh like light piercing the darkness.

The Windigos continued their maddened frenzy until a half a score of them were reduced to a fine powder by the undaunted warriors. Soon, Windigos stopped pouring out of the corridor. In their stead, a massive hail storm hit the line of earthpony defenders. Twilight realized that the Wingidos had changed tactics.

Twilight signaled to Rainbow Dash and the former weatherpony barked orders to her team of pegasi defenders. If the Windigos were going to sit back and lob weather at them, she was going take advantage of their mistake.

From far down the hall beyond first check point of Sparkle Base Alpha, the Windigos summoned another wave of hail and fired it towards the defenders. Surely by now they would be-

What was that hissing sound?

Moments later, a wall of boiling water came cascading out of the nerve center, roaring down the halls until it engulfed the ill prepared Windigos, who bellowed with rage as they boiled away into nothingness.

For a short while, the defenders could detect no sound or movement outside of the tremors that ticked down what little time they had remaining before the earth swallowed them all. Wounds were treated, refreshments were served, and preparations for the next wave were made. But what came next, nopony could prepare for.

A new sound, a sound that to this day wakes Twilight up with a cold sweat in the middle of the night, filled the air. It was the terrified screams of hundreds of ponies at once, and it came from the other side of the crystal wall that separated the nerve center from the rest of Sparkle Base Alpha.

Twilight expanded her consciousness beyond the crystal wall and gasped.

“They opened a new vortex in the Mess Hall!”

“Oh, no.”

“They can do that?”

“My family’s in there!”

“Crack open that wall, Twilight, we gotta save ‘em!”

The Goddess of Magic bristled with effort as she worked to timeshift the crystal as quickly as she could. Sweat dripped down her face as she pushed past her mental exhaustion. Rainbow Dash slapped away at the wall with her wingblades ineffectually.

“Come on, come on, go faster!” she begged.

As they worked, a single, muffled scream was heard from the other side of the translucent wall. A tiny yellow blur ran by, chased by several horse-sized white blurs with glowing red eyes.

Pinkie Pie’s heart sank like a stone, her hair along with it. “That’s Sun Spots.” A moment later, she shouted back “Momma’s coming, sweetie!”

Outside of her own little world, Rarity was only vaguely aware that her friends needed her, but that didn’t seem to matter at the moment. Nor did it matter that the Windigos were upon the defenseless. Not while there was still this broken heart.

A part of her was relieved when that wall everypony was making such a fuss about finally came down in a burst of magic, but she wasn’t about to chase after the other defenders. After all, she couldn’t just leave the poor thing alone now, could she?

No, not when she felt such a connection to the broken heart. Beautiful and sad, as it was. It reminded her of how her own heart broke when she watched Pinkie Pie and Fancy Pants kiss for the first time all those years ago in Canterlot.

Had she never truly forgiven them? The ground beneath her hooves trembled again, and she could feel the crystal walls of the Equestrian Games Complex began to crack and crumble. Well, if she couldn’t heal her own broken heart, surely she could repair this one, right?

After all at it’s just a broken gem. The transformation of rags and scraps into works of art was her specialty. Plus, she always had an affinity for gems. How hard could it be? She gathered the pieces in a blue aura.

She focused and drowned out the world around her. She could no longer feel the bitter cold that frosted her cheeks, or the shaking of the earth. All she could feel was the broken Crystal Heart.

She put the pieces back into place and held them in her magic. Faint though it was, she could swear that she felt a soft tremor bleed from the heart. Whatever those Windigos did while everypony was frozen did something. Somehow, its heartbeat had returned, faint as a whisper. Beat though it did, the earth still shook.

Rarity synchronized her magic with the soft heartbeat, pushing her will into the Crystal Heart with each weak thump. Her magic began to coalesce and bond onto its own inherent power. She was no longer certain that the aura holding it in place was hers, but she couldn’t help but smile at how well it was all going.

A crack as thick as her tail suddenly split along the ground, and several load bearing walls crumbled into dust.

Realization dawned on Rarity. The heart lacked something at its core. That’s why the earthquakes kept happening. Something that magic couldn’t fix.

It lacked a purpose. It lacked desire. Not to put too fine a point on it, it lacked love. Rarity looked all about the chaos around her. Surely there was something to love in this forsaken place.

Standing brave and tall was Fluttershy, weeks away from becoming a mother for the sixth time. Rarity watched as she managed a small medical team, undaunted in the midst of so much violence. She’d come so far. Though many ponies had fallen in the days and hours leading up to this moment, her eyes were strong. She was determined to save as many as she could. Rarity could feel the kindness of her soul.

thu-thump

Rarity looked at the Alicorn Princess, as she held the roof in place with her will alone. That didn’t stop Twilight from lashing out with beams of energy and the occasional fiery blast. The white unicorn had always admired her magical prowess.

thu-thump

She watched as Applejack fought like a cornered manticore. Though she had lost her defenders to the inevitable frost, she fought on with stubborn determination. Applejack’s eyes held a sorrow that Rarity knew all too well. The farm mare was no good at hiding her emotions and they were plain as day across her face. She did not want it to end here, so far away from the soil of Sweet Apple Acres. Not so soon after Granny Smith. Rarity always admired Applejack’s honesty.

thu-thump

Rainbow Dash was the worst off of the girls, what with the damage to her left eye, but the Captain of the Wonderbolts fought with a grit that would put anypony to shame. Each blow from her hooves reduced a Windigo into a pile of snowflakes. Rarity knew that she would go down fighting. After all, who was more loyal than Rainbow Dash?

thu-thump

Then there was the pink mare that had vexed her for so long. Her silly old friend. Rarity watched as she ducked and dodged her way through the sea of foul spirits, almost effortlessly, twitching this way and that. She had her youngest son jammed haphazardly in her mane, and he laughed fearlessly along with his mother.

Pinkie somehow stopped herself in the middle of the air and turned her head to face Rarity. Then she blew a raspberry at her with crossed eyes. Rarity laughed, despite herself.

thu-thump

Rarity smiled. There was plenty to love even here at the end of the world. She had five true, true friends. They’d always been there for her. But she wasn’t always there for them. She looked down at her broken Element of Harmony necklace and traced a hoof along the jagged crack that ran all the way through the gem.

“No. Never again. I may not have always been there for my friends, but from this moment on…” she stood up on her hindlegs and thrust a hoof up towards the heavens. “From this moment on, I will never again turn my back on a pony in need! I will forgive and forget. I will be the greatest friend anypony could ever ask for!”

She fell back down to all fours as the ground beneath her began to give way. She looked around the room in a panic, trying desperately to find that one glorious mare. And there she was hopping along the ground trying to stay ahead of the collapsing earth.

“Pinkie Pie!”

The mare in question turned to look at Rarity as the white unicorn leapt towards her.

“I forgive you!” shouted Rarity.

Pinkie Pie closed her eyes and took a deep breath. After all these years. She smiled a broad smile.

Suddenly her left foreleg twitched a twitchy twitch and her eyes sprang open. She pulled Sun Spots out of her hair and flung him as hard as she could. “Twilight, catch him!”

The glowing Alicorn caught him in an aura of magic and put him down on her back without ever breaking her concentration off of the colossal roof over head.

“Rarity, catch me!”

The baffled white unicorn turned her head away from Twilight in time to see the floor beneath Pinkie Pie open. She fell into the abyss.

“Pinkie Piiiiie!” Rarity grabbed the Crystal Heart in her magic before jumping after her friend into the darkness.

“What am I doiiiiiiiiiiAAAAAAAH!”

As the wind raced past her, she could just see the faint outline of a pink party pony hurtling ever down. She’d never catch her at this rate. Pinkie Pie would fall forever, or worse, she’d not fall forever and become a very messy pink splat.

Rarity pushed herself downwards with her magic, trying desperately to exceed her own terminal velocity. She wasn’t very good at it. Speed wasn’t her forte. Then she tried reaching out to Pinkie Pie with her magic, maybe she could slow her friend’s fall somehow.

She extended her will beyond herself, pushing her blu… golden? Her golden aura ever outwards. But to no avail. The only thing she could feel was the Crystal Heart racing beside he… no, she was clutching it in her forehooves. When did that happen?

As she pondered this, she felt a connection to the Crystal Empire and its ponies… no, not its ponies… Her ponies. They needed her, just like they needed the Crystal Heart. Just like she needed to reach Pinkie Pie. The Crystal Heart spoke to her.

Rarity Belle, Broken Element of Generosity, do you seek my power?

“Yes.”

Are you willing to be remade in order to save those that are most precious to you?

“Yes!”

And what of my ponies? Will you save them too? Would you take my offering and be their Crystal Heart? Forever to guide them? Forever to love them? Do you promise to never lead them astray? To-

“Not to come off as impolite or anything, but can we just assume for the sake of the argument that I agree to all your terms? I’d rather like to catch my friend before the ground does.”

Pinkie Pie was falling, but she wasn’t afraid. She knew that it would all work out in the end. She’d had the best friends a girl could ask for. She had the Stallion of her dreams. She had three beautiful children. She had nothing to fear.

She’d been the luckiest gal in the whole wide world. She had so much. Was it too much to ask that she’d get to see the faces of those she loved, one more time? Yeah, it probably was. It was probably super-duper selfish of her. But she wanted it anyway.

She also wanted whatever that bright golden light was to be just a smidgemeter less bright.

Suddenly her falling wasn’t so… fall-y. It was more glide-y. And then she just hung there in the air. Weird!

“Oh hay, you did catch me. Thanks!”

“No no, thank you, Pinkie Pie. I’ve been a terrible friend. Can you… Ever forgive me?”

“Consider it done! Oh, wow I love your new look, very shiny.”

Rarity blushed. “Yes, well… Shall we go see if we can help the girls?”

“Oh, don’t wait on my account. After all, I’m just… hanging around!” Pinkie Pie’s peal of laughter from her own amazing joke reverberated along the walls of the chasm as the two ponies floated back up on a pillar of golden light to save the day.

Princess Twilight Sparkle was having a terrible day. She had a little colt that she was quite fond of crying his eyes out on her back, begging for his momma to ‘bounce out of the hole.’ She was down two Elements due to the last earthquake, and she was having a hard time talking herself out of teleporting the hay out of here with as many ponies as she could grab.

A crumbling sound drew her attention, and she turned in time to see the last wall of Sparkle Base Alpha fall into the earth. She looked up and realized that she was all that was supporting the roof with her magic. It floated in place like some kind of... big round disk thingy that hovers in the air.

With a grunt she sent it flying off into the wastes. One the plus side, that was one less spell to upkeep. She grinned as she wrapped two newly reborn Windigos in matching auras and rubbed them together furiously until there was nothing left but powder.

Sure, it was grim, and perhaps a bit… okay it was very twisted. But it was the most satisfying way she had of dispatching them. Very cathartic.

A Windigo roared into existence right in front of her and motioned to trample her, catching the Alicorn Goddess unawares. It reared up, kicking its front hooves and let out a demoralizing whine. Then it stopped in its tracks with a confused look on its face.

It looked down at the cyan hoof poking out of its chest, which was quickly followed by the rest of Rainbow Dash. She shook the powdery snow off of her coat like a dog throws off water and looked at her purple friend.

“So, what’s the plan, Twilight?”

“Plan? What makes you think I have a plan?”

“Don’t you always have a plan?”

“You do realize that having a plan means that there was time for planning, right? All we’re doing is reacting out here.”

“Uh huh, so what’s the plan?”

Princess Twilight Sparkle huffed a sigh and leveled her eyes on Rainbow Dash. “I have no plan, alright? Unless there – there –there’s some kind of miracle, we’re all gonna di—“

A golden pillar of light spilled out of the earth where Pinkie Pie and Rarity both fell in and familiar warmth filled her chest. She looked at the similarly stunned Rainbow Dash and noticed that her Element of Harmony was glowing.

“Twilight, my Element! Your Element!”

She touched her crown. Sure enough there was that old familiar warmth. She was about to say something to Rainbow Dash, when she heard a sound she knew all too well. It was laughter.

Twilight couldn’t help but smiled when she saw Rarity and the glowing Element, whole and restored on her chest. At least it looked like Rarity. Though the crystal armor was throwing her off. Twilight had so many questions, but now wasn’t the time.

“Girls!” She shouted to everypony present “Formation!”

Applejack hooked her lasso around an errant Windigo and caught a ride over to Twilight and the others. Twilight grabbed it in her magic as it passed overhead and compressed it into a snowball.

Oh! Oh that was a fun one, it‘s almost a pity that we won’t have any more to… what am I thinking?

Rainbow Dash returned with a startled looking Fluttershy in tow. “Oh, my! Rarity, your Element is back to normal. I love your new look, by the way. Very avant-garde.”

“Momma!” squealed Sun Spots as he leapt off Twilight’s back and into Pinkie Pie’s fore limbs.

“Hay, sunshine!”

Finally, with each Element standing together, they shared a smile. The warmth in their chests spread to the rest of their bodies, and they began to glow.

“What’s happening, momma? I feel really happy.”

“Hold on tight, sweetie. This is going to be the best thing, ever!”

And it was. Oh it was glorious. The Windigos never knew what hit them. A flood of prismatic light burst from the six mares and out over the entire world. Honesty, Loyalty, Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, and the Magic binding them all together, scoured the whole of the Crystal Empire, Equestria, and everywhere inbetween in a wave of joy. Wrongs were righted, trespasses were forgiven, and closure was offered. It had been far too long since the lands of Equestria were bathed in the radiance of harmony.

Indeed it would be far longer, centuries even, before it would happen again.

“…And?”

“And what, darling?”

“So you used some magical jewelry, and then what happened?” asked Honeycrisp.

Rarity tittered “Silly me, of course you wouldn’t know what the Elements of Harmony do. Why it wiped the Windigos out of existence. Poof! They were never heard from again; etcetera, etcetera.”

“So that’s great and all, but why are you called the Frostmare?” Honeycrisp huffed.

“Ah, well yes. That didn’t start until a few years later. It all began when Applejack came to visit me in the Crystal Empire and asked if I—“

“Trouble,” grunted Quick Name.

A blast of energy slammed against the protective magical bubble that wrapped around their sky carriage. The three girls screamed and hit the deck. Twilight looked up from her reverie and cursed at herself for not keeping a sharper watch.

When the smoke from the blast cleared, Twilight and her companions were dumbstruck by the sight before them.

The air around them was filled with hundreds of pegasi, each and everypony there was muttering something or other as they flapped together in unison. Their eyes stared straight ahead, dull and lifelessly. Except for a single notable exception.

“Hello, dearest sister,” said Princess Cadence with enough venom in her voice to make Twilight feel ill. The Goddess of Love’s eyes were bloodshot, and her horn throbbed with an aura that wasn’t her own.

“Thanks for the letter. We’ve been ever so prepared for your arrival.”

Chapter 8

Sandy wasn’t a brave pegasus. She earned her dust devil cutie mark pushing trouble away, not rushing towards it. Still, there was an odd thrill to their high-speed flight on Princess Twilight’s self-pulling sky chariot. Thrilling, yes. But it didn’t stop her from screaming in absolute terror.

After all, they were being chased through the sky by hundreds of deranged pegasi.

“They must be converted or they must be destroyed!”

Oh, right. It was also Princess Cadence who was leading the frothing feathered herd behind them. But it wasn’t the Princess Cadence that Sandy knew and loved, with her calming smile and her eternal quest for peace.

“Take the Princess and the Crystal Empress. Kill the rest!” bellowed the Goddess of Love.

Sandy screamed again.

“Sandy, darling? I enjoy a bit of theatrics as much as the next mare, but hush a bit while Twilight’s concentrating, okay?”

A spiraled beam of magic, made of cornflower blue and deep red, almost black, energy splashed against their magical shield. It wavered.

Twilight grunted in pain as she navigated the chariot through the swarm of enraged pegasi. “Rarity!”

Rarity looked around at the frothing pegasi around them. The near constant bursts of twisted magic from the corrupted goddess of love. Then she looked at her friend.

“The shield!” as soon as she said it, Twilight’s shield blipped out of existence and their minds were filled with voices.

Whispers on the edge of sanity became a roaring upheaval of command and response, a sea of declarations all calling out for one thing: Obedience to order. Instinct took over and Rarity’s mind and body plunged within the crystalline shell of her second form; the avatar of her grand empire. In her crystalline form, the shouts returned to a whisper, her mind now protected from malicious influences. She was able to think straight once more. Just in time to feel her stomach drop out from under her. Their flying chariot was now a falling chariot.

Rarity looked around at the pained faces of the ponies around her. The three girls were starting to lose color in their cheeks as they tumbled through the air screaming gibberish of their own. Quick Name had his hooves over his ears as he roared indignantly at the cascade of pegasi flapping madly in a suicide dive to catch them.

At the head of the living downpour of frothy madness was one rather disheveled looking Alicorn, biting and gnashing at the air as if that would help her catch her tumbling prey. Rarity’s eyes began to glow and the chariot was wrapped in a transparent wall of perfect crystal.

Twilight, able to think clearly again, began the process of righting the chariot. Soon hooves were back on wood, and all screaming subsided. Except for little Sandy, who found a way to shriek in new and exciting octaves.

Their chariot took off with a shot and soon they were pulling away from the horde of corrupted fliers. The relative safety of Cloudsdale as it came into view, less than a mile away.

“What the hay happened back there?” asked Honeycrisp

“I think the Beacon zapped Princess Cadence!” said a visibly shaken Smarty Pants.

“Oh, you think so, Pants? Of course the Beacon zapped the Princess! I mean, why was she waiting for us with all those pegasi? I’ve never seen so many in one place.”

Twilight was leaning against the forward railing of her sky chariot urging it to go even faster with her potent magical powers. Quick Name put a hoof up to Sandy’s muzzle and managed to get the frantic filly to stop yelling at the top of her lungs. He turned to his employer with a stern look in his eyes.

“Princess, we should turn back and head for Canterlot while we still can.”

Smarty Pants sprang up from her seated position at this. “No! No, we can’t turn back. We need to find out what happened to Princess Luna! We have to find her if we want to stop the Beacon of Order.”

“But—”

Twilight cut off the captain of her Arcane Guard before he could continue. “Smarty Pants is right, Quick Name. We need to find Luna and Celestia and we need to do it soon. This is our only lead and we have to chance it.”

Quick Name tried again, “But I’m—“

A blast of twisted magic pinged off their shield and Rarity let out a hiss of pain, gripping her head. The shield held.

“Oh my, that certainly packs a wallop, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah,” nodded Twilight sympathetically. “She’s not pulling any punches with that magic of hers. I couldn’t get us to go any faster while I had the shield up. But now that you’ve got that, I can focus on speed. We’ll be landing in a few minutes.”

Smarty Pants sat back down on her rump and nervously clapped her forehooves together. “So, Princess. What’s the plan?”

Twilight looked up from the little filly in time to have the chariot dodge a volley of corrupted magic. “Plan. Right. Okay, first: Cloudwalking. Zap.”

Smarty suppressed a giggle as she felt a tickle in her hooves. She wanted to show the Princess that she could keep her head in a tense situation. Quick Name though, fell over laughing.

“No no,” he panted between pangs of surprisingly girlish laughter, “n-not the hooves! Ha ha ha, anything b-but the h-hooves!”

“Second: We land.” When she said ‘land’ the chariot began to rumble as its runners came in contact with the dense cloud ground of Cloudsdale’s main runway. The chariot slowed as it moved along the soft ground, but it did not stop. Princess Cadence and her corrupted pegasi were closing in.

“Third: Thought shields. Wum.” A purplish tint came over the world, and Sandy looked around at her friends. Each of them had a purple bubble around their head. “These should stop most of the whispers from getting into your head.”

“Is it necessary to say the sound effects when you cast a spells?” asked Honeycrisp.

“Yes. It makes the magic better.”

“But—“

Twilight’s right eye twitched and she stared down at the little red filly. She pointedly tapped a hoof to her chest for emphasis. “Goddess. Of. Magic.”

Rarity leaned down and whispered to the confused Apple. “Try not to antagonize her, sweetie. She gets a little… eccentric in high stress situations.”

Honeycrisp puffed out her cheeks and let the air out like a deflating balloon.

“Fourth: Rarity and I will deal with Cadence and the pegasi, the rest of you stay together and start looking for clues. Your first stop should be the Cloudsdale Tribune’s records archive on Third and Mane. It should be on the top floor.”

Honeycrisp, unaware or unworried about the bear she was continually poking, spoke up. “Wait a minute, why should we—“

“JUST GO!”

Twilight’s booming command was reiterated by a blast that struck the chariot, shattering it and flinging its former occupants through the air. They landed unharmed on the sponge-cake like ‘ground’ and the three girls and their guardian ran off deep into the heart of Cloudsdale.

Twilight and Rarity were the first to recover. Twilight looked to her old friend and nodded in the direction of the Coliseum. No other words were exchanged, and the two ancient ponies galloped off.

A vicious pink blur and most of the pegasi followed them, but a few dozen stragglers turned to follow the four ponies running towards the commercial district. Working quickly, Twilight summoned a wall of thick clouds to close off the street her little ponies had run down. They’d be on their own from here on out.

Not stopping to chat, Twilight turned her head to the pony running next to her. “Rarity, I need you to hold off Cadence as long as you can. I’ll take the pegasi. I’m not done analyzing how the Beacon’s Memetic Harmonization works.”

Rarity nodded and she came to a stop, turning in a dainty little half-circle. Then she leapt with all the strength of a mare scorned and careened into Princess Cadence before the latter could change course. They both tumbled to the cloud-ground. The other pegasi raced on towards their purple foe.

Panting, Cadence rolled to get back on to her hooves and launched a flurry of red and blue magical bolts at Rarity. “Ah, the Crystal Empress. You will be a grand champion for our cause.” She focused her mental energies at Rarity. Nothing happened. Cadence blinked unhappily.

“Why aren’t you moved by The Voice?”

“Two voices in my head is more than enough, thank you.”

That was a dig at me, wasn’t it?

Perish the thought, darling.

Rarity danced and dodged her way around the bolts with grace. “So, tell me Cadence, how are you? Besides crazy and possessed of course.”

Cadence snarled and sprang at the former Element of Generosity. One step ahead of her, Rarity dived away from the enraged Goddess of Love. She trying to keep her on edge and off balance for a long as possible.
Rarity knew that she could handle crazy. It was when Cadence had a chance to think that she was her most dangerous. Rarity was trying to avoid that at all costs.

“And Shining Armor? How’s he doing, hmm? Still running around with those skimpy little succubae in Tartarus?”
Cadence roared as she got into melee range of the infuriating white pony and spun around to buck with all of her might. All she hit was cloud.

“Careful, Cadence careful!” Admonished Rarity, “If you keep that up you’ll throw your hip out of joint. You simply must be more careful, what with being a mare of such… advanced age.”

Twilight Sparkle was enjoying herself more than she’d care to admit. She was sure she was going to beat this Memetic Harmonization. The trick was coming up with the right counter spell components for her magic to get through without triggering the adaptation response. She summoned her notebook and a quill out of the ether and stopped running.

Moments later the buzzing sound on the edge of her senses became a roar. The air around her became filled with pegasi. Hundreds of them. Each one of them was either chanting, droning, or screaming. Beacon this; Order that. Really it was just background noise at this point, thanks to her thought shielding spell.

She took a calming breath and closed her eyes. She couldn’t afford to cast the silencing spell on herself out here. Unlike the telegraph office, where there were less than a dozen of them all in one place, here she was surrounded by scores of corrupted ponies.

Plus she needed to keep an ear out for Rarity and the others if any of them needed help. She had her mental shield in place and renewed the magic on the shields of her friends. She’d just have to get them to stop their gibberish some other way.

Looking through her notes, she absentmindedly erected a defensive bubble around herself. It wouldn’t stop magic, but it would stop physical attacks. Since these were pegasi, that should have be enough.

Most of the corrupted ponies were content with talking at her. Only a few were attacking. On their own, each corrupted pony would meet their match with a particularly lively foal. No, without their mind control powers, they weren’t dangerous unless there was a large enough crowd of them.

“Ah! Here it is.” Twilight had found the page of the notes she took when she first encountered the corrupted ponies. She focused her magic and a beam of purple energy shot from her horn and hit the closest pegasus, a white mare by the looks of it. It was the same blast she first used against the ponies in the telegraph office. Under normal circumstances, it would do little more than administer a small shock to the system. She was expecting it to do nothing.

Instead it hit the pegasus, and she fell to the ground, asleep.

Curious.

Her notepad and quill blazed with life, writing at a frantic pace. Memetic Harmonization should have adapted to that attack. But it didn’t. Could it be that it only works within a certain area of effect? Did Celestia or Luna ever test to see if the Memetic Harmonization retained its properties over vast geographical distances?

She charged a second shot and hit a pegasus standing right next to her. As expected it did nothing. She looked all around and saw a straggler at the tail end of the group. It would be a tricky shot but… She fired off a third identical shot at the distant pony.
The pony dropped to the ground.

“Ha!” Twilight smiled broadly and excitedly clapped her front hooves together.

Thinking of another spell, the mustache one, she aimed her shot at a would-be assassin kicking ineffectually at her left foreleg. Before she fired the shot, she reached beyond the realm of the physical world, and opened her sixth sense. Here floating between the world of the real and the ever-flowing tides of magic.

She didn’t dare delve deeper into the magical realm now, she didn’t want the Beacon to touch her psyche again. Not when she was so close to discovering its downfall. She focused on the unfortunate soul in front of her. An orange pegasus with a white mane. She felt his magical signature. She studied it and wrote relevant notes in her notebook. Then she cast her spell. In the physical world, the pony suddenly grew a handlebar mustache, and then fell over asleep.

In the flowing magical realm that mirrored the real, Twilight watched as her spell flowed through circuits of magic, coiling and flowing from the tip of her horn to the muzzle of her latest test subject. She had long ago memorized the structure of her spells and she knew what she could expect to happen when it reached the stallion. The spell hit the stallion and it began to unravel itself like an intricately wound ball of ribbon or a long scroll. But as it unravelled, a barrier of light pinged off the stallion from the impact spot of her spell.

The barrier let it through, but Twilight marveled as she watched how the barrier created many duplicates of the mustache spell, but mirrored, in a way. Each duplicate was like the petal of a sunflower, spreading from the point at which the spell entered the stallion’s barrier. The petal grew and grew, and each time it touched another pegasus, the blooming process started all over again.

She tracked it as it leapt from pony to pony. She was surprised to see that a single spell would only spread six generations. When it reached the sixth generation, it would not spread beyond that.

She charged the spell again with a flash of will and hit one of the first generation pegasi. The spell had no effect, but it did not blossom again. She smiled. Twilight pulled her consciousness back fully into the physical world and plopped down to look at her notes. Suddenly, there was a loud thud, and she looked up and saw Rarity’s face pressed up again her barrier.

“Rarity! I think I figured out how to stop their adaptation! I just have to stop the blossoms!”

Rarity, her eyes rolling around in her head, nodded thoughtfully. “That’s cycling, Applejack. Now if you’ll pardon me, I’m not feeling all that butter.” And she slid down the side of Twilight’s barrier into a heap.

Realizing that something was wrong, Twilight lowered her shield and wrapped her unconscious friend in a hug.

“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about her, sister.”

Twilight looked up with wide eyes at the wickedly grinning pink Alicorn.

“I would worry about me instead.” Cadence said as she took a step forward.

Twilight Re-raised her protective shield, still cradling the delirious Rarity in her forelegs.

“You know that little shield of yours won’t stop me right, Twilight?” Cadence scoffed, “It won’t stop any of us. We’re all of one mind; one purpose. We are going to bring down Discord once and for all. Isn’t that exciting?”

Twilight ignored her royal sister’s rambling as best she could as she focused her restorative magics on the unconscious Rarity.
Cadence continued. “I mean, sure he and Shining Armor have been poker buddies forever, but that doesn’t excuse him of being chaos incarnate. He has to be destroyed.”

Twilight couldn’t take it anymore. “Why Cadence? Why does Discord have to be destroyed, Cadence?”

“Why? WHY! Because it’s my purpose. Our purpose. Oh I thought I knew from purpose, being the Goddess of Love and all, but this?” she let out a contented sigh, “This is the real deal, Twilight.”

The pink Alicorn took a few steps closer. “Can’t you see that your struggling is pointless, Twilight? Join us… join me, and together with the Beacon, we can rule from a shared throne of absolute Order!”

“Don’t we already rule Equestria?”

“Don’t you backsass me, I—”

“You’re not Cadence! Cadence wouldn’t risk the fate of the world to stop a threat that doesn’t even exist. You’re a puppet, dancing on a string.” Twilight closed her eyes and let out a breath. “That doesn’t make what I’m about to do any easier though.” She began casting one of her most powerful spells.

“From one to another,”

“You dare insult me?” sputtered Cadence indignantly, “Insult the righteous cause of Order? Discord will be stopped. Chaos will be broken under the rule of law, never again to rise.”

“Another to one.”

She took another step. She was practically standing on top of the two former Elements of Harmony at this point. “You’ve always been the pragmatic one, Twilight. Can’t you see what I see? If you can’t, allow me to… open your eyes.”

A red glow spilled out from Cadence’s eyes, and a wave of twisted blue and red magic washed over Twilight’s shield. The voices were coming again. Shouting in Twilight’s head. It didn’t matter, her spell was almost complete.

Twilight looked up at her sister and shouted out the rest of the ancient incantation. “A mark of one's destiny singled out alone, fulfilled!”

A wave of purple energy exploded out of the Goddess of Magic, booming through the air and leveling cloud buildings for blocks. Soon the air was filled with the sound of unconscious pegasi falling to the soft foam-like ground. What could be seen of Cadence’s still-breathing body was quickly covered up in a growing pile of feathers, hooves, and newly adorned flanks.

She didn’t know any of these pegasi, but she knew that Star Swirl the Bearded’s ancient spell had worked. She could tell by the chain reaction of cutie marks being swapped between owners as the blast wave of the spell continued to radiate up and out. Also from the faint sizzling sound that the transformation left behind. That was new.

She watched it until it passed the last of the corrupted pegasi, then focused her magic on ending the spell, to stop it from radiating out further than was strictly necessary. For a short while there was silence. Then finally, Twilight felt a stirring in the Empress in her hooves.

Rarity sat up, rubbing the top of her head. “Oh my, what hit me?”

“Princess Cadence.”

“Truly?” asked Rarity as she rubbed the back of her head, looking around at the devastation around her. “So then this wasn’t all some sort of horrid dream?”

Twilight shook her head.

Rarity’s hooves moved from her head to her rump, and absentmindedly rubbed at her cutie mark. “Twilight… Why are my haunches warm?” The Crystal Empress looked down at her delivery box cutie mark and tapped a hoof to it again, puzzled by the warmth it exuded.

Twilight tried very hard not to laugh, holding it in as best as she could. “O-oh, is it? G-gosh, that’s, ha, that’s really-y strange.”

Rarity looked around and at all the pegasi, sleeping soundly. Some of them were still falling out of the air. “What did you do?”

“I used Star Swirl the Bearded’s old cutie mark swapping spell. I was aiming for Cadence, figuring I needed a very powerful spell to break through to her, but I guess it hit everypony else too. I wasn’t expecting to get more than maybe a hooffull of ponies… Why did it affect all of you?”

Rarity sat up and stared at her oldest friend in the world. Then she squinted suspiciously. “All of ‘you’, Twilight?”
She thrust a hoof at Twilight’s cutie mark. The Alicorn goddess’ wings flared and her eyes bugged out of her head.
“Rarity! Your hooves are like ice! What are yo—“

“Twilight, your cutie mark is not unusually warm. I’m a creature of ice and crystal. My cutie mark is sizzling. The cutie marks of the ponies around us are sizzling.”

Twilight laughed nervously. “Boy, is all this conjecture making anypony else thirsty? I could really go for a—“

Suddenly a pink hoof shoots out of a pile of snoozing pegasi, followed by a whole lot of cursing and screaming. Soon Princess Cadence has made her way to the top of the pile. Panting and with unsteady movements, she took up a defensive stance. Twilight and Rarity wheeled back instinctively, putting several feet between themselves and the reawakened goddess.

“What did you do to me? What am I?” she swung her head around drunkenly and begun to chase her tail. “Why is my cutie mark a lollypop?”

Cadence’s eyes twitched continuously, sometimes glowing blue, sometimes glowing red. Sometimes there was no glow at all. She turned to face the two conscious ponies and began stumbling in their direction.

Twilight stumbled backwards and pushed herself away from Cadence with each uneasy step she took. “This isn’t right… You shouldn’t know what your cutie mark used to be. You shouldn’t even be awake!”

Cadence jerked upright and her eyes took on a solid red glow. Twilight felt a presence join them that she was already all too familiar with.

“She knows because I know.” The voice belonged to the Beacon of Order, but it came from Cadence’s mouth. “All my converts are of one mind, after all.”

“Let Cadence go!” Twilight sneered.

“And give up the second most powerful weapon in my arsenal? Never. I’m afraid if you want her back, you’re going to have to kill her.” The fully possessed Goddess of Lollypops fired a red beam of energy from her horn so suddenly that Twilight didn’t have time to put up a new barrier. It hit her square in the chest and sent her spiraling through the air, into the ruined cloudwall behind her.

The Beacon of Order laughed heartily. “Oh, this is fun! I should have taken total control of her the minute I converted her. Do you have any idea how powerful being an Alicorn makes you?”

Cadence happily trotted over to the crater. “Well, I suppose you do.” A second red beam slammed into Twilight, burying her further in the cloudy rubble.

Cadence’s possessed body began to summon a tremendous amount of energy into her horn. “Well, it’s been fun, it really has. But I have a Dark God of Chaos to put down. So you’ll excuse me if I cut this short.”

As the Beacon prepared to fire his final strike on the downed Twilight Sparkle, pain filled the possessed Alicorn’s being. There was no explosion, there was no burst of red light. There was a only a tinkling sound, followed by a soft pop. It was the soft pop that hurt so bad.

When the Beacon could manage it, it looked up at Cadence’s horn above her head, and was shocked to see that her horn had been completely encased in crystal. The Beacon fired again, and again there was the soft popping sound, followed by the gut-wrenching pain.

“If you want to hurt Twilight, then you’ll have to go through me.”

The Beacon willed Cadence’s body to turn and face the crystalline armored Empress. Rarity glared at the abomination with both poise and determination.

Cadence’s face shuddered into a smile. Her wings jutted out of her back, spread as far as possible. “If you think stopping up an Alicorn’s magic makes her any less dangerous, you’ve got a painful lesson ahead of you.”

Before Rarity could respond there was a blur of motion and she felt a whole new world of pain explode in her ribs. Where she’d been standing before now loomed Cadence, lollypop goddess of war, back hooves extended in a buck.

Luckily for Rarity, she had the foresight to don her crystalline form before caging Cadence’s magic, otherwise she’d surely be a pink smear in the sky by now. She stumbled back from the blow and righted herself. The air around them began to drop in temperature and soon both ponies could see their breath. Slowly, Rarity began to shift and change, growing taller with each passing moment. Soon she was a head again as tall as Princess Cadence, her horn was capped with a wicked blade of ice.

“Mistake number one was possessing my friend.” Rarity’s voice echoed and boomed like the bitter wind through the tundra “Mistake number two was hurting Twilight.”

She slammed a forehoof into the ground. A jagged wall of ice rippled along the clouds at her feet, and bit into Cadence’s left side, dropping her to her knees.

“Your final mistake was attacking me. You may have possessed a goddess of love, but I am the Empress of Ice. Your betrayal ends here.”

The Beacon of Order willed Cadence’s body to her hooves and scoffed. But before it could say anything else, an icy limb shot out of the ground beneath her, sending the possessed Alicorn tumbling through the air once more. Landing with a thud, the Beacon looked out of swollen eyes to see a creature it had never before encountered.

Pulling itself out of cloudbank was a massive translucent ice beast. It was feline in nature, but the largest cat the Beacon had ever seen. Each massive paw was as big around as a pony’s head and was filled with razor-sharp claws. Two saw-like teeth, more like tusks, jutted menacingly out of its otherwise aerodynamic head. The creature’s red eyes glowed like old embers, simmering with barely contained aggression. Its four mighty limbs and sleek body rippled with muscle in a way that the Beacon associated with jungle cats, not with… whatever this was.

“Opal dear?” Rarity cooed from behind her summoned monstrosity, “Mommy needs you to deal with a rat. Can you do that for me, sweetie?”

The beast named Opal, turned to its creator and nuzzled her affectionately, purring playfully at an impossibly low octave. Then without further warning, the creature was bounding across the clouds towards its prey.

Twilight woke up with the worst headache she’d had in recent memory. She tried to sit up, but she was immediately beset with pain. Gingerly, she looked over her shoulder at her left wing. It was stripped almost bare, and broken in tatters as it hung awkwardly from her side. Left to heal on it’s own, it would be years, possibly even decades before she’d ever fly again.

“Shoot.” She grumbled.

Once again she found herself applying her healing magics, only this time to her mangled wing. It hurt like the dickens as the bone and tissue knit itself back together, to say nothing about re-growing all the necessary plumage. She summoned her saddlebags out of the small dimensional pocket she keeps such everyday items in, and put the salvageable feathers in one of the compartments.

After all, what better quill was there than a feather from the Goddess of Magic? She gave her newly-restored wing a few simple flaps. Satisfied with the results, Twilight stood up in her cloudy crater and stretched the rest of her.

It was then that she looked up in time to see one of Rarity’s infamous ice-ligers fly through the air and smash into the rubble above her. Which then exploded into a sea of snow. Which, of course, fell onto the purple Princess and buried her in several feet of icy slush.

The possessed body of Cadence was breathing shallow ragged breaths. The Beacon of Order had overestimated the combat abilities of the Alicorn body. Controlling it was doubly difficult for the Beacon, since Cadence’s mind had fallen into a deep sleep after Twilight’s cutie mark changing spell.

Rarity on the other hoof, stood as regal as the day of her coronation as Empress of the Crystal Empire. Not a hair out of place, not a limp or stumble in her stride, nor a crack in her crystalline armor. Too bad it was just a ruse. The ice-liger was her trump card. She knew she couldn’t take Cadence on her own. She just hoped that she had bought enough time for… something to happen.

A guttural roar issued from Cadence’s mouth, and the puppet ruler charged haphazardly across the rubble strewn Cloudsdale street towards Rarity. She lowered her head and aimed her crystal encased horn for the white unicorn’s chest. Rarity stood her ground.

At the last possible moment, Rarity shifted to the left and spun about, earning a nasty gash on the right side of her neck that ran all the way down to her flank. But her gambit paid off. Cadence’s body flailed and fell as she tried to move her unresponsive hind end. The back half of the Goddess of Love was encased in ice.

Not-Cadence continued to scream in her incoherent rage. She slammed her forehooves and head against her ice prison, earning herself nasty cuts and welts for her trouble. Not that the Beacon cared. It could not feel the pain of the ponies it controlled. It cared little for their injuries, just results.

“You just don’t know when to quit do you?” Rarity asked while the long cut along her side was covered with a new seam of crystal. “Well, fine by me. I could do this all day.”

We can?

No. I’m bluffing.

“You’re bluffing!” snarled the Beacon of Order through his Alicorn mouthpiece.

“Try me.” Rarity threatened.

You’re not bluffing?

Yes, I am! Just… can we not do this right now?

With a mighty grunt, the mind-controlled Cadence freed herself of the ice and flapped both wings in a single mighty swoop. She performed a tight loop in the air and dove at Rarity as fast as her Alicorn body would allow her too. Rarity took a step back and stumbled. She knew there was no getting away from this final attack. Rarity closed her eyes.

A moment later she opened her eyes and she was confused. Alive, but confused. Cadence was hovering in the air, staring off into the city, her eyes wide with fear.

“Luna.” The Beacon’s voice whispered from her throat.

Rarity was unsure of what the Beacon had said, but then she felt the ground rumble, and thought that she heard a voice echoing from the direction that Cadence was staring in. She looked too, her curiosity overcoming her.

Both ponies have forgotten about the other for the moment. Rarity just stood and Cadence's body just flapped. Both staring off into the distance until a new voice interrupts their impromptu time-out.

“What are you two looking at?”

Rarity and Cadence whipped their heads around to look at the snow covered Princess Twilight. She was craning her neck to look beyond the two of them into the city. Cadence’s body tensed, and the Beacon of Order cursed under her breath, turning to flee from the two ponies.

Twilight called out in alarm about Cadence getting away, and Rarity just did what came naturally to her… what her cutie mark was telling her to do. She put Cadence in a box.

Well, not a box. More like a crystal cage. It jutted out of the dense cloud ground and pulled the Alicorn right out of the air before she could build up speed. Rarity channeled the last of her magic and firmly rooted Cadence’s body to the ground.

Unable to hold back anymore, Rarity collapsed to her knees and the crystalline armor melted away, revealing a smaller, bruised, and battered unicorn.

Twilight turned to her friend and scooped her up. “Rarity!” she cried.

Rarity winced in her embrace. “Gah! Twilight whatever possessed you to pick me up and then shout at me?”

Instinctively, Twilight released her friend. Rarity promptly fell to the ground in a uneven pile.

“Oh gosh, sorry!” Twilight moved to pick her friend back up but Rarity stuck out a twitching hoof to stop her.

“DON’T TOUCH ME! I mean… ha ha, I’m fine. I like it here. On the ground... Don’t touch me.”

Twilight grumbled to herself about ‘only wanting to help’ but Rarity was too focused on not being trampled, gored, and shouted at to care. A tingling sensation washed over Rarity and she knew that Twilight’s healing magic was doing its… well, magic.

When Rarity was well enough to stand, she saw Twilight inspecting Cadence’s body in her crystal cage. “Smart.” She said nodding to Cadence’s horn. “How did you know that your crystal would be strong enough to restrain an Alicorn’s magic?”

Rarity sauntered over to her friend. “Oh that? I didn’t. I just did what I always do with my problems. I put them in a box.”

Twilight gave her friend a puzzled look.

“I mean I simply adore boxes. And I must.” Rarity stared at her friend with half-lidded daggers for eyes. “Boxes are my life. At least that’s what my cutie mark says.” She motioned her head towards her flank, proudly adorned with the same cardboard box on each side of her.

Twilight laughed nervously and looked every which way but Rarity, stopping when she glanced over the white unicorn’s shoulder.

“Luna?” asked Twilight, almost not daring to hope.

“Oh no you don’t missy,” chided Rarity, “I’m not falling for that. What did you do to my cutie mark?”

A voice behind her, one that Rarity had not heard in a long time, called out. “Hail, Princess Twilight Sparkle. Hail, Crystal Empress Rarity.”

Not believing her ears, Rarity turned around and was greeted by a rather peculiar sight.

Chapter 9

~Meanwhile~

Sandy squeaked and collapsed into a ball, gripping her own tail when the four ponies felt the ground shake. They turned and watched in awe as the street behind them was closed off with new clouds, separating the girls from Princess Twilight and Empress Rarity.

Luckily, they had just left the scene of their sky chariot’s wreckage and were currently hiding in an alley, waiting for the air to clear of corrupted pegasi before moving on.

Quick Name harrumphed at the royal tantrum and turned to his three charges. “Come on, you have to get to the newspaper archives.”

Smarty Pants and Honeycrisp both helped Sandy to her hooves, and the four trotted off again. They ran from alley to alley, staying beneath awnings and hugging buildings whenever their trek took them out into the open. But it wasn’t long before they heard a buzzing sound from behind them.

“What the hay is that?” asked Honeycrisp.

“Run,” commanded Quick Name.

Not asking any more questions, the three girls followed the Captain of the Arcane Guard barreling down the fluffy street as quickly as their legs could carry them. Behind them, turning the corner of 6th and Barnaby at terrifying speed, came a throng of frantic fliers. Some took the corner with such speed that they couldn’t help but crash into the shattered store fronts on the other side of the street. That didn’t stop them from flying back out soon after.

“The alley to your right. Go.”

The three girls nodded and hooked right when they hit the entrance to the alley. If anypony had told Honeycrisp that trash and pools of foul smelling mystery liquid could be found in grand abundance in the unused alleys of Cloudsdale, she never would have believed it. Until today.

She tried not thinking about it as she splashed her hooves through the rubbish. Good honest dirt and mud was one thing, but this… this was just unnatural. She let out a breath she didn’t remember holding when they reached the street on the other side of the alley.

With what looked like practiced ease, the dark grey unicorn ground to a halt in the clouds, spinning to face the pegasi behind the girls as he did so. “Take a left and run ahead, I’ll catch up.”

Smarty Pants, Honeycrisp, and Sandy said nothing but ran ahead on the unusual surface, panting and more often than not, slipping and sliding as they went. Sandy heard a commotion behind her, and chanced a glance over her shoulder. She wasn’t sure what she was seeing.

Eight shouting pegasi made it through the alley, and eight pegasi collided as one into Quick Name. But as soon as they touched him he burst into smoke. At least it looked like smoke to Sandy, dark smoke with sparkles.

Eight pegasi smashed through the smoke, encountered no resistance what-so-ever, and then smashed into the adjacent wall. The smoke reformed into Quick Name and he turned to run after the girls. Sandy quickly looked away before they could make eye contact with each other. She’d known Quick Name for two years, but she’d never seen him do anything that before.

“Come on Sandy, you’re gonna get left behind!” Honeycrisp chided as she struggled to keep up with a determined Smarty Pants.

Sandy pushed the worry out of her mind and fluttered after her two friends.

A few minutes and a few fights later, the three girls were gasping for breath before the entrance of the Cloudsdale Tribune. They stood on the dense cloud sidewalk, catching their breath. Sandy was about to ask the girls an important question when they heard the sounds of a nearby struggle. They turned to look back in the street to see Quick Name standing on top of a pile of unconscious pegasi.

“Geez, again?” huffed Honeycrisp “This is the billionth time you’ve done that.”

“Done what?” asked Quick Name.

“Done that thing where I hear a fight, and by the time I turn around it’s just you. You’re not even breathing heavily!”

Quick Name pointed a hoof at one of the pegasi. “They started it.”

“How am I supposed to learn any combat magic if you keep knocking them out before I can watch?”

Quick Name studied the angry red unicorn. “You want me to slow down. While I’m fighting for my life?”

“Yes.”

He raised an eyebrow. “So you can watch?”

“Yes!”

“… You are a strange little pony, did you know that?”

Honeycrisp walked off in a huff, up the stairs and into the building. The other two followed her, but Sandy kept an eye on Quick Name as she entered the building.

“Are… Are you coming with us?” she asked him.

The dark grey stallion smiled. “No, I’ll stay out here and keep eye out for trouble. You go on ahead.”

Sandy smiled nervously and her wings fluttered at her side. She walked in after her two friends. The Cloudsdale Tribune’s Archival Storage Room A was located on the fifth floor of their sprawling headquarters. Sprawling by Cloudsdale standards. The Cloudsdale Tribune building looks like an upside-down trapezoid. The higher it goes, the more square footage each floor has. By the time they reached the fifth floor, they were looking at a half an acre of archival storage rooms, ranging alphabetically from A to Z.

“Okay girls, how hard can this be?” chuckled Smarty Pants to her friends. “Let’s get to work!”

This was not likely to be a quick process. Nor a quiet one. With a rattling boom, a metal filing cabinet fell to the floor, crashing through the dense cloud and coming to rest two floors below.

“Watch it, Pants! You almost smooshed me underneath that thing!”

“Sorry, I was trying to open the top drawer. How do pegasi open them without magic?”

“Uh, I dunno, maybe they use their wings and fly? We’re like a zillion miles in the air, what’s a few more feet?”

“Oh. Right. Sorry.” Smarty Pants blushed, before her getting her own dander up. “And hey, what are you doing here in Archival Storage Room A anyway?”

“You said to start in A!”

“No, I said I’ll start in A, you should start in B.”

“Like hay you did, you said…”

As the two girls continued to fight over who said what, Sandy sat in the adjacent Archival Storage Room D. She was supposed to be looking through the drawers, but she wasn’t. She could go intervene before the two cousins in the other room escalate their war of words to actual blows, but she didn’t. Not when she could watch out the window and watch Quick Name.

She watched Quick Name and his bizarre fighting style. He never attacked, it was all reaction. A pegasi would swing at him, and he’d catch the hoof, move his body into position, and use the force of the other pony’s attack to flip them over on to their back. Sometimes he’d throw a pony to the ground, and that pony got back up.

But Quick Name didn’t seem bothered about fighting. He looked sort of… rejuvenated. Like he was getting in a good run for the first time in a long time. Suddenly, one pony bucked a hole through Quick Name’s head.

Sandy almost screamed, but as soon as the hoof was pulled back, she realized that Quick Name turned his whole head into the weird wispy smoke. He made quick work of the pony that tried to buck him, flipping him this way and that until he was wedged into the dense cloud that made the streets of Cloudsdale.

Only then did his head re-solidify.

Sandy whimpered and ran off to find the other girls.

“Stop hitting me, and help me look for…” Honeycrisp ducked as Smarty Pants spun around to buck her, and smacked her light brown cousin in the cutie mark. “What are we looking for anyway?”

Smarty Pants rubbed her cheek. “We’re looking for the original article on the Rainbow Factory fire 40 years ago.” She said as she bopped the not-so-little red unicorn on the nose. “It should be here in the archives, but you—”

Sandy burst into the room, her wings flapping frantically. “Can unicorns dissolve?”

Both cousins stopped and stared at their light green friend.

“Come again, Sandy?” asked Honeycrisp, with no small amount of confusion.

Sandy’s wings fluttered again as she sat on her rump, a small dust devil of papers and cloud danced across the floor in front of her. Motioning with her forelegs, Sandy continued. “You know… poof. Like into a cloud. Turn into smoke. Can unicorns do that?”

Smarty Pants gave her friend a queasy look. “I… I once read a book about a fire mage who spontaneously combusted.”

“Did he live?” asked Sandy.

Smarty Pants said nothing, but she shook her head. Honeycrisp glanced nervously at her own cutie mark, a trio of flames.

“So… So a unicorn’s not supposed to be able to dissolve into smoke and then return to his original shape?”

Again Smarty Pants shook her head.

Sandy hugged her tail and tucked her chin under her quivering wings. “But… I just saw Quick Name do it.”

Smarty Pants paled at the implication and found herself sitting down. “Are you sure that’s what you saw?”

Sandy nodded. “I saw it. A few times now. Do you… do you think he’s a shapeshifter? A Changeling?”

Honeycrisp cursed under her breath and spit into a nearby corner. “That’s just great. Just what we need right now.”

After that there was silence. None of the girls had ever seen a changeling before, but all young ponies knew about them from the stories told by their parents and elders. About the massive Changeling Hive far to the south. How they promised to return to Equestria one day and get their revenge on all of ponykind. Revenge for killing their queen.

Smarty Pants took deep breath and looked at her pegasus friend. “Where did you see this?”

Sandy stood up and started walking for the door. “Come on, I’ll show you.” And she led her two friends out of Archival Storage Room A and over to the windows of Archival Storage Room D.

“He’s just standing there.”

“Well there’s been nopony for him to fight.”

“Are you sure you saw him turn his head into a cloud, and then turn back?”

Sandy nodded in answer of Honeycrisp’s question.

Honeycrisp grinned madly. “That is so cool.”

Smarty Pants slugged her cousin in the shoulder.

“Ow! What was that for, Pants?”

“If Quick Name is a changeling that is not cool. It’s terrifying. It means that one of Princess Twilight’s closest confidants is, in fact, a—“

Honeycrisp put a hoof in Smarty Pants’ mouth to stop her from continuing her little speech. “No, no, I get it, changelings are bad. I just mean what if he’s not? What if he can teach me how to turn into smoke?”

Smarty Pants pulled her cousin’s hoof out of her mouth. “Whatever.” She huffed.

A few achingly slow minutes of silence crawled by. Quick Name stood at attention the entire time. He looked down one direction and scanned the area, before turning to do the same down the other direction. Smarty Pants was fidgeting anxiously.

“Can’t you sit still?” asked Honeycrisp.

Smarty Pants scrunched up her face and looked at her cousin. They both knew the answer to that question. Smarty was about to give her a piece of her mind when a glint caught her attention in the far corner of Archival Storage Room D.

She got up and walked over to the metal filing cabinet, identical to all the others except for one tiny detail. The middle drawer was labeled.

FIRES: COMMERCIAL & INDUSTRIAL

She let out a little squeal and ripped the entire drawer clean out of the cabinet. It hit the cloud floor with a soft poofy thud. The first file she pulled out contained an article and notes for a fire in a Cloudsdale bakery that happened last week. Tossing it behind her, she pulled out the last file at the end of the drawer. It was about an arsonist arrested seventy years ago.

“Girls! I think I found the drawer that has the file we’re looking for!”

“Uh huh.” Said a disinterested Honeycrisp. She was staring out the window at Quick Name standing in the street five floors below them. The little red unicorn was not going to miss a moment of his magic.

Sandy at least had the decency to turn to look at Smarty Pants and smile and nod appreciably. Before turning to watch if one of the few adults she trusted was, in fact, a heartless love-stealing monster.

Smarty Pants continued to dig through the files. Arson suspected. Arsonist on the loose. Arsonist Captured. Warehouse fire. Hot Air Balloon fire. Rainbow Factory Fir—

Smarty Pants blinked. She read the label on the folder a second time. ‘Rainbow Factory Fire’. With reverent and slightly shaky hooves, she pulled the file out of the drawer, placed it on top of the others, and opened it up. She read aloud as she scanned through it.

“Massive fire… Red Lake No. 6 tank rupture…”

She continued to read through the article, when she heard the two other ponies begin to chatter.

“Oh my!” gasped Sandy.

“Here we go, there’s got to be at least twenty pegasi out there!” cheered Honeycrisp.

Smarty Pants tried to ignore the two talking fillies and focus on what she was reading. “All night shift workers accounted for except Ms... Good Manager?” Smarty Pants laughed. “Hey girls, get this. The name of the Rainbow Factory’s Night Shift Director was Good Manager.”

Honeycrisp snorted, but kept her eyes locked on the dark grey unicorn down in the street fighting off twenty pegasi without using any magic. “Who names their kid Good Manager?” she asked dismissively.

“I know, right?” laughed Smarty Pants. “It’s almost as bad as Quick Name.”

Smarty Pants stopped laughing and the color of the world around her faded away. She could feel the synapses in her brain firing, pulling her towards an unstoppable conclusion. Her moment of clarity had come.

She knew.

Time began to move at its normal pace once again and the bright colors of the world filled her eyes. Just in time to hear her two friends reel back from the window in both alarm and excitement.

“Pants! He did it, h-he turned into smoke!” exclaimed Honeycrisp.

Sandy began to shake before she collapsed into a ball and covered her head with flittering wings. Smarty Pants rushed over, abandoning the folder. If she was right, she didn’t need it anymore anyway. When she reached the window, all she saw was Quick Name, fighting off the last ten or so pegasi in hoof-to-hoof combat.

“You just missed it, Pants.”

“What color was it?” demanded Smarty Pants.

“Huh?”

“What color was the smoke?”

“It was like a dark blue. Almost black.”

“It wasn’t green?”

Sandy answered this time. “No. Not green. Is that bad?”

Smarty Pants smiled and let out a sigh of relief. “No, that’s a good thing. Changeling magic is green.”

Quick Name put down two more pegasi by slamming them together with his forehooves. Smarty Pants was similarly undaunted in her questioning. “Was there anything else about it? Anything odd?”

Honeycrisp looked at Smarty Pants quizzically. “Anything else odd about a pony turning into smoke and then unturning into smoke? Nope. Nothing else.”

“It glittered,” offered Sandy.

Quick Name was down to the last five pegasi.

“Glittered?” asked the light brown earthpony.

“Glittered. There were these… sparkly things in it. Like stars.”

“Yeah, now that you mention it Sandy, I think I saw them too.”

Smarty Pants’ hind legs gave out and her rump hit the ground, her wavy mane bouncing around her head.

“I don’t think Quick Name is a changeling.”

“Oh, thank goodness," said Sandy. The tension melted out of her, and she sighed happily.

“I think he’s Princess Luna.”

“What?!” peeped Sandy as she leapt hovering into the air.

“What?” asked Honeycrisp flatly.

Sandy shot up like an arrow. “But… but I’ve known Quick Name for a long time! He’s one of Mommy’s best friends. A-and he knows we came here looking for her. Why would he keep something like that from us?”

“Plus,” quipped Honeycrisp. “He’s a he. A boy. He can’t be a Princess.”

Smarty Pants rubbed a hoof over her face, her eyes clenched shut. “Honeycrisp… It’s… you know what? When this whole Beacon thing is done, I’m going to strap you to a desk in the royal library and make you study magic until your eyes bleed.”

Honeycrisp harrumphed and stuck out her lower lip in a pout. Still listening to her cousin, she leaned against the cool glass of the window and watched the fight in the street below.

Quick Name was down to the last three pegasi, these wore city guard uniforms and had wingblades. He was having a hard time putting these three corrupted defenders out of commission.

Smarty Pants continued. “According to legend, Princess Luna can turn into shade and shadow, becoming ethereal at will. And her mane is supposedly the color of the midnight sky, twinkling with stars.”

Sandy looked at Smarty Pants “So… so how do we get her to tell us who she is? She clearly didn’t want to tell us earlier.”

Honeycrisp, still feeling the sting of her cousin’s words, fiddled with her blonde braided pigtails. “Maybe we can trick hi-her into revealing herself?”

With a counter-buck, Quick Name had dispatched two of the three pegasi. There was only one remaining.

Smarty Pants shook her head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Honeycrisp. The Goddess of the Moon is a very sensitive pony. The tales I’ve read say that she reacts… poorly to slights and insults. If we try to trick her, she may—“

Honeycrisp tuned out her cousin. The moment called for action. Apples weren’t known for resting on their laurels when a something needed to be done. She reached over to the windowsill and unlatched it. The window flew open and Honeycrisp stuck her head out.

“Hey!” she shouted at the top of her lungs.

Neither pony bothered to stop or look up, so fierce was their struggle.

Unfazed and undaunted, Honeycrisp took a deep breath. “The moon sucks!”

Honeycrisp barely had enough time to duck out of the way as that last pegasus was flung screaming at terminal velocity into the wall next to their window of Archival Storage Room D. Not slowing down in the slightest, he continued his unwillingly noisy assent through the ceiling, the roof of the Cloudsdale Tribune, and far off into the sky beyond.

“IMPUDENT, PETULANT CHILD, YOU DARE? YOU— oh, horseapples.”

Honeycrisp sat back up and leaned out the window on an elbow. She grinned like a Cheshire cat down at the flustered pony in the street. There was a deep blue poof and a much taller pony stood in Quick Name’s place. The pony was dark blue with ethereal hair like Princess Twilight and Princess Cadence. She had the wings and the horn of an Alicorn. It was Princess Luna.

Smarty Pants, forgetting all else, tried to jump out of the window, a wide grin of her own plastered across her face. It was Sandy’s quick actions to grab the little deranged earthpony’s back hooves that stopped her friend from falling down five stories.

Honeycrisp buffed a forehoof against her chest, bringing it up to her face to inspect it disinterestedly. “Yeah,” she crowed, “it’s her.”

Smarty Pants, her mane limp and on the verge of tears, was jogging just to keep up with the newly resurfaced Goddess of the Moon. “S-so you won’t tell me w-why you were hiding? W-will you at least tell me w-where your sister is?”

Luna groaned for a second time in as many minutes as the four ponies trotted along the now empty streets back towards the sky chariot wreckage.

“Smarty Pants, I’m sorry you do not like my answer, but it is the only one I can give you. My sister and I have sworn ourselves to secrecy. Our answers are for Princess Cadence and Princess Twilight Sparkle alone. Already you know too much.”

A final troop of seven armored pegasi swooped around a nearby street corner and dove for the girls. When they saw the Princess of the Night standing before them, they tried to stop. But it was too late.

“I am the Moon, eternally dreaming!” she shouted, brooking no argument. “You will sleep!”

The girls watched in amazement as the seven ponies fell to the ground, instantly unconscious.

“Whoa, that was amazing Princess!” cheered Smarty Pants. “Was that your part of the secret spell you and Princess Celestia will use to stop the Beacon of Order?”

Luna stomped her hoof. “How do you know about… never mind. Look, Smarty Pants. I need you to stop asking questions for now, can you do that for me?” Luna asked with a weak smile.

Smarty Pants nodded sheepishly.

“Can I ask a question, your worshipfulness?” asked Honeycrisp.

Princess Luna nodded. “So long as it’s not about why I’ve done what I’ve done or where my sister is, of course.”

“Can you teach me how to turn into smoke and then unturn into smoke?”

“Well now,” smiled Princess Luna, “That is a very advanced spell. Tell me, have you mastered the four schools of transmogrification?”

“Transmawhat? I just finished sixth grade at Ponyville Elementary, if that’s what you mean.”

“No that is… not what I mean. Perhaps when you are older.”

Honeycrisp bobbed along with a smile on her face. A maybe from a goddess was good enough for her.

“Um. I have a question.” said Sandy, barely over a whisper, “That is, if that’s okay, Princess.”

Princess Luna looked at the poor girl, and offered her a sad smile. She knew the little green pegasus had trust issues with adults. In fact Sandy being in such close proximity was the main reason for Luna keeping up her charade as long as she did today.

“What is it, Sandy?”

“What happened to Quick Name? Did you just disguise yourself as him today, or…”

Luna looked forward, not daring to see the hurt in the little pony’s eye when she answered. “There never was a Quick Name, Sandy.”

“oh.” It was barely a whisper.

They walked along in silence for a while. Sandy walked alongside Honeycrisp, who leaned into her as she walked for comfort.

“I have another question, Princess.” Said Smarty Pants, who quickly added, “And it’s not about you or Princess Celestia at all.”

Luna eyed the earthpony as if weighing her intentions. “Alright, Smarty Pants, what is it?”

“When we first activated the Beacon of Order, it was all ‘target found’ this and ‘threat level’ that. But when we bumped into Princess Cadence today, she was all snarly and ‘kill them all’. What’s up with that?”

Luna sighed. “That is a good question, Smarty Pants.”

The little pony beamed.

“When my sister and I created the beacon, we did so with the best of intentions. We had not yet discovered the importance of harmony in the world at large. At the time we were in the midst of a losing war against Discord, a being of pure chaos.”

The other ponies slowed to match Princess Luna’s new pace as she walked down memory lane.

“Celestia wagered that a being of pure order, created according to strict guidelines, laws, and clearly designed principles would be the perfect weapon against him. Sadly, she failed. But her failure wasn’t in its execution or design. Her failure was in her compassion.”

“What do you mean?”

“My sister gave it the ability to feel emotion, once it converted a pony to the cause of order. She did this so that the Beacon would develop a sense of empathy for those under it’s power. So that it would not tax them over much, or cause them harm. And, hopefully, so that the Beacon would release the ponies in it’s charge after it had defeated Discord.”

“Couldn’t you just have… I don’t know, somehow told it to do that anyway, and not leave it up to the Beacon to decide?” asked Honeycrisp.

Luna gave the little red unicorn a half-cocked look, but it was Smarty Pants who spoke up first, to help Honeycrisp save face. “Sorry, Princess. We’re not, uh, ‘well versed’ in the arts of construct creation.”

Luna nodded. “No, we could not do that. There are some things even goddesses cannot do. But I digress. Granting the Beacon of Order access to emotions confused its highly logical cortex. We discovered that it would not be able to come to grips with the impulsive and unordered nature of the emotional response. That’s why we abandoned the project before activating it.”

“So… it went crazy?” asked Smarty Pants.

Luna gave a solemn nod. “In a word, yes. The Beacon does not care who it hurts or why. It only cares about stopping Discord. Its new found emotions are getting in its way, driving it to extreme measures to finish the act as soon as possible. Then it will deactivate itself to be free of its own madness.”

There were no other questions.

Soon the four ponies stood before the cloud wall that Twilight put up not an hour earlier to stop the majority of corrupted pegasi from chasing Luna and the girls into Cloudsdale proper. It was a trifling thing for Luna to dispel it.

The three girls gasped, and Luna nodded in appreciation at the devastation that awaited them on the otherside.

Most of the buildings had been reduced to foamy rubble. Some of the larger cloud sections had broken away from the city, and were floating aimlessly through the sky. The ground was littered with sleeping ponies, but two ponies remained standing. The two she knew would make it through.

Curiously, one of them now had what appeared to be a moving box for a cutiemark.

“Hail, Princess Twilight Sparkle. Hail, Crystal Empress Rarity.” She said.

Luna suppressed a laugh as she watched Twilight bowl over an indignant Rarity on her way over. The two Goddesses embraced in a mighty hug. Twilight let out a happy cry, and choked back a few tears. Everything was going to be okay.

“Princess Luna! Oh, I’m so glad to see you. You have no idea how long we’ve been looking for you.”

Luna giggled nervously “Oh, I have some idea, Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight cocked her head at that. “How long have you been in Cloudsdale? It’s a great hiding place, I never would have thought to look for you here, what with how populated it is and how nervous you were around too many ponies.”

Rarity, having brushed herself off, walked over and thought about stepping in, to stop Twilight from embarrassing either herself or Luna, but she just wasn’t feeling all that generous at the moment. She brushed another hoof print off of her moving box cutie mark.

Luna pointed a hoof at the white mare and pointedly ignored Twilight’s question. “What happened to Empress Rarity’s cutie mark?”

“I knew it!” fumed Rarity, “Twilight Sparkle, if you don’t fix me right this instant I swear I’ll stand right next to you until the end of time and tell every pony you ever meet the nickname you gave yourself when you were drunk off your flank on your 121st birthday. Do you hear me?”

Twilight groaned and mumbled the rest of the spells as quickly as she could. Soon the air was filled with popping noises. Eventually it was Rarity’s turn. Her life flashed before her eyes, and then the moment was gone.

Rarity turned to look at her hindquarters, and saw her three diamonds back where they belonged. “Oh! Oh, that's so much better. Why, I feel like a new mare!”

Losing herself in the moment, she giggled and began to chase her cutie mark. She didn’t stop until Princess Luna cleared her throat pointedly with an “Ahem.”

Twilight, pulled out of her friend’s euphoria, turned on the dark blue mare in an instant.“I have so many questions! Why did you two leave? Where is Celestia? Is she still alive? Tell me she’s alive! Why are you hiding your magical signature in the ley lines? How am I suppo—“

Small wonder, it was Smarty Pants who cracked first. She just couldn’t take it anymore. The little brown earthpony jumped into the air and squealed at the top of her lungs. “She was Quick Name all along!”

“ssed to run… Come again?” asked Twilight as her train of thought came crashing through the station.

Princess Luna offered Twilight a sheepish smile and Twilight’s left eye started twitching. The Goddess of Magic stood there, eyeing her long-lost friend up and down.

“Quick Name? You were Quick Name?” Twilight took a step forward.

“I can explain.” Luna took a step backward.

Twilight didn’t give her a chance. "23 years! You’ve been the captain of my personal guard, standing outside of my bedro--- YOUR bedroom, every day for 23 years? Why didn’t you tell me?”

Luna was about to answer, however an unwelcome voice butted into the conversation. “You old witch.”

The concern and sympathy that was on Princess Luna’s face fell away in an instant, leaving a cold scowl. She walked out of their small reunion and over to the restrained Princess Cadence.

“I assume that I’m talking to Celestia’s ‘Beacon of Order’?”

“You never liked me.” The Beacon answered bitterly. “Never thought I could be the one who destroys Discord.”

“You’re right on both counts. You’re nothing but a broken toy. A worthless trinket of a bygone age.”

Cadence sneered and slammed her head into her crystal cage. “You’re wrong! I’ll show you. I’ll show both Moon and Sun that I am the only weapon that can truly stop Discord.”

“Listen to yourself. You’re thirst to prove yourself has made you mad.” Princess Luna sauntered up to the caged Alicorn. “And in your madness, you can’t see the truth.”

The Beacon said nothing through the puppet Cadence, but it continued to desperately slam her head into her prison.

Luna was unmoved. “Discord hasn’t harmed a soul in half a millennia. The Elements of Harmony worked. Chaos and Order are in the harmonious balance, and have been for centuries. A trickster and a fool, yes, but he has been acquitted of his crimes. Who are you to question your creator’s judgment?”

Cadence roared and her horn lit up over and over again, each time the spells she cast were silenced with a pop within its crystalline sheath.

“Who am I? WHO AM I? I am Order. I am Law! And I will save this world from chaos even if I must tear it apart to do so!”

Cadence’s eyes begin to flash between red and blue again, and Twilight started running forward. “Luna, get away from her!”

But it was too late. Cadence let out a wail, and this time it was her own voice and not the Beacon’s. The world shook, and the sheath around her horn shattered. Twisted magic burst from it and slammed into the chest of the newly returned Moon Goddess. And then there was silence.

Heartbeats passed like hours, and Twilight dared to look. The air around her was warm and smelt of burnt ozone, despite her proximity to Rarity and the aura of cold she constantly exuded. There, in two small piles on the ground lay the unmoving bodies of Princess Cadence and Princess Luna.

Twilight looked at them. “This is bad.”

The others ran over. Smarty Pants thrust a hoof onto Luna’s neck and put her face near her muzzle. “She’s… asleep?”

Rarity, was doing the same with Cadence and nodded to Twilight. “Cadence too, I’m afraid.”

Then there was a sound. It sounded like a pulse. Or the single beat of a faraway drum. Twilight felt a tingle race through her. She knew that something had surged across the ley lines.

“Princess Twilight!” Sandy called out in alarm “The other ponies are getting up!”

All around them, hundreds of pegasi started to rise to their hooves. Each of them had a pair of glowing red eyes. Gone was the mindless gibberish and in its place was a single command issued as one voice from the throats of hundreds.

“KILL THEM!”

“This is worse,” said Twilight, her horn glowing with power. She willed another magical shield into existence around the five conscious ponies and her two unconscious royal sisters. She grabbed Luna and hugged her tightly “Everypony get closer. Rarity, grab Cadence.”

“W-what are we gonna do?” asked a terrified Honeycrisp.

Twilight expanded her consciousness once more into the magical realm beyond, but just dipping below its surface. Already she could feel the eyes of the Beacon on her. She didn’t have much time. She was hoping for… there it was. Luna may be unconscious, but her magical signature was back and as dark as ever.

“Everypony hold onto me. We’re going to Canterlot, and we’re going in hot!”

Twilight began her teleportation spell linking her physical self and the ponies around her to the West Entrance of the Castle. Hopefully it would be empty and she wouldn’t have to worry about things getting messy. She tapped into the deep night of Luna’s magic and completed the link.

In that instant the world was gone.

Less than a heartbeat later, the world was back. Twilight, Rarity, and the three girls stood in the otherwise empty West Entrance to Canterlot Castle. The unconscious Luna and Cadence were with them too. Twilight let out the breath she was holding.

“Okay girls, now we need to—“

“GRAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWRRRRG!” came a guttural shout from overhead.

Instinctively, they all looked up to see a massive red dragon flying haphazardly from the direction of the city. Then they watched it slam into the side of the castle above them. It held tight to the castle and wriggled and writhed in apparent agony, trying desperately to bite at the horde of smaller creatures that moved in tides along its back. As the dragon screamed, it loosed fireballs into the empty air around it.

Finally, it lost its grip and the dragon began to plummet down towards the ground.

“Everypony inside, now!” shouted Twilight.

She wrapped Cadence and Luna in matching purple auras and ran for the open doors. The three girls screamed as they ran, but all five of them managed to get inside before the dragon hit the ground with a sickening thud. Whatever those creatures were on its back, they were just a memory now.

As she stood there catching her breath, Twilight heard the unmistakable sound of galloping hooves on marble. To her surprise, Spellbound, a member of her Arcane Guard, came barreling out of the leftmost corridor behind the group.

“We got one down at the West Entra—Princess Twilight?” he said as he scrambled to a halt.

Twilight heard a gruff voice from the same corridor call out to him. “You know I haven’t been to the Castle in a very long time, but did they really rename this the West EntraPrincess Twilight? Seems a little gauche, don’t you think?”

Discord came into view and also stumbled to a halt. He stood there for a second. “Oh, I get it.”

Twilight frowned at him. “Discord. Do you mind telling me what the hay is going on around here?” she pointed a hoof accusingly at the crumpled dragon a few feet away.

“Oh, do you like it?” Discord asked casually as he walked up to the only conscious Princess and grabbed her by the shoulders. “I call it HELP, HELP, WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE!”

In the distance there was an explosion, followed by the loudest roar Twilight Sparkle had ever heard.

Chapter 10

~Earlier That Afternoon~

Discord paced the floor of the Iron Sight’s tent just beyond the temporary guard barracks within the castle grounds. He was mumbling to himself and rubbing his mismatched arms together. Ruby Star looked up from her map of the city’s layout and cocked an eyebrow.

“Are you okay?” she asked the distraught draconequus.

“No,” grumbled Discord with a stomp of his lizard foot. “I don’t know. I just feel like I’m stuffed full of magic with nowhere to go.”

“So… why don’t you cast a spell?”

Discord spun around and looked at the orange pony he called ‘Red’. “Why didn’t I think of that?” He did a few deep-knee bends and reached down to touch his toes. “Okay, here we go. Gonna cast me a big spell. Any second now. Here we go…”

He stood motionless, and a guilty expression trickled over his features. “I… can’t think of anything to cast.”

Ruby pushed off of the desk in front of her and walked over to him. “Really?” she asked, squinting at him in disbelief. “You can’t think of anything to cast? You’re the God of Chaos, aren’t you? Why not make one of those cotton candy clouds I read about in basic training?”

“Oh!” nodded Discord happily “Yeah, I can do that!” and he leaned out of the tent’s opening and waved a furry paw in the air. Nearby in the otherwise spotless sky, a pony sized pink cloud popped into existence and started to rain chocolate milk.

“Hay! What’s the meaning of this?!” cried General Iron Sights as he was being drenched in a sudden downpour of chocolate 2%.

“Er… Sorry General!” offered Ruby Star as amicably as she could. She turned to her sulking compatriot and shoved a hoof into his ribs. “Spellbound, go get the good General a towel, would you?”

Still upset about not going to Cloudsdale with Princess Twilight, Spellbound crossed his forelegs and pouted. “Why don’t you do it?”

Ruby looked at Spellbound with half-lidded eyes. “Please Spellbound? For me? I’d do it but then I’d get all wet. You wouldn’t want me to end up all covered in chocolate milk would you?”

Spellbound stared at the pretty mare with her fluttery eyelashes. “Yeah. No! I mean, no. No I wouldn’t want that.” He scrambled to his hooves and ran out of the tent, blushing like a bruised tomato.

Ruby watched the stallion run through the crowd of Solar Court, Lunar Court, Royal Guard, and Senatorial Guard forces that had gathered for today’s briefing. There was a barely noticeable uptick to her lips on the left side, and just the slightest hint of blush herself.

“Nice!” declared Discord as he clapped his hands together, ”That felt great. What should I cast next?”

“W-why do you need me to tell you? You’re a big... a big…“

“Draconequus. I’m a draconequus.”

“Right. That. You should just cast whatever magic you want. Er, so long as it doesn’t hurt anypony.”

“You know Red, I’d love to, I really would. But I just draw a big fat blank whenever I want to cast a spell, okay? Let’s not make a big fuss about it.”

“That’s weird,” she said as she poked him with a hoof. “You’re weird.”

“Yes, thank you for your insight, tiny insignificant mortal.” Discord turned away from Ruby Star and returned to pacing the length of the tent. She went back to reviewing her map.

He stopped and rubbed a claw against his goatee. “I wonder if this has anything to that time-walking spell the Princess gave me.”

“Twilight gave you a time spell?”

“No, Celestia did.”

“Who?”

“Princess Celestia? Don’t tell me you don’t know who that is.”

“Who?”

Discord glared at the unicorn. “If you say ‘who’ one more time I’ll… I’ll…”

“What’s the matter, Discord? Can’t think of any spells?”

He walked over to her and stood in fuming silence. She grinned lazily at him. Then he reached down, picked up her map, and began shredding it to pieces in a flurry of claws and fur.

“What are you doing!” she cried as tiny pieces of Canterlot tumbled through the air, falling in her mane and on her face.

A new voice called by the tent’s entrance. “An excellent suggestion, Admiral. Let me grab my map of the city and… we’ll…” The still-chocolate coated General watched an enraged Discord finish shredding his map.

Tears welled up in the hardened veteran’s eyes. “That was Pop-Pop’s map…” The crushed stallion turned and galloped away like a spanked puppy.

Ruby looked up at the shamefaced draconequus. “Well?”

“Well what?” he asked her pointedly.

“Fix it!” she shouted with a stomp of her hoof.

Discord snapped two talons, and the pieces of the map marched itself back together on the desk. Ruby shook her head. “There is something wrong with your magic, isn’t there?”

Discord was about to answer, when Spellbound came falling through the tent’s opening, towels landing everywhere. “Hay guys? It’s time to start the briefing.”

Ruby Star slouched with visible relief. “Finally. It took forever to get everypony to agree to hear your plan.”

“My what?” asked Discord.

Ruby brought both forehooves to her temples, dreading the migraine she knew was coming. She closed her eyes. “Discord, tell me you have a plan.”

He studied the orange mare before answering. “If I don’t, will it cause you physical pain?”

“Yes.”

“Oh good, I was worried that I was going to have to lie to you.”

Ruby Star looked up at him hopefully. “So you do have a plan?”

“Nope, sure don’t.”

She winced as the headache took form. “I hate you.”

Discord and his two ponies walked up to the little wooden stage that was hastily assembled for this very briefing. Really, it was more of a glorified soap box. Like a pallet of soap boxes. Heedless of its structural integrity, Discord hoped up to the stage and addressed his audience.

“Hello, everypony!” He greeted gleefully.

He stood there with his arms stretched out, head back, and eyes closed. He was expecting applause and adoration. What he got was a cough and what he thought was a cricket chirping.

Deflating to a more natural pose, he let out the breath he had been holding and looked into the faces of the guard ponies gathered before him. Plenty of scowls.

“So!” he tried again, “Do they still tell any of my old stories in that basic training field guide of yours, or did they fina—“

“You suck!” shouted an anonymous pony from the back. Nervous laughter rippled through the assembled mass of armor and robes. There must have been close to five hundred of them here.

“Psst. Discord!” came a frantic whisper from behind him. He turned and saw Spellbound trying to get his attention. “You’re losing them out there. Get the General on stage.”

Discord nodded and turned to face the crowd. He brought a fuzzy paw up to his face and set it to his brow. “Has anypony seen General Iron Sights? You are out there, aren't you General? Come on now, how hard can it be to find that old pink stallion?”

“AHEM.”

Discord looked straight down at the first row of ponies standing before the stage. Sure enough, there was a rather flustered looking General Iron Sights, pink fur and all.

“Ah, General, there you all. Come on up, don’t be shy.” Discord bent down and pulled the stern pink pony up on to the stage next to him.

“Hello General, is it true that we’ve never met before?”

“What? What are you talking about? We met earlier today when you ran up shouting about a dragon attack and forbidding the two courts from making an eclipse!”

A mutinous rumbling grumbled under many breaths at the reminder of Discord’s earlier antics.

“Hay,” Discord said as he pointed an accusatory claw at the good General. “Just whose magic show do you think this is, buddy?”

General Iron Sights stared at the insane creature. “This… This isn’t a magic show, you cretin!”

“Are you sure?” Discord asked desperately. “It’s just that I’ve got a lot of magic and… would you like to see a spell? Any spell, go on name it!” he found himself shaking the old stallion by his shoulders, much to the audible dismay of his troops.

Before anypony could stop Discord from further assaulting General Iron Sights, a loud thud shook the ground, and a cloud of dust filled the air at the back of the gathered forces.

There was quite a bit of murmuring, which turned into gasps, which in turn became cries of terror, as a long serpentine neck and two large leather wings began to protrude from the dust-clouded impact sight. It was a dragon.

“Dragon attack! Attack the dragon!” Discord ran about in small circles, frantically waving his arms around in the air.

Spears were flung and magical bolts were cast. All bounced harmlessly off the beast’s green scaly underbelly. It laughed at them, smiling all the while. It was the smile of a predator among prey.

“Stay your attack, brave defenders of Canterlot. The Dragons of Valorhold mean you no harm.” He purred through his meter-long teeth.

A new wave of murmuring fell upon the gathered forces. Grips were loosened, unleashed fireballs dispelled, and armored visors lifted. Was it true? Dare they hope?

“Yes, Ponies of Canterlot. It is true. The Dragons of Valorhold have come to your aid in your moment of need, in honor of our old pacts.” He lifted his massive head into the air and roared into the sky, a fount of flame accompanying his mighty voice.

The green wyrm took note of the crowd as he bellowed. All the tiny creatures beneath him cheered. All save for four. The dragon ceased his light show, and lowered himself to his belly. Slowly, to avoid crushing the rejoicing ponies around him. Then he stretched his head and neck towards the unadorned wooden stage, guardsmares and stallions parting before him. He stopped when his chin rested comfortably against the stage’s wooden edge.

“You do not cheer, small ones,” He said plainly addressing Discord, General Iron Sights, and the two members of the Arcane Guard behind them, hugging each other and cowering before the great wrym. He flashed the quivering pair a wicked leer and they shivered all the more for it.

Discord was ready to answer, but General Iron Sights beat him to it. “Discord claims to have knowledge of the future. He said that the dragons would come. He said you would attack us.”

“Ah. This is Discord,” growled the green dragon as he reared back up to his full height. “The Magicborn has spoken of you.”

The crowd erupted into gasps and excited talk. “The Magicborn?” “Is he coming?” “Just to catch a glimpse of him would be an honor.” “I can’t wait to tell my kids about this!”

“Yes.” The green scaled giant nodded his tremendous head. “As we speak, The Magicborn flies here with a flight of five and fifty of Valorhold’s mightiest knights.”

Discord turned to Iron Sights. “Who’s The Magicborn?” but his question went unanswered. The good general had hopped off the stage and was excitedly talking with a few of his troops. He looked about as giddy as a pink earthpony stallion could look.

Undaunted, the God of Chaos spun on his heels. “Hey guys, who’s ‘The Magicborn’?” He asked with finger quotes.

Spellbound was prancing in place, a wide grin on his face. “Oh wow. The Magicborn’s real?! This is amazing. Legends tell of a great dragon, mighty in body and pure of heart. He created the Dragon Code, the set of laws that dragons follow to live virtuously.”

Discord raised an eyebrow at that. “All dragons?”

Ruby stepped in. “Not all dragons, no. But most dragons. And definitely all the dragons of Valorhold.”

Discord rubbed his chin in thought. When was the last time he dealt with a dragon? It couldn’t have been that long ago, a few millennia at most. He always thought of dragons as scheming treasure hoarders with bad breath and worse tempers. Did they all really go soft?

“And, and!” Spellbound added excitedly, “He’s called the Magicborn because he was hatched by Princess Twilight!Before she was a Princess! Can you imagine a world without Princess Twilight?”

Discord stared at the blue stallion flatly. “Yes.” He spun around on his heels again to stare as menacingly as possible at the living green wall before him.

“So, Spike is coming to Twilight’s aid, eh? He was always desperate to play the hero. Tell me, dragon, did he ever get that growth spurt he wanted?”

Amantharex was shocked. To dare speak the true name of a dragon that casually was to invite death. To do so of The Magicborn was to beg for a slow death. As a Knight of the Code, he fought against the urge to eat the disrespectful creature and end him right here.

But The Magicborn said that he was the great enemy. Discord was to be spared until the very end.

“In a way, yes,”Amantharex said with his most diplomatic smile. And then he turned away from the vile creature and his assembled ponies. He spread his wings and flapped once, creating another cloud of dust and launching himself into the air.

“The Magicborn will roost at your Grand Central Plaza with his flight soon. Come and be received. There will be feasting and we shall make plans to defeat the great enemy.”

He flew in a quick circle around the assembled ponies, before banking off for the Grand Central Plaza to the south. As he flew he offered them the salute of his clan “Code guide you, friends.”

As soon as the beast was out of earshot, Discord clapped once loudly to get everypony’s attention. “Okay folks, we don’t have long! We need full defenses here for the castle. Divert all power to shields!”

Not a single pony moved. In fact most of them ignored him, happily chatting amongst themselves.

“Give it up, Discord,” sighed Iron Sights standing in front of the stage. “I was almost willing to believe you. Almost. But these are Valorhold dragons. For the love of Sparkle, they call themselves knights. Knights, Discord! There’s no threat here.”

Discord slapped himself in the face, trying to get the stupid out. “No! I know what I heard. I know what I saw. If you go there, you’re walking right into a trap.”

“A trap?” the pink stallion scoffed as he turned to his seapony peer. “What do you think, Admiral Snack Bar? Is it a trap?”

The seapony did a small flip in his aquasphere, his brow furrowed in thought. “Hmm,” he bubbled, “You know, I don’t think it is. Let’s go!”

There was a giddy stampede as hundreds of ponies from all branches of the Equestrian military and guard forces rushed for the far gate at the edge of the grounds. Before long, there was just Discord, two impromptu lackeys, and the twelve members of the Senatorial Guard.

Discord waved dismissively at them. “Why are you lot still here? Don’t you want to meet The Magicborn too?”

“Yes,” one pony said plainly from within her red robes.

Discord gave the mare a puzzled look. “So? Why don’t you then?”

“The Secretary General said you were in charge. We obey the will of the Senate.”

“Huh. So you’re just blindly following orders. Doing whatever I say, no matter what. Just like that?”

“Just like that.” The red robed unicorn answered.

“I like it.”

“Well that’s swell and all,” grumbled Ruby Star as she clambered up the steps to the shoddy wooden stage. “But even with the Senatorial Guard, there’s no way in Tartarus we can defend Canterlot from a flight of dragons.”

Ruby let out an “Eep!” as she was suddenly plucked off the ground and brought to eyelevel with the God of Chaos. He looked at her for a moment, before wrapping her up in a big hug.

“That’s it!” he cheered.

“Mnf’s eet?” mumbled the flustered pony, pressed into his prickly chest fur.

“Tartarus,” he beamed.

She used her hindlegs to shove herself out of his grasp and hit the wood floor with a hollow thunk.

“Ow. What about Tartarus?”

“Shining Armor’s in Tartarus,” Discord said.

“Okay… Who’s Shining Armor?” asked Ruby.

There was a gasp of disbelief from behind the two of them. “Ruby Star… you don’t know who Shining Armor is? He’s only the most famous Captain of the Guard in the history of ever, is all. He was strong and smart and brave and he even married a Princess and became a Prince!”

Ruby rolled her eyes. “Okay, jeez. Sorry I didn’t know all about your coltcrush, Spellbound.”

Spellbound began to protest loudly and vehemently, but Ruby was already ignoring him. She turned to face Discord, a playful smile still on her lips.

“So, what did he do that got him sent to Tartarus?”

Discord was busy looking through a tome on summoning circles. He pulled down his reading glasses and squinted at the orange unicorn. “Hmm? Oh, he wasn’t sent there. He’s there of his own free will, playing tic-tac-toe for the fate of the world.”

“Wha—“

Her question was cut off by a complex series of hand motions. By the end of them, the trampled grass of the barracks grounds before them began to glow in an ominous circle of runic symbols. Calmly, the Senatorial Guard, exited the field and walked over to stand beside the wooden stage.

As a final motion, Discord brought his mismatched arms together and then yanked them apart with a grunt.

There was a “Whum” sound followed by the unbearable smell of rot and rust. The air shimmered with heat and Ruby Star could feel sweat immediately begin to bead on her forehead. Where once there was grass, there was now a gaping hole above a plateau of bleached bone. A thunderous castrophony of voices assaulted her ears but that didn't make it any easier to believe that she was staring down into the heart of the underworld.

Discord stared into the portal and shouted over the din. “I need a volunteer!”

“Not it!” yelled Ruby Star at the top of her lungs.

“Not i— Noooooooo!” shrieked Spellbound a fraction of a second too late, as he was grabbed by his left foreleg and pulled into the pit along with a madly grinning Discord.

Spellbound’s first thought upon regaining consciousness on top of a pile of bones half-again as tall as the massive dragon he just witnessed earlier this morning, was that it really wasn’t all that bad up here.

Sure it was hot, and you couldn’t take a step without standing on some poor soul’s last remains, but it was a dry heat. Also he much preferred being up here with Discord and the strange white stallion talking to skulls than down in that living sea of demons.

Over and over again, the immeasurable throng shouted, “THE KING IS DEAD! LONG LIVE THE KING!” Really, Spellbound could have done with less of that, but beggars, choosers, and all that.

The white stallion was sitting on a stack of femurs, talking with a skull. “So, why were you sent to Tartarus?”

Much to Spellbound’s surprise, the skull answered. “I cheated on my taxes.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad,” offered the blue maned unicorn.

“Also I burned down an orphanage.”

“Yow.”

“Yeah. It was in the dead of winter, too.”

“Well, uh. Huh. Are you sorry for what you did?”

“About the taxes?” asked the skull. “Yes. Yes I am. That was wrong of me.”

“Okay, that’s a start. What about burning down the orphanage? Are you sorry about that?”

“Not really, no.”

The stallion shrugged and tossed the skull over his shoulder and off the side of the mountain of bones. “And back to the bottom of the pile you go, mister.”

Discord let out a low whistle. “Hey Shining. What happened here?”

Shining Armor fumbled around for another skull in the pile before looking up to address his friend. “Oh hay, Discord. Just a sec.”

He looked back at the new skull in his hooves. “And why were you sent to Tartarus?”

The skull hesitated. “I… I used to mail things without sufficient postage.

“And are you sorry for what you did?” Shining Armor asked.

“You know, I wasn’t at first,” confessed the skull. “But I’ve had a lot of time to think about it. And you know what? Yeah. I am. It was wrong of me to abuse the good will of the Equestrian Postal Service. I’m sorry.”

Shining Armor gently patted the top of the skull. “You’re free to go.” He said, as he tossed the skull straight up into the air.

At the apex of its assent, a ghostly apparition of a pegasus rose out of the top of the skull. He looked at his hooves in wonder and flapped his wings happily.

He turned his ethereal head to Shining Armor. “Oh hay, thanks!” and he smiled. Then he disappeared in a burst of prismatic light. Spellbound could swear that, for a brief moment, he could smell fresh flowers and hear the sound of soft laughter.

“THE KING IS DEAD! LONG LIVE THE KING!”

And just like that, all the pleasantness was gone.

Discord asked again. “So, what happened here?”

Shining Armor stood up on all four hooves and stretched. “What happened?” he asked numbly. “I won.”

“Wow.” Blinked Discord in disbelief. “Where’s Grymgore?”

“He just… crumbled into dust. I guess he couldn’t stand the idea of a world where he could never again march to war against the living.”

“Bummer.”

“I know right?” Shining Armor said with a sigh. “Now we’re down a seat for Poker Night.”

There was a poignant pause as they considered that sad new fact. Then Discord spoke up again. “If you won, why are you still here? Why not teleport back to Canterlot and see Cadence?”

“THE KING IS DEAD! LONG LIVE THE KING!” sang the chorus of demons once more.

“They happened.” Shining Armor pointed a hoof in accusation. ”They made me King of Tartarus.”

“They did what?” Discord had seen a lot in his life, but he’d never been there for the selection of a new King of Tartarus. “Huh. I figured there would have been a lengthy vetting process. Not to mention the campaigning and the voting.”

“Nope, it’s a ‘beat the last guy’ kind of thing.”

“Interesting,” pondered Discord.

“Yeah. Oh and it turns out that part of the job is judging the pony souls that come here. When they’re finally ready to apologize for their evil work, I get to send them along to the Elysian Fields.”

“See I never understood the whole ‘die first and then live forever’ thing mortals are so fond of. Why not cut out the middlemare and just live forever?”

Shining Armor chuckled. “I don’t know, Discord. But I do know that I have to get through all these as quickly as I can. These poor souls have been waiting for centuries to be judged while Grymgore and I were playing tic-tac-toe.”

Spellbound walked up between the two and said “I guess you could say he really let his work pile up.”

Shining Armor frowned at the blue unicorn.

Discord bent down and picked up a bone and bopped Spellbound on the muzzle. “Stop that. Nopony likes puns.”

“Who’s the new kid?” asked Shining Armor.

Spellbound stopped rubbing his face, and snapped to attention. “Sir! Spellbound of the Arcane Guard, sir!”

Shining Armor looked up at Discord. “The Arcane Guard?”

Discord rolled his eyes. “He stands outside of your sister’s bedroom all night long.”

Shining Armor frowned at the blue stallion again, but this time it was much more frownier. “Really.”

“Yes sir!” Saluted Spellbound without thinking.

“You know I—“

“THE KING IS DEAD! LONG LIVE THE KING!”

Shining Armor’s chin hit the ground with a ruler’s burden. “Just a sec, guys.” He said as he dragged himself over to the edge of the plateau. He stood back up to his full height and cracked his neck from side to side and eyes his minions authoritatively.

The new King of Tartarus bellowed, “Atten-tion!”

The newly won silence was deafening in its own right, the only sound to be heard was a soft rustling that rippled through the horde below as they all snapped to attention. Shining Armor nodded his approval before turning to trot back over to a gob-smacked Discord.

“So. What brings you two to Tartarus anyway?”

“Oh!” exclaimed Discord, dropping his left fist into his open right paw. “Right. Well, we’ve got a bit of a problem in Canterlot, and we need your help.”

Worry fell across Shining Armor’s face. “What kind of problem?”

“Discord!” shouted a familiar voice from above.

The three males turned to look up and saw Ruby Star standing at one edge of the portal in the Caterlot Castle barracks. She stuck her head into the portal and shouted. “Discord, you were right. The dragons lied.”

Discord’s stomach dropped to the bony floor. Funny, he was planning on gloating when it turned out that he was right after all, but there didn’t feel like there was a whole lot to gloat about. Ruby continued. “All the guard ponies and most of the solar and lunar courts went to the Grand Central Plaza and have been corrupted. We’re under attack!”

Shining Armor strode forward, taking up the mantle of Captain of the Guard once again with little more than a nod from Discord. “How many guards are left?” He asked, formulating a plan on the fly.

“Counting me and Spellbound, we’ve got fourteen guards left.”

Suddenly a burst of magic shot across the wide opening of the portal and hit Ruby Star in the side. She toppled to her knees, but returned fire with a grunt.

“Ruby!” shouted Spellbound in genuine fear for his partner’s safety.

Shining Armor turned away, talking to himself. “It takes twenty at least to operate the defensive runes. How are we going to do this.”

He reached the edge of the plateau and looked down at the silent demons standing at attention. He almost forgot they were standing there; they were so good at following his orders.

Shining Armor swung his head back up towards the portal. He could feel the chaotic energies coming off of it. He looked at Discord, who was staring mutely back at him.

Shining Armor pointed at the hole in the sky. “Can you make more of those?”

Spike rumbled as he made landfall at Canterlot’s Grand Central Plaza. His green wings began to shimmer and twist, as he willed them with his transformative magic back into his body, growing in size to his preferred stature. Looking around he wondered at how small everything was. When he was but a hatchling, he remembered many trips across these very cobblestone streets. But that was a long time ago.

“We roost here,” the purple behemoth ordered as he sat down and leaned against a clock tower. He watched as his fastest flyer, Amantharex, landed across from him, nodding to him discretely. The Magicborn spoke again, the clock tower at his back rumbling with each word. “Make ready to receive the Castle’s defenders.”

Of the five and fifty dragons landing and establishing their temporary roost around him, none rebuked him or questioned his commands. But that was to be expected. No dragon would willingly disobey a member of the Circle of Elders.

At just under 500 years, Spike was the youngest member of the Circle of Elders. Indeed the Circle predated Valorhold by at least a millennium, as did its oldest member. Young though he was, his influence was vast, stretching far beyond the Circle of Elders and Valorhold, and spreading to caves and dungeons of dragons all over the world. After all, he was the author of The Dragon Code.

Many creatures believed him to be the ruler of Valorhold. Some of the more jealous or scheming dragons would even call him king in a bid to raise his ire or expose his ‘true ambitions.’ But he had always shunned the title, choosing instead to be a voice among the Circle. He would give council and succor when the needed. Why? Because a friend in need was a friend indeed.

But things changed when a confused gaggle of ponies wandered into Valorhold's territories. Changed for the better. They were brought to the Circle, babbling and mad. But there was something about their words that spoke to Spike’s heart.

He knew the pony tongue, he’d been raised to speak it from birth, unlike the other dragons who, if they choose to learn it, learn it late in life. When those few speakers of order came to his circle this morning, he knew what he must do with his power and influence. It was so clear. Order must prevail over chaos.

He argued within the Circle of Elders for hours, but in the end he convinced them of the plight of ponykind. He told them of the dire consequences that would befall all life, not just the lives of the little ponies, should order fail. In the end he was given a flight. Five and fifty knights. They left for Canterlot immediately. Just like the voice in his head told him to do. He knew he was doing the right thing.

He hoped he was doing the right thing.

“Magicborn!” roared a thick-set red youth.

The Magicborn sat up, coiling his long purple tail around the clock tower behind him for stability. “Yes Thud, what is it?”

Thud rolled his shoulders and stomped through the plaza, stepping on abandoned carts full of goods as he stomped over to the leader of his flight. “You said there would be glorious combat here! I see nothing. This is a peaceful city. How will Thud earn his mate without the challenge of glorious combat?”

Spike blinked several times and shook his head. Something was wrong with him, but he couldn’t figure out what it was. He looked around the city as if for the first time. It did look peaceful. “I… do not know. I thought that there would be a great conflict here by now.”

Then he gripped his head and hissed in pain. “Why… My head?”

Confused by the words of his elder, Thud turned and sulked off to sit on an unattended inn at the west end of the plaza. Getting comfortable, the huge but young dragon let out a long sigh, adding “Thud wants a mate.”

The Magicborn sat there gripping his head for some time. The pain faded, and he felt better. The voice in his head told him to relax, and he did. He was probably overthinking things.

Soon he heard the galloping of hooves, and looked to the North. He watched as excited ponies, hundreds of them, in their various garbs denoting some branch of military service, ran into the plaza. As more and more spilled in, dragons found themselves stepping over buildings and out of the plaza proper to give more breathing room to the tiny ponies.

“We, the defenders of Canterlot wish to greet The Magicborn,” stated a proud looking pink pony. The Magicborn was almost certain he was a stallion, but it had been a long time since he’d seen one. Best play it safe.

“Well met, defenders of Canterlot.” He called out with arms spread wide. “I am The Magicborn and I thank you for your hospitality!”

A resounding cheer went up. Spike smiled too, but then it began to change. First to a grimace. Then to a pained frown. And it finished it’s metamorphosis into a guttural roar. He gripped his head again and flailed about, causing the bell in the tower behind him to vibrate mournfully with the shaking of his tail.

Many of the ponies tried to flee. But none escaped. The Magicborn stifled his scream and released his head. The smile on his face returned, but there was a hint of madness to it. Red light burst from his eyes, and it washed over his flight of five and fifty dragons and the hundreds of pony defenders trembling at his feet.

“Excellent.” The Magicborn’s head nodded, but it was not his voice that spoke. This voice belonged to the Beacon of Order. The newly controlled dragon flexed his arms, as a gleeful giggle escaped his lips.

“Oh my.” The Beacon chuckled, “And here I thought Princess Cadence was powerful.” He flexed The Magicborn’s tail, and the base of the clock tower was reduced to splintery rubble. There was a resounding clang when the top of the tower hit the ground behind him. He bent down and pulled the largest bell in Canterlot out of the debris and leisurely tossed it beyond the rim of the city with one hand.

“This will do nicely.” The Beacon said with finality. He turned to the mumbling force before him and pointed a claw towards Canterlot Castle. “Bring Discord to me,” he commanded.

The air was filled with the flapping of ten and one-hundred leathery wings and the ground resounded with the marching of thousands of hooves. Soon he could hear the sound of magic bursts and dragon roars and his twisted smile grew a little bit wider.

But then something caught his attention off to the North, by the castle. Some sort of hole opened in the sky. Then another. Then a third.

Something, or a lot of little somethings, was rushing out of these holes towards the ground. Loud somethings. It seemed that for all the world, the sky suddenly grew three foul smelling waterfalls of gibbering red flesh and rusty metal.

A smug Discord stood between Shining Armor and Spellbound, his hands on his hips. “Three good enough for you, Shining?”

Shining nodded at the three new portals, each 100 yards across, to the world of the living. His demons were running into whichever one was closest to them, heedless of the fall on the other side. In fact they flapped their tiny mangled wings in anticipation.

“KILL EVERYTHING!” They shouted.

“Oh dang,” said Shining Armor, “I knew I forgot something.” He cleared his throat, and the demons that had not yet jumped through to the realm of the living, turned to look at their Sire. “Hey guys? No killing ponies, okay?”

“KILL EVERYTHING BUT ONLY HURT PONIES!”

“No no,” scolded Shining Armor, “leave the ponies alone entirely.”

“KILL AND HURT EVERYTHING BUT PONIES!”

“Sure, that’s fine.” He added, “Have fun.”

“KILL AND HURT EVERYTHING BUT PONIES AND HAVE FUN!”

Discord grinned at his poker buddy. “They are such good listeners.”

“Yeah.” Shining Armor, true to his name, shone proudly.

They watched the demons jump one after another. In such huge numbers there was almost something hypnotic about it.

Shining Armor was the first to break the silence. “Well, let’s get going.”

Discord gave him a puzzled look, and the one-time Prince continued.

“We can’t just stand around in Tartarus while Canterlot Castle’s under attack.”

The draconequus shot his friend a sneer of a grin. “Right you are Shiny. Okay fellas, all aboard for the Canterlot Express!” He reached behind him and pulled out his second favorite conductor’s hat and grabbed a pony under each arm.

Discord broke into a run for the edge of the plateau above the nearest portal. When he reached the edge he jumped into the air, cackling madly, as gravity pulled them towards the portal far beneath them.

Shining Armor laughed along with him. He was finally returning to the land of the living. To his wife in Canterlot. And he’d get to fight dragons! Oh happy day, he hadn’t felt this alive in centuries.

Spellbound screamed like a little filly until he passed out.

Chapter 11

A white Alicorn, awash in the glory of the midday sun, stood on the balcony of her old royal bed chamber in Canterlot. She watched the Demons of Tartarus spilling over every inch of her city as they fought against the converted dragons of Valorhold. Her face was an unreadable mask; calm and serene despite the turmoil raging within herself.

A raspy voice called out from behind her. “Is that you, Cadie?”

“Oh, I’m sorry Love Note, did I wake you?” said the Alicorn, turning around and smiling at the old mare sitting on a couch in Cadence’s bedroom. “No, I’m not Cadence.”

“Huh,” said the old pony blinking at the the unexpected sight before her “I knew I’d meet you eventually.”

“Oh you did, did you?”

“Yep. Looks like Cadie owes me fifty bits.”

The ethereally maned beauty chuckled softly. “Were you gambling on whether or not I would reappear?”

Love Note scoffed as only an old mare could, “It was never a matter of if, dearie, but a matter of when. Cadie said you never knew when to leave well enough alone.” she rubbed a knobby hoof under her scruffy chin and added. “No, our bet was on whether or not I’d live to see the day you came back.”

Love Note sat up on the couch, contorting her face as she maneuvered around her aching hip. The large white pony said nothing and waited patiently while the old mare moved into her new position.

“So. What brings you here? Aside from the fact that this is your old bedroom, and the whole world seems to be falling apart.”

“Aside from that?”

“Aside from that.”

“Well... To be honest, I was hoping you could give me some advice.” she said with a defeated sigh. “I don’t usually ask for guidance, but I’ve been out of the spotlight for so long, I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do about any of this.” She pointed a hoof back over towards the balcony and the city below.

“What’s your name, Princess?”

The white Alicorn frowned “I’m no Princess. Not any more, I’ve long since abdicated that throne.” She added with a more hopeful note “You can call me Celestia, if you’d like.”

“Alrighty, Celestia, come on over and let’s see what this busted old mare can do for you.” Love Note tapped the empty couch cushion next to her with a hoof, and Celestia walked over and sat down.

“Suppose,” the former Princess said after she made herself comfortable, “that I do nothing. That I let the Princesses and ponies do what they do. What’s the risk?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that I never expected my ponies would do so well on their own. They rule themselves with the Senate, and Cadence and Twilight are mostly figureheads. Less so with Twilight, what with her being in the Senate, but the point remains. If I do nothing, will my little ponies surprise me again and save the world on their own?”

Love Note said nothing, but offered a pat on the leg as Celestia continued. “And because I’ve done nothing for so long now, part of me feels like I can’t do anything.”

She took a deep breath to keep her steady, but the worry was plain on her face. “Equestria is falling apart. My city is flooded with demons and dragons and—“

“Alright,” interrupted Love Note with a crooked smile “Things are bad now, but let’s not throw the country out with the bath water. What would happen if you did do something?”

Celestia thought about that for a moment. “You mean, what would happen if I revealed myself to the world?”

“Your words, not mine.” The old mare said slyly.

“But if I did that, then...” She trailed off, as she stared into Cadence’s wall-to-wall shag carpeting.

“Then what?” the old pony asked pointedly. “What are you afraid of?”

“Afraid? I never thought of it that way before. I guess I’m afraid of losing the life I’ve built for myself. That I would be a prisoner of the crown they would make me wear. I just want to live my life.”

Love Note let out a hoarse laugh. “Shoot, is that all? And here I thought you were going to make this hard on me.”

“What do you mean?”

“Celestia, we rule ourselves now. We’ve been doing it for hundreds of years. you just said so yourself a few minutes ago.”

The Goddess of the Sun glanced at the old mare in surprise.

“Just because an Alicorn or two come out of the woodwork doesn’t mean we’re going to disband the Senate and suddenly forget how to wipe ourselves.” Love Note punched the pony in the shoulder with a rickety hoof.

Celestia rubbed her shoulder absentmindedly. “So. You think I should stop hiding?”

“Is that what you want?”

“I’m still not sure. Sorry.”

The old mare leaned back and let out a terse breath, her hip creaking along with the ride. “You know, I was going to go to Cloudsdale with Cadie yesterday, but this stupid hip of mine started acting up again. Could you be a dear and lend me a hoof?”

She nodded, and got up on her hooves to help Love Note back into a comfortable position laying down on the couch and she shifted around to get comfortable under her hooves.

“Sakes alive, I tell you what, Celestia. Do not get old if you can help it.” she muttered as she rubbed at her hip with an old cerulean wing. “Now where was I? Ah yes. You know, whenever Cadie asks me for advice, which isn’t as often as it should be mind you, I usually tell her the same thing.”

“And what’s that?”

The old mare reached over and tapped the Alicorn in the chest. “Follow your heart.”

They shared a smile, ignoring an explosion in the streets below.

“Follow my heart, hmm?”

The old pony nodded but said nothing else. Instead wrapped her forelimbs under her head, closed her eyes, and began drifting off to sleep.

Celestia turned back towards the open balcony doors and closed her own eyes. “Okay heart,” she said determinedly. “Lead the way.”

Ruby Star was caught in a crossfire. She was stuck between the smoldering wreckage of the wooden stage where all this trouble began and the relative safety of General Iron Sight’s tent. She ducked behind the upturned metal desk she fished out of the tent and winced as a searing ball of flame splashed against the other side of it.

Leaning out to the side so only her horn and her head were visible, she fired bolt after bolt into the chest of the corrupted mage shooting at her. However each bolt she threw at it bounced harmlessly off of the pony’s surprisingly durable face. Seriously, she must have fired ten or twelve of the same high-impact magebolt into this sucker, and he was shrugging them off left and right. Not so much the first pony she hit with it, but this guy was unstoppable.

Unstoppable until a God of Chaos with two ponies under his arms fell on him.

“Ooph,” said Discord.

“Aah!” shouted Shining Armor.

“...” said Spellbound, still unconscious.

Ruby ran over to the three boys. “Star’s Garters, am I happy to see you three. What took you so long?”

Discord stood up and dropped both stallions to the ground and started dusting himself off. “Sorry about that, Red. We took the express route.”

Ruby Star looked at him funny. “You took so long because you took the express route?”

He didn’t answer. He was busy dusting himself off.

“Why does he call you ‘Red’?” asked Shining Armor.

“Because he hates me.”

“Mmm, I know what that’s like. He used to hate me, you know? He’d call me Pretty Boy.”

“And I can see why,” she said with a wink.

“Watch it, I’m married.”

“Oh yeah? I like a challenge.”

“To Princess Cadence.”

“Still?”

“What do you mean, still?”

“That was like a billion years ago. Isn’t there a statute of limitations on these things?”

“A statute of limitations? On Love? When you’re married to the immortal Goddess of Love?” He turned to face Discord. “Was today Bring Your Daughter to Work Day and she’s supposed to be following her mom around, or something? She’s not really a guardsmare, is she?”

“Hay! I am too a guard! And I’m almost twenty years old, thank you very much.”

Discord continued to ignore the two ponies, opting instead to frown at his own leg. “Ugh, I think Blue peed on me. Oh, wait, no. It was the guy we landed on. And that’s not pee.”

The three of them said nothing, but took two large steps to the right, before continuing their conversation.

“Alright, we’re getting off track. What’s the plan?” asked Ruby, still agitated about Shining Armor’s implication.

“Discord explained more of the situation to me on the way. Which one of these dragons is Spike? I think I can try to talk some sense into him.”

Discord stroked his goatee. “I’m going to guess that he’s the big purple one over there.” He titled his head to the left, and there where he had indicated was a truly massive dragon.

The beast rippled with muscle and chitinous plates. Each ridge on his body was an impenetrable fortress. He alternated between stomping a whole mess of very unfortunate demons, and roasting the survivors with his green flame. That last breath of flame was so hot that Shining Armor thought he could almost feel the heat on his eyebrow.

Ruby offered a hoof to Shining Armor. He took the hoof and shook. “Well it was nice knowing you, Pretty Boy.” She said with another wink, and then turned to set about dragging her unconscious partner back towards the castle.

But Discord grabbed her by the tail before she took another step. “No, I think he’s got something there.”

“Hay, let go of my tail. What are you—” Ruby Star didn’t finish her complaint before her head was filled with the call of Order. Discord had teleported the three of them right into the heart of the Grand Central Plaza.

“Alright, Shining, do your... Shining?” Discord watched as the white stallion doubled over in apparent pain, gripping his head.

“D-discord!” Growled Ruby Star through clenched teeth “Get us out of h-here you idiot!”

Discord stared at the two writhing ponies. What had gotten into them? He looked around to try and see the origin of this attack. At the end of the Plaza was Spike, or ‘The Magicborn’ as he apparently liked to call himself now, fighting off a whole slew of demons singlehandedly.

Off to his right stood a young drake, still taller than the two story inn he stood before. “Tiny demons!” he shouted in his bloodthirst, “Thud will crunch you up, and earn his mate!” There was something off about the red dragon. The way his eyes would sometimes stare straight ahead and his arms go slack. Almost as if he was fighting against his more base nature.

It only took one such unguarded moment for a small army of the demons at his feet to crawl up onto his back and belly, where they held on tightly, and slashed at him mercilessly with their rusty blades. “No! Do not climb Thud! Fight fair, or do not fight at all!” The dragon roared in anger and with a few mighty flaps, was airbound, dropping demons as he went.

To Discord’s left were two large groups of motionless ponies. He recognized them as the Solar Court and the Lunar Court. Looking up, he gasped in alarm at the proximity of both Sun and Moon.

“Hay!” he ran over shouting, “What are you doing? I said no eclipse!”

They ignored him and continued their work. He reached the nearest pony of the Solar Court and picked her up to give her a shake. Her eyes were dull and lifeless, staring straight ahead. She was babbling some inanity about Order.

Something painful zapped him in the back of the head and he dropped the pony to the ground. “Hay, what’s the big idea? Red?”

Discord was shocked to see his little helper standing where he left her, her eyes dull and empty as she stared straight ahead at him.

“Order over chaos, law over harmony. The enemy of order is the enemy of all.” She said in a dry monotone as her horn charged up. She fired another magebolt at him.

He deflected it with a flick of the wrist and sent it hurtling into parts unknown. “Red, this isn’t funny. You’re on my side, remember?”

Next to her, Shining Armor clambered to his hooves. “Shining,” the God of Chaos implored, “tell her she’s on our side.”

Shining Armor’s body jerked to his full upright stature, and his eyes sprang open, burning with red light. His body shook with laughter.

“Oh, she’s on my side, devil.” Came a voice out of Shining Armor’s mouth that was not his own.

“Hey, that’s pretty neat. How did you do that?”

“You are not very wise for a ‘god’. How you survived my first attack in the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters, I’ll never know.”

Something clicked in his head and Discord took a step backwards. He tripped over the pony he dropped behind him earlier and fell on his tail. “Y-you’re the Beacon!” he stammered “How did you—“

“Convert all these ponies? Haven’t you been paying attention at all? This is what I do. Had I known that Shining Armor here was the leader of these pesky demons, I would have sought him out sooner. Thanks so much for bringing him to me.”

“But... But you... And then I...”

“But nothing. Can’t you see you’ve already lost? You just gave me an army of demons, I have a flight of dragons lead by the strongest creature I’ve ever encountered, and I’m making that eclipse that you were so desperate to stop. Though I don’t think that 3 minutes is enough. I was thinking about using a duration a little more... permanent.”

Discord looked up again and noticed that the two celestial orbs were still moving towards each other at a steady pace. In frustration he howled, “Why? Why do all this just to kill me? I’m right here. Just...” He sighed, dejectedly “Just finish it already.”

Shining Armor’s body stuttered with laughter. “I don’t want to kill you now.”

“You don’t?”

“Oh no, where’s the fun in that? I want to destroy you. I want to annihilate you. I am going to take away everything you hold dear. Friendship? Gone. Free will? No more. A living and vibrant world? Dead.”

The red glow in Shining Armor’s eyes smoldered into a deep maroon. “I will destroy everything. Everything. Just to hurt you. Then your real torture begins. Before the end you will beg me to kill you. Only after I’m sure that there’s nothing left of you but an empty shell of your former self, only then I will rid this cold dead rock of your evil.”

The God of Chaos, disgusted with the Beacon’s depravity and intent, pushed himself up to his feet and dusted off his knees. “Oh yeah? Well, you’re forgetting one thing.”

Shining Armor raised an eyebrow.

Discord eyes bugged out of his head, and then pointed just beyond the possessed white stallion. “What is that?!”

Gritting his teeth, the stallion turned his head and his horn burned with red energy. There was nothing there. Looking back at where Discord had been, the Beacon of Order now watched as a frantic trail of dust floated in air, on a course back towards the castle.

He frowned at his hated rival’s antics. “Get Discord.”

“GET DISCORD!” The demons of Tartarus roared back in thunderous refrain.

Realizing they were no longer enemies, everything –pony, dragon, and demon alike- stopped attacking each other and flew, ran, or teleported towards the castle. Without a care for their own safety, or the safety of others, the tangled mass of them trampled over everypony and everything in their way. Each was racing get to Discord first. After all, the Beacon of Order, Flight Commander of Valorhold, and the Demon King of Tartarus commanded them to do so.

Soon the plaza was empty, except for the possessed bodies of The Magicborn and Shining Armor, and the assembled bodies of the Solar and Lunar courts.

Spike heard a noise and turned. The Beacon, through Spike’s massive green eyes, watched as a lone red straggler ran into the plaza from the South. He wore an ill-fitting chef’s hat and held a tray of fresh-from-the-oven crullers.

“HAVE FUN!” The demon shouted ecstatically as he ran to join his battle brothers besiege the castle.

“You did good, Bendy. I love you,” said Appleseed proudly. He bent down to kiss his wife, Merry Hearth, on her forehead.

She smiled back at him woozily. “Who would have thought that our baby boy would be born so far from Sweet Apple Acres?”

Appleseed nuzzled his wife and stretched an orange wing over the carefully bundled boy sleeping in her forelimbs. “What better place for an earthpony momma to give birth to an earthpony baby than in a cavern full of crystals, eh?”

Merry Hearth was about to answer him when something big thumped into the other side of their wooden door, causing her to jump slightly. The baby grumbled as startled sleeping babies do. Whoever it was at the door, it muttered a curse that neither pony understood.

The knock that followed it was plainly understood, though.

“Come in?” said Merry quietly, mindful of her sleeping son.

The door opened and in walked a pink maned white unicorn.

“Powder Puff?” asked Appleseed blankly, “What are you doing here?”

The pudgy unicorn was walking on three hooves, rubbing her muzzle with the other. “Oh, I was just out for a stroll. Can you tell me where ‘here’ is?”

Appleseed looked at his wife, and she at him. “You’re in the maternity ward of the hospital in the evacuation shelter below Canterlot.”

The white mare looked at them both with wide-eyes. “They built a hospital down here?”

“Oh yeah,” said Appleseed, “Remember when there was that big Senate vote on it and the other ones last April? It turned into a right big showdown between the two houses and the newspapers had a field day. But in the end Princess Twilight helped everypony see the reason in having state-of-the-art hospitals ready and raring to go in all of Equestria’s major emergency evacuation centers.”

Powder Puff nodded.

“Thank goodness they did to,” he finished, “otherwise Bendy and little Applewood here would be in big trouble.”

Powder Puff walked further into the room to get a better look at the new baby. He was a tan earthpony with a pale yellow mane. He had his father’s eyes. The two mares shared a smile.

“So you’re Powder Puff? Appleseed is always telling me that we should invite you over to the homestead for dinner one of these days.”

“I am. Does that make you ‘Bendy’?” she asked with a giggle.

“Depends on who you ask,” Merry chuckled dryly. Appleseed coughed into a hoof, blushing profusely. “But you can call me Merry.” She finished.

“Thank you, Merry. I will.”

“S-say, Powder Puff,” asked Appleseed, fidgeting with his wings, “you haven’t seen Honeycrisp anywhere around here, have you? Merry went into labor as soon as her hooves hit the ground down here.”

“Oh, Yes, Appleseed, I have. I fed her and other girls a nice big breakfast just a few hours ago. They’re with Princess Twilight.”

Both parents visibly relaxed, a burden lifted from their minds. “Oh thank goodness,” sighed Appleseed, reaching over to hug his wife with one leg.

“I’m glad to know she’s safe,” said Merry peacefully, “Though I still wish she were here to meet her baby brother.”

“Tell me,” asked Powder Puff, changing the subject, “have either of you thought about enrolling her into Princess Twilight’s School for Gifted Unicorns?”

Appleseed’s wings drooped and he turned away from the kind baker, looking instead at the heart rate monitor for his sleeping son. “Oh. We don’t have the bits for something like that.”

Powder Puff waved the thought away. “What if I could talk to the Princess about getting her a scholarship? She has a great deal of talent, and I know the school would be honored to finally have an Apple for a star pupil.”

“You’d do that? For us?”

“I would.”

Merry spoke up, as she hugged a grey leg around her newest bundle of joy “Do you really think that she’s gifted?”

“I do.”

Powder Puff found herself wrapped up in a big feathery hug. “Thank you, Powder Puff! Boy if you’d do that for us, I’d... Why, I’d be sure that Canterlot Castle’s carts our finest produce from now until the day I die!”

Powder Puff hugged him back and laughed. “Okay Appleseed, consider it a deal.”

They separated and Powder Puff looked around the room, appreciating the fine quality of its quartz. “Well,” she said, turning towards the door, “I think I should get going. I feel like I’ve got a little more walking to do.”

“Uh... Powder Puff...”

The white unicorn glanced over her shoulder at the young grey mare, anxiously twiddling her forehooves on the bed.

“Yes, Merry?”

“This is going to sound weird, but...”

“Yes?”

Finally she blurted it out, with her eyes shut tightly, “Would you give Applewood your blessing?”

Powder Puff nodded and softly pranced over to the hospital bed. “I would be honored.” She tapped the sleeping foal on the forehead with her horn. “I bless you this day, little Applewood. The rising sun will be your joy. May your hooves be strong and your heart be light.”

The pudgy pony caught the dumbstruck look on Appleseed’s face, and giggled. “That was fun. I haven’t done one of those in years. Take care now.”

Without another word, she turned and walked back out the door, closing her eyes once more as she passed the threshold.

“Bendy?” Appleseed asked as he stared after the Royal Pastry Chef.

“Yes dear?”

“Why did you ask Powder Puff to bless our child?”

“I don’t know. But it felt like the right thing to do. I felt like I had to follow my heart on that one.”

Spellbound was resting on a picnic blanket on a hill overlooking the pristine glory of Cloudsdale. The sunset framed the sky perfectly, and he let out a contented sigh. He took another sip from his champagne flute, and felt something warm and feathery wrap around his side. A single feather brushed against his cutie mark.

“Tee hee!” said the slightly tipsy Goddess of Magic, “Oh Spellbound, that was such a good story! I loved the part where you slayed all the dragons. Tell me another.” she said, batting her eyelashes.

“Well of course, my dear. How about the one where I beat Discord with my horn tied behind my back. It all started whe—“

“What is this?!” asked a stern voice from behind them.

Spellbound shot up to his hooves and spun around, the world around him stopped moving and began to fade out of existence.

“Quick Name!” squeaked Spellbound, “Wh-what are you doing here?”

“Nevermind what I’m doing here, what are you doing dreaming about Princess Twilight like that?”

Spellbound looked around dumbly at murky expanse that surrounded the two stallions. “This is a dream?” he asked.

Quick Name stomped a hoof. “Well of course it’s a dream, you can’t afford champagne on your salary, can you?”

“No,” said Spellbound, who looked like he was going to cry.

“Suck it up, soldier. I need you to pay close attention to what you’re about to see and hear.”

Spellbound shook himself out of his funk and stood at attention. “Sir!”

“I need you to wake up and find Discord. Tell him to come to Cloudsdale and save us. I was knocked unconscious by the Beacon’s magic and I fear that the others are trapped there.”

“Wait... if you’re unconscious, how come you’re in my dream? What am I saying, why am I even paying any attention to you at all?! This is my dream, and I have a date with a Princess to finish, so if you’ll excuse me I—“

The light feathery mist surrounding them suddenly became the deep black void of night. Spellbound could no longer see Quick Name, let alone his own hooves.

“You will listen to me, colt, and you will do as I say.” The voice echoed from all around him. “Not because I am the Captain of the Arcane Guard...”

Spellbound shook like a lost lamb as some of the darkness began to pool together, creating an even shape in the void.

“NO, YOU WILL OBEY BECAUSE I AM THE KEEPER OF DREAMS. I AM THE CRAFTER OF CONSTELLATIONS. I AM THE MOON IN YOUR SKY AND THE BLACKNESS IN YOUR SOUL.”

A dawning of night crested some unseen horizon, and Spellbound’s vision was filled with an unending sea of stars. The pooled darkness stood out from the tapestry of light behind it, growing limbs and a slender frame. Wings sprouted from its back and a long horn crowned its head. The creature’s eyes opened, revealing two pearlescent orbs.

“I AM PRINCESS LUNA, AND YOU WILL AWAKEN!”

Discord stood over the fitfully sleeping body of Spellbound and pulled back the bucket he held in his hands, ready to splash its contents over the only pony he knew he had left.

“One... Two... Thre-“

Spellbound’s eyes shot open and he reared his head up with a jerk. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean it!” he shouted.

This startled Discord into releasing his grip on the bucket, sending it flying until it broke against the castle wall far behind him. When its remains hit the ground, about a dozen scorpions with anger management issues scurried out snapping irately at the air.

“Oh great!” frowned the draconequus. “Now I’m not going to get my deposit back on the bucket rental.”

Spellbound rubbed the top of his head and winced. “It could be worse.”

“How could anything be worse than not getting the deposit back on a bucket rental?”

“You could have this weird dream where your boss, who is a stallion, turns into the hottest Princess you’ve ever seen.”

Discord ignored him and shook his head. “They’re never going to let me rent buckets there again.”

Spellbound got up off his rump and tapped Discord with a hoof. “Come on, we have to get to Cloudsdale.”

“Cloudsdale? Why do we have to go to Cloudsdale?”

“Because Hot Dream Princess Quick Name said so.”

“...Okay... Ignoring how creepy that is for just a moment, how are we going to get to Cloudsdale?”

“Look, I don’t know, maybe we can wrangle a dragon to fly us over there. Or something.” He trotted off towards the West wing of the castle.

Discord stood in deep thought. Then he nodded. “A flawless plan. I love it!” And then happily trundled after Spellbound. “Oh by the way Blue, did you know that the Beacon of Order is one sick puppy?”

“You don’t say. I thought there was something off about ho—“

“GRAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWRRRRG!” came a guttural shout from farther West.

Spellbound watched as a flying dragon, covered in demons, slammed into the side of the castle. Whether the dragon was red before the demons got it was up for debate. Unfazed, the blue stallion ran on ahead. Discord found himself scrambling to keep up. His legs still burned from his last little sprint.

Spellbound knew the castle very well, and burst from room to room, teleporting through available shortcuts as he ran. “We got one down at the West Entra—Princess Twilight?” he said as he scrambled to a halt.

“You know,” Discord puffed, “I haven’t been to the Castle in a very long time, but did they really rename this the West EntraPrincess Twilight? Seems a little gauche, don’t you think?”

He ran around the corner and saw the purple pony that was apparently mesmerizing Spellbound, and stumbled to a halt.

“Oh, I get it.”

Twilight frowned at him. “Discord. Do you mind telling me what the hay is going on around here?” she pointed a hoof accusingly at the crumpled dragon a few feet away.

“Oh, do you like it?” Discord asked casually as he walked up to her. He grabbed her by the shoulders and started to make a most clever quip. “I call it—“

Something red or rather, a lot of somethings red, began spilling over the reinforced iron doors of the West Entrance behind the gaggle of mares. “HELP, HELP, WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE!” he finished, shaking the Princess in his fear.

In the distance there were two explosions. The first was a legitimate explosion, the kind with debris and shrapnel. The second was an explosion of sound. Of the shrieks and screams that issued from the rank guts of a hundred thousand angry demons. It was a roar of victory. Accompanied by the roar was an ominous flickering of the magelight torches throughout the castle. They had broken through Canterlot Castle’s defensive runes.

Twilight pulled herself out of Discord’s grasp and she took in the scared faces of those around her. “Okay, nopony panic.” She said as her ears pinned themselves to the back of her head, “The castle’s defenses are down. We have to get to the throne room and—“

The purple Princess’s instructions were interrupted by one of Sandy’s terrified screams. Twilight balked as a demon of Tartarus, something she’d not seen in centuries, buzzed through the air over Sandy’s head and landed on Discord’s head.

The red menace snarled and gnashed its broken teeth against Discord’s pair of horns. First the left one. Now the right. All the while smacking him over the head with a rusty mace. “Get it off, get it off!” The panicky draconequus demanded.

Twilight grabbed the foul thing and flung it back from whence it came. She tracked it with her eyes, and watched as it bowled into a half a dozen other demons. More and more were spilling over the wall and the reinforced iron door it contained. They clambered over each other and the downed dragon in the entrance’s outer stoneway that she and her friends had teleported into.

They ran hard for that final archway, screaming ‘Discord’ this and ‘Not Ponies’ that. She wasn’t about to let them into her castle. The nearest one leapt off of the last of the low steps and smashed its head into a translucent purple barrier that hadn’t been there a second ago.

Another flung himself against it. And another. Soon the archway was filled with angry red faces all smooshed up against Princess Twilight’s barrier.

“Discord?”

“M-yes?”

“Why are there demons attacking Canterlot?”

“Would you believe me if I said it was your brother’s idea?”

Twilight stared off into space, scrunching up her face in confusion.. “Shining Armor did this?”

“Yeah, it was a good plan at first, but then well... let’s not going pointing any hooves here, but somepony didn’t tell me that the Beacon could possess or mind control other ponies. So imagine my surprise when I teleported Red, Shiny, and myself over to Spike—“

“Spike?” asked a suddenly more interested Rarity.

“Only to find out that he was already possessed—”

“Little Spikey-wikey is out there? And he’s possessed?!”

“Jeez, can I get through a whole sentence without being interrupted?” Discord asked the distraught white unicorn. She nodded, but bit her lip in concern.

“So. Where was I? Oh yes.” He started counting off on his talons “Spike is possessed, he brought a whole mess of dragons from Camp Hug-a-lot with him to Canterlot, The dragons sweet talked your guards into a trap and they all got themselves corrupted, and then Shining Armor, who’s the new King of Tartarus by-the-by, was possessed when he went to try and talk some sense into the big purple palooka.”

Discord took a breath and let it out. “Also, Red was corrupted too.”

Spellbound spun around on the spot, his eyes seeking out Discord’s in urgency. “They got Ruby Star?!”

“I’m afraid so, champ.”

“This isn’t good,” muttered Princess Twilight. “Okay, new plan. We need to get to the throne room and reactivate the castle’s defenses. If we don’t get those up then everypony down below in the crystal shelters is in danger. Their safety is our number one priority.”

“Right.”

“Of course, darling.”

“Sure, sure.”

“Once that’s done, we need to bring the fight to the Beacon. Discord, you said that he’s in the Grand Central Plaza?”

“I didn’t, but—“

“Excellent. Can you whip us up a distraction with a little bit of chaos? Something to give us some time to neutralize the bigger threats?”

“Ah. Yes. Well, I would. But...”

“But, what?” she asked wearily.

“I don’t know.” He said, windmilling his arms in explanation. “I just seem to forget I have it when I need it.”

“Come again?”

Discord groaned and pulled a lion’s paw down over his face. “I did something, or something was done to me, and now whenever I can use my magic... I don’t.”

“Well this is just wonderful, isn’t it?” grumbled the Crystal Empress with a toss of her purple mane. “We’ve got one out of four Princesses conscious and accounted for, Discord is broken, the castle grounds are positively lousy with those unkempt little beasties, and little Spike is out there all alone.”

Twilight’s ears flicked back and forth as she turned to look at her old friend. “Rarity, Spike’s going to be fine. Believe me, if there’s anypony I’m not worried about right now, it’s a 400 foot tall fire-breathing dragon.”

Rarity puffed out her cheeks, and then let out her breath with a harumph. “Oh, alright, Twilight. I’m sure Spike can handle himself. Alone. Out there with all those nasty dragons and corrupted ponies. Still, I’d have to say this is definitely going on my top ten list of worst birthday celebrations ever.”

Discord stepped over the unconscious body of Princess Cadence and lifted Rarity into the air.

“Unhand me you brute!” she implored, her legs kicking the air between them furtively.

“Say that again?” he asked, ignoring her pleas.

“Which part? The part where this is the worst birthday celebration ever, or the part where I demanded that you unhand me?”

“The first part.”

“This is definitely going on my top ten list of worst birthday celebrations ever?”

“Now just say the important part.”

“My top ten list?”

“No no, the really important part.”

“Birthday celebrations?”

Discord released the Crystal Empress, dropping her onto the pillow-like softness of Cadence’s head.

He turned to face the corridor that he just came from and stroked his goatee “Birthday celebrations... hmmm... Oh!” And he took off running down the hall like a shot.

“Hay! Discord!” Twilight called after him, “The Throne Room is the other way!”

Discord just smiled and waved over his shoulder, laughing maniacally. Then he was gone.

“Okay, well that was pointless. Come on girls, the Throne Room’s this way.”

“But what about the other Princesses?” asked Smarty Pants.

Twilight looked at her two unconscious royal sisters and then back at the purple border keeping the gibbering red horde of demons at bay.

“That barrier will hold. They’ll be safe here until wake up. Now let’s go!” The others nodded, and the two former Elements of Harmony, Spellbound, Honeycrisp, and Smarty Pants all rushed off down the opposite corridor.

Powder Puff walked with her eyes still closed and she felt the warmth of daylight spill across her face. Each step took her closer to her heart’s desire, she could feel it. As she walked, she felt a familiar transformation take place.

Her sides tingled as wings, white as any cloud, began to grow on her back. Another step, and her bouncy mane and tail bounced no more, instead they both floated up and flowed through the air. She felt her chubby underside vanish as her overall mass expanded to that of a larger pony. The largest pony of them all in fact.

Finally, a warm sensation washed over her flank, and she knew that her actual cutie mark was back, plain as day. Wherever she was going, or whoever she was seeing, she was going as her true self. Her heart was telling her that there would be no more hiding.

She took a few more steps before she was stopped by the soft sound of fluttering wings. She opened her eyes. There, laying prone on the ground, were the unconscious figures of Luna and Cadence.

And there, between the two them and facing away from her, was Sandy.

Powder Puff’s adopted daughter sat there on her haunches, looking at the two soundly sleeping Princesses. She heard somepony walking up from behind her, but she couldn’t bring herself to turn and face them. Whoever it was, they kept walking until they stood right next to her.

Then the pony standing next to her sat down so that their sides touched. The large pony had the same welcome but unusual warmth that her mommy always had. She even smelled like her. Something warm and feathery wrapped around the far side of her, and pulled her into a hug that was both familiar and altogether alien. Finally, she looked up.

“Hello,” said the beautiful white Alicorn.

“Hi,” said the trembling Sandy.

“Where are the others?”

“I don’t know.” Sandy looked away and pointed a hoof at the snarling wall of demons, still scrambling against Princess Twilight’s transparent barrier. “One of those things jumped out at me, and I hid under Princess Cadence’s wing. When I opened my eyes, everypony else was gone.”

“Were you hurt?”

Sandy shook her head. Then she looked over and pointed a hoof at Princess Luna, who drooled slightly in her sleep. “That’s Princess Luna. She was hiding as Quick Name.”

“I know.”

“oh,” the little pony said, barely above a whisper. Sandy’s wings buzzed and fluttered. She had a question that she knew she had to ask, but she knew there was no going back to the way things were when she had her answer. “Were... Were you hiding as Powder Puff?”

“I was.”

That was it then. Sandy knew that it was all over. The two ponies shared an uneasy silence, tempered by the occasional sniff from the little green pegasus. Celestia felt something warm a wet drip onto her feathers.

“Why are you crying, Sandy?”

“Because everything’s really scary right now. Because I wasn’t brave enough to go with my friends and they left me here. Because,” she said with a sob, “I think you were just pretending to be my mommy, and the pony that I thought was my mommy isn’t real.”

Sandy was hugged just a little tighter.

“Sandy. Look at me.”

She looked up into the face of this beautiful stranger and saw that she was also crying.

“No more secrets. No more disguises. This is the real me. And I will always be your mommy.”

She stared up into Celestia’s eyes and hoped against all hope. She was searching for something. And then she saw it.

The face of the mare she called mommy, plain as day. Sandy shook for a moment, and the dam burst. She cried and cried, hugging her mommy as tight as she could.

It was an important hug. It meant so much. It said so much.

Before long, the little girl had cried out all her tears; her faith restored. She sat there, hiccuping slightly, and buried her face into her mommy’s warm coat. “Always is a long time.” the little green pegasus said, as brightly as she could manage.

“Yes it is,” Celestia answered with a bittersweet smile, “Yes it is.”

The End - Part 1

Twilight Sparkle was determined to reach her throne room. Well, it wasn’t her throne room. It was the throne room in the castle, and it was shared by the Goddess of Love and the Goddess of Magic, but before that it belonged to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna so technically—

“Princess Twilight, wait!”

Twilight slammed her hooves into the ground, sliding to a stop. She felt Rarity’s ice cold body ram into hers, sending chills up her spine. She barely noticed the other two bumps as the girls slid into Rarity.

“M-mah thongue ith tt-huck.” Stammered Honeycrisp, who managed to get her tongue stuck to one of Rarity’s back legs.

Twilight righted herself and, in a quick burst of will, separated the young farm mare from her old friend. “Ugh,” grumbled Honeycrisp, rubbing at her tongue with a hoof, “tastes like old socks.”

“I beg your pardon?” glowered Rarity, more than a little mortified at the implication.

“Sandy’s missing!” blurted Smarty Pants.

Twilight did a head count. Honeycrisp was making faces at Rarity, check. Rarity was threatening corporal punishment, check. Smarty Pants was spinning in a tight frantic circle, check. Twilight herself was here, check.

Sandy? No Sandy. No check. Twilight groaned. She hated having a box without a check.

“When was the last time anypony saw her?” she asked

Honeycrisp looked away from the pony of her ire and rubbed a forehoof in thought. “I saw her when we teleported in, but I don’t remember if I saw her after we got inside the castle!”

Rarity gasped. “Surely you don’t think…”

The Princess shook her head dismissively, “No, I remember seeing her after Discord showed up.”

Before the conversation could continue, Twilight heard the sound of fleshy footfalls. Lots of them. Her wings fluttered nervously.

“No time, come on!” she commanded.

Three ponies followed the Princess as they dove for cover in a nearby larder, its door glowing purple for an instant to allow them in and then shutting softly behind them.

“Princess, why are we—“

“Shh!” Twilight motioned for silence as she leaned against the door, her heart pounding. She’d fought demons only once before, and it was not an experience she wanted to relive.

Seconds ticked by and soon the world was filled with the thundering of angry feet. Twilight watched as the two girls hugged each anxiously. Then what was a booming became a thumping and what was a thumping became a plodding. Then there was silence on the other side of the door. Princess Twilight let herself breathe again.

“That was close.”

“What’s the deal, Princess?” asked a visibly shaken Honeycrisp. “Why are you hiding from these things? Why not zap them with your magic?”

Smarty Pants answered for her. “From what I’ve read, hitting a demon with magic just makes it angry. Well, angrier. Really, it’s best to avoid them or outsmart them.”

Princess Twilight nodded “She’s not wrong. Now come on, we have to get to the throne room.”

“But Princess Twilight, what about Sandy?”

Twilight looked at her student and shook her head before a thought came to her. “Smarty Pants, if you can get to her and get back to the throne room, do it.”

Smarty Pants bobbed her head up and down affirmatively and Twilight turned to address the two unicorns. “Rarity, Honeycrisp, I need your help getting the defenses up. It requires a specific magic pattern to activate and another pattern to maintain. Are you up for it?”

“Yeah, I can probably do that,” said Honeycrisp, “But I get a do-over if I need one, right?”

Rarity was staring off into a corner, her thoughts a mile away.

“… Rarity?”

“Huh? Oh yes, yes. Hurrah team and all that.”

The Goddess of Magic smiled and turned back to her pupil, but the little pony was already gone. She wasn’t even in the room any more. Twilight leaned back and looked at the door. The only door out of the larder. It was shut and she was resting her weight against. “Wow. She’s good.”

Moments later Twilight and her two unicorn compatriots were off and running down the hall. They took one turn and then another. They did not encounter another group of demons before they come across the open antechamber that stood between the rest of the castle and the throne room. On most days, this was one of Twilight’s favorite places. Sadly today was not most days.

From here ponies had a circular view of Canterlot and Equestria beyond, blocked only by the spire of Caterhorn to the North. Fire and black smoke bloomed far as the eye could see. She could barely make out Ponyville in the distance, and even there black smoke billowed.

“Oh no,” she muttered as her stomach dropped out from under her.

“Twilight? I’ve never seen anything like this. I… I’m not sure if we can fix this.”

“We have to try Rarity, we can’t give up no—”

To the South a massive purple figure rose out of the rubble of the city below, threw its head back and roared.

“Spike?” whimpered the white unicorn.

“Rarity,” Twilight said, pinning her ears back, “I need your help here, don’t—”

The purple giant stumbled backwards and grabbed his head, groaning in anguish.

“Spike!” The Crystal Empress quickly willed her her frosty armor into existence and leaped out the open window. She cried out as she plummeted to the streets below. “I’m coming, Spike. Do you hear me?! Rarity’s coming!”

“Ow… My head.” Mumbled the woozy Goddess of Love as she stumbled to her hooves. “Auntie Celestia?! Luna?! Sandy? Am I dreaming?”

“Hello Cadence,” said Celestia, her smile shining like the dawn. “No, you’re not dreaming. We’re really here in Canterlot.”

Cadence had more questions, but before could ask them, Luna interrupted her train of thought. “Now that she is awake, we must make haste,” she said as her time-worn battle armor affixed itself to her chest and fetlocks. “There are dragons to fight.”

“Oh Lulu, there’s no need t—“

“Dragons, Tia!” Luna shouted with a stomp of her hoof and a tiny pout. “I have not fought a dragon in over a thousand years. And today I will fight at least a dozen. Perhaps a score.” she gasped excitedly and added, “Neigh, I will vanquish the entire flight!”

The Moon Goddess lowered her back end to the ground and started clapping her forehooves. Her antics earned her a nervous look from Sandy and soft tittering from her older sister. Cadence wasn’t really paying attention. She was still trying to remember what went on in Cloudsdale.

“Why is my cutie mark warm?” she asked nopony in particular.

That’s when Celestia first heard it. It started faintly, like a high pitched sound off in the distance. It was coming from inside the castle.

Celestia’s ears flickered. “Does anypony else hear that?” she asked.

The noise got louder. Whatever it was it was approaching at a steady clip. Now everypony heard it. “It could be a burst boiler...” said Luna, looking around to identify the source of the sound.

“I don’t think so,” offered Cadence helpfully. “I don’t think boilers ‘squee’.”

Sandy trotted out from beneath the trio of Alicorns and looked down one of the corridors that fed into the West Entrance. There was somepony coming. Whoever it was they were light-brown and had a red mane.

“Oh horseapples,” muttered Sandy.

Celestia spun around, “Sandy! Where did you learn such langua—” But the Sun Goddess never finished her reproach.

At that moment a little earthpony filly, who had been galloping as fast as she possibly could, shot up and barreled headfirst into Celestia’s chest, screaming in delight. The two ponies crumpled and tumbled before coming to rest on the hard marble floor.

“I FOUND YOU!” Smarty Pants shouted. She squeezed and shook the white Alicorn as hard as she could. “I found you! I found you.”

Twilight peered around the doorway and looked into her ruined throne room. The twin thrones at its end were in splinters, gems and gold filigree ripped from the wreckage. The tapestries were in tatters, covered in stains from Celestia only knows what.

The marble floor was littered with colorful shard of crushed glass. Not a single panel of stained glass windows that depicted the history of Equestria survived whatever happened here. She was so shocked by the desecration that she almost missed the green dragon laying in the center of the room. Almost.

He was sitting on a pile of gems and pilfered gold. Standing glumly in shackles to his right were a dozen ponies. She recognized them as from their robes. It was the Senatorial Guardmares. She frowned and clicked her teeth.

“Amatharex. Great.”

“What’s an Amatharex?”

She pulled her head back around the corner and looked at Honeycrisp. “He’s a dragon. A real nasty one. Spike told me all about him in a few of his letters.”

“A n-nasty dragon?” asked Honeycrisp, playing with her pigtails nervously.

Twilight smiled at the young girl. “It’s okay Honeycrisp. He’s a bully, but he’s also a coward. I’ll just scare him off and then we’ll get the castle defenses back up.”

Without another word, Princess Twilight walked into her throne room with her head held high.

She unfurled her wings menacingly and shouted. “Whelp! You are in my territory. Be gone before I turn you into luggage.”

The green dragon’s eyes flickered between dull lifelessness and the keen stare of a predator. “Ah, the purple pony Princess. The Beacon of Order says he wants me to bring you to him.”

Twilight stopped walking and lowered her wings. She stood there studying the dragon, perhaps forgetting the inherent risk in such an activity. “You’ve been corrupted, but you can still think for yourself? How are you fighting it?”

Amatharex lazily rose from his small treasure pile and scoffed. “A pony can give orders inside my head, but that does not change the truth.” He said as he slithered and slunk his way over to the Princess.

Curiosity got the best of her and she asked, “And that truth is?”

With a swipe of his mighty tail he struck Princess Twilight in the side and sent her colliding into a pillar, reducing it to rubble. “I do not listen to ponies. Even if they are gods!”

He rose up a bit and opened his massive jaws. Honeycrisp could feel the heat coming off of the scaly beast from her hiding spot. He started to breathe in and she gasped, knowing what would come next. She ran.

“No! Princess Twilight!”

The little red unicorn moved as fast as she could. She skidded to a stop between the half-buried Princess who lying still under a pile of broken stone and the green dragon. Before she realized what she had done, her world was filled with flame.

The green flame of Amatharex washed over her and around her, but it did not pass her. She willed it to stop at her tail and not a hair’s breadth farther. The fire burned and boiled her, but not in the physical sense.

The fire ignited her very being. It licked at her aching soul and kindled her sullen heart. It burned away the melancholy she’d forgotten she ever had. In this moment she felt reborn. Baptized in dragon’s fire, she fully understood why she had flames for her cutie mark.

Amatharex sat up panting. He knew he’d probably never have another chance at killing a god, so he made sure to make the most of it. Nothing could survive that. Moments passed and only the sound of sizzling came out of the sooty cloud in front of him.

The green wyrm raised his head to the ceiling and bellowed in triumphant laughter.

“Alright, hotshot,” said a small cocksure voice, surprising him.

Amatharex looked down in alarm and saw the little red unicorn that had foolishly jumped in front the pony god he had tried to kill. They were both still there and neither pony looked burnt in the slightest, but the red one’s mane and tail were alight with golden flame.

Honeycrisp flashed him a predatory grin. “My turn.”

Spellbound dashed into another alley and hid behind a trash can, he once again regretted his decision to leave the relative safety of the castle. He watched as a troop of demons turned off the corner and began to scour the street he’d just ledt. This group of demons, like the last two, was hollering about Discord all the while. He didn’t want to stick around and find out why; all he wanted to do was rescue Ruby Star.

And live to see tomorrow, if he could swing it. Really how hard could it be? He only had too—

A concussive blast of energy raced out from the castle, shattering storefront windows and knocking him to the ground. After a moment, he got up and opened his eyes to marvel at a rather bizarre sight. There was a bright golden cloud mushrooming out of the castle.

“Oh!” came a shout from the street. He turned and saw that the demons he had been hiding from were standing there, pointing at him excitedly. He looked down and realized that his trash can had also blown away in the blast.

They started to charge at him. One of them shrieked at him, “Get Discord!”

“Ahh!” shrieked Spellbound.

WHAM! Went the roof of the castle throne room.

“Wait… what?”

Spellbound stood transfixed as he watched the roof to the castle throne room settle into its new resting place in the center of the street where the demons were standing.

“Wow.” He blinked in amazement at both his luck and the unluckiness of those particular demons.

He shrugged, chalking it up to providence, and returned to slinking low to the ground. The blue stallion peered left and then right before creeping his way South towards Canterlot’s Grand Central Plaza. That’s where Discord said he left Ruby.

He stuck close to the sidewalks and storefronts as he walked, so that he could duck into an alley or abandoned building when necessary, but otherwise he made good progress. Up ahead at the corner of 8th he heard the approach of another grumbling crowd of demons and dove for cover behind a pickle barrel.

When they got half way down the street they stopped and began to gibber loudly. Had he been spotted, again? Sweat began to collect on his forehead. Spellbound’s fight or flight response kicked into high gear and his body started making adrenaline like it was going out of style. Suddenly a voice that he thought he recognized called out.

“I’m coming Spike!”

The blue stallion shifted behind the barrel to get a better look and balked at the sight of some kind of… white unicorn… thing. It’s body was coated in ice and crystal and it’s horn, longer than any other horn he’d ever seen, was covered in wicked looking hooks.

Apparently undaunted by the mass of demons from freaking Tartarus forming up into ranks, the unicorn monster bashed and thrashed its way through them like a wheat thresher through a dry field of grain. It ran roughshod over the unfortunate wretches and he clenched his eyes shut, unable to watch the scene unfold further.

When he opened them again, he let out a low whistle. The monstericorn was gone, but he could still hear it shouting ‘Spike’ this and ‘Darling’ that. In its wake, there were two newly formed half-walls of ice. Peppered in said ice were shivering demons.

“C-cold,” said one.

“V-v-very c-cold,” said another.

Rarity kept her eyes on Spike above all else. She vaguely recalled trampling through quite a few packs of the little red devil-urchins, or whatever they were called, but they couldn’t stop her so she didn’t care. She only cared about one thing.

She ran, and her heart poured out for her little Spikey-Wikey as he once again gripped his head and stumbled. This time he was heading East, so she turned right to keep up. She was hoping to catch him in Canterlot’s Art District.

Rarity skidded to a halt on the aged stonework beneath her hooves and gazed up at the troubled goliath half a block from her.

“Spike!” she shouted with all her might. The effort lifted her forehooves into the air.

Still holding his head with one massive hand, he turned and searched for the tiny voice. He looked down and spotted her. Rarity smiled. But her smile became a gasp of shock as the lovely green of Spike’s eyes was replaced with a hateful red.

The same red eyes that Cadence had in Cloudsdale when she was the Beacon’s puppet.

“Oh no.”

Every muscle in Spike’s body tensed and, far quicker than Rarity imagined anypony that big was capable of, he fell into a crouched position on all fours and began closing the short distance between them.

Rarity’s eyes were wide with fright and she screamed as only a prima donna could. Her ice covered hooves slid and slipped on the old street before she managed to gain any meaningful traction. She galloped into a nearby alleyway just as Spike flattened the area where she was standing with a balled fist.

She stood there, shaking. “Spike! It’s me, Rarity!”

A brief flicker of recollection washed over the confused creature’s face at mention of a name that meant so much to him. He blinked away the red light and looked at her. For just a moment, Rarity thought she had gotten through to him.

Sadly, she did.

But the icy thing with the barbed horn in front of him didn’t look like the Rarity he remembered. She could hear the betrayal in his roar as he rose to his massive feet. When he reached his full height his eyes were once again burning red with grim intent.

She turned back down the alley and ran for her life. All the while trying to convince him it was her. “But I am Rarity! I really, truly, am!”

“Grawwwr!” he yelled mindlessly in a deep vibrato that rattled the windows and doors around Rarity as she turned on to Theater Avenue.

She ran and ran, only looking over her shoulder as the massive dragon smashed through the alleyway, destroying the buildings on both sides. She let out a distressed cry as he waded unhindered through the rubble after her.

Rarity looked ahead and saw a familiar building coming up on the far corner. If she could reach it, it might be Spike’s salvation. It might be hers too.

She raced ahead and her heart pounding in her armored chest. She reached her destination and spun to a stop just in front of the old Canterlot Theater. She stood her ground as Spike’s possessed body clambered menacingly, his unblinking red eyes focused solely on her.

“Stop right there, mister!” she shouted.

Confused and dealing with conflicting commands, Spike’s limbs refused to move. But momentum carried his body a bit further down the street. He slid to a stop within arm’s reach of the slightly trembling monarch.

She pointed a hoof at the building behind her. “Do you remember this theater, Spike? It’s where we did our Hearth’s Warming Eve Pageant. All those years ago?”

“Graw…Rar?” he asked, the color of his eyes oscillating from green to red and back again.

“I was Princess Platinum and you were our narrator, remember?” She sat down and smiled off to the side. “You were so dashing in your little outfit.”

“Nar…rara?”

“That’s right!” Rarity clapped her hooves excitedly and she willed her crystalline armor away, revealing what she hoped was not a sweat stained mess of a pony.

There was a final flicker of red in Spike’s eyes and he grimaced. Slowly, he raised one of his hands to smash the pretty pony just like the voice in his head was commanding him to do. He looked at her with a pained expression, but she ignored the threat and walked as calmly as she could towards his face.

“Surely if you can’t remember anything else about me,”

She walked forward beyond the reach of his claws and on past his chin, feeling the heat of his breath. She reared up and stood on the tips of her back hooves. She kissed his cheek.

“You should remember this.”

His arm went limp and fell harmlessly to the ground. He sighed dreamily and all the tension melted out of his body. Spike smiled.

“Rarara.” He mumbled happily to himself before drifting off to sleep.

The Beacon of Order frowned through Shining Armor’s face. The possessed white stallion looked away from where he was gazing into the Art District, and glanced skyward. The Moon was just starting to pass over the Sun. The eclipse would soon be complete.

Shining Armor’s body walked over to the converted Ruby Star and smiled at her. She was holding down a struggling blue unicorn stallion. Shining Armor tapped him with his horn and the Beacon could feel the stallion’s mental shield crumble away. Ignoring his protests, he channeled his will into converting this new recruit. It took less than a minute.

Flashes of memory blinked through the Beacon’s mind. Spellbound’s name, his birthday, his favorite food, his hopes, his dreams, his greatest fears. The Beacon knew everything about him, and it found him wanting. Shining Armor’s face contorted into a frown. It appears that the Moon and Princess Cadence are both alive and where here in Canterlot. That could be a problem.

But then that frown became a leer. Princess Twilight was in Canterlot, too.

It thought back to when it found her floating across the ley lines. It recalled how, on a whim, it tasted her power. Such raw magical might was unheard of. The Beacon had never experienced anything like it. It was ecstasy. It would have her power before the end.

For now though, the timeline must be accelerated. The Magicborn was lost to him. Shining Armor’s body turned again and thirty unicorns stood ready before him, awaiting the order.

“Begin the summoning ritual.”

Princess Twilight sat up and pushed a pile of rubble off of her with a wing. “Oh my aching… Everything.”

Testing her joints and flexing, she tapped into her healing magics and tended to her tender bits. She opened her eyes but did not believe what she saw, so she closed them. Then she opened them again. It was still there.

She was starting to worry that she might have damaged her brain.

“That was amazing!” said a nearby voice.

“Can you teach me how to do that?” asked another.

Twilight turned away from the sight that made her question her sanity and looked over at the Senatorial Guardsmares. Now freed, they were standing in a tight circle around Honeycrisp, of all ponies. The little mare looked like she she was having the time of her life, the tip of her blond braided tail swishing this way and that.

The leader of the group walked into the circle and offered Honeycrisp a hoof, who shook it eagerly.

“What’s your name, kid?”

“Honeycrisp, Ma’am.”

Black Lotus nodded, committing the name to memory. “You’ve got talent, Honeycrisp. Real talent. I want to see your application to join the Senatorial Guardsmares on my desk the minute, and I mean the very minute you hit 18. Is that understood?”

“Yes, Ma’am,” squeaked the little red unicorn with equal parts worry and glee.

Twilight finished dusting herself off and was walking over to the group. When Black Lotus saw her approaching she clicked her forehooves together twice. Immediately the twelve members of the Senatorial Guardsmares snapped to attention, forming two rows of six,.

Black Lotus, their captain, stood at the far left end of the front row.

“At ease ladies,” Twilight said with a salute. “Can anypony tell me what happened?”

Black Lotus was first to speak. “Secretary General, you were attacked. By a dragon.”

Twilight fished a small chunk of rubble out of her left ear. “I got that part, thanks. I meant can anypony explain this?” she said, gesturing to the sight that made her doubt her sanity in the first place.

“Well, Ma’am, Honeycrisp here jumped in front of that dragon and stopped it from cooking you. Then she cooked it.”

Twilight looked at Honeycrisp. Then she turned and looked at what appeared to be the world’s largest roasted chicken. She looked at Honeycrisp again.

An unusual breeze flowed through her ethereal mane, and Twilight looked up.

Twilight gestured at the gaping hole where the ceiling and roof used to be. “Wow. When did that happen?”

“Just now,” said Smarty Pants with a shrug. She stopped walking and stared straight ahead with wide eyes. “Whoa, déjà vu.”

Princess Twilight turned to see Smarty Pants and Sandy walk in from the antechamber. Both ponies were positively beaming.

“Sandy! Smarty Pants!” giggled Honeycrisp as she pranced over, practically walking on air.

Smarty Pants gave her cousin a puzzled look “Whoa, what got into you?”

Honeycrisp reached her two friends and put them both in headlocks, aiming them at what was left of Amatharex “Look what I did!” She crowed proudly.

“Ugh, that’s disgusting!” exclaimed Smarty Pants as she tried to pull herself out of Honeycrisp’s vice-like grip.

Sandy went limp, with tears in her eyes. “Oh that poor thing…” was all she was able to get out before she covered her eyes with her wings, inadvertently swatting Honeycrisp in the eye in the process.

“My eye!”

“Don’t you yell at her!”

“Yeah? Well, don’t you yell at me!”

Twilight rolled her eyes and turned away from the bickering fillies to face a dumbfounded Black Lotus.

“Can you get the castle’s defenses back up?”

Black Lotus nodded and started barking orders. Unicorns ran about the room activating sigils and opening tomes. Twilight looked back at the three girls and shook her head. Sandy was crying, staring at what she thought was a giant cooked bird, while Smarty Pants and Honeycrisp were exchanging blows.

Curiously enough, sitting just a few feet away from them in a folding chair, was Discord. He was eating popcorn out of a bag.

“Discord? When did yo—“

“Shh!” Discord waved dismissively at the Goddess of Magic, “They’re getting to the good part.” He popped another kernel in his mouth and watched the ensuing chaos.

Smarty Pants grabbed her cousin’s tail in her mouth and flung the red unicorn into the air. Honeycrisp used it to her advantage and turned to come down with her right foreleg bent.

“Flying Elbow!” she shouted.

Just before she made contact with the back of Smarty Pants’ head, she was frozen in mid-air, wrapped in a purple aura. Smarty Pants started to laugh at the filly caught red-hooved, but then she found herself lifted up in a magical aura too. Sandy was too busy being sad to notice hers.

Twilight marched past them, muttering something about fillies, and the three girls bobbled in the air behind her. She reached the antechamber and shut the massive double doors to throne room. The girls came to rest on the ground and Twilight just stared at them.

“Sorry,” offered Smarty Pants.

“Yeah. Sorry,” parroted Honeycrisp.

Sandy just whimpered.

“First of all, Smarty Pants, I expect better from you.” The light-brown earthpony cringed at her mentor’s words.

“Secondly, Honeycrisp. A: Thank you for saving my life. B: We do not shout out wrestling moves in the throne room.”

“Finally, Sandy. If I had my way everypony would live forever. But that’s just now how life is. Be content knowing that Amatharex was an old and proud dragon. His soul will find its way into the deep places of the world to replenish his kind.”

Sandy had no idea what she was talking about, but she nodded anyway, feeling a little bit better. That’s when Smarty Pants sat up, almost jumping.

“Oh! Dragons! Princess, Luna and Cadence are awake, and they went to go fight the dragons. Also, there’s nopony else with them. Nope. Nopony at all.” Smarty Pants’ eyes twinkled and she clapped her hooves together excitedly.

“Okay…” said Twilight looking off into the city below.

A warm hum started up somewhere in the room behind them and a ball energy pushed itself out from the throne room, expanding as it moved. Canterlot Castle’s defensive barrier was back up. The four ponies walked over to a nearby window and looked down.

Far below they could hear the confused cries of demons as they were being pushed out of the castle in droves by the reactivated barrier. They beat against it, but it was built to stop their kind from gaining entry in the first place.

“Good, the barrier’s back up and the ponies in the shelters below will be okay,” Twilight said with a sigh.

“Well, that’s a relief,” said Discord right next to her, still munching on popcorn.

“GAH!” she jumped. Even after almost 500 years, she’d never gotten used to how he could just sneak up on her like that.

“Discord, where did you go?”

“What, am I not allowed to go to the bathroom?”

Twilight scrunched up her face and tried hard not to think the unstoppable train of thought that was careening through the back of her mind. “No I mean, why did you run off mumbling about birthday celebrations?”

“Oh! I made you a cake. What birthday celebration is complete without a cake?” Discord pointed a talon out the window down towards the gardens to the West.

Sure enough there was a giant cake with purple icing, just sitting on the castle grounds. It must have been at least ten feet around. Twilight was fairly certain there used to be a hedgewall there. In massive red letters, the cake read:

Happy 505th Birthday

Princess Tubelight Spa

“Déjà vu, again!” gasped Smarty Pants, her mane bobbing back and forth.

Twilight just stared at it until one of her eyes twitched.

“What? I washed my hands before I made it.”

Something inside Twilight Sparkle’s mind snapped. “That’s it! I’m out of here. I’m going to find Cadence and Luna and fight some dragons or whatever. You guys have fun with your cake.” And with that the frazzled Goddess of Magic poofed out of existence.

The three girls kept staring out the window at the largest cake any of them had ever seen, or probably would ever see in their entire lives.

“How many eggs did it take to make that?” asked Honeycrisp.

Sandy bit her lip and began to tremble at the mention of eggs.

“Dunno, firebug. I just snapped my fingers and there it was.”

She nodded. “So, should we head down there to eat it now, what?”

Discord smiled at the eager red unicorn and snapped a furry paw. “Oh don’t worry about that dear, I’ll just have it delivered.”

The three girls ‘oohed’ and ‘ahhed’ in wonder as the huge cake began to float up through the air towards the antechamber.

“Hay, wait a minute!” said Smarty Pants with a thought. “Can we get that to go?”

The summoning was complete. The Beacon of Order felt its consciousness leave Shining Armor and re-enter its own body at the center of the circle. Now the white unicorn stallion was just another in face in a sea of order.

On pale white hooves, the Beacon took its first steps into Canterlot. Once he exited the summoning circle, the light within it was spent. Thirty unicorns fell to the ground unconscious, their magic and stamina spent.

The Beacon looked much the same as it did back in the old Sun Tower deep in the Everfree Forest, but there was one notable exception. Where before it was all white and would stare ahead blankly, now there was an ominous intelligence in its red eyes.

With its red eyes, it looked up into the dull and dreary sky. The eclipse was complete. He looked back to the Listless bodies of the Solar and Lunar court unicorns and called them over with an unspoken command. It smiled a chilling, hollow smile. The forces of order would be victorious today.

It opened its mouth and a buzzing of flawless voices called out. “Begin the mass summoning ritual.” it said.

Every unicorn under the sway of order moved to stand along the edges of Canterlot’s Grand Central Plaza, where they would stand only a few feet part from each other. Where the last summoning to bring the Beacon to Canterlot took the combined magic of 30 unicorns, this next one would require hundreds.

It smiled again as it watched lights of many different hues from hundreds of horns shot out at once to pierce and carve the needed ritual circle in the stonework of the plaza. Once the ritual was done, there was nothing anypony could do to stop it. Not Sun or Moon or Icing.

The Beacon of Order’s plotting was interrupted when it discovered it was covered in red goop. It lifted a hoof and smelled it. Finally, it gave the substance a lick of confirmation.

Icing. The Beacon of Order looked back up into the sky and looked the purple cylindrical object flying overhead.

“Direct hit!” cheered Honeycrisp sitting at the back of the cake, behind her icing mortar.

“Take that, you jerk!” jeered Smarty Pants standing next to her and loading up another shot.

“I don’t like flying!” shrieked Sandy as she clung desperately to the misshapen pilot of their flying cake.

“I have to say Smarty Pants,” said Discord, adjusting his aviator sunglasses, “Your idea to fly around Canterlot on a cake and shoot icing at the bad guys, is probably the craziest idea I’ve heard in years.”

He looked at her over his shoulder and tipped his glasses down. “And I love it!”

Smarty Pants grinned proudly and gave Honeycrisp the signal to fire again.

An effort of will is all it took for the Beacon to be clean of the icing. And another to send a wave of converted pegasi to intercept them.

Honeycrisp was the first to spot them. “Uh, guys?”

Discord glanced in a side mirror and saw them. “Oh right, pegasi. I always forget about the flying ones.”

There must have been dozens of them. Discord thought recognized some of the faces from that miserable briefing earlier this afternoon, but really all mortals look the same to him. The girls hollered in panic as they continued to load and fire their icing mortor.

It was ultimately futile, since the pegasi could easily dodge their clumsy volleys. The draconequus pulled left and banked right, but he could not shake the seasoned fliers. He looped again over the Grand Central Plaza.

Sandy made a panicky noise and gripped Discord tighter. “More in front!”

He frowned at the pegasi that had split off the main group and were now heading right for them.

“Zig!” suggested Smarty Pants.

“Zag!” proposed Honeycrisp.

But the God of Chaos did neither. He looked down and saw the smug face of that featureless stupid nonpony and pushed the candlestick as far forward as it would go. The cake dove out of the air, stalling out and free falling. Discord gritted his teeth and ignored the girls’ terrified screams.

The last thing he saw before the crash was the big stupid grin on that bland stupid unicorn.

Princess Twilight walked briskly through the empty streets of her broken city. She’d just left the castle through its main entrance after stopping by her royal chambers to pick up a little something for the occasion. Namely, the six pieces of her royal war armor.

She began to hum a tune to match the rhythm of her hooves as they hit the ground. Her humming turned into words and her words became song. Twilight finished the first verse when a sinuous blue dragon slithered in front of her from an adjacent alleyway.

He cornered her and roared a chorus to Twilight’s song, singing of his own inevitable victory.

Twilight offered the dragon a smirk and her horn began to glow. There was a rumbling underhoof and the dragon’s eyes became pinpricks. A sewer main burst into life spraying water, sewage, and Celestia knows what else directly into the dragon’s underbelly. Twilight continued along her way as the defeated dragon was hurled high into the air.

A second dragon, old and grey, dropped out the sky in front of her. Twilight began the second verse of her song and was delighted to hear a new voice harmonizing with hers. She looked up and smiled as Cadence soared overhead.

The two Alicorns continued to sing in perfect harmony as they ducked and dodged the attacks of an increasingly frustrated dragon. Suddenly he slammed his cupped hands together over both Princesses and chuckled grimly. He squeezed his mighty claws around the two Princesses and sang the chorus.

When he felt no resistance within in his hands, he lowered his head and peeked in. That's when four back hooves, one pair pink and the other pair purple, bucked out and crashed into his chin. The old grey dragon teetered on his feet and fell on his back, unconscious. The two Princesses shared a breath and opened their mouths to start the next verse.

But instead a third voice rang out loud and true.

It was quickly joined by the staccato of massive feet scrambling over pavement. Cadence and Twilight turned as one and watched as Princess Luna burst into view. She was riding a red dragon. It was the same red dragon that almost fell on Twilight and the others when they teleported into the West Entrance.

Luna kicked her hooves against the dragon’s backside and he sped up as they approached a gathering of even more dragons blocking the way of the three Princesses.

The wryms stood in a spearhead formation. They were ten enormous drakes of various shapes and colors. They folded their arms, forbidding the Princesses from going any further into the heart of the city and sang the chorus as their just as kin had done before.

Princess Luna didn’t care much for their words. Reins in hoof, she urged her mount to run faster. Then the Moon Goddess unfurled her wings and gave the yelping beast one final kick. He tripped as he ran and tumbled forward.

The red dragon bowled into his ten brothers, knocking them all down.

Luna, Cadence, and Twilight broke into the final verse as they marched beyond the bridge. It was then that Twilight heard another voice up ahead. It was a beautiful voice. A familiar voice.

She ran ahead, leaving the other two Princesses to trot along and share a knowing smile.

Her heart pounded in her chest as she ran and she flapped her wings as she went, forgetting she could fly in her eagerness to get up the hill faster. She reached the top of the hill and stopped. Princess Twilight stood slack jawed at the sight before her.

It was Princess Celestia.

The immortal Sun Goddess stood on top of a towering pyramid of unconscious dragons. The yellow one on the very top began to stir but she stomped a dainty hoof and he was still once more. She turned around and their eyes met.

Celestia sang the rest of the verse to Twilight. She sang of joyful reunions and of many cakes still to be eaten. It was wonderful.

There was a poof and Twilight materialized next to her Princess on top of the dragon pile. “Is this real?” she asked breathlessly.

“Very real.” Celestia replied with a nuzzle.

Before more could be said, Cadence and Luna landed next to them on the yellow dragon at the top of the pile. Princess Luna began to sing the final chorus. It was still a refrain of victory, like the one sung by the dragons, but it different.

Instead of brash and vindictive, it was honest and assuring. They would win because they had to win. The other three royal sisters took up the song and Celestia pointed a hoof towards the gathering lights in the Grand Central Plaza.

The Victory March of the Four Alicorns came to an end, and they flew off towards the final confrontation.

They landed and Twilight saw that the Beacon standing before a wall of corrupted ponies. All around them, standing in a circular formation at the edge of the Grande Central Plaza, were the hundreds of unicorns that made up the Solar and Lunar courts. Twilight recognized that she was standing in a ritual circle, but for what she didn’t know.

She had a bad feeling about this.

Disinterestedly, the Beacon clapped its hooves together and six ponies stepped forward from the emotionless throng behind it. Each of the six looked slightly pale and stared ahead with glassy eyes. Cadence gasped and Luna growled. Celestia twitched but her face returned to cautious neutrality. Twilight swallowed a lump in her throat.

At one end of the line was Ruby Star and Spellbound, Luna’s subordinates. After those two stood Shining Armor, Cadence’s beloved. And at the end of the line were the three girls Smarty Pants, Sandy, and Honeycrisp, who were precious beyond words to both Twilight and Celestia.

All six of them motionless and mumbling about order. All six of them corrupted. Silently, Shining Armor's body jerked forward, standing just ahead of the rest.

"Take one more step," threatened the Beacon, "and I will kill him."

Author's Note

The beginning of the end. I wanted to publish this, part 2, and part 3 at the same time, but time makes fools of us all.

Part 2 and Part 3 come soon! Before Saturday at 7am EST, soon. I hope you're looking forward to it, I know I am!

The End - Part 2

“You’re bluffing.”

The Beacon looked away from studying Princess Twilight and stared into Princess Luna, unblinkingly. “Try me.”

Luna raised a hoof to step forward, but Cadence’s left wing sprang open and held the Moon Goddess at bay and shook her head. She remembered what it was like being under the Beacon’s control. “It’s not bluffing Luna. Please do what the Beacon says,” she begged.

Luna, moved by the hurt she saw in Cadence’s face, lowered her hoof.

The Beacon praised Luna disdainfully, “Very good, witch, very good indeed.” It took a bold step forward and moved past its six converted bargaining chips. He continued his monologue.

“I must admit, it surprised me to no end when the Moon appeared in Cloudsdale. Princess Cadence was the first out of thousands that even knew that the Sun and Moon even existed. I assumed you had sacrificed yourselves long ago, defeating some lesser evil.”

“Lesser evil?” Luna snorted and twin blasts of hot air billowed out of her nostrils at the approaching white construct.

“Of course. Surely there can be no greater evil than Discord.” It walked in front of Celestia and came to a stop and smiled at her. “After all, the Sun would not have bothered with creating the ultimate weapon if she did not intend it to fight the ultimate enemy.”

“You’re right. I did create the ultimate weapon,” said Celestia diplomatically, “but Discord has changed. He’s no longer the enemy. He—”

She was silenced by a featureless white hoof smacking her across the face. “He is the enemy! Still! Even now, he plots to throw this world into chaos. If you don’t believe me…” The Beacon turned to the side and pointed into the crowd. “See for yourself.”

There was a sudden rumbling and Twilight looked away from the Beacon for just a moment to see what it was pointing at. Her stomach fell out from under her and she felt her rump hit the cold ground.

Through the center of the ranks rose a white crystal obelisk. Discord was skewered half way up it, impaled through the chest.

“Discord!”

The barely lucid draconequus gripped the obelisk with his right paw and pulled himself up as best he could to look at the row of Princesses.

“Oh. Hi, Sparkplug,” he said in a daze. “I see you found Celestia. That’s nice.”

The obelisk flashed red and Discord roared in pain. He grasped the crystal that pierced his body and pulled against it ineffectually. When it stopped, he went limp again. He didn’t struggle again, opting instead to breathe heavily and stare up at the eclipse for a while.

“What… What happened?” asked Twilight.

“Well, you know.” He said while flopping an arm around willy-nilly, “I could have zigged. I could have zagged, but instead I went down.”

“You went down?” she asked, a puzzled look on her face.

“Yeah, dove down. In hindsight it probably wasn’t the best pla—“

The red light filled the plaza again, and again Discord screamed in pain. Twilight took a step forward, desperate to save the God of Chaos from his fate. Only to realize her mistake a moment too late.

“Twilight, no!” cried Cadence.

The Beacon shouted at the four ponies “Looks like somepony doesn’t know how to listen!”

Twilight stood rigid in place and turned her head to watch her brother. Shining Armor was standing perfectly still. He wasn’t breathing. His face turned blue and he fell over.

“Shining!”

The Beacon looked at the visibly shaken Cadence. It watched her curiously as she fought against the primal urge to save her mate. It knew the turmoil that would be raging inside of her.

“Why don’t you run to him?” The Beacon asked.

“Be… Because you’ll kill him.”

The Beacon scoffed. “He’s already dying. I’ve done my part.” It turned away from her and waved a hoof dismissively “Save him, if you can.”

Cadence shot Celestia a pleading look, and the white Alicorn nodded once. They knew the danger of separating. They both accepted the risk.

Cadence ran to her fallen husband and scooped him up. His heart wasn’t beating. She hugged him to her chest and looked at her royal sisters one last time.

“I’m sorry,” she said before vanishing with Shining Armor.

“And then there were three.” Scoffed the Beacon, its myriad of voices jeering and taunting as it spoke. “Tell me, what made you think that I—“

“NO MORE TALK!” Boomed the Moon Goddess. Quick as an arrow, she bolted from where she stood and hit the Beacon square in the jaw. It fell to the ground with a crunch, sprawled out on its side.

Luna charged forward to strike again, but the Beacon’s horn was already glowing a deep red. She was suddenly grabbed by a score of crystal coils that shot out of the ground beneath her. They wrapped around her limbs and forced her into a sitting position. She screamed in righteous indignation and pushed energy into her horn.

When she released it, she reeled back from an immediate and severe pain that raced up and down her spine. A metallic pop met her ears. Silent moments passed, but when Luna was able to focus her eyes again she looked up at her forehead and cursed.

She saw that her horn was in a crystal cage of it’s own. “You dare imprison the Moon? Release me!”

“What’s the matter? You don’t like being trapped, witch?” It said as it stood back up and rubbed its jaw. “Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll be out before you break your old record on the Moon. But only just.” It added, snidely.

Luna growled.

“Did I hit a nerve? You really need to let go. Obsession’s not healthy.”

Luna screamed and writhed all the more. She was desperate to rip the Beacon in half with her own hooves. But to her dismay she found that with each pull and grunt, the crystal only tightened its grip.

“Oh, I wouldn’t struggle. I think you’ll find that I’ve vastly improved upon the spell that Empress Rarity used in Cloudsdale.”

She ignored him and continued to rail against the crystal’s ever-tightening grip. Finally, when she could take no more and she became still. Her growl became a frown and her frown became a whimper.

Celestia could take no more. All hope of a diplomatic solution were gone. This was not the cure for chaos. It was a disease all its own. There would be no more negotiations.

The Sun Goddess charged to her sister’s aid, running past Twilight and melting cobblestone beneath her hooves as she went. In her eyes were a supernova sunrise. High in the sky above, the sun burned brightly behind the moon.

The life giving orb exploded with a sister’s fury. The solar winds boiled in her outrage. Her horn glowed with power and she unleashed the full force of a creator scorned upon her failed creation.

There was a soft pop, and Celestia crumpled to the ground, skidding to a halt. Her horn was also sheathed in crystal.

“You Princesses are so predictable,” sighed the Beacon of Order, walking over to Celestia. “You created me to adapt to chaos, remember? Dealing with you and your sisters is foal’s play by comparison.” He gave her a playful kick in the face.

As Celestia regained awareness, she found that that she was being wrapped in crystal coils like her sister before her. She struggled at first too, but stopped when the pressure became too much for her to bear.

“Do you know what your downfall was?” the Beacon asked her coyly, “It was your compassion. Compassion for friends. Compassion for family… Compassion for me. You ponies are full-to-bursting with compassion.”

It took a step back and spun in a slow circle. “Look around you. Look how I defeated you. It wasn’t my skills that did this. It wasn’t my strength. It was your weakness.”

It glanced at Twilight who was shaking with rage. “You. I have almost to thank you for as I do the Sun. You gave me all the time I needed to get where I am now. What with all your emergency planning and fooling around in Cloudsdale.”

It chuckled before continuing “You with your precious castle defenses. At any point before I arrived in Canterlot, you could have stopped me. You could have teleported to me across the ley lines and smashed me into a million tiny pieces. But you didn’t.”

The Beacon smiled at her innocently. “I wonder… Why didn’t you?”

“You’re wrong,” said Twilight. “I did everything in my power to stop you and—“

“And what? Look for your precious teacher?” You knew what Smarty Pants was going to do when you sent her to that sleepover yesterday. You knew that she was going to sneak into the Everfree Forest and look for the perfect gift for her perfect teacher.”

“What? No, I—“

“Tsk Tsk, Princess. Nopony likes a liar.”

As the Beacon spoke the royal librarian, Lily Pages, converted to the cause of Order, stepped forward from the crowd. The Beacon pointed a hoof at her. “You told Mrs. Pages here to stick a copy of the blueprints to the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters in Smarty Pants’ saddlebags last week.”

“Lily! She’s supposed to be in—“

“In the emergency shelters? I’m afraid that when the evacuation notice went out, she went home to save some of her rare books. She was quite the little co-conspirator, was she not?”

“You don’t understand!”

“Oh I understand. And once you found out that the girls discovered me, you started playing it safe. Evacuating ponies, contacting parents, eating breakfast, that sort of thing. After all, what else would get a compassionate goddess to come out of hiding like a… what would you call it? A doozy of a catastrophe?”

“Twilight? Is this true?” asked Celestia, her ears pinned back and the hurt apparent in her face.

“It’s not like that! The Beacon is twisting the truth. Sure, I wanted you both back but not like this! Do you think I wanted the girls to go into the Everfree forest? They could have been killed!” she said gesturing at the three corrupted girls standing in front of her.

“Then why in the Creator’s name did you tell the librarian to slip the castle blueprints in Smarty Pants’ saddlebags?” pondered the Beacon, whimsically.

The plaza filled with red light again, and Discord screamed. Twilight snorted the acrid scent of burnt hair out of her nose.

“Because I did want her to go, eventually! When she was old enough. Wise enough. When I was sure she was ready explore the world and find its secrets.”

“You played a dangerous game, Twilight Sparkle,” said Luna without daring to move.

“Don’t treat me like a child, Luna.” Twilight snapped at the Moon Goddess.

Luna snorted at Twilight's remark. "Ah forgive me. I forgot you were also a goddess. What with all this foolishness. Did we not entrust you and Cadence with the care of Equestria and all of our little ponies? You have suffered your duty to play at senator and teacher"

"Oh, you left all right," growled Twilight, the old repressed angers now coming to a head. "You and Celestia both left, without warning. You left everything for us to take care of. You raised us up to be your equals and then left! How’s that for friendship and sisterhood?"

“It wasn't that easy!" shouted Luna.

"I KNOW! I WAS THERE!" yelled the Goddess of Magic.

"Twilight, Luna, please," said Celestia, offering a temporary truce. “Yes, we have much to discuss, but arguing right now isn't going to help anypony.”

Twilight begrudgingly looked at her old mentor. “I needed you. Equestria needs you. Every morning the Solar Court taps into my magic to help raise the sun. And every night the Lunar Court does the same to raise the moon. Do you know what that kind of drain that is, every day, twice a day, for 450 years?”

“I do,” said Celestia, remembering the long millennium of her sister’s banishment. Then she turned her head away from her former student and closed her eyes. She muttered something under her breath.

“What was that? I didn’t hear that,” said the Beacon giddily as it pranced over. It leaned in and gave its Creator its undivided attention.

She whispered in it’s ear, and the Beacon’s eyes went wide at the words.

“N-no!” it gasped as it smacked its creator across the face before teleporting away to the other side Canterlot’s Grand Central Plaza.

Luna shouted out her part of the spell that would end the Beacon’s threat, but her voice was lost in the thundering hundreds of other voices. Each one was shouting gibberish as loudly as the Beacon could will them to. Once the Beacon’s head stopped ringing, the shouting stopped too. It looked up and saw Princess Twilight trying to melt away the crystal of the Sun’s prison.

“No, no, don’t do that,” it chided as the three girls took a few lurching steps forward. “Otherwise who knows what will happen to these precious little angels of yours?”

Twilight stopped and took a step back. The crystal she managed to time-melt away reformed, securing the Sun Goddess in her prison once more.

“Don’t hurt them,” she begged. “Please, just tell me what you want.”

“What I want?” it laughed cruelly, “I am a weapon of Order, designed and perfected to defeat the God of Chaos.”

It walked past the groaning Discord and back to them as it continued. “But, once I complete my task? Once it’s all over? I’ll go inert and be no more. But that’s not really fair for a conquering hero now, is it?”

It sneered at Celestia before continuing “Surely this was just an oversight on the part of the Creator. After all, why should I have to stop existing after stopping Discord? What if there’s another threat long after I’m gone?”

“Discord is not a threat!” shouted Celestia. “How many times must we tell you?”

The Beacon scoffed “Well of course he’s not a threat, now. I mean, look at him.” A wall of red light reflected off the surrounding corrupted ponies and Discord roared in agony once more. His limbs flailed uselessly against the burning rock that pierced his body.

The Beacon chuckled at the grim sight and then turned back to the Sun. “Seriously though, I’m going to kill him. But not yet. Not until I have the power I need to overcome the termination runes you so carelessly carved into my cortex.”

It pointed at a distraught Twilight Sparkle. “More to the point, her power.”

Twilight lowered her head and snarled as her wings flaring out to their full extension. “What makes you think I’ll give you my magic?”

The Beacon’s white horn began to glow and it arched an eyebrow at the Goddess of Magic. “What makes you think I’ll ask?”

The weathered stone beneath Twilight's hooves began to shimmer with magical light of every hue. All the unicorns that lined the edge of the Grand Central Plaza stood there, pouring magic into the recently carved pavement. Her gaze spun from side to side, tracing the runes as they lit up.

“It’s a summoning circle” She said absentmindedly.

Twilight watched the magic surge towards the center of the plaza where Discord was impaled. “But what are yo—“

The light reached the tortured draconequus and it changed from a prism of colors to a solid red. Discord screamed again, but then went limp. There was a flash of light, and the world around Twilight was filled with fog.

And voices. So many voices.

Twilight pushed more of power into her mental shielding, but it was too much. So many voices, so many calls to Order. To obey and become part of something greater. She stumbled on her hooves and fell to her knees.

The Goddess of Magic let out a pained squeak as she pushed against the clamoring in her head with all of her strength. She would not submit. She would not yield. It would not end like this.

She suddenly felt a hard skinless hoof tap her shoulder and she looked up. It was the Beacon of Order. It was smiling at her sympathetically.

“You are a very impressive pony, Princess Twilight.” the Beacon shouted over the tremendous din. “But you can’t win.”

“I… I won’t give up!” she said through clenched teeth as she staggered to her hooves.

“I’ve learned a great deal about you, Princess. Would you like to learn the two most important lessons I learned? The first was that I could not rely on Memetic Harmonization to defeat you.”

Twilight said nothing, but swung a hoof weakly at the Beacon, fighting against the ever-growing urge to join his ranks. It connected with a tap, and the Beacon just shook its head sadly.

“Did you think that I didn’t see you through the eyes of my converted ponies? See you studying them and the effects of your magic?”

She ignored him, choosing instead to try and walk over to Celestia and Luna. The two sisters sat in their twisted cages with their eyes shut tight and their ears pinned back, trying desperately to hold on to their sanity.
“Look how far the mighty have fallen,” he quipped as he walked next to her. “The second thing I learned was that it took very little effort for you block out the Call to Order from a hundred ponies. But what about a thousand? What about ten thousand? What about… The combined voices of everypony converted?”

Giggling, the Beacon stood up on one of its hind legs and spun in a circle. “Look around you, Princess! Pierce the veil of this world and see the truth. Look at all your little ponies. Well… my little ponies now. Aren’t they wonderful?” it asked dreamily.

Twilight fought against the Beacon’s influence, but the suggestion to know the truth and her natural curiosity got the better of her. She opened her sixth sense and her consciousness fled into the magical realm beyond Equestria.

It was worse than she could have imagined. The plaza and the city beyond were filled with corrupted ponies, teleported here from all over Equestria. Her mind boggled at the density of magical signatures within Canterlot, she couldn’t tell where one pony ended another began.

She didn’t have long to stare before something hit her. It was a white tendril. One of many. Laced with red energy, the tendrils lashed out randomly all across the tides. She winced as a second tendril, sprouting from the convergence of two nearby ley lines, touched her. Then another.

With each touch, she felt her mental barrier shrink. She ducked and dove around each one as best she could, but they would catch her inevitably. Even here her stamina was not infinite. The voices got louder and more insistent with each passing moment.

Maybe she should just quit. What was the worst that could happen? Equestria had a good run with harmony, maybe it was Order’s time to shine? No.

She observed that the tendrils stayed on the surface of the tides, not dipping below for reasons unknown. She willed herself down into the tide to limit the tendril’s attack vector. They didn’t seem to like that.

Submerged with only her head above the surface as she was, Twilight felt helpless as the tendrils flailed and thrashed about, sending waves of magic crashing down on her. She fought against them and struggled to stay afloat. Another wave pulled at her and she began to sink, her strength fleeing from her ethereal body. That was when she remembered something Discord said..

I could have zigged. I could have zagged, but instead I went down.

She closed her senses as best she could to the physical world and then she let herself sink below the surface.

She fought the urge to hold her breath, knowing that there was nothing to breathe here anyway. The fact that she was still able to breathe meant that her body was probably unharmed and standing where she left it in Canterlot. It wasn’t much of a consolation prize, but she wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

She pushed deeper. Deeper than she’d ever gone before. The farther she sank, the quieter her mind became. Before long there was only one voice in her head.

She rolled over onto her back as her dive continued. She couldn’t see the angry waves of the surface or any of the red laced tendrils that marred it. She could think for herself again, and smiled at that fact. But her smile quickly faded when she realized what she’d done.

Twilight Sparkle had forsaken the world for the sake of her own sanity. She had abandoned her friends, her most faithful student, and everypony else. Now there was only her and the growing darkness around her.

Soon the Goddess of Magic was unable to sense anything. Her equilibrium left her like she left Equestria. She knew up from down, but she knew that she was being pulled towards some unseen terminus.

Soon the pulling stopped and the back of her wings touched a soft mushy surface. Turning so her hooves touched the substance instead, she pressed in and felt something hard and flat a few inches beneath the murky top layer.

She walked forward into the blackness, but there was nothing to be found. She looked in every direction, but there was nothing to see. She reached out with her heart, but there was nothing to feel.

There was nothing.

It was the end of everything. She fled, and in doing so, she damned the world to wither and die. The Goddess of Magic had escaped so far within herself and the false safety of this magical realm that she feared she would be lost forever.

“Help.” she whispered to the echoing abyss.

Nothing answered back. And that’s when the full weight of what she had done fell upon her. She cried in her despair.
It was not a single resolute tear, but a rain of sorrow. Her eyes burned and her voice croaked with each and every sob. Twilight Sparkle, alone and at the bottom of an ocean beyond the edges her own doomed world, sang a song.

It was a song of loss, bittersweet remembrance, and the anguish that came from trying your best and still losing. Every word she sang was carved onto the surface of her heart.

Her mind’s eye was flooded with visions of the victories won through careful planning, deliberate action, and her faith in others. What went wrong this time? Why didn’t they win?

Then she remembered Smarty Pants standing there in the plaza. Her dull eyes looked straight ahead. How she’d never blossom into the wonderful mare Twilight knew she was meant to be. She was only a child.

Her requiem ended, and Princess Twilight knew the wretchedness of having everything only to lose it all. Twilight Sparkle was defeated. She opened her eyes and dreaded the eternity to come. There was nothing but darkness.

Well, almost nothing.

The End - Part 3

Twilight blinked away her tears and sniffed, wiping her muzzle with a forelimb. All around her was unending blackness, except for right in front of her. It was something else entirely. It was a magenta blob, nebulous in shape, but it danced playfully in front of her.

She couldn’t help but chuckle at the little thing. So she did, shaking loose the last of her tears as it rolled down her cheek and dropped from her face. But instead of falling to the mushy ground, it fell sideways at an angle.

Then, with a ripple, it blipped into the pinkish red solution that was bobbing and weaving in front of her. She marveled at the apple sized orb and she reached out to touch it. The edge of her hoof felt warmer the closer it got to it. Right before she was about to make contact, it made a tiny bell-like sound and it did a little loop-de-loop.

It finished the loop by jumping into her waiting hoof and her senses were flooded with light. Twilight Sparkle’s burden, great as it was, was lifted off of her shoulders and she found herself filled with hope. Hope for the future. Hope for Equestria.

Her life flashed before her eyes again, but this time instead of regret and sorrow there was encouragement and joy. She remembered the reassurances of her parents before she took that fateful entrance exam for Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. How they promised her that no matter what they would always be there for her.

She remembered making five of the best friends any girl could hope for and how they were always there for her, just like she was for them. Twilight Sparkle remembered becoming a Princess and the promise she made to not let anypony down. She remembered the promise her little Smarty Pants made her with that one fateful hug the night she got her cutie mark.

Twilight Sparkle shook away the last of her gloom and stood up on three legs, still reveling in the warmth of the other. She had a world to save. Something tingled in her warmed hoof, and she looked down.

What she saw made fresh tears come to her eyes. Not tears of sadness or melancholy, but tears of joy. She could have cried, but she chose to laugh instead.

It was a gilded tiara, studded with sapphires and crowned with a six-sided magenta star. It was Magic; her Element of Harmony. And it had come in her darkest hour.

Her wings fluttered softly, as she raised the tiara up and placed it on her head. She grinned widely as she felt its warmth spread from tip to tail. She felt like she had opened her eyes a second time and it’s soft red light flowed all the way up to the surface. She couldn’t really see that far, she just knew, somehow.

Princess Twilight could feel the tides of magic and the ley lines of Equestria as if they were her own. She could no longer tell where her magic began and the tides ended. It was all a tangle of whispers and sighs. With a thought, she willed the tides be still, and they obeyed.

With another force of will, she pushed away the grime and muck that collected around her hooves. Like a musty old carpet, it rolled away from her in all directions, revealing a mirror smooth surface beneath. She looked down at her reflection and laughed again.

She was a right mess, her ethereal hair bandied about in the still tides, collecting where and how it pleased. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying, but she didn’t mind. Atop her head sat her long lost Element of Harmony, and maybe that would be enough to save the day.

She looked up and felt the distance between her and the surface. It was a long way. She extended her wings and gave them a solid flap. Nothing happened. Whatever had pulled her down here didn’t seem keen on letting go.

The magenta light faded slightly as her newly found hope began to dwindle. That’s when she heard the sound of hooves approaching from behind her.

“Need a leg up, Twi?” said a voice.

The Princess spun around and nearly fell over from shock.

“Applejack?” she said, not believing her own eyes.

The country mare just smiled at her in the cocksure way that only she could manage. “The one and only! Now let’s see about gettin’ you up on outta here.”

The farm pony adjusted her hat and took a step forward. Twilight galloped over the two ponies embraced.

“I missed you.”

“I missed you too, Sugarcube.”

Their hug lasted a little while longer before Twilight released her grip.

Twilight had so much to ask her. There was so much she wanted to know. How did she get here? What was it like on The Other Side? Were there any Alicorns? Her mind raced a mile a minute but she stood there in silence, watching her friend as she stretched.

“Now,” Applejack said while popping up from touching her back hooves, “I can’t buck you all the way up to the top, but don’t worry. That’s what the others are here for.

“Others?” asked Twilight, looking this way and that.

Applejack grinned at her “You’ll see,” she said as she turned around and tapped her back hooves on the ground one at a time.

“Okay, we’re ready. All you gotta do is put your back hooves on mine and aim yerself up.”

“Are you sure?”

“Trust me.”

It was all that was needed to be said. Princess Twilight put herself in the right position. Then she stared straight up and spread her wings.

“Okay, countin’ down from three. Three…”

“Is that three, two, one, pause, then go? Or is that three, two, one, go?”

“Two…”

“Wait, you didn’t answer my question! Which is it? Applejack, I need to know!”

“Dang Twi, you’re ornerier than Honeycrisp.”

“Wait, how do you know Honeycriiiiiiisp!“ shrieked Twilight as she was flung up through the tides..

As she rose higher and higher she remembered to flap her wings. So she did. They didn’t do a whole lot, but she felt like it was helping. She flapped as hard as she could, but she was just barely beating the pull of whatever was trying to keep her down.

That was when she felt a pair of canary yellow forearms wrap around her waist. They locked around her barrel and she felt like she was finally gaining some real height. She looked over her shoulder and couldn’t help but beam.

Fluttershy was flapping her soft yellow wings as hard as she could; her face set in steely determination.

“Fluttershy!”

The demure mare made eye contact with her old friend and smiled softly. “Hello Twilight. It’s nice to see you again.”

“Did you come here with Applejack?”

Fluttershy nodded and then set her eyes back towards the surface, her wings beating frantically. Twilight took the hint and did the same. Their speed increased and soon Twilight felt her equilibrium return to normal. She knew which way was up again, without having to look.

For just a moment she turned her long slender neck to look at Fluttershy again. The determination was still on her face, but so was that smile.

They flapped for another minute rising as fast as the two could manage. Then Fluttershy broke the silence. “Okay, that’s as far as I go. I’ll see you later, Twilight.”

“I miss you, Fluttershy,” said Twilight, not knowing when she’d have the opportunity again.

“I miss you too, Twilight. Big Mac says hi, by the way. Actually, he said ‘Eeyup’, but you know what he means.”

Twilight laughed, and wiped a happy tear from her eye. “Tell him I said ‘Eeyup’ back.”

“I will. Give my love to Rarity and Sandy, won’t you?”

“I wi-wait. Hang on. How do you know Sandy?” Twilight looked back at where Fluttershy had been, but there was only empty air.

The pouty purple pony crossed her forelegs and harrumphed mightily as she continued to rise, flapping all the way. Again the strange force pulled down at her and she flapped and flapped. With every foot of elevation, she felt her strength begin to sap out of her.

Something from beneath touched her hooves and she looked down. It was the snout of a massive alligator. She screamed like a little filly and tried very hard not to wet herself.

The alligator blinked its left eye first and then the right, but did not appear interested in eating her. Good thing too, because the beast looked like it could swallow her whole. Instead it was swimming straight up, propelling itself with its huge scaly tail. The monster must have been nearly twenty feet long.

She felt a weight come to rest on her head and something tickled the back of her neck as it swished this way and that.

“I dunno Gummy, she’s supposed to be around here somewhere,” said the weight on her head.

Twilight looked up at the underbelly and chin of her silliest friend. “Pinkie?” she asked incredulously “What are you doing?”

Pinkie Pie looked down at her friend. “Oh hiya Twilight! I’m looking for a Tubelight Spackle. Today’s her birthday and I got her a present!”

She looked back up surveying the horizon all around her with her head on a swivel. “Do you know anypony by that name?”

“Pinkie…” said Twilight as she shook her head. “No, just… Get down here.”

The pink mare hopped off of her head and sat right next to her on Gummy’s snout. “Yes, Twilight?”

Twilight pointed at herself with a hoof. Then two hooves. Then started gesturing wildly, tapping herself in the chest.

Pinkie’s face scrunched up in thought and she rubbed her pink fuzzy chin. “Hmm. Are...”

“Yes?” nodded Twilight encouragingly.

“Are you…”

Yes! Come on, that’s it.”

“Are you sure you haven’t seen her?”

“Pinkie it’s me! I’m Tubelight Spackle!”

Pinkie Pie leaped up and grabbed her face in shock, her eyes wide with realization. “That was entirely unexpected!” she shouted. “Who would guess that a Princess would be hiding under a fake name, living a fake life?!”

“No, Pinkie, I wasn’t… Gah,” she groaned.

Before Twilight could say anything else, a chocolate cake was thrust in front of her face.

“Happy Birthday!” giggled the pink party pony.

Twilight smiled warmly. “Aw, thanks, Pinkie. I needed this. It’s been a tough day.”

She turned the cake around in her hooves and noticed that a slice was missing. She raised an eyebrow.

“What? Do you have any idea how hard it is to get really, truly, sinfully good chocolate frosting in the Elysian Fields?” she said licking her lips and staring at her own creation. “Momma needed a little taste.”

Twilight laughed a good natured laugh. She put the cake down on Gummy and hugged her old friend. “I missed you, Pinkie Pie.”

Pinkie Pie hugged her back. “I missed you too, Twilight.”

When their hug came to an end Twilight picked her cake back up and smiled at it.

Pinkie Pie took a deep breath to steady her emotions. “I’m not going to cry… I’m not going to cry…” she repeated to herself as she flapped her forelegs about in the air.

“This is our stop, Gummy,” she said to her pet Alligator, with just a hint of bittersweetness. “Goodbye Twilight. Oh, and say hi to—“

“Smarty Pants?”

Pinkie Pie guffawed, “How’d you guess?”

“Process of elimination, my dear Pinkie Pie.”

Pinkie reached up and nuzzled her old Alicorn friend one last time before climbing down to sit on the ridge between Gummy’s eyes.

“Prepare to fire, Mr. Gummy!”

“Wait, what?”

Gummy blinked, but otherwise didn’t move.

“Fire!” commanded the pink earthpony, jamming her hoof up towards the surface.

The alligator performed a rapid 180 degree turn and smashed his tail into the dumbfounded backside of Twilight Sparkle, Goddess of Magic.

She rose towards the surface like an arrow, the force that tried for so long to pull her down was forever broken, and she ascended laughing and screaming in equal measure. At some point the cake she’d been given had fallen out of her hooves and sank back down, lost in the magenta depths.

Her wings were flapping, and with each flap she felt lighter and more secure in the path she’d chosen. She knew that she’d beat the Beacon of Order. And if she didn’t then she’d try again. And again, until Equestria was safe once more.

She wore her fiercest grin and rocketed upwards.

“Geez, took you long enough to get up here, Twilight. Oh well, at least I don’t have to carry you like Fluttershy.”

Twilight lowered her gaze and looked straight ahead. There, flapping her wings just as quickly as the Alicorn, was Equestria’s fastest flyer. It was Rainbow Dash.

She had her forehooves resting behind her head and her back legs crossed. She was leaning back like she was sitting in a hammock. Eyes closed, she stifled a yawn.

The rainbow maned pony opened one eye to see her reaction. Twilight shook her head with a smile.

“You been practicing like I told ya?” asked Rainbow, settling into a more natural flying position.

“I’m a little rusty,” said Twilight with a blush.

The cyan pony snorted “Yeah I can see that. So… Wanna race?”

Twilight arched an eyebrow at her. “Do I want to race? I want to get back to my body as fast as I possibly can so I can try and save Equestria from a fate worse than death... followed by death.”

“Uh huh, are we going to race or not?” scowled history’s most famous Wonderbolt.

Princess Twilight sighed. “Okay, we’ll race. On three, ready?”

“One…”

Rainbow Dash put a hoof on Twilight’s chest, “Wait a sec, Is that one, two, three, then go?”

“When is it not?” puzzled Twilight.

“Okay cool, cool. It’s just that Applejack is always changing it up, and it throws me off.”

Twilight nodded, understandingly, and started counting again.

“One… Two… Three!”

Twilight flapped with all her might, but Rainbow Dash was right there with her. They traded first place back and forth like it was an ugly sweater on Hearth’s Warming Eve.

Soon the surface was in sight, their silently agreed upon finish line. Twilight pushed and pushed, willing every ounce of her strength into the race. She strained and strained, extended her long neck as far as it would go.

Rainbow Dash beat her by thirteen seconds anyway. Even after Princess Twilight broke through the surface, she kept going. She looked around herself, expecting to see more those awful tendrils, but they were gone.

“Good race!” shouted Rainbow Dash from where she hovered just above the tides. Twilight nodded back, but kept flying up and away towards her body. She was a Princess on a mission.

Still watching her old friend, Rainbow Dash waited until the Alicorn was out of earshot before she whispered to herself, “I miss you, Twilight.”

The Goddess of Magic continued on her meteoric rise, willing herself back into her body. But nothing happened. She’d never gone so deep before and now she couldn’t feel her way back. She would have panicked as she flew higher into the void, but the voices started to pepper her mind once more.

But this time it was different. She could hear through their demands to join the ranks of order to the truth of their call. She heard their pleas.

“Save us,” they begged.

“Help us,” they cried.

It fueled her determination.

She pushed again, straining with all her effort and the magenta light of her Element began to bend behind her. As she flew up, she saw the barrier that stood between the physical and magical realms. She wondered at its immense size, spanning from horizon to horizon.

She frowned but flew on. She knew there had to be a way through. She heard that bell-like tingle again from below her. The same one she heard when she first discovered her Element of Harmony at the bottom of the tides.

Flying in formation with her were four colorful blobs. She didn’t know what to think of that, so Twilight turned her attention back to the rapidly approaching barrier for now. Out of the corner of her eye she caught movement.

It was a ripple in the barrier. A ripple with a white hoof sticking out of it. Twilight banked and four blobs followed. She slowed to a hover in front of the hoof and gripped it with one of her own. She gasped at how cold it was, but she was unable to dwell on it any further before it pulled her through.

Rarity walked as gently as her hooves could carry her, careful not to wake the adorable little dragon sleeping on her back. The streets and buildings around her were in a dreadful state of disrepair. But such was the way of things whenever it was the End of the World.

She turned another corner and stood just beyond the edge of the Grand Central Plaza. Rarity peeked over the shoulder of the nearest corrupted unicorn and blinked in surprise. Then frowned in concern.

Apparently they found Celestia. Unfortunately she and Luna were stuck in crystalline cages. Like the one she used on Cadence. How uninspired. She was putting Princesses in crystalline cages before it was popular in Canterlot.

“I never get any recognition for being a trendsetter,” she sighed.

The unicorn ahead of her turned around and looked at her.

“Don’t mind me darling, I’m just talking to myself. As you were.”

The corrupted unicorn nodded mutely and turned back to his position.

She turned her attention back to the Princesses in the center of the plaza. She huffed and rolled her eyes as she watched the Beacon twist Twilight’s words and actions. Please, she thought to herself, that’s the oldest trick in the book, causing a schism between allies. It’ll never work.

She planted a hoof in her face when Luna turned on Twilight. They argued and bickered and Rarity just shook her head. She was just about to go over there and set the two old friends straight, but the unicorns around the circle began cast magic into the ground and it poured into channels carved throughout the plaza.

An instant later and Rarity was surrounded by ponies. Completely surrounded. Her head began to swim with a new mental attack and she instinctively donned her icy armor, retreating within herself.

No longer affected by their mental compulsions, Rarity wadded forward against the teeming mass of ponies.

“Pardon me— OH! Um, excuse me but could you— OOF! Terribly sorry but would you kindly— NOT THE HAIR!”

She pushed against the throng of ponies that were milling about like… clams in a fish barrel, or something. She was an Empress, not a poet. Eventually she reached the Princesses. They sat trapped in their cages with their heads hung low.

“Psst.”

Other than Celestia’s left ear wiggling, neither pony moved.

“Celestia,” hissed Rarity under her breath.

Still nothing. Maybe the voices she was able to tune out were louder than she thought. She walked in front of the Princess and tapped her face with a cold hoof. That got her attention. Celestia looked up and studied the bizarre crystal and ice covered unicorn with a hooked horn and blinked.

Rarity turned and pointed at the cutie mark on her armor, just below the soundly sleeping Spike. Realization splashed across the Sun Goddess’s face and she almost sprang up. She stopped herself before she did though, desperate not to draw attention to herself or her potential savior.

The former Element of Generosity whispered something in her ears and her eyes went wide. Celestia glanced nervously at the Beacon, but it wasn’t watching them. She nodded to Rarity.

The white unicorn motioned over to Luna and gave Celestia an encouraging smile before slinking over to the other cage. She too kept her eyes on the Beacon of Order as she moved. It was torturing Discord in some awful manner that involved fire and organizational charts.

Princess Luna saw the Empress just before she reached her, and the two exchanged a brief nuzzle. Rarity leaned in close and whispered in her ear, hoping it would be loud enough for Luna to hear it. She took a step back and waited for a response from Luna.

The Moon Goddess nodded.

Rarity focused almost all of her magical might into a single spell. Two half domes of pure crystal, white as could be, burst out the ground around Rarity and the Princesses. It slammed shut, sealing them within and cutting them off from influences of the outside world.

Rarity returned to her natural form and found that the voices outside were so muffled that they were almost silent. Gasping for breath from the spell that drained her so, her horn lit up again and she took control of the crystal coils that formed the two Alicorn cages.

Rarity was a long practiced seamstress, who also happened to be a unicorn. A unicorn partially fused with the living will of the Crystal Empire. This made her one of the foremost authorities on the magical properties of crystals in the first place.

It was such a trifling matter for her to free the two Princess that she did it as an afterthought while she walked over to Princess Twilight’s rigid body.

Princess Luna fell to the ground and began rubbing a swollen hoof, whimpering softly.

“Rarity!” cheered Celestia, running over. Thrilled to be free again in so many ways, she wrapped her old friend in a big hug. Spike fell off of her back, but nopony noticed. Not even Spike, who was snoring away happily on the ground.

“Hello Celestia. Or are you still going by Powder Puff?” The sly old mare asked with a raised eyebrow.

The Sun Goddess laughed, “I don’t know yet. I’ll tell you when I find out.”

Rarity released her friend and motioned towards the still immobile Twilight. “Does she know?”

“That I was Powder Puff? No.”

“I see. So… What happened to Twilight?”

“She went into the tides of magic, but she hasn’t come back up.”

Rarity blinked at Celestia, not understanding the words she said. “I-I’m sorry, I must not have heard you properly. She went into the what, exactly?”

Before anypony could say anything the ground shook and the crystal dome lit up with red, angry light. A loud WHUM accompanied the light show. Soon a small crack formed in the wall next where a wide-eyed Luna was testing her weight on a tender leg.

“Tia, we’re going to have company!”

Celestia nodded to her sister and looked back at Rarity. “You’ve heard of the ley lines, yes?”

Rarity nodded.

“Well the ley lines in our world originate from the tides. They act as a reservoir for magic. Where the barrier between the two realms is thin, magic flows from one to the other in the form of ley lines.”

“And Twilight’s just sort of…” Rarity trailed off rolling a hoof in front of her face, “Stuck inside?”

“More or less.”

A second bang hit the dome and the crack began to spiderweb. Luna limped over to her sister and growled at her. “Tia? As much as I love the idea of turning this into a teachable moment, do you think that maybe we could get out of here before I find myself praying for death AGAIN?”

Celestia walked over to her sister and nuzzled her. “Sorry Lulu. You’re right. Rarity, can you grab Twilight and we’ll teleport out of here?”

Rarity nodded and walked over to the purple Alicorn. “Twilight?” she asked in a sing-song voice, waving a hoof in front of her friend’s face, “Darling, can you hear me?”

There was no response.

“Come on now, come out of there,” she prodded Twilight in the chest, “We don’t have time for… For…”

Rarity screamed at the top of her lungs and trotted in place on three legs. Her face contorted in absolute terror. Celestia turned back to see what was the matter, and gasped.

Rarity’s hoof was stuck inside Twilight’s chest. The fur around where her hoof penetrated it rippled unnaturally. With each panicked motion her hoof sank deeper still.

She sniveled and stared at Celestia with big watery eyes. “Help meee,” she whined.

Celestia got behind Rarity and grabbed her by the flank and started to pull.

“Ah!” squeaked Rarity.

“What is it,” asked the Sun Goddess, “are you okay?”

“Yes, but your hooves are positively frigid.”

“Are you joking? You’re joking.”

“I am not,” Rarity said with a shiver.

“Aren’t you some kind of ice monster now?!”

“Yes but I’m also an Empress. I don’t let just anypony off the street grab my flank.”

“Anypony off the street? I’m the Sun Goddess!”

“Well then for goodness sakes, warm your hooves.”

Celestia rolled her eyes and pushed a sliver of heat into her forehooves before she started yanking again. She was thankful that she and Rarity were alone at the moment. If anypony saw them right now she’d probably die of embarrassme—

“Snnkk!” came a snicker from behind. She looked over her shoulder and glared at her sister. Bless her black soul, her face was all scrunched up in a desperate effort to stop herself from laughing.

“I think I’m almost out. Give me a good yank,” said Rarity absentmindedly.

Luna exploded into laughter. The Moon Goddess crumpled to the ground and beat her hooves against the cobblestones.

Rarity turned her head as best she could and looked over Celestia’s shoulder. “Is she quite alright?”

Celestia looked back at Rarity and shook her head. “She’s damaged, but don’t worry, she’s always been that way.”

Rarity shrugged and moved back into position. “Okay I think I’ve figured this out. On the count of three I want you grab me and really tug me like there’s no tomorrow.”

Luna’s laughter rose to new heights and tears streamed down her face. “Stop it, stop it, I’m dying.” She asked gripping her diaphragm. “I can’t… I can’t breathe.”

Rarity rolled her eyes and tried to focus. “Okay. Here we go. One. Two. ThreeeeESOMETHING TOUCHED ME!”

The Sun Goddess pulled Rarity back from Twilight as hard as she possibly could. With detached fascination, she watched as the Crystal Empress flew through the air and continued on until she hit the dome behind her. It wasn’t until the third pony hit the same spot in rapid succession that she realized something was amiss.

Where did she know that Stetson from?

“Well ain’t this a fine how-do-you-do, gettin’ flung out into the world and landing on something cold and flabby.”

“Flabby?”

“Oh, uh… Hay Rarity, when’d you get here?” asked Applejack, hat in hoof.

“FLABBY?!”

“Where is here?” asked Fluttershy as she helped an irate Empress into a sitting position.

“Oh my gosh, Princess Luna, you’re laughing!” giggled Pinkie Pie, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you laugh so hard in…. Ever before! What’s so funny?”

“Rarity,” she gasped between pained breaths, “Rarity asked my sister to, ha, to ‘tug her like there was no tomorrow!’ Aha ha ha ha!”

“Oh… oh my,” said a beet red Fluttershy.

Twilight turned to look at Celestia accusingly “You did what now?”

“Wow, Rares,” said Rainbow Dash with a nudge and a wink, “You and Celestia, huh? I didn’t know yo—“

The dome shattered into a fine mist of crystal and everypony’s head was filled with voices once more.

“Girls! Formation!” shouted Twilight over the din.

The five girls stumbled over and stood next to the Goddess of Magic, and she wrapped them in a powerful mental barrier.

“Last chance Beacon, let everypony go and we’ll go easy on you.”

“KILL THEM!” the Beacon shouted back.

Twilight smiled a warrior’s smile. “I was hoping you’d say that.” She closed her eyes and that old familiar warmth began to grow and blossom in her chest. It spread from the tip of her horn to the edges of her feathers to the end of her tail.

She felt a harmony within herself that she missed. The harmony of six best friends working together for the common good. As they stood there, chests out and staring down the Beacon of Order, she knew that this was the end.

Thud the red dragon awoke with a pain in his head that he could not place. Last thing he knew he was in the pony city on the mountain, when he saw a very big rainbow. But now, as he looked up, he realized that he was sitting in front of the entrance to Valorhold. This was very hard on Thud’s already aching brain.

He sat up and heard a groan. Oh, it was his. Apparently more than just his head hurt. He looked at himself and frowned at all the bruises. Thud remembered how that one pony rode him and kicked him in the rump until he crashed into his fellow knights. Thud did not like that pony.

Then he heard another groan. This one was not his. He looked around and gasped. There were a lot of dragons laying on the ground and not moving! They were all from The Magicborn’s flight! One of them he didn’t recognize. It looked more like a well roasted chicken, only a very big well roasted chicken.

“What happened?” asked a craggy voice.

Thud looked up again and saw a beautiful female dragon staring down at him and his flight from the entrance. She was a lovely shade of yellow and she was very fat. Both of these were very desirable traits in a female dragon.

She crawled down from the entrance and curled up next to him, rubbing his bruised arm.

“Thud, you’re hurt!” she said.

Thud looked at her with wide eyes. “Pretty dragon knows Thud’s name?”

“Well duh, we’ve been friends since we were hatchlings. Are you feeling okay? Your head looks a little lumpier than usual.”

The chitinous nubbins on his lower jaw wiggled in thought.

“Thud like pretty dragon.”

“Shelly, Thud. My name is Shelly, remember?”

“Thud like Shelly, too.” He said, grinning.

Shelly rolled her eyes and helped her hormone addled friend to his feet “Come on Thud, let’s get you inside.”

Thud leaned hard on the larger Shelly as they scrambled their way back up into the entrance of Valorhold’s mountainous caverns. He looked hard at Shelly and blinked a few times.

“Shelly be Thud’s mate? Thud is covered in bruises.”

She looked at the thick necked dragon and rolled her eyes. ”Oh wow, how could I say no to an invitation like that?”

The demons of Tartarus stood about listlessly. Sure, they got to ransack Canterlot, but most of them didn’t get to kill or hurt a single thing. Or get a single Discord.

There was a lot of unhappy sighing going on in this mass of one hundred thousand red demons, that suddenly found themselves back in Tartarus. It wasn’t that they didn’t like Tartarus. It’s just that the ponies are so much fun to chase. Especially when they scream. Also their King wasn’t here to annoy, so there was even less to do than usual.

“Kill everything?” one demon asked another.

The other demon nodded excitedly at first, but then looked around and saw only other demons.

“No kill everything.”

Farther away another demon spoke up “Hurt everything but ponies?”

Several demons nodded at that, but again their joy was short-lived when they saw only other demons around them.

Somewhere in the middle was a rather peculiar demon. He was wearing a paper chef’s hat. Unlike the others he was sitting. He was sitting down because it was much easier to think when you could also count on your toes. He knew there was something they could do. But what was it?

The demon stood up, still scratching the back of his head. “Have…” he trailed off.

He sat back down. Then, inspiration hit him! In his excitement he shot up and shouted “Have!” but he forgot the last part, so he sat down again.

This time, focusing with all his mental power, he thought as hard as he could. What was it that they could do here with nothing to kill and nothing to hurt?

“Have… fun?” he asked himself. Then his eyes went wide and he jumped to his feet “HAVE FUN!”

It did not take long for a chorus of “HAVE FUN!” to break out among the ranks of the easily excitable demons of Tartarus.

Walter was a good dog. He sat in his dog house underneath the old tree in his backyard. Life was pretty good for Walter. He had an adventure in the forest and got a new toy out of the deal. Plus he got to make sure his pony was safe. It was pretty much the best day ever.

He didn’t know what happened to all the other ponies, though. Usually there were lots of them, walking around and working hard on the farm, but today he was alone. Walter didn’t mind being alone, it gave him time to take a nap after his long night out.

Walter looked down at his new toy and his tail thumped happily against the sides of his dog house. It was trying to wiggle out from under his paws again, so he bent his head down to chew on his new toy.

Squeak!

This was clearly the best toy ever.

Squeak!

Walter heard a funny noise and looked up. He saw a beautiful rainbow race across the sky. As it flew by, a sparkling beam of light came out of it and hit Walter’s toy. The toy let out a tiny scream and shook up and down all by itself. Then stopped moving.

Walter cocked his head to the side and stared how limp it was. He poked it with his nose. Nothing happened. Walter gave the toy a long sniff. It still smelled the same. He bit it.

Squeak!

The old dog’s tail wagged. This was clearly the best toy ever.

Discord woke up face down in a puddle of his own drool. Slowly, he pushed himself up onto his mismatched feet. When he got all the way up he gripped his head.

“Oh, my aching… Nothing? Hay I feel pretty good!”

The surprised draconequus gave himself a once over. There was no burning pillar jammed in his chest. Content with this unexpected change of events, he put his hands on his hips and nodded. That’s when he felt something bumping into his leg. He looked down.

It was the Beacon of Order. Or what was left of it. Half of its crystal head was missing, revealing a ruined cortex that sparked fitfully. It was walking into Discord repeatedly, bumping its cracked muzzle against the God of Chaos.

“Discord? Acquired. Target. Revenge sleep. Order?”

He squatted down on his knees and patted the Beacon in the head. “Rookie mistake, kid. Never let them hit you with the rainbow.”

“Hate. Forgiveness? Beacon. Discord.” It said plaintively, still poking Discord as best it could.

The draconequus frowned at the tenacious little bugger. “You’re not going to leave me alone, are you?”

“Saveorder. Suncreator. Moonwitch? Stopchaos.”

Discord stood up and took a step back. “Alright, let’s finish this.”

The Beacon stumbled over to Discord and poked him again with his muzzle. Discord grabbed his chest with a pained expression on his face. “Oh no! You got me!”

The God of Chaos, still gripping his chest, stumbled all around the Beacon, who hobbled in place to watch. Suddenly Discord lurched back and fell over with his eyes closed. With one final spasm, Discord reached a paw up towards the eclipse.

“Blarg!” he gurgled, “Lo, I am dead; defeated and destroyed by the Beacon of Order!” His arm fell down to the ground and his tongue lolled out of his mouth.

The Beacon stood there, victorious. It laughed a stuttered, taxing laugh. When its laughter stopped, it saw four white hooves. It lifted its ruined head and smiled a crooked smile.

“Beacon win?”

Celestia looked down upon her failed creation and nodded with a sad smile. Then she leaned in and whispered something in its single ear. It giggled because her breath tickled. Then the Beacon’s last eye went wide.

Of course! It made so much sense. The Beacon turned to face the Moon standing next to the God of Chaos. The God of Chaos it defeated.

“I am the Moon, eternally dreaming!” she shouted without emotion, “You will sleep!”

The Beacon looked back at its beloved creator and nodded, “I dream.”

The hoofs of the Beacon gave out and the construct tumbled. What hit the ground was not a pony, but a crystal. A crystal identical to the one that the three girls found this morning, except for the sizable chunk missing from it.

Celestia walked over to Luna and sat next to her. The two sisters were lost in thought. Thinking back to the dark times that made them create the Beacon of Order in the first place. A weight plopped down between them from behind and two mismatched arms hugged them around the shoulders.

“So, what’s next?” asked Discord. “I’m thinking we get the girls together and take the show on the road you know? See the sights, get a couple of groupies… What do you think, Sunshine?”

Celestia said nothing.

“Alright, how about you Moondust?”

Luna said nothing.

“Well aren’t you two just a ton of laughs?” scoffed Discord as pushed off the two Alicorns and walked over to Twilight and Rarity.

“You know, I feel great!” he said to Twilight, “I’ve never been on the good guy side of your little friendship cannon before. I can see why you like it so… Okay, what’s up with you two?”

Twilight stood there and rubbed Rarity’s back with a hoof. The Crystal Empress looked like she was about to cry. Three Elements of Harmony sat in a pile on the ground in front of them. One more was embeded in a half eatten chocolate cake. The other two were on their owners, respectively.

“Flabby,” whispered Rarity.

Twilight looked up at Discord and smiled weakly. “We’re going to need a moment here.”

He nodded and sulked off. As he walked, he felt the heat and light of the afternoon sun wash over him. Discord looked around at the thousands of mortal ponies standing about.

They were all ‘oohing’ and ‘ahhing,’ over the heavenly powers of the two previously unknown Alicorns. Some ran up and asked them questions about who they were and where they came from. Others bowed instinctively. Discord just rolled his eyes as he kept on walking.

“Yeah? Well it doesn’t make it any less stupid!” came a familiar voice from the left. He stopped to watch his latest set of lackies bicker amongst themselves.

“Oh so I’m stupid for trying to save your life,” said Spellbound.

“No, you’re stupid for thinking that you could just sneak into the plaza without the Beacon knowing you were there.”

“If you’re so smart,” said Spellbound in a huff, “what would you have done?”

“What, you mean like if it was you who was corrupted?”

“Yeah,” he said, looking at the pretty mare incredulously.

Ruby Star didn’t answer at first. But then she sighed and said, “Probably the same thing.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” she said turning and batting him in the face with the very tip of her tail. “But I wouldn’t have gotten caught.” Then she pranced off into the crowd.

Spellbound stood there with an half-formed grin on his face. Then he realized he was all alone. “Hay! Ruby, wait up!” The blue stallion gambled off after her.

It wasn’t long before Discord reached Smarty Pants, Sandy, and Honeycrisp. The red unicorn was tapping herself on the side of the head and blinking repeatedly. Smarty Pants was helping Sandy to her hooves.

“Ugh, I wish my horn would stop ringing,” complained Honeycrisp.

“What happened?” asked Sandy as she fluttered herself into a standing position.

“I think we won.”

“Oh you think so, Pants? What tipped you off? Was it the whole ‘we’re alive’ thing?”

“Hay, there’s no reason to be a jerk about it, Honeycrisp.”

“I... I know. Sorry.”

“Yeah, we’ll you’re… wait did you just apologize to me?” asked Smarty Pants staring back in bewilderment.

Honeycrisp nodded.

“Why?”

“I dunno. I guess I’m just tired of always fighting with one of my best friends.”

Smarty Pants beamed at her cousin. “You’re one of my best friends too.” She said shakily.

After a moment of silent indecision, the two fillies ran over to each other and hugged. They hugged and they cried, happy all this was over. But more importantly they were happy to have each other.

Smarty Pants heard a sigh from behind her and she turned her head to see Sandy look at them with a small smile. The light-brown earthpony filly side stepped. “Get in here, you.”

“Me?” Sandy asked in wonder.

“Of course,” said Honeycrisp nodding enthusiastically.

The green pegasus buzzed her little wings as she barreled into her two best friends and hugged them for all she was worth. They hugged her back in kind.

“Oh for goodness sake, why are you three crying?” asked Discord.

They didn’t answer.

“Typical. Just when I think I’ve got these ponies all figured out, they—“

He felt his lizard foot make contact with something and he looked down. It was Spike, still in his baby dragon form, still sound asleep. He smiled at the little fellow.

“Good idea, Spike,” he said to the thoroughly unconscious dragon.

Then he turned to face the castle and spotted the open balcony to Princess Twilight’s royal bed chamber. “I think a nap is just the thing I need.”

Epilogue

--- Six Days Later ---

“So you’re telling me that Applejack, the Applejack showed up and saved the day?” asked Honeycrisp with disbelieving eyes.

Smarty Pants shook her head, “No, I’m only telling you what Princess Twilight told me. That four of the Elements of Harmony all sprang out of her chest, fully formed, and saved the day. Oh, and the Crystal Empress helped too.”

Honeycrisp let out a huff of air and kicked a rock down the newly repaired street. “And I missed it.”

“You didn’t miss it,” offered Sandy as the three girls made their way through Canterlot’s Grand Central Plaza. “We were all there when it happened.”

“Well yeah I know we were there... we just weren’t there there, you know? We were all corrupted and didn’t get to see them.”

Smarty Pants sighed, “Just like how I didn’t see Pinkie Pie.”

“I think I saw them. But the only thing I remember for sure was the rainbow that hit us.”

Smarty Pants and Honeycrisp nodded at Sandy as the three girls passed the halfway point to the train station from the castle. They took a moment to stop and gawk at the construction that was underway in the center of the plaza. A gathering of ponies of all shapes and sizes were working frantically on the installation of four twenty foot tall statues of the Alicorns that saved Equestria.

Honeycrisp shook her head in bewilderment. “If anypony told me last Friday that we’d have four Princesses before the that weekend was up, I would have called them a liar.”

Sandy’s wings fluttered in agitation. “Actually, there’s not four Princesses...”

Honeycrisp rolled her eyes. “Sorry Sandy. I know your momma’s not interested in being a Princess, but she’s got wings and a horn. That makes her a Princess.”

“Actually that makes her an Alicorn,” said Smarty Pants matter-of-factly.

Honeycrisp cocked an eyebrow at her earthpony cousin “A what now?”

“Never mind, you’ll learn all about them soon enough,” said Smarty Pants with an encouraging smile.

A steam whistle sounded in the distance and Smarty Pants began to walk towards it. “Come on, let’s get going before we miss our train.”

They walked through the plaza, which looked nothing like it did just six days ago. Last Saturday was one of the most intense days of their young lives. Not to mention that it was almost their last. But what a party afterwards! There must have been fifty thousand ponies from cities as far as Hoofston and Manehatten that suddenly found themselves in Canterlot that fateful afternoon.

To suddenly find yourself in a city hundreds of miles away, surrounded by faces both strange and familiar, was entirely unnerving. The girls could attest to that fact. But to wake up and see the glory of two ‘new’ Goddesses in all their splendor as they move the Sun and the Moon on their own, well that’s something else entirely.

The party lasted well into the night, and the four Goddesses of Equestria provided more than enough food and accommodations, while folks from all over booked themselves into hotels, arranged travel back home, or found themselves invited to stay with total strangers. A few lucky souls were even invited to stay at the palace.

It was a party that would be long remembered in the minds of and hearts of ponykind. A party that cemented the existence of not two but four Alicorns back into the living memory of a country.

“So,” said Smarty Pants breaking the brief silence, “are you excited about starting Princess Twilight’s School for Gifted Unicorns on Monday?”

Honeycrisp let out a sigh. “I am, it’s just well... Why’s it gotta be so soon? My new little brother’s only been around for a week, and Mom and Pop will need a helping hoof around the homestead what with the year’s final harvest coming up, and—“

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’re nervous,” said Sandy with a knowing smile.

Honeycrisp scrunched up her face and looked back and forth between her two friends before flattening her ears in resignation. “You’re right. I mean, what if they don’t like me? What if they think I’m a country bumpkin and they all make fun of me?”

“Honeycrisp, you silly filly,” admonished Smarty Pants. “You’re the best unicorn ever! Why would they make fun of you? Plus if they did, Sandy and I will totally beat them up. Right, Sandy?”

Honeycrisp looked over at Sandy, who lowered her head to the ground.

“Grr!” growled Sandy with about as much menace as a startled kitten.

The two other fillies fell in a soft furry pile of giggling ponies at Sandy’s adorably awful display.

“You girls are the best!” proclaimed Honeycrisp.

The train whistle sounded again, and the girls helped each other up. They could see Canterlot’s train station from here, and all the ponies milling about. A nearby cart vendor was selling Sun and Moon t-shirts, hats, and buttons. Tourists just off the train were eagerly buying up everything they could get their hooves on.

Smarty Pants pointed at the commotion. “How’s Celestia handling all the attention, Sandy?”

Sandy smiled a weak smile. “She says she’s okay with it, for the most part. But I can tell that it bothers her. The other day she walked into the pastry kitchen and discovered a stallion stealing one of her soup spoons.”

The light-brown earthpony tilted her head at that. “Why the hay would anypony steal a soup spoon from a goddess?”

“Apparently, his daughter was sick and he thought that if he used it to make her soup, she’d get better faster.”

“Did it work?” asked Honeycrisp.

“I don’t know. Momma and the stallion went to get Princess Twilight, and the three of them went to his home. Twilight was apparently able to heal her with her magic and momma gave her the spoon as a gift.”

“Crazy.”

“Yeah.”

The girls walked in silence as they moved against the excited throng spilling out into Canterlot from the train station. Once they were through the station’s historic archways and standing within the large marble station itself, Sandy spoke up again.

“Thanks for inviting us to your house for the weekend, Honeycrisp. I can’t wait to meet little Applewood!”

“Don’t mention it.”

“A-and thanks for agreeing to take the train this time.”

“I still think we should have flown,” huffed Smarty Pants.

Honeycrisp rolled her eyes and whispered loudly to Sandy. “That’s ‘cause she’s got a thing for pegasus stallions.”

“I do not!” she squeaked in blushing consternation. “I just don’t like trains... They make me sleepy.”

A sudden shadow loomed over the girls and they turned as one to look up and see who it was.

“Don’t like trains? Scared of flying?” asked a certain slyly grinning draconequus. “Sound’s like there’s only one solution to me, girls.”

Honeycrisp raised a suspicious eyebrow at Discord. “And that is?”

“We walk.” He said brightly.

“We?” asked Sandy nervously.

Discord nodded and reached down to push on the protesting rumps of the three girls.

“But won’t that take forever?” asked Smarty Pants.

“Oh no, not at all! I know a shortcut, you’ll see. The time will just fly by.”

Princess Twilight opened the door from her royal chambers. Wearing her favorite pair of Sun and Moon print pajamas, she wiped the sleep from her eyes and willed a brush over from her nightstand to begin restraining her otherwise unfettered ethereal locks.

As consciousness began to take hold with its many unforgiving claws, she realized that there were dozens of unknown faces looking back at her. Looking is not the right word. It was more like ‘burning the sight of an unkempt goddess in pajamas into the part of their memory usually reserved for the birth of children or the passing of parents.’

Twilight forced her eyes closed. “Ruby Star?”

“Yes Ma’am?” asked the orange mare from behind a desk.

“Why is there a blessing of unicorns standing outside of my bedroom at ten in the morning?”

“We’re interviewing.”

“Interviewing?”

“Yes Ma’am.”

“Interviewing for what?”

“For the open position in the Arcane Guard? You said you wanted it done by the end of the week.”

“It’s Friday.”

“Still technically not the end of the week.”

“Cutting it a little close aren’t we?”

“I like to live on the edge, Ma’am.”

Twilight nodded. “Okay. I’m going to go back into my room now. Please have somepony come up with a pot of fresh coffee and those little jam biscuits I like.”

“Uh...”

The Goddess of Magic opened her eyes, ignoring the other unicorns in the foyer, and gave Ruby Star a worried look. “I don’t like the sound of that ‘uh.’”

“It’s just that—“

“The pastry chef has told us that you’re no longer allowed to have sweets in the morning, Your Grace.” Blurted Spellbound, who was sitting in a seat behind the desk next to Ruby Star.

There was a snicker from somepony in the pool of applicants.

“What?” asked Twilight, the hurt apparent on her face. “Why would Celestia do that?”

“She, uh, mentioned something about a... paunch?” said Ruby Star, looking away as desperately as she could.

The snicker turned into laughter.

“A paunch? I’m as fit now as I was the day I became a Princess! I just saved the world last week! Surely that deserves a little something special for breakfast every now and again, right?” Twilight implored the ponies standing before her.

All but one of them was nodding vigorously at their potential employer. The other was rolling back and forth on the ground, still laughing.

Twilight groaned and rolled her eyes. “Oh come off it Luna, you aren’t fooling anypony.”

The mare on the ground was still laughing, but not as hard. “Alright, alright, you found me out, Twilight Sparkle.”

With a deep blue poof, the giggling mare on the floor was no longer a unicorn, but Princess Luna, timeless Moon Goddess of Equestria. The auburn stallion that had been chatting her up in line earlier, fainted. Luna looked at him and frowned.

“Pity. He was cute. A bit full of himself, but cute nonetheless.”

There was another poof, this time purple. The unicorns that were still conscious turned to see Princess Twilight standing in all her regalia, looking picture perfect. Except for the scowl on her face.

She walked up to Luna and offered her a hoof. “Come on, let’s go find Celestia and figure out what I am allowed to eat for breakfast.”

Luna took the hoof and smiled apologetically. “I would but I have a job interview.”

The sound of a pony clearing her throat caught the two Princesses off-guard and they turned to look at Ruby Star sitting at the front of the line of applicants. She pointed a hoof at a sign on the wall:

ALICORNS NEED NOT APPLY

“WHAT? What manner of— Discrimination, that’s what this is!” The blue Alicorn bellowed.

Twilight just shook her head as she dragged her old friend out of the foyer and down the stairs towards the rest of the castle. Luna was shouting about how ‘death would not save them’ all the way down.

Spellbound leaned over and whispered into Ruby’s ear, “Which one was she?”

Ruby said nothing but pointed to the application on the top of the pile labeled ‘Possible Alicorn.’ He looked at the name field.

“She crossed out Princess Luna and wrote in... Moony Midnight. Really?”

“Really.”

Spellbound sighed. “Is it just me, or has the whole world gone crazy?”

Ruby Star turned and gave Spellbound a quick peck on the cheek. “It’s just you.”

“Cadence, your mane looks beautiful. It always looks beautiful, stop fretting about it.”

Princess Cadence turned her head and shot her husband a look.

He just stared back and blinked. “What?”

He knew he said something that upset her, but for the life of him, he didn’t know what it was. She turned back to the face the mirror on her vanity and went back to brushing her ethereal mane.

“Are you feeling okay, love?”

“No,” she said trailing off.

He watched as she pulled a gumball out of a nearby dish with her magic. It floated over and popped into her mouth. He grabbed one for himself and smiled at the flavor. He loved cotton candy.

“My stomach hurts. And I’m cranky. Why do you have to leave?”

Before he could answer, the clock on the wall chimed in the top of the hour and Cadence willed one of her brushes to slam into the flat top of her vanity. She spun around and looked at Shining Armor with fresh tears in her eyes.

“Please don’t go.” She begged.

Shining Armor sighed and walked over to hug his wife. She hugged him back with all her Alicorn strength. He winced painful. Thankfully, she released him and he crumpled to the floor.

“I’m sorry, love, but I have a job to do. I’m the only one that can judge those poor souls back in Tartarus and let them move on to the Elysian Fields.”

Cadence pouted as she scooped Shining Armor up off the floor with her wings. “But what’s another week? Stay with me for just a few more days, my love.”

Shining Armor screwed his courage to the sticking place, and looked the love of his life in the eyes. “I... I can’t. I’ve been away for too long as it is. Who knows what kind of trouble the demons have gotten... into...”

He lost track of his train of thought. He lost track of the tracks too. Cadence was nibbling on his ear in that way she did that made his mind go blank. She was also making the cute little chewing noises that made his legs flop about uselessly.

The door opened and an old mare stuck her head in. “Cadie, are you ready for breakfa—“

She stopped when she saw the Goddess of Love set about her craft with the intent and focus of a mare sending her stallion off to war. Not sparing another moment, she pulled her head back out and shut the door. Then she pulled a small flask out of her saddlebag with a wing.

“Can’t unsee that,” said Love Note as she twisted the cap off and lifted the container to her mouth.

Twilight was no longer dragging Luna by the time the two Princesses exited the Moon Tower and entered the Celestial Courtyard that stood between the two highest spires in Canterlot.

“I should have been more authoritative with Ruby Star from the beginning. The mare lacks discipline and respect. She was always one to skirt the very boundaries of what was and what was not appropriate behavior.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “I know. That’s one of the reasons I hired her, Luna. The castle doesn’t need any more yesmares walking around. I thought a little bit of rebellion and free thinking was just what the doctor... Rarity?”

The two Alicorns stopped their walk as they approached the singular tree that stood in the center of Twilight’s side of the Celestial Courtyard. The tree that now housed five of the six Elements of Harmony. It was only missing one, and that one was around the neck of the Crystal Empress.

She turned and smiled sadly at her two old friends. “Hello.”

“Rarity, what are you doing here?” asked Twilight, “I thought you left yesterday to go back to the Crystal Empire.”

“I decided to stay for one more night and make up my mind.”

“Make up your mind? About what?”

“About what to do with this,” she said, pointing to the Element of Generosity hanging from her neck.

Twilight smiled. “Rarity, I told you that you’re more than welcome to take it with you. If we need it, we need you after all.”

“I know Darling, I know. It’s just that... Well something inside me is telling me to keep it with the others.”

Twilight’s ears flattened at her admission. “Are you hearing voices again?”

Rarity scoffed disarmingly. “Oh no, nothing like that,” she lied, “I just mean that I have this feeling, like I should keep them all together. What if Canterlot needs them again soon?”

Twilight blinked at her old friend. “But what if the Crystal Empire needs them? What if they’re needed in Trottingham or New Appleoosa?”

She walked over and gave her friend a reassuring nuzzle, trying her best to ignore the biting cold of their brief contact. “If there’s anything I learned last Saturday, it’s that it doesn’t matter where they are. When we need them, they’ll be there. That’s what friends are for.”

Rarity smiled at that. “You’re right Twilight. Thank you. In that case I think I shall take my leave.”

“Oh,” said Twilight suddenly, “Well, now that I think about it, Luna and I are on our way to see Celestia for some breakfast. Care to join us?”

“No thank you, Twilight. I just finished up a lovely picnic brunch with Spike here in the courtyard. He’s off returning the basket and dishes. Celestia made us quite the meal. There were even these little jam filled biscuits,” she said with her eyes sparkling. “Oh, they were simply divine!”

“You don’t say,” growled Twilight flatly.

“Twilight!” exclaimed an old familiar voice from down the packed dirt path back towards the rest of the castle. The Goddess of Magic turned, and all her grumbling was gone in a flash.

“Spike!”

She ran over and embraced the baby-sized dragon, who hugged her right back with all his stubby might. She hugged him and nuzzled him affectionately. And to her long standing surprise, he did not squirm or fight against it. The last few hundred years of living among his scaly and often traitorous kin had taught him to truly appreciate a good pony nuzzling.

They parted and Spike spoke up. “It’s good to see you, Twilight. It’s been too long, you know?”

“I do know Spike. I still can’t believe that you slept for almost a whole week.”

“Yeah, well...” he said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, “I blame the Beacon of Order. That jerk left me with one serious headache. What else could I do besides sleep it off?”

Twilight laughed a good natured laugh, mimicking his tone of voice “Oh, of course. What else could you have done?”

Spike sneered playfully, “Careful, you don’t know who you’re messing with. I’m a big dragon now, remember?”

Twilight nuzzled him again, “Oh Spike. You’ve always been my big dragon.”

Spike hugged her back and then turned to waddle over to Rarity. “Did you make a decision, Milady?” he asked with an adorable little bow.

“Yes Spike, I believe I have,” she said smiling at the two other mares. “I am ready to go.”

Spike stood back up, nodded, and ran back up the dirt road a ways. Before Twilight could ask what he was doing, Spike’s body began to shimmer and twist. Spike had long ago learned to control the transformative magics he inherited from Twilight when she hatched him.

Where once there was a diminutive purple and green baby dragon, really an overgrown lizard, there was now a slender and streamlined drake. His overall shape more closely resembled a draconequus, but with massive wings connected to proportionally huge pectoral muscles.

Like a snake homing in on its prey he turned his tremendous head to gaze at the three immortals he towered over and smiled a fang filled smile at them.

Twilight faced Rarity. “Spike’s leaving with you?”

Rarity nodded as the three ponies walked towards Spike. “He offered to fly me back to the Crystal Empire over brunch. Of course I said yes. How could anypony refuse such a gentlecolt?”

Once they reached him, he lowered himself to his armored belly and draped a wing down his side so Rarity could climb it like a staircase. Before she did so, she turned to look at the two other mares.

Reaching out for one last hug, she and Twilight embraced. “I’m not going to say goodbye, because this is not goodbye, Twilight Sparkle. More like a farewell or an au revoir. I know that we haven’t always seen eye to eye, but you are and always have been one of my dearest friends. Your open invitation to the Crystal Palace stands. You will visit soon, won’t you?”

Twilight nodded in silence, watching her few tears fall on Rarity’s coat and freeze on the spot.

They parted, and Rarity turned to address Luna, who stood a bit more stoically than usual, though the hint of a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. They did not hug, but Rarity returned the gesture in kind.

“Princess Luna, my invitation extends to you as well. It has been far too long since I’ve had the pleasure of a proper viewing of the Moon from my Imperial Suite.”

Twilight cocked her head at that, but said nothing. Now wasn’t the time. Instead she smiled bittersweetly as she watched the living Element of Generosity climb onto Spike’s back and adjust her saddlebags so they wouldn’t fall off during flight.

Spike saluted one last goodbye and with a mighty flap, he and Rarity were off, bound for the Jewel of the North.

Princess Twilight Sparkle nodded her thanks to Bubbles and Buttercup as the two guardsmares opened the door for her and Princess Luna.

Luna stopped dead in her tracks and wrinkled her nose. “Ugh! Sister, must you make that wretched concoction again? Did you not make it last week as well? It’s like you hate me.”

Celestia did not answer her sister right away, but offered an apologetic smile as she turned back to the mare she was already in the middle of a conversation with. “I’m sorry Senator but I’m just not interested in your proposal,” she said.

Twilight’s attention was drawn to Luna’s horn lighting up. She watched as magic enveloped a lone pot of soup, boiling on one of the stovetops that lined the left wall.

This got Celestia’s attention. “Excuse me, Senator –Lulu, let go of that alfalfa soup right this instant! I’ve almost perfected the recipe.”

Princess Luna grimaced. “Tia, it smells like unwashed hooves and moldy hay. Why do you insist on making it?”

Celestia walked over to the pot and inspected its contents. A spoon floated over to her and dipped in, allowing her to taste her work. “Needs a dash of nutmeg,” she said absentmindedly with a nod.

“Tia, I’ll go no further until you get rid of that soup.”

Celestia furrowed her brow and sighed. “Fine. Fine.” The spoon, pot, and its contents poofed out of existence and a fresh pot was summoned into its place. As the ingredients for chocolate crème marched themselves through the air and into the vessel, Celestia walked back over to the Senator.

“Now is there anything else I can help you with Ms. Skies, or—”

“But it’s not fair!” said the dusky orange unicorn with a petulant stomp of her hoof, “The House of Commons has an Alicorn, why not join your betters in the Noble House?”

Celestia stared down in amazement at the Senator’s audacity. “Join my betters? I knighted the first of your noble line after a changeling invasion almost five hundred years ago. Grey Skies was a good stallion, noble in every sense of the word. I’ve watched you and your ilk turn your backs on everything he stood for over the last two hundred years. I wonder what he’d say about your actions today.”

Satin Skies puffed out her cheeks, “But... But you—“

“I’m not interested, and that’s my final word on the matter,” Celestia said as she turned back to her recipe. “You can leave now if you’d like, or you can pull a chef’s hat out of the pantry and help me make this cake.”

The Sun Goddess looked back where Satin Skies had been standing, but the spoiled mare was already gone. Instead she saw Twilight approach the pot of chocolate crème with a spoon.

“Twilight, that’s not for you. Your breakfast is over here.”

The hungry Princess frowned, but lowered the spoon and walked over to where Luna and Celestia were standing in the center of the kitchen.

When she reached the table that they were standing around, she saw a single small plate. On the plate was a caricature of Twilight Sparkle’s head, made of purple cabbage leaves, eggplant slices for eyes, a cherry tomato for the nose, and a carrot for a horn. The toothful smile on this breakfast nightmare was made of several carefully arranged corn kernels.

“My!” said Luna with a snicker. “Doesn’t that look delicious.”

Celestia beamed. “Oh Luna, I’m so glad to hear you say so,” a second plate was summoned to the small table, “Because I made one for you too! Bon appétit.”

It took every ounce of Twilight’s willpower to stop herself from laughing at the horrified look on Luna’s face. Instead she buckled down and went to work on her own plate, starting with the carrot.

Celestia, humming a happy little tune as she worked, went back to her cake order. Mixing a batch of dry ingredients by hoof as a dozen eggs cracked themselves into a whisking bowl beside her.

“So,” said Twilight, poking absentmindedly at the cherry tomato nose of her breakfast impostor. “Are you and Luna going to go into hiding again?”

Celestia stopped stirring her bowl and set it down on the counter. She looked up and away, out of the window on the far wall and stared out into the royal gardens. She always loved this view.

“You know we did it all for you and Cadence, don’t you Twilight?”

Twilight tsked dismissively. “Yeah right.”

Celestia turned to look at her former protégé. The mare that she gambled so much on, and gained so much from. She opened her mouth to speak, but Luna beat her too it.

“Tia and I wanted you two to live the lives you wanted to. She didn’t want you trapped in a gilded cage, like she was during my banishment. You have much to live for and much living left to do, Twilight Sparkle.”

“So you both left because it would free me? Equestria almost fell apart! There were riots. Ponies were seriously hurt and we almost had a Civil War!” Twilight slammed her hoof into the table, rattling the dishes that sat upon it.

She turned to face Celestia who was now looking back at her. “You tore down everything in the blink of an eye, and you expect me to believe that you did it all for me?”

“Yes.”

Twilight didn’t have an answer for that. Instead she turned back to her plate. She rearranged the corn ‘teeth’ that were knocked out of place by her attack on the table. After an uncomfortable silence, Twilight spoke again.

“Then why the charade? Why the hide and seek?”

Luna spoke again. “Make no mistake, Twilight Sparkle, we did not intend to leave when we did. Not at first. In the beginning, it was truly a game to us. But after the first week, we realized that we had an opportunity. One that we knew we’d never have again.”

“It was the second hardest decision I’ve ever made,” said Celestia looking at her dark blue sister.

“Did... Did you get my letters?” Asked Twilight, squeezing her eyes closed.

Celestia nodded and turned to look back out the window. “Yes. I’ve read and kept them all.”

“Dang, you girls need some serious therapy,” scoffed a new voice from the doorway, halfheartedly.

Twilight turned to see Cadence leaning against the doorframe, smiling a queasy smile. She looked awful, but she had a strange glow about her. The Goddess of Love took a step forward, but stumbled to her foreknees with a pained look on her face.

“Cadence!” shouted Twilight in alarm, “Are you okay?” she ran over to her sister-in-law.

Wide-eyed, Celestia tried to stop her. “Twilight, wait, it’s—”

But it was too late. Twilight ran face first into the worst thing that had ever happened to her in the last six days, as Cadence emptied the contents of her stomach where she stood.

“Morning sickness.” Celestia finished, wincing sympathetically.

Luna looked down at her plate and pushed it away from her with a dainty hoof.

“Where are we? Where’s Discord?” asked Smarty Pants, looking around at the unfamiliar trees around her. The scent of fallen leaves and the last few apples ripening on nearby trees filled her senses.

“I’d bet my horn that we’re near Sweet Apple Acres,” said Honeycrisp with her face scrunched up in concentration. “But I don’t recognize this road at all.”

Sandy pointed at a trio of mares approaching from up the road. “What if we ask those ponies? Maybe they’ll know how to get to the homestead,” she trotted off towards them.

Smarty Pants looked down the road and her eyes followed Sandy’s carefree walk towards the three ponies she pointed out. Then she blinked in utter shock. She recognized those three mares. She’d had their every feature memorized ever since she got her cutie mark.

Smarty Pants grabbed her cousin and stifled her complaints before they started with a hoof over her mouth. Then she tucked into a silent roll and the two ponies bounced into an adjacent bush.

“Pants! What are you—“

“Shh!” hissed Smarty Pants under her breath, her eyes watching the three mares keenly. Not bothering to look at her cousin, the little earthpony whispered back, “I think we’re in trouble.”

Then she turned Honeycrisp’s head with a free hoof so that the two girls were watching the same life-altering scene.

“Well shoot, Fluttershy. If there’s a stallion that makes your heart all a twitter, why not ask the feller out?”

“Oh no Applejack, I couldn’t do that,” said the particularly bashful pegasi.

The farm pony clicked her tongue against her teeth. Then she rolled her shoulders a bit to adjust the hitch on the empty cart she was pulling back to Sweet Apple Acres. She was determined to help her friend get this mystery stallion she’d been so worked up over for the last few weeks.

Or help her move on. Whichever it was, she didn’t rightly care, so long as Fluttershy was happy at the end of the day. She tried a different approach.

“I don’t see what the problem is, Sugarcube. I mean, it’s just like dealing with bears. They’re more afraid of you than you are of them.”

“But I’m not afraid of bears.”

“Then you shouldn’t be afraid of stallions, neither!” Applejack beamed, proud of her own flawless logic.

“She’s right you know, Fluttershy,” nodded Pinkie Pie. “You should march right on up to him and tell him that you’re the birdsong to his bee’s knees! The lock to his key! The whey to his cheese! The—”

“I think she get’s the point, Pinkie,” interupted Applejack.

“Yeah...” Fluttershy said, fidgeting apprehensively.

“Also, why won’t you tell us his name? Is it a secret? Is his name really silly like Chet or Bumbo and you’re afraid that all your friends will judge you? Does he even have a name?”

Before Fluttershy could answer, Pinkie Pie began to bounce in place, eyes wide and shouting out a more shocking realization.

“Oh! Does he not have a name because he’s a wild animal from the Everfree Forest that you found wounded, and then nursed him back to health and then your friendship blossomed into forbidden love and then your shared shame of that love drives the both of you further and further from the edge of sanity?”

Fluttershy stared at panting pink pony, with a blank expression and wide eyes. “He’s a regular stallion.”

“Oh.” Pinkie said dejectedly. “Well then is he coming to Twilight’s birthday party tonight?”

Fluttershy nodded uncomfortably.

“Great! I’ll— oh my gosh, look!” Pinkie Pie blurted suddenly, pointing at an unfamiliar green pegasus filly approaching them on the road.

The pink party pony ran up to Sandy and grabbed her hoof and began to shake it vigorously. “Hiya, I’m Pinkie Pie and I know everypony in Ponyville! But I don’t know you so that must mean that you’re not from Ponyville, or that you’re new to Ponyville, in which case allow me to—“

“Pinkie,” said Applejack.

“—ome you to Ponyville! Like I said I’m Pinkie Pie and this here’s Fluttershy and over there’s Applejack and w—“

“PINKIE PIE!” said the Element of Honesty a bit louder than she probably should have.

Pinkie looked over her shoulder at her friends. “Yes, Applejack?”

“You’re scaring the feathers off the poor thing.”

Pinkie Pie looked back down at the unknown green filly. She laid there on the ground, shivering with her fluttering wings spread to cover her face. She was curled up in a ball, with the exception of the one hoof that Pinkie Pie was still holding.

Fluttershy walked up and sat next to her pink friend. “Hi there, I’m Fluttershy. What’s your name?”

The green pegasus whimpered out a series of high-pitch noises.

“Oh, I think Sandy is a lovely name. Are you lost, Sandy?”

Sandy nodded and mumbled a few more words from under her wings.

“Two friends?” asked Fluttershy, looking up and away down the road.

Still hiding in a nearby bush, Smarty Pants shot a worried glance at Honeycrisp. “Oh yeah, we’re in trouble. We are in so much trouble.”

Author's Note

Stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion:

Princess Twilight Sparkle's 25th Birthday

Coming in Spring 2014.