Longest Night, Longest Day

by RainbowDoubleDash

Rating: everyone
Tags: Adventure, Derpy Hooves, Slice of Life, Lyra, Cheerilee, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Carrot Top, Trixie
Length: 71829

After a thousand years, Corona is free!

Trixie Lulamoon, the personal student of Princess Luna, has finally, through a combination of reasoning, pleading, and whining, managed to convince the princess to invest some real responsibility in her, and give her a chance to show off everything she's been learning while under the alicorn's wing. Luna has appointed Trixie to be the official representative of her Night Court to the town of Ponyville, which this year will be hosting the Longest Night Celebration. Trixie is additionally tasked with overseeing the preparations for that festival.

At first, things seem to be going less than swimmingly. The catering is way too many kinds of apples, the weather patrol is far behind, the musical maestro is nowhere to be found, and the decorations could use significant toning down. To top it all off, Trixie can't help but feel that this was less an appointment to a position of real responsibility, and more an informal exile from the Night Court. Still, things could be worse: a mad alicorn goddess of fire and hate could escape from her millennial imprisonment on the sun and try and conquer Equestria.

But what are the chances of that?

A prequel to Boast Busted
Part of the Lunaverse
Now has a TVTropes Page!

Published 2012-03-09 01:14:02 UTC
Last updated 2012-05-13 16:41:27 UTC

2. Many Meetings

“Now you wait just one cotton-pickin’ minute,” the orange earth pony – Applejack – objected, pointing a hoof at Trixie. “Ah don’t know where y’all think you can just change the way things have been for centuries, but here in Ponyville, the Longest Night is an Apple family night.”

“Not this year,” Trixie objected, staring at the hoof pointed at her and wondering when the last time she heard such a thick country drawl was. Less than an hour ago, she had been chatting pleasantly with Carrot Top over a simple lunch the earth pony had prepared for her and Lyra. Now, she felt like she was involved in a physical wrestling match – a wrestling match that could go south real fast, given that the entire Apple clan, it seemed, was just in the next room of the Apple’s surprisingly modestly-sized estate. “I like apples as much as the next pony, but the thought of eating just apples, all day? No. I like a little variety to my festivals.”

“And just what gives you the right?” Applejack demanded, leaning forward threateningly.

Trixie straightened herself. “Not what,” she clarified, “who. Her Majesty, Luna Equestris, Shepherd of the Moon, Caretaker of the Sun, Mistress of the Star Beasts, Sovereign of the Three Tribes, Ruler of Equestria, my mentor, and your Princess,” it was Trixie’s turn to jab a hoof at the obstinate pony. “As her appointed festival overseer, I have final say as to what can go into the catering. And what I say is that there’s going to be not just apples, but carrots, and grapes, and pears, and celery, and broccoli, and baked goods that don’t have apples in them, and anything else anypony wants.”

Applejack fumed. “Well,” the pony said, tipping her Stetson hat over her eyes. “Y’all may be able to say what you want in. But the plain simple truth, consarn it, is that the other farms ain’t got the stockpiles.” Applejack beamed as though in victory, tapping a hoof firmly on the wooden floor of the living area they were in, probably to indicate the expansive storehouse that lay beneath their hooves. “We’ve been preparin’ all year. Got a special horde saved since the last harvest, carefully preserved to be up to the finest Apple standards and usin’ only the best apples we could buck.” Applejack’s smile turned back into an icy glare, significantly colder than even the weather outside. “Nopony else’ll be able to match the quality. They just pile up their stock and freeze ‘em and hope for the best.”

“I’m sure they’ll be able to dig out something,” Trixie insisted.

“And you think Her Majesty, Princess Luna Equestris, Shepherd of the Moon, and so on and so forth, will be okay with just any ol’ thing that’s been ‘dug out?’”

Trixie blinked a few times at that. The earth pony, unfortunately, had her there. For an immortal alicorn– or perhaps because she was an immortal alicorn – the Princess was an extremely picky eater. It was her one major flaw.

“Now look,” Applejack said, her tone changing from anger to a more conciliatory one. “Ah’m sure y’all came here with the best of intentions. But mah family runnin’ the Longest Night is just the way things’ve been done around here, the way things’ll always get done. We need them sales to keep Sweet Apple Acres up n’ runnin’ smoothly. We can’t have other farms just cuttin’ into our profits.”

Trixie’s eyes widened a little at that. “The Apple Trust has a near-complete monopoly on apples in all of Equestria!” she exclaimed. She jabbed a hoof past Applejack, at the living area where the rest of the Apple clan, plus Lyra, were waiting, and probably listening in on every word. “How could you possibly – ”

“It’s a farm thing,” Applejack interrupted. “Ah don’t expect a fancy Canterlot mare – ”

“I’m actually from Neigh Orleans.”

“Well, Ah’m sorry for mah assumption. But Ah don’t expect any city mare to understand the delicate situation the Apple clan is in. Farms are always on the edge of disaster. One blight could ruin a whole harvest season. Darn near did back when Ah was just a little filly, a blight that spread to almost every apple farm in the country. If’n it weren’t for a goodly bit of foresight and savin’ for that very predicament, why, the entire Apple Trust might have gone under.”

Trixie found that hard to believe – not the nation-wide apple blight, as she had vague memories of that back before she had become Princess Luna’s protégé; rather, that it had ever seriously cut into the Apple Trust’s coffers. Even if it was true, with their near-total monopoly on apples, the Trust would have been in a better position than any other apple-farming family to recover from the blight. If anything, it had probably driven their last true competition out of business.

Trixie let out a sigh. This Applejack was as stubborn as a mule. She wasn’t going to change her mind anytime soon, no matter what tack she took. “Fine,” Trixie conceded at length. “Fine. I’ll just…pack a lunch or bring my own snacks or something to the Longest Night.”

Applejack beamed at her victory. “Ah don’t think we’ll disappoint, Miss Trixie. Never have. This ain’t the first time Princess Luna has had the Longest Night in Ponyville and she’s come away smilin’ like a school filly every time.”

Trixie nodded. “Fine,” she repeated, as the two trotted out of the room they had been in and into the living room. Trixie made a conscious effort to keep her eyes on the floor and ignore a significant number of glares she was getting from the rest of the Apple clan for what she’d said during the overheard conversation. “Thanks for the food, I guess. If you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a lot to do.”

She made her way over to Lyra, who was already putting her Gatsby cap and wool cloak back on and was standing near the door. The door was blocked, however, by a small filly with a red mane and a straw-colored coat. She was glaring at Trixie, and stuck her tongue out in a very pointed and determined fashion, blowing a raspberry at the unicorn.

“Applebloom!” Applejack’s voice objected.

“But sis…!” the small filly objected strongly. “We can’t just let ‘er go just like that after – ”

“Applebloom, yes we can,” the orange mare explained, trotting over to the filly and scooting her out of the way of the door. Lyra and Trixie both gave polite good-byes, and left as quickly as possible.

The two were silent for several minutes as they trudged along the snow-bordered dirt path, before Lyra looked over to Trixie. “Was that filly going to suggest getting you tarred and feathered?” she asked.

“Of course not,” Trixie answered, doing nothing to keep the bitterness from her voice. “She was going to suggest I be lynched.”

“Ah,” Lyra said, nodding sagely. She sighed a moment later. “Look, you tried. And I’m not going to lie, I was not expecting that from you. I think it’s great and all that you were trying to get that carrot farmer a place in the Longest Night, but that’s just not how things happen in Ponyville.”

Trixie made a face. “I wasn’t doing it for her,” she responded. “I mean, okay, yeah, it’d be great for her business and from the looks of things she needed it, but I wasn’t doing it for her. I was doing it for me.” She looked to Lyra. “I mean, try to imagine eating an apple that hasn’t been chopped up, mixed with broccoli and alfalfa seeds and poppy seeds, drenched in butter – and I mean a whole stick of butter, real butter, not that fake stuff they have nowadays – and bread crumbs, and then the whole thing fried up.” Trixie grinned at her own recipe. “Ooh, and with eggs. Two eggs, scrambled and mixed in.”

Lyra blinked a few times at the thoroughly bizarre-sounding dish. “I’m…having an easy time imagining not eating an apple like that, actually.”

“Huh,” Trixie replied, honestly surprised. “That doesn’t sound delicious?”

“No.”

“Huh.”

There was a drawn-out silence between the two, before Lyra finally broke it. “So now where?” she asked.

“Well, after that fiasco, I’m in the mood for something easy,” Trixie responded. “So I guess…weather patrol? If you can find it.”

Lyra mumbled something under her breath at Trixie’s last comment, which Trixie chose to ignore. “Back to town…” the mint-green unicorn proclaimed, as the two began trotting back towards Ponyville proper.

“Rainbow Dash, if you don’t get your polychromatic flank in here in – oh, hello there – in five minutes, then I’m going to quit and take the entire team with me!” The jasmine-coated, blue-maned pegasus with three drops of water for a cutie mark shouted at the top of her lungs after throwing open the door to the weather patrol station just as Trixie was about to knock on it. She had only barely been able to dodge out of the way of being killed by blunt force trauma from the door.

The two unicorns stared, wide-eyed, at the pegasus, frozen in place. The pegasus, for her part, had her gray-blue eyes focused intently on the winter sky, as she breathed deeply, apparently waiting for somepony named Rainbow Dash.

“Um,” Lyra said at length, breaking the silence. “Hi.”

“Hello,” the pegasus repeated, not breaking eye contact with the sky. “What are you here for?”

Lyra turned to Trixie, who cleared her throat a little. “My name is Trixie,” she said. “I’m the new representative of Luna’s Night Court to Ponyville – ”

“And the festival overseer?” the pegasus guessed.

“Yes,” Trixie responded. “I just thought I’d stop by and see how the weather patrol is doing.” She looked up at the wintery sky, which was marred by a few cirrus clouds but otherwise was a clear, perfect blue. “…and everything seems to be just fine, actually.”

The pegasus blinked a few times, tearing her eyes away from the sky and glaring at Trixie. “Fine?” she demanded. “Fine?”

“Well, there’s a few clouds,” Trixie admitted, “but you’ve got two days to clear them, and I don’t imagine it’ll be very hard to keep new ones from forming…”

The pegasus leaned forward. “Are you serious?” she demanded, then looked to Lyra, wings fluttering in agitation. “Is she serious? Everything isn’t fine! There’s a storm building over the Everfree right now, probably coming this way, and our weather manager has disappeared! Again!” She paused a moment. “I’m Raindrops, by the way. Hi.”

The pegasus turned around and stomped inside the tall spire near Ponyville’s center that was the weather patrol station, the tallest structure in Ponyville. She didn’t close the door behind her, so Trixie decided to take that as an invitation to enter, with Lyra following. Inside, the tower was mostly hollow space, with various pegasi flitting about in the upper levels, looking over charts and maps and plans that were plastered across the building’s inner walls. All in all, there were maybe two dozen pegasi in the station, all of them looking extraordinarily busy and none of them looking particularly coordinated. Trixie heard several statements along the lines of ‘all our plans ruined,’ ‘it would be just before the Longest Night that this happens,’ and, most commonly, ‘where in the Princess' name is Rainbow Dash?’

“So,” Trixie said, as she trotted up next to Raindrops before the pegasi could fly straight up and away. “Why are you making a storm in the Everfree Forest if it’s going to be such a problem?”

Raindrops’ eyes widened at that. “Why are we…” she began, then shook her mane. “Right. New here. We don’t make the weather in the Everfree.”

“Then who does?”

“Nopony does. The Everfree just does what the Everfree wants.”

Trixie blinked a few times as she tried to wrap her mind around that one. “The…weather just happens on its own?” she asked.

Raindrops whickered in annoyance. “Don’t know why. Best us weather ponies can do is deal with it as it rolls over us. Good news is that once it leaves the Everfree’s airspace, we can work it again. The bad news, of course, being that until it does, there isn’t a thing we can do about it, meaning some very large storms can build up.” Raindrops gestured half-heartedly to the Ponyvillian weather team. “You’re looking at the most over-worked, under-appreciated ponies in Equestria.”

Trixie couldn’t help but notice a slight tug at the corner of Raindrops’ lips as she said that – if forced to hazard a guess, the unicorn would have ventured that Raindrops, despite her complaining, enjoyed the job and the challenge it presented. The unicorn trotted over to one wall, where a map of the Everfree forest had been set up, and a weather diagram the likes of which Trixie had never seen before placed next to it. The diagram made mention of air pressure, humidity, average temperature, and something called “forecasts” of the Everfree Forest’s upcoming weather. Their diagram also made it pretty clear that it was all just a bunch of guesswork.

“That’s useless now,” Raindrops answered as she came up alongside Trixie, reaching up a hoof and tearing down the weather diagram, tossing it into a nearby garbage bin. “The Everfree looked like it was going to be pretty quiet. Then this heat wave came out of nowhere a few days ago and started messing up everything. Hot air from the Everfree is mixing with the cold air from the rest of Equestria. Might be a thunderstorm, a blizzard, tornado, hurricane, I don’t know what’s brewing in there, but it’s going to be arriving soon. If we’re lucky, it won’t hit until after the Longest Night has passed.” She paused a moment, considering her own words. “But we’re not lucky.”

“And your weather manager has disappeared at a time like this?” Trixie asked incredulously.

Raindrops’ almost-smile disappeared, replaced by a rather firm frown as her wings sagged. “Rainbow Dash. She just up and disappeared after her last shift.”

“Disappeared?” Lyra asked. Trixie jumped, having forgotten that her fellow unicorn was nearby, but Raindrops seemed to take the mint-green pony’s appearance in easy stride.

“Pop. Gone. I’m not worried, she does it all the time, but she has a real knack for picking the worst possible times.” Raindrops shook her mane. “She’s the fastest flier in Equestria. She brags about that a lot, but I’ve seen her move and it’s the stars-sworn truth. When the Everfree storm hits, we’ll need her.” Once again, Raindrops considered her own words. “Not that she’ll be there. Without her here leading us, Cloud Kicker’s the one in charge, but…” she pointed a hoof upwards. Flitting about from one pony and one station to the next was a pegasus mare with a gray coat and yellow mane and tail, looking incredibly frazzled and talking incoherently to each pony she met. Raindrops watched her impassively for a few moments. “She doesn’t take pressure well,” the pegasus said.

Lyra and Trixie looked between each other, the latter beginning to suspect that Raindrops’ name and cutie mark didn’t simply represent a talent for making precipitation. “Well,” Trixie said, tipping her hat a little. “You have a lot of work to do. I’ll leave you to it.”

“Thanks. We’ll do what we can for the festival, just…” Raindrops offered a resigned shrug. “No promises.”

The two unicorns made their way from the weather station, Trixie wearing a grimace that would have done Raindrops proud. “So…” she said. “Nothing but apples in a few days, plus we might all die in a blizzard or get sucked up in a tornado or struck by lightning. This is shaping up nicely.”

Lyra frowned herself. “Yeah, I’m not liking this job very much,” the pony said. “I think I’d rather of just had the Longest Night come and have it all collapse around me, rather than see it falling to pieces ahead of time.”

Trixie glared at Lyra, but to her surprise the other unicorn offered a somewhat-playful bump with one shoulder. “Calm down,” the unicorn insisted. “It’s not your fault.”

“No, but as the overseer I’m going to be blamed for it,” Trixie pointed out, sighing. “I wonder if Luna knew that everything was going to the sun and back here and sent me here because of it.”

“That seems mean,” Lyra said, making a face at the thought of the Princess being so needlessly cruel. Despite the implications, however, it didn’t seem beyond the realm of possibility; if anything, it fit right in with the stories of the political sniping and shadowy games that was the food and drink of the Night Court of Luna.

“She was…less than happy with me the last time we spoke.” Trixie said. “After the ice palace thing we got into an argument about how I’m not taking my studies seriously anymore, and I said it’s because none of it mattered.” She looked to Lyra. “I mean, you’ve got a musical education and a direction you want your life to move in. Me? All I had to look forward to was another year of the same stuff. It was getting old.”

“So you think that Princess Luna set you up to fail?” Lyra asked.

“Wouldn’t put it past her.” Trixie mulled this thought over for a few minutes, then shook her mane. “Whatever. Let’s just move on to decorations. It’s supposed to be overseen by some unicorn pony named Rarity.”

Lyra’s trotting faltered a moment at that. “Ugh,” she groaned, turning down a path with Trixie in tow. She began chanting a number to herself, a large, round number that was, coincidentally, the payment she was receiving from Luna to serve as Trixie’s escort.

“So you know her,” Trixie guessed.

Lyra ground her teeth together. “Yes,” she declared.

“No,” the white unicorn said in a firm voice, “no, no, no! You simply cannot wear that ensemble around town anymore!”

Trixie’s eyes were wide as she reared up on her hind legs, using a hoof to try and fend off her attacker. “I like my hat and cape!”

“Yes, I’m sure they’re fine if you want to cry out circus attraction,” Rarity proclaimed as she closed in, horn glowing as she levitated measuring tape, scissors and fabric. “But if you’re to be our new noble representative of the Night Court – ”

“Princess Luna didn’t ennoble me!”

“I mean noble as a metaphor, darling. Gallant, upright, dignified, all these things and more which you most certainly are not while wearing those rags!”

Trixie leapt backwards – no easy feat when standing on only two legs – and let her own horn glow beneath her hat, calling up a solid blue bubble of arcane energy around herself just as the measuring tape held by Rarity lunged. It smacked harmlessly against Trixie’s impromptu shield.

“These aren’t rags!” Trixie proclaimed. “And they match my coat and eyes perfectly! And they’re both enchanted several times over making them worth more than their weight in gold!” Trixie paused, then let out a long sigh as she remembered a few details about the shield spell she had cast. “And you can’t hear me because this bubble is airtight. Great.”

Rarity was still poised on the other side of the shield, talking fervently to Lyra as the musician tried to calm down the fashion designer, but the white unicorn’s eyes hadn’t left their death-lock on Trixie’s own. At a guess, Trixie supposed that she had about five minutes of air inside the bubble, and briefly entertained the idea of letting herself suffocate before remembering that wouldn’t work: as soon as she lost consciousness, the spell would fail, and she would be helpless while Rarity would be free to do things to her – horrible, unspeakable things. Like try and put her in something frilly – or, Luna forbid, a dress.

Trixie still waited until the air began to get stale before letting her shield spell fade away. Rarity didn’t lunge immediately, which Trixie took as a good sign. “I’m. Not here. For a makeover,” the blue unicorn said, slowly and determinedly. “I’m here. To see. How the decorations. Are coming.”

Rarity pouted. “Well, of course they’re coming along just magnificently, darling,” the pony said. Her horn glowed once more, and Trixie flinched, but the other unicorn had merely grabbed an overly large sketchbook, which she opened to a page and presented to Trixie. Inside of it, she had used pencils of various colors to sketch out a remarkably detailed picture of Ponyville’s town hall, the large auditorium of which would be hosting the opening ceremonies of the Longest Night. The auditorium had been bedecked in various banners, curtains, tassels, and other fineries, with stalls set up along the edges to provide food and drinks for the ponies. The stage, meanwhile, was dominated by the flag of Equestria hanging down from its center: a stylized, eight-armed blue sun, with a darker crescent moon inside of it with horns pointing downwards, and tucked between the horns of the moon a single white star.

It was a beautiful drawing. It was, however, just a drawing. Trixie looked to Rarity, eyebrow raised. “That’s nice,” she said. “But how far along with this are you?”

“Oh, just about finished of course!” Rarity said, floating the sketch away. “In fact I shall be putting the finishing touches on it later tonight. You could stop by then, if you like, say around sundown? Or you could come by tomorrow, perhaps, and we could spend the midday together?”

Trixie debated whether she’d rather be trapped outside or trapped with Rarity during the midday, and found both thoughts equally unpleasant. “Tomorrow,” she said, “but probably after midday. Say around two o’clock.”

The white unicorn pouted a little. “Very well, Miss Trixie,” she said. “I’ll see you then.”

Trixie turned to leave, but stopped when she heard Rarity add, “and I’ll be sure to bring some…emergency fashion supplies with me. You can keep the clown suit if you really want, but eyes, a mane, and a coat like yours really shouldn’t be wasted by someone in your position!”

Trixie’s eyes were slightly larger than dinner plates as she fled the Carousel Boutique, Rarity’s home and store, at a full gallop. Lyra caught up only with some effort as Trixie stopped at a tree outside that she had ducked and hid behind, albeit not very well.

“And now you know,” Lyra said with a laugh.

Trixie glared at Lyra. “You…” she hissed. “You enjoyed that, didn’t you?”

“Maybe a little,” Lyra laughed, pulling down the brim of her Gatsby. While Rarity had made a few comments about her own choice of dress, she had been entirely focused on Trixie when she had learned who the blue unicorn was and what she was doing in Ponyville. “Lighten up, Trixie. Rarity at least seems to have all decorations in perfect – oh, hi Cheerilee!”

Lyra’s gaze had turned to a magenta earth pony with pink hair, wearing a warm-looking wool cloak and cap ensemble. The pony paused at the sight of Lyra, before a wide grin split her features. “Lyra!” she exclaimed, trotting up to the unicorn as Lyra did likewise. “When did you get back in Ponyville?”

“A few hours ago,” Lyra admitted as the two nuzzled affectionately, clearly old friends. “I’m showing Trixie here around town. Oh,” Lyra took a step away from Cheerilee, pointing to Trixie. “Cheerilee, this is Trixie. She’s going to be the representative of Luna’s Night Court to Ponyville.” She held out a hoof when Cheerilee started to bow respectfully. “Don’t do that, she isn’t a noble and enjoys seeing ponies do that way too much.”

Trixie pouted slightly, but found herself doing it mostly for show rather than putting any actual feeling behind it. “Trixie,” Lyra continued, “this is Cheerilee. She’s my second-oldest friend here in Ponyville and she’s studying to be a school teacher.”

Cheerilee’s smile dropped at that, and she looked down. “Oh,” she said in a low voice. “I guess you didn’t hear I’m not studying for that anymore.”

Lyra blinked a few times. “I – I’m sorry,” she said, looking mortified. “I didn’t – ”

“Because I graduated and run Ponyville’s elementary school now!” Cheerilee exclaimed, smile returning with full force, beaming like the stars.

Lyra and Cheerilee both made sounds at that which were just inside Trixie’s range of hearing but well inside her audio pain threshold. She put her hooves to her ears as she waited for the two friends to stop squealing with joy and prancing around each other. “Congratulations,” Trixie ventured at the first opportunity.

Cheerilee offered a polite nod at that, but turned back to Lyra, clearly intent on catching up with her old friend. “So have you seen BonBon yet?”

Lyra shook her head, and one of Trixie’s eyebrows raised as she noticed Lyra’s smile shifted from ‘joy at seeing an old friend’ to ‘embarrassed yet wistful,’ and also began to blush a color that matched Cheerilee’s coat. Trixie decided to mentally file that away as ‘interesting’ as she watched the two.

“I’ve been dragging Trixie around town,” Lyra said, gesturing to her companion. “And it’s been three years since I saw her, I mean really had a chance to see her, not just a quick weekend visit, and I don’t want to just show up and – ”

Lyra was interrupted by Cheerilee putting a hoof on her shoulder. Her own smile had shifted to be warm and caring. “Stop avoiding her,” she advised. “She’s been waiting long enough.”

Lyra blinked at that, before nodding fervently. “Right,” she said. “No problem.”

“Anyway,” Cheerilee said, pointing a hoof past Lyra and at the Carousel Boutique. “I’ve got an appointment to keep about the decorations.” Her voice betrayed no love lost for Rarity, something else which Trixie decided to file away as ‘interesting.’ “I’ll see you around, Lyra. But not before you’ve seen BonBon!” She turned to Trixie. “And you too, Representative,” she said, offering a deep, overtly formal bow before taking off.

Trixie blinked a few times. “Ha,” she said, turning around to get ready to trot to her next destination. “I got my bow in spite of your best – stars above!” The exclamation came as she found herself face-to-face – noses touching, even – with a blue-eyed, pink-coated pony who seemed to be staring into her soul. Trixie stumbled backwards, and thankfully the pink pony didn’t move.

Trixie stared at the pony. “Um – ” she began. The pink pony let out a gigantic gasp, then suddenly sped off, running away at speeds Trixie thought only pegasi were capable of pulling and quickly disappearing into Ponyville.

The blue unicorn blinked, trying to force her heart to stop attempting to burst from her chest at the shock she had just received. She noticed Lyra was staring at her, her own eyes wide but with a look of bitter defeat on her face.

“I’m sorry,” the unicorn apologized as though telling Trixie that her aunt and uncle had died. “I’m so, so sorry.”

4. Potent Potables [End of Part 1]

“Rainbow Dash?” Trixie asked, looking the pegasus mare over. Rainbow Dash’s own eyes copied the movements as she took in Trixie’s appearance.

“Yeah,” the pegasus answered. “Who are you supposed to be?” she looked between Trixie and Ditzy Doo. “Oh, and which one of you scared Fluttershy?”

Ditzy Doo waved her hoof a little. “Didn’t mean to,” the gray-coated pegasus apologized. “Is she okay?”

Rainbow Dash stepped to one side, pointing into Fluttershy’s home. It was decorated beautifully, adorned with all sorts of odds and ends that gave it a very homely, cozy appearance. However, a table and everything that had been on it were knocked over, along with a vase of flowers sitting near the stairs to the cottage’s second floor. “Does it look like she’s okay?” Rainbow Dash demanded. “Way to go, Derpy.”

Ditzy Doo grimaced slightly at Rainbow Dash’s accusation and name-calling. Trixie felt a surprising amount of furor rising in her chest over that. “Hey!” she exclaimed, stepping forward and placing her face right up to the pegasus’ own. “Leave Ditzy Doo alone!”

The cyan pegasus’ eyes widened a little at Trixie’s words, as though they had jogged a memory for her. After several moments of staring, she shook her head, clearing it. “Who are you?” she demanded.

“Trixie,” the unicorn introduced herself. “Representative Trixie of the Night Court of Luna. I’m also here as the Longest Night festival overseer, so I need to speak with Fluttershy about the music she volunteered to handle.”

Rainbow Dash bristled a little at that, in a mixture of defensiveness and embarrassment. “She’s doing just fine,” the pony proclaimed.

“Alright, but I need to talk to her.”

“No.”

“No?”

“No,” Rainbow Dash repeated firmly. “Not now. Come back later.” The pegasus made to close the door, but Trixie blinked, and each of its hinges were wrapped in a blue magical aura, holding the door firmly open.

“Why?” Trixie demanded.

Rainbow Dash stared. “What?”

“Why should I come back later?” Trixie clarified. “I’m here now, Fluttershy is here now, provided she hasn’t run out a back door or something – ”

“Hey! Lay off of Fluttershy! You don’t even know her!”

“True enough,” Trixie admitted, as she grinned. “But I do know that of the four ponies at this house, you’re the only one who isn’t supposed to be here.” She jabbed a hoof back at Ponyville. “You’re the weather patrol manager, right? Your team is wondering where you’ve gone. They’re practically threatening to quit.”

Rainbow Dash grunted, pointing up to the sky. “If those lazy bums can’t even handle a few cirrus clouds, then they shouldn’t be calling themselves pegasi.”

“Not those,” Trixie continued, pointing past Fluttershy’s house and into the darkening skies over the Everfree. “That. There’s a huge storm brewing over the Everfree and Raindrops said that – ”

“Raindrops?” Rainbow Dash asked, then threw her head back and laughed. “Raindrops worries about every little stray cumulus ‘cause of how slow a flier she is. And nopony should be worrying about that Everfree storm, it’s nothin’ I can’t handle.”

Trixie blinked. “By yourself?”

“Uh, yeah,” Rainbow Dash proclaimed, as though the answer should have been obvious.

“I’d love to see you try and back that up.”

The pegasus opened her mouth as though to claim that she would, and right now at that, but stopped halfway and grimaced. “Look, I’m weather manager and I know what I’m doing. If that storm becomes a problem, I’ll deal with it. But right now I can’t leave Fluttershy hangin’, so if you’ll just go away and take Derpy here with you – ”

Trixie’s eyes narrowed, and her horn glowed dangerously. “Don’t say that again,” she threatened.

Rainbow Dash grinned at how Trixie seemed to be taking the name worse than the pony it was directed at. She opened her mouth, but before she could say anything Ditzy Doo interposed herself between the weather manager and the Night Court representative, taking turns to glare at each of them, eyes focused and wings spread wide.

“Stop,” she said, her voice firm, like a mother scolding children who were misbehaving themselves. “Now.”

Trixie glared past Ditzy Doo, at Rainbow Dash, who matched her stare unflinchingly. Neither of them, however, made any move to continue their argument. After a few moments, the gray pegasus turned to Rainbow Dash. “I’ve known Fluttershy since she moved here,” she said. “Nearly as long as you. So I’m going to go see my friend.”

Rainbow Dash shook her head, appearing to have genuine concern for the pony who was even now cowering upstairs somewhere. “No, not right now. She’s really nervous and – ”

“Rainbow Dash, get out of my way.”

The other pegasus didn’t move for several moments, but the unflinching, unblinking stare of Ditzy Doo eventually wore her down. She backed away from the door, making enough room for the gray pegasus to step into the cottage. Once inside, she folded her wings back against her sides and turned around to look at Trixie. “What did you want to ask Fluttershy?” She asked.

“Just how the music preparations were coming along,” Trixie answered, making a point of not looking at Rainbow Dash, even peripherally. “Although now I’m kind of curious about how she could be friends with a stuck-up – ”

“No,” Ditzy Doo ordered with surprising firmness, jabbing a hoof at Trixie, suddenly enough to make the unicorn stumble backwards a few steps. After a few moments, she turned around and trotted away, heading upstairs, although she spared a final glance at the two other ponies. She didn’t speak, but the glare’s meaning was obvious: play nice or I will ground you for a month. Trixie wasn’t certain why such a look had an effect on her, but it did.

Silence lingered between the pegasus and the unicorn that Ditzy Doo left behind for some time. Eventually, however, Rainbow Dash glanced to Trixie, looking her over again. “Nice hat,” she intoned, smirking.

“Nice dye job,” Trixie countered without hesitation.

The pegasus’ grin widened as she ran a hoof through her mane. “It’s not dyed,” she proclaimed proudly. “I’m all-natural.”

Trixie seethed, but didn’t rise to the bait as she chose to focus on the ground under her hooves and not the grin of triumph she knew was on Rainbow Dash’s face. Instead, she ran through her mental list of Things She Hated About Today. Previously, the Apple clan had been topping that list, but Rainbow Dash had managed to shoot past all competition and settle into an easy first place. Yay.

After an eternity of silence, the sound of hoof-steps from the floor above them signaled Ditzy Doo’s return. The gray pegasus trotted down the cottage’s stairs and up to Trixie, a sad look on her face, eyes once again having wandered apart.

“Fluttershy isn’t going to be able to do the music this year,” she said sadly. “Rainbow Dash here talked her into volunteering but now she’s too frightened of being in front of so many ponies. Rainbow has been trying to convince her not to be worried, but Fluttershy’s mind seems made up.”

Rainbow Dash grumbled under her breath as she sat back on her haunches, crossing her front hooves in front of her. “I bet I would’ve been able to if you hadn’t frightened her.”

“She seemed pretty determined,” Ditzy Doo said, then considered her words. “Relatively, anyway.”

Trixie was wide-eyed, mouth hanging open slightly and blinking only slowly as she took in what Ditzy Doo had said. “What?” she asked. “No. No, it’s only two days to the festival. She said she’d handle the music, volunteered, filled out the paperwork – ”

“…actually, that was mostly me,” Rainbow Dash admitted sheepishly. Trixie’s eyes somehow managed to open even wider as she turned her gaze slowly onto the cyan pegasus, who’s expression had changed to one of embarrassment. “I mean, you should hear her sing, and she’s really good with animals and I’ve even seen her arrange a bird chorus, and I suggested that she should volunteer and get her birds to help, and she said she’d love to, and I thought it was maybe a chance to get her to open up…but then she got cold hooves a few days ago.”

Trixie’s mouth opened and shut of its own accord a few times before words managed to come out. “I’m going upstairs,” she said, taking a step forward. Instantly, her path was blocked by a pair of pegasi, wings spread defensively.

“No,” Ditzy Doo said.

“I don’t think so,” Rainbow Dash added.

Trixie looked between the two. “But…but…it’s the Longest Night!” Trixie exclaimed. “The halfway point of winter! And we don’t have music arranged for when the Princess raises the moon, and the catering is gonna be awful, and there’s that storm coming – ”

“Are you still on about that?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“ – and I’m gonna get blamed for this!” Trixie exclaimed, stepping forward again, but only to get close to the two pegasi as she looked between the two. “This was my big chance to show Luna that I can handle responsibility and everything is heading straight into the sun!”

“Well, deal,” Rainbow Dash said.

Ditzy Doo rolled her eyes at Rainbow Dash’s advice, before turning back to Trixie. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I really am. But Fluttershy is just too delicate. Even if you convinced her somehow, she’d probably freeze on stage on the Longest Night anyway.” Rainbow Dash shot Ditzy Doo a glare at that, but the gray pegasus only shrugged, and after a moment Rainbow Dash sighed and nodded in confirmation.

Trixie’s head snapped between the two a few more times, before she let out a low groan of frustration. “Fine,” she spat, turning around and stomping out the door, making a point of letting the anger she felt rise visibly to the surface, projecting the perfect image of a pony that nopony would want to be within a hundred feet of if they could help it.

As expected, Ditzy Doo didn’t follow her; indeed, the two pegasi soon closed the door to Fluttershy’s cottage. Once it was shut, Trixie stopped her angry pace, eyes narrow as her horn glowed beneath her hat, casting a spell that was almost as familiar to her as basic unicorn telekinesis. Her color and form seemed to simply bleed out of reality, becoming nothing more than an odd smudge on the air, and soon afterwards not even that as her invisibility spell wrapped itself firmly around her body, hat, and cape. A second, similarly familiar spell encircled each of her hooves; she pranced in place on the dirt path beneath her a few times to confirm that her silencing spell had taken effect, before making a beeline straight for Fluttershy’s cottage.

The closed door presented little deterrent, as it hadn’t been locked by either pegasus, and Trixie opened, passed through, and closed it before anypony inside the house could notice. She saw Rainbow Dash in Fluttershy’s kitchen, brewing up tea – and helping herself to a rather ample cookie supply – while Ditzy Doo wasn’t in sight, probably having gone up to the second floor. Trixie grimaced as she began to climb the stairs, slowly and carefully despite the sound-dampening spell that extended in a six inch radius around each hoof. In just a few moments, she was upstairs, and making her way down a hall and into a room with its door wide open, in which soft voices could be heard conversing.

“…okay, Fluttershy,” Ditzy Doo said, as Trixie entered the room. Fluttershy’s bedroom was decorated much like the rest of her house; dominated by a bed with a green, thick comforter. laying on top of the bed was a yellow pegasus with a pink, thick, long mane, staring intently at her own front hooves and seemingly like she was trying to hide her face in it. Her cutie mark was a trio of pink butterflies. Sitting opposite her on the bed was Ditzy Doo, both eyes focused forward.

“O-okay…?” Fluttershy stuttered. Her voice was amazingly soft; Trixie had to lean in to hear it.

“Yeah,” Ditzy said, leaning forward cautiously and gently nuzzling the yellow pegasus. She flinched initially, but after a moment leaned in to the friendly sign of affection. “It was really brave of you even to volunteer.”

“Oh, I don’t know…” Fluttershy intoned. “It was Rainbow Dash’s idea, I never would have been brave enough to even try without her, and I only did it because I never thought I’d ever actually get the position…”

“Well, you did,” Ditzy Doo said as she pulled away. “It was a big step forward.”

Fluttershy looked up at Ditzy Doo, and Trixie took a step back. Her eyes…Fluttershy’s large, teal eyes were stained red from tears. “I-it doesn’t feel like one…” she said. “Oh, and that Trixie sounded so mad…I’ve made such a mess of things, I never should have let Rainbow Dash talk me into even trying, but she seemed so sure that I could do it that I didn’t want to let her down, but now I have…”

Trixie did not, by any stretch of the imagination, consider herself an affectionate pony. It nevertheless took every ounce of willpower she had to not leap atop the bed and give Fluttershy a warm, tight hug. She looked like she needed one; then again, if she had flinched from even a gentle nuzzle, she wasn’t certain Fluttershy would be able to survive such an outright show of affection.

The unicorn pony also wanted to let out an annoyed sigh, but practice at sneaking around held that in check, as well. She had come up here with the intention of de-cloaking herself where there was nothing Ditzy Doo or Rainbow Dash could do to stop her from seeing Fluttershy and demanding the pony perform in the Longest Night festival, but what she’d seen in just a few seconds of observing Fluttershy made it painfully obvious that the she was never going to be able to perform on stage, no matter what Trixie either threatened to do to her or offered to bribe her with. The blue unicorn instead turned around and made her way from Fluttershy’s cottage, back out into the waning winter day.

“Trixie, I’m sick of apples,” Luna said.

“Me too, princess.”

“Yes, but you see, Trixie, it was your job to make sure that catering went smoothly. Now, because of you, I’m going to destroy the Apple Trust and outlaw apples across Equestria. Anypony caught eating one will be hanged, drawn, and quartered.”

“I’m cool with that,” Trixie said, beginning to seek out an apple, “but do you really want to go outside in this?”

Luna looked outside, at the massive snow-rain-wind-thunder-lightning-ice-and-acid storm that was even now destroying Ponyville. “I’m an alicorn, I can deal,” Luna remarked, opening the door to the town hall and trotting outside. Immediately, she began melting, and freezing, and being flayed. Dramatic music probably should have been playing, but it was completely, notably absent.

“Great,” Luna objected as her body was destroyed. “This is the last time I invest any responsibility in you, Trixie.”

“I know.”

There was a pause. As Luna was reduced to nothing more than a head, she raised one eyebrow and appraised the interior of the town hall with her one remaining eye before it was destroyed. “The decorations are quite lovely, though. Good job.”

Trixie snickered at her own morbid fantasy as she made her way through Ponyville’s streets, looking for the building that would be serving as her home while she was living in the town. It wasn’t particularly hard to find, being located near the center and bordering the cobblestone plaza that surrounded the town hall. It was a two-story, thatch-roofed house, distinguishable from the other residencies in Ponyville only because it was surrounded by a short iron fence – only about chest-high – and a small garden, currently buried under snow, as well as a hanging sign outside of its front gate that read “Residency of the Representative of the Night Court of Luna,” the words printed over the Equestrian coat of arms.

After the hectic day of disappointment, shocks, and nearly being trapped outside at noon, she was severely hoping that the pantry of her new home was fully stocked, or at least contained a decent supply of potent potables. She trotted inside with eyes half-lidded, finding the door unlocked and the house inside dark. She hung her hat on a stand just inside the door, but kept her cape on – the house was probably cold, and she wanted to continue benefitting from the warming enchantment woven into her cape until she could get a fire going.

“Ugh,” the unicorn groaned as she made her way towards the door that, if she were designing this house, would contain the living room. “Where’s the light – gah!”

Quite suddenly, someone had turned on the gas lights in the room she had wandered into – and Trixie found herself surrounded by ponies of every shape, hue, and tribe, all of whom took the opportunity to shout surprise! at the top of their lungs. Trixie all but leapt from her coat at the sight, and nearly stumbled to the floor as a certain vibrantly pink pony was suddenly standing right in front of her.

“Surprise!” The pony exclaimed. “I’m Pinkie Pie and I threw this party just for you. Were you surprised? Were you? Were you? Huh?”

Trixie stared at the wide-grin, the manic look. It was, for some reason, far too easy to imagine this pony doing horrible things to her.

“You see, I saw you outside of Rarity’s, remember? You were all ‘stars above!’ and I was all gasp, remember? You see I never saw you before, and if I never saw you before that means you’re new, ‘cause I know everypony, and I mean every pony in Ponyville, and if you’re new, that meant you hadn’t met anypony yet – ”

“I’d met a few ponies, actually…” Trixie interrupted as she picked herself up and started looking for something that would destroy her liver in short order.

Pinkie Pie didn’t slow down or acknowledge the interruption, and followed Trixie as she walked. “ – and if you haven’t met anypony yet, you must not have any friends, and if you don’t have any friends then you must be lonely, and that made me so sad, and I had an idea, and that’s why I went gasp, I’ll just throw a great big ginormous super-duper spectacular welcome party and invite everypony in Ponyville! See? And now you have lots and lots of friends!”

Trixie had found a table laden with glasses and bottles that contained vibrant warnings about their contents. Checking a few labels, she chose one with the largest number on it and began pouring it into a glass, while turning to regard Pinkie Pie and the party. “Everypony in Ponyville?” Pinkie Pie’s head bobbed up and down rapidly as Trixie finished pouring and took a swig of what she’d poured for herself. It burned pleasantly on the way down her throat. “There’s maybe two dozen ponies here.”

Pinkie Pie didn’t deflate at all from Trixie’s remark. “A party is still a party even if everypony doesn’t show up!” She exclaimed, bouncing happily in circles around Trixie. “Besides I don’t think your house could fit everypony, not that I wouldn’t mind trying! And there’s still plenty of ponies here!” She smiled as she dragged several into a group-hug, which they went along with surprisingly easily. The mugs of something foaming held in their hooves may have had something to do with it.

Trixie blinked a few times, remembering Lyra’s advice about Pinkie Pie’s parties. The pink pony was genuinely enthused and seemed intent on making this Trixie’s best night ever. And she’d just had an awful day and could use any excuse to just forget it. Tomorrow might be worse, after all, what with having to find a new music venue on such short notice, not to mention that meeting with Rarity –

Ugh.

The blue unicorn drained what remained of her drink in one fell swoop, and then began pouring herself a new glass. As she did, an old earth pony salute came to mind: eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die!

Lyra and BonBon passed through the front gate of the residency of the Night Court Representative with trepidation, especially giving the volume of music that was coming out of it – and above that, on occasion, the voice of Pinkie Pie.

“Do we have to?” Lyra asked as they stood outside of the door. Lyra was once more in her wool cloak and Gatsby, while BonBon was bedecked in a cloak and wide-brimmed hat of her own. With the sun having settled beyond the horizon, the night’s temperature was plunging rapidly. A chill wind answered her question as it cut through their garments, driving both of the ponies inside quickly to get out of the cold.

“So what’s Trixie like?” BonBon asked.

“Kind of a jerk.” Lyra admitted. “But I think she’s under a lot of stress.”

“Hmm. Maybe this party will do her good, then,” BonBon observed as the two shucked their hats and cloaks, leaving them in a pile that had been formed near the front door. Several ponies had escaped from where the main party seemed to be going on, standing in the hallway; they politely greeted BonBon and welcomed Lyra back from Canterlot.

“But we have to be in the same house as Pinkie Pie…” Lyra objected.

“Hush, she’s easily my best customer,” BonBon responded, gently knocking her flank against Lyra’s own. The unicorn put on a suitably mollified-looking face as the two ponies approached the main room. Before they could enter, however, a certain blue unicorn in a purple cape came stumbling out, no fewer than three different glasses, each containing liquids of different color, grasped in her telekinetic aura.

Lyra and BonBon froze as Trixie’s violet eyes looked in their direction. They were glazed over, at first, but came swiftly into focus as she saw Lyra. “Heartstrings!” She exclaimed. Something seemed…off…about her voice, and not simply the slur it had picked up from the concoctions held in each vessel she carried. “Y’all made it!”

“Y’all?” Lyra echoed, as Trixie stumbled forward and gave Lyra a tight hug, which the mint green unicorn returned if only to increase her chances of it ending quickly. As it did, Trixie turned to regard BonBon.

“You!” Trixie exclaimed, then paused, eyes squinting a little as she stared at BonBon. “Ah’m afraid ah have not yet had the pleasure.”

Lyra blinked a few times, realizing the problem with Trixie’s voice – her accent had changed, not quite to the country drawl that was common to the rural parts of Equestria, but similar. The Canterlot lilt to her accent had completely disappeared, however. “Uh,” Lyra said. “Trixie – ”

“Trixie?” The unicorn asked incredulously, looking insulted. She put a hoof to her chest. “Ah’m wounded! Ah thought we were on better terms, mon amie Heartstrings! Je m’appelle Lulamoon!”

Lyra’s eyes grew larger than any plate found outside of the Griffin Kingdoms at that demand. “Lulamoon?” she asked.

“Oui!” Trixie drew Lyra into a deep hug, again, as BonBon stared with a mixture of confusion and mirth. “Ah’m so glad you’re here, Heartstrings! Come on, come on, come on, y’all have to see this!” She stumbled away and back into the main party room.

BonBon blinked a few times, then looked back to Lyra. “She seems very friendly,” the earth pony remarked. “I don’t know what you were worried about.”

Lyra was actually growing quite a bit beyond "worry" as she and BonBon made their way into the living room, where the music was loud and the ponies were dancing, or recovering from long dancing sections, or just talking to each other. A pink blur moved between them all, making sure that neither glass nor mug remained empty for very long. Once inside, Trixie took them both by the hoof and dragged them over to a wall, on which a beautiful, stylized mural had been painted.

“Regardez! Look!” Trixie said, jabbing a hoof at the painting. “It’s the story of – of – well, Ah don’t want to say her name in polite company, Heartstrings, but you know.”

Lyra blinked, inspecting the mural. While done in gentle, story-book quality – and ending with Luna standing triumphant, sun and moon balanced on either wing – the mural clearly depicted the story of the fall of Celestia, the former alicorn princess and Luna’s elder sister, and her transformation into the fiery, wrathful, and greedy mare known as Corona, followed by the epic battle between Luna and Corona for the fate of Equestria. It featured Luna’s victory prominently, but Lyra nevertheless felt a shiver go down her spine at the sight, even in storybook fashion, of the alicorn that to this day was trapped inside the sun.

Trixie nodded as Lyra looked over the mural, a wide-grin on her features. “Story of Corona,” she said, apparently forgetting her earlier concern. “Oui. Somethin’ like this is in every royal appointment in Equestria, mon amie. Reminds us to do our jobs n’ such.” Trixie drained one of the glasses she held, then turned to Lyra and BonBon. “Do you know what Corona said, just before Princess Luna trapped her in the sun?” She put a hoof to her chest as though stabbed. “Ahh!”

The unicorn laughed at her joke and drained her second glass, but quickly noticed the mortified looks on the faces of Lyra and BonBon. “Ne me regardez pas comme ça!” She exclaimed, stomping forward and jabbing a hoof slightly to Lyra’s left. “C’est un boum! Y’all are supposed to enjoy yourselves!”

Lyra stared, having a very, very difficult time reconciling the pony in front of her – who was draining her final glass – with the pony she had left earlier in the day. “Are you alright?” she asked.

Trixie glared at Lyra, before her gaze softened noticeably and she stumbled forward, tapping Lyra on the nose. “You know,” she said, “you are very cute for a musician. Or because y’all are a musician. Whatever.”

“Uh,” Lyra responded.

“She’s taken,” BonBon said quickly, stepping forward defensively between Trixie and Lyra.

Trixie regarded her, and beamed. “Ne vous inquiétez pas! You’re very cute too!” She stumbled backwards a little, as Pinkie Pie arrived and re-filled her drinks. Trixie looked to the pink earth pony and smiled widely. “And Pinkie Pie, you’re cute too, in an annoying sort of way…”

“Thanks!” The earth pony exclaimed.

Trixie laughed. “Everypony’s cute!” she exclaimed as she began walking/stumbling towards the nearest table and climbing it. “Everypony’s cute! Even I'm cute, non?” Trixie stood atop the table, rearing up on her hind legs and throwing her forelegs wide, telekinesis seizing her cape and causing it to billow as though in a strong wind. “But in purple? Ah'm stunning!”

With that, the unicorn collapsed, falling from the table and onto the floor, grin never leaving her face. Her eyes were closed, but she was still breathing, so Lyra assumed she was alive and mostly unharmed. Pinkie Pie smiled widely at the sight. “She’s become one with her inner self!” the party pony exclaimed.

“She passed out,” BonBon remarked.

Pinkie Pie nodded at her fellow earth pony. “That too.”

5. Breakdown

As a consequence of having a mad alicorn trapped inside of it, everypony in Equestria feared the sun to some greater or lesser extent. Even the most obstinate and impious still sought shelter during the midday. Still, few ponies outright hated the sun.

Trixie hated the sun, at least right now. But not as much as it seemed to hate her.

The blue unicorn groaned loudly as she turned away from her window and buried her face in her pillow, welcoming the sweet embrace of darkness that allowed her to escape from the wretched rays of the tyrant sun. She didn’t remember climbing into bed. She didn’t, come to think of it, remember much of last night at all after the contents of the first bottle of bourbon had disappeared under mysterious circumstances, forcing her to find a second one. Or maybe a third. Whatever. Trixie let out a contented sigh as she snuggled closer into her pillow, or tried to. Her hoof was caught in something.

Opening an eye – argh the sunlight – and looking down, she saw that whoever had laid her into bed last night, as she sorely doubted that she’d been conscious enough to do so herself, had neglected to remove her cape first. It was now tangled about her front, trapping one foreleg against her chest awkwardly. Groaning, Trixie forced herself to sit up on her bed and used a combination of magic, her hooves, and a substantial number of impolite words to escape her cape and sling it from her shoulders and onto the floor. Instantly upon leaving her person, however, its warming enchantment also slipped off of her body, and she suddenly realized that her bedroom was freezing. With a gasp and a few additional curses, she quickly got back underneath her bed’s covers. Unfortunately, the enchantment worked by making her retain all of her body heat – meaning that none had been lost into her bed. All she had succeeded in doing was to surround herself in ice-cold sheets.

“I hate my life,” Trixie proclaimed loudly, which turned out to be a poor idea. The sound reverberated through her skull, attempting to shake her horn from her head from the feel of things. She groaned one more time as she climbed from her bed, threw on her cape, and tried to lie back down. It was no use, however: she was awake now, whether she wanted to be or not.

“Hate,” Trixie repeated, though she had the good sense to be quieter this time as she stumbled from bed and resolved to brave attempting the stairs. After all, the worst thing that could happen to her would be falling and breaking her neck, and then she wouldn’t have to deal with the sunlight or the pounding in her head anymore.

Trixie found the house empty but surprisingly clean, given what little she remembered of the party. There wasn’t an unsoiled glass, mug, cup, or other such container to be found in the whole place, but they had, at least, all been organized into neat piles in the kitchen near the sink. The pantry was stocked with only the basics – bread and hay, mostly, and a few condiments – but despite Trixie’s habits, she felt that nothing more complicated than toast and butter was probably called for right now.

Trixie’s stomach roiled in protest at the thought of dairy. On second thought, maybe it would be better to skip the butter.

Trixie had just started to feel like an actual unicorn pony again – she’d gotten a fire going, eaten a few slices of plain toast, and was able to look out a window without going blind – when a series of explosions occurred at her front door. Or somepony knocked. Either way, Trixie supposed she should probably go and either inspect the damage, or else cause some of her own. Stumbling to the still-intact door revealed that the latter was most likely going to be the case. Sliding her hat on for extra defensive against the sunlight, she opened her door, and found herself staring and an earth pony with an orange mane and three carrots for a cutie mark, wearing a wide-brimmed hat and winter cloak.

Trixie blinked a few times as she stared. “Carrot Top?” she asked, then winced at her own voice reverberating through her skull again.

The earth pony nodded. “May I come in?” she asked, her soft voice doing considerably less damage to Trixie’s brain.

Trixie stared a moment, before nodding “Yeah, yeah, it’s just…what time is it?” Trixie leaned outside even as Carrot Top entered, trying to check the sun’s position. She didn’t even come close to accomplishing her goal before he pain of looking towards the tyrant sun forced her to retreat back inside and close the door, rubbing her eyes.

“Nearly midday, actually,” Carrot Top admitted, as she appraised Trixie. “Are you…alright? What happened?”

“I don’t know,” Trixie explained, as she used magic to take Carrot Top’s hat and cloak, and hung them and her own hat near the door, “you’ll have to find somepony else who was at the party and ask them…” Carrot Top grinned wryly and nodded knowingly at that. “So what brings you here?”

Carrot Top bit her lip. “Business,” she explained. “I had an appointment arranged with Duke Blueblood, but then he retired, and it’s sort of an emergency, so I was hoping that I could speak with you…”

Trixie blinked a few times at that, before rubbing her head. “Uh, yeah. Okay. I probably have an office around here…somewhere…”

Had she been somewhat less hungover, Trixie might have been embarrassed that she didn’t yet fully know the layout to her own home. Still, it took only a minimal of searching to find the room that would be serving as her office while she lived in Ponyville, since it was the closest one to the door. The office was small and only sparsely decorated – she’d have to change that provided she survived the morning – with a desk and comfortable-looking pillows on either side for sitting at, a bookcase with various dry tomes in it, probably the Ponyville legal code set against one wall and a large, old-style map of Ponyville set against another. There were also windows, but mercifully the curtains to them were closed over, so the only light came from the gas lamps that Trixie turned on as they entered.

“Okay,” Trixie said, as she got behind her desk and settled down, intending to give a somewhat dramatic cape flare as she did but failing due to a combination of being hungover and…well, no, actually, that was it. All she succeeded in doing was dumping the contents of her cape’s inner pocket onto the floor.

“Ugh,” Trixie said, summoning up magic and lifting the three spilled envelopes onto her desk. “Sorry, sorry…not at my best…this is sort of my first real hangover…”

Carrot Top offered another knowing smile. “I remember mine,” she said, though afterwards she paused and considered her words. “Actually, that’s not true. It wouldn’t be a real hangover if I remembered anything other than wanting to just be struck dead by Luna.”

Trixie let out a slight snort at that. “Yeah. That’s been arranged for me,” she groaned, before closing her eyes and forcing her mind to focus regardless of how much she just wanted to die right now. When she opened them again, she found herself looking at her desk. “Okay,” she said, as she used her magic to open the first midnight-blue envelope and slide out the paper inside. “What did you want to see me about?”

“Well,” Carrot Top said, fidgeting slightly as she spoke, “it’s…it’s a difficult thing to ask. It’s just that this past year’s harvest season wasn’t as good as I’d hoped it would be…carrot sales weren’t as large…and then the weather schedule called for an early start to winter for I don’t know what reason…”

Trixie nodded sympathetically, as her eyes glanced over the letter from Luna. Despite being, officially, from her mentor, the letter was extremely formal, nothing more than an outline of Luna’s intention to appoint Trixie to the position of Representative of her Night Court and outlining the duties and responsibilities that Trixie would be expected to uphold and carry out – nothing that Trixie didn’t know already, in other words. The formality and distance stung at Trixie. She hadn’t even received a ‘good luck…’ She folded the letter back up and looked to Carrot Top even as she started opening the brown-enveloped one. “So what is your request?”

Carrot Top shifted uncomfortably. “I’d like to request a tax extension from Her Majesty.” She said.

Trixie considered Carrot Top’s request. “You’re petitioning her directly?” she asked. “Shouldn’t you be taking this up with the Equestrian Revenue Service…?” Trixie’s question trailed off as Carrot Top looked away, dejected. The blue unicorn bit her lip. “You already have?”

Carrot Top didn’t look up. “Declined,” she said. “Since I run the farm practically by myself ‘til harvest season, I already receive some tax breaks. But I just don’t think I’m going to be able to pay on time this year, not without some leave…”

Trixie nodded as she glanced at the contents of the second envelope. As she had suspected, this letter hadn’t been sent from Luna at all, but rather one of her many secretaries. It was directions as to how to acquire her royal stipend for the month, as well as a list of tasks in Trixie’s backlog as Representative, which was, surprisingly, very little. Duke Blueblood must have been an industrious pony to have left her so little work…

Trixie offered Carrot Top a smile as she opened the last letter. “Lucky we ran into each other yesterday,” she noted.

Carrot Top looked mortified. “I’m not asking for payback for lunch or anything!” she exclaimed quickly.

Trixie gave a friendly laugh, as she turned her attention to her final dispatch. It was a series of sheets of paper, each looking older than the last. “I didn’t think you were. I’m just saying, it was lucky. I’m Luna’s personal student and I can…and I…” Trixie’s voice trailed off as her eyes glided over the paper in front of her. She looked to the next page, then the one after that, eyes widening. “…and Luna can go and join her sister in the sun!”

Carrot Top’s eyes widened and she stumbled backwards a little at Trixie’s outburst, which went so far past obscene that the concept of obscenity itself seemed polite and well-mannered by comparison. The unicorn was staring at her desk and the letter she had dropped there, breathing heavily with barely contained anger.

“…Representative?” Carrot Top asked after a moment, slowly making her way forward. “Is…is everything – ” she was interrupted at Trixie’s horn glowed, and the newest-looking sheet of paper Trixie had held onto levitated up and in front of Carrot Top’s eyes.

To Representative Trixie Lulamoon:

I am given to understand that you shall be my successor to the position of Representative of the Night Court of Luna to Ponyville. Congratulations on managing to displease Her Majesty enough to make her want to banish you from the Night Court, but not enough to make her want to appoint you as ambassador to the Griffin Kingdoms. Well done!

Now, the hard part is about to begin. Are you sitting down? Good. That’s it. Is there a clock nearby? If so, then take a long, hard look at it, for you will come to know it well as you watch the glacial movement of its hands counting down the seconds until you can escape, by retirement or death, the prison that is your thoroughly meaningless appointment to this nowhere town, this wasteland of Equestria.

Well, that’s it. I have ensured that there is a good stock in the liquor cabinet; there is no reason in Equestria why you shouldn’t spend the better part of your days in a drunken stupor. Just make sure to clean yourself up for formal occasions. Also, you are the deciding member in any tie vote in Ponyville’s town council. Don’t worry, it almost never happens, and if it does, they’ll call you.

Do not think me vindictive, Miss Lulamoon. I received a very similar letter from the pony whom I replaced in this position, and she received one of her own, and so on. I have enclosed a sampling of them with this dispatch, but in the safe behind the bookcase you’ll find dozens more, dating back to the very foundation of Ponyville itself. The town has always been used as a site of exile for those who have fallen out of Luna’s favor but were not so unfortunate as to elicit her hate.

Yours sincerely,

– Duke Blueblood, retired.

P.S.: One more thing. Should a crisis strike Ponyville, you technically can override any decision the town council makes. Princess Luna looks poorly on such abuses, however, and doing so haphazardly is a sure way to get an appointment to that ambassadorship I mentioned. Still, if the tedium becomes too much to bear…

Carrot Top blinked a few times as she read the letter, before Trixie pulled it away. She swallowed a few times as she looked over the other letters. Each one followed much the same pattern, a depressing legacy of ponies who had realized the mediocrity of their position and, out of a sense of solidarity, had seen fit to warn their successors. “The Duke wasn’t lying…” Carrot Top observed.

“Baron,” Trixie corrected absent-mindedly, though from the look on her face, she was doing so almost subconsciously. “Duke is his name. Baron was his title before he retired…”

“Oh. I never knew that…”

Trixie blinked a few times. “Exile,” she said softly. “I’ve been exiled. I was exiled. I knew Luna was furious with me, but I didn’t think that…”

Carrot Top bit her lip as she regarded the unicorn. “I’m…I’m sorry,” she said, stepping forward. “But Ponyville isn’t so bad. We’re the site of the Longest Night festival this year!”

Trixie glanced up at that, eyes wide. “N…no!” she exclaimed, taking several rapid steps towards Carrot Top. The earth pony backed away, but Trixie kept advancing. “Don’t you get it? I’ve been banished! And Luna hated me enough to send me here! Here, where everything was heading into the sun already! She’s an alicorn, she must have known about the Everfree storm, somehow knew that Fluttershy couldn’t perform! She knows the Apple Trust runs the festival, knew that the food would be nothing but apples and she knows she’s a picky eater, always said it was her one vice, which means she knew that the catering was going wrong too, and then I don’t even know what’s going on with the decorations but there must be something awful…”

Carrot Top had been backed against a wall by the desperate-looking unicorn. “Representative – ” she began.

“And I’ve been exiled here!” Trixie exclaimed, backing away from Carrot Top and turning around. “She’s still mad about the argument and the ice palace and so decided to punish me by sending me here and making me suffer for a little bit before trapping me in this position for the rest of my life!”

Carrot Top blinked rapidly. “This…this seems like a bad time,” Carrot Top ventured, as she began making her way to the door. “I’ll come back later…”

Trixie turned in place at that, eyes darting back and forth over Carrot Top, the map of Ponyville set onto the wall, and her desk, where Blueblood’s and his predecessors’ letters lay. After several moments, her eyes narrowed. “No,” Trixie commanded, her voice dropping several octaves from the high-pitched panic it had been at. “No. Stay. I’m going to need your help.”

Carrot Top grimaced. “Help?”

Trixie snickered a little. “Oh, I know what you’re thinking,” she said. “I’ve fallen out of Luna’s favor. I can’t help you with your tax problems anymore.”

Carrot Top shook her head. “No,” she said. “Well…I mean, it’s on my mind, but really I think you need to be alone – ”

“No,” Trixie repeated, stepping forward. “No, I need your help. I need to know how fast you could put together a vending stall of carrots for tomorrow.”

Carrot Top blinked a few times. “What?” she asked.

“Carrots. Tomorrow. How fast?”

“Well…if I work through the night…but I heard you weren’t able to convince the Apples to let me set up a stall at the festival – ”

Trixie grinned. A plan was forming in her mind as she trotted up next to Carrot Top. “Forget the Apple Trust,” she said in a voice that was probably intended to be warm and inviting, but came across to Carrot Top as having a cold center to it. She guided Carrot Top back over to her desk. “You need money, right? Why pass up the opportunity of the Longest Night?”

“I don’t have any of the paperwork filled out for – ”

Trixie chuckled slightly, tapping the side of her nose with one hoof. “I think you’ll find,” she said, “that the paperwork is strictly for food that is intended to be sold on the grounds of the festival. But if you were to, say, use my front lawn, which just so happens to border the town center, where the festival will be happening…”

Carrot Top stared. “That could make the Apple Trust mad – ”

“Forget the Apples!” Trixie repeated, although louder this time. “Why should they get all the benefits of the Longest Night and leave you out in the cold?” Trixie leaned close to Carrot Top. “It’s their fault, you know. That gigantic apple farm of theirs. Probably snap up all the good workers during harvest season too, huh? And they don’t struggle. You know they don’t struggle no matter what that Applejack claims.”

Carrot Top opened her mouth to object, but then shut it as she considered. “Well…”

“You’ve got to take a stand!” Trixie exclaimed, a manic gleam to her eyes. “Show her you’re not just going to lie down and take what she’s trying to stick you with! It’s her fault you’re stuck here! Her fault you needed to ask for a tax extension!”

Carrot Top blinked, as Trixie trotted around to the other side of her. “This way,” Trixie observed, “you won’t need a tax break. You’ll be able to make enough bits during the festival to stay on your own four hooves. You won’t need anypony’s help!”

The earth pony blinked a few times, thinking deeply about what Trixie was saying. “I don’t want to antagonize the Apples, though…”

Trixie blinked a few times, then shrugged. “Fine,” she proclaimed. “Let them trot all over you. But you can forget the tax extension.” Trixie walked around to the other side of her desk, but didn’t break eye contact with Carrot Top. “Even if I could convince Luna to entertain your request, which after this I doubt I could,” she magically waved Blueblood’s letter in the air, “I’m not sure I’d be willing to do so for a pony who’ll just let other ponies have their way with her.”

Carrot Top blinked. “Wait, you won’t even send in my petition?” she demanded.

“Why should I?” Trixie asked. “Her Majesty needs to know that a tax extension wouldn’t be wasted on you.”

“But – ”

“However, if you do what I said, then I’ll send in the request. But by then you won’t even need it! You’ll have the money you need to pay your taxes from the sales on the Longest Night!”

Carrot Top stared, wide-eyed, at Trixie, who had a grin that wouldn’t leave her face. “I…” the earth pony began to object. “but…the…” Carrot Top continued sputtering for a few moments, before her expression changed from one of shock and betrayal to one of anger. “Fine!” she shouted, with surprising volume given how quiet her normal voice was. “Fine. I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but congratulations, your blackmail worked.”

Trixie beamed. “Good,” she said. “Now go. Go! You’ve got a lot to do and only a day to do it!”

Carrot Top glared at Trixie for only a moment more, before turning around and stomping out of Trixie’s office. The unicorn let her go, and in fact ceased to even look at her as she folded up the letter from Blueblood and tucked it back into her cape’s pocket, then quickly reviewed how to acquire her royal stipend. She was about to spend just about all of it.

Trixie entered the town hall’s auditorium to the sound of ponies arguing.

“No means no means no, Miss Cheerilee!” Rarity’s voice objected as Trixie approached the stage upon which Princess Luna would be making her initial appearance. Standing upon it right now was the cream-white unicorn and the magenta earth pony, the two of them glaring daggers at each other. Trixie took a moment to take in craftsmanship, and found it exactly in-keeping with the drawing Rarity had shown Trixie the previous day.

Neither of the other ponies noticed Trixie as she approached. “Miss Rarity,” Cheerilee said, “the students worked hard on their art projects – ”

“You’ve said that before – ”

“I was promised a spot in the festival right there – ” Cheerilee pointed to a point on the wall that would be the first part seen by anypony coming in from backstage

“By the mayor, but she gave me final say on all decorations – ”

“Your own sister has a piece!”

“Yes, and it’s very lovely,” Rarity said with a flick of her mane. “Truly, it is, but to even think that the Princess wants to come up on stage and have the first thing she sees be crayon and macaroni and construction paper thrown together by school foals…oh, Miss Lulamoon!” Trixie winced at the sound of her second name as her fellow unicorn at last noticed her. She saw the Rarity’s eye twitch slightly as she took in Trixie’s appearance. “I’m so glad you arrived, I was just finishing with Miss Cheerilee here…”

Trixie nodded to Cheerilee, who returned it, though the grimace didn’t leave her face. “What brings you here?” she asked.

“Oh, you didn’t know? Miss Lulamoon, here, is the Representative of Luna’s Night Court to Ponyville.” Rarity said as Trixie opened her mouth to respond. She closed it, and grimaced. Strike two, Trixie thought, counting the usage of ‘Lulamoon’ as strike one due to having made clear the previous day that she hated the name to Rarity.

“I knew that,” Cheerilee pointed out.

“– And, she is the official Longest Night festival overseer.” Rarity looked Trixie over again. “And darling, I am so glad you’re here. I realize I was perhaps a little…insensitive…yesterday about your…” Rarity waved a hoof over Trixie’s body, indicating her hat and cape. “…ensemble.”

Trixie blinked. She hadn’t been expecting an apology. “Um…that’s alright,” she admitted. “Now, I’m kind of – ”

“So I stayed up all night working on this!” Rarity exclaimed, horn glowing as she grasped something that had been carefully hidden behind the stage’s curtains, withdrawing something long, frilled, and looking distinctly like a dress. It was probably beautiful. It had taken Rarity all night. But Trixie didn’t wear dresses, not even to the Grand Galloping Gala.

“Much more fitting, don’t you think?” Rarity asked. “You can keep the clown suit if you wish, darling, but I simply insist on seeing you in this tomorrow night!”

Strike. Three.

Trixie saw, here, an excellent opportunity to get back at Rarity and Luna both. She looked at the dress and put on a false smile. “I love it,” she lied. “Though I came here to inspect the decorations, like I said.”

“Oh, of course,” Rarity said, settling back onto her haunches. “Inspect away, darling, but I’m sure you won’t find – ”

“There’s a problem,” Trixie interrupted.

Rarity sputtered slightly at that. “P-problem?” Rarity demanded.

Trixie nodded solemnly. “It’s a good thing I was here, too, to overhear what Miss Cheerilee wanted. See, Princess Luna? She adores children. She’s always regretted not having foals of her own, but between running Equestria, raising the sun, lowering the moon, seeing foreign envoys…there’s just never been enough time. Not to mention that she’s most active during the night, when foals are asleep. So she rarely gets to see any. But she loves them. In fact,” Trixie grinned, “she has an entire room of the royal apartments dedicated to pictures and letters that foals have sent her.”

Rarity blinked rapidly at Trixie’s words. “W…well, I see,” the unicorn said, “but I don’t understand what that has to – ”

“Being able to see crayon and macaroni and construction paper made by foals?” Trixie asked. “That would make her night.”

Most of what Trixie had just said was a lie. Luna did love foals, that much was true, but everything else had been more-or-less a complete fabrication. Still, Rarity didn’t need to – and never would – know that. The white unicorn’s eyes were wide.

“So,” Trixie said, smiling, “as festival overseer, I have final say over the decorations. And I say that there’s going to be a spot set aside for Luna to admire the art projects of the foals.”

“But – ”

“End of discussion.” Trixie interrupted, as she turned and trotted off, leaving Rarity and her dress behind. She thought she heard an overly dramatic cry of frustration, and couldn’t stop herself from letting out a contented sigh at the sound.

6. Movements and Machinations

“Trixie?” Cheerilee asked as she caught up with the unicorn outside of the town hall. The blue unicorn ignored her as she focused on her target, a dark blue earth pony mare wearing a brown, hooded winter cloak, though its hood was down at the moment. Trixie was holding up a small bag with magic, and with more magic was levitating ten silver bits into it.

“Lyra Heartstrings,” Trixie said. “She’s staying with her parents at 12 Hayseed Lane. Find her and get her to come to the Representative’s residency at six o’clock.”

The mare stared blankly at Trixie. “Do I look like a message runner to you?” she demanded.

In response, Trixie’s magic placed the bag atop the earth pony’s head. “Everypony looks like a message runner when I’m paying them another twenty bits if they do what I ask.”

The mare’s eyes widened a little. She flicked her head, and the bag fell from it, though she caught it in her mouth as it fell. “Fohld,” she said as best she could with a mouth full of cloth and money as she trotted off, joining a couple of stallion friends.

Cheerilee blinked as she came up alongside Trixie, staring at the unicorn. “You could have just asked me,” she remarked.

“No, you’re going to be busy,” Trixie remarked as she began cantering away from the town hall, towards the Equestrian Royal Bank. “You’ve got that little stand of art projects to set up. You’re welcome, by the way.”

Cheerilee’s eyes narrowed. “You know, I wanted that spot. I really did. But I didn’t want to leave Rarity an emotional wreck just to get it.”

“Please,” Trixie snorted derisively. “She’ll be fine.”

“That’s not the point,” Cheerilee objected. “You don’t know how much of a perfectionist Rarity is – ”

“And interestingly enough,” Trixie said, stopping and glaring at Cheerilee, looking at the earth pony for the first time since she had come outside, “I don’t care, either. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.”

Cheerilee matched Trixie’s glare. “If it’s anything like what just happened in there,” she said, pointing back to the town hall, “then the festival is going to be ruined.”

Trixie’s lips curled into a sadistic smile. “Fine by me,” she hissed as she turned away and began walking again. Cheerilee stared after her for a few moments, before shaking her head and trotting off towards BonBon’s Confectionarium. Lyra may have been theoretically living with her parents, but Trixie obviously didn’t know the mint green unicorn very well if she honestly thought that she’d be staying with them for a significant portion of any given day.

Trixie entered the post office and found it in a considerably better state than it had been when she and Lyra had entered yesterday, with no mess of fallen shelves and turned-over carts confronting her. Instead, on entering, Trixie found herself staring into the wide, yellow eyes of a unicorn filly sitting behind the counter, where the receptionist was supposed to be.

“Hello!” the young unicorn exclaimed at Trixie entered, eyes closing and offering a bright grin.

Trixie froze as she stared at the filly. She looked like nothing so much as a miniature, wingless, horned version of Ditzy Doo. The filly was even wearing a mail pony’s cap, though it was too large for her head. Despite her ebon-hued mood, Trixie couldn’t help but feel her heart swell slightly at the sight, most likely because her brain was failing, at the moment, to fully process what she was seeing.

“How can I help you?” the filly asked. Her hat almost slid off her head, but the filly stopped it with one hoof and forced it back into place.

Trixie blinked. “Uh,” she managed, before her brain settled into a comfortable autopilot. “I need to express deliver this letter.” Her horn glowed as she telekinetically withdrew an envelope from her cape and holding it aloft. “Same-day delivery to Cloudsdale.”

The filly frowned a little, closing her eyes tightly. Small sparks sprang from her horn, and a faint lavender aura wrapped itself around Trixie’s letter. Trixie relinquished her grip on it, and the envelope haltingly made its way over to the filly, though she nearly lost her grip a few times. At length, it settled down in front of her, and the filly opened her eyes again, panting heavily as she looked at the package. “Okay…” she breathed. “Okay. Um…to Cloudsdale? Same day? That’s…” the filly’s nose scrunched slightly as she looked over a chart in front of her, and tapped out a rhythm with her front hooves to aid with basic arithmetic. “Twenty bits!”

“Twenty-two,” a voice whispered from under the counter.

“Twenty-two bits!” the filly corrected herself.

Trixie managed to last a few more moments before coming right up to the counter, peering over it. Sure enough, sitting on her stomach on the other side was a gray-coated pegasus, hat missing but otherwise in uniform and keeping one eye on the filly, while the other had previously wandered towards the ceiling but was now looking at Trixie.

“Hi,” Ditzy Doo said.

“Hi,” Trixie returned. After several moments of silence, she stepped back from the counter, and looked to the filly again. “Twenty-two?” she asked. The filly nodded, and Trixie removed the bits from her moneybag. Like any good sales pony, the filly began counting them out, as Trixie once more looked over the counter. “Little sister?” she asked the mare ‘hiding’ there.

Ditzy Doo shook her head. “Dinky Doo’s my daughter,” she explained.

“I’m my momma’s muffin!” Dinky Doo exclaimed happily as she closed her eyes again, using her nascent telekinesis to move the bits into a cash drawer behind the desk. It was slow going, giving Trixie plenty of time to take in the little filly and compare her apparent age to that of the mare who was her mother. The pegasus didn’t look like she was much older than Trixie, and for Dinky to be as old as she looked, Ditzy Doo would have had to of given birth to the filly when she was younger than Trixie was now. It did, at least, explain the maternal authority that she had brought to bear against her and Rainbow Dash yesterday.

“Why is she here?” Trixie asked.

“No school today,” Ditzy Doo explained, “so she’s helping me out. First she helped with my morning rounds – ”

“That was fun!” Dinky Doo interrupted. “But a lot of walking…”

“ – and now she’s helping out around the office. Mail mare for a day!”

“Yay!” Dinky exclaimed, as she finished putting away the silver bits and began using her telekinesis to lift Trixie’s letter once more. Unfortunately, she tried too hard, and the envelope began crumpling up. “Ah!” the unicorn exclaimed, lavender aura instantly dropping from the letter. It fell to the desk as Ditzy Doo stood and Dinky Doo stared in horror. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I thought I had it but then I grabbed it too hard and I only started doing tele-connectics a few weeks ago and sometimes it’s really hard but sometimes I grab things harder than I mean to and this is just like the cup I broke but I didn’t mean to – ”

Trixie held up a hoof even as Ditzy Doo placed a reassuring one on her daughter’s back. Trixie’s horn glowed, and the letter instantly began to smooth itself out. The creases remained, but the letter was flat once more. “There we go,” Trixie reassured the filly, “good as new.”

Dinky sniffed a little, but nodded and smiled, at least until she noticed her mother eyeing her. “Cup?” Ditzy Doo asked.

Dinky offered a guilty laugh, rubbing behind her head with a hoof. “Um,” she explained.

“We’ll talk about it later,” Ditzy Doo promised as she looked over Trixie’s letter to Cloudsdale. Her eyes widened a little. “A weather-for-hire service?” she asked.

Trixie decided not to wonder how the pegasus knew where the letter was going from nothing more than a cloud address. “Yes,” she confirmed. “That Everfree storm is getting worse from the looks of things, and the weather patrol told me yesterday that they’re going to be completely at a loss without their captain. So, weather-for-hire. A dozen pegasi ought to equal one Rainbow Dash, right?”

Ditzy Doo made a face at that. “Raindrops isn’t going to like that.”

“Why not?” Trixie asked. “She’s the one who was complaining about the storm and not having Rainbow Dash. Besides, it’s not her decision. It’s Cloud Kicker’s.”

Ditzy Doo stuck out her tongue at that. “Cloud Kicker just goes along with anything Rainbow Dash tells her to do. Raindrops is the pony who actually keep the patrol together during bad times. She completely, honestly loves her job…and she hates weather-for-hire services.”

This wasn’t precisely news for Trixie. Even from her brief interaction with Raindrops, she felt she had a pretty good bead on the pony’s personality. In point of fact, to an extent, she was counting on it. “Well, she’s just going to have to pony up and deal with it,” Trixie retorted, drawing a glare from Ditzy Doo. Trixie didn’t relent. “Princess Luna is coming tomorrow. Those skies have to be clear for the festival, and if Rainbow Dash isn’t going to lead her team like she should and the pony who is supposed to lead the team isn’t going to be of any use, then as festival overseer it’s my job to get outside help to make things run smoothly.”

“I think it’s a bit more likely that Raindrops will start a fight with the weather-for-hire ponies.”

Trixie managed to conceal both her grin and a response of I hope so. Trixie was either going to fix this Longest Night festival or completely ruin it for everypony, and at the moment she was finding it hard to care which happened, even with two hopeful participants in front of her. “We’ll just have to risk that,” she said instead, then looked down to Dinky Doo. “So I need this letter to be sent as fast as possible, okay?”

“Okay!” the filly exclaimed, taking it in her mouth – apparently she wasn’t trusting her telekinesis at the moment despite Trixie’s re-assurances – and scampering off through a door, out of sight.

“Leeroy Wingkins is doing the express today,” Ditzy Doo explained as she watched her daughter go with one eye. “It’ll be in Cloudsdale in no time.” She turned to look at Trixie again. “I hope you know what you’re doing.”

“‘Course I do,” Trixie lied – sort-of – as Dinky Doo came back and got back up on the box that had allowed her to be at the desk. She looked to the filly, and found herself unable to resist doing something memorable – like Luna, she loved foals. The blue unicorn reached over and rubbed the filly on her head, nearly knocking her hat off and tossing her mane. “And thank-you, Dinky Doo.”

“Hey!” Dinky objected, though she giggled a little too. “Stop that!”

“Okay, okay,” Trixie relented. “It’s just that there’s something caught in your hair, under your hat.”

Dinky blinked a few times, then took off the cap and checked her head – and found a silver bit falling out. She – impressively for her age – caught it with telekinesis, eyes wide as she looked at Trixie, to her hat, which she hadn’t noticed leaving her head at any point. “How’d you do that?” the young unicorn demanded.

“Magic,” Trixie responded.

“But your horn wasn’t glowing!”

“That’s why it was magic,” Trixie responded knowingly, turning around and trotting from the post office in a slightly better mood than when she had entered. Seeing the sun’s descent across the sky, however, towards the horizon, turned her thoughts dark again. It served as a potent reminder of how little time remained before the Longest Night festival began tomorrow – and how Luna had exiled Trixie to Ponyville, though not before setting her up with a no-win scenario.

Regardless of whether the result of the day was a saved or ruined festival, though, Trixie still had work to do. Grunting, she set off for her residency.

“So, Lulamoon – ” Lyra began. Trixie’s glare at the name could have frozen the sun from its coldness. “We’re back to wanting Trixie, then,” the unicorn observed.

“Back?” Trixie demanded.

“Last night. You insisted I call you Lulamoon. You might have been slightly very drunk.” She paused a moment as she considered. “About half of everything you said was in Prench too, I think.”

Trixie stared a few moments, before letting out a groan. “No it wasn’t,” she objected hopefully.

“It was,” Lyra responded, nodding sadly. “Also fell back into what I can only guess is a Neigh Orleans accent. And you called me and BonBon cute.”

“BonBon?”

“My mare-friend. I’d feel threatened, but again: drunk, and you’re not her type anyway. Plus you thought everypony was cute at the time, even yourself.” She leaned forward. “But in purple, you’re stunning. Apparently.”

“Never again,” Trixie swore as she regarded her purple, star-studded cape.

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

“Meh,” Trixie objected. The two were sitting in Trixie’s office, Trixie behind her desk. She had just, in fact, poured herself a glass of something amber-colored to see if it could steady her nerves or at least brighten her mood, but after Lyra’s revelations she was thinking water would do just fine. The blue unicorn began pouring her drink back into its bottle as she eyed her mint-green counterpart. “Anyway. Lyra. First, I want to thank you for showing me around most of Ponyville, and leaving me in capable hooves before ditching me. Which I’m not mad about, I swear.”

“No problem.”

“Which brings me right to why I just paid some random pony thirty bits to get you here. I need your help.”

Lyra grimaced slightly. “Cheerilee warned me about that. Said you were wandering around town today basically on the warpath. Conning Carrot Top into opening a stall on the Longest Night, making Rarity freak out about her decorations, ordering weather-for-hire ponies and using up just about your entire monthly stipend on them…” Lyra blinked a few times. “What are you going to eat, anyway, for the next month?”

Trixie shrugged. “I dunno. I’ll think of something. But that’s not important right now. What’s important is that Fluttershy is refusing to do the music, so since you’re a musician – ”

Lyra’s eyes widened a little as she realized what Trixie that going to ask. “No,” she intoned.

“Is that a ‘no, I’m not going to do it,’ or a ‘no way, I can’t believe it?’” Trixie asked with a smile on her face, sure of the answer.

“No, I’m not going to do it,” Lyra responded evenly.

Trixie’s smile dropped. That was not the answer she had been expecting. “What?” she asked.

“The festival is tomorrow night. I’d need more time to prepare. A set list at least – ”

“Just play the anthem!”

“For the raising of the moon, sure, but what about the rest of the night? And besides, I’m spending the night with BonBon.”

Lyra matched Trixie’s hard stare without effort. The two unicorns were silent for some time, before Trixie whickered in annoyance, trotting around from behind her desk and horn glowing as she took a letter from her cape’s pocket – the letter from the former Baron Duke Blueblood, which she shoved in front of the mint green unicorn. “This is where I am, Lyra,” Trixie intoned after giving her a few moments to read. “I have one chance, one, maybe, of getting back in Luna’s good graces, and that’s saving everything from going straight into the sun!”

Lyra shook her mane. “If that’s true,” she asked, “then why does it seem like you’re trying to ruin everything? You’re going to start a fight between the Apple clan and poor Carrot Top – ”

“Not just her!” Trixie objected quickly, sliding the letter back into her cape’s pocket. “I’ve actually arranged for a few other stalls, too, spent most of the afternoon. But there won’t be a fight because they’re not selling on festival grounds.”

“That’s semantics and you know it. You think the Apples will care?”

“Of course they’ll care! But they can’t do anything about it. And it’ll give Luna more to eat than just apples.”

“And leaving Rarity as an emotional wreck?” Lyra asked. “She’s still at the town hall, you know. She’ll probably be working her hooves off until right before the festival’s to begin, and it looked great and you know it. But now the decorations will probably end up looking like they were done by a school filly. And weather-for-hire ponies? You’ll be lucky if the weather patrol doesn’t break in here and kill you in your sleep.”

Trixie rolled her eyes. “Raindrops herself said that she couldn’t promise anything. If that storm over the Everfree is as bad as she said it was going to be, can I be blamed for wanting to hedge my bets?”

Lyra sighed, conceding the point. “It’s going to end poorly, that’s all,” she promised. “And you want to add me to all this?”

Trixie shrugged. “Know any other musicians living in Ponyville? Ones that are good enough to play for the princess herself?” The unicorn took a step forward. She was playing her entire hoof here, faster than she normally would, but if that was what it took… “If you do, for the love of the stars tell me now. Otherwise, I’ve heard you play that harp – ”

“Lyre,” Lyra interrupted, with the same kind of force that Trixie put behind her demands about her name.

“ – lyre, sorry, that lyre of yours, and you’re good. And you’ve just graduated from the magic school so I’m guessing you know a lot of spells to enhance your playing. Imagine how that must look on a music résumé.”

“Music résumé?” Lyra asked, one brow raised. “You have no idea how being a musician works, do you?”

“I know that ponies with more consistent jobs would never pass up an opportunity like this.”

Lyra’s brow arched higher. “More consistent jobs?” She echoed. “You don’t think very much of me, do you?”

Trixie blinked a few times. “No! Wait…yes. No – whatever! I think you’re just fine. I just…well, it’s just that you’ll be totally depending on the…goodwill of ponies for an income.”

“Goodwill here being synonymous with charity,” Lyra growled.

“No!” Trixie objected, stomping a hoof on the wooden floor. “Look, the point is, you’re just out of the magic school on a music scholarship and your first job would be playing for Princess Luna!”

Lyra’s glare didn’t drop for several moments, but eventually she did look away, tapping a hoof to her chin in thought. Trixie was silent, though she shuffled from hoof to hoof in anticipation. At length, Lyra looked back to her. “The national anthem only,” she acquiesced. “And only for raising the moon.”

Trixie blinked. “What about midnight, or the drawing down of the – ”

Lyra stood up and turned for the door. “See you tomorrow night, Trixie.”

“Wait wait wait!” Trixie objected, dashing forward and in front of Lyra. “Okay. Fine. Just the moon – and the stringing up of the stars. They’re part and parcel, you can’t do one without the other. It’ll be all of five minutes.”

Lyra waited a moment, before nodding her head once. “Deal,” she agreed, and watched Trixie let out a sigh of relief. After a moment, Lyra leaned in. “But only because this really is a once-in-a-lifetime gig. I don’t like you basically calling me a jobless bum.”

She didn’t wait for Trixie to apologize before pushing past the unicorn, heading for the residency’s door. Trixie let her go. Had Lyra waited around, Trixie was certain she would have apologized – or said the words, anyway. Her heart would hardly be behind it, as after all she did end up with what she wanted.

Instead, Trixie trotted back to her desk, running over a mental list. Catering – saved, at least to her own satisfaction. She had just enough bits left for a decent meal tomorrow. Music – saved, the most important part, anyway. Weather – still iffy, but at least the matter was now in hoof, if volatile; Raindrops seemed far too professional to do anything more than complain about the weather-for-hire ponies. Decorations – well, admittedly, Trixie had possibly ruined them, but if that was the case it was so worth it to get back at Rarity for the dress and her shallow behavior.

Speaking of getting back, Trixie still had one particular pony she needed to lash out at. Trixie was certain that come tomorrow, Luna would see that Trixie was capable of bringing a festival back from the brink of disaster, that she was more than ready to handle the more demanding responsibilities of the Night Court and to finally put both her sociological studies and her magical knowledge to practical use.

So the final step, then, was to show Luna how Trixie would waste that talent - and all the long years of teaching that the shepherd of the moon had invested in her - if the princess really did intend to simply dump Trixie in Ponyville like so much trash.

7. The Raising of the Moon

The remainder of the day passed without incident, as did the night and at least the first part of the following day. Carrot Top arrived with her cart early in the morning, before any of the Apple clan showed up, as did the other produce sellers of Ponyville that Trixie had, by hook and crook, been able to drag into her scheme. None of them seemed particularly confident, but Trixie managed to re-assure all of them in various ways – mostly, helped out by random ponies passing by, who seemed confused as to what was happening but, when Trixie explained her intentions, at least put on a show of being happy to have more than just apples to eat tonight.

The arrival of the Apple clan’s veritable armada of stalls, at around three o’clock, was where the problems began, although for the rest of her days Trixie would treasure her memory of the look on Applejack’s face.

“What in tarnatation am Ah lookin’ at here?” the orange earth pony demanded as she stomped up to Trixie’s home.

Trixie paused a moment as she chewed thoughtfully, looking to the ensemble she had in her telekinetic grasp. “Well,” she said, “first I started with a few carrots, which I diced up and mixed with butter, or I meant to anyway but I was out, but there was still some cheese, and what they hay, it’s all dairy anyway, right? So then – ”

If looks could have killed, then Applejack’s glare would have depopulated the entire region.

“Oh, you mean the food stalls,” Trixie interrupted herself, glancing behind her. “Well, I thought over our conversation from a few days ago, and I thought to myself, hey, I’ve known Princess Luna for a decade now, and I know what she likes to eat and what she doesn’t, and I know for a fact that if she doesn’t have anything but apples to look forward to, she’ll probably go crazy and let Discord loose or something.”

Applejack’s glare managed to grow deadly enough to wipe out all of Equestria and a good portion of the surrounding nations as well. “Ah thought we were on the same page here,” she intoned. “Ah thought y’all understood just how much mah family depends upon the sales from tonight.”

Trixie nodded. “Yeah, but then I thought how much they,” Trixie jerked a hook behind her, at the vendors who were trying their hardest to look any direction but towards Applejack, “need the bits as well.”

“But they weren’t expectin’ none!” Applejack exclaimed. “They get by just fine every year all the same! This ain’t nothin’ but tramplin’ all over centuries of Ponyville tradition – ”

Trixie pulled out one of her most unpleasant smirks. “Applejack,” she intoned, “are you worried that you can’t compete?”

The orange pony backed up several steps as though Trixie had struck her. “What?” she demanded. “Mah apples, mah family’s apples, are the best in Equestria! Mah family’s recipies are the best!”

“But do we really know that?” Trixie asked, as she tapped her two front hooves together. “Every year you get the three biggest holidays all to yourselves. Must be comfortable up on that throne you’ve built from apple cores. Must be a scary thought of having to actually fight for your business – ”

Applejack’s glare returned with a force that could have knocked the sun and moon from orbit. “Ah think you may want to stop talkin’ now,” she said – ordered – in a low voice. Trixie obeyed, but her grin was loquacious to a fault. After a few moments of regarding it, Applejack trotted up to Trixie, her face getting very, very close to the unicorn’s own. “Ah don’t know what y’all are playin’ at,” she said, then looked past Trixie, at the other farmers. “Any of y’all! But it looks like you want a fight. And Luna as my witness Ah’m willin’ to oblige.”

“Excellent,” Trixie responded, stepping back a few paces, but only so that she could wave her hooves in a shooing manner. “Now trot off, ‘cause I have a lot of – ”

“I am going to murder you!” an almost impossibly loud voice shouted from straight above, reaching and maybe even surpassing volumes that Trixie had previously thought only Princess Luna capable of. Trixie and Applejack both looked up to find a small, jet-black cloud hovering directly overhead, cackling with barely contained lightning. Standing atop it, panting heavily with wings spread wide in threat, was a jasmine-coated pegasus.

Raindrops leapt from her cloud, landing with a thud next to Applejack. She briefly turned to look at the earth pony. “Hi,” she said.

“Howdy,” Applejack returned, tipping her hat.

“You might want to stand back.”

Applejack glanced at the miniature thundercloud overhead. “Ah reckon Ah might do just that,” she said, cantering away and to her clan. She kept an eye over her shoulder, however – locked on Trixie. The mare had the distinct sense that Applejack was trying to preserve the look currently plastered on Trixie’s face so that she could treasure it for the rest of her days.

Raindrops’ attention was turned once more to Trixie, and she took a single step forward, though with enough force to actually crack one of the cobbled stones beneath her hooves. Trixie blinked at that. She had expecting Raindrops to be angry. She had not been expecting a pony who could break stone with her hooves – her bare hooves, as it seemed that Raindrops, like most pegasi, went without shoes.

“Weather-for-hire ponies.” Raindrops said, her voice now frighteningly calm. “I got up and brushed my mane and went to work this morning and I found a dozen of those reprobates swarming my weather patrol station!”

“It’s not really your – ”

“Don’t care!” Raindrops exclaimed, taking another step forward. “Now as it turns out I happened to recognize one of them. Oh yes. I recognized him – and he’s their leader, mind, of that group of…of…” words failed her for a moment before she could resume. “He was kicked out of flight school. Not flunked out. Not dropped out. Kicked out. Do you know why, Trixie? Ask me why he was.” Trixie didn’t. Raindrops once again stamped a hoof and broke stone beneath her. “Ask me why, Trixie!”

“Why?” the unicorn asked, in a small voice.

“It doesn’t matter why! Pegasi? We’re pretty rowdy as yearlings and in Cloudsdale that’s always taken into account so the kinds of things that would get somepony expelled from school down here would probably just get you a detention in Cloudsdale. So for him to do something so bad it got him kicked out? It’s a miracle he has any job at all, and it’s a sin that his job is leading a weather-for-hire team! So, Trixie, I’m going to murder you. Then I’m going to murder him. And I am going to enjoy it.”

“I didn’t know!” Trixie objected. She gathered a modicum of courage, stepping forward. “You’re the one who told me ‘no promises’ about that storm!”

Raindrops didn’t budge an inch. “So you don’t trust us to do our jobs? You think this is the first major storm to roll out of the Everfree? The first time we’ve had to deal with something like this? But no, you have to go and hire a bunch of flight school flunkies – ”

“He has the job,” Trixie interrupted, “he came highly recommended, so whatever happened in flight school it clearly didn’t have anything to do with his weather abilities, and I spent just about my entire monthly stipend on him and his team!” She leaned forward once more. “You’re the one who complained about missing your weather manager, I was just trying to help!”

Raindrops’ teeth ground together with such force that Trixie was surprised they didn’t crack. “One full day,” Trixie said, pressing what little ground she had gained. “Just one day and one night. That’s all they’re hired for. Just to keep the storm from rolling into Ponyville and ruining everything. After that they’re gone.”

The jasmine-coated pegasus leaned forward, right up to Trixie’s ear. “Sleep with an eye open,” she intoned, before beating her wings, ascending slowly to her thundercloud and carting it off. Trixie watched her go, then let out a huge sigh of relief. From somewhere near the town hall, she heard chuckling that somehow managed to be accented with a country drawl, but chose to ignore it as she turned back to her home. Carrot Top and the other ponies were staring at her.

“What?” she demanded, stomping down the path that lead from the street to her front door. “You have work to do! Get to it!” The last was punctuated by Trixie opening her door, stepping inside, and giving as hard a slam as she could manage.

Despite being the culmination of two straight days of standing on the surface of the sun, the beginning of the twilight, about two hours later, was almost a relief. By now, the stalls had been set up, and several unicorns were working in concert surrounding the town center to create a bubble of warm air for the multitude of ponies that were even now making their way there. More than a few were surprised by the additional stalls from Carrot Top and the rest – but more than a few were happy to have more than just apples to eat, though the Trust itself was cleaning up nicely regardless. As the sun began to approach the horizon, the pre-festival spirit was fairly high for most ponies. In addition to the food stalls, there were games of chance and skill, like hoof-throwing balls at a target or bobbing for apples (the latter, surprisingly, having been set up by somepony not related to the Apple clan); there were several open areas where vinyl records were playing music for dancing.

Trixie was paying attention to none of it. Earlier in the day, she had finally gotten around to seeing the mayor of Ponyville, formally introducing herself, presenting her credentials, engaging in light and friendly banter that served as a pleasant temporary escape from the last few days, but most importantly of all, rushing through approval for a last-minute performance to be added to the Longest Night’s retinue. Given that the music that was supposed to have been provided by Fluttershy was now largely absent and had to be provided by phonographs, it wasn’t hard to arrange an hour-and-a-half break from the sometimes dubious-quality records and instead put Trixie’s scheme into full motion.

That was for after Luna arrived, however. Right now, Trixie was standing in the crowd of hundreds of ponies inside the town hall – warmer than outside was, even with unicorn magic, albeit stuffier. Through a window, she could see a darkening sky, red and purple and not a cloud in the sky. Ringing the auditorium were Apple clan stands, but more than a few ponies were carrying foodstuffs acquired from outside, from Carrot Top and the others as well. The decorations, despite Lyra’s warnings, looked just fine – not as fine as before, but they had been adapted to take the arts-and-crafts projects of the school foals into account, Rarity apparently deciding to spread them around throughout the auditorium to turn the place into almost an art gallery. And Lyra was with her mare-friend BonBon, dressed in a fine white-and-gold gown and with lyre slung over her back, ready to play. Everything had worked out.

Trixie was alone.

This was a feat in and of itself, because she was, properly speaking, never more than six inches away from anypony. But it was as simple as that: she was alone, despite being in the middle of a crowd. She wasn’t talking to anypony, she wasn’t outside celebrating, she wasn’t doing anything more than just sitting near the middle of the auditorium, next to a dark blue pegasus mare who was chatting amicably with a gray-coated pegasus stallion – he looked like an off-duty royal guard – and doing little more than just counting down the minutes until Luna arrived and wondering how she had managed to, in a mere two days, get everything right and yet screw everything up at the same time.

Trixie let out a long sigh. Whatever. This was the course of her life now, and nothing would change it.

“Fillies and gentlecolts!” A voice exclaimed. Trixie’s reverie was interrupted at the sound, and she saw that the mayor – an older earth pony with a beige coat – had made her way to the center of the stage and was trying to get everypony’s attention. At great length, she mostly succeeded, though a few quiet conversations continued, including the unicorn and stallion sitting next to Trixie.

“Fillies and gentlecolts,” the mayor repeated, “I hope you’re all having a good time so far. I hope you slept in this morning as well, because all the fun and games have only barely begun! The shortest day of the year is drawing to a close, and it is now time to truly begin celebrating the Longest Night!”

There were cheers and hoof-stomps at that, but they were relatively subdued. Everypony knew, after all, what was coming next, and they wanted to get to it as quickly as possible. “Now then,” the mayor continued, turning slightly to face the curtains that obscured most of the stage. “As mayor of Ponyville, it is my greatest pleasure to officially introduce and welcome our guest of honor. Our ruler, our savior and our protector. The Shepherd of the Moon, the Caretaker of the Sun, the Mistress of the Star Beasts, the Sovereign of the Three Tribes, the Ruler of the Land of Equestria…Her Royal Majesty, Princess Luna Equestris!”

The curtains pulled back, revealing…nothing.

Technically untrue – there was some more stage, a wall, and another curtain that hid the backstage area. But as for the alicorn herself? Totally absent. Some ponies gasped in horror. Some ponies sputtered in confusion. Some ponies simply stood stock still, completely dumbstruck.

But the pegasus pony standing next to Trixie had continued her low conversation as if nothing was wrong – a surprising oversight on her part and one which utterly ruined her disguise. Trixie let out a long, low sigh, reached over, and poked the pony next to her. The pegasus turned in temporary confusion, before her eyes widened.

“Oh,” she said softly, beating her wings a few times and taking to the air, soaring over to the stage and landing there. She turned to the mayor. “My deepest apologies, mayor,” she said, then turned to the confused Ponyvillians, “and to you all. This festival is delightfully distracting. Give me just a moment to collect myself…”

There was a midnight-hued flash and a pop from somewhere in the crowd, and quite suddenly, standing next to the pegasus was her unicorn doppelgänger – identical in every way except for the lack of wings and the presence of the horn. Following that, an earth pony, once more identical to the other two ponies, simply leapt on stage from where she had been standing in the crowd – more than a dozen feet away. The earth pony landed evenly and smoothly despite the impossible distance of the dead-start jump, and as soon as the three were together, each began to glow with soft, blue light.

The pegasus and the unicorn moved first, turning to each other and simply stepping into one another, features becoming indistinct for several long moments before coming together once more, revealing that they had become as one, and also changed in appearance slightly – a longer snout, mane and tail length longer, though still light blue, and a somewhat more slender, delicate frame. The pony that had resulted had both wings and a horn.

She didn’t remain still for long, turning instead to the earth pony, who also stepped into the other pony. Once more, they faded from clarity for a moment – but the single resultant pony was markedly different, taller than most stallions, frame still slender but no longer delicate in appearance, instead more like that of a trained runner, with tight, well-worked muscles under her midnight blue coat. Her mane and tail were no longer hair at all, but rather a glowing, aura of midnight blue, studded with stars and rippling as though water catching a clear night sky. The pony’s flank glowed, and her star cutie mark was replaced by a nebulous black cloud, but one that was overlaid by the presence of a white, crescent moon. Following this, the pony’s hooves, chest, and the tip of her head behind her horn glowed momentarily, and in a moment she was clad in the royal regalia of blue shoes, a deep blue chest plate with a crescent moon emblazoned on its fore, and a black, three-pointed crown.

The Ponyvillians stared in awed silence. Trixie managed to suppress a loud groan of exasperation as the alicorn who stood on the stage spread her wings wide. “My little ponies,” she said, her voice soft, yet firm, perfectly regal yet still carrying a slight hint of embarrassment over her earlier distraction – albeit one that she had managed to turn into an impressive display of her magical power. “Your Princess of the Night has arrived.”

The applause was just shy of instantaneous. Princess Luna beamed at it, offering her best royal smile. After a moment, she raised a hoof for silence, tucking her wings against her body once more.

“This imminent night carries deep meaning,” she said. “It is a time of endings, and a time of beginnings. Since the height of summer, the days have been growing shorter and colder, the world withering as the leaves died and had to be taken from the trees. The last harvest was taken in as the pegasi began the three months of winter. The first snowfall sealed the fields from the light of the sun and moon, and the cold hardened the ground and turned the water into ice. The old year is dying, and tonight it shall finally pass on, consigned to the realm of memory.

“But take heart, my little ponies. Though this year passes, a new one is to begin tonight. The days shall grow longer and warmer, the snow shall melt, the ground will soften, and the earth shall once more become receptive to your care, stronger and better for having had the winter time to rest. Tonight the old year dies, but we do not grieve for it, for its passing makes way for the new year, and the endless possibilities that year contains.” She smiled. “I walked amongst you tonight, disguising myself as pegasus and as unicorn and as earth pony. I spoke with many of you, danced with a few of you, shared food and drink and laughter. And from all of this, my little ponies, from your character and your actions, I have reached a decision about this nascent, incoming new year: it shall be a good one.”

The collected ponies looked amongst each other, smiling. More than a few were blushing furiously, likely being ponies that Luna had interacted with while in disguise and even now mortified at the things they may have done or said – but happy, nonetheless, for Luna, the Princess, the Shepherd of the Moon and the Caretaker of the Sun, had just blessed the new year due to their actions.

Luna’s smile never faltered. “Now then,” she said, turning to look at a mint green unicorn, wearing a white-and-gold dress and who was holding a lyre in her magical grip, “I believe a little music is in order for what comes next.”

Lyra stared blankly for a moment, before realizing what Luna was asking. She nodded as professionally as she could, before settling down into a position that looked back-breakingly uncomfortable to most ponies, hooves at the ready. At a nod from Luna, she began to pluck her lyre, horn glowing to amplify the sound – and to provide backup music despite the lack of a band. To Trixie’s surprise, the sound that came out wasn’t the national anthem at all, but was instead something far simpler in arrangement.

Luna nodded approvingly, before turning back to the ponies. “Close your eyes,” she said, as her horn glowed and midnight energy washed from it like a wave over them. The ponies obeyed, and instantly they were no longer in the auditorium – they were outside, high above Ponyville, standing in the sky as Luna spread her wings wide. Behind her, to the west, the sun slipped down beyond the horizon, the last of its light disappearing, and for a brief moment everything was utterly black.

Then in the east, the first sliver of silver light appeared on the horizon. The sliver widened, becoming a beam, then a wide ray, before finally a silver, full sphere began to rise from the horizon, bathing the entire countryside in soft light. Everypony gasped at the sight, though any further reactions were cut short as Luna leapt, appearing atop the rising moon. Despite the distance, everypony could see her clearly as she stood there, utterly still as she guided the moon fully over the eastern horizon, before leaping again – but this time, not alone. From behind the moon, following her, came a million points of light, following her like a wave as her mane and tail flared with magic along with her horn. Luna began dancing amongst the sky – hopping, skipping, twirling and spinning, a deep, primal dance as the stars chased her across the sky. She would wave her hoof and string up dozens at a time, swing her mane and imprint them in the patterns of the familair constellations. The stars would move of their own accord as well, twirling around her body as though trying to embrace her, and sometimes she would let them, holding them all close before releasing them against the sky one more.

Nopony knew exactly how long they watched Luna dance. Eventually, the stars following her began to thin out, until finally only one was left. This one, she placed firmly above all the rest in the north, nuzzling it before drifting away, back to the awestruck ponies. As she landed, the ponies found the world fading back to normal – they were once again in the auditorium just as Lyra brought the musical accompaniment of Luna’s moonrise and star dance to a close.

Silence prevailed for several long moments, before Luna bowed, wings spread wide. That set off the Ponyvillians, and it was surprising that the entire town hall didn’t come crashing down from the force of their hoof-stomps. Luna smiled widely.

Trixie, meanwhile, let out that exasperated groan she’d been holding back, since it wouldn’t be heard over the sound of the ponies anyway.

“Great,” she said in a low voice as she turned around. “That’s the act I have to follow…”

8. The Return of the Queen [End of Part 2]

Were the immortal alicorn anywhere else, it would have been impossible for Trixie to even attempt to avoid her – but as it stood, tonight Luna was powerless precisely because she was the princess. Everypony wanted a moment of her time, to ask for advice from a being with the wisdom of millennia behind her. Everypony wanted her blessing on some task they wanted to undertake. Everypony wanted to give her some kind of gift, and her accepting it would be taken as a sign of royal approval. But mostly, everypony wanted to simply bask in her presence.

It was interesting. Many ponies feared Luna, for her power and for being essentially the physical embodiment of the night, and rare was the pony who didn’t have a hundred opinions about the Night Court and the dark, shadowy competitions enacted by the noble herds of Equestria that affected the lives of thousands of ponies – and similar opinions of Luna, who orchestrated the Night Court to her whims and was often seen as some kind of manipulative schemer who was directing all of Equestria in a game to which only she knew the rules.

But on the other hoof, she had just done for them what some ponies were describing as the most beautiful sight of their lives, and up close and personal, Luna seemed surprisingly warm and approachable – which meant everypony except one blue unicorn wanted to approach her, and that blue unicorn was doing a far better job of keeping away from her mentor than she thought she would have been able to manage.

Trixie took a deep breath. She had finished clearing out a large space in front of her new home, cordoning it off with a few chairs used to create an impromptu acting arena. She wished she had a proper stage to work with, but then again working on street level had its own charm, or at least that’s what her grand-père, Quartermoon, had said about his early days in showbusiness. Not as many ponies would be able to see her, but they would hear her almost as well, and their curiosity would be all the greater.

Trixie had a moment of doubt as she stood still, invisibility spell wrapped around her form. Once she started, there’d be no going back. She didn’t fully know what Luna’s reaction would be, but it certainly wouldn’t be pleasant. Still – Trixie reminded herself that Luna had banished her to Ponyville. Had dumped her here to rot. Steeling her resolve, Trixie channeled magic through her horn – fortunately, her invisibility spell did its job of hiding her presence – and she cast two spells simultaneously: an illusory, bright fireworks, not quite as good as the real thing but certainly attention-grabbing; and a ghost sound copy of the noise of a fireworks display to accompany it.

There was, of course, a crush of ponies nearby anyway, as everypony wanted to be inside the unicorn-created bubble of warm air. Still, she had succeeded at getting a large number of ponies looking her way, eager to see what was coming up next in the night.

“Fillies and gentlecolts!” Trixie exclaimed – still invisible, and after wrapping another spell around her throat, which would enhance it enough so that everypony nearby would hear it without trouble. She set off more illusory fireworks, these ones streamers that mostly spun in place as a lightshow. “Come one! Come all! Come and see the greatest show in all of Equestria! Tonight on the Longest Night, see the astounding magical prowess of the one – the only – descendent of the legendary Star Swirl the Bearded – ” technically, actually, it was Star Swirl’s sister-in-law, but the Ponyvillians didn’t need to know that, “ – trained in the arts of sorcery and spell-shaping by Princess Luna herself – the Great and Powerful Trixie!”

And with that, Trixie threw down a final illusion and let her invisibility spell slip as a bright flash and cerulean smoke filled her staked-out area. The smoke dissipated quickly, leaving only Trixie – clad in her hat and cape, of course, but also wearing a dark blue undershirt and a deep purple jacket with loose sleeves for her front legs, buttoned across her chest and stomach. It was part of what she’d worn it to the last Grand Galloping Gala, and fit her ‘theme’ perfectly.

She already had a small crowd of ponies standing in place, ready and waiting for her to live up to her introductory speech. Most particularly, with such an overt and bright display of color and sound, she had attracted what Grandpapa Quartermoon had always claimed was the key to a successful magic show: Foals, little colts and fillies who were so much easier to fool with sleight-of-hoof and always had a much less critical eye.

“Now then,” Trixie said to the audience, “quick note before we begin. All that?” she waved a hoof behind her as though referencing the light show she had just put on. “Some spells. Little illusions and ghost sounds and flashing lights that any unicorn could do with practice. And I, Trixie, am not saying it was easy, and I’m not saying that it wasn’t, in its own way, magic.” As she turned around, she flicked one hoof, and from seemingly thin air produced a pair of scissors, which she caught with telekinesis. “But the really impressive stuff,” she said, flicking her other hoof and producing a large, white quill, “well, that’s what Trixie intends to show you!”

Trixie produced four more items that she had found around her home – a deck of cards, a carrot, a flask, and a pair of silver bits – as well as a sheet of paper and separate, black writing quill. Using her telekinesis, she laid out the first six items in front of her, from left to right in the order that she had produced them in so that the scissors were furthest to her right and the bits furthest to her left, while the black quill and paper remained separate from the pile. Smiling at the audience, she wrote a few things on the paper, then folded it in half and moved her line of items forward, while appraising her modest audience. She smiled when she noticed one filly in particular, wrapped in a foal-sized winter cloak and sitting close to her gray pegasus mother.

“You there!” Trixie exclaimed, pointing a hoof at Dinky Doo. “Come over here for a minute.”

The unicorn filly’s eyes widened a little, as she looked to Ditzy Doo as though for permission. In response, Ditzy smiled and nudged Dinky with one hoof. The filly trotted forward eagerly at that, stopping on the other side of Trixie’s line of items.

“Say your name for the audience,” Trixie said, waving a hoof at the ponies watching.

“Dinky Doo!” the filly exclaimed brightly as she looked at them, though she turned back to Trixie quickly. She leaned forward a little, and spoke in a quieter voice next. “I figured out how you made that bit appear on top of my head.”

Trixie smiled. “Did you? Well, here’s a new one.” In a louder voice, and looking more at the audience than Dinky, she continued. “Now then, Dinky Doo. Name a number between one and six.”

“Five,” Dinky said, eyeing the flask.

“F-I-V-E,” Trixie spelled out, hoof pointing to the bits first and then moving backwards, until she ended up on the deck of cards. “Oh, thank goodness. I don’t know much magic involving carrots.” As she said that, she unfolded the piece of paper hovering behind her, showing that she had written deck of cards on it. Two colts seemed impressed by the trick, but most everyone in the audience seemed underwhelmed.

Dinky pouted a little. “That wasn’t magic,” she objected.

“Not really, no,” Trixie confirmed as she put the remaining objects on the ground behind her and used her telekinesis to withdraw the fifty-four cards within and spread them out in front of Dinky. “Now then. Pick a card. Any card! Show it to the audience, but do not show the Great and Powerful Trixie!”

Dinky considered the cards in front of her with the same kind of weight that an older mare would have given to her wedding dress. At length, she indicated one. Trixie nodded as she pulled the deck together again, shuffling the cards thoroughly as she trotted forward, so that she was next to Dinky Doo. As she did, she flourished her cape slightly. “Alright,” she said, holding up the deck of cards and looking them over, considering. “The Great and Powerful Trixie thinks…it was…” she reached the end of the deck, looked confused a moment, then stamped her left hoof in realization and pointed. “That one.”

Trixie didn’t point to the deck at all, but rather straight down, at Dinky’s hooves. The filly looked down, and her eyes widened and she backed up several paces in surprise at the card lying face-down right beneath her right front hoof, which nopony had seen arrive there. There were gasps from the audience, as well.

Trixie telekinetically lifted up the card, considering its face for a moment before turning it to Dinky and the audience. “Seven of clubs?” she asked rhetorically. Dinky’s face – and that of the surprised audience – told her the answer already. Dinky nodded, as did Trixie, even as she turned back to her piece of paper and unfolded the remainder of it, where she had written seven of clubs.

Cue the hoof-stomps, Trixie thought with a smile even as the applause came, reserved but appreciative from the adults in the audience but very enthusiastic from the fifteen or twenty fillies and colts watching. Trixie bowed, and encouraged Dinky Doo to do likewise before sending her back to her mother, Dinky’s brow furrowed in thought as she tried to figure out Trixie’s tricks.

Good luck, kiddo, Trixie thought with a smirk, as she got ready to pull out the nails and get to more impressive magic. She’d shown herself as competent enough, now it was time to wow the audience. With a wave of her hoof, she pulled from its resting point far behind her a stool, a bright white ball, and a trio of metal cups.

“Now,” Trixie said as she placed the items in front of her, the ball and cups on top of the stool, “this is one of the oldest tricks in the book. One ball, three cups, you all know it, some of you have probably done it, you know how it works, and where’s the fun in that?” Trixie hefted two of the cups, considered a moment, then shrugged and tossed them over her shoulder, back where they had been. “One ball. One cup – ”

Trixie glanced at the audience, and saw her. Princess Luna had made her way to the front row of adult ponies, just behind the fillies and colts that were making up the front row of her audience. The ponies had noticed her and were bowing in respect, and Luna acknowledged these with a nod even as she sat down on her stomach amidst of the foals, offering them a bright smile. Then her gaze was focused entirely on Trixie.

Trixie offered a formal, curt bow of her own. “Princess Luna,” she acknowledged.

“Trixie,” Luna confirmed, bowing her own head. “My most faithful student. Please, don’t let me interrupt you more than I have already.”

Trixie wanted to grimace, but she hid the expression well. “Alright,” she said pleasantly instead. “As I was saying: one ball, one cup. Try to keep up…”

Quartermoon the Magnificent was considered the greatest magician of his era, and probably the greatest magician to have ever lived, a feat made all the more impressive by his being an earth pony. When he went on stage with nothing more than his signature top hat, cape, and beard, he’d been able to receive applause; when he brought props to work with, that applause transformed into standing ovations and cries of encore.

Trixie was Quartermoon’s petite fille – his granddaughter. Growing up with him in the house in Neigh Orleans, Trixie couldn’t help but try to pick up his tricks, and she’d always displayed a natural talent for what Quartermoon called ‘real magic.’ Spells? Spells were impressive in their own right, but one in three ponies in Equestria could not only cast spells, but did so almost every day of their lives. No, to Quartermoon, magic was supposed to be deep, and primal – hardly surprising for an earth pony to think such – but above all else it had to be wondrous. If one saw an act of magic and yawned or thought of it as ordinary, then it wasn’t real magic at all, just a cheap facsimile.

Of course, everything that she’d learned from her Grandpapa – the sleight of hoof, the art of misdirection, the smoke and mirrors – she was supplementing, tonight, with her own unicorn spell casting. With her horn carefully hidden under her hat, nopony had any way of knowing when she was casting a spell, and she made a point of taking off her hat and performing through pure sleight-of-hoof for a good portion of the show.

Trixie felt somewhat bad for using spells to supplement her street magic, but her Grandpapa himself had said that it was alright for Trixie to do so, as long as the sense of wonder and mystery remained. Plus, while she really was enjoying herself, she was here for a purpose.

You want to dump me here? Trixie thought, as she finished up another act, this one supplemented by an illusion spell Luna had taught her not two months ago. You want to just leave me here and forget about me? Fine. This is how I’ll waste your teachings. The magic taught to me by an alicorn – squandered on street magic.

Trixie felt herself getting more than a little flustered – though she didn’t show it – as the show went on, and Luna had the audacity to not appear angry, or incensed, or even disappointed. She watched impassively, for the most part, her alicorn senses more than capable of keeping up with sleight-of-hoof attempts. Once or twice, however, Trixie was able to pull off a stunt that baffled even her – and needless to say, those particular tricks were the ones that got the most applause from the audience, foals and adults alike.

Eventually, she ran out of tricks, about half an hour before midnight. She had, at least, closed with a bang, a complicated mix of several illusion and sleights-of-hoof that had seemed to make the house behind her outright disappear, ‘proven’ by shining beams of light ‘straight through’ it, before returning it – it was her home, after all, she remarked. By now, her crowd had grown to impressive proportions, with her having to pause the show about half-way through to ask for anyone watching to sit on their stomachs in order to ensure that everypony who wanted to see her at work could.

“Fillies and gentlecolts,” Trixie said with a bow, before offering a deeper, seemingly gracious one to the Princess. “Princess Luna…you’ve all been a wonderful audience, and the Great and Powerful Trixie looks forward to entertaining you in the future!” With that, Trixie threw her front hooves wide, conjuring illusory smoke and a ghost bang noise once more, using the distraction to make her exit straight backwards and into her home. By the time her illusory smoke cleared, nopony could see her.

Trixie let out a long, low sigh, standing still with her head pressed against her home’s door, eyes closed as she tried to decide whether she was angry, depressed, scared, all three, or something else. Regardless of how she felt, that was that. She hung up her hat near her door and trotted towards her living room, intent on getting a fire going and just spending the rest of the Longest Night awaiting the wrath of Princess Luna –

“Hello, Trixie.”

Trixie wasn’t even surprised that, on opening the door to her living room, she found herself face-to-face with Luna. She paused a moment for posterity’s sake, before making her way in slowly, glaring at her mentor.

“Princess,” Trixie said once fully inside, bowing. “If you’d give me a moment to get a fire – ”

One of Luna’s eyes twitched, and a blue-hot flame ignited in the empty fireplace. A moment later, Luna levitated a few logs and tinder into place, and let them start burning. It took a few moments, but at length the fire cooled from blue to a more comfortable red, orange, and yellow as the logs and natural reactions took over for Luna’s magic. She’s angry, then, Trixie noted.

She sat back on her haunches, staring at Luna and waiting. Luna stared back, her own position matching Trixie’s. For some time, the only sound was the cackle of the flames and the occasional snapping sound as the fire found a pocket of moisture or air in the logs.

“Is it better,” Luna asked at length, her voice carefully neutral, “for a leader of ponies to be loved, or to be feared?”

Trixie blinked a few times. Trixie had not been learning just magic from Luna. She’d been learning rhetoric and politics as well. And that particular question was among the first that Luna had ever posed to her. “Both,” Trixie answered, confused at the conversation’s turn. “It’s best to be both, if possible – ”

“And if it’s not? The ability to create such feelings in others can rarely be found together in a single pony.”

“…then it depends on the pony,” Trixie continued. “Some ponies do better with love, some with fear. It depends on the circumstances of the times. Love is more sure but is outside of a leader’s control, fear is totally within her control but can lead to – ”

“Yes, yes,” Luna responded, leaning forward. “But whether a leader is loved or feared, what must she always avoid?”

“Hate,” Trixie responded. “Contempt.”

Luna nodded, leaning back. “Trixie,” she said. “You have spent the last year moaning and complaining, without end, about not being able to put everything I’ve taught you to practical use. You have been wasting your time rather than continuing your studies. You have grown arrogant and self-assured about your own abilities, such that you managed to drive away the very, very small number of ponies left in Canterlot willing to give you a chance. And after you melted the ice palace in a bout of stupidity, you somehow managed to convince me that it was, in a way, my fault, that I was squandering your talents, that you were right, that it was time you were given a real job, real responsibility within my Night Court.”

Luna stood. “Two days,” she said, as she began to pace in a long, slow circle around Trixie. “You have been in Ponyville for two days, and what have you managed to do? I have been assaulted by ponies all night, Trixie, asking me to intervene in their problems. And can you guess, Trixie, what name has often come up tonight?”

Trixie could, but she remained stoically silent, staring straight ahead rather than following Luna’s pacing form. Luna’s eyes narrowed at that. “Your name, of course,” Luna continued. “I had one Carrot Top, asking for official royal sanction of her food stall tonight because she feared reprisals from the Apple Trust. When I asked her why she dared set up the stall in the first place if she was so afraid, she said that it was because she was blackmailed by you.

“Next I was confronted by a weather pony named Raindrops, who asked me to officially outlaw weather-for-hire ponies and do… extreme…things to a certain few in particular. When I asked why, she outlined how you had brought a dozen into town on short notice and, by doing so, essentially told her and her entire weather team that they were incapable of doing their jobs. This was especially stinging at her, because it appears that the storm over the Everfree Forest, which the weather-for-hire ponies were brought in to deal with, has dissipated utterly over the past few hours.

“Following this, I met a unicorn named Rarity, who was quarreling with an earth pony, Cheerilee. Rarity alternated between informing me that Cheerilee had ruined everything, and apologizing profusely for the decorations. When I remarked that they seemed adequate, she almost fainted, and went on at great length about how they used to be different – showed me her wonderful sketch, even – and how you had forced her to change everything for Cheerilee – this despite Cheerilee not asking you to do so.

“Then there was Lyra Heartstrings. A graduate of my own academy whom I happened to bump into. When I complimented her music – honestly I was expecting the anthem and her last-minute change of mind was both surprising and more appropriate – and remarked that I was grateful that at least somepony seems to have benefited from your presence…well, the look on her face told me much of what I needed to know anyway, but at my insistence she went into the details of how you, by insulting her chosen profession, conned her into playing.”

Luna’s slow pace had brought her full circle, to right in front of Trixie. She did not sit back down as she glared at Trixie, the blue unicorn matching it evenly. “And lastly,” she said, “I met the local leader of the Apple Trust, Applejack. She had a lot to say about you, about you trampling over Ponyville traditions, about you challenging the quality of her family’s produce, and essentially, about you being rude, confrontational, and in all ways unbecoming of a Representative of my Night Court. But there was another recurring theme besides your name, Trixie. Do you know what it was?”

Trixie remained silent. Luna’s scowl deepened, as she spread her wings wide, and took several steps forward, getting close to Trixie. “Trixie, answer me,” she said, evenly.

Trixie clenched her teeth. “They want me gone,” she guessed, “don’t they?”

“Immediately,” Luna confirmed. She lingered close to Trixie a moment more, before withdrawing, closing her eyes and shaking her head sadly, then wincing a little and rubbing one temple with her hoof. “And all this is not aided by the fact that I have had the worst headache I’ve had in centuries all through the night…” after a moment, she turned to look to Trixie. “Oh, but that reminds me. Your magic show. I am very, very disappointed, Trixie.”

Trixie suppressed a grin. “Why?” she asked. “You don’t think I’m squandering your lessons, do you?”

“No,” Luna responded. Trixie’s eyes widened at that, as Luna continued. “In fact I wish you had hit upon this idea sooner. You are a vain, arrogant, attention-seeking pony, Trixie, but being on stage, with ponies watching you and giving you praise, is exactly what you need as an outlet for that.” Luna turned around to fully regard Trixie. “No, what I am disappointed in is that I know you, Trixie. I know you were hoping I would believe that you were wasting your talents, that this wasn’t a genuine effort on your part. This was you trying to make me angry. Although don’t fear: you have succeeded in doing that.”

Trixie felt something snap inside of her. “You’re angry?” she asked, shouting. Luna’s eyes widened a little, as she was clearly trying to remember the last time anypony had dared raise their voice to her. “You’re angry? You send me here with everything falling to pieces and you have the gall to be angry? You exile me and – ”

“Exile?” Luna demanded, her own eyes narrowing as she stomped a hoof down. The room shook a little from the impact, but nothing broke. “Trixie, you’re the one who demanded more responsibility, and I gave it to you!”

“No you didn’t!” Trixie exclaimed, horn glowing brightly as she ripped the former baron’s letter from her cape pocket and hurled it at Luna. The alicorn princess caught it, looking it over. Trixie didn’t wait as she stomped around. “You send me here with the food being all the same thing which I know you’d hate and the weather spiraling out of control and the music being handled by the most introverted pony I’ve ever seen so that I can suffer for the ice palace before I get to spend the rest of my days in this stupid town…”

“You were not banished, Trixie!” Luna shouted back as she finished reading the letter.

“Then why am I here?”

“Because you asked to be!” Luna retorted, once more stomping a hoof. “Trixie, you have never held any position in the Night Court! What, did you expect to be given a position in Manehattan? Fillydelphia? Neigh Orleans? Did you expect me to shower you with land and titles? Ponyville is a large but comparatively quiet town, making it an excellent first appointment!”

“That – ” Trixie began, then choked on her own words as enlightenment struck as hard as any lightning bolt. “That…that makes a lot of sense, actually…”

Having gained the upper hoof, Luna pressed it as she stepped forward. “Duke Blueblood – the entire Blueblood family – are entitled, overdramatic snobs.”

“But…but the previous representatives…” Trixie began, turning around and rushing from the room. Luna followed, watching as Trixie ran into her office, producing letters from the other ponies who had held the title of representative in the past, pulling aside the bookcase and tearing open the safe hidden behind there to produce a dozen more.

Trixie levitated them all for Luna to see. “They’re all the same,” she said, though her eyes were wide and her voice shaky. “They’re all – ”

“Trixie, I have used Ponyville as a site for informal banishments. But the difference between exile and opportunity is a thin one, and the fact that I sent them here, inside of Equestria still, was usually more than enough of a hint that they only needed to get their acts together and they could return to Canterlot!” She looked over a few of the letters. “Many of these ponies were back in my good graces long before their retirements. I do not know why they wrote these letters. Perhaps it became a sort of hazing ritual, or sense of vindictiveness lingered – ”

“But the Duke said he wasn’t vindictive!”

“Yes, Trixie, and because somepony says something, they must be telling the truth,” Luna responded dryly. She glared at Trixie. “So, let me see if I understand your line of reasoning. You trusted somepony whom I’m not certain you’ve ever actually met, when he told you that I exiled you here, in a letter written weeks ago. Then because you thought you were exiled, you believed it a good idea to make everypony in Ponyville hate you, and following that, make an attempt to make me angry at you?”

Trixie’s mouth open and shut a few times as she tried to speak, but no intelligible sound came out. Luna shook her head in disappointment. “You owe Ponyville an apology for what you’ve done,” she said, trotting up to beside Trixie and using a wing to begin nudging her student towards the door to her office, and from there the door to the residency. “You owe several ponies in particular apologies. You owe me and apology. And after all that,” she looked Trixie in the eye as she opened the door. Outside, the moon sat high in the sky – it was midnight, or close to it. “I will have to seriously consider whether, after all of this, anything I have taught you has been absorbed, and whether or not continuing your apprenticeship…”

Luna’s voice trailed off as Trixie continued moving forward mechanically, eyes wide still. It wasn’t until she reached her home’s front gates that she realized that Luna wasn’t beside her anymore. Blinking a few times, she turned to regard her mentor, and found Luna staring wide-eyed herself, straight ahead. Due to the alignment of Trixie’s house, it meant she was staring almost perfectly to the east, where in the far distance dawn’s first light was beginning to creep over the horizon –

“Wait,” Trixie said, her trance-like state of despair shattered. “Wait. Princess. Why are you raising the sun?”

“I’m not,” Luna said in a quiet voice, even as the golden disc appeared fully over the horizon. It was definitely dawn – even as the moon and stars were still perched high in the sky overhead. The sun, in fact, was moving with speed Trixie had never seen the celestial body move at before, charging straight towards the highest point in the sky as though it intended to shove the moon from orbit. The stars themselves were also moving in the sky, hurrying out of the way of the burning orb of fire, clearing a path in the brightening sky. Some of the stars were not fast enough, however. As the sun touched them, they would flare, suddenly – and then vanish utterly.

“Is it really a good idea to have the sun and moon in the sky at the same…” Trixie began, looking back to her teacher. Her words died in her throat when she saw the expression on Luna’s face.

Trixie had seen Luna angry. She’d seen her sad. She’d seen her happy. She’d seen her confused, irritated, tired, excited, enraged, ecstatic, embarrassed, and a million other emotions. But she had never before seen Princess Luna look frightened – and properly speaking, she still hadn’t, because to Trixie, Princess Luna did not, right now, look frightened. Princess Luna looked terrified.

“Princess – ” Trixie began, when Luna’s eyes snapped shut and her horn glowed. Her form dissolved into blue, starry mist and shot away, towards the center of Ponyville. Eyes wide, Trixie dashed off after her.

Princess Luna arrived in her mist-form in the center of town as the sun was nearing the moon, which, itself, seemed to be either shrinking in the sky, or else drawing backwards, moving away from the planet it orbited and making room for the sun even as its edge appeared to touch the edge of the moon.

Most ponies in Ponyville, or indeed Equestria, did not have experience with seeing quite as wide a range of emotions on their Princess’ face as did Trixie, but even still, none of them had ever expected to see the look of abject terror that was transfixed on Luna’s face as her mist-form rematerialized in the town center, eyes darting from pony to pony.

“Run!” Luna exclaimed in volumes she normally reserved for making public proclamations from atop Canterlot’s tallest tower. “Run, my little ponies! This sunrise is not my doing! Flee to the forests and hide! Co – ”

She was interrupted by a cry of pain – her own – as the sun continued its movement, beginning to eclipse the moon. The moon itself began to blacken, as though being burned by the sun, and though the burns did not physically appear on Luna, her front hooves gave out as she howled at the fiery sensations that felt like they were spreading across her body. Unfortunately, this produced the exact opposite of what she wanted to happen – ponies began rushing forward to their tormented princess, looking to help her.

Screaming in frustration, Luna spread her wings wide, with enough force to shove the ponies back a good thirty feet. “No!” she exclaimed in spite of her pain. “You need to – ”

The words died on her lips as there was a hiss and a snapping sound, followed by the air around Ponyville igniting. As Luna watched in horror, a line of yellow and orange flames raced around the edge of town, becoming a wall of fire fifty feet high. Several terrified pegasi tried to fly over the flames, but they would flare up as they drew near, forcing the pegasi back. The only sound that could be heard above the cackling of the flames – which, at least, did not seem to be burning the buildings of Ponyville – was the screams of terror, fright, and confusion.

At length, the moon was completely eclipsed by the sun, which flared brightly once – then a second time, even brighter – then a third time, so bright as to turn everypony’s field of vision white, even Luna’s.

Then, silence – a terrible silence, obviously magically created since everypony was still trying to scream in terror. They only stopped when the futility became obvious, and their vision began to return.

“My little ponies,” a voice broke through the silence, as the sound of wings beating steadily in long, slow sweeps permeated the air. “My precious subjects. Rejoice.”

Everypony, Luna included, looked up at the unnatural midday sky, and saw her: A large, white alicorn, taller than even Princess Luna even without her horn, with majestic, swan-like wings beating steadily to perfectly control her descent to the world below, though features beyond that were difficult to make out as she glowed almost as bright as the unnatural sun. At length, she settled down on the cobblestone plaza that surrounded the town hall. Only then, as though touching the earth somehow lessened her, did the glow that permeated her fade, and the ponies could see her in detail – her mane and tail made from animate flames, her cutie mark of a golden, full sun, her regal, subdued smile – and her eyes, completely white, lacking iris, pupil, or anything else that would mar to their appearance.

“Rejoice,” the alicorn repeated, a broad grin on her face. “Your true queen hath returned.”

Luna forced herself to her hooves, ignoring the pain she felt all across her body, a pain that was lessening, at least, as her moon continued to withdraw from Equestrian orbit. She was breathing in great gasps, and realized she was trembling in fear. She stopped only with a supreme exertion of effort, and only for the benefit of her ponies.

The white alicorn’s smile warmed slightly as she regarded Luna. “Ah…” she said, taking a few steps forward. “Sister. Thou hast grown since last I set eyes upon thee.”

Luna could utter only a single word in response.

“Corona.”

9. Sol Invicta

Corona’s blank eyes widened a little in surprise at Luna’s statement. “Sister, wherefore art thou calling me by such a false title? Hath a thousand years slowed thy memory?” She chuckled. “Celestia, dear sister, though I recall that thou wouldst call me Tia in thy more endearing moments – ”

“You are not my sister!” Luna exclaimed as she moved, charging forward with horn flaring with magic, wings spreading wide as she leapt for Corona. The white alicorn’s own horn glowed as Luna did so, however, and the Princess of the Moon was seized in a white aura and thrown to the ground, with force that would have shattered any other pony’s bones.

Corona’s eyes had narrowed, as she spread her wings wide. “Ah,” she intoned as she began walking forward. Tiny flames would spark to life and then die beneath her hooves with each step she took. “I see that thou remain resentful of my power and rightful station. I had hoped that the millenium I have spent imprisoned hath been but a mistake on thy part, but it seems thy treacherous nature remains.”

“How did you escape?” Luna demanded, as she struggled to rise. Corona’s magic flared, however, keeping the princess firmly pressed to the ground beneath her as she leaned close to the darker alicorn, a sad look on her face.

“Luna…my poor, covetous sister…I am the sun. I am the elder, the rightful ruler of the earth. Thou hast great power, but I am power, the burning fires of creation itself. Thou couldst never overcome me without the corrupted Elements of Harmony, and even with them, thou couldst do naught but seal me away for a time.”

Corona withdrew from her sister, wings still spread wide. “A thousand years is not so long a period, Luna, for beings such as we. ‘Twas but the barest moment to mine eyes, and it took no more than that moment to break thy prison locks. Locks I had not dared to believe, however, that thou intended to make permanent.”

Corona began walking in circles around Luna, eyes still focused upon her. “No. I had hoped that thou wouldst see reason. That thou wouldst understand that I was meant to reign over the day and the night. I am wiser. I am stronger. I am the sun. But thou hast a place in my realm, sister, if thou wouldst only see fit to remove the veil of jealousy from thy sight! I admit to not having thy creative spark, thine artistic abilities. Thy nights are far more beautiful than any I could ever construct, and it would warm my heart to have thee yet manage them in my name. Thou wouldst even retain thy title of Princess, for it belongs to thee by right – as the title of Queen is mine, as is the land of Equestria and all who inhabit it.”

Corona stopped pacing around Luna, coming to stop directly in front of her and tucking her wings back against her body. The white alicorn’s horn flared with magic once more, lifting Luna up, placing her on her hooves in front of her. Corona took several steps backwards, and the aura around Luna disappeared as Corona’s head raised slightly, and she extended one long foreleg. “Kneel before thy Queen, sister. Kiss my hoof and swear obedience, and we shall consign all this to the realm of unpleasant memories and dwell upon the matter no further.”

Luna’s horn flared with magic, but Corona, once more, was the faster. Luna was again wrapped in white magic and forced to her knees before she could launch even a single spell. Corona, for her part, seemed hardly surprised, only disappointed. “Unfortunate,” she observed. “But perhaps a thousand years of ruling alone hath only heightened thine arrogant presumption. Very well! I shall have to take more extreme measures with thee.”

Corona spread her wings wide, as Luna continued to fight in vain against her arcane bonds. The white alicorn’s horn began to glow brightly. “Thou art treacherous, covetous, and in all ways unbecoming of a sister of the Queen of Equestria!” Corona proclaimed. “And so, though it pains me greatly to do so, I am forced, for the good of Equestria, to banish thee from the land! Thine exile shalt be for a term of not less than one thousand and one years, and the site of thine exile shall be the moon itself! Thou shalt for a millennium look down upon the earth and see the glory that I, Celestia, bring to it!” A comforting look appeared on Corona’s face, an utterly alien expression for a being with blank eyes. “But before thine exile begins, I will gift thee once more with the sound of my subject’s voices, the subjects thou reignedst over for a thousand years. Perhaps thou shalt begin to understand thine error once the praise for the return of their rightful Queen reaches thine ears!”

Corona turned from Luna, raising her head high and closing her eyes as she let the silence spell she had cast over Ponyville dissipate, ready to drink in the eager…

…cries of terror and shouts of horror at what the multitude of ponies were witnessing.

Corona’s eyes fluttered open at the sound, though they remained without pupil or iris. A look of doubt appeared on her features. “What?” she demanded, looking around as though seeing the ponies for the first time. Many had fled utterly, while some remained close, paralyzed with fear or else trying to work up the courage to do something to protect their Princess and their loved ones, although what, none of them had even begun to guess. Each time Corona’s gaze would fall upon a pony, they would whimper, or recoil in horror, or find whatever small courage they had managed to gather fail and simply turn tail and flee.

“N…nay!” Corona cried, taking several steps forward. Luna redoubled her efforts to free herself, but a glare from Corona and a reinforcement of magic kept her in her place. “Ponies, wherefore do you flee in fear? Screams of delight should be reaching mine ears, not screams of terror!” The white alicorn punctuated this remark by slamming her right hoof down upon the cobblestone street with such force that it sent a ten-foot-long crack straight forward.

The white alicorn’s horn glowed brightly and her wings flapped once. Instantly, scores of ponies were seized in her grasp and dragged forward, even those who had hidden inside buildings. Corona was careful to guide them out open doors or windows and place them all in front of her, holding them on their hooves and in place. This easily doubled the wails of abject horror, and over and over again one word reached the white alicorn’s ears – Corona! Corona!

Corona closed her eyes and grit her teeth. “Cease your cries! Your Queen commands silence!” she shouted, not merely enhancing her voice, but using magic to adjust its tone and inflection to be one that most ponies simply couldn’t disobey. Shortly thereafter – not instantly, but quickly enough – the screams and cries died down to a low-level murmur of whimpers and held-back tears.

Corona looked around at the ponies frozen in place before her. “Explain yourselves!” she commanded. “After one thousand years your rightful Queen has returned!" she approached one pony, getting close to the stallion "Wherefore do you run?" she demanded as he flinched and tried to move away. Corona snorted in disgust and turned to another. "Wherefore do you find cause for fear?”

Luna stopped struggling against her bonds, breathing heavily. She looked to Corona, and the faintest grin appeared on her features. “It was the same a thousand years ago, Corona,” she said. “Don’t you remember?”

Corona turned quickly, glaring at Luna. “The filth! The spittle!” she exclaimed. “Such lies are unbecoming of thee, sister! A thousand years ago, ‘twas thine actions that made the ponies rise against me! Thy corrupting influence in my Court!”

“You mean the Court that you had to drag from their homes, kicking and screaming?” Luna asked. “No, wait. That was earlier. You’re referring to the Court that attended you only because you held their families hostage.”

“Their obedience was better assured in such a manner! But always I had the love of the common pony – ”

“You mean to tell me you don’t remember having to threaten to burn down Canterlot and start over, ‘like a phoenix risen from the ashes,’ if everypony in the city didn’t line up for your procession that one time?”

“Thine influence was strong in the capital! But in the rural areas – ”

“Where the revolution began?”

“It would hath gone no further had thou not – ”

“Had the Royal Guard not immediately switched sides as soon as I had stolen the Elements from you?”

“Be silent!” Corona shouted, the aura surrounded Luna doubling in size and forcing her to the ground. She cried out in pain. “I should have known. A thousand years may not be so long for an alicorn, but for ponies…thou hast had a millennium to sew thy lies amongst my subjects. To turn me into naught more than a monster in their eyes.”

“I didn’t need to. You did that fine by yourself.” Luna’s horn glowed, and though she did not escape Corona’s magical grip, she managed to force herself to her hooves, and look Corona in her blank eyes. “You had all you could ever want, but you wanted more. You tried to take everything. You weren’t a queen, you were a despot. You ceased being my sister and became something that I needed to – that I had to stop.” Her eyes narrowed. “You aren’t my Tia. You don’t deserve that name. You are Corona, the Tyrant Sun. A monster.”

Corona’s eyes widened at so blatant an insult. “Enough! The life of a pony is as that of a gnat. As thou hast had a thousand years to sew thy lies, so shall I have a thousand to expunge them! Whatever paltry edifices thou hast raised in mine absence, I shall tear down, and raise glorious monuments of mine own. All that thou hast accomplished shall turn to ash in the fires of rebirth that shall spread across Equestria. Nopony shall remember thy lies, nor even thy reign! Thou shalt be forgotten!” Corona’s horn flared, the light growing painfully bright. “Thy banishment begins now, Luna!”

Luna tried, one more time, to escape from Corona’s magical aura, but her struggles were in vain as white light encompassed her completely. She opened her mouth to shout some final defiance, but the sound of Corona’s magic drowned out whatever she tried to say as she shot straight upwards, towards the sun and the moon that lay hidden behind it, disappearing into the unnatural midday’s glare. Corona watched the white comet disappear into the sky, her face holding a bizarre, manic mixture of grim determination and sadistic glee, mane and tail billowing like flames caught in a breeze but which were too determined to be put out by it.

At length, Corona turned around, looking over the ponies and letting her white aura of magic fade from them. All were too paralyzed by fear to run, instead only huddling together, trying to protect each other from Corona’s gaze. “Who among you leads this settlement?” she demanded, stamping a hoof. “Who represents my sister’s Court? Step forward and present thyself to thy returned Queen.”

There was a long pause, before a beige-colored earth pony began creeping forward, head low but eyes locked on Corona and fighting back tears of fright. “I…I – I’m the m-mayor of Ponyville, y-your majesty,” the pony said as she came forward and began to bow. “M-my name is – ”

“Wait!”

Corona blinked at the interruption, as a light blue unicorn, wearing a tall, purple, star-studded hat and matching cape, as well as a blue shirt and deep purple coat, pushed her way to the front of the crowd. On reaching it, and having no more ponies between her and Corona’s glare, she paused for a moment, as though regretting her actions, but then grit her teeth and made her way forward.

“I’m the one you want,” the unicorn said.

“There would appear to be some confusion as to who leads this settlement,” Corona observed. “Explain.”

Trixie stepped forward. “You asked two questions,” Trixie noted. “Who’s in charge? Who represents Luna?” The unicorn nodded to the mayor. “She’s the elected mayor of Ponyville. But if you’re looking for the representative of Luna’s Night Court…that would be me.” Trixie ground her teeth together as she closed her eyes. “Don’t – please, your majesty, don’t hurt her. Don’t hurt anypony here. If you’re looking to destroy Luna’s government, then I’m the one you want.”

There was long silence, broken only by the cackling of the flames that still surrounded Ponyville – and, Trixie noted, a similar sound coming from Corona’s mane and tail as well. Trixie heard hoof-steps in front of her, and dared open one eye. Corona was pacing around her and the mayor, appraising them both, as well as the gathered ponies who were still watching in abject terror, wondering if they were about to witness an execution.

Trixie tried not to think. She tried not to think about her future and the innumerable ways that Corona could kill her, many of which would involve fire, all of which would be painful beyond belief, and few of which would be quick. She also tried not to think about her immediate past, and what she had just seen – Luna, Princess Luna, the immortal ruler of Equestria, her mentor, in many ways her surrogate parent for the past ten years, utterly and completely dominated by this monster, by a dark and terrible legend come to life, banished to the moon for a thousand years.

Trixie would never see her again. And their last true exchange had been Luna expressing how disappointed she was in Trixie – how she intended to terminate Trixie’s apprenticeship. Trixie didn’t want to die. But she did want to live up to the standards Luna had set for her – be the pony that Luna had wanted her to be. If that meant offering up her life to Corona for Ponyville, or even just Ponyville’s mayor, then so be it.

Corona completed her circle of the two, and settled down on her haunches as she did so, looking between the two. “Madame mayor. I have no quarrel with thee. Thou shalt leave my presence.”

The mayor bowed deeply – either that or her forelegs had given out in relief, but the effect was much the same – and withdrew. Corona turned her blank gaze upon Trixie, and leaned forward. “Thy name?” Corona asked.

“Trixie Lulamoon, your majesty,” Trixie responded, keeping her head bowed. Just make it quick, she thought. That’s all I’m asking...

“And thy standing? Thou must be a viscountess, at least, to hold dominion over so large a settlement."

Trixie blinked a few times at that. “Uh – ” she said. Her mind whirled. Corona expected her to be a noble. She expected her to be a noble because of how large Ponyville was. Of course. A thousand years ago – when last Corona was in Equestria – Ponyville would have been considered a decent-sized city, instead of just barely more than a large town. To Corona’s blank eyes, Ponyville seemed like a major appointment, where an important noble pony would have been entrusted to oversee it in the name of the Princess.

But this paled next to the realization that Corona even cared. If all Corona had intended to do was begin the process of immolating the members of Luna’s government, Trixie would already be dead, and so would the mayor. No, Corona was seeking something else…and it took only a second for Trixie to realize what, keyed in from what she had heard Luna say to Corona about Corona dragging her Court to session, then holding their families hostage to keep them there. Corona may have been a despot, a mad alicorn, the Tyrant Sun – but even she couldn’t run a land as large as Equestria all by herself. She needed a Court of her own to handle day-to-day affairs, and simply burning away all of Luna’s Night Court was hardly practical, especially if she really did want to try and earn the love of ponies everywhere. It would make far more sense to, at least in the short term –

“I grow impatient,” Corona intoned.

Trixie glanced up, then bowed her head. “F-forgive me,” she said, and picked a relatively middling noble rank at random. “Duchess, your majesty.”

Corona’s eyes widened slightly. “Duchess?” she asked. “What crime hath been committed by thee to warrant thy appointment here?”

Trixie winced – apparently she'd shot a little too high. But – yes. She could work with this. “I…had a…disagreement with Princess Luna, your majesty, over my duties. I felt I could handle more than she was giving me.” Trixie said, keeping her head bowed. “This appointment was intended as more of a banishment from the Night Court than anything.”

Corona considered Trixie, as Trixie once more dared look at Corona’s blank eyes. The white alicorn’s emotions were difficult to read thanks to those empty orbs. She had no idea what Corona was thinking, what Corona intended to do to her. At length, the white alicorn spread her wings. “Whatever quarrel thou hast had with mine sister,” she said, “I believe to be most unfair. ‘Twas a brave thing for thee to present thyself before me. No doubt thou believed that thy very life was at stake due to the lies about me that thou hast heard from my sister."

Corona stood. “I am not the monster mine sister hath claimed me to be. I am not!” she emphasized this point with a flutter of her wings. After a moment of letting her proclamation sink in to the ponies of Ponyville, she regarded Trixie with an arch look. “Equestria has languished under my sister’s clumsy hooves for too long, ever since she somehow corrupted the Elements of Harmony and turned them upon me. I shall bring glory to the land once more!” Corona extended her right hoof. “Kiss my hoof, Duchess Trixie, and swear allegiance to my reign, now and forever.”

Trixie paused only a moment before doing so. “I swear,” she promised. It felt like her mouth was full of bile as she did, but if it let her come out of this alive, along with everypony in Ponyville…even as she did, however, she struggled to keep her eyes from widening as she struck upon something that Corona had said. The Elements of Harmony.

Of course! All she had to do was make it out of the next few minutes alive…which, as she glanced up at Corona, suddenly seemed unlikely. Corona was regarding her with narrow eyes, wings spread threateningly, as she withdrew her hoof.

“No…” the alicorn intoned. “No…’twas too easy, somehow. I find it hard to believe that a pony who would lay down her life to save another's would so easily bow to me, no matter her quarrel with my sister or her Court.”

Trixie blinked. “I – no, your majesty, it’s just, with Princess Luna gone, I – ”

“Ah…” Corona said, cutting Trixie off and grinning widely as she believed she understood the source of Trixie’s actions. “’Twas not bravery. ‘Twas a peculiar cowardice, and spite for thy former princess, and opportunism. Thou believed that thou couldst ingratiate thyself within my new Court.”

“N…y…maybe…?” Trixie asked stupidly. On the other hoof, it certainly made her sound like such a pony as Corona was describing, caught in the act.

Corona considered, probably weighing the value of such a pony against the fact that, at the end of the day, she really would need to, for the moment, keep Equestria’s infrastructure more-or-less intact, lest the realm collapse into anarchy. At length, she brightened, stepping back several paces. “An idea occurs to me,” she said. “Thy desires seem genuine enough, but thy loyalty is in question. Still, thou were willing to risk death itself for thy fellow pony. ‘Tis evidence of a shred of true nobility in thy veins, somewhere.” Corona smiled as her horn glowed.

Behind Trixie, she heard cries of terror and screams. Turning swiftly, she saw a multitude of ponies wrapped in white auras, being pulled from the crowd that Corona had assembled and dragged through the air, towards the white alicorn one at a time. Specifically, Corona was grasping foals.

“No!” Trixie cried out, not thinking as her horn glowed brightly, reaching above her and trying to grab at the colts and fillies being dragged to Corona. She was powerless against the alicorn’s magic, however – it was possible that Corona didn’t even feel her feeble attempts to wrench the kicking, screaming foals from her telekinetic grasp. Trixie wasn’t even the only one – mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters all tried, with magic if they were unicorns or bare hooves and teeth if they weren’t, to hold on to their children, but against the Tyrant Sun, their efforts were wasted; indeed they were wrapped in white auras of their own and pushed back.

Trixie’s magic failed utterly, and her heart stopped beating, at the last foal to pass overhead, a gray-coated, yellow-maned unicorn filly who was being held onto tightly by her pegasus mother. Ditzy Doo’s eyes were focused on her Dinky Doo’s own, tears staining both their eyes as the Corona’s magic forced them apart, driving Ditzy Doo back to the crowd and Dinky over to behind the mad alicorn. Without thinking, Trixie rushed to Ditzy’s side, magic and hooves both holding the pegasus back from charging at Corona. Other ponies tried to do likewise, but Corona only chuckled slightly as she shoved away. All in all, Corona had captured at least fifty foals, probably more.

“Of course, I shall be too busy in Canterlot to keep a good eye on them,” Corona mused aloud. At random, a handful of other ponies were dragged forward, much as the foals had been, though with less resistance as the Ponyvillians were still trying to recover from their children having been stolen. Among them, Trixie saw, was the cream-colored, blue-and-pink haired marefriend of Lyra.

Corona’s eyes narrowed as her horn flared. “Fear not, my subjects,” the Tyrant Sun said. “They are merely my hostages. They shall ensure the loyalty and stability of this settlement, with the mares and stallions I have taken to keep the colts and fillies in good health.”

Corona leaned forward, towards Trixie, as the flames around Ponyville finally disappeared. “And this shalt be thy test. Keep Ponyville ordered and secure, and thou shalt need not fear for thy fellow pony. Provided, of course, thou survive thy fellow pony’s judgement.”

With that, Corona beat her wings, taking to the air, and dragging the screaming foals and adult ponies with her. Once she was hovering over Ponyville, she stood as though the air were solid ground, smiling widely. “Rejoice, my subjects!” Corona called. “Your true queen hath returned! In celebration, there shall be an unbroken ten days of glorious sunshine! On the tenth day, if all has gone as I wish it – if I am obeyed – your foals shall be returned to you. If otherwise…” Corona let her sentence hang, feeling no need to complete it. With a burst of light and a strong beat of her wings, she was off, dragging the ponies held in her magical grip behind her.

All eyes turned to where Trixie had been holding Ditzy Doo – or at least all the eyes of everypony who wasn’t too broken by the events that had just occurred to do anything other than stand in shock or weep. But the unicorn was already gone from sight, as was Ditzy Doo.

10. The Plan

Oddly, Trixie didn’t feel nervous about the fact that, with the sun directly overhead, it was essentially midday. Perhaps that superstition was keyed more to the time of day than the position of the sun; either that or she was so terrified right now that mere nervousness over the unnatural midday wasn’t capable of registering beyond abstractly noting its absence.

Trixie opened the door to her house, closed it, and let the invisibility spell she had wrapped around her and Ditzy Doo, whom she was carrying on her back, slide off of them. On seeing Ditzy Doo, she almost wished she hadn’t. The pegasus mare’s eyes were wide with panic, and she was holding onto Trixie tightly, sobbing without shame into the unicorn’s mane.

“Dinky!” Ditzy cried out as Trixie made her way into her living room, suddenly finding life in her limbs as her wings began beating frantically, lifting herself off of Trixie’s back and straight up. She was stopped only by the room’s ceiling, and came crashing down to the floor again. Trixie leapt on top of her before the mare could get her hooves under her and go racing outside.

“Ditzy!” Trixie cried as she held the pegasus down. “Ditzy! Stop! You can’t – ”

“Get off!” Ditzy Doo interrupted, foreleg lashing out and hitting Trixie squarely in her jaw. The unicorn stumbled backwards, and Ditzy began running, but Trixie was faster and was once again atop her. “Get off of me! I have to save her!” Ditzy cried out.

“You can’t!”

“Yes I can!” Ditzy shouted, rolling over onto her back in order to buck Trixie. The unicorn’s horn pulsed with magic and stopped the blow, then Trixie once again threw herself atop Ditzy Doo, holding her down. She did not stop struggling in the slightest. “She’s my daughter! I have to save her! I have – ”

“You can’t!” Trixie repeated. She stopped holding Ditzy Doo down, and instead switched to embracing the pegasus. Unsurprisingly, Ditzy latched onto Trixie, once again crying her eyes out – she wasn’t going to run out of tears any time soon, it seemed.

Trixie felt her own eyes watering as well. “I’m sorry…” Trixie begged. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know Corona would do that. I didn’t know, I was just trying to save the mayor, I thought I was going to die but then I thought I found a way to make it out and then nopony would be hurt and I didn’t know…”

The two ponies remained on the floor of Trixie’s living room for several minutes, just holding each other, one wracked with feelings of failure and the other with guilt. At length, Trixie forced herself to pull away from Ditzy Doo, and got onto her shaking hooves, her expression dark.

“She’ll be fine if – ” Trixie began, when the window to her living room exploded inwards in a shower of wood and glass. Trixie’s horn flared, but she didn’t have time to react as a jasmine-and-blue blur slammed into her and forcing her back against her wall. Trixie’s eyes widened as they locked onto Raindrops’ own. “W-wait, I – ” the unicorn started.

“There’s maybe fifteen seconds before half of Ponyville arrives here,” Raindrops interrupted as she pulled away from Trixie. Trixie began to speak, but the weather pony’s hoof was near-instantly in her mouth, shutting her up. “You. Carrot Top’s. Run.”

Trixie blinked once in shock, before survival instinct kicked in. She cast her familiar invisibility-and-silence-spell combo – eliciting a slightly raised eyebrow from Raindrops at the sight of her being erased from the visible spectrum – before dashing off as fast as her hooves could take her. On her way out of her home, through the same hole that Raindrops had made while entering, she saw the mob of ponies approaching her house, cries of traitor and monster on their lips. The mob was surprisingly small; then again, she supposed that a large number of ponies would still be paralyzed with fear and terror over what had just happened.

Despite nopony being able to see her, and so being supposedly perfectly safe, Trixie ran for her life from Ponyville.

Carrot Top jumped as her door opened and closed of its own accord not long after she had arrived home herself with Lyra and Cheerilee, and was startled again when a blue-coated, white-maned, purple-clad unicorn appeared from nowhere only a few feet away from her, barrel heaving. She looked to Carrot Top. “Hi – ” Trixie began, when she found herself seized in a golden magical aura and hurled upwards, into the ceiling of Carrot Top’s living room.

“You!” Lyra – still wearing her white-and-gold dress – exclaimed, charging forward despite a magenta earth pony’s attempts to stop her. “It’s your fault! BonBon’s been kidnapped, I’ll never see her again, and it’s your fault!”

Trixie grunted, her own horn flashing and shoving Lyra’s telekinesis off of her. She managed to fall from the ceiling and land on her hooves without problem, and both Carrot Top and Cheerilee managed to stop Lyra’s attempts to abandon telekinesis and use her bare hooves on Trixie. The blue unicorn nevertheless began backing away, but then the door opened again, and Raindrops entered, half-carrying a still-distraught Ditzy Doo with her. The jasmine-coated pegasi glared at Trixie as she did, closing the door behind her firmly before taking in a few deep breaths and letting them out slowly.

Trixie looked around at the situation. Lyra had stopped trying to cause grievous harm to Trixie, instead falling to her knees and crying, with Cheerilee beside her and holding her. Ditzy Doo was at least as distraught; Trixie made her way over to the gray pegasus took up a similar role as Cheerilee’s for Lyra, before looking to Raindrops and Carrot Top. “Okay,” she said, “why are you helping me?”

“You were trying to save the mayor,” Raindrops observed. “Just about everypony in Ponyville’s too angry and too scared to see that right now, but I know that’s what you were trying to do.” Her eyes narrowed, then, and she leaned in close to Trixie. “Right? Because if Corona was right – if you really were just kissing her flank to save your behind – ”

“No!” Trixie interrupted, though she paused. “Not – I was trying to save the mayor. I was ready to die. But then Corona asked me about my noble title and I realized that she wanted me alive because she’s going to need to keep the government intact in order to actually run Equestria, and I thought I saw a way out, a way for me to survive and the mayor to survive and everypony to just make it out okay! I didn’t know she’d kidnap ponies!” Trixie hugged Ditzy Doo tighter at that, as the mare’s tears resumed with even greater vigor. She glared at Raindrops. “But why are you helping me? You and Carrot Top? You two hate me! Princess Luna told me so!”

Raindrops jabbed a hoof at Cheerilee. The magenta earth pony blinked a few times, looking between the five other ponies. “I saw what you were doing,” she said. “With the mayor, trying to save her. I heard what you were saying, and I know you were just trying to make it out okay, but everypony was getting so mad. I’d heard from Princess Luna that you and Raindrops knew each other, so I got her, and got Lyra, and Lyra suggested Carrot Top’s, and we were going to help you hide since the residency wouldn’t be safe for you, but then Corona took the foals…”

“But I thought you hated me. I thought you all hated me.”

“That doesn’t mean we want to see you mobbed.”

“Not even Raindrops?”

The jasmine pegasus whickered. “No. You’re mine.”

“Besides,” Cheerilee said, “I know you were just trying your best to make the festival a good – ”

“What do we do?” Carrot Top interrupted suddenly, as the situation became too much for her. She began to pace in place. “Corona’s free and Princess Luna is gone and I’m harboring a traitor to Equestria – ”

“I’m not a traitor!” Trixie shouted.

“You look like one!” Carrot Top countered. “Even though you’re not you look like one and they’re going to search all the houses in Ponyville and they’ll find you and lynch you and lynch me for harboring you and then Corona is going to get mad and kill all the – ”

Carrot Top’s ranting was stopped by Raindrops shoving a hoof in her mouth. A long silence began, interrupted only by the gasping sobs of Ditzy Doo and Lyra. “That’s not going to happen,” Trixie intoned after awhile. “Corona won’t kill anypony. I’ll…I’ll just hide for as long as it takes for Ponyville to calm down. Corona said she’d return everypony she took as long as Ponyville obeyed all her commands. All that needs to happen is that and for me to not be stupid and run into the Everfree.”

“Why would you go there?” Cheerilee asked.

Trixie grimaced, looking down. “I thought I could get the…nevermind. Nothing. Forget I said anything.”

“No,” Raindrops said, stomping forward. “Get what? What are you talking about?”

Trixie looked up. Raindrops’ eyes were narrow as she regarded Trixie. The unicorn stared for a long moment before letting out a sigh. “Okay,” she said. “Technically this is a state secret. But it’s not in any law books or official orders or anything, it’s just something that only me and Princess Luna and maybe a few others know. Okay?”

Raindrops nodded. Trixie looked to each of the remaining four ponies; Lyra and Ditzy Doo were still mostly lost in their sadness, while Carrot Top and Cheerilee also nodded in understanding. Sighing, Trixie pressed on. “While I was talking to Corona, but before she took the foals, I thought I knew some way to get rid of her. I thought I’d go get the Elements of Harmony.”

Carrot Top blinked a few times. “You wanted to go to Canterlot?” she exclaimed. “Where there’s a good chance Corona is going to be setting everything on fire?”

Trixie shook her head. “The Elements aren’t in Canterlot.”

“Yes they are,” Cheerilee objected, standing, though she remained close to Lyra. “They’re on display in the palace. I’ve seen them, we went there on a field trip when I was a filly, Lyra and all the other unicorns kept going on about how much magic was coming off of them – ”

“Those aren’t the Elements,” Trixie explained. “They’re fakes. Just six random gemstones that Princess Luna pours tons of magic into every year to make them seem like they’re the Elements. I only know because my special talent is magic, and I’ve got a really good feel for magic too, and after I started my apprenticeship with Luna and she taught me the detect magic spell I used to cast it on everything. I cast it on Luna once when she raised the moon and I went blind for three days from how much magic she lets out while doing that. But when I cast it on the Elements, I didn’t even get a headache. I thought that was weird – y’know, they’re the Elements and all – and I asked Princess Luna about it, so she showed me the real Elements.”

Cheerilee blinked. “Why would Princess Luna lie about that?”

“Because the real Elements are petrified rocks,” Trixie said. “They’re in the Everfree Forest, in the ruins of the Palace of the Royal Pony Sisters. After Luna banished Corona to the sun, they just went inert and kind of froze in place. No force – not even Luna herself – could move them. Luna didn’t want everypony to know that, though. So she made the fakes.”

“And she just left the real ones unguarded?” Carrot Top asked. “Why?”

Trixie grimaced. “Not exactly ungaurded. There’s traps, and of course they’re in the middle of the Everfree and all its monsters. As for why, Princess Luna didn’t say, but at a guess I’d say she just didn’t want to ever have to go back to where she’d fought the Tyrant Sun.” Trixie shook her mane. “I thought that if I could get to the Elements of Harmony, I might find some way of getting them free and using them on Corona. But not now, not while she has those hostages…”

“No,” Raindrops said. She wasn’t looking at Trixie, but rather down at the ground, eyes moving a little as though reading. “No, we have to go now. Now’s the perfect time.”

“What?” the five other ponies in the room demanded, with Trixie appending a “and where’s this we coming from?” to her objection.

Raindrops looked between them. “Corona has her hooves full right now,” she pointed out. “That’s why she took all those mares and stallions with her, remember? To keep an eye on the foals. She has a government to overthrow and bring over to her side, and she’ll probably have to do a repeat of what she did with Trixie in most other towns and cities in Equestria, at least until she forces everypony else to bow to her. Plus, there’s the Royal Guard.”

“They can’t win,” Carrot Top objected, shaking her head morosely at the thought.

“But they’ll fight anyway,” Raindrops pointed out. “They’ll be buying us time without even knowing. If the Elements can work at all, then now is our best chance to get them.”

“But Corona…” Lyra objected, as she and Ditzy stood. “Corona will kill BonBon and all those foals if she finds out what we’re doing!”

Raindrops fixed Lyra with a sad look, then turned to Ditzy as well. “If we wait,” she said, “then we’ll never get this opportunity again. One of the first things Corona is going to do, when she gets a chance, is check out where everypony thinks the Elements are. If she realizes they’re fakes, she’ll start hunting for the real ones. And the first place you look for something is the last place you saw it.”

She looked between the five other ponies. “Come on,” she said. “We all know the stories about Corona. The legends. What she’s like. We’ve seen what she’s capable of. We saw what she did to Princess Luna. Those ponies she kidnapped won’t be safe until Corona is back in the sun where she belongs.”

“But where’s this we coming from?” Trixie repeated, stepping forward. “It’s too dangerous. I wasn’t even thinking of asking anypony to come with me – ”

Raindrops snorted. “Like you’d last five minutes in the Everfree by yourself.”

“Not the point.”

“I know. I also know that now that I know there’s a chance of stopping Corona, I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t at least try.”

Trixie searched the pegasus’ face. Despite her words and tone, her expression remained surprisingly neutral. “Fine,” she said. “I guess I could use a set of wings, anyway. The rest of you – ”

“I’m coming too,” Cheerilee said, stepping forward. “Those foals are my students, or a lot of them are, anyway. I have to try and save them.”

Trixie began to object, when Carrot Top stepped forwards. “Me too,” she said. “I know a lot about the flora of the Everfree Forest. I might be able to help you.”

Trixie looked between the three ponies. “Okay…” she acquiesced. “Okay. So the four of us – ”

“I’m coming too,” Lyra interrupted, wiping her tears from her eyes. “Raindrops…Raindrops is right. BonBon won’t be safe unless Corona is sealed away again. Plus, Trixie, your special talent might be magic, but I actually went to the magic academy. I might be able to help with freeing the Elements.”

“Fine,” Trixie said, shaking her head. “Fine. Ditzy Doo, I guess you should go home and – ”

“I’m already at the door,” Ditzy Doo’s voice said. Everypony turned to look at her. Her wings were no longer sagging with sorrow, but instead were held at the ready, and her face, though her eyes were still red from tears and walled, was set with a look of determination. “I’m coming too. Dinky Doo would want me to try and save her.”

Trixie blinked, looking between the five ponies. “No,” she said in a small voice, though it was louder for her next proclamation. For some reason, she felt she had to try and stop them, stop this madness. “No! This is stupid! We’re going to get everypony killed!”

“Fine,” Raindrops said. “We’ve still got Lyra for unicorn magic. The five of us will go into the Everfree. You can stay behind.”

Trixie blinked. “Are you trying reverse psychology on me?”

Raindrops’ expression clearly asked do I look like the kind of pony who’d try that, even though she herself remained silent. Instead, Cheerilee stepped up to Trixie. “Nopony will blame you,” she said. “You must have been close to Princess Luna…if you don’t think you can handle this right now, we’ll understand.”

Trixie recoiled a little. She’d managed to not think about seeing Princess Luna so soundly thrashed by Corona…not think about the fact that Luna was gone, sealed away for a millennium…for several minutes now. The image of Corona’s magic sending Luna away in a white comet, straight into the sky, came rushing back to her.

Even if they won…even if they somehow, against all odds, got the Elements, figured out how to make them work, and then used them on Corona…would that bring Luna back?

Trixie looked to Lyra and Ditzy Doo. The former had lost the love of her life. The latter had lost her daughter. Both were willing to put everything on the line nevertheless. Luna would never forgive her if she didn’t act – and just as importantly, Trixie would never be able to forgive herself. Trixie didn’t consider herself a principled mare, but whatever principles she did have, now was the time to be honest with herself about them.

Trixie also grimaced as she looked each of the ponies in the eye. She had been horrible to them over the past few days – well, not Ditzy Doo so much, but certainly Lyra, Raindrops, Cheerilee, and Carrot Top. But these ponies were still willing to go on what she said to try and save Equestria from the mad alicorn queen now trying to take it over – and had been willing to try and help her from everypony in Ponyville landing on her like a ton of bricks.

“I’m going too,” she said. “And…and I’m sorry. I’m sorry for the last two days. I’m sorry for the way I treated you all. I’m sorry for the weather-for-hire ponies, for the blackmail, for calling you useless, for butting in where I wasn’t wanted, for manipulating you to do what I wanted to try and get back at Luna over something stupid that was all in my head…” Trixie looked down. “I’m sorry. If this all goes to the sun, I just want you to know that.”

The other ponies looked between each other. After a moment, Cheerilee, Ditzy Doo, Carrot Top, and Lyra all nodded. “Just don’t do it again,” Cheerilee said. “Provided there is an again for us.”

Trixie nodded once, before looking hopefully at Raindrops. The pegasus considered Trixie for a long moment, analyzing her. For once in her life – or at least for the first time in a long time – Trixie willingly let the emotions she was feeling just display themselves on her face. “Alright,” the pegasus declared at length, waving a hoof as though casting off the murderous intent she’d possessed earlier in the day. “But if you ever do anything like this again, I’m going to hit you. Hard.”

“Fine by me,” Trixie said. “As hard as you want.”

Raindrops nodded as she headed towards the door to Carrot Top’s house. “I’m holding you to that,” she promised.

11. Introductions Are In Order

“Trixie, I’m going to ask you something, and I want you to be honest,” Lyra said as they trotted through the Everfree.

Trixie stopped on the rough trail, looked around, and then let out a long sigh. “Yes,” she said, knowing what Lyra was going to ask. “Yes. I’m lost. Or at least I don’t know where I’m going. When Princess Luna brought me here, we flew in, and it was years ago, and I wasn’t trying to remember the way.”

“Great,” Carrot Top declared, rolling her eyes as the rest of the ponies all came to a stop, and all six tried very hard not to think about the fact that they were standing idly under the gnarled, twisted boughs of the Everfree Forest.

Something was wrong with the Everfree – no, not quite that, Trixie thought. Something being wrong with the Everfree implied that there was some outside force causing its peculiarity. Trixie was fairly certain, however, that instead something was simply wrong about the Everfree Forest. The trees and plants grew on their own, according to their own designs. The creatures – the animals, yes, but also the other things in here – took care of themselves. And the weather, as Trixie had recently learned, also moved and changed seemingly randomly.

Theoretically, the eerie feeling of the Everfree should have been lessened by the sun hanging high overhead. It may have been midday, still, but it was also the middle of winter, even in the Everfree, meaning that the trees had no leaves on them and plenty of sunlight was shining into the forest, lighting its darkest corners. On the other hoof, not only was the sun shining in the clear blue skies – still faintly studded with stars beyond the disc’s glare – but it seemed to be burning with more intensity than was natural for the season. The snow and ice that blanketed the Everfree was melting quickly, making the air unexpectedly stifling, especially for six ponies clad in winter capes and hats. The two unicorns in the group, at least, were grateful that they had thought to leave their additional articles of clothing behind at Carrot Top’s.

“Hang on,” Raindrops said, beating her wings and rising. “I’ll see if I can get us a point of reference or spot the ruins…”

The other five ponies watched her rise into the sky, then looked between each other awkwardly. So far, their valiant quest to save Equestria and its ponies had amounted to a walk through a humid forest full of melting snow, bothered only by their imaginations and the stories of the place.

The silence stretched.

After a moment, it continued to stretch.

And eventually, it proceeded to continue to stretch.

“Somepony,” Carrot Top broke the silence at last, eliciting a startled jump from Trixie and Ditzy Doo both, though the others handled it somewhat better, “please just say or do something so I can stop thinking about the past few hours.”

There was a pause that threatened to become another bout of awkward silence before Cheerilee spoke up. “Well,” she said. “Apart from Lyra, I don’t know most of you very well. So how about we start with that?” She nodded to herself at the thought. “Just like on the first day of class, or when a new student comes in, they introduce themselves and say a little about…” she trailed off after a moment at the looks from the other ponies, and hung her head. “Sorry…stupid idea…”

Ditzy Doo shifted uncomfortably for a moment, before stepping forward. “Hi everypony,” she said, her voice somewhat monotone. “I’m Ditzy Doo. I deliver the mail to you,” she pointed to Lyra, “and you, or I will once you start getting some,” she pointed to Trixie, then finished by pointing straight up, “and to Raindrops. I have a very severe case of strabismus – walled eyes – and have since I was born.” She thought a moment, scratching the back of her head with one hoof in thought, before chuckling. “And I’m a horrible judge of character when it comes to stallions.”

Her low laughter prompted similar chortles from the other ponies. Trixie assumed that Ditzy was referring to whatever circumstances saw her carrying and raising Dinky Doo at so young an age. It was probably a good sign that Ditzy Doo was able to laugh at the situation.

Cheerilee nodded. “Oh!” she said. “And your cutie mark? Your special talent?”

Ditzy Doo blinked. “Um…” she said, looking at her flank, where seven bubbles floated. “Air currents. I’m really good at feeling air currents, even tiny breezes. I’d probably be a weather pony if not for my disability.”

Cheerilee offered a polite series of hoof-stamps for Ditzy Doo, and the other four ponies, despite themselves, joined in. “Okay,” she said, “who’s next?”

“Me,” Lyra volunteered. Trixie did not find it surprising that the two ponies who’d personally lost somepony were the most eager to take part in Cheerilee’s little exercise, to try and forget about Corona stealing their loved ones. “Lyra Heartstrings. My special talent is music, especially strings and especially the lyre, but I can play just about anything you put in front of me, and I’m a good singer, too. I’ve just spent three years at Luna’s magic academy on a music scholarship. And I…” she got up on her hind legs, wobbling a little before balancing, “can do…” she began leaning backwards, almost falling over, but her forelegs arched out over her head in a thoroughly painful-looking position, “this!”

The five ponies stared at Lyra, now with her horn nearly brushing the ground beneath her, legs splayed out unnaturally and with a grin on her face. “Ew,” Trixie declared. “Ew.”

“Doesn’t that hurt?” Carrot Top asked.

Lyra let herself fall onto her back, before picking herself up. “Not really,” she remarked. “I’m double-jointed pretty much everywhere.”

“Ew,” Trixie repeated. Lyra stuck her tongue out at her, prompting another round of low laughter from the group. Thankfully, Lyra didn’t seem to have – or else chose not to demonstrate – any facial contortion talents.

“That was…interesting,” Cheerilee decided. “I’ll go next. I was born in Ponyville and I’ve lived there my whole life. I teach the elementary school there. My cutie mark,” she turned slightly, presenting her right flank to the other four ponies, showing off the trio of blossoming yellow flowers, each of which had smiling faces on them, “represents my love of seeing my students learn, grow, and eventually blossom into whatever livelihood they want.”

There was a moment of silence. “And?” Carrot Top asked.

Cheerilee offered a slight chuckle, blushing. “Um…that’s really it, actually. I’ve kind of been so concerned with getting a teaching license over the past few years, and then making sure that my first school year was going well, that I haven’t really done much else or…anything…”

“Oh, come on,” Lyra objected. “Even I’ve had time to see BonBon every now and then, and you were never that shy before I left...there’s got to be somepony…”

Cheerilee was probably blushing, but with her coat color it couldn’t be seen. She shook her head. “Not really, no.”

“We’ll have to fix that,” Lyra said, tapping a hoof to her mouth in thought. “Oh, here’s an idea. Trixie’s really friendly after a few drinks, she’d probably – ”

“Excuse me?” Trixie interrupted.

“Hush, I’m speaking for you,” Lyra commanded. That prompted considerably more earnest laughter from Carrot Top, Lyra, and Ditzy Doo, while probably Cheerilee and definitely Trixie continued to blush furiously.

“I’m not into mares,” Trixie interrupted.

“That’s not what you said a few nights ago…” Lyra observed. “Me, and BonBon, and Pinkie Pie…”

“That was the bourbon. The bourbon is equal-opportunity. I’m not into mares.”

Cheerilee managed to laugh at that, and even Trixie couldn’t suppress a slight grin. “I’m not either, actually,” she assured Trixie, as she turned to Carrot Top. “Okay, Carrot Top, how about you?”

Her fellow earth pony followed the established pattern of showing off her cutie mark. “You can probably guess what my special talent is,” she said of the three carrots emblazoned on her flank. “I was actually born in the city, though, in Fillydelphia, but I used to come down to Ponyville to help my grandparents during the summers and the harvests. I was studying to be a…” she trailed off a moment in thought, before shaking her mane. “I don’t even remember. It wasn’t important, never really held me much. I loved the farm too much, and I earned my cutie mark there when I realized how much, when my grandparents first told me how good I was at planting and tending and harvesting and so on. When my grandparents passed on, well, my parents have their own lives in Fillydelphia, but all I wanted was to keep Golden Harvests – that’s my farm’s name – in business, didn’t want the farm just sold off. I’ve…been managing.” She grimaced as she looked to Trixie. “In all honesty…the festival helped. It helped a lot. You were right, the smaller farms in Ponyville shouldn’t just sit on the sidelines and let the Apples run roughshod over us.”

Trixie shook her head. “That doesn’t make what I did right.”

“It means you did the right thing for the wrong reasons,” Carrot Top countered. “You said you were sorry. That’s what’s important.”

By now, everypony was looking expectantly at Trixie. The blue unicorn blinked as she realized this, looking up. “What is taking Raindrops so long?” she asked nonchalantly.

“Come on, Trixie,” Cheerilee said. “The rest of us have opened up. You’re the one I was most curious about, though.”

“Yeah,” Ditzy Doo confirmed. “I mean, we all knew about each other in some ways already even if we didn’t actually know each other. But apart from Lyra, I don’t think anypony here really knows you all that well.”

“And not even me,” Lyra noted. “Nothing besides a few rumors and the past two days, anyway.”

Trixie looked between her companions, then let out a long sigh, slumping a little. “Alright,” she conceded. Everypony else had opened up, she supposed it was only fair that she did – though when Raindrops went back she made a mental note to make sure that the weather pony was also pressed into this. “My name’s Trixie Lulamoon but do not call me Lulamoon, ever. I was born and raised in Neigh Orleans, but I’ve lost the accent since I’ve spent the past ten years in Canterlot.”

“Except when drunk,” Lyra noted. “When it’s okay to call you Lulamoon, too.”

“Apparently,” Trixie observed in a dry voice.

“How’d you become Luna’s student?” The mint unicorn continued. “I mean…was there, like, some kind of contest that I missed or something? Or some special test for Luna’s school for gifted unicorns?”

Trixie shook her head, and grimaced. “My grand-père – grandfather – was Quartermoon the Magnificent, the greatest magician to have ever lived. His cutie mark was the same as mine,” Trixie brushed aside her cape so that she could show off the crescent-shaped nebula of stars and magic wand that was her cutie mark. “He was an earth pony.”

“An earth pony who’s special talent was magic?” Carrot Top asked incredulously.

Trixie nodded. “He was a stage magician. Sleight-of-hoof, smoke and mirrors, rabbits from a hat, chop cup, making things disappear from plain sight, you name it, he could do it better than anypony else. He always had some new trick. Whenever Grandpapa came by to visit, he used to tuck me into bed and, rather than read me a bedtime story, he’d put on a private show. Everypony loved him, including one pony in particular, who made it a point to see every one of his shows whenever he came to Canterlot, though always in disguise: Princess Luna.”

Trixie should have been saying what she was with immense pride and happiness; instead, her tone of voice was somber. The other ponies looked between each other as Trixie paused. “What happened?” Ditzy Doo asked.

Trixie shrugged. “He got old,” she said. “But wouldn’t admit it. Until one day, on stage in Canterlot, he collapsed – liver failure. Luna dropped her disguise and personally took him to the nearest hospital. My entire family was rushed up from Neigh Orleans to see him. Nopony wanted to tell me what was happening, but I figured it out, or at least put things together as best I could for a filly. I knew he was dying, and I knew that meant he was going to go to sleep and he wasn’t going to wake up, ever. And I knew that if that was happening to me, that I’d want him to give me a magic show before I went to sleep. So I somehow managed to convince my aunt and uncle, his doctors, and Luna to let me put on one for him. It was while I was doing this for Grandpapa that I earned my cutie mark, since I realized how much I loved doing magic – spells and sleight of hoof both – and loved doing it for an audience, for ponies in general.”

The other ponies glanced between each other. The earning of a cutie mark was usually something joyous and filled with wonder and glee – very often it ranked as the happiest moment of anypony’s life, or close to it. For Trixie, though, there didn’t seem to be any happiness. “So…so you earned your cutie mark…” Cheerilee observed, “while basically telling a bed-time story to your own dying grandfather…that just might be the saddest thing I’ve ever heard…”

Trixie laughed at that – not ironically, but a full, deep laugh at the memory, which startled the ponies from their somber thoughts. “I haven’t told you about the show yet, that was the sad part,” she reminisced. “It was the worst ever. My sleight-of-hoof was awful, even for just a filly. I botched one trick in particular and flipped a bedpan and it ended up on my head, thank the stars it was empty…” Trixie leaned forward a little, one hoof at her stomach as she laughed. At the thought of a filly Trixie wearing a bedpan for a hat, the other mares began laughing as well.

“Grandpapa heckled me something awful,” Trixie continued after the laughter had died down, “but he also gave me pointers, and he was enjoying my show and what it meant. After I was done Grandpapa said that I was the worst magician alive, but that I had potential and more talent than he’d had at the same age, and to not give up. And that was the last time I saw him alive. He died early the next morning. After the funeral, Luna came up to my family and I. She said that ponies with magic as their special talents are rare, but ponies with doing magic for others are one in a million. She offered me her personal apprenticeship. My family agreed, I accepted, and…well, here I am, saving the world.”

“And trying to ruin festivals,” Carrot Top observed.

“No, that was before,” Ditzy Doo pointed out, before Trixie could respond. “Now it’s saving the world. She can get back to ruining things later.”

“Are you kidding?” Trixie asked, suppressing her desire to snark at Carrot Top over her comment. “If we make it through this alive, I’m going to lock myself in a distillery for a week.”

Lyra chuckled at that. “Lulamoon’s more fun than Trixie, anyway.”

“We are not calling drunk me Lulamoon,” Trixie insisted, blushing furiously. “We’re not.”

“You’re not,” Cheerilee corrected, tapping a hoof to her mouth as she considered it. “I think we’re going to.”

Everypony began laughing at that, even Trixie. The comment wasn’t all that funny in and of itself, but given the stress and pain of the last few hours, it felt good to just unwind and laugh, even if only for a little while, forgetting the dire situation they were in and pretending that they were just by themselves in a warm home somewhere.

“Hey, what’d I miss?” a voice called from above the five ponies. Looking up, they saw Raindrops overhead, coming in for a smooth landing beside the other five.

Cheerilee pointed at her. “Cutie mark and embarrassing personal details, now,” she ordered.

The other mares, besides Raindrops, burst out into a fresh round of giggles, as Raindrops simply looked between them like they’d lost their minds. “O…kay…” the pegasus ventured. “So we’re just going to sit here laughing instead of saving Equestria and the kidnapped ponies, then?”

That managed to kill the mood rather thoroughly. “It was Cheerilee’s idea,” Carrot Top explained. “We were getting to know each other, rather than thinking about…well. Everything. And it was working.”

Raindrops opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by a new voice from behind the ponies. “How strange it was to hear laughter in my ears,” the deep, though still obviously female, voice said, “when this forest usually brings out ponies’ fears. But I found it a pleasant sound though danger presses all around.”

The collective mares all turned to look, and found themselves staring at a pony, or at least a being with a pony’s shape. Her coat was striped in light and dark gray, standing in stark contrast to the bright golden rings at her ears, around her neck, and around her front right leg. She was wearing a brown, hooded cloak, though the hood was laid down, showing off a mane – striped as she was – that was styled upwards in a tall Mohawk.

“Um…” Trixie ventured. “Hi?”

“This is Zecora,” Raindrops said, trotting around her companions to stand next to the newcomer. “And…” she looked around, checking behind Zecora. “Where did…? Did he fall behind?”

“My companion you seek? A good pace he normally keeps,” Zecora said. “He remained behind, I’d wager, to…see to a call of nature.”

Raindrops nodded at that. “Ah, got it.” She looked back to the other mares. “Anyway. This is Zecora, she’s a zebra. Apparently she lives in the Everfree.”

“A zebra?” Cheerilee asked, eyes wide. “What are you doing in Equestria?”

“My people’s traditional shaman test,” Zecora said, nodding her head. “I have come here on my spirit quest. Great power did I feel stirring, and so I came here unerring.” The zebra grimaced as she glanced upwards. “Though I did not know I sought the sun spirit. You ponies are right to fear it.”

“And you live in the Everfree?” Ditzy Doo asked. “How is that even possible?”

Zecora offered a knowing smile. “Compared to the dangers of my homeland, the perils of the Everfree are easy to stand.”

“I found her while looking around,” Raindrops observed. “Plus her companion. They said they know the way to the palace ruin and they’re willing to help us get there.”

“Z’s willing,” a new voice said. “I don’t want to go near the place, but no one cares what I think…”

Being the third time somepony had appeared out of nowhere, the gathered mares thought themselves prepared for whoever was trudging through the path covered by melting snow. They were wrong, for several reasons.

He was about half as tall as Lyra, the tallest pony of the group. He was colored purple and green. Specifically, he was covered in purple and green scales. He also walked upright, on two legs, and he was emphatically not a pony, instead a being with a large-eyed head, a mouth full of sharp teeth, two short arms ending in four-fingered hands, and a short tail, with green spines running down his back. Unlike everypony else, he wasn’t wearing anything to ward off the cold of the snow, but he didn’t seem particularly bothered by it, either.

“Ah,” Zecora observed, “in this foreign land he has been my boon companion: I would like to introduce Spike, the baby dragon.”

“Hi,” Spike said with a wave.

The ponies stared. Spike stared back. After several moments, he started making poses, flexing his muscles. “I know, right?” he asked, waving his brow slightly.

“B…baby dragon?” Lyra observed, trotting forward. “He’s…you’re…what’s a dragon doing in Equestria?”

Spike shrugged. “I dunno.”

The ponies stared. Interestingly enough, Zecora was among them.

“What?” Spike asked. “I don’t remember what I was like when I was a hatchling. Do you remember what you were like when you were all newborns?”

“Okay…” Cheerilee said. “How about afterwards?”

Spike shrugged again, then pointed to Zecora. “Don’t remember anything before meeting Z. We were both strangers in a strange land. So we’ve been hanging out.”

Trixie blinked. “And thus was our surrealism quota filled for the day,” she observed.

“With due respect to you pony folk,” Zecora said, “The sun spirit’s freedom is no joke. I do not wish to appear callous, but we should make haste to the ruined palace.”

The mares tore their gazes away from Spike, then nodded almost as one. “Alright,” Carrot Top said. “Lead on.”

“Okay…” Spike said with a sigh, as Zecora and the ponies turned and the latter began to follow the former. “Let’s go back to the place filled with all sorts of horrible death traps…”

12. Siren Song and the Counter Chord [End of Part 3]

The melting snow from the unusually warm air was beginning to create mist in the Everfree. For now, it was lying close to the ground, but it was not helping the general eeriness of the place in any way as it rolled over their hooves, obscuring the ground beneath them. Fortunately, however, the six ponies, one zebra, and one baby dragon had a way of distracting themselves.

“…and so that’s how I got my cutie mark,” Carrot Top finished, the last of them to reiterate her story to Raindrops.

“That’s nice,” the jasmine-coated pegasus intoned, ruffling her wings slightly.

“So that makes it your turn, then,” Cheerilee said. “I’m not going to save Equestria with a pony I don’t know anything about.”

Raindrops shrugged. “Born in Cloudsdale, loved it when it rained, and I got my cutie mark pretty early since I’d known that all throughout my foalhood. When my brother was born a unicorn my parents and I moved to Ponyville. I joined the weather patrol, and…that’s it.”

Lyra’s ears were twitching and swivling slightly, as though she heard something. “Anypony else hear that?” she asked absentmindedly as Raindrops spoke. When the pegasus finished, however, she looked back to Raindrops, scowling a little. “Oh, come on,” she objected. “We pour our bleeding hearts out for everypony, and you expect to get by on that?” She furrowed her brow in thought. “You’ve got to, like, resent your brother or your parents for making you move from Cloudsdale.”

“Nope,” Raindrops said. “Ponyville’s nice, I like it.”

“No weather patrol stories?” Cheerilee tried.

“A few, I guess,” she said, again ruffling her wings, “but a lot of them are really technical. Like that time Cloud Chaser made some cirrocumulus undulati when the schedule called for cirrocumulus laconusi, but I’d gotten my part right so when the two cloud sections began overlapping they made an altocumulus lenticularus and caused some virga and microbursts, and Rainbow Dash was actually working that day so me and Cloud Chaser had to work our wings off to cover before she noticed and before the altocumulus lenticularus devolved into an altostratus translucidus – ”

“Okay,” Trixie interrupted. “Anything that non-pegasi would be able to follow?”

“I’m a pegasus and I couldn’t follow that,” Ditzy Doo provided.

Raindrops thought a moment. “Nope,” she said. “My life is pretty dull, usually. I like it like that.”

There was a collective sigh from the remaining ponies at that. “Fine…” Cheerilee groaned. She looked ahead, at Spike and Zecora. The former was sitting atop the back of the latter, keeping his balance with practiced ease “How about you, Zecora?” she asked. “Do you have a cutie mark story? What is yours, anyway?”

Zecora shook her head, and didn’t move the cloak that covered her flank aside. “All I have are the stripes you see,” she said, “There is no cutie mark on me.”

“And dragons don’t get them either,” Spike noted, as Zecora turned off of the rough path they had been following and began walking into the woods. Everypony followed.

“I’m not the only one who hears that, am I?” Lyra asked. Her ears had gone back to twitching slightly, focused in the direction Zecora was now taking them through the twisted trees.

“Hears what?” Spike asked.

“You’ve got to have some stories, though,” Cheerilee pressed, as she picked up her pace slightly to be trotting next to Zecora. The other five ponies, minus Lyra, also picked up their pace a little, and Zecora seemed to have an extra spring to her step.

“I do not mean to cause offence, but my story I do not wish to dispense,” Zecora explained. “My spirit quest is a private affair, and I do not wish to lay it bare.”

“That’s alright,” Ditzy Doo admitted as they came to a wide river. It was probably supposed to be frozen over, but the ice atop of it was melted, and the river itself was fast-flowing and beginning to lap at the edges of its banks due to all the melting snow and ice that was finding its way into it. The low fog that permeated the Everfree stopped at the edge of the river.

Lyra stopped her canter when she reached the river, ears no longer twitching, instead focused forward. “Okay, now I definitely hear music – uh, guys? Guys!”

Come on in, the water’s fine…

Lyra dashed forward and in front of the others, as they had not slowed down at the riverbanks, instead heading directly into it. She gasped slightly at the chill of the water – despite the rising heat, the water itself was only just barely above freezing. Her exclamations, coupled with her interposing herself between the others, stopped them in their tracks before they could get too deep, but the ponies and zebra all stared at her strangely.

“Lyra?” Raindrops asked. “You’re in the way.”

“I’m not gonna try and ford a raging, freezing river,” she responded.

…Please oh please, don’t decline…

The others blinked, looking down as though seeing the water for the first time. “Stars,” Trixie exclaimed, as they all backed out of the river and onto its banks. “How did I not notice that?”

“I dunno,” Spike said, looking around. “I was getting worried for a second…and yeah, I definitely hear music, Lyra.”

Come on in, the water’s fine…please oh please, don’t decline…come and dance on the river’s bed…

“I don’t hear anything,” Cheerilee noted, as she began absent-mindedly trotting forward. Lyra blinked, putting herself between Cheerilee and the water. She stared uncomprehendingly at the unicorn for a moment, then shook her head. “We need to get to the other side…”

“…yeah,” Raindrops noted as she started forward. Lyra leapt in front of her, hooves up and pushing her back.

“You have wings, you idiot,” Lyra noted, as Zecora closed her eyes and began chanting something in a language Lyra didn’t understand, while Spike hopped off of her back. “You and Ditzy Doo can just carry us over if – ”

“But this is faster…” Ditzy Doo said, eyes wide and a serene look on her face – yet her eyes were also focused forward, as she began trotting into the river. Groaning, Lyra’s horn glowed, and she seized Ditzy Doo in a golden aura and pushed her back onto the shore. Then Trixie began trotting forward, forcing Lyra to move in front of her and shove her backwards. The other unicorn stumbled a little, falling down, but was quickly on her hooves again, and in the meantime Carrot Top was wandering forward…

…come on in and join the dead…

“Um, that’s creepy,” Spike objected, grabbing Carrot Top’s tail and digging his feet into the ground. Unfortunately, his small size made little impact. Lyra grabbed Cheerilee with magic and pushed her back, while trying to physically hold Trixie back.

“Zecora!” Lyra shouted at the zebra, the only one besides her and Spike that seemed unaffected, though the zebra remained in place and chanting. “A little help?” She didn’t move. Ditzy Doo managed to trot in nearly to her stomach, but Lyra once again resorted to magic, and had to do likewise for Raindrops and Trixie as she moved to put herself directly between Cheerilee and the water, pushing them back.

Come on in, the water’s fine…please oh please, don’t decline…come and dance on the river’s bed…come on in and join the dead…

“Something’s wrong with them!” Spike exclaimed. “But how come we’re not affected?”

“I think it’s some kind of magic song!” Lyra exclaimed as she used telekinesis to hold back all of her friends. It wasn’t going to work for long – sweat was already forming on her brow. “Dunno why it’s not affecting you, but for me it’s ‘cause it’s poorly harmonized!”

The music stopped suddenly. The five ponies that had been trying to plunge into the freezing waters stopped trying to commit suicide, but remained in a trance, waving back and forth slightly.

There was a splash from behind Lyra, and she turned and found herself face-to-face with some kind of creature that looked like a cross between a pony and a fish. It upper body was mostly the same, with forelegs ending in hooves and a long-snouted face, but rather than a mane, the creature had a long fin travelling down its back, and smaller fins at its fetlocks. Its lower body, meanwhile – the parts that Lyra could see through the water, anyway – consisted of a long, fish-like tail, with a pair of elegant-looking fins in the place of rear-legs. Instead of hair, its body was coated with fine, aquamarine scales, and it had a pair of blood-red eyes. As Lyra watched, two more similar creatures appeared from beneath the river’s surface, only slightly different in scale coloration but with yellow and teal eyes, the last of them having pony proportions more in line with a stallion than a mare.

There was one more notable difference between these creatures and normal ponies: their mouths were full of small, sharp teeth. None of them looked happy to see Lyra, either.

“I beg your pardon?” The first one to appear demanded. “Poorly harmonized?”

“What are you?” Lyra asked, one eyebrow rising.

All three of the creatures fixed Lyra with a deadpan look. “We’re trying to lure ponies to their deaths by drowning and then eating them,” the second one, with yellow eyes, said. “What do you think we are?”

“Sea ponies?” Lyra guessed.

A little bit of winter’s chill returned to the Everfree Forest at the glare she got. “This is a freshwater river,” the third, teal-eyed creature noted. “And sea ponies are herbivores.”

“Sirens!” Yellow Eyes – as Lyra mentally dubbed her – exclaimed. “We’re sirens!”

“I thought sirens only lived in the ocean,” Spike said from the shore. Then he pointed at Teal Eyes. “And you’re a stallion. Sirens are always mares.”

“Yes, well,” Red Eyes, the first to appear, noted. “Ponies…and dragons I suppose…possess many misconceptions about us – ”

“How would we reproduce with only mares?” Teal Eyes asked incredulously.

“Magic?” Spike suggested. Teal Eyes shrugged, conceding the possibility.

“ – but back on topic,” Red Eyes continued, “What do you mean, poorly harmonized?”

“I mean what it sounds like!” Lyra exclaimed, and jabbed a hoof at Red Eyes. “And I’m lookin’ at you, and don’t try to deny it I know it’s you. You’re not syncing up with the other two at all. You’re pitched too high and singing a little faster.”

“I am not!”

“…actually, I did notice that,” Yellow Eyes objected. “I wasn’t going to say anything, but…”

Red Eyes glared at her companion. “You’re taking the food’s side?”

“Hey, yeah, about that…” Spike tried.

The sirens ignored him. “Out of harmony is out of harmony,” Teal Eyes noted. “Sorry, but food or not, she’s got a point.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize we were putting on a concert for the river dragon. I thought we were just trying to get lunch. My mistake. Here,” she held forward her front hooves. “Slit my veins open, why don’t you?”

“We don’t have major arteries in our legs,” Yellow Eyes pointed out.

“Why do you even have legs?” Lyra asked.

Two of the sirens shrugged, while Red Eyes glared at her companions. “Can we please stop talking to the food and just eat already?” she demanded. Lyra skipped backwards, out of the water, at that. Red Eyes waved her off. “Whatever, you’re immune, the dragon and zebra are still immune like last time, but that still gives us five! That’s plenty!”

“She gets cranky when she doesn’t eat, sorry,” Teal Eyes explained, as Red Eyes began to grumble.

“Last time?” Lyra asked, looking to Spike. Zecora had not stopped chanting whatever her protection spell against the siren’s song was.

The baby dragon offered a stupid grin and a shrug. “Guess we do have some stories?” he said.

Lyra shook her head as she looked to the sirens. “I’m not going to let you eat my friends,” she proclaimed.

“Three on one with you trying to save five,” Red Eyes noted. “I’m feeling pretty good about our odds.”

“Plus, we’ve got hunger on our side,” Yellow Eyes said. “That’s a great motivator.”

“I’m trying to save the world,” Lyra noted.

“Noble goal and all, but that’s impersonal,” Teal Eyes philosophized. “You don’t really know the whole world, whereas being hungry is a really personal thing and – ”

“Stop talking to our lunch and just sing already!” Red Eyes shouted. The three sirens drifted backwards, to the middle of the river – having no problems fighting against the current – and began singing again. Even worse, Red Eyes seemed to of corrected her mistake and was now singing in harmony with the other two. Lyra still proved to be immune, but the other five ponies began trotting forward again.

“Come on in, the water’s fine…please oh please, don’t decline…come and dance on the river’s bed…come on in and join the dead…”

Lyra’s closed her eyes and let her horn glow brightly. She shoved the five ponies backwards with telekinesis, but only as a stopgap. Working a significantly more advanced spell, she created a golden orb in front of her. With a pop, the orb burst apart, and Lyra caught her lyre as it began to fall, telekinetically bringing it forward as she sat down and began strumming on it, magic pouring from her lyre and over her friends. They stopped in their tracks.

“You’re not the only ones who can sing,” Lyra proclaimed in verse, “you don’t want the kind of pain I’ll bring.”

The sirens stopped their song once more, staring. Lyra’s friends remained motionless behind her. “You’re joking,” Red Eyes said.

“I just spent three years at Luna’s school of magic on a musical scholarship,” Lyra explained. “Come on, there’s got to be some fish in that river you can eat instead.”

“We actually can’t eat fish,” Yellow Eyes remarked. “Tastes horrible. Actually most seafood. Or river-food, I guess.”

“We only eat land animals,” Teal Eyes said. “And you ponies are delicious.”

“…thanks?” Lyra guessed. “Still. There’s got to be something else you guys can eat in the forest. Like a turkey or something, I dunno.”

“Maybe,” Red Eyes admitted. “But there’s a whole feast here now, and who knows how long we’ll have to wait for some poor gobbler to wander close enough?”

Lyra plucked a few notes on her lyre. “I’m warning you…”

“You’re bluffing,” Red Eyes said. “And you can’t possibly save all your friends.”

“I can try.”

“You’ll fail.”

Lyra played another few notes on her lyre in response.

Red Eyes glared at her. As Lyra watched, her iris’ seemed to both expand outwards and shrink inwards, until her eyes were nothing more than a pair of blood-hued orbs. She let a full, sharp-toothed grin show, then began to sing in earnest, not a simple rhyme anymore, but a full song –

[“Now I know
“That you think you're so great
“But you're nothing
“But you're nothing
“But you are -

“And I know
“That you don't want to die
“But you're nothing
“But you're nothing
“But you're...”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzLKMtY04lE)

The five ponies began to slowly trot forward. Lyra’s hooves danced across her instrument, golden magic reaching out and slowing their advance, with Spike trying to help as best he could, but the ponies moved inexorably, as the other two sirens – their eyes similarly turning uniform in color – joined in Red Eyes’ song.

“So stupid
“You're trying to resist us
“And save them all
“But they're gonna slip away
“You'll lose them all
“Why not just give up now?
“Just stop fighting
“We're sirens and we're hungry
“You can't win –

Lyra interrupted them with a full pull across her lyre, while her horn interceded to amplify its volume several times beyond what should have been possible.

“I'm not gonna just let you eat my friends
“I’m telling you right now to just go somewhere else
“Music is my special talent, sirens
“Nothing you can sing can stop me from winning!”

The golden threads that grasped her friends swelled in size and intensity. They were pushed backwards, and for the first time the enthralled ponies looked around of their own volition, wide-eyed and panicked at the sight of the sirens and what the sirens were trying to make them do.

The sirens, meanwhile, had been thrown backwards by the force of Lyra’s magic-enhanced song, their eyes snapping back to normal and looks of genuine surprise on their face. Glaring, their magical song returned, their magic taking physical form for the first time and lashing out at Lyra.

“Can’t you see?
“You cannot keep this up
“We do this every day, fool
“Luring critters to the river
“So we can eat.
“But ponies are so tasty
“We’re gonna feast
“Your magic doesn’t scare us
“You’ll get weak – ”

Again, Lyra interrupted them, standing on her two hind legs – somehow keeping balance while doing so – and conjuring up a golden shield to ward off the siren’s magical lashes as she countered their continued hypnotic attempts and responded, hooves still dancing across the strings of her instrument.

“I'm not gonna just let you eat my friends
“I’m telling you right now to just go somewhere else
“Music is my special talent, sirens
“Nothing you can sing can stop me from winning!”

“I'm not gonna just let you eat my friends
“I’m telling you right now to just go somewhere else
“Music is my special talent, sirens
“Nothing you can sing can stop me from winning!”

The sirens screamed – but still in song – as Lyra countered with magic. Despite her prowess, with three-on-one the red, yellow and teal lashes that were reaching out to her golden shield. Lyra pushed back, however, and tendrils of golden magic began to lash out at the sirens as well. For the first time, fear as well as concern appeared on their faces.

“Maybe give us one or two? To eat?” Red Eyes offered in verse. “You’ll still have two, seems like plenty! Agreed?”

“No way!” Lyra responded as she dragged her hoof across her harp. The sirens’ magic and her own flared as they battled, then died suddenly, giving out under the strain of constantly being maintained by the two forces. The sirens fell backwards, almost falling under the river’s water again. Lyra, on the other hoof, remained standing on her hind legs, magically holding her lyre aloft as she began strumming the same two strings over and over.

“I told you the pain that I could bring.
“But you didn’t listen to me.
“You’ve lost, you’ve got nothing left.
“But I’m. Still. Here.”

Next to Lyra, a ghostly image of her formed, and began echoing that verse, while she continued with the song, and with each verse another Lyra would appear and begin echoing her.

“Just swim away while you still can.
“Find something else to snack upon.
“You’ve lost, you’ve got nothing left.
“But I’m. Still. Here.”

“You couldn’t sing in harmony
“Without my help, where would you be?
“You’ve lost, you’ve got nothing left.
“But I’m. Still. Here!”

The sirens shouted in defiance, rising up and magically lifting the water with them – the water in their grasp turning blood red, sickly yellow, and a deep, almost black shade of teal – and surging forward. Lyra didn’t budge as the water came on, conjuring up another golden shield and golden tendrils to push it back, as the two competing musical forces dueled. The sirens had seemingly lost the ability to sing in verse at all, instead conjuring with pure vocal power, but Lyra actually turned that against them, incorporating it into her song as her chorus of illusions continued to sing as well.

“I told you the pain that I could bring!
“But you didn’t listen to me!
“You’ve lost, you’ve got nothing left!
“But I’m. Still. Here!”

“I'm not gonna just let you eat my friends
“I’m telling you right now to just go somewhere else
(“Still! Here...!”)
“Music is my special talent, sirens
“Nothing you can sing can stop me from winning!”
(“Still! Here...!”)
“I'm not gonna just let you eat my friends
“I’m telling you right now to just go somewhere else
(“Still! Here...!”)
“Music is my special talent, sirens
“Nothing you can sing can stop me from winning!”
(“Still! Here...!”)
“I'm not gonna just let you eat my friends
“I’m telling you right now to just go somewhere else
(“Still! Here...!”)

There was a golden flash. The wave of water was thrown backwards, but the sirens remained floating in the air, grasped firmly in Lyra’s magical aura. They had stopped singing, their legs and tails and fins flailing, but Lyra only smirked before tossing them upstream as hard as she could. They landed with a splash some thirty feet away, quickly surfacing and staring wide-eyed at Lyra Heartstrings.

“Music is my special talent, sirens
“And now that I have won, you’d better swim off home!”

The sirens stared for only a moment more, before disappearing beneath the river’s water, rushing away. This was probably for the best, as it meant they didn’t see Lyra collapse to the muddy riverbank moments later.

13. Overchanneled and Under Suspicion

Being as unaffected by the sirens as she had been, Spike was at Lyra’s side before anypony else, but Trixie reacted faster, reaching out with telekinesis and hauling Lyra up and out of the river’s bank. The other unicorn was shivering and had her teeth chattering, and was now covered head to hoof in mud and freezing water as she was laid onto Carrot Top’s waiting back. Once she was firmly in place, the ponies, zebra, and baby dragon took off from the river at full-speed, Spike hopping once more onto Zecora’s back after grabbing Lyra’s fallen lyre.

“Anypony else having second thoughts about this?” Trixie asked as they galloped, before looking to Zecora. “And why weren’t you helping Lyra? Those sirens were gonna kill us!”

“Yeah!” Cheerilee joined in. “You just stood there talking to yourself!”

Zecora shot the two of them glares as they finally came to a stop in a clearing far from the river. Most of the snow in it had melted, leaving wet, dead grass and mud that reached up to their fetlocks. “I am not immune to the siren’s spell,” she said, “without my mantra, they would have enthralled me as well. This way she had only five to save from a watery grave, rather than six from the sirens’ tricks.”

Trixie shook her head. “The sirens said that they’d met you before, though. I didn’t think that Raindrops had to specify this, but you’re supposed to be guiding us safely to the Palace, not right past a bunch of sirens! If you knew they were going to be there – “

Zecora looked indignant. “That river is many miles long,” she interrupted, jabbing a hoof in the direction that they had galloped from. “I do not know the range of the siren’s song, nor could I know where they chose to lair. I did not intentionally bring us there!”

Trixie opened her mouth to raise another objection, when she heard Lyra cough from atop Carrot Top’s back. The zebra probably had some good points, but Trixie didn’t have to acknowledge that, and she had more immediate concerns anyway. Trixie trotted over to Carrot Top and Lyra, looking her fellow unicorn over. Lyra’s eyes were closed, and she was breathing in short, quick gasps and still shivering.

“Is she gonna be alright?” Carrot Top asked, craning her neck to look at the pony on her back. “What’s wrong?”

“She’s overchanneled,” Trixie said, shaking her head again as she stepped back a few feet and looked down to the ground, her own horn glowing as she singled out a large section of grass. “Hang on, let me try to dry this – ”

Her spell was interrupted by a burst of green flame across the grass. The other ponies backed away in fright, looking to the flame’s source and seeing Spike, atop Zecora’s back, exhaling as hard as he could. After a moment, he stopped, panting a little. The area of grass that Trixie had singled out was now blackened to a crisp, but thanks to the overall wetness of the clearing there was no danger of a fire. After a second, he made a curious gesture of extending a hand with fist clenched, except for his thumb, which pointed straight up.

“…thanks,” Trixie decided, as she removed her cape and lay it across the burned grass, the enchantments in it ensuring that it was in no danger of catching fire, at least from the few fuel-starved embers that remained. She then took Lyra from Carrot Top’s back and set her down on the ground.

“Overchanneled?” Ditzy Doo asked after she was done. “What is that? Like magically working yourself to exhaustion?”

“No,” Trixie said, as she took Lyra’s lyre from Spike and laid it down next to the prone unicorn, “it’s like having ninety percent of the blood in your body sucked right out while trying to run a marathon.” The others recoiled in shock at that, as Trixie continued. “She poured all the magic in her body into what she just did. She’s running on fumes right now, basically.”

“Will she be okay?” Cheerilee demanded, dropping to her knees next to her friend.

Trixie shook her head. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “She needs magic. If I had an ether she’d probably already be awake, but right now all she can do is sleep and recover her magic naturally. It might take hours or days or…longer.”

“I could fly back to Ponyville and get an ether,” Raindrops suggested. “The hospital would have a few, right?”

Trixie grimaced. “Or we could all go back – ” she began, but was interrupted by Carrot Top.

“Wait,” she said. “Ether? Like from an ether flower?”

Trixie blinked. “Um…sort of?” she guessed. “Except no, ether flowers are too rare, so they’re really a mix of – ”

“They’re not rare,” Carrot Top interrupted, again. “I mean, not really rare. They’re just hard to get since they only grow in the Everfree and nopony wants to make a habit out of coming here. But they blossom year-round since they feed off of magic rather than sunlight! I could go looking for some.”

“A flower that restores lost magic power?” Zecora asked. “Tell me the appearance of your claim; I may know it by another name.”

“Blue, with red stripes,” Carrot Top provided. “The petals sort of look like small maple leaves. The stem is very toxic, but the petals aren’t. They grow low to the ground.”

“Ah, in my tongue this plant is uchawi maua, and I am familiar with its power. I know of a grove where we can find the flower; we could be there in half an hour.”

“And it’ll still be there?” Trixie asked, not wholly trusting Zecora’s sense of direction anymore. “Some animals won’t of come along and eaten them, will they?”

Carrot Top and Zecora both shook their heads, however. “Like I said,” the earth pony explained, “the stem is poisonous, so most animals stay away.”

“Alright,” Cheerilee said, pointing to herself and then Ditzy Doo. “Ditzy and I will stay with Lyra and keep an eye on her…I don’t want to move her more. Ditzy can take to the air in half an hour and provide a way for Raindrops to find us when you’re heading back.”

“Got it,” Raindrops said with a slight salute, while the rest of them turned and galloped off.

“You weren’t serious about giving up, were you?” Raindrops asked. Despite the initial speed of their pace, the ground of the Everfree – covered with overgrown roots, mud, and still-mounting mist that was now reaching their knees – had slowed their stride quickly. Zecora assured them, however, that they were making good time. Despite this, Spike and Zecora seemed to of taken up arguing with each other over something, though in low voices and not entirely in Equestrian. The three ponies chose not to intercede.

Trixie looked to Raindrops. “Lyra’s been hurt now. This is why I wanted to just come in here by myself.”

“You’d be siren food if you had come in alone,” Carrot Top pointed out. “Or worse. A lot of things that might attack a single pony would leave a group alone.”

Trixie shivered slightly as she dwelled on that, though also for more natural reasons. She hadn’t realize how much she had been relying on her cape to keep her warm; despite the sunlight being warm enough to melt snow and create fog and mist, it was still quite chilly in the Everfree, something that she wasn’t really used to dealing with for the past few years ever since she had first enchanted her cape. At least she still had her hat. It didn’t bear any elements-resisting enchantments of its own, but it was keeping her ears warm.

“So how do you know about ether flowers anyway?” Trixie asked, changing the subject.

“I tried to grow them once,” Carrot Top said, chuckling slightly at the thought. “I thought that maybe all they’d need is a little earth pony magic and care. But the seeds I’d managed to find never even budded until I dug them back up and put them back in the Ever – uh, Zecora, stop walking!”

The zebra froze, looking back to Carrot Top curiously, then down. Poking just up and out of the mist was a shoot covered with blue leaves. Zecora’s eyes widened and she said something else in her native language as she stepped backwards from it, Spike looking equally concerned atop her back, eyes very wide.

Carrot Top had stopped as well, as had Raindrops and Trixie. “What is it?” Trixie asked, eyes as wide as everypony else’s. Carrot Top was waving a hoof, trying to disperse the fog, but to no avail. “Raindrops?” she asked, “do you think you could maybe move some of this?”

Raindrops nodded, rearing up on her hind legs and beating her wings furiously several times in rapid succession. Her natural pegasus abilities made her far better at moving fog than the others, and in a few moments a large area of the muddy, root-choked ground was revealed. However, where Zecora had been about to step was covered in blue plants, most of them only fetlock-high but some growing much taller.

Carrot Top breathed out a sigh of relief, though Zecora’s own was larger. “Thank you, Carrot Top,” the zebra said. “I would not have wanted to walk through that foul crop.”

The earth pony nodded before looking to her companions. “Poison joke,” she explained. “Another magical flower, grows largest in the winter. Its effects are…less than fun…if it touches you.”

“No kidding,” Spike noted in a low voice. From the sound of it, he probably had some kind of personal experience with it.

“These were not here when last I went this way,” Zecora said. “Its presence my cause significant delay…”

Trixie decided not to raise a point about this being the second time Zecora had managed to nearly lead them to disaster, though not out of a sense of altruism. Trixie may not have been an official part of the Night Court until a few days ago, but she had certainly had ample opportunity to experience it. Amongst the Night Court, there was a saying: once was coincidence, but twice was conspiracy.

On the other hoof, Zecora had nearly walked into the poison joke herself, and her ‘plan,’ if it had been one, seemed poorly thought out. One used a poison because it could be done discretely, with little evidence leading back to the poisoner. One did not simply lead the hapless victims to a grove of poisonous plants and invite them to frolic.

Nevertheless, Trixie filed away her suspicions into her ‘interesting’ mental folder.

Raindrops trotted closer to the poison joke, rearing up and beating her wings once more and clearing more fog. The blue patch was large, stretching in the direction they had to go further than Raindrop’s wings could clear, while also stretching a long ways to the left and right, even as the pegasus moved to clear as much ground as possible. “Nuts,” Raindrops proclaimed as she settling back on her hooves, as Carrot Top and Trixie joined her. “This could take a while…”

“Time we don’t really have,” Trixie pointed out. “Leaving Lyra, Cheerilee, and Ditzy Doo by themselves, never mind whatever Corona is up to…”

“What does poison joke even do?” Raindrops asked.

“Depends on the pony,” Carrot Top noted. “It basically takes whatever you’re proudest of or something you really want and inverts it somehow, like some kind of cruel joke. It’s not poisonous, exactly, it won’t kill you or really harm you, and it takes hours to set in, but its effects can only be stopped by a special brew, which we can’t make this time of year; or really, really powerful magic, which we don’t have; or by just wearing off, which takes weeks.”

“We’ll have to find another patch of ether flowers,” Spike said, looking to Zecora. Nopony noticed the slight smile on his face. “There’s another one somewhere, right?”

“Indeed, that is true, one that is hopefully not obstructed by leaves of blue,” Zecora responded with a nod as she looked back to the group. “But it is several hours from here. We will have to hurry, else – have you gone mad?”

Carrot Top had taken in a deep breath, closed her eyes, and before Trixie or Raindrops could stop her, leapt forward, into the poison joke. A part of Trixie’s mind had registered that Zecora’s rhyming habit had been broken in shock, but most of her was focused on what Carrot Top had done.

The earth pony opened her eyes, then let out a long sigh as she turned around. “We need those ether flowers as soon as possible,” she stated in a determined voice. “Like I said, poison joke takes hours to set in. Zecora, just give me directions, I’ll get them myself, and we can deal with me later, after we’ve saved the world.”

Zecora blinked a few times. “Merely travel ten minutes that way,” she said after a moment, still fighting shock from her voice as she pointed straight ahead. “After that time, you should be able to gather away.”

“Alright, thanks.” Carrot Top said as she turned around and began trotting off.

Raindrops and Trixie looked to each other, then the poison joke and Carrot Top, then back to each other. With a nearly simultaneous sigh, both started after Carrot Top, eliciting a gasp of surprise from Zecora and Spike and prompting Carrot Top to turn around, eyes wide. “What are you – ?” she began to demand.

“Don’t ask stupid questions,” Raindrops interrupted. “You said that the ether flower grows close to the ground, right? Might need my wings to clear the fog away.”

“And you might need my spells for…stuff. Or junk,” Trixie said, waving a hoof. “We’re already on a time limit, think of this as extra motivation. Besides, we can’t have you going off by yourself all martyr-like and making us look bad.”

“Uh, for the record?” Spike called from atop Zecora’s back, the zebra having not moved an inch as she was still trying to take in the insanity of the three ponies. “I’m perfectly okay with you going off by yourself all martyr-like. Me and Zecora will just stay right here.”

“Understood,” Raindrops responded, using a wing to give a lazy salute before turning back to Carrot Top. “Come on, let’s get going,” she said, trotting away. The unicorn and earth pony soon joined her.

“You two are idiots,” Carrot Top proclaimed as the blue leaves of the poison joke brushed against their fetlocks, their knees, and occasionally their barrels.

“Yeah. Yeah we are,” Trixie assured the earth pony. “Not that you’re much better. What if I have a spell that could have gotten us through this without having to touch it?”

“Or I have, uh, these?” Raindrops reminded Carrot Top as she flapped her wings several times. “I could have gone after the ether flowers.”

Carrot Top looked between Trixie and Raindrops, then hung her head. “I didn’t think of that,” she said morosely. “I was just thinking about Lyra.”

“Yes, yes, yes, you’re a giving mare to the point of being willing to walk through poison joke for somepony you don’t even know all that well,” Trixie said in a dry voice, though a smile appeared on her face as she said it. “And we’re the stupid mares who followed you ‘cause you’re rubbing off on us.”

“And making us look bad,” Raindrops reminded Trixie.

“Yeah, that too. Plus, you’re the one who pointed out how dangerous it is for a single pony in here, rather than a group.”

Carrot Top let out a long sigh at that, before raising her head. “Okay,” she said, forcing herself to smile.

The trio continued in relative silence at that point, soon finding themselves free from the poison joke that had dominated that part of the Everfree Forest. Raindrops beat her wings at regular intervals to dispel the fog, then the three of them would begin searching the ground for signs of the red-and-blue flower they were looking for. At length, they actually managed to find the grove Zecora had spoken of, set in the shadow of a cliff face where the sunlight probably rarely touched, even when it moved across the sky. The petals of the flowers did indeed look like maple leaves individually, though clustered together in bloom the appearance was more like a twelve-pointed, mostly blue star, with red lines running from the tips of the petals down the stem. The grove was large, at least as large as the poison joke grove, though compacted together rather than spread out.

“How many do we need?” Raindrops asked as she gingerly poked a few of the flowers.

“I don’t know, exactly,” Carrot Top admitted as she began using her teeth to tear off flower petals, carefully avoided the toxic stem. Trixie offered her hat to carry them. “I guess just fill up Trixie’s hat?”

The unicorn took an experimental sniff as Carrot Top, Raindrops, and herself began gathering petals. The flowers smelled a bit like dandelions – not an unpleasant smell, so she wasn’t going to regret this, at least, though a rumbling in her stomach suggested that she was going to be hungry from the experience of smelling something normally not available in winter. After several minutes, Trixie’s hat was brimming, and the three ponies looked to each other.

“This was…anticlimactic,” Trixie said, as the three began trotting back the way they had come from, Trixie using telekinesis to hold her hat aloft. As they reached the edge of the poison joke patch, Trixie continued. “I was expecting something more…well…more.”

“Things can’t be trying to eat us all the time,” Carrot Top pointed out. “Besides, we’ll be getting all the more we could want once the poison joke sets in.”

Trixie winced at that. Took something she was good at and twisted it, huh? Probably every spell she’d try to cast would be a fireball or something, then. Either that or she’d become so clumsy as to trip over her own hooves.

It didn’t take the three of them long to find Spike and Zecora again, the two of them being heard before they were seen – once again the two seemed to be arguing over something, though their argument quickly died when they spotted the returning three. “That was fast,” Spike noted.

“I know, made for a nice change,” Raindrops noted, as she beat her wings and climbed into the air so as to get a bead on Ditzy Doo.

Zecora looked over their haul of ether flowers. “With the power these petals can invoke,” she noted, looking to Trixie, “you could perhaps cure yourself of the poison joke. It would be wise to do so soon, lest the plant’s joke seal your doom.”

“Doom?” Trixie asked, raising an eyebrow.

“That’s a bit dramatic, don’t you think?” Carrot Top asked. She looked to Trixie. “Like I said, whatever it does to you, it won’t be dangerous. I mean, you might shrink down to half your height, or your voice might change, or something. But it won’t be innately harmful.”

Trixie blinked a few times as she considered. “We’ll see how much Lyra needs first,” Trixie decided. “Then see what we can do with the rest.”

14. The Letter

Lyra gagged as she felt something unbelievably bitter pressed into her mouth. She made to spit it out, but a pair of hooves clamped her mouth shut.

“No,” Cheerilee ordered in a determined voice as she held Lyra’s mouth closed. “You’re eating that. I don’t care how it tastes.”

Grimacing, the unicorn obeyed her captor. Chewing only made whatever she was eating taste worse, but after a moment she was able – barely – to swallow whatever foul thing had been she had been forced to eat. “There,” she said through clenched teeth, brushing Cheerilee’s hooves off of her mouth as she stood on shaking hooves. “That…gah, that was awful!” She ran her teeth on her tongue and spat, trying to get the taste off of it, but to no avail. There was only one option, then – she trotted away from where she had been lying, as it was largely (for some reason) blackened, burnt grass, and bent her head low, ripping up as much grass as possible from the clearing and chewing thoroughly.

“It can’t be that bad,” Trixie said, as she looked into her hat, which was empty. “They smelled like dandelions…”

“Thah thased lik fank!” Lyra noted, as best she could with a mouth full of grass. After swallowing – not that it helped much – she glared at the five ponies who were staring at her hopefully. “What?” she demanded.

“How are you feeling?” Ditzy Doo asked. “Trixie says that you overchanneled.”

Lyra blinked a few times, looking up at her horn as she willed some magic through it. It glowed gold, and the sensation of channeling magic felt normal. “Um…fine,” she said, indignation at being made to eat whatever those things were disappearing at the sound of the word ‘overchanneled.’ “H…how long was I out?”

“Only about an hour,” Cheerilee explained, eliciting a sigh of relief from Lyra – it could have been much, much longer. “Carrot Top came up with the idea of finding something called an ether flower, and Zecora helped her, Raindrops, and Trixie find some. We fed you the petals while you were asleep, you were just instinctively chewing and swallowing until a moment ago.”

“Her body knew it needed magic and knew that the petals had them.” Trixie explained, as she telekinetically hefted her cape from the ground and then shook it around a little, getting residual moisture and soot from the burned grass off of it before replacing it on her back. She looked morosely into her hat again, then sighed. “So she ate all of them.”

Lyra’s head tilted to the side. “How is that a bad thing?” she asked.

“To get the ether flowers, we had to walk through poison joke,” Carrot Top explained. “Raindrops and Trixie and me. We’ll be fine, it’s not lethal, but its effects should begin in just a few hours.”

The mint unicorn looked between Carrot Top, Raindrops, and Trixie, eyes wide. “What?” she asked. “Why? Why couldn’t Raindrops just fly over the poison…whatever?”

Carrot Top looked down at that, dejected, but for that received a playful flank-bump from Raindrops. “Because she’s an idiot,” Raindrops said, though without any malice in her voice. “We’re all idiots.”

“We’re also on a time limit,” Trixie said, turning and looking to Zecora. She was at the edge of the clearing, talking to Spike, who was looking increasingly depressed at whatever it was Zecora had to say. Trixie didn’t feel bad, therefore, when she interrupted. “We need to get moving again, to the palace,” she said.

“I think I saw it when looking for Ditzy Doo,” Raindrops said, looking around a moment before pointing. “That way, right?”

The zebra nodded. “This way to the ruined castle,” she said, turning and beginning to trot, the ponies following her and Spike once more hopping onto Zecora’s back. “Hopefully we can reach it without further hassle.”

To this day, nopony quite understood what had possessed Luna and Corona – or rather, Celestia, as this had been prior to her fall from grace – to build the Palace of the Royal Pony Sisters in the Everfree Forest. It had been rebuilt and remodeled many times over the millennia, but its foundations was old – older than Equestria as a nation, maybe even older than the three pony nations that had preceded Equestria; indeed, possibly even older than ponies as a race.

With the sun hanging unmoving in the sky, it was difficult to tell what time it was, but if forced to guess Trixie would have supposed that it was probably past what should have been dawn. Given that, had Corona not been so inconsiderate as to escape from the sun and take over Equestria, around sunrise was when she and everypony else had been planning on going to sleep, having stayed up to celebrate the Longest Night. She was thoroughly exhausted when the trees parted to reveal a deep ravine, and on the other side, the Palace.

The Everfree was quiet and still as the ponies (and zebra, and baby dragon) approached the edge of their side of the ravine. By now, the fog that had been rising throughout the Everfree was reaching up to the pony’s barrels, and was bright, almost painful to look at as it reflected sunlight, adding to the eerie, unearthly sight of the Palace. No sound reached their ears other than a low wind and the sound of their own breathing and their own hooves on the snow.

The Palace itself looked surprisingly small, and seemed to be divided into two sections. Further from the ponies was a tall tower, covered in melting snow and ice with dead vines running up along the gray stone of the structure. Closer was a shorter but far broader building, likely once the main palace itself, where Luna and Celestia would have held Court – for anypony brave enough to journey into the Everfree to reach them, anyway. Here and there, collapsed stone walls and edifices probably indicated that the tower and Court had once been part of a single, larger structure, but time and the encroachment of the Everfree’s twisted boughs had seen to it that this was no longer the case. There was also the remains of a wooden bridge hanging on the far side of the ravine, the ravages of time having caused it to collapse; this was probably just as well, though, as it prevented Trixie from being stupid enough to try and cross a thousand-year-old wooden bridge that nopony had been maintaining.

Trixie glanced over the edge of the ravine. The fog from the snow, being heavier than air, was drifting over the edge, preventing her from seeing any further than about twenty feet down; it was impossible to judge just how far it was to the bottom. It was also too wide to risk jumping. “Guess we need to be carried,” she remarked, glancing to Raindrops and Ditzy Doo. Something nagged at Trixie, but she couldn’t place what at the moment, probably due to how tired she was.

“Guess so,” was Raindrops response, flapping her wings a few times in preparation, before taking wing and scooping up Cheerilee after she volunteered to go first, along with Lyra in Ditzy Doo’s hooves. Trixie took a moment to turn to Zecora and Spike. “Thank-you,” she said, forcing her suspicions of the zebra aside – after all, Zecora had guided them safely to the Palace, siren and poison joke run-ins aside. “I don’t know how long we would have been wandering around the Everfree without you.”

“I assure you, it was no trouble at all,” Zecora promised her. “But I must ask – how do you intend to free Equestria from Corona’s thrall?”

Trixie made a face that was halfway between a grin and a grimace. “I have no idea,” she admitted quietly. “The Elements of Harmony are in there, so – ”

“Whoa,” Spike interrupted, eyes wide. “I thought they were in Canterlot!”

Trixie’s eyes widened a little as well, and she shook her head. She was really tired if she had let something like that slip. “No,” Trixie said. “But, um…don’t tell anypony, okay? I shouldn’t of said that.”

Zecora offered a nod, as Spike scratched the back of his head. “Where are they?” he asked.

“Can’t tell you that, either,” Trixie said, as Raindrops and Ditzy Doo returned for her and Carrot Top.

“I understand your concern,” Zecora apologized. “Forgive Spike for asking out of turn.” She looked past Trixie, to the palace. “Once that was a place of wonder, but that feeling was torn asunder. It is now a place of pain and regret, one which I would rather forget. We came here once to wait out a storm, and a repeat of that time I would not like to perform.”

“So the traps still work, huh?” Trixie asked. Zecora inclined her head, and Spike nodded fervently. Trixie, herself, sighed. “Of course they do…”

“Good luck with that,” Spike offered, as Raindrops picked up Trixie, and the baby dragon waved goodbye, Zecora doing likewise. Once Trixie was down on the other side, she returned the gesture. She waited a few moments as she watched Zecora and Spike begin walking off; they were soon out of sight due to the fog. She then turned around and looked ahead. There was a rough, worn stairway they’d have to climb to reach the Court.

“Okay, here we go…” Trixie intoned, beginning to trot up the steps, the other ponies following her. “The first trap is right at the top of the steps here, at the door.”

“What’s it do?” Cheerilee asked.

“It’s a pressure plate,” Trixie explained. “But also magical. Setting it off will cause a wall of fire to spring up. It’s basically a ‘go away’ sign, the trap probably won’t hurt anypony, but it’ll scare them away…”

She paused at the door to the Court, staring down and making a face. “Unless somepony’s set it off already…” she intoned, leaning down. The tiles in front of the door were all depressed, sunken about an inch into the ground, while in a half-circle surrounding them the floor was scorched black. Trixie tentatively put a hoof on the pressure plate, then leaned her weight onto it, but nothing happened. “That’s not right…” she remarked in a low voice.

“Zecora and Spike have been here,” Carrot Top pointed out. “They probably set it off.”

“That’s not what’s odd,” Trixie said. “The traps are self-resetting and magically self-sustaining. There shouldn’t be any sprung traps…”

Raindrops stared a moment, then shook her mane and trotted into the Court before Trixie could stop her. Nothing happened, however, and the pegasus looked back the group. “Don’t question good luck, I guess,” she decided.

The ponies all wandered into the Court, getting their first look at it – or in Trixie’s case, her second. Because it was her second, however, her eyes widened slightly, at how much was out of place. Here, there was a pit in the floor, lying open. Over there, an axe on a pendulum, embedded in a crumbling pillar. Another pillar had fallen over entirely, and would have been blocking the rear exit had its central section not been pushed out of the way by some force. There was an occasional scorch mark or acid pit on the floor, but the former were cool to the touch while in the latter the acid had calcified and was now harmless.

“What?” she demanded. “No, no, no…there’s supposed to be death traps! Really clever ones!” Trixie trotted forward to a pit, looking down. At the bottom were spikes, but no sign of any kind of body of somepony who may have set it off.

“Maybe…” Lyra ventured. “Animals? Maybe animals set them off?”

“Oh, right,” Trixie remarked, rolling her eyes. “Nine hundred ninety-five years or so passed before Luna and me came here and everything was in place. Then five years later the animals of the Everfree decide to hold a party here or something?”

Lyra’s eyes narrowed slightly, and Trixie let out an exasperated sigh. “I’m sorry,” she apologized. “Sorry. I’m tired. And no, not animals. There’s an enchantment woven over the whole area that’ll keep animals out. Somepony came here and set off the traps, and then somehow kept them from resetting. But why would…” Her eyes widened as she realized. “The Elements!”

It was taking the combined efforts of every single unicorn in the capital city, but Celestia was nevertheless being kept out of Canterlot.

The white alicorn stood in the sky directly over the city, not even bothering to beat her wings in order to remain suspended in the air. Beneath her, the city of Canterlot – which had grown quite large since last Celestia had laid her eyes upon it – was encased in a violet sphere, and had been since her arrival. Had it been created by a single unicorn, Celestia could have smashed through it long ago – but the white-coated unicorn who was generating it, who stood in the courtyard of Canterlot Castle wearing blue-and-silver armor that Celestia could only assume was the current uniform of the Royal Guard, was being fed a constant stream of additional magic by dozens of other unicorns in the Guard. And they were being aided by other unicorns themselves, and they by others, and so on. The result was a magical sphere that could defy even Celestia’s power.

For a time, anyway.

The alicorn had set her hostages down on the ground beneath her, enclosing them within a wide circle of fire. She had previously been keeping them suspended in the air with her, but the crying of the foals – and more than a few of the adult ponies, as well – had begun to grate on her nerves, and her calls for silence had been disobeyed. She recognized, however, that their disobedience was not intentional, but rather born from the irrational fear the ponies felt towards her glorious person. Had she not already seen to Luna’s banishment, her little sister would have had much to answer for.

Celestia walked forward along the air, striding right up to the edge of the magical bubble and glaring down into it. She was absolutely certain that, if she brought her full power to bear on the bubble, she could smash through it. She was equally certain that doing so would probably ignite the atmosphere for several miles in every direction, rendering Canterlot and much of the surrounding countryside a fiery wasteland of scorched glass and burned earth. She had to be patient with the ponies, she reminded herself. They had a thousand years of Luna’s lies controlling their actions.

Celestia closed her eyes, willing herself forward. No matter how thick the mesh, some insects could always find their way through – and with magical shields, it was no different, albeit in a more metaphorical sense. She could not bring any true power down on Canterlot while it persisted, but she could project the tiniest portion of her power forward and will it to take on her shape and form inside the barrier, manifesting in front of the unicorn who projected the shield.

The reaction was just shy of instantaneous, of course – there were dozens of spears from nearby pegasus and earth pony guards trained on her, while numerous unicorns broke off their channeling energy into the shield-generating unicorn and turned their magic towards her avatar. None of them, however, were quite foolish enough to attack her. The shield’s creator, himself, opened his eyes, but his horn continued to glow and project power to Canterlot’s barrier.

“Peace, my subjects,” Celestia assured the Guard ponies, bowing her head slightly to them. “I would speak with whomsoever my sister hath appointed as her – ”

“Release Luna from the moon,” The shield creator interrupted, stamping his hoof as he did so.

Celestia blinked several times at the affront. Such disrespect! Did Luna really tolerate such an attitude from her soldiers? “Dost thou speak for all of Canterlot in my sister’s stead?”

The unicorn offered neither confirmation nor denial. Celestia’s eyes narrowed at yet another blatant act of disrespect for a being of her station. “Thy shield is of impressive quality,” she pressed on. “And thou art no doubt acting as thou believes thou must to protect thy charge. But I speak truly when I say that I intend no harm to Canterlot, nor to her inhabitants,” she looked around to the Guard ponies surrounding her avatar, “nor her defenders! You are as mayflies standing against a hurricane. Your bravery is of the sort spoken of in legends, but it is misplaced! I would be a poor Queen indeed if I intended harm to my subjects.

“Now, noble Guard. I see no reason why – ”

“Release Luna from the moon,” the unicorn repeated, “now.”

A second interruption! Celestia’s eyes narrowed further as she forced herself not to grow angry with the gnat in front of her. “Thou art only mortal. No other pony in Canterlot could create this shield, and it is only through the aid of so many other unicorns that thou create a barrier that I cannot penetrate. Thy helpers shalt grow weary. Thou shalt grow weary. But I – I am immortal. I am the Sun. I need never sleep, nor eat, nor do anything but wait for thy failure. One way or another I shall enter Canterlot. Dost thou really wish for me to do so with flames at my hooves and my eyes filled with burning wrath? Art thou so callous towards the ponies thou art sworn to protect?”

Only silence greeted Celestia’s appeal to reason. Her eyes had slimmed to become narrow slits by this point. “Thou art – ”

“Release Luna from the moon, now!” The Guard interrupted. A third time. Deliberately. He had waited to interrupt Corona in such a fashion. Even worse, even more unbelievably, he had shouted at her.

“Thou shalt not speak to me in such a manner!” Celestia exclaimed, as she felt her control on her temper slip. She did nothing to rein it in. “Dost thou not know who I am?”

“Of course I do,” the guard responded. “You’re the Tyrant Sun – Corona.”

“That is not my name!” Celestia shouted, stomping a hoof. It had significantly less force in this mere avatar’s body than it would have in person, but it certainly served to accentuate her point. “That is a lie constructed by my treacherous sister! I am Celestia, foal! I am the Sun! I am thy Queen! Thou hast no right to bar me from assuming my throne! It is mine! Equestria is mine! All of it! Mine!”

The way in which the white-coated unicorn waited for Celestia to finish shouting at him reminded her far too much of a parent nonchalantly observing a foal’s temper tantrum. The carefully neutral, almost conciliatory tone to his voice as he spoke next did not help with the impression. “Equestria doesn’t have a queen,” he said, “it has a princess. And as long as there is a breath in my body, I will never let you have Canterlot…Corona.”

Celestia snarled, an animalistic, alien expression and sound for an equine being. Her head dipped somewhat as her wings spread. “What is thy name?” she inquired in a low voice.

The unicorn drew himself up fully, to his admittedly impressive height, though he was still noticeably shorter than Celestia herself. “Shining Armor,” he declared.

The alicorn offered a bright grin that was totally out of place on her otherwise incensed features. “A hundred years from now,” she said, “when ponies walk by the still-burning crater that this city will become, when foals turn to their parents and ask what happened here, those parents shall tell their foals a story of the hubris and the arrogance of one pony who dared to try and hold back the glory of the Sun. And the pony they speak of shalt be thou, Shining Armor!”

Celestia withdrew her avatar from Canterlot, bringing her consciousness back to her own body. Her wings beat once, dragging her backwards and away from Canterlot, even as her horn glowed and her hostages, the ponies taken from Ponyville, were wrapped in several layers of protective magic. She had no intention of betraying her word to the Ponyvillians – and besides, she would need ponies to bear witness to the rightful wrath she was about to bring down upon Canterlot. All the better that so many of them were foals: they would carry this divine retribution in their memories for all their lives.

Her horn glowed brighter as she began dragging the pure power of the Sun into her being. She would destroy Canterlot utterly, reducing it to molten rock and blackened glass. She could build a capital elsewhere, after all, it mattered not where she reigned from, and this would probably be the surest way to wipe out the majority of her sister’s influence in a single stroke –

There was a flash of green in front of Celestia. The alicorn paused in her gathering of power, as the flash realized itself as a rolled-up, short scroll, which began to fall until Celestia grasped it with her telekinesis. Was it an attempted apology on Shining Armor’s part? However much she deserved it, Celestia doubted that the foal’s tiny number of brain cells could have interacted enough to realize the depths of his mistake in speaking to Celestia as he had. Curiosity drove the alicorn forward as she unfurled the scroll and began to read.

O Queen Corona, I am your faithful servant,
Towards the signs of your return I have been most observant
I journeyed to the Everfree Forest to bring aid to you,
And serving by your side is all I pursue.

“…verse?” Celestia asked nopony, blinking several times in confusion. This letter was written in verse? Who had written it? A zebra? The sheer novelty – not to mention the genuinely servile tone which was the right and proper way to address her – was even enough to make her ignore that the letter was addressed to the lie that was Corona.

This letter is not how I wished to contact your majesty,
But in the Everfree there is a problem, a travesty.
Six ponies have entered here and despite my impediments
They are near now to reaching the Harmonious Elements.

Celestia’s eyes grew wide as something – not fear! – but something stabbed at her heart. The Elements of Harmony? Surely that was what the author of this letter was referring to, Harmonious Elements being used instead simply to continue the rhyme.

I fear that I am no match for these ponies alone,
And I beg forgiveness for drawing you away from your throne,
But if these ponies reach the ruined Palace, their destination,
They could in their foolishness cause you endless frustration!

I implore you my Queen to come to the Everfree castle
Before these ponies can cause you hassle
I offer my services and skills in plethora
Your faithful servant,

– Zecora.

Zecora. Definitely a zebra name, which explained the rhyming as well as her devotion – though the territory of Equestria had never stretched to the zebra homeland in the far south, the zebras had always been sun-worshippers, offering constant praise and supplication to the sun and, therefore, to Celestia. This particular zebra also had a gift for understatement if she thought that ponies getting their mortal hooves on the Elements of Harmony would be merely frustrating. Corrupted by dark magic as they had been by Luna (for how else could her wayward sister have turned them upon her?) the Elements of Harmony could conceivably be used to banish her once more, consign her once again to a thousand years of exile on the sun!

Celestia’s magic reached down, and she grasped her hostages and levitated them into the air again, ignoring their screams of terror as she turned and began flying with all speed towards the Everfree Forest, the site of old palace. Canterlot could wait. This was a problem that had to be dealt with, now.

15. Trixie is Still Here!

Trixie shot off, running for the rear entrance of the Court. The other five ponies followed quickly. Beyond the ruined Court was a wide plaza, probably a former courtyard. The trees of the Everfree had yet to encroach on it, meaning the entire plaza was covered in slushy, melting snow that covered the tiled ground beneath them. Trixie had paused as she entered, letting out a huge sigh of relief as she did. A slight tingling sensation was running across her body, but she chalked it up to nervousness, fear, and mounting exhaustion.

Sitting in the plaza, near the exact center, was what looked like a sculpture made from obsidian. Rising in its center was a pillar of the volcanic glass, about ten feet tall. At its tip stretched more than a dozen long spikes made from the same stone, each a different length. The five longest spikes, at their ends, were impaling five stone spheres, each of which bore a different marking carved into their surfaces. It looked almost like a sculpture of a star in nova, and definitely looked far too delicate to have possibly withstood a millennium of not being tended to by master stonemasons. The most interesting part of the statue, though, was that it was bare and smooth. Despite the low fog and the snow all around it, the statue itself was dry. Even more so than the rest of the palace, this place seemed somehow utterly still and inert.

Trixie let out a sigh of relief as she turned around, gesturing to the statue. “The Elements of – ” she began, when she noticed that the other five ponies were casting their gazes around in panic, none of them looking at her.

“Where’d she go?” Carrot Top demanded as she trotted forward several paces, nearly running down Trixie before the unicorn side-stepped out of the way. “Trixie?”

“I’m right here,” Trixie said, looking down at her hooves – or trying to, anyway, as her hooves seemed to have vanished, along with the rest of her body and clothing. “Or not…okay, I’m invisible, must be the poison joke – ”

“She can’t have just disappeared,” Cheerilee interrupted.

“I totally can, actually,” Trixie noted, “but I’m – ”

“Maybe one of the traps was still active?” Ditzy Doo asked, as she beat her wings several times, getting to the air as she searched the courtyard’s surface, presumably for any sign of a trap having gone off. “Everypony stay in place for a second…”

“…and I’m inaudible.” Trixie observed, eyes narrowing. Not that anypony could see her look of consternation, apparently, but at least she knew she was making it as she trotted over to Carrot Top, who was nearest. “Except I can hear me. I can’t see me, though. That doesn’t make a lot of sense.” Trixie extended a hoof and poked Carrot Top’s neck.

“Gah!” The earth pony exclaimed, leaping sideways in fright. “Something just touched me!”

“What?” Raindrops asked, joining Ditzy Doo in the air, though looking more like she intended to land with extreme prejudice on something rather than remain in the air for safety. “What was it?”

“I don’t know!”

Trixie sighed, looking down at the slush in the ground and drawing out a few letters – or trying to. Her hoof just seemed to pass through the slush without being able to interact with it at all – which admittedly made sense, to an extent, since nopony had noted hoof-tracks with no owner being made when she had gone up to Carrot Top.

“But I can touch you guys,” Trixie noted. She tried her telekinesis, and found it similarly unable to affect the slush, but a brush of Carrot Top’s hair was apparently possible – eliciting another surprised shout from her, as despite her telekinesis working, the normal telltale blue effervescence was missing.

Trixie thought a moment, then stamped her hoof – not that it made a sound – when an idea came to her. She took off her hat and cape (also rendered invisible – somehow – Trixie did not understand poison joke’s rules) and threw the latter around Carrot Top’s back, despite her protests, and then setting the former down on top of the earth pony's head.

Carrot Top froze in place. “it’s on me…” she said in a very quiet, frightened voice. “Whatever it is…it’s on me…my back and my head…”

The other ponies approached cautiously, as Trixie observed, waiting for them to figure things out on their own. She frowned even as she did, though. “You walked into the poison joke first,” she observed. “Why weren’t you affected first?”

Lyra had reached Carrot Top first. “Your head?” she asked softly, staring just above Carrot Top. The earth pony nodded slowly.

“Must be earth pony fortitude,” Trixie decided, waving her hoof through the slush again. It was a unique sensation, passing through solid matter, or solid-ish matter, anyway. “Unicorns are more delicate than earth ponies. Raindrops will probably be next, then you.”

“Hold real still,” Lyra said, as her horn began glowing. With a shout, she lashed out with telekinesis, grabbing “whatever” it was that had perched on top of Carrot Top’s head. As her golden aura wrapped around it, it outlined the general shape of Trixie’s hat.

“There,” Trixie said happily. “See? Just my – ”

“It was trying to eat my head!” Carrot Top exclaimed as she backed away. “Look at the size of its mouth! Gah! And something’s still on my back!”

Trixie’s eyes narrowed in annoyance. They swiftly widened, however, when Lyra threw her hat down onto the slush, and Raindrops landed on it with all four hooves, stomping several times. “You idiots!” The normally blue, currently transparent unicorn exclaimed, stomping up to Raindrops. “Leave my hat alone!”

Raindrops paused in her stomping, hefting the hat upwards with one hoof – still grasped in Lyra’s telekinesis – and regarding the shape and feel of it. “I don’t think it’s a monster,” Raindrops observed. “I think it’s a hat.”

Carrot Top paused. She had been wrestling with Trixie’s cape, Ditzy Doo and Cheerilee having grasped its ends in their mouths and pulling at it as well. Trixie wasn’t as concerned for the cape, as it bore several fortifying enhancements that made it far sturdier than its plain cloth would suggest – but her hat did not have such protection. Worst of all, she couldn’t even see the damage.

“A hat?” Carrot Top asked, then paused as she shifted a little, feeling the invisible thing on her. “And…this feels kind of like cloth...wet cloth, but that’s probably the slush…”

“Thank you for that, by the way,” Trixie said, sighing as she stuck a hoof up her hat and began waving it around. The other ponies all started at the sight of Lyra’s aura moving of its own accord.

“Ith Twikthie!” Cheerilee exclaimed suddenly, though she still had a mouthful of cape. She spat it out and tried again. “It’s Trixie! She’s invisible!”

Lyra frowned at that, extending her telekinesis. Sure enough, her aura spreading around Trixie outlined the general shape of a unicorn, as Trixie set her hat on top of her head, ignoring the fact that it was now wet. Somehow. Despite her not being able to interact with the slush.

Poison joke didn’t make sense.

She waved at Lyra as she grasped her cape on Carrot Top’s back and retrieved it, ignoring its wetness as well. What she got in return for the wave, however, was a series of annoyed stares. “This isn’t funny, Trixie,” Cheerilee observed.

“I’m not doing it on purpose!” Trixie exclaimed, throwing her forehooves in the air. She jabbed a hoof at Raindrops, then Carrot Top, then herself, and proceeded to repeat the process.

“Oh!” Carrot Top exclaimed. “The poison joke!”

“Thank you!”

“It can turn somepony invisible?” Ditzy Doo asked.

“It can do just about anything, it’s magic.” Carrot Top explained. “Like I’ve said, it plays a joke on you, takes something you love and twists it.”

“Oh, I get it!” Cheerilee said. “So I guess…it’s because Trixie always wants to be flashy and noticed, so the poison joke turned her invisible and silent!”

Trixie made a mental note to make sure to later inform Cheerilee that she had been glaring at her after that comment.

“Probably,” Carrot Top confirmed. “It probably affected Trixie first since she’s a unicorn. Unicorns on average don’t have the same kind of toughness as pegasi or earth ponies – no offense, Lyra.”

“And Trixie,” Trixie appended.

“None taken,” Lyra said simultaneously.

“So Raindrops, you’ll probably be – ”

Poomf.

There was an explosion of green from Carrot Top’s mane and tail. The two of them almost instantly tripled in size, at least, and changed color from orange to a dark green, shooting out from her head and dock like streamers. Even after the initial explosion of length, they continued to visibly grow, albeit at a much slower rate.

Carrot Top had frozen in place again, eyes wide – probably, anyway, as her eyes were now covered by a mass of green. She looked behind her as well. “M…my mane!” she exclaimed. “My tail!” she tried to flick her tail, but sheer mass meant that she got nothing more than a vague twitch.

The other ponies rushed over to her, the golden aura around Trixie disappearing as she joined them, despite not being visible.

“Are you okay?” Ditzy Doo asked, eyes wide and mostly coming into focus as she examined Carrot Top’s mane, holding it up in her hooves The longest strands were an easy six feet long at this point. “It’s still growing!”

“Where’s it coming from?” Raindrops asked.

“Magic,” Trixie said, then face-hoofed when she remembered her predicament. Fortunately, Lyra said as much a moment later.

Carrot Top had closed her eyes, forcing herself to calm down. “I’ve always been proud of my mane,” she stated. “So that’s how the poison joke got me.”

“Still growing,” Trixie observed, hefting up a mass of it with one hoof – eliciting a slight jump from Carrot Top. “Maybe an inch every ten seconds…”

Carrot Top stared more-or-less at Trixie. “Do you think you could keep Trixie highlighted, Lyra?” she asked. “I’m…I don’t need constant scares.”

“Not really,” Lyra observed. “I mean, I could, but then Trixie wouldn’t be able to walk around on her own. I doubt she wants that.”

Ditzy Doo trotted over to where she guessed Trixie was, extending a hoof cautiously. Trixie tapped it back, and Ditzy used that as a guide to get beside Trixie and extend one wing over her back. “There,” she said. “She’s here.”

“Thanks,” Trixie and Carrot Top said simultaneously.

Raindrops tapped a hoof on the ground. “So I’m guessing it’s really just random,” she said, as she, Cheerilee, and Lyra helped Carrot Top get her still-growing mane out of her eyes. “But I’m next either way.”

“We need to focus, though,” Cheerilee said, as Carrot Top looked morosely at her mane. “The Elements of Harmony. Trixie ran off looking for them. Are they here?”

“Yes,” Trixie responded, before sighing at her own forgetfulness. She gently extended her telekinesis around Ditzy Doo’s head and neck and made the pegasus nod. Surprisingly, Ditzy didn’t resist – apparently she’d anticipated that Trixie would need to do that exact thing.

“She’s making me nod my head,” Ditzy said. “So that’s a yes – ”

Poomf.

Everypony blinked at the sound, and turned to look upwards, except for Raindrops. The jasmine-coated pegasus, having grown to be more than thirty feet tall, looked down instead at the other five ponies. She blinked a few times. “And now we know,” she boomed, everypony else covering their ears at the sound of her voice, which had dropped several octaves and was loud enough to be felt as much as it was heard. “Sorry,” she whispered after a moment, as she backed away from them gingerly – her hoof-steps shaking the ground slightly – and sat down as best she could in what had suddenly become a somewhat narrow space for her.

“You okay?” Carrot Top asked, brushing her still-growing mane out of her eyes. It was now at least eight feet long, and her tail was even longer.

“Fine,” Raindrops whispered, though her size meant that it was still as loud as a normal-sized pony’s regular speaking voice. She looked between each of them.

“Why are you a giant now?” Cheerilee asked.

“Insecurities about being a big, clumsy oaf when flying, probably,” Raindrops observed. “Either that or insecurities about my anger problem and the possibility that I might hurt somepony when I’m being a big, stupid ball of fury.”

“You have an anger problem?” Lyra asked. “But you seem…calm.”

“Oh, she has them,” Trixie confirmed, vividly remembering the events of – stars above, had it really only been yesterday afternoon? It seemed like forever...Trixie stifled a yawn, then realized that nopony could really see her anyway so there wasn't much point.

Raindrops also nodded in confirmation to Lyra's question. “I’ve got a lid on it. Mostly.” She looked to Cheerilee. “Anyway. You were saying?”

The earth pony blinked a few times at how well Raindrops was taking her new size, then shook her head and looked back to Ditzy Doo, or rather Ditzy’s left, where Trixie was still under the pegasus’ wing. “So the Elements are here,” she said. “Where?”

Trixie pointed at the obsidian statue, paused, slapped her face with her hoof, and then grasped Ditzy’s hoof and made the pegasus point. The other ponies all looked at the statue, Lyra’s horn beginning to glow as she examined the statue. “I…don’t feel anything,” she said.

Raindrops groaned. “They’re fake?” she demanded, forgetting to whisper.

Lyra shook her head quickly lest she anger Raindrops the Titan. “No. I don’t feel anything. Magic is supposed to be everywhere and in everything. Even when I was overchanneled I still had a bit left in me and always would…but looking at that statue, it’s almost like all the magic has been stripped away from it.” She shivered slightly. “I didn’t know that was possible. I was happier not knowing that was possible.”

Trixie nudged Ditzy Doo slightly, and the two began trotting forward, up to the statue, stopping within a few feet of it. Trixie reached out telekinetically and began yanking on one of the orbs. It came free surprisingly easily – when it reached Trixie, it was completely smooth stone, except for an arcane mark carved into its surface. The spot where the obsidian spike should have been impaling it had simply disappeared “Kindness,” she stated, handing the orb off to Ditzy Doo. The other ponies, sans Raindrops and with Carrot Top now lugging an easy twelve feet of mane and tail, crowded around, looking at it.

“That’s…Kindness, I think?” Cheerilee remarked, with Lyra nodding. “Lyra, Trixie, do you think you could get the other four down?”

It took only a few seconds for the two unicorns to take down the five orbs, setting them down in a pile that the ponies quickly surrounded, looking over. “Generosity,” Lyra said, pointing to the one in front of Carrot Top, then began counting them off “Honesty, Laughter, Kindness, and Loyalty,” she finished with the one in front of her. “At least that’s what they told us in Canterlot.”

“We’re missing one,” Cheerilee noted. “The sixth Element.”

“Which one was that?” Carrot Top asked.

Cheerilee, Lyra, and Trixie all shrugged. “It’s a mystery,” Cheerilee explained. “Nopony knows. And whenever anypony asked Princess Luna, the rumors say that she just smiles.”

“It’s not a rumor,” Trixie said. “Luna loves being mysterious. It’s annoying.”

Nopony heard her, of course. Instead, Cheerilee began trotting around the statue. “I don’t see the sixth Element…”

“It’s not here,” Trixie said. “It wasn’t last time, either. When I asked Luna where it…why am I bothering?”

“Did somepony steal it?” Raindrops asked, as she squinted and leaned forward, looking closely at the nearest Element to her, Honesty.

Trixie once again grasped Ditzy Doo’s head, though this time she made it shake. “Trixie says no,” Ditzy Doo answered.

“So where is it?” Lyra asked. After a moment, she realized her mistake. “Right, yes or no questions…is it nearby?”

“Maybe?” Trixie asked, sighing. She tried to conjure up an illusion of words with her horn, but like her telekinetic aura, it was invisible, and nor could she conjure ghost sounds.

“Just write in the slush already,” Lyra insisted.

“You’re being added to my list of ‘ponies I’m going to glare at later,’” Trixie responded. She shook Ditzy Doo’s head.

“I don’t think she can,” the pegasus said, as her head shook. “She’d probably have thought of that already if she could.”

“I like you the most, Ditzy Doo,” Trixie said as she got out from under her wing, then put a hoof to her shoulder and used the point of it to trace out a letter on Ditzy’s coat. She continued doing this a few times, until Ditzy Doo put the idea together.

“Okay,” Ditzy said. “Hang on, Trixie’s going to write on my coat…sort of. I get the idea, Trixie, just go slowly.”

“It’s my first time too…” Trixie said under her breath, chuckling a little, as she began to ‘write.’

“Nopony…knows,” Ditzy read. “Luna…didn’t…tell…me. Just…gave…stupid…riddle.”

“What was it?” Cheerilee asked.

“Said…it…was…right…beside…me.”

The ponies all thought about that one. “That?” Raindrops asked, extending a massive hoof and pointing at the statue. “The statue itself?”

“No,” Ditzy responded as Trixie ‘wrote.’ “That…was…behind…me…”

“Oh!” Cheerilee exclaimed. “Magic! Like your cutie mark? Get it? Because it’s beside you?”

Trixie rolled her eyes. “No,” she had Ditzy say. “That’s…on…me…not…beside…me.”

Cheerilee deflated somewhat. “Oh…” she said. “Right…”

“Maybe it was Princess Luna?” Ditzy guessed, then ‘read’ out her response. “No, she says Luna was in front of her.” The pegasus paused. “And that she hates Luna right now.”

“Gotta admit I’m not too fond of her right now either,” Raindrops whispered. “Saving the world shouldn’t be this hard. The steps shouldn’t be something like journeying through a deadly forest to a ruined castle past death traps in order to retrieve ancient artifacts and then figure out how to use them. It should be something simple. Like ‘push this button.’”

“Trixie agrees,” Ditzy said as Trixie made her nod her head, then ‘read’ as Trixie wrote. “Trixie says she’s tired.”

Cheerilee sighed at that. “She’s got a point. We need to rest. We’ve all been up too long and aren’t thinking straight. We should just take the Elements and hide them somewhere…”

Trixie sighed. “Can’t move them, remember?” she asked as she hefted one at random – the Element of Generosity – and threw it. After about thirty feet, it hit some kind of barrier and bounced back. Trixie caught it as it did, and set it down in front of Carrot Top.

“I think Trixie just showed us that we can’t take them from here,” Lyra observed. She sighed. “And we still don’t know who set off all those traps…”

“We’ll rest while we can,” Cheerilee said. “Corona will be tied up for days dealing with Canterlot and all the other cities and towns in Equestria, we have time. Two of us will stay awake, the rest of us should sleep for a few hours, then those two can rest.”

“I’ll stay awake,” Raindrops volunteered, as she blushed slightly – and a look of embarrassment was the last thing anypony had ever expected to see on her face. “I, um…snore. Given how big I am right now…”

“And me,” Ditzy Doo volunteered. “I’m used to not getting a lot of sleep.”

“Okay,” Cheerilee confirmed, as she trotted forward. “Let’s see if we can’t save the world once we’ve got clearer heads…”

Celestia alighted atop a tall ridge that overlooked the Palace, about a half-mile away from it. Truly, the place had seen better days – far, far better days. To see the once proud structure fallen into disrepair and ruin, fighting a losing battle against the encroaching vegetation of the Everfree Forest, nearly broke her heart. Perhaps, once Canterlot was dealt with, she would rebuild the Palace, and make her capital. Yes, it would be in the midst of the Everfree forest, but for all its peculiarities, the Everfree was still made of leaves and wood, which would burn as easily as in any other forest. It would be a small matter for the rightful Queen of Equestria to shape the Everfree to her desires…

Ah, but she was getting ahead of herself. Glancing over her shoulder, she set down her hostages, surrounding them in fire once more, albeit this time it was as much for their protection against the savage monsters of the Everfree as to keep them contained. Having done thus, she turned around once more to the palace, or intended to, but her intention was instead drawn to a more interesting sight much closer – just at the bottom of the ridge she stood upon, in fact. Approaching her was a zebra, wearing a brown cloak, though as the zebra approached she threw off the cloak, revealing, emblazoned on her flank, a cutie mark of a spiral surrounded by outward-pointing triangles – a sun. The zebra – Zecora, Celestia supposed – knelt when she had drawn close enough, head pressed to the ground.

It took a considerably amount of effort on Celestia’s part, despite how un-Queenlike it would have been, to stop herself from exclaiming Finally! at the sight.

“Queen Corona, it gladdens me to set my eyes upon your majesty!” The zebra exclaimed whole-heartedly, as she looked up.

That ruined Celestia’s good mood, though only a little. “Thy respect is genuine enough,” Corona announced, “but thou shalt not address me by that name. Corona is a false title invented by my treacherous sister to assuage her own guilt over her betrayal. I am Celestia.”

“As you wish it to be. I shall follow your decree.”

Celestia noted with some further dissatisfaction that Zecora seemed to have the same poor grasp of Equestrian that everypony did these days. Celestia was no stranger to the evolution of languages – she herself did not know precisely how old she was, as neither she nor Luna had bothered to keep track of the first few millennia of their existences – but Equestrian had reached a certain nobility a thousand years ago, a nobility which had fallen far by the wayside in the intervening years of her imprisonment, it seemed.

Dissatisfied or no, however, this zebra’s intentions were pure enough, and Celestia had far more pressing concerns right now. She looked up from Zecora, to the ruined palace. “They have arrived?”

“It is so, my Queen,” Zecora said apologetically. “In the palace they convene. I would have stopped them before, but my skills are not those of war. I beg forgiveness of your majesty.”

“What skills dost thou possess then, Zecora?” Celestia asked, surprised that the zebra had not rhymed the last thing she had said. Had that peculiar zebra quirk also begun to fall by the wayside?

“My queen, I am blessed with the gift of prophecy.”

Ah, there it is, Celestia noted, as one eyebrow raised. Aloud, she continued. “Prophecy?” she inquired. “Certainly thou couldst have taken greater steps to prevent any from challenging my right to rule with such a gift.”

The zebra bowed her head. “Forgive me, your highness, for being unable. But for some time the future has been unstable. Your return has been all I could see with my gift of prophecy. I do have other talents, brewing potions and rituals I can run – I used the last to aid your escape from the sun.”

Celestia had been looking again to the ruins of the palace, but froze slightly as she heard Zecora finish speaking, and looked down at the zebra. “What?” she demanded. “Thou…thou believeth that I required thine aid to free myself?”

Zecora blinked. “The possibility of your return has been known to me for some time,” she said cautiously, “and so we journeyed to the site of your sister’s crime…using ancient testaments, I worked magic over the Elements, created a storm of great power at the appropriate hour – ”

“Silence!” Celestia exclaimed, as she leapt down from the ridge and landed evenly in front of the zebra. “I required naught from thee! My escape was under my own power! The Elements are strong, but I am the Sun! Thou didst nothing!”

“H…hey! Leave Z alone!”

Celestia had been glaring down at the zebra - to the mortal’s credit, she didn’t flee from the wrathful alicorn – but at the sound of the small voice from several dozen feet away, she looked up. Charging towards her was a small, green-and-purple creature. He stumbled, however, when her gaze fell upon him, and looked terrified when a white aura wrapped around him and dragged him before Celestia.

“What have we here?” Celestia asked as she held the creature in place, leaning down. “A little dragon? And thou knows this zebra?” The alicorn looked to Zecora. “Thy familiar?”

Zecora eyed the baby dragon, who was now looking like he had seriously reconsidered his suicidal charge. Celestia, however, only laughed as she leaned back, releasing the dragon from her grip. “Misplaced courage seems to have grown in abundance in mine absence,” she observed. “Stupidity as well, but with my sister in charge for a thousand years, this is hardly surprising. What is thy name, little dragon?”

The dragon stared, eyes wide. “Spike,” he said.

Celestia tapped a hoof to her chin in thought. “Spike. A simple name. For that I am grateful – far too many dragons pick names of unnecessary length, as though the number of syllables in their names somehow grants them power.” Celestia turned once more to Zecora. “Thou art in error, my servant. I did not require thy aid. But…what is the saying…’tis the idea that matters.”

Spike looked for a moment like he wanted to speak, but then thought better of it. Celestia turned, leaping once more onto the ridge and looking back to the palace. She had wasted a significant amount of time dealing with the zebra and the dragon. For all she knew, the treacherous ponies – perhaps prepared by her sister for this very eventuality? – already had the corrupted Elements and were waiting for her even now to strike. Regardless, the Elements would be protecting the Palace from any great works of magic, at least from this distance – she could not simply call down a solar flare and immolate the Palace, no. She would need, instead, to test the waters somehow, something that would be enough to reveal whether or not the ponies already had the Elements but which would not put her in danger.

Not that she was in the least bit afraid. Just…cautious.

Celestia’s eyes once more turned to Zecora, and then to Spike. They lingered on him for some time, before she smiled, and her horn began to glow.

16. The Sixth Element [End of Part 4]

Trixie’s special talent was magic in general, but her chosen specialty was illusion spells – spells that created ghost sounds or false sensations, or which manipulated light and shadow to create fake images or impressions. Of the numerous tricks she had both learned and developed herself, her favorite was, by far, the light-bending glamor that allowed her to turn invisible, followed closely by its companion spell that negated the sound of her hoof-steps. It was just so useful to not be seen or heard by anypony, and therefore become privy to things she probably shouldn’t of been. Trixie used her invisibility glamor more often than any other spell she knew by far, and so had been sure that she knew just about everything about being invisible.

As it turned out, she was wrong, as she had overlooked something significant, yet obvious in hindsight: while invisible, her eyelids were transparent. This was not particularly conducive to achieving sleep, especially during Corona’s perpetual midday. Ordinarily, if it was too bright out, she would have simply pulled her hat down over her eyes, but she was beginning to understand why (if not how) the poison joke had rendered that and her cape invisible as well. Thus, no matter how exhausted she was, sleep was simply not coming.

“Stupid poison joke!” Trixie proclaimed loudly. Nopony could hear her anyway, so she didn’t feel a need to keep quiet. She turned her attention to Carrot Top. “And stupid you! Raindrops had wings, you idiot! This is your fault! And mine! Because I followed you! Because I’m an idiot too! A bigger one! And Lyra! If you hadn’t overchanneled I wouldn’t be in the situation either! And none of you should have followed me in here! Corona shouldn’t of escaped! Luna should have been able to kick her flank! She was useless! Morons! Idiots! Foals! All of us! We’re all idiots!” Trixie paused, breathing in and out deeply a few times. “…wow that was cathartic.”

Carrot Top let out a slight sigh. She had managed to fall asleep, somehow, possibly because she had an excellent blanket in the form of a mane and tail that had finally stopped growing at around twenty feet in length, give or take a yard. Trixie had considered burying herself under the other pony’s hair, but several things stopped her. Firstly, the thought of sleeping wrapped in a blanket made from another pony’s hair was more than a little creepy, especially one she barely knew. Secondly, Trixie was fairly certain covering her eyes in a hair-blanket would be uncomfortable.

But the third, and probably the overriding reason, was that doing so would require getting out from underneath Ditzy Doo’s wing. Despite the pegasus’ comment about being used to long hours, she had fallen asleep while sitting next to Trixie. Raindrops had noticed, but hadn’t done or said anything about it. Trixie had almost moved, when Ditzy had muttered a name in her sleep – Dinky Doo’s.

Trixie could be a terrifically cruel pony at times, but even she couldn’t bring herself to wake Ditzy Doo from whatever dream she was in with her daughter. It was good to escape from reality sometimes, even if only for a little while. “Of course, that’s basically what I’ve done,” Trixie observed. “Escaped from reality. I am a reality expatriate. Good on me. Or really, it’s more like I was shoved from reality by the poison joke. Which is a stupid flower. Hate it. Hate, hate, hate, hate…”

Ditzy Doo shifted a little, her wing’s grip tightening on Trixie for a moment. Trixie did her best not to flinch as she sighed, laying her head down on her hooves, eyes looking around the plaza as she examined it out of mind-numbing boredom. Ordinarily, if forced to sit in one place for a time, she would have been practicing her illusions, amusing herself in one way or another with them, but the poison joke had rendered even her magic invisible. All she could do was sit and wait for sheer exhaustion to force her asleep. Sit and wait…sit and wait…sit…wait…sit…wait…

…sit…wait…

...yeah, this isn’t happening, Trixie thought.

“Here me now, O thou bleak and unbearable world!” Trixie sang idly, trying to keep herself amused somehow. “Thou art base and debauched as can be…and a knight with his banner so bravely unfurled, now hurls down his gauntlet to thee! I am Don Rocinante, hero of Equestria, destroyer of evil and I…I am an awful singer.” Trixie laughed at her own interruption, looking to Lyra. “Right? Gah, stars, that’s right, you can’t hear me…”

Lyra, like Trixie, had not been able to find sleep. She was sitting in a back-breaking position again, leaning against a wall with her harp (lyre, whatever) in hoof and gently plucking out a slow, sad melody. Lyra’s eyes were closed, and she looked like she had totally lost herself in whatever she was playing, some tears in her eyes. It was obvious that she was thinking about BonBon.

“Ugh,” Trixie objected, looking to Cheerilee’s sleeping form. “Well, it was a good idea while it lasted, Cheerilee.” The magenta pony had been doing a good job of keeping all their minds on anything other than Corona, but the admittedly necessary sleep was giving Ditzy Doo and Lyra all the time they needed to focus on their losses.

Trixie looked down, tapping her hooves on the plaza beneath her. Not that it made any sound. The slush had been cleared away, too, to give them someplace to sleep; Trixie’s telekinesis was still unable to affect it. Trixie tried to come up with a plausible explanation for why she couldn’t touch or affect slush but could touch and affect other ponies and the Elements of Harmony, but the best she could conjure up was “because magic.”

“Bored,” Trixie stated. “Bored, bored, bored, bored, bored, bored, bored…”

From somewhere in the Everfree, there was a roar.

“What was that?” Carrot Top asked, even as she struggled to get out from under her own hair. It was not an easy task

“I don’t know,” Raindrops whispered, as she cautiously stood, careful not to step on anypony. The roar came a second time, this time followed by a crashing sound in the far distance, like trees being shoved out of the way. A sound which was getting louder – or closer.

“Um,” Raindrops said, not bothering to keep her voice down as she got up on her hind legs, affording her a better view of the direction the sound was coming from, roughly in the direction of the castle’s tower. Her eyes widened when she saw whatever it was. “Hide. Hide now.”

The other five ponies – well, four, certainly, but Raindrops assumed that Trixie was smart enough to follow suit – did so by running back into the former Court, Cheerilee and an invisible Trixie helping Carrot Top with her mane and tail, Lyra grabbing the Elements with telekinesis and dragging them as far back as they would go, and Ditzy Doo instead taking to the air, looking in the same direction Raindrops was as soon as she was a good fifty feet up or so.

“Is…is that Spike – ” Ditzy began, when the crashing sound stopped as the sound of displaced air reached their ears. Whatever was coming had leapt into the air, and moments later it came crashing down inside of the courtyard, hunched over at first, but quickly rearing to a full forty-foot height and letting out a roar that was felt more than it was heard.

A dragon, mostly purple, with a pale underbelly and a long series of green, wickedly sharp spines running from the top of its head down along its spine, and across the top of a long, whip-like tail that ensured that the dragon was at least twice as long as it was tall. It also, further, sported a pair of large, bat-like wings, covered in purple scales and with a translucent green membrane between its fingers.

“Spike?” Ditzy Doo asked. The dragon turned its gaze to her and let loose another bellow, then charged forward, at Raindrops. The giant pegasus reared up and lashed out with her hooves. Neither hoof connected, but the dragon did stop its assault and creep backwards, affording the giant pegasus new respect even as it growled in anger.

“How are you looking at that and thinking ‘Spike?’” Raindrops demanded as she felt back onto all fours, beating her wings a few times as she adopted a fighting stance – wings out, three hooves on the ground, but her right front hoof raised and ready to strike.

“Ssspike?” The dragon hissed, as it too adopted a four-legged posture and began drawing in a deep breath. Both Ditzy Doo and Raindrops started at the sibilant, deep, yet somehow familiar tone to its voice even as the back of the dragon’s throat began to glow a sickly green, licks of flame escaping from between the its tightly clenched teeth. “Ssspike…hungry! Ssspike mad!”

The dragon exhaled a gout of green fire. Raindrops leapt upwards instinctively, spreading her wings and beating them frantically, sending gusts of air downwards. Apparently, cruel though poison joke could be, it hadn’t robbed her of her ability to fly. Unfortunately, it hadn’t done much for her speed or agility, either, and a portion of Spike’s flames caught the tip of her tail, singing it. The dragon leapt into the air as soon as it had finished exhaling, grasping Raindrops by a back leg and throwing her down to the plaza below. The pegasus landed on her shoulder without breaking anything, getting up just as her foe landed nearby, mouth once more glowing green.

“Ssspike burn, and sssmash, and eat!” The dragon proclaimed.

That didn’t work out quite as well as it had the first time, however. Raindrops leapt right at it, bringing her right hoof down on the top of its muzzle. The dragon’s jaw snapped shut – making it bite off maybe six inches of its long tongue as it did so – and it staggered under the blow, then began coughing and belching green-tinted smoke as the fire it had been preparing was forcefully quenched. It was too preoccupied to notice Raindrops raise her hoof a second time, this time striking the dragon’s back, where its two shoulders met. It collapsed to the plaza floor with a loud roar of rage, claws scrabbling in the slush and tiled stone as it scurried backwards from Raindrops, or tried to – Raindrops followed its every step, hooves coming down as she tried to step on the beast, which suddenly seemed considerably less eager to dine upon pony flambé. Its back was quickly against a wall, however, and on realizing this, its expression changed from concerned to terrified.

“Wait!” Ditzy Doo called, as she flew near Raindrops. “That is Spike!

Raindrops stopped her stomping advance, resuming the pose she had struck earlier. “And he was trying to eat us,” she noted, eyes never leaving the dragon, though they did narrow as she regarded it. “Which, by the way: why?”

The dragon didn’t answer as it remained pressed against the wall, wings held high in defense, eyes darting between Raindrops and Ditzy Doo, looking at the latter hungrily but the former with a considerable amount of fear.

“He’s not in his right mind,” Ditzy Doo noted. “Maybe…maybe that poison joke stuff? We need to find Zecora.”

“Ten bits says he ate her,” Raindrops said, as she noticed movement from the corner of her eye. The others were coming out from where they had taken cover, slowly, making sure to stay close to the wall and well out of the way of Spike an Raindrops. “How can you even tell that’s Spike?”

“I just can,” Ditzy explained, though not helpfully, as she alighted atop Raindrops’ head and stared at Spike. “Spike. What happened?”

The dragon was breathing heavily. “Hungry…mad…” it hissed, teeth still clenched. Its head whipped around to Raindrops. “Hung – !” it shouted as it lunged at Raindrops again. Once more, it received a hoof square to its jaw, sending it reeling backwards and into the courtyard’s wall. The stress proved too much for the ancient structure, and it crumbled under his impact, sending the dragon sprawling under collapsing stone and mortar.

“You’re good at that,” Lyra noted from the back wall.

“Iron hoof martial arts,” Raindrops explained. “The discipline helps when I get really angry. Which is sort of happening right now.”

Ditzy Doo took to the air once more, staring down at the dragon as it lay in the rubble, breathing heavily and blinking rapidly, before its eyes rolled back and it began to glow with the same sickly green glow its fire had possessed. The glow obscured its features, but began to shrink and compress, and after several moments there was no longer a massive, winged, hungry-looking purple wyrm, but instead a tiny green-and-purple baby dragon, groaning in pain.

“Okay, what?” Cheerilee asked, as the ponies, sans Raindrops, picked their way over the debris – Carrot Top having a harder time than most thanks to her hair getting caught in just about everything, but she seemed determined to not be left behind – and towards Spike just as the baby dragon slipped into unconsciousness. A few tentative pokes from Ditzy Doo got no real response from him.

“Somepony please explain to me what the hay just happened!” Raindrops exclaimed, almost stomping her hoof in frustration before she managed to stop herself, as it might have brought the entire Palace ruins crashing down. “Is this normal for dragons or what?”

“I don’t think – ” Carrot Top began.

There was an explosion in the sky, a blast of heat and light that shoved the ponies who were standing to the ground, covering their ears with their forelegs and shouting in fright at the sudden sound. Even Raindrops was forced to the ground.

Then – wings. The sound of large wings beating steadily.

Then all was black.

Consciousness was a thing that had to be grabbed with teeth and telekinesis and dragged, kicking and screaming, back to Trixie. She awoke only slowly, to the too-bright sight of fire and a glaring sun overhead that penetrated her invisible eyelids with impunity, not to mention a white aura wrapped firmly around her being that glowed of its own accord, keeping her pressed to the now-dry ground and outlined for all to see.

Hearing was the next thing to return. She heard the cackling of flames, yes, but over that, she heard the whimpers and sobs of frightened foals, and the hushed assurances of other ponies, trying to keep them calm. Trixie couldn’t move her head thanks to the aura, but her eyes were her own still. Glancing around, she saw – beyond the flames that surrounded her in a wide circle – a second fiery prison, far larger than her own and holding dozens of ponies in place.

Above even those sounds, however, Trixie heard a voice.

“I do not understand this foreign mindset that grips you,” Corona said. Looking around with just her eyes, Trixie saw her five companions, each trapped in circles of flame and held in place by a white aura of their own, though they at least were standing. Even Raindrops was held in place with no additional effort on Corona’s part, while Carrot Top’s mane and tail had been wrapped around her in a way that might have been funny, were they in any other situation. The Tyrant Sun was facing them, wings spread wide, with the obsidian statue and the five orbs that contained the Elements of Harmony behind her.

“Were my intentions not clear?” Corona asked, as she folded her wings against her body and began to pace back and forth in front of the ponies. “Was I not precise? Did I not tell you the exact consequence for actions such as this?” She swept a hoof at the Elements. “Do you not care for your friends and loved ones?

“You admit to having no true plan,” Corona continued, “yet you would defy me anyway! And I tell you now, the Elements would not have worked for creatures as you. You are mere ponies. It takes alicorn magic to direct the Elements, even in the inert, corrupted state that Luna left them in.”

Corona looked between the five of them like they were children being scolded. Raindrops was managing to meet her glare head-on, while Cheerilee and Carrot Top were trying desperately to look away, though all they could move were their eyes. Lyra and Ditzy Doo, meanwhile, were alternating between watching Corona, and looking into the crowd of captured ponies. Trixie couldn’t see BonBon or Dinky Doo, but she knew they were in there – somewhere.

“And thou,” Corona intoned, looking to Trixie, apparently perfectly aware of Trixie being awake and, more to the point, having no apparent difficulty seeing her. Trixie was lifted up and stood like a doll or figurine, her muscles straining against the aura that gripped her and yet unable to move. “Thou, whom I entrusted with the governance of that settlement. Yet you waited not a moment before turning against thy Queen. I revise my opinion of thee yet again. Thou art not brave. Thou art not even a coward, nor an opportunist. Thou art simply stupid.” She leaned in close to Trixie. “Stupidity has a price. A very, very dear price.”

Trixie blinked a few times. “It…” she began, surprised Corona was letting her speak, surprised even more when the alicorn’s head turned slightly, indicating that the Tyrant Sun heard her. “It was my idea. It was all my idea. Don’t – ”

“Silence!” Corona commanded, making a sweeping gesture with one wing as her horn flared. “I will believe no more of thy lies. Even if thou were telling the truth it would matter not. Thy idea it may have been, but they endorsed it. It is fortunate indeed that I yet have allies in Equestria or I might have been unaware of thy treachery.”

“Allies?” Trixie echoed, eyes wide, before narrowing. “Zecora.”

“Indeed,” Corona observed with a smile as she drew back, looking to the side and turning Trixie’s head as she did. Sitting – no, kneeling, in obeisance – to the Tyrant Sun was the zebra, cloak still removed. Somehow, Trixie was able to take note of the fact that on her flank was a stylized sun cutie mark. She had lied about not having one, it seemed, though that hardly came as much of a surprise.

But why? That was still the question. What pony – what anything – would be insane enough to support Corona?

Corona continued to glare at them all like they were children who had been caught with their hooves in the cookie jar. At length, she shook her head. “I have much to do,” she said. “I can waste no more time on traitors whilst Canterlot yet defies me.” She turned her back on the six ponies, instead facing her captives. “Yet behold that I am merciful! Far from here, Ponyville sits peaceful and orderly, as I commanded. ‘Tis only these six who defy my orders. And so my wrath shall fall solely upon them!”

The captive ponies seemed anything but grateful for Corona’s ‘mercy,’ but the white alicorn didn’t take any notice of it as she turned back around. “First,” she proclaimed, looking to the obsidian statue and the Elements. “I shall deal with far older traitors than you.” She raised one hoof, and slammed it into the ground, even as her horn glowed. The impact sent a reverberation through the ground as strong as any earthquake, as well as a cracking sound like thunder. In front of the ponies’ eyes, the obsidian statue – and the stone that were the Elements of Harmony – shattered. There was a brief flare of magic from each, but then nothing.

Trixie felt another thing shatter, as well – hope. All of it, everywhere, but most especially inside of her.

“Whatever dark magic my sister used on the Elements,” Corona proclaimed as she used a hoof to brush them aside, “rendered them corrupt and base. They were gone long ago, only these black echoes had remained. But I do not need them, for I am Celestia! I am the Sun!”

Corona chuckled slightly as she looked up, eyes focusing on Trixie. The blue unicorn was aware of the white aura that had surrounded her leaving her body, and the flames around her dying down. In fact, the same had happened for all of her companions. After all…

…what could they do?

Run? What was the point? Corona didn’t even seem to notice that Trixie was invisible.

Beg? For what reason would Corona be convinced to spare them?

Fight? Against a being that had tossed Luna aside like she was a rag doll?

Trixie stared at the plaza beneath her, tears in her eyes, real tears, the first she had cried in stars knew how long. She had failed. She had failed in everything, and she’d managed to take these five ponies with her in the process. This was it. Everything was over. Luna was gone. Canterlot would fall to Corona’s flames. The Elements were destroyed. The Tyrant Sun would reign forever over all of Equestria.

Trixie looked to the five ponies she’d doomed. Three of them – Cheerilee, Carrot Top, even Raindrops – had looks on their faces that had to mirror Trixie’s own, maybe even surpass hers. Ditzy Doo and Lyra, meanwhile, were both focused on the ponies that Corona held captive – on Dinky Doo and BonBon, most likely, seeing them where Trixie couldn’t, trying to ensure that the last sight they held was that of their loved ones.

Corona wouldn’t even give them that as she approached, spreading her wings wide, blocking their view, as her blank eyes looked to each of them. Her eyes settled on Cheerilee. “Thou shalt go first – ”

“It’s you shall, you throwback.”

For a few moments, silence, rather than Corona, reigned over Equestria. Corona’s eyes were surprisingly wide, and everypony – even Cheerilee herself – seemed to need a moment to comprehend what the magenta pony, the schoolteacher, had just said.

“I beg thy miniscule pardon?” Corona demanded.

“You!” Cheerilee shouted, eyes wide as she stepped forward. “It’s you! Nopony has used thou or thee or thy for hundreds of years! And it’s shall, no matter the subject! I don’t care – ”

“Cheerilee,” Lyra interrupted the earth pony’s tirade, or tried to. It didn’t work.

“ – if you’ve been locked up in the sun for a thousand years, you said Luna will be able to watch Equestria so I only assume that you could too, how could you not know how to speak Equestrian?”

Corona’s eyes narrowed as she seemed to take a surprising amount of offence from a being that she considered so far beneath her. “My command of the tongue far surpasses thy own mangled – ”

Cheerilee laughed. After a moment – after realizing what Cheerilee was laughing at – Raindrops and Carrot Top both joined in. Corona only stared uncomprehendingly. “You are hysterical,” she noted of the three of them.

“Command of the tongue…” Cheerilee echoed, leaning forward towards Corona. She licked her lips. “Well, Lyra says I’m out of practice, maybe you could show me some of your command…”

Corona’s eyes fluttered rapidly at that for a moment as realization of how Cheerilee and the other two were interpreting her words hit her, and she recoiled. It was a very interesting sight, seeing the Tyrant Sun blushing in embarrassment and utterly flabbergasted. “I – thou – thou dare?”

“Yeah, I do!” Cheerilee proclaimed. She set her hooves as though prepared to take the brunt of a charge. Tears still stained her eyes, but they were narrowed and challenging. “I’m dead anyway. So why not? I’m going to die laughing and I’m going to die making everypony else laugh at how ridiculous you are – ”

For the second time in far too recent memory, there was an explosion, though this one far smaller than whatever one had occurred on Corona’s arrival, centered on a number of the shards that Corona had shattered the Elements into. They took on a light blue glow and shot off of the ground, arcing towards and beginning to orbit around Cheerilee’s neck.

“What?” The white alicorn demanded as she retreated several more steps at the sight. “What black sorcery is this?”

Cheerilee stared at the stones orbiting her neck, seemingly unsure herself and blinking away her tears. “I think…” she said, then giggled slightly in amazement. “I think I’m the Element of Laughter now…”

“What?” Trixie demanded. She ignored the fact that nopony could hear her – it still had to be said. “Why?”

Lyra wiped her own tears away from her eyes as she looked at her second-oldest friend. “The Elements made the world,” the unicorn noted as she stood, and cautiously approached her friend. “They’re not a bunch of rocks, you can’t destroy them!”

“But why Cheerilee?” Carrot Top asked. “Because she said she was the Element of Laughter?”

Cheerilee shook her head. “Not because of that,” she said. “Because I made ponies laugh. I made Raindrops and Carrot Top laugh right when it mattered most, when everything looked doomed.”

“Or earlier in the forest,” Ditzy Doo said. Both her eyes were focused on Cheerilee. “That school activity you made us do. You made us laugh to forget our troubles.”

“It matters not!” Corona proclaimed, stomping her hoof as her horn glowed. A bolt of hot, white light lashed towards Cheerilee, or tried to. Lyra saw it and leapt in the way, closing her eyes and preparing for the end...and finding herself pleasantly disappointed when instead, she landed evenly on her hooves, neck now orbited by another collection of shattered stones, Corona’s beam of death having been harmlessly deflected away into the sky. The shards were glowing red.

“What – ” Trixie began.

Lyra interrupted her, albeit without realizing she was doing so. “Loyalty,” she stated, as though it were both obvious fact and a great revelation. “The Element of Loyalty. Because…because of the forest. Because I wouldn’t let the sirens get any of you, no matter what. Even if it killed me.”

One by one, the remaining shards of the shattered elements picked themselves off of the ground, levitating and glowing and forming a barrier between Corona and the six ponies, but not moving further. Corona’s head was whipping around as she looked between each of them, eyes wide as she tried desperately to understand what was going on.

She wasn’t the only one. Trixie stomped a hoof. “But why?” she asked, even if nopony could hear her. “Why now?”

Lyra and Cheerilee looked to Raindrops, who looked down at them. “I don’t get it,” she stated.

“Like I said,” Lyra explained, “the Elements can’t be destroyed. They made the world. Not even Corona can destroy them.”

“That is not my name!” Corona shouted from behind the barrier the Elements’ shards had created, as she glared upwards. The sun flared brightly, and a jet of flame and plasma shot down from it, towards the ponies. The shards glowed, however, and the flare splashed against a multi-hued shield without effect, hundreds of feet before reaching them. All that reached them was a wind, although it was admittedly a strong one – strong enough to blow Trixie’s hat from her head.

“The Elements aren’t something physical,” Cheerilee said, “but they do need containers. Those containers were always those rocks…but I guess they don’t have to be. They can be ponies, too.”

“That’s ridiculous!” Trixie shouted, not caring that nopony could hear her. “There’s more magic in one Element than in Corona and Luna combined! They’d kill any normal pony!” Trixie blinked a few times even as she said that, looking between Cheerilee and Lyra and how they seemed very much alive and unharmed. “…right?”

A series of shards separated from the wall they had created, and began orbiting around Carrot Top, taking up a purple glow, which spread throughout Carrot Top’s body. Her hair changed color, back to its normal orange, and both her mane and tail began to shrink back down to their normal length. Her eyes widened at the sight. “Generosity!” she exclaimed. “I…how do I know that?”

“Because what else would you get?” Lyra asked. “You walked through poison joke for me!”

“Anypony else notice a pattern here?” Cheerilee said with a smile, looking to the ponies. “I think the Elements want us as the new containers. Us. We’ve all earned them. Trying to get here, trying to get them to get rid of Corona, we want to protect the world they created.”

“The Elements aren’t alive,” Trixie objected. To her own ears, though, she sounded far from sure.

“In that case,” Raindrops observed, even as shards took up an orbit around her neck and began shrinking her down to normal size, glowing yellow-orange as they did, “Honesty. That’s the one I want. That’s the one I am.” She had reached her normal size, and she offered something of a smile as she checked her hooves and looked over her normal-size body again. “But I think I earned it before the Everfree, when we were in Carrot Top’s house. When I convinced all of us to go on this. Stay honest with ourselves, what we knew we had to do, whether or not we wanted to.”

“Sounds about right,” Carrot Top said.

Ditzy Doo blinked a few times, even as the last series of shards – green – began to twirl around her throat. “Oh, no,” she said, shaking her head. “No, no, no. Not Kindness. I don’t deserve – ”

“Shut up, yes you do,” Raindrops said as she came up to her fellow pegasus, rubbing a hoof on her head. “And don’t try to call me wrong. Apparently I’m a reliable source.” She jerked a hoof at her shard satellites.

“But – ”

“You stopped Raindrops from pounding in Spike’s face,” Carrot Top noted. “You had no reason to do that.”

“He…he wasn’t himself, it wouldn’t of been right – ”

“And,” Lyra said, “let’s be honest, you’re the only one who’s been able to consistantly put up with Trixie despite her being a gigantic jerk.”

“Hey!” Trixie objected.

“She’s not a jerk,” Ditzy Doo pointed out. “She was just stressed. And she hasn’t been a jerk at all since we came into the Everfree!”

“See?” Cheerilee said, smiling. “And I happen to have it on good authority from a student of mine that you are the hardest-working, best mother in the world.”

Ditzy Doo blinked, looking down at the shards. “I…yeah. Kindness. Okay. I can get behind that, I guess…”

Trixie looked between the five other ponies standing beside her, all of whom were glowing slightly, surrounded by an effervescent aura of energy. It occurred to Trixie, idly, that Corona had been lashing out at them the whole time, with fire, with lightning, with tremendous magical power. None of it got through, or even came close to getting through, the multicolored barrier that the Elements had created between the six of them and the Tyrant Sun. But…

“But…but it doesn’t matter!” Trixie objected, even as Corona stopped throwing magic, glaring and breathing heavily – actually winded. Trixie looked to Corona, who stared back at her. “It doesn’t matter…we still don’t have the sixth Element.”

Corona paused at that – then began chuckling. “Thou art correct…” she intoned, then laughed aloud. “She is right! I have nothing to fear from this light show! I know not what dark magics you have worked over the former Elements, but you don’t have them all! The Element of Magic isn’t here! I have but to wait for this parlor trick to run its course, and then – then I shall have you all at my mercy!”

Trixie paused.

She stared.

Her mouth hung open for several moments before words made their way out. “The…Element of Magic?” she asked.

Corona glared at her. “Yes, foal. Know thee not the list of the Elements?”

“Who are you talking to?” Ditzy Doo asked, then realized. “Oh! Trixie! We forgot her!” Her eyes swept over the courtyard. “Where is she?”

“Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Honesty, Loyalty…and Magic?” Trixie asked incredulously.

“Of course,” Corona proclaimed, leaning towards Trixie. “All the other Elements are useless without Magic. It is power. Who but the powerful can afford to be caring or giving? Who but the powerful can expect sincerity or faithfulness from those they surround themselves by? Who but the powerful can waste their days in comfort and joy?”

Trixie felt a hoof hit her head, a little harder than its owner, Cheerilee, probably intended. “Ah, found her,” she said. The rest of the ponies, who had been reaching out blindly, stopped and stared at Cheerilee as she wrapped her left hoof around what must have, to them, looked like nothing. “Trixie, like I said…there seems to be a kind of pattern here.”

“By which she means,” Lyra said, coming up along Trixie’s right, “that we’re pretty sure we’re all supposed to have an Element. Maybe it’s our destiny or something.”

“Or maybe it’s just random chance,” Ditzy Doo said with a shrug, as she placed herself in front of Trixie for a moment, staring into where she must have guessed Trixie’s eyes were. “Doesn’t really matter.” With that, she went and stood to Lyra’s right.

“What does matter is that you pony up,” Raindrops said as she tapped Trixie on the head a few times, then sitting down on Cheerilee’s right side. “Come on. Corona just figured everything out for you. It’s the Element of Magic.”

“Oh!” Carrot Top said after a moment. She also got in front of Trixie, looking her in where she supposed her eyes were, a broad grin on her features. “And I just noticed something. Remember Princess Luna’s 'stupid' riddle?” With that, she trotted over and stood to Ditzy Doo’s right, though she kept her eyes focused on the empty space that Trixie occupied. “Take a look beside you.”

Trixie blinked a few times at that, doing so. To her left was Lyra, Ditzy Doo, and Carrot Top. To her left, Raindrops and Cheerilee. Beside her.

Beside her.

“The sixth Element is Magic,” Trixie reasoned aloud, closing her eyes. To her surprise, it actually worked; that was, she managed to block out her view of the world. Opening her eyes again, she saw that she had, somehow, become visible again. Maybe due to the close proximity of the other Elements. In fact…yes, that was definitely it. That was a clue, she knew.

“The sixth Element is Magic,” Trixie repeated. “And…and it’s right beside me. You’re all right beside me.”

“A regular genius, you,” Raindrops noted, though she was grinning slightly.

“So, what?” Trixie asked, looking to her left and her right, trying to puzzle things through. She’d lived with Luna for ten years, she should have been better than this at puzzles. “Ponies are magic? Mares are magic? The Elements are magic? What?”

“Friendship is magic?” Cheerilee suggested.

“Stop ignoring me!” Corona shouted. “I am thy Queen! I am the Sun! Give me the respect I am due!”

Trixie ignored her. “You’re not my friends,” she objected. “You all hate me.”

Cheerilee laughed. “Trixie, we don’t hate you. So you can be a jerk. So what? So can everypony. But we wouldn’t even be here without you.”

“You made my muffin smile,” Dinky Doo pointed out. “That makes you a friend in my book.”

“You also walked through poison joke for me,” Lyra pointed out.

“You helped my farm,” Carrot Top added.

“And…well, your heart was in the right place with the weather-for-hire team,” Raindrops admitted. “So…yeah. Friends?”

“Friends,” the other four ponies agreed.

Trixie’s eyes were wide. “Friends,” she echoed softly.

“Good,” Cheerilee said. “Now could you hurry up and figure out how to get the Element of Magic already so that – ”

There was a bright, lavender flash from above Trixie, and an orb of that same color appeared in front of her head. Trixie stared into it. Somehow, it stared back. And Trixie got the distinct impression that it liked what it saw.

“Already did,” Trixie observed, as the orb and the stones surrounding each other pony flashed and coalesced around them. In the case of the others – of Trixie’s friends – they became gilt necklaces, emblazoned with arcane designs and each holding a gem of a different color, that took the shape of their cutie marks. In Trixie’s case, the orb of light instead became a tiara that set itself upon her head, glowing with radiant energy.

And Trixie saw…something. Maybe everything. She felt herself, and her friends, being lifted off of the ground by magical force, their bodies glowing painfully bright. Corona backed away at the sight.

“No!” The Tyrant Sun exclaimed. “No! This is impossible! You are mortals! You cannot wield the power of the Elements!”

“Anypony could,” Trixie said, as she felt eldritch might gathering around her – but oddly, not within her. In each of her friends, yes…but she, herself, contained nothing. Not yet. That wasn’t Magic’s role in this. “Anypony could have become the Elements. You're wrong, Corona. Power isn’t magic. Friendship is magic.”

Corona paused at that. “That,” she proclaimed, “ is the stupidest, most insipid, worthless dross I have ever heard!”

The eldritch energies that had been gathering in the others now left them, and flowed into Trixie. Now she felt her body brimming with magic. She could never have gathered it on her own, but that was the point. Now that it was gathered, however, she was the one who aimed it. She pointed a hoof at Corona.

The white alicorn stood firm. “Thou shalt not banish me once more to the sun,” she proclaimed slyly. “I have sealed away my treacherous sister. With her gone, and I as well, who will move the heavens?”

“We’ll think of something.”

Corona’s eyes widened at that. “No!” she exclaimed, as a rainbow-hued beam shot upwards from the ponies and began arching down towards her. She beat her wings, taking to the air frantically and sailing away, but she couldn’t outrun the prismatic force that chased her. It caught up to Corona just as she passed over the tower of the ruined Palace, and she fell down to its roof, the rainbow wrapping around her and assaulting her.

“No!” the Tyrant Sun repeated in defiance as the light grew brighter. “No! I shall not fall to thee! I am Celestia! I am the Sun!”

Trixie wanted to remark on that – to say something witty – but she couldn’t, as the last of the power that the Elements had gathered chose that moment to leave her body. She gasped at the sudden vacuum of magic within her as she and her friends were lowered to the ground, their descent mercifully gentle, at least until whatever held them up failed and they all collapsed. Trixie had just enough time to hear Lyra groan “not again,” before everything once more plunged into darkness.

i. The Immediate Aftermath [Epilogue 1]

The light that spread across Trixie’s prone form and forced her awake was cool, and seemed to spread gradually, more like fog than actual light. As her eyes fluttered open, she saw the Palace ruins around her, lit brilliantly by the full moon’s light –

Moonlight!

Trixie was almost instantly on all four hooves, and almost immediately thereafter had fallen back on her side after her body took the time to remind her that she was exhausted, drained both mentally and magically, and in all ways should not be trying to move as she just did. The blue unicorn took a few deep breaths to steady herself, then climbed onto her hooves at a more measured pace, casting her gaze upwards. Greeting her vision was a star-studded night sky, with a moon hanging high overhead. The moon looked different, however – emblazoned on it was a new pattern that had never been there before, a series of dark patches in the shape of a unicorn’s head and horn. Even as Trixie watched, however, the pattern disappeared in a flash.

“Huh,” Raindrops said. Trixie looked, and saw her companions – her friends – beginning to pick themselves up as well. “Wonder what that was all – whoa!” Raindrops had to leap backwards as two streaks, one mint green and white and the other pale gray and blonde, whipped past her, nearly bowling her over. As it stood, she was still clipped and sent staggering.

Neither Ditzy Doo nor Lyra seemed to notice as they rushed over to the collapsed foals and older ponies. Trixie’s heart fluttered at the sight of so many fallen ponies, and she rushed forward, her remaining friends following. She doubted that the Elements could have possibly harmed them, but Corona hadn’t seemed particularly cautious with her spell-casting prior to the end…even as those dark thoughts seeped into her mind, however, they were dispelled, as the merely unconscious foals and mares and stallions began to wake up, completely unharmed.

Though for two of them, at least, that looked like it may have been only a temporary thing. Lyra had found BonBon just as the mare had gotten her hooves under her, and impacted against her with slightly less speed than an unladen train engine with its furnace burning hotter than the fires of Tartaros, sending the two tumbling and ending with Lyra pinning BonBon to the ground, her lips pressed firmly to her love’s. Dinky Doo, meanwhile, once found by her mother, “suffered” a similar fate, scooped up into the pegasus mare’s forelegs and held tightly against Ditzy’s chest, Ditzy showing no signs of ever intending to let her daughter go. Tears were in no short supply, but they were tears of joy, not sorrow.

“Is everypony alright?” Cheerilee asked, as the rest of Trixie’s friends caught up to the group. Cheerilee moved quickly into the mass of foals, most of whom gathered around her familiar face, though several remained with the other adults, the ones “lucky” enough to have had relatives kidnapped by Corona as well. “Is anypony hurt?” As the foals all shook their heads or confirmed that they were alright – though scared – Cheerilee looked to Carrot Top and Raindrops, who were amongst the mares and stallions. “How about them?”

“Fine,” Raindrops announced as the adults all confirmed that they were alright. “Everypony’s okay.”

Trixie let out a sigh of relief at that, though her elation was short-lived as she forced her sleep-deprived mind – being forced to unconsciousness was not the same thing, as it turned out – to press forward.

First – she searched the ground near where she had fallen, and found her hat. It was covered in dirt and hoof-marks, a little frayed, and still somewhat damp, but Trixie ignored this as she removed the tiara she still wore – all her friends were, in fact, wearing the jewelry that the Elements had manifested as – and put her hat back on her head. After a moment’s consideration, she slipped the tiara on over it, and found to her surprise that the ornament fit rather snugly on her wizard’s hat, almost as though it was designed to be there.

That important part having been taken care of, Trixie turned her attentions to the next-most important matter. “Zecora,” she said, trotting forward and looking around. “Spike. Where are they?”

There was a moment’s pause, before Raindrops took to the sky, looking around. “I don’t see them,” she announced after a moment of searching.

“Ponyfeathers,” Trixie cursed. “No use searching for them now – ”

She paused as a flash of silver-white light spread across the courtyard. The ponies there all froze, looking in horror towards the flash’s source – the ruined tower of the Palace, the same place that Corona had fallen when the beam from the Elements had finally overtaken her. It was enough to tear Lyra’s eyes away from BonBon’s, and for Ditzy Doo to squeeze her daughter even tighter.

“No,” Carrot Top whispered. “That’s…no.”

Trixie swallowed, as she looked to the formerly kidnapped mares and stallions, then to the foals, then to her friends. She grit her teeth. “Come on,” she insisted, setting off at a gallop. The other five followed her quickly, grim determination setting in.

Reaching the tower was easy, climbing it only slightly harder. The stairs were steep, but they were also stone, and had not worn away over time. The stairs they climbed brought the six Elements of Harmony inside after their climb. They ended up standing in a wide chamber, its roof having long disappeared over time. At its far end was a pedestal set in front of a shattered stained-glass window.

Standing just inside the entrance, her back to the Elements, was a pony, taller than most stallions, deep blue in coloration, with an animate mane tail that were like flowing water catching the reflection of the star-filled sky, possessed of both wings and a horn, and with a cutie mark of a black patch of night broken by a white crescent moon –

“Luna!” Trixie exclaimed, forgetting formal titles. The Princess turned in time to see Trixie rush towards her, though the unicorn skidded to a halt before she could get too close, as memories of her last conversation with the alicorn came rushing back. Her mouth opened and closed a few times before sound came out, and Luna took the time to look at Trixie, then to each of her friends behind her, who had all bowed in respect. “H…hello, princess.”

Luna inclined her head. “Hello, Trixie,” she responded after a moment. To the blue unicorn’s surprise, Luna seemed just as unsure as Trixie herself was as to where this conversation should be going. After a long bout of silence, Luna looked at the tiara on Trixie’s head. “The Element of Magic,” she noted.

Trixie nodded. “Yes,” she confirmed. “It…it took me a little bit, but I finally figured out what you meant when you said that the sixth element was right beside me.”

Luna grinned slightly, though it was forced. “That’s…good,” she decided.

Trixie scuffed a hoof, glancing around a moment. “So…how did you know?” Trixie asked.

“Know what?” Luna inquired.

“Know about them,” Trixie responded, waving a hoof to her friends. “How did you know that they’d be beside me, five years ago? Did you know that Corona was going to escape? Was this some kind of plan, or something?”

Luna paused, a look of genuine confusion overcoming her features. It was matched, after several seconds, by Trixie’s own expression. “Trixie…” Luna explained, “I meant your cutie mark.”

“Ha!” A magenta voice exclaimed. Trixie wasn’t certain how a voice could be magenta, but glancing behind her, she saw Cheerilee grinning broadly. The other five had risen from their bows, looking relieved that the silver-white flash had apparently just been Luna returning from exile on the moon, and not the signal to start another round with Corona.

Trixie turned back to her mentor. “But…” she objected. “But my cutie mark isn’t beside me! It’s on me!”

“On your side,” Luna noted.

“But not beside! This is just like that ‘always moves but never wanders’ riddle – ”

“A tree,” Carrot Top chimed in. She, along with the other ponies, made their way forward, so that they were standing next to Trixie.

The blue unicorn glared at Carrot Top. “Trees don’t move.”

“Yes they do,” Ditzy Doo explained. “They blow in the wind.”

“That’s doesn’t count as moving! And even if it did, it’s not always windy so they don’t always move!”

“Trixie, I heard that riddle when I was…one? Maybe?” Raindrops asked. "You're over-analzying it."

“Everypony knows the answer,” Lyra added.

“I know it too, it’s just that it’s a stupid answer,” Trixie grumbled.

Luna looked between the six of them, a far more genuine smile on her features at the antics of the ponies before her. “Congratulations,” she offered, starting to incline her head, then pausing as she thought better of it. She instead backed away a few paces, and actually bowed to the six ponies. The sight was enough to leave them speechless. “You saved Equestria,” Luna continued. “All of you, working together. More than that, you have earned the Elements of Harmony – No. You are the Elements, now. You restored them from their inert state, a feat even I couldn’t accomplish. And you did this in order to stand against a monster…against the Tyrant Sun, one of the worst enemies Equestria has ever had.”

Luna lifted herself up from her bow. Her expression had changed, her smile dropping and instead a look of melancholy coming over her features as she turned around, looking down the length of the tower’s room, as she had on first entering. “Now if you will excuse me,” Luna said grimly, “there is somepony that I must talk to.”

Celestia was in a considerable amount of pain, but she was alive. She was whole. And she was not trapped once more in her sun. As the alicorn forced her eyes to open, finding herself behind a stone pillar, she began laughing, ignoring that it hurt to do so.

“H…ha!” she exclaimed, climbing to her hooves. “N-not…n-not even the Elements can…can s-stop the Sun!”

“You are typically the more powerful one,” Luna admitted.

Celestia’s eyes widened, and she spun around, ignoring the ache in her body as she lashed out with magic, calling down a solar flare that burned her treacherous sister’s body to a crisp –

– or that was what was supposed to happen. Instead, only a few golden sparks escaped her horn, and even that took everything Celestia had. She nearly fell to her knees from the effort, but she forced herself to remain standing, though with her head drooped. Pink locks of hair fell down over her eyes – her fiery mane was gone. Her eyes would no longer be glowing either, she knew, instead having reverted to reverted to normal-looking ones, with pink irises.

And was it just her, or was Luna taller than she used to be…? No – the opposite. She was shorter than Luna, the consequence of having so much magic pulled from her at once. She would still be taller than many stallions – but not all.

Celestia grit her teeth and flared her wings in challenge. “S-so, sister…” she hissed. “Come…come to finish what the Elements c-could not? The s-sun again? I will escape. I will always escape! Though it take me a thousand years again, or ten thousand, or a hundred thousand! Equestria is still mine, it belongs to me!”

Luna just looked at her, and a terrible clarity gripped Celestia as she realized what she would do if she were Luna and had just heard Celestia proclaim that. “No!” the white alicorn exclaimed, stumbling backwards, wings beating furiously as she tried to take to the air. They lifted her for a moment, but then their strength gave out and she fell once more to the ground. Her hooves scrabbled on the stone floor beneath her as she picked herself up and began running, towards the exit to this ancient palace – and finding her way blocked by the corrupted Elements.

“No!” Celestia proclaimed again, backing away, eyes wide – nearly as wide as their own as the Elements took in her changed appearance, her mundane mane and tail, her shrunken form. Looking away, looking once more for somewhere to run, she saw her sister coming out from behind the pillar Celestia had been at moments ago, the same look on her face.

Celestia grit her teeth, trying to call upon her magic. Sparks once more flew from her horn even as she backed away from the steadily advancing Luna. “No! Thou cannot!” she exclaimed. “I am the Sun! I am thy Queen! Thy elder! Thou has no right to judge me! Equestria is mine! Mine to do with as I please – ”

“Celestia,” Luna tried.

“ – as is everypony in it!” Celestia continued, as she tried once more to call on magic. She was certain her mane and tail ignited even for the barest moment, as she continued to back away from Luna. “The ponies are like gnats! They need protection! A strong hoof – ”

“Celestia!”

“ – lest chaos reign! They are weak and mortal and do not know the dangers that surround them!” Celestia had backed herself against a stone pillar. She tried to move around it, but Luna was there, in front of her, faster than her considerably weaker senses could follow, wings spread wide and creating a wall. “Without me,” Celestia continued, “the griffins…the dragons…Discord…Tirek…thou were there, Luna! Thou knowest the world as I do! How canst thou deny my right? My cause is just! My – ”

“Tia!”

The name cut through Celestia’s tirade, and her defenses, like a hot knife through butter. She blinked several times. The word had possessed no magic, in and of itself, but…

…how long? How long since her sister had called her that? Longer than a millennium, certainly. She gazed upwards at Luna, who returned the stare evenly. For the first time, Celestia looked at her sister, and saw not murderous resolve, not treacherous intent, but…but sadness. Resignation.

Celestia lunged with her horn. Luna blinked, and Celestia’s entire body was wrapped in a midnight blue aura, her horn-charge stopped before coming anywhere near Luna’s throat. “Don’t…” Luna said, though her voice cracked. She paused, closing her eyes, before starting over without opening them. “Please, Tia. Don’t make me do this again. A thousand years ago, I thought I’d lost you forever and it destroyed me. But if this…if this is going to turn into some kind of cycle…” The princess paused once more, before opening her eyes and looking Celestia in the face. “We were meant to rule together, sister – ”

“No!” Celestia shouted. “It’s mine! All of it! Everything! Mine! All mine!”

Luna retreated several steps at the exclamation, eyes wide, as Celestia began struggling against Luna’s telekinetic grip. “Tia, you’re not well. You need help. Let me – ”

“Release me! Release me or next time, I will not spare thee! Thou shalt burn!”

Luna blinked several times more, mouth hanging slightly open as she watched Celestia struggle, and cry out in anger. The princess was breathing heavily at the sight, and looked like she was on the verge of collapsing and just dying on the spot from sorrow at what her sister had become. After several long moments, however, her eyes narrowed, and she forced her breathing to steady. “Corona,” she proclaimed, ignoring the alicorn’s cries of protest about her name. “You leave me no choice. You will once more be banished to the heart of the sun. Escape, if you can, but next time, I will be waiting. I will be prepared.”

Celestia spat at Luna. “Thou shalt suffer!” she shouted, even as Luna’s horn began to glow brighter. “You shall all suffer for denying me my right – ”

Luna’s horn was glowing bright enough, now, to transcend its normal blue aura, and be glowing white instead. She opened her eyes – similarly gleaming with power…when a green-tinged cloud of particles passed in front of her face.

The princess stumbled backwards and out of the cloud, coughing and sputtering at whatever she had inhaled. Her concentration slipped, and Celestia fell to the floor, out of Luna’s magical grip, while Luna’s own magic spun wildly out of control, sending off jets of light and power in random directions. Several nearly struck the Elements of Harmony, but their accessories glowed, and created a barrier against the unintentional assault, protecting them.

Celestia lifted herself to her hooves, intent on charging forward with her horn once more, when she felt the presence of a pony beside her. Glancing, she saw Zecora, once more wearing her brown cape, and with an unconscious Spike on her back. “Quickly, your majesty!” Zecora exclaimed, as she reached into her cloak and produced a bottle of a liquid that somehow managed to be striped blue and red, and unstopped it. “This brew will restore power to you!”

Celestia didn’t need to hear anything else, biting down on the end of the bottle and throwing her head back, swallowing the concoction in one fell gulp, ignoring its bitter taste. She felt it work almost immediately, but pathetically. It gave her only a fraction of her total power. Next to her sister she would still be weak as a foal, and now Luna looked like she was recovering from whatever Zecora had done to her, glaring angrily at the zebra and her sister.

Celestia was a very, very old alicorn, however, and however much it felt like a slap to her face, she knew when to fall back, make a tactical withdrawal, and any other euphemism one cared to think up for run away. Her horn glowed – still gold, not the pure white she preferred – and she wrapped herself in teleportation magic.

Almost as an afterthought, she included Zecora, and by extension Spike, in her spell as well. That made it twice that the zebra had forestalled disaster. Celestia would not let a follower like that go to waste. As for Spike…well, one never knew when brute, dumb muscle could be useful, and Spike was just that when Celestia forced him to age prematurely.

In a flash of light, Celestia was gone.

But she would return.

ii. The End [Epilogue 2]

Celebrating would come later. For now, hours later as the moon left its high position in the sky and began a gradual, measured, and above all else proper descent towards the horizon, all Ponyville could do was focus on the return of their loved ones.

Most of Ponyville, anyway.

Trixie nodded her head slightly. “It’s actually in better condition than I thought it would be,” she remarked as she picked her way through her living room, careful not to step on broken glass or splintered wood. The hole Raindrops had made in her window, remained, of course, but it had been added to a dozen times over by ponies that looked like they had been literally tearing up the floorboards looking for Trixie.

Luna moved with somewhat less caution, a scowl on her features as she surveyed the damage, deepening when she saw that the storybook mural on the wall that had contained the legend of Celestia’s fall and Corona’s rise has been left largely untouched. “This…” Luna said, “this is unacceptable. Whatever their imagined issue with you, this house is…” she paused as her gaze centered on a hole in the ceiling of the room, “was property of the Crown.”

Trixie looked to Luna. “It’s just a house,” Trixie remarked. She forced herself to be cheerful. “They were angry and scared. And taking that out on wood and plaster is better than taking it out on each other, right?” Trixie paused a moment as she thought. “Or me.”

Luna’s scowl persisted for several long minutes. Her gaze had drifted back to the mural once more, and she had stepped up to it, looking into the painted eyes of Corona. The wall stared back emotionlessly. “You’re right,” Luna admitted with a sigh.

Trixie watched Luna closely. Finally, she asked the question that had to be asked. “Are you alright?”

“Of course I’m not!” Luna snapped. The unicorn didn’t budge at the burst of emotion, nor the glare that followed, albeit only for a few moments before Luna reigned herself in, taking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly. “Every history text talks about Cel - about Corona and the revolution against her and my brave and noble sacrifice by sending her into the sun. But everypony seems to of selectively forgotten what happened next. Everypony but me, and I am trying very, very hard to stop myself from having a relapse. I was as bad as Corona.”

Trixie blinked at that. “I really don’t think that’s possible,” she said.

Luna glared at her again. “I was worse,” the princess insisted. “Corona was a tyrant. I was absent and utterly useless at affairs of state because I spent the better part of twelve years in a drunken stupor, trying to block out what I had done, what Corona had forced me to do. I would let days pass without raising the sun, and would set it early as the mood struck me, and probably only raised it at all because barley and grapes need sunlight. I would arrange the stars however I wished. I would descend upon a settlement and make the inhabitants wait on my every wish and amuse myself by manipulating their lives and dolling out favor and misfortune as I desired. I did anything, anything, to make myself forget, and ponies everywhere suffered for it.” Luna snorted as she looked away from Trixie.

Trixie considered. For whatever reason, she wasn’t actually very surprised by Luna’s admission. “Did you hurt anypony?” she asked.

“Countless thousands.”

“I mean in a permanent way. An unforgiveable way, rather than just you being a big, drunk jerk wandering the countryside.”

Luna stifled a burst of laughter at that. Trixie’s statement made Luna sound like she had been a sorority head leading a hazing ritual more than anything. “I have not forgiven myself,” Luna stated.

“Princess…”

The alicorn shook her head. “No. I was capricious and melancholy, not a monster. But I was essentially a little Discord. A storm of chaos followed me wherever I went.”

Trixie had made her way to an overturned bookcase. It had been full of a fairly generic collection of books, mostly the classics like Foalnapped and The History of the Decline and Fall of the Griffon Empire. Trixie had added only a single book to the collection since moving in, and breathed out a sigh of relief as she found her copy of Don Rocinante unharmed. “What snapped you out of it?”

“A family of dragons decided that Equestria was weak and ripe for pillaging. I happened to be nearby as they crossed the border and…convinced them that they were mistaken. But after that I realized what I’d been doing. That I was letting my pain and suffering become the pain and suffering of others.”

“But you did realize,” Trixie noted. “Corona didn’t…she still hasn’t. That makes you better. And you’re right, everypony seems to of forgotten that bit of history. It must not of been as bad as you make it out to be.”

That didn’t seem to improved Luna’s mood. She breathed in deeply, and let her breath out slowly. “Celest…Corona…will be weak for a long time,” Luna stated. “She will recover the depth of her magical reserves in just a few days, but the power will take longer…perhaps five or six months. But she will not be quiet in that time.” The alicorn ruffled her wings a few times as she thought, then looked back to Trixie. “We should return to Canterlot.”

Trixie blinked a few times at that. “We?” she asked.

Luna grinned slightly. It was forced, but only because Luna still didn’t seem to be much in the mood – the intent behind it was genuine enough. “Trixie, you saved Equestria, saved the lives of some five dozen captives Corona had taken. Surely you don’t think that I’m still angry with you.” She looked away. “I…I was lying when I said I didn’t banish you here. I did. It is an excellent first appointment, in a way, but it is also small and easily forgotten and has little standing in the Night Court. Sending you here was intended as a punishment.”

Luna looked back to Trixie. “The Night Court is the strictest meritocracy. You have to climb through its ranks yourself, Trixie, get noticed yourself, collect your own favors and prestation. But there was no need for me to send you here, where you’ll essentially be locked out of the Night Court. I will arrange for a proper appointment elsewhere. A junior advisory position in Manehattan or Neigh Orleans, or a minister to one of the protectorate states like Cavallia or Pferdreich, something where, if you’re clever enough, you could actually get noticed – ”

“I was actually hoping I could stay,” Trixie interrupted. Luna looked surprised at Trixie’s desire as the unicorn pressed on. “I mean…I made a horrible first impression on everypony…the residency is a bit of a fixer-upper…Ponyville is kind of the wasteland of Equestria…I’m not sure about the mental stability of some of the ponies here…” she trailed off as she realized that, if she contiued listing all the flaws of Ponyville, the two would be there all night, “…anyway. My friends are here. It’s close to Canterlot so I could even attend the Night Court directly from time to time. And given that I’m your apprentice and I sort of just helped save Equestria, I don’t think being noticed will be a problem.”

Luna considered Trixie carefully, before nodding. “Very well,” she said, as she turned around to leave. Trixie followed, both of them exiting through the front door of the residency (the front aperture, at least, the door itself Trixie had not been able to find), out a sense of tradition if not necessity given the numerous other options Ponyville had seen fit to provide Trixie with. “Stay at a hotel for now, I will arrange for the residency’s repairs.”

Trixie nodded at that, though a second later she flinched a little. “About that…” she said. “I might have spent my entire stipend when I was trying to…well…spite you.”

Luna glanced at Trixie incredulously. “How?” she asked.

“Weather-for-hire ponies aren’t cheap, especially when they’re rushed down from Cloudsdale.”

“But they ended up being superfluous.”

“Their contract specifies ‘no refunds.’”

Luna shrugged. “I suppose I could float you some bits,” she remarked as her horn glowed. With a pop, a small cloth bag appeared in front of Trixie, who caught it telekinetically.

Trixie was puzzled a moment, before sighing. “It was you. The random pony I stopped on the street and paid thirty bits to find Lyra.” She considered as she remembered Luna’s trick prior to the official beginning of the Longest Night. “One of you, anyway.”

“Indeed. I will arrange for more money to be sent to you. But that,” she pointed a hoof at the bag, “is a loan. I expect to be paid back.”

Trixie blinked. “Why? You’re the princess! You haven’t paid for anything in centuries! Millennia, even!”

Luna offered a grin, a more honest one than any she had been able to produce for some time. “Maybe that’s because as the princess, I never get paid. It was a novel experience, and I had plans for those bits.”

“What plans?”

Luna didn’t answer as the two reached the residency’s front gate and stepped out into the street. Previously, it having been nighttime for the first time in what Luna had told them was nearly twenty hours of daylight – the longest day in Equestrian history, though far short of Corona’s promised ten days of uninterrupted sunshine – everypony had been asleep or, more likely, lying awake, fearing what Corona was doing to their loved ones. Now, the entire town was up and active in their homes, the sheer elation of having their foals and loved ones returned to them an almost palpable sensation, though that probably wouldn’t persist for long as exhaustion set in and everypony got some much-deserved rest.

Luna turned to Trixie as they stopped. “Now then, Trixie,” she said. “You have friends here, and that’s good. But you’ve had those in the past, too, and managed to drive them away. You must try, hard, not to do that again.”

“I know,” Trixie said, images of previous friends she’d had in Canterlot drifting by in her mind’s eye. Sea Swirl, Amethyst Star, Chocolate Tail… she nodded, looking up at her hat. The Element of Magic was still there. It was, perhaps, a bit gaudy, and Trixie didn’t think she’d make a habit of wearing it all the time. Probably just for formal occasions and whenever she needed to save the world, the latter of which would hopefully be a rare event. “Friendship is magic and all that.”

Luna blinked. “Not the phrasing I would have used…” she admitted, “but completely valid in its own way. But I don’t mean you should keep your friends just to keep the Elements functioning. That would be a hollow, meaningless thing. More than anything else, you should be happy.”

Trixie nodded. “I’ll try,” she promised, bowing. “And I’ll see you soon, princess Luna.”

The alicorn inclined her head in acknowledgement, then thought better of it and instead came forward and pulled Trixie into a deep embrace. Trixie remained a not particularly touchy-feely pony and flinched, but after a moment returned the show of affection. Eventually, Luna pulled away, and closed her eyes, horn glowing. In a moment, she had become a nebulous, star-studded mass that rose into the night sky, then shot off.

Trixie watched Luna disappear, then looked to the bag of bits she held. A thought occurred to her, that hadn’t before, but in hindsight it was one she really should have considered first.

“Does Ponyville even have a hotel?” she asked, then paused again. “Would I even be able to check in at this hour? I wonder if Carrot Top has a spare bedroom…”

1. Arrival in Ponyville

“Lulamoon – ” Lyra began.

The blue unicorn glared at Lyra Heartstrings. “Trixie,” she ordered in a tone one normally reserved for informing ponies that their loved ones had met horrible ends, and that one enjoyed relating this fact immensely.

Lyra blinked a few times at the intensity. “I’m…sorry,” the mint-green unicorn apologized. “It’s just that Princess Luna said that ‘Trixie’ was a nickname, and I didn’t think I knew you well enough.”

The other unicorn stared across the wagon cabin at Lyra for a few moments, before sighing. “My given name is Trixie Lulamoon. I’m from Neigh Orleans, and the tradition there is to use a pony’s second name if they have one. But I hate, I hate, Lulamoon. So call me Trixie.”

Lyra raised an eyebrow. “What’s wrong with Lulamoon?”

“I hate it.”

“I gathered. But I mean, what’s actually wrong with it?”

The blue unicorn turned her head down, staring at the large cabin’s floor. The two had left Canterlot an half an hour ago, but the train ride still had about another hour and a half before it reached their destination of Ponyville. So far, the cabin had been just about the only enjoyable part of the train ride – it had been first-class, so the two unicorns had as much space as they wanted to themselves. The cabin was, in fact, almost as large as the apartment that Lyra had been staying in for the past several years while living in Canterlot and attending Luna’s school of magic.

Lyra realized after several minutes of waiting that Trixie wasn’t going to respond to her question. The unicorn let out a sigh as she looked out the train’s window, as the train sped by Equestria. The entire landscape was blanketed in glistening white snow, the aftermath of a nation-wide storm that the weather ponies had insisted was necessary. It gave the land a serene, inspiring appearance, and as long as Lyra sat in the heated train car she could appreciate the winter wonderland thoroughly. It was enough to make her forget about the grumpy pony sitting across from her and hum out a nice tune…

Trixie’s head shot up at the melody. “What are you doing?” she demanded.

Lyra glanced at Trixie. “Humming,” she answered.

“No, that tune,” Trixie clarified, one eye narrowing as she leaned forward. “That was ‘Skip to My Lou’ you were humming.”

“No it wasn’t,” Lyra responded, then considered the absent-minded song. “Was it? I don’t know, I wasn’t thinking…” Now, however, she was, and quite suddenly a full-toothed grin split her features when enlightenment struck. “Oh, stars above, that’s why you hate Lulamoon,” the mint green unicorn realized.

“No it isn’t!” Trixie insisted, though her widening eyes suggested the opposite.

“Lou, lou, skip to my lou,” Lyra sang, leaning forward. “Lou, lou, skip to my lou, fly’s in the buttermilk, shoo fly shoo – ”

“I’ll turn you into a newt,” Trixie threatened, pointing a hoof at Lyra, even as the unicorn continued to sing. “Every school day when I was a filly I had to hear ponies singing that song whenever my name was mentioned and seriously I will turn you into a newt if you don’t stop!”

Lyra did stop, but only because her laughter was interrupting the song too much. “Every time?” she asked between giggles.

“Every time,” Trixie insisted. “I don’t know, somepony thought it was funny and maybe it was funny, but it got old real fast.” Her gaze turned to a golden object sitting next to Lyra. “Why not put that thing to use?”

Lyra’s horn glowed, and a glowing aura of magic wrapped around her lyre as it levitated over to in front of her. The unicorn shifted sitting positions on the train’s seat, into one that most ponies thought looked incredibly uncomfortable, but which Lyra never minded herself – back resting against the cushioned wall, hind legs hanging over the seat’s edge.

One of Trixie’s eyebrows rose sharply at the sight, and managed to ascend even further as Lyra placed her hooves on either side of her lyre. “You’re…going to play with your hooves?” Trixie asked.

“I’m better with my hooves than with magic,” Lyra responded matter-of-factly.

Trixie blinked a few times at the statement, finding it exceedingly difficult to believe. After a moment, however, she settled down onto her stomach on the seat. “Fine,” the blue unicorn decided, waving a hoof imperiously. “Play on, maestro.”

My little pony, My little pony
Ahh ahh ahh ahhh...
My little pony
Friendship never meant that much to me
My little pony
But you're all here and now I can see
Stormy weather; Lots to share
A musical bond; With love and care
Teaching laughter; It's an easy feat,
And magic makes it all complete!
You have my little ponies
How'd I ever make so many true friends?

“And here we are,” Lyra proclaimed as the two stepped from the train and into the cool, crisp morning air, Trixie grateful for the enchantment woven into her cape that would keep her warm despite the thin material it was made from. “Ponyville.”

Trixie pulled back her hat’s brim, giving what she could see of the town a once-over. Unlike Canterlot, Manehattan, or most of the great cities of Equestria, Ponyville didn’t appear to have a single building over five stories tall. What the settlement lacked in vertical height, however, it made up for with horizontal spread; in terms of land area, Ponyville was one of the largest communities in the realm, though its population kept it firmly in the ‘large town’ category and out of the ‘small city’ one.

Trixie broke from her reverie long enough to see to it that her luggage and Lyra’s own were delivered to their respective destinations by a quartet of earth pony porters that had accompanied them from Canterlot. She took the time to pass them each a couple of silver bits apiece as a gratuity and to ensure that the best of care was given to their belongings. She quickly afterwards plunged back into her own thoughts, however, as she considered the tasks that lay before her, the responsibility that she had, through a combination of reasoning, pleading, whining, and maybe a little blackmail, finally been able to wrest from Princess Luna. No, Ponyville was not a large city like Manehattan, Stalliongrad, or her hometown of Neigh Orleans, but that was what made it ideal for her to finally put everything she was learning from Luna to practical use.

“So,” Lyra interrupted after growing uncomfortable with Trixie’s silence, “where to first? The Apples? The weather team? Introducing yourself to the mayor?”

Trixie glanced at her mint-colored companion, currently wearing a warm-looking, wool winter cloak and a gray Gatsby cap, somehow fitting the latter snugly over her horn without making the style look uncomfortable. “You’re eager,” she observed.

“No offense, but I want to get this whole ‘escort’ job over and done with,” Lyra responded.

Trixie grimaced at Lyra’s subtle, but clear, reminder that the two were not friends, merely acquaintances. “How much is Princess Luna paying you?” she asked.

Lyra named a large, round figure. Trixie’s eyes widened, causing Lyra to smirk. “Yeah, that was my reaction,” she said as she pulled the brim of her Gatsby cap over her eyes in a sign of mock embarrassment. Trixie looked away at that, her thoughts turning inwards to what the conversation must have been like, or at least how she saw it in her mind’s eye:

“You,” Princess Luna, tall and regal-looking as ever, said as she pointed to Lyra. “We are investing in our student a measure of responsibility for a change, and making her Our representative to Ponyville! And you are from Ponyville! So We ask that you serve as her escort for a few days while she settles. It’s not like you’ll have anything else to do since you’re a musician and so don’t have a real job.”

“Oh no,” Lyra responded. “You want me to deal with Trixie Lou-lou-skip-to-my-Lulamoon? Nopony likes her! I’ve never met her personally, and I would like to continue that lucky streak!”

“You’re right!” Luna exclaimed. “Especially after the ice palace incident, nopony likes Trixie. But We shall pay you an exorbitant amount of bits to do so!” And then the princess named a number.

Lyra considered. “Maybe if you throw in some land,” she suggested. “And a title. Vicereine Lyra has a nice ring to it…”

“Trixie,” Lyra interrupted her fellow unicorn. Trixie blinked a few times, and saw that she had nearly walked face-first into a lamp post and had been stopped only by Lyra’s outstretched hoof.

The blue unicorn shook her head to clear it. “Sorry,” she apologized. “I was just thinking about…stuff.”

“Stuff?” Lyra asked.

“Stuff,” Trixie confirmed. “And junk.”

Lyra was silent for several moments at the painfully obvious evasion to her concern, before letting out a sigh. “Whatever,” she said. “So where to first?”

Trixie considered, looking up to the sky as she did so. From the position of the sun, it looked to be about eleven o’clock – wherever they went, they’d have to hurry if they wanted to avoid being caught outside during midday. A rumbling stomach quickly decided Trixie’s first destination. “The Apple Trust,” she decided with a nod.

Lyra nodded, turning towards a street and beginning to trot off, her charge in tow. As they walked, Trixie considered the ponies around her. Some gave her an odd look at her choice of clothing – a purple, star-studded cape and wizard’s hat – but mostly she received only a few polite nods or the occasional greeting. It was a welcome change from the reputation she had managed to build for herself in Canterlot over the past few years, where the best she could usually hope for was an indifferent stare – and those she hadn’t received at all over the past few weeks, ever since the ice palace –

No, Trixie insisted, forcing herself to forget about that night, the ice-turned-water getting everywhere and the absolutely livid look in Princess Luna’s eyes. No, you’re not going to think like that. Fresh start, Trixie. Fresh start.

“Lyra, I’m going to ask you something, and I want you to be honest,” Trixie stated.

“Yeah?”

“Are you lost?”

Lyra’s silence to Trixie’s inquiry was answer enough. The blue unicorn let out a long sigh as her companion stopped at a fork in the road, considering as she rubbed the back of her head with one hoof. “I thought you grew up in Ponyville,” Trixie accused.

“I did, but I never really went out to the Apples,” Lyra responded as she looked around. Ponyville was to the east of them, still visible over the rolling, snow-covered hills, but the site of the Apple Trust’s first and largest farm was somehow evading them. “They came into town. No need to go to the farm.”

“So you’re lost,” Trixie surmised.

Lyra glared at her charge a moment. “No,” she said firmly, pointing a hoof down the right path. “It’s that way.” She began trotting off, a determined spring to her steps.

With a sigh, Trixie followed, glancing nervously at the sky as she did. “It’s just about midday,” she noted.

“I know,” Lyra responded gruffly, glancing over her shoulder a moment before returning her attention to the road ahead. “It’s just a stupid superstition. It’s not like Corona is going to fly on down and immolate us just for being outside.”

Trixie shivered slightly nevertheless, and not from the cold, as the two trotted next to a white fence that separated the road from an empty farmer’s field, a field notably lacking apples of any kind. Despite Lyra’s words, she picked up the pace just as much as Trixie did, and each cast nervous glances to the sky as the sun continued its inexorable climb overhead. At a guess, they had maybe ten minutes, at most, before the sun reached its zenith.

“Should have gone to my new home first,” Trixie muttered to herself. “I knew it was too close to midday to head out.” She glared at Lyra. “Or would you have gotten lost on the way there as well?”

“I’m not lost,” Lyra insisted.

“So where’s Sweet Apple Acres, then?”

“There should be signs. I mean, there were signs all over the place back before I went to Canterlot. I don’t know what happened to them.” Lyra glared at Trixie. “But I’m not lost.” She glanced ahead. “A ha. And I can prove it.”

Ahead, Trixie and Lyra spotted a gold-coated, orange-maned earth pony trotting with nearly as much speed as the two unicorns were. She was wearing a wide-brimmed sunhat and saddlebags laden with groceries, and was just beginning to open a gate in the white fence they had been trotting beside when she spotted them.

“Oh my,” she exclaimed on seeing the two unicorns. An odd look of hopefulness came over her features. “What are you two fillies doing out at this time of day?”

“Getting increasingly lost,” Trixie answered, glancing once more at the sun. At this point, it was close enough to midday that no one would argue the point. Trixie tried to remember the last time she had been outside when the sun was at its zenith, but couldn’t for the life of her remember. Nopony stayed outside during midday without an extremely good reason.

“We’re not lost,” Lyra insisted. She pointed down the dirt path. “It’s that way to Sweet Apple Acres, right?”

The earth pony’s hopefulness faded away at Lyra’s question, replaced by a sort of resignation. “Um, yes,” she responded. “Just keep going straight down that way about two miles. You can’t miss it.”

“Ha!” Lyra exclaimed, turning to Trixie and sticking out her tongue.

Trixie ignored her as she tipped her wizard’s cap. “Thank-you,” she responded, consciously doing nothing to hide her nervousness. She turned to Lyra. “Come on. At a full gallop we can probably be there in a few minutes…”

The orange earth pony bit her lip at Trixie’s obvious distress, and didn’t seem to miss Lyra’s own despite the mint-green unicorn working to hide it. “Hold on,” she insisted. “Is it really that important that you get where you’re going quickly?”

Trixie pointed a hoof straight up. “It is if we don’t want to be outside in this,” she responded.

“Is that all?” she asked. At a confirming nod from Trixie, she pointed down the path that lead to her house. “You can come inside if you like. I was just about to make myself lunch.”

“Oh, no. We wouldn’t want to impose,” Trixie lied, for herself at least.

“No. I insist,” the earth pony said, trotting behind Trixie and Lyra and shooing them towards her house, a rustic cottage about a hundred feet from the fence. Trixie put up only a small show of resisting before the three of them crossed the distance from the fence to the earth pony’s front door and made their way inside. Trixie did not hide her very real sigh of relief as she got out from under the sun’s rays and was, instead, safely enclosed by four walls and a sturdy roof. The house inside was simple and plainly decorated, looking like it contained little more than a living room, kitchen, and a few bedrooms, without so much as a second story.

“Thank-you,” Trixie said as she turned to the earth pony who had taken the two unicorns in. Yes, Trixie had subtly influenced her towards that decision with a few well-chosen words said in the right tone of voice, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t be grateful about it.

Her new acquaintance shook her orange tresses. “No need,” she responded as she slipped her saddlebags off of her, taking them in her mouth and bringing them to her kitchen. With her bags no longer in the way, Trixie could see her cutie mark – a trio of healthy-looking, green-stalked carrots. After setting them down, she turned back to Trixie and Lyra. “My name is Carrot Top, incidentally.”

“Lyra Heartstrings,” the mint unicorn said as she used her magic to slide off her Gatsby cap and wool cloak. She used the levitated cap to point to Trixie. “And this is Trixie Lul – ”

“Just Trixie,” the other unicorn interrupted with an angry glare towards her companion, before turning back to Carrot Top. “I’m Ponyville’s new representative from the Night Court of Luna.”

Trixie tried to keep the pride from her voice at that statement. She tried. She did not succeed, but she didn’t feel particularly bad about that, either. Carrot Top’s eyes widened a little at the proclamation. “Oh my!” she exclaimed, trotting up to Trixie and giving a slight bow. “Um…so would that be Lady Trixie, or Countess, or Vicereine, or…?”

Trixie shook her head, trying to hide her enjoyment at the bow. “Just Trixie. Or Representative Trixie, I suppose. I’m not a noble.”

Carrot Top seemed to be simultaneously surprised that the Princess would appoint a commoner to the position of Ponyville representative, and comforted by the thought that Ponyville’s new representative would be a mare of the people. From what Trixie understood, the previous holder – Blueblood something, or something Blueblood, Trixie hadn’t bothered to remember – had kept his noble person distant from the ponies of Ponyville prior to his retirement from office just a few weeks ago.

“Anyway,” Lyra interrupted, “we don’t want to impose. We’ll just wait out midday here and be on our way.”

“To the Apples,” Carrot Top added, her voice once more losing a bit of joy. She looked to Trixie. “So this is probably about the Longest Night festival, isn’t it?”

Trixie nodded at the mention of the celebration of the winter solstice, coming up in just two days. “Yes,” she confirmed. “I’ve been appointed as the official overseer of the festival. The Apples are overseeing the food stalls, I’m given to understand.” She looked out a window, at the empty, snow-covered fields surrounding the house. “So, you’re a carrot farmer, I take it?” Given the pony’s name and cutie mark, it was hardly a surprise when she nodded in affirmation. “What have you got planned?”

The farmer blinked a few times at Trixie’s question. “I’m sorry?” she asked.

“For the festival,” Trixie continued. “Or is it some kind of surprise?”

The golden earth pony’s eyes continued to flutter in confusion for a few moments. “I…well, I don’t have any plans,” she said, as though the answer should have been obvious. “The Apples are overseeing the food stalls.”

Now it was Trixie’s turn to be confused. “Well, yes, because the Trust is experienced with coordinating large numbers of ponies,” she said. “But you don’t want to miss a sales opportunity like the Longest Night, do you?”

“Uh, Trixie?” Lyra asked, stepping next to the blue unicorn. “That’s not how it works in Ponyville. At least not with the big-time festivals in fall and winter and spring. The Apples run all the food stalls.”

“Why?”

“That’s just how it is, Representative,” Carrot Top said, shrugging a little. “It might have something to do with the Apples being the founding family of Ponyville. There are other farms, and we get to set up stalls during any of the minor celebrations, but not during the Longest Night, the Eventime, or the Ingathering.”

Trixie considered that. More specifically, she considered the thought of having only apples to eat in two days’ time. Apple fritters, apple pies, apple juice, caramel apple, candied apple, apple cider…

“That’s stupid and that’s not what’s happening this year,” Trixie proclaimed.

3. Parties and Muffins and Kisses Oh My

“What was that?” Trixie demanded as she got to her hooves, wondering if it was possible to overdose on adrenaline. She certainly felt like it after the shock she’d just received.

Lyra bit her lip. “That was Pinkie Pie,” she explained, scuffing a hoof on the cobblestone street beneath her. “She moved here a little bit before I went to Canterlot. She’s probably run off to throw you a party.”

Trixie blinked as she took in Lyra’s words verses the tone of her voice. “Why are you saying that like it’s synonymous with ‘she’s going to drag me into a basement and torture me?’”

“She gives off that vibe, doesn’t she?” Lyra asked, stepping forward and putting a hoof on Trixie’s shoulder as though bracing the other unicorn for bad news. “It’ll be a surprise party. Probably when you least expect it. If you do see it coming, though, don’t run. She’ll just follow you and drag you there.”

Trixie was beginning to grow seriously concerned. “What?” she asked.

“Just enjoy her party.” Lyra said. “They are enjoyable. And this is your first so you’ll get to have a lot of fun. Eat, drink, and be happy, but for the love of Luna do not mention any reason for her to throw you another party. Because she will. And then another. And another. And another. And…you see where this is going.”

The new representative of the Night Court raised an eyebrow. “That’s it?” she asked. “Just more parties?”

“An infinite loop of parties.” Lyra said. “Her special talent is making ponies smile, and she’s good at it, I guess, but it is way too easy for her to go completely overboard.”

Trixie did not like the sound of that. “Okay…so go to the party and enjoy myself but don’t look like I’m enjoying myself too much.” As she thought about that, she smiled a little. “So basically like the Grand Galloping Gala, then. Easy.”

Lyra’s eyes widened a little at the casual mention of the most prestigious social event in all of Equestrian society. “You’ve been to the Gala?”

“Five times,” Trixie responded with a nod, then grinned and pointed a hoof at her chest. “Luna’s protégé, remember? Of course I’ve been.”

Lyra pouted a little. “Lucky…”

Trixie shrugged. “Anyway,” Trixie said, stepping away from Lyra and consulting her mental list of destinations and ponies to see. “Last stop is music. Somepony named Fluttershy volunteered to – ”

Lyra looked surprised once more. “Fluttershy?” she interrupted. “She volunteered? You sure you’re remembering right?”

Trixie’s eyes narrowed slightly. “Completely. I have a photographic memory.”

“Really?”

“Well, no. But there’s a spell that lets you perfectly remember something for twenty-four hours, and I used it on my list of ponies I needed to see.”

“Useful…” Lyra said, tapping one hoof to her mouth as she thought. “Fluttershy is…well, shy. Incredibly shy. I don’t know her very well…which means that if you and me show up at her cottage she’ll probably just hide under her bed and wait for us to go away.”

Trixie’s eyebrow arched at that. “Then…why did she volunteer to do music?”

“I don’t know, it’s not very in-character for her…” Lyra said as she continued to consider. “She barely even comes into town, usually just mail-orders stuff straight to her home – ha! Got it.” Lyra looked around a moment, getting her bearings, before pointing down one of Ponyville’s streets. “Okay, this way. We’ll probably have to recruit some help on this one.”

Trixie blinked. “Help?”

“Help!” a panicked voice came from inside of Ponyville’s post office. The unicorns spared each other a glance before dashing inside, horns glowing and ready to face just about any problem that might confront them.

Except this one, “this one” being an impossibly large pile of envelopes, boxes, loose paper, stamps, mail bags, mail carts, at least one overturned shelf, and, for some bizarre reason, a half-eaten tray of muffins. Just barely poking out from the pile was a single hoof, waving frantically.

The two unicorns once again paused, this time in utter confusion as to how such a gigantic mess could have been caused. They quickly went to work, however, magically hefting and lifting the piles of assorted mail and mail-related things off of the pony who was trapped beneath it all. After several moments of working together, they finally pushed aside enough for the trapped pony – a gray pegasus with a yellow mane and tail, wearing the navy uniform and cap of a mail mare – to break free from her papery prison and get her hooves on a solid wooden floor again.

“Ugh,” the pony groaned, rubbing her head a few moments. She opened her eyes and looked to Trixie and Lyra. “I just don’t know what went wrong…”

Trixie realized she was staring, tried to stop, and failed miserably. The pegasus pony had yellow eyes, quite vibrant ones at that, but the two of them refused to focus, with her left eye focused mostly on Trixie, while the right one was pointed out and upwards, towards the ceiling. “Um,” Trixie said, extending a hoof mechanically, “hi.”

The pegasus took it with both hooves, fumbling slightly as she did, and shook it. “Thank-you!” she said. “I don’t know how I would have gotten out of there without you two.” As she said this, she released Trixie’s captured hoof and turned to Lyra, shaking hers as well. “I was climbing a shelf to get to my muffins but then everything just started falling…”

Trixie blinked a few times. “Climbing?” she asked, looking to the pegasus’ wings. “Why didn’t you just fly?”

“Oh,” the pegasus said, grinning as she scratched the back of her head with one hoof. “I…forgot. Yeah.”

“You forgot you could fly?” Lyra asked incredulously, though obviously believing the pegasus despite the question. Trixie, on the other hand, was fairly adept at recognizing lies when she heard them.

“Yeah,” the pegasus said sheepishly. “Forgot I could fly.” She turned to look at the mess she had made. “Uh…I think the post office is going to close early today, so if you were hoping to get something mailed you’ll have to wait, um…?” She turned to look at the two mares.

“Lyra Heartstrings,” the mint-green unicorn introduced herself. “And this is Trixie. And no, we weren’t here to have anything mailed. We were actually hoping to speak with the mail pony who makes deliveries to a cottage on the edge of the Everfree Forest – ”

“Fluttershy’s?” the pegasus asked. At a confirming nod, she tapped her chest. “That would be me. Oh, I’m Ditzy Doo.”

“Great!” Lyra exclaimed, turning to Trixie. “Like I said, Fluttershy would probably hide under a bed if too many ponies showed up at her doorstep, so it should just be you and Ditzy Doo here who go and see her.”

Trixie raised an eyebrow at that. “Are you ditching me?” she asked.

Lyra opened her mouth to object, thought better of it, and instead nodded. “Yes,” she confirmed. “I have some things I need to do. I’ll meet you at your place later.”

Lyra didn’t wait for confirmation before leaving the post office, a noticeable spring to her step and swing to her haunches as she did. Trixie wasn’t certain how she felt about the mint green unicorn leaving, but her contemplations on the matter were interrupted as she noticed a pair of yellow eyes focused on her. She turned, surprised to see that Ditzy Doo, apparently, could lock both eyes onto a subject if she wanted.

“Hmm,” Ditzy Doo thought. “Don’t think I’ve seen you around town before, and I thought I knew everypony.”

“You didn’t know Lyra,” Trixie pointed out.

“I didn’t know her face,” the pegasus corrected, turning around – one eye lingering on Trixie for slightly longer than the other one as they became walled once more – and beginning to dig through the pile of letters she had previously been trapped underneath, searching unerringly despite the utter chaos. After a few moments, she held up an envelope, stamped with the magic academy’s sigil. “Lyra Heartstrings, 12 Hayseed Lane. Moved away three years ago to attend Luna’s school of magic on a music scholarship, just before I started my job here. I’ve been delivering her mail to her parent’s house because she never got a new mailing address.” Ditzy Doo’s eyes both narrowed at that. “I hate it when ponies do that.”

Trixie blinked a few times. “You know all that?” She asked. “How?”

“I read her mail.”

Trixie stared.

“Kidding!” Ditzy Doo said with a laugh as she used her head as a plow to begin shoving all the fallen letters away from the post office’s door. “I talk to her parents when I’m on my route sometimes.”

“Oh,” the blue unicorn said, chuckling slightly in relief. “Well, yes. I’m new. I’ve been appointed as the new representative – ”

“ – of Luna’s Night Court and official festival overseer,” Ditzy Doo interrupted, pausing a moment with her tongue clenched in her teeth in concentration as her eyes wandered – independently – over the pile of mail before her, before diving once more into it and coming out with a trio of envelopes in her mouth, one midnight blue, one white, and one plain brown. She trotted over to the surprised-looking Trixie. “Feef ah fah yoo,” the mail mare said, as best she could with a mouthful of mail.

Trixie paused a moment before grasping the envelopes with her magic and looking them over. The midnight blue envelope was from Princess Luna, and bore the royal seal proudly on its back. The brown envelope also bore the royal seal and claimed to be from Luna, but given the color of the envelope it was more likely that it was from somepony who had been delegated the task of sending it in Luna’s name. The final envelope bore no seal at all, instead simply being addressed to her in elegant, flowing script – most likely a unicorn’s writing, as earth ponies and pegasi, lacking telekinetic magic, rarely had the mouth-and-tongue dexterity necessarily to write Equestrian with such elegance.

“How did you…?” Trixie began, looking back to Ditzy Doo.

The pegasus shrugged, pointing at the two from Canterlot. “Those two arrived just a few hours ago,” her hoof moved to the white envelope, “and that one’s been sitting here for weeks waiting for you. It’s from the last representative.”

Trixie had actually meant how did you find these in all of that, and by the way how did you know unless you really do read ponies’ mail, but decided to let that slide. Instead, she turned her attention back to an earlier point of interest while tucking the envelopes away into her cape for now. “You can remember all of that,” she accused, “but you forgot that you could fly?”

“Yes,” Ditzy Doo responded evenly. Her tone changed just slightly, however, to be noticeably defensive, as her eyes managed to come into focus on Trixie once more.

Trixie stared, gaze switching from one of Ditzy Doo’s no-longer-wandering-eyes to the other. She put two and two together pretty quickly: wandering eyes would make even walking around a chore, never mind attempting to move in three dimensions, even just to get muffins on top of a shelf. After a few moments, Trixie nodded. “Okay,” she said.

Ditzy Doo’s smile returned at that, this time looking grateful. “Okay,” she echoed. “Just give me a few minutes to clean this place up and then we’ll go to Fluttershy’s.”

“I think it’s going to take more than a few minutes,” Trixie observed – although even as she did, she found herself stepping forward a few paces, horn glowing and lifting up a large pile of letters and separating them out for Ditzy Doo to look over.

“Maybe a little,” the gray-coated pegasus conceded, as she used a hoof to slide her tray of muffins along the floor and over to in front of Trixie. “Muffin?”

“Not unless you’ve got one with peanut butter, hay, and – ”

“Pumpernickel seeds?” Ditzy Doo asked, pointing to one with a hoof absent-mindedly as she collected the levitated letters and began sorting them. Trixie nearly dropped them all on the pegasus as she stared at a muffin that she had thought any other pony would consider absolutely inedible. She’d had to practically threaten the chef’s family back in Canterlot to get him to make them for her, and yet…here one was, sitting next to an otherwise normal blueberry muffin.

Trixie decided that she and Ditzy Doo were going to be best friends. At least until she found out where Ditzy got her muffins from.

Lyra could not, for the life of her, understand why she was so nervous as she sat outside of the candy store, staring at its door as though it was holding her family hostage.

This is stupid, the unicorn thought. I should just go in there. Right now! Get in gear! Pony up! Move, you silly filly!

Lyra stood still.

It’s not like I haven’t seen her. I saw her plenty over the last three years. Yeah, it was just for a few hours whenever she came to visit Canterlot or I went to visit her on the weekends…but come on, I saw her last – no, wait, that was finals week. Okay, but I saw her…no, I had an audition. Didn’t get it. Then there was…no…but…no, not then either…Holy hay, how long has it been since I’ve seen her?

Lyra’s eyes widened as she realized. Oh…it’s been, like, a semester. A semester and a half. Eight months easy. I guess I got so busy that…aw, she probably hates me…

The mint-green unicorn turned and walked away, dejected.

The mint-green unicorn turned and walked back, determined.

BonBon could never hate me. She’s the one who said I should take advantage of that scholarship! I wasn’t going to, but she convinced me! And…well, and then I haven’t seen her for eight months.

But there were still letters! We wrote each other all the time. So there. We’d write about…

…oh, Luna, I don’t know. I can’t remember what was on BonBon’s last letter to me! What was on mine to her? Stars above, what if it was something major? Lyra hit herself in the head a few times. Think, Lyra, think! This is important! This is –

Lyra felt hooves on her back, shoving her forward. She stumbled and ended up with her face planted firmly against the candy shop’s door.

“Ow…”

“Oops,” a magenta voice said. Lyra wasn’t certain how voices could be magenta, but this one was. “I thought it opened inwards…” the unicorn felt herself being picked up and brushed off, and realized she was staring at Cheerilee.

“Wha…?” Lyra asked blearily as she struggled to clear her head. “When did you – gah!” The exclamation came as Cheerilee opened the door and shoved Lyra inside of BonBon’s Confectionarium. By the time she got her hooves under her, she was aware of a half-dozen sets of eyes on her. Two pairs belonged to a pair of fillies, an orange pegasus and a white unicorn who were standing by the rock candies; one of a brown-coated stallion with an hourglass cutie mark who had been on his way out with a bag of jelly babies; a blue unicorn stallion with a long horn and a safety pin cutie mark; a fifth set were claimed by an earth pony with a dark blue coat and blue eyes and a star cutie mark…

…and the final, dark teal set belonged to BonBon, a cream-colored earth pony with a mane and tail striped in navy and bright pink, and who was the most beautiful creature that Lyra had ever laid eyes upon. She was standing behind the counter, mouth hanging open.

“Uh – ” Lyra began, before being thrown a third time; in this instance, it was as a cream-navy-and-pink blur moved with speed that would have impressed the Wonderbolts from behind the counter, past the customers, and straight into Lyra, throwing her to the ground and knocking her Gatsby cap off, with the blur landing on top of her and revealing itself to be – unsurprisingly – BonBon.

Lyra was frozen for a moment, before her body moved of its own accord, wrapping BonBon in as tight an embrace as the earth pony was currently giving her, burying her muzzle in BonBon’s mane and breathing in deeply. She smelled of sugar. She always smelled of sugar – she was a candy maker, after all. The smell was subtle, not overpowering, a faint background scent that brought with it thousands of memories of the two growing up together in Ponyville, best friends as fillies, something so much more than that as they grew older. It was the sweetest smell in Equestria.

“Hi,” Lyra finally managed to say as she opened her eyes, and found herself staring into BonBon’s. “I’m back.”

“I noticed,” BonBon responded, before leaning up and pressing her lips firmly to Lyra’s own. The unicorn’s heart stopped beating for a few moments before plunging into overdrive, and she sank into BonBon’s kiss. She was vaguely aware of the dark blue mare and brown stallion ushering the fillies and other customers out of the shop, knowing smiles on their faces and switching the sign on the shop’s front window from ‘open’ to ‘closed.’

Like all things, the kiss had to end eventually. In Lyra’s case, it ended with BonBon pulling away, offering a smile, and then hitting the unicorn rather firmly on top of the head.

“Ow! What was that for?” Lyra demanded, rubbing the spot where BonBon had hit her.

“Because,” BonBon explained as she put her hooves on Lyra’s barrel and forced her firmly to the floor, leaning down and touching muzzles, “you haven’t written me in more than six weeks!”

“Oh,” Lyra said, and looked away. “I’m sorry, I lost track of time, these last few weeks have been – ”

“You’re not sorry,” BonBon accused, before a grin split her features and she gave Lyra a peck on the nose. “Not yet, anyway.” With that, she got off of the unicorn and began trotting towards the stairs that would take her to her apartment on the second story of the candy store. She paused only to glance at Lyra, eyes half-lidded, and nodded her head upstairs. Lyra blinked a few times before offering a full-toothed smile of her own, getting up quickly and prancing after the love of her life.

Fluttershy’s cottage was about as far away from Ponyville as Sweet Apple Acres, but in a different direction, a route across the unclaimed, snow-covered fields that almost seemed to serve as a kind of buffer between Ponyville and the dangerous Everfree Forest. As Trixie followed Ditzy Doo, the blue unicorn noted that the skies over the forest were noticeably darker than over the rest of Ponyville. In the far distance, she could even see large thunderhead clouds forming.

“Yikes,” Ditzy Doo said as she noticed the storm clouds herself, though she had to bend her head at an odd angle to get one eye to focus on them. “The weather ponies are going to have their hooves full…”

“So I hear…” Trixie intoned. She realized after a moment that she was staring, once more, at Ditzy Doo’s eyes – and that the pegasus was staring back. Caught in the act, Trixie felt her face heating up in embarrassment as she quickly looked away. “I’m sorry – ” she began.

“Just go on and say it,” the mare interrupted, her tone insistent and surprisingly patient, rather than bitter.

“Your eyes are crooked and I don’t know which one to be looking at when talking to you which is really awkward because you seem nice and there is definitely nothing wrong with you but it’s just awkward for me but it has to be worse for you but I don’t mean mean anything by that I’m sure you’re a perfectly normal member of Equestrian society I mean you do have a government job and all plus you gave me that muffin and…” Trixie trailed off there, catching her breath and looking more away, focusing very intently on the dirt path beneath her hooves.

Ditzy Doo blinked a few times at the rapid pace of Trixie’s exclamation. “Feel better?” she asked.

Trixie didn’t want to answer. She used her magic to turn up the collar on her cape, hiding her face from Ditzy Doo’s. Frankly, she was surprised at her own actions. Back in Canterlot she would have had no problem keeping her thoughts on Ditzy Doo’s wandering eyes in check. She chalked it up to the day not going so well – the conflict at the Apple’s, the oncoming storm from the Everfree, being assaulted by Rarity, being scared witless by Pinkie Pie and threatened to be put in a perpetual party loop, and with a very distinct feeling that somewhere in Canterlot right now was a certain midnight blue alicorn princess with a knowing grin on her face as she watched Trixie suffer using a crystal ball or mirror or pool of water or telescope or something.

For her part, Ditzy Doo let Trixie stew, which was exactly what the unicorn wanted to do. She only broke her out of it about half an hour later, tapping Trixie on the shoulder to indicate that they had arrived at a thatch-roofed, picturesque cottage near the Everfree forest, surrounded by small, hoof-crafted animal homes and even a chicken coup.

“Fluttershy’s,” Ditzy Doo said, as the two trotted up to the front door. “We’ll have to go easy on her,” the pegasus explained in a soft voice. “Let me do the talking. And if she hides under something, just let her stay there until she wants to come out on her own.”

Trixie blinked. “If she hides under something?” she echoed.

Ditzy Doo nodded as they reached the door. Taking in a deep breath, the pegasus knocked softly on it three times. From inside, Trixie heard a high-pitched, panicked eep, then the sound of several things being knocked over and hooves pounding on wood, retreating from the door. To her surprise, she also heard another voice, this one somewhat scratchy.

“Aw, no! Fluttershy, it’s probably just – agh,” the voice said with surprising intensity, at least compared to the volume that Trixie had been expecting. The sound of angry hoof-stomps began approaching the door.

“Oh,” Ditzy Doo said. “I guess that Fluttershy has – ”

The door flew open, and Trixie found herself staring at a cyan-coated pegasus with the most vibrant mane she had ever seen on a pony – it was literally all the colors of the rainbow, the ‘hot’ ones on the top of her head and the ‘cooler’ ones running down her neck. Her tail was similarly polychromatic, and on either flank was a cutie mark of a white, fluffy cloud with a rainbow-hued lightning bolt arcing from it.

“Okay, what gives?” the pegasus pony demanded.

Ditzy Doo pointed at Trixie. “Rainbow Dash, this is Trixie.” She turned to Trixie. “Trixie, this is Rainbow Dash.”