ALEXANDER: Premeire

Dear Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie,

I want this letter to get to you as soon as possible, so I’ll keep it short.

I may have found proof that there is trouble in the royal court. I don’t want to say any more in a letter, in case this is intercepted. I need you all to take the train to Canterlot tomorrow morning. Rarity and I will meet you at the station, and I’ll tell you everything then. I may need you all to wield the Elements of Harmony. I don’t think it will come to that, but come just in case.

Your friend,

Twilight Sparkle

=====

Applejack leaped out of her coach at the Canterlot train station before the wheels stopped turning. She frantically looked around for her friends. The train had arrived over an hour and a half late, since the train had had to stop partway there to fix something. Rainbow Dash had flown ahead to Canterlot when the train had broken down, and promised to return if Twilight said she should. Applejack hadn’t seen her multihued friend since then.

Applejack worried, but not so badly as Fluttershy obviously did. The poor pegasus was shaking, probably with fear for Rainbow, Twilight, and Rarity. What if something had happened? What if this trouble had found her friends while she waited in the field for the trainponies to replace some part? Pinkie Pie was bouncing with much more urgency than usual, though she hadn’t yet gone into full freak-out mode.

Pinkie leaped up once more, and shrieked, “There they are! There! There! There!” Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash waved gaily to Applejack from the other end of the platform.

Applejack broke into a sprint towards them. Fluttershy followed in the air. Pinkie kept up with Applejack by tripling the tempo of her bounces. When they arrived, the farmpony and the party pony started talking simultaneously. Applejack had trouble getting words in edgewise.

“Ah’m here! Wha’s the trouble—”

“—BOOM, and I was like woah—”

“—fast as them train folks would—”

“—anypony would say that you—”

“—jus’ waitin’ for the bad guys—”

“—party cannon, but then I—”

“—so what do y’all need?” finished Applejack, before Pinkie got even farther from the subject at hand.

Twilight looked around furtively. “Shh, not here. I’m pretty sure we’re safe now, but talk about something else for now.” She addressed all her friends, “Act natural until we get to the castle. Then I’ll explain everything.”

Nope, that definitely ain’t gonna work. “Twilight, Ah been worried sick about you since Ah got your letter last night. If we’re all in some kinda trouble, don’t we gotta know about it?”

“She has a point, darling,” pointed out Rarity.

Twilight frowned, then nodded. She led them all into an unoccupied baggage storage room. “All right,” she said, once the other five had gathered around, “this is it. I think Wise Counsel has been replaced with an impostor. A dragon impostor.”

There was a stunned silence.

Rainbow Dash was the first to recover. “Have you gone crazy, Twilight?” she asked.

“No,” replied Twilight irritably. “I know because Alexander found him out. Remember—”

“And speaking of crazy,” interjected Rainbow.

“If he’s lying, he fooled Princess Celestia. Not likely! Anyway, he saw right through the dragon’s disguise because it’s a spell cast on the pony you’re trying to fool, and magic doesn’t work on Alexander!” She looked around triumphantly. “It all fits!”

None of that made any sense to Applejack.

Rarity didn’t look convinced. “So…have you seen this dragon? I mean, seen its true form?”

“No,” explained Twilight. “See, he’s casting the spell on me too, and I can’t find a way to break it.”

“And who told you that he’s using a spell?”

“Uhh…” Twilight faltered. “Alex did.”

Rarity appeared to steel herself. “Alex says the dragon uses this spell. If that’s true, then Alex would be able to tell that he’s a dragon and that he’s using the spell. Twilight, dear, you do understand that this is all circular reasoning, don’t you?”

Pinkie glanced between the two of them. “But that’s the best kind!”

Twilight grimaced.

“Y’all lost me at the magic part,” broke in Applejack.

“I…I think Twilight may be overreacting,” whispered Fluttershy.

“Ah.” Well, that’s certainly happened before.

Twilight gave an annoyed grunt. “I’ve checked the parts of his story that I can. I just have a feeling. Look, all I need you girls to do is stay hidden nearby with the Elements while I talk to him. Can you do that for me?”

Applejack smiled reassuringly. “Sure Twilight. Ain’t no trouble.” Everypony present nodded agreement. “Ah just want to know, if there’s this big problem, why not tell the Princess first?”

Twilight opened her mouth, then closed it. After a moment, she said, quietly, “Because when I thought I needed help, you all were the first ones to come to mind, not Princess Celestia.” She pondered. “You’re always there for me when it really matters. Thanks.”

Fluttershy flew over to hug Twilight. “You know we’d do anything for you, Twilight. We wouldn’t have our harmony without you.”

Everypony joined the group hug.

In the middle of it, Applejack mused, Maybe Discord did do something for us after all. He brought us all together. Take that, “father of lies.”

=====

Alexander and Lex Rex laughed uproariously. Lex banged his hoof on the table. The three stallions had eaten lunch again at the outdoor café.

Cloud Burst continued, fighting to not crack up himself. “Wait, so this pony is freaking out. She thinks she’s about to go to jail. Me and Steadfast march her up to the desk, and there’s my brother Cloud Breaker behind it. He almost pulls off a straight face. Almost. Just then, Kicker walks into the station behind us in a Guard uniform, and Breaker just loses it. We all fall down, we’re laughing so hard. Lightning Dust is so mad, her face turns purple. She stomps right out of there, and we laugh even harder. Long story short,” he finished, “we won the prank war.”

Alex and Lex took a moment to compose themselves.

“Well, that story beat mine,” chuckled Lex Rex. “Your turn, Alex.”

The earth pony took a deep breath. “Okay, so my friends and I—” He stopped abruptly. He looked between the other two, obviously thinking hard.

Cloud Burst got the impression that he was hiding something. “Your friends and you…” he prompted.

Alex shrugged. “I forget how it went.”

Burst decided to test how thick this pony’s skin was. “C’mon, you can’t just skip out like that. Here, I’ll make one up for you. You and your friends were browsing Photo Finish’s latest line…”

“Haven’t you got any funny stories from…wherever you’re from?” asked Lex Rex. “Where are you from, anyway?”

“Way the heck away from here,” said Alex.

It sounded like a hedge to Cloud Burst. He squinted at the earth pony.

“Come on, Burst,” said Lex. “He doesn’t have to tell us if he doesn’t want to. Say, did you get in trouble for that prank?”

Cloud Burst didn’t answer. The six most famous young mares in Equestria had just walked up to their table. He tried to eye Rarity inconspicuously.

Twilight Sparkle began, “It’s—”

“We’re here for the alien!” Rainbow Dash blurted.

An awkward pause ensued. Alex’s face colored. The other mares glanced around at each other.

On an impulse, Cloud Burst leapt out of his chair with a shout, “Shoot! They found me!” He flared his wings.

“Not again!” yelped Lex Rex, as he bounded from his own seat.

Cloud Burst, Alexander, Applejack, Twilight, and Pinkie Pie all laughed.

Rarity also chuckled. Success, thought Cloud Burst, as he resumed his seat.

Lex scowled, but not very fiercely.

Twilight cleared her throat. “As I was saying,” she began with a glance at Rainbow Dash. The speedster didn’t react. “It’s time for the meeting. Come on, we don’t want to keep the Princess waiting.”

“The Princess?” breathed an incredulous Cloud Burst, as Alex left with the six Element bearers.

“Yeah, and ‘We’re here for the alien.’ What was that all about?” whispered Lex Rex.

Burst replied, “I don’t know, but—” here he raised his voice, “—you really owe us a story now, Alex!”

The gray earth pony paused, turned, and raised his forehoof. He frowned at it as if looking for something that wasn’t there. Finally, he just saluted. He continued down the road toward the castle.

Cloud Burst looked interrogatively at Lex Rex.

The lawyer replied, “Well it’s not that surprising. Didn’t you see what he paid with?”

“No. Why?”

“A royal expense account stamp. He might be staying at the palace.”

“Huh.” Burst considered.

“Not only that. Did you see what was sticking out of Applejack’s saddlebags?”

The pegasus shook his head again.

“That was the Element of Honesty, or I’m a griffon. Some of the stone was even showing.”

Cloud Burst gazed out at the castle towering over the city. “What in Equestria is going on?”

=====

“All right, everypony, here are our positions,” said Twilight Sparkle to the room at large. Her five friends and Alexander turned to listen.

The seven ponies were gathered around a little table. On the table was a diagram of the surrounding hallways and rooms, including the room they were in and the conference room for the meeting. No paper and quill had been handy, so she had made the map using dominoes somepony had left lying around. A little effort had even let her match the dominoes’ numbers—ones only touching ones, twos to twos, and so on—while keeping the map to scale.

Another pony might have called that excessive. She called it thorough.

“The Princess and the target will enter from here,” she explained, invoking two little points of light to appear over a domino, one white and one green.

Fluttershy raised her hoof. “Yes, Fluttershy?”

“Umm…since we don’t really know that he’s a bad guy yet, could we, if you want to, that is…could we call him Wise Counsel?”

“I know what I saw. He’s a dragon,” said Alexander, adamant.

“‘Target’ is fine by me,” cut in Rainbow Dash. It looked like Alex had convinced her after all. Or maybe she’s just looking to use her Element again.

“Ah know Ah shouldn’t judge a pony by his cover, er, however that saying goes, but ya gotta admit there’s something fishy about this here disguise,” added Applejack.

“Just remember, darling, that we haven’t quite figured out that there is a disguise,” cautioned Rarity, “no offense you, of course, Alex.” Alex looked like he couldn’t quite find a response.

Twilight tapped her hoof on the table. “It doesn’t matter. Here, I’ll call him Wise Counsel. Pinkie! Put those other dominoes down and come back over here.” She shook her head to clear it. “Where was I? Yes, the Princess and Counsel. Alex and I will be here, just outside the room.” Two more lights appeared, one lavender and one gray. “Applejack and Fluttershy, you’re here; Pinkie, here. Dash, you’re with Pinkie. Rarity, you’re around this corner, and none of you move until you get my signal. Clear?” There were now nine multicolored lights hovering over the dominoes.

Everypony nodded and put on their Elements.

“All right, now let’s—” Suddenly, Twilight noticed that there were too many lights. “Rarity, put out those three. Nopony’s supposed to be there.” She looked up at Rarity, who shook her head. Rarity’s horn was unlit.

The three white mystery lights were hovering over the domino representing the entrance to the room in which they were all standing.

Twilight gasped and whipped around, expecting something at any moment to jump out at her. Instead, her brother grinned at them from the doorway as his horn went out. “Hey, Twily! What are you doing here?” A pair of pegasus guards stood behind him. All three were in full ceremonial armor.

Twilight was ecstatic. She ran to hug Shining Armor. “Shiny! I forgot you were on duty today!” She skidded to a stop, a length short of him. “Or,” she said, clearing her throat and making her voice as deep as she could, “First Lieutenant Shining Armor.” She was still smiling, though.

The older unicorn smiled back. “Just come hug me.”

When they separated, he asked, “So, what’s going down? I heard you planning something.” He might have continued, but one of the pegasi behind him let out a loud harrumph.

Shining Armor whipped around to face him. “Soldier!” he snapped. “I am apprising myself of a possible situation under development! If you continue to impede me with your insubordination, then you can ponder my leadership style while you’re cleaning the latrines! Is that understood?”

The guard rocketed to attention. “Yes sir!”

Shining Armor nodded. “Good. Keep it that way.”

Note to self, thought Twilight, Don’t complain anymore that he’s being too harsh with me.

“So what’s up?” asked Shining Armor. She briefly ‘apprised him of the situation.’

He stayed quiet for a moment or two after she finished. “You’re sure of this?”

“Well, no,” she allowed, “but that’s what we’re here to find out.”

Shining Armor seemed to consider. Then he turned to his subordinates. “All right, soldiers, here’s what we’re going to do. I want each of you to stand with a pair of the Element bearers. Guard them with your lives.”

The guard who hadn’t spoken out of turn indicated Alexander. “What about him?”

Shining Armor glanced at Alex. “I’ll stand with Rarity and cover Twilight and him. Move out.”

Rarity smiled, just a little, as everypony took their positions.

Just in time, too—two voices echoed down the hall, growing nearer. One was higher-pitched and melodic, the other deeper and smoother.

Twilight glanced behind her. “Here they come! Everypony hide and ssssh!”

=====

Fluttershy was scared to death. Twilight had placed her in the alcove farthest from where she and Alex faced the (possible) threat head-on. Not only could she not see them—Twilight had instructed that nopony should stick their head out and reveal themselves—but she could hardly hear them. Next to her, Applejack pulled her hat on a bit tighter and set her face. The guard, whose name Fluttershy had forgotten to ask, sat very still. He stared at the wall, but his ears were swiveling madly.
Fluttershy looked anxiously across the hall at Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and their guard. They were closer to Twilight, and per the plan they could see Rarity and Shining Armor in their alcove, even closer. Rainbow spied her looking at them and mouthed, We got this.

Fluttershy touched her Element of Kindness for comfort, and tried to listen carefully.

First she heard Wise Counsel’s voice. “Can we not discuss this in the conference room?”

Then Twilight’s. “No, I’d like to get this out of the way first.”

“If they go in there, we can’t support Twilight,” Applejack breathed. The soldier glared at her.

The farmpony was right. Twilight had been certain that either Celestia or Counsel would lock the spell-reinforced door when all four of them entered. This had to take place in the hallway.

Celestia’s voice came next, unmistakable. “Well, Twilight, I have certainly heard of a spell like this. I don’t believe I have ever seen it used. Why do you ask now?”

A short hesitation. “I think I’ve found somepony using it in Canterlot.”

The tension in the air got even tighter. Fluttershy started shaking. Applejack put a supportive foreleg over her shoulders.

“This is a very serious charge!” gasped Wise Counsel. “Whom are you accusing? Wait. We really should be in the conference room for this. Your Majesty, after you.”

Applejack’s foreleg abruptly became uncomfortably tight.

A few hoofbeats, and then Alexander’s voice. “You.”

Dead silence. Fluttershy, scared as she was, tensed to spring out of the alcove. Her friends and the soldiers did the same.

Celestia broke the quiet. “And you…Twilight, are you feeling well? Should I send for a doctor?”

Twilight stammered, but Alex plowed on. “From what I hear, the illusion you’re using is a spell cast on someone. Well, guess what? Magic doesn’t affect me. I can see you.”

“The earth pony is raving!” Wise Counsel sounded aghast. “Princess, do you hear this?”

“Send for—”

Still Alex continued, “You’re a pegasus, right? You don’t have a horn?”

A short pause.

“Good, then you wouldn’t mind if I put my hand here—”

Twilight shrieked, “NOW!”

Fluttershy leaped out of the alcove. She had the briefest vision of four figures. Alexander was flat on his belly after taking a swing at Wise Counsel. Wise Counsel was backpedaling with the most unequine snarl on his face. Both Celestia and Twilight were rearing back as well, bearing expressions of utter and complete horror.

Then Wise Counsel saw the other Element bearers, and everything went straight to Tartarus. Or, rather, Tartarus came into the castle.

The beautiful marble floor split wide open, and a monstrous reptilian head with five eyes and two rows of teeth pushed through. A bright red light shone past it, tinting everything crimson.

Everypony screamed. Wise Counsel roared something Fluttershy didn’t catch, and Celestia fainted dead away.

The head didn’t roar. It simply turned to the side and ate Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and a soldier in one bite. The crack widened, and more of the thing’s neck came through.

Fluttershy screamed again, turned tail and ran. She could barely see through her tears, and blundered directly into the yawning crack.

She didn’t fall through. Wings still clenched at her side, she hovered over the chasm.

A hoof tapped her shoulder. She jumped.

Alexander was right beside her, floating over the Underworld. “It’s an illusion! There’s nothing there! Everyone’s all right! He’s getting away!”

As he spoke, the crack became paler, and the ordinary borders of marble blocks became visible over it. The head was still thrashing around, but her friends—all of them—were visible beyond it, still fine.

Alex galloped away, toward the others. Fluttershy followed, cringing away from the head. As she looked at her friends, however, the red light faded, until the monster was nothing more than a shadow.

Not everypony had come out untouched, though. Celestia was still lying on the floor, and the soldiers, including Shining Armor, seemed to have frozen stiff. Fluttershy ran past them to join her friends.

As soon as she did, Twilight activated the Elements. Everypony’s necklace glowed, and a radiant halo connected the six of them. As they rose up into the air, a sense of safety and serenity enveloped Fluttershy. Never had it felt better than after that scare.

From the rear of the group, also the highest point, Twilight thundered, “Come back, and face justice!” Fluttershy heard it in her mind, too. She had forgotten that aspect of the Element bond.

Meanwhile, fleeing the Element bearers was not one, but eight Wise Counsels, some on hoof and some in the air. One had stumbled and was crawling away down the hall.

Twilight grunted, and a rainbow-colored bolt flew toward the crawling Wise Counsel. The pony vanished into smoke upon impact, and another Wise Counsel double appeared, flying.

“Which one?” yelled Rainbow Dash.

“He’s flying!” shouted Alexander, pointing with his hoof.

Through the Elements’ bond, Fluttershy sensed Twilight mentally asking Applejack to carry Alex. Applejack agreed, and Twilight manipulated the magic of the Elements to float the farmpony over to Alex. She didn’t waste time talking to Alex, though; he didn’t share the connection. So Twilight knocked his legs out from under him with Applejack, and he wound up draped across her back.

“Oof!” grunted Alexander. Applejack sent thoughts of amusement at Twilight.

In the front of the halo, Rainbow Dash started powering herself forward with her wings, dragging everypony along behind. The Element bearers and passenger accelerated to catch up with the fleeing dragon.

They soon passed the running Wise Counsels, which vanished. Four more flying doubles appeared, but were immediately marked by Rarity’s blue magic aura. That left four possibilities.

“Upper left!” screamed Alex, and Twilight sent a rainbow whizzing at one of the Wise Counsels up there. It broke a double, which reappeared elsewhere to be immediately marked by Rarity.

“Lower left!” Twilight missed completely. Fluttershy felt her frustration through their bond.

“Upper right!” Another double broken, another double marked.

“Dead center!” Twilight’s shot again went wild, because they had reached the end of the hallway. It ended in an L-shape, turning toward the right.

All the remaining Wise Counsels made impossible ninety-degree turns—pi-over-two radian turns, Fluttershy heard through the connection. All except one, who flared his wings and barely avoided the wall.

We have you now, Fluttershy heard Rainbow Dash think. Then the Element bearers hit the turn.

Twilight had shifted the two earth ponies to the left side. As Rainbow Dash fought to change the group’s momentum, Applejack and Pinkie Pie hit the wall hooves-first and pushed off it. All the ponies were badly jarred, and Alex barely held on.

All of Rarity’s glowing blue marks had disappeared in the collision.

She sent profuse apologies and protestations of fault as they accelerated. Everypony assured her that it was all right, that there was nothing she could have done. Unfortunately, it looked to Fluttershy like that was going to cost them.

This hallway ended not very far ahead in a scenic overlook. If the dragon reached there, he would escape. And now he was back to seven substitutes.

Twilight fired the Element ray as fast as Alex called out the dragon’s real position. By the time they reached the overlook, only three Counsels were unmarked with blue. It wasn’t enough.

All eight Wise Counsels rocketed straight up upon reaching the threshold. A second later, the Element bearers and passenger followed him out the doorway. They flew right over the overlook’s edge. Thousands of pony-lengths over the valley below, the Elements’ magic keeping everypony in midair suddenly stopped working.

Rainbow Dash whirled around and pumped her wings harder than she ever had, to reverse their tremendous momentum and get them back onto solid ground. After seven agonizing seconds, she made it.

When everypony was safe, Rainbow Dash collapsed. The glowing Element halo faded as she fell. Everypony landed softly, except Alexander, whom Applejack unceremoniously dumped on his head in her rush to get to the fallen pegasus.

All Rainbow’s friends gathered around her as she gasped for breath. Rainbow rolled onto her back. “Did we…did we get him?” she panted.

Everypony looked glum. “And we…were so close…too,” she said.

Rarity fell on the ground and burst into tears. “It’s all myyyy fa—ha—ha—hault!” she wailed. “I lost track of who was real! I’m so sorry!” She grasped Twilight by the shoulders and looked up at her. “Please please PLEASE forgive me—hee—hee!”

Twilight pulled Rarity up. “Rarity, any number of things could have been different and we’d have gotten him. If my aim had been better… if Fluttershy had gotten to us faster… if Pinkie Pie and Applejack had pushed off the wall more gently…if Rainbow Dash had flown faster…if any one of those had happened, we’d have caught him. As it is…” she trailed off.

Is there a friendship lesson in here somewhere? wondered Fluttershy.

“…as it is, I guess sometimes all your friends do the best they can, and it’s not quite enough for what you’re trying to do. You still have to be thankful for what you did accomplish. We got rid of him, didn’t we?”

Everypony nodded.

“And we didn’t fall off the mountain, right?”

Rainbow Dash laughed weakly.

Fluttershy gazed forlornly up at Canterlot Castle’s majestic spires, within which the dragon had escaped.

=====

Shining Armor escorted the Element bearers and Alexander to the Princess Celestia’s private audience chamber. With him were the two pegasus guards from the incident three hours ago, Corporal Majestic Cloud and Private Coup de Grace. Grace, who had a penchant for insubordination, had been the one to talk out of turn, though he’d become noticeably quieter since the incident.
Shining supposed he could fault neither of his subordinates for their non-performance; after all, nopony was trained to withstand a mental assault like the one they’d been subjected to. The master magicians were looking into that, and they suspected that a potion had been involved, sneaked into the guards’ food.

After Shining Armor had lunged forward on Twilight’s signal, it was like time had frozen. He couldn’t move, and nopony else did either. All four ponies at whom he happened to be looking when it happened stopped moving, Celestia and Twilight rearing back, Alexander getting up, and Wise Counsel—or whomever that really was—turning to run.

Shining had stood there an indeterminate amount of time, just trying to move or even think. He managed to move his leg, and then time seemed to fast-forward. Everypony started looking around the hallway, screaming and running, while Alexander went from one to another, yelling at them. The six young mares formed up, activated the Elements, grabbed Alex, and blasted away down the corridor in the space of two seconds.

Limbs working properly by this time, Shining had run to Princess Celestia’s side where she lay on the floor. Her breathing had been even, her heart still beating; he hadn’t sensed anything magical about the sleep. He’d ordered Cloud to get help and torn down a tapestry to place under his liege’s head. Then, not hearing acknowledgement, he’d turned around to find both soldiers standing stock-still.

Which left himself to run all the way through strangely deserted hallways to the castle infirmary, and bring back medics and more guards.

Both regular doctors and mages had gone over the Princess with a fine-toothed comb. Nopony had found anything wrong with her. It was like she had chosen that exact moment to become a narcoleptic.

Shining Armor seriously doubted that. By all his sister’s friends’ accounts, she had collapsed when the impostor had shouted something.

But what do I know? He’d made a snap decision to leave Princess Celestia alone and helpless. He would be lucky to get a demotion; the higher-ups could even give him a dishonorable discharge.

This was why Shining Armor, alone among the ten ponies going to see the Princess, didn’t want to be there.

When they entered, Celestia smiled warmly at them all. “My dearest subjects, Lieutenant, Corporal, Private. A short while ago, you all performed admirably under unusual circumstances, to say the least. Yes, even you, Lieutenant,” she addressed Shining, “I think your decision to get help quickly was the right one, and you expertly resisted the enemy’s mind magic. You will not be punished. In fact, to you I wish to give my first reward for today’s events. I am hereby promoting you to Captain…”

Shining was surprised. He nearly moved at attention.

“…of my personal Guard.”

“OooooOOOOOOoooohhh,” enthused Pinkie Pie.

“Thank you, ma’am,” replied Shining. He couldn’t keep the amazement out of his voice.

Princess Celestia continued. “Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy. You all have once again proved your incredible commitment to each other and to Equestria. Now, ordinarily, this would be when I unveiled a new stained-glass window in honor of your feats of friendship, but not this time.” Forestalling Twilight’s frantic comment, she continued, “And this does not reflect on your performance, any of yours.

“I believe it best that this incident be kept hidden for the time being, and a ten-length-high window is not the most secret thing. The only pony outside this room who knows about today’s events is my sister Luna. You six and Alexander must swear not to speak of this to anyone or anything; Captain, Corporal, Private, you are under orders to the same effect.” The Guards saluted, and the seven civilians took their oaths, Pinkie adding her own.

“My faithful student,” the Princess addressed Twilight, “this also means that it is doubly important that you continue your studies in friendship. I do not know when or if that impostor will be back, but we must be prepared when he does, and you all must be able to trust each other.”

“I won’t let anything get between me and writing those friendship letters, Princess. You have my word,” said Twilight, in the very serious voice she reserved for matters of academics.

Unusually serious, in fact. Maybe I should talk to her, make sure she’s not about to lose perspective, noted Shining Armor. I’ll have to see if I’m off duty in time.

As they finished, the Princess said, “One final thing. Alexander, step forward.” He did. “I hope you don’t think you’ve been forgotten in all the commotion.”

The earth pony seemed to consider. “Maybe a little.”

Princess Celestia laughed. “Consider that worry put to rest. I have already given my faithful student and her friends all I can give them; after all, they have saved the kingdom thrice over. However, I believe you are in some trouble. You must set up a new life for yourself on an unfamiliar world, is that right?”

Alex winced and nodded.

“Then I can ease that transition. Alexander, you may keep the expense stamp I gave you yesterday. Use it to begin again here, wherever you want, until you find employment.”

“Thank you! Thank you!” Alex smiled gratefully, and turned to leave with everypony else.

Shining Armor nearly facehoofed. Does he have no idea how to retreat from royalty? You back away, and bow! Argh.

Shining was the last out the door. “A moment, Captain,” called the Princess.

He returned to the room. “Yes, ma’am?”

“As your first duty as my Captain of the Guard, I command you to find Princess Luna and bring her here. I have need of one particular skill of hers.”

“Right away, ma’am.”

=====

Princess Luna locked the audience room door after the retreating Shining Armor. Then she turned to her sister, resigned to her task. “There isn’t any other way, is there?”

Celestia shook her head slowly. Luna noticed, again, how graceful her sister now made even that simple motion look. There had been a time when the two of them had competed in little things like that; who could walk more fluidly, speak more skillfully, fly more quickly. Now…now her sister had had had a full millennium of extra practice. She had no hope of surpassing that.

She felt herself begin to feel a little jealous, and with a spike of fear hurriedly shut down the line of thought. That way lay the Nightmare.

Maybe it’s for the best, this gap, she mused.

Celestia continued, “If there was another way, I would take it. You know how serious this is, sister. My mind has been compromised. Invaded. And I trust you implicitly to set any changes right.”

“Even though I haven’t done this since before…” Luna trailed off. Celestia would know what event. It had been a rather big one, taking the kingdom from two rulers to one.

“Even so. You are the one best able to do this.”

“Not complementing the royal mind magicians much, are we, sister?” Luna said, trying to lighten the mood.

Celestia was unperturbed. “None of them know me like you do.” The larger alicorn laid her head down and closed her eyes in preparation for the procedure.

Steeling herself, Luna sat down facing Celestia. She took a few moments to prepare the complex spell, and then touched the tip of her horn to the base of her sister’s.

The room disappeared.

What replaced it was hard to describe. One thing was for certain, though; everything was neat and orderly. Those things visible on the surface had to do with everyday life for the Princess of the Day: etiquette, names and characteristics of staffers and guards, verbal indicators of a bad idea submitted to her. Every action, every memory, was complex and interlinked with other things.

That is, except the first bit of malicious addition.

It stuck out like an excited pegasus; a simple if-then statement connected with only a single memory. It even seemed to be a different color, if color could adequately describe the inside of a mind. Luna was relieved. Maybe this won’t be so hard after all.

Celestia responded with encouragement, and kept her mental defenses relaxed.

The statement read, If I hear the word vneshis’skat from Wise Counsel, then I will immediately fall asleep.

Luna committed the word to memory, then wiped out the artificial belief with a thought. The impostor had slipped up; judging by the apostrophe, he’d put the correct spelling of the word in the command.

Nearly in unison, the two sisters observed that they could use the spelling to learn something about the villain. They directed thoughts of amusement at each other, and then Luna went back to searching.

Now that she knew roughly what the impostor’s influence looked like, Luna felt certain that she would be able to find the rest of his alterations. Celestia agreed.

Some length of time later, she found another, much better-hidden influence. More of a search, actually. This one followed a train of planning, an extremely old one which began soon after Nightmare Moon had been banished. The search led up to one of the best-protected parts of Celestia’s mind. The defenses around this area were bound up in Celestia’s commitment to the kingdom and ‘her little ponies,’ as she liked to say.

Relaxed as her sister was, Luna still couldn’t get into there. I need to see inside, sister, she asked; I can’t tell from here if he got inside.

Celestia hesitated. You will never let word of this get out?

Luna felt a bit hesitant herself. What in Equestria could could her sister be hiding in there?

Remember that I may not be the pony you left one thousand years ago, warned Celestia as she relaxed her thickest barriers.

Luna learned possibly the biggest, most powerful secret on the planet.

Fortunately, the mind manipulation had been stopped short of learning the secret. Unfortunately, Luna was no longer in any condition to continue delicate mental work. The two alicorns separated, severing the connection.

Luna gazed at her sister. For the first time, she saw the weight of the long, lonely thousand years on Celestia’s face.

Luna fought for words. “But you…you were…”

Celestia smiled sadly. “The muscle? The one cautioning you?”

Luna nodded wordlessly. She wondered for a time.

“Twilight, the others…?” she asked.

“Yes,” Celestia confirmed.

“You...?”

“Yes.”

“Cadance…?”

“Yes.”

So that was why Celestia made her a Princess.

After a pause, she asked, “You saw why I did what I did. Would you have done anything differently?”

Luna gave no response.

“You see why Twilight and the others must never find out?”

Luna nodded. Her sister really had changed. I guess a thousand years on the throne does that to a pony.

=====

The six young mares and Alexander stood in the great hall just inside Canterlot Castle’s main entrance. They were saying their farewells. Alex paid particular attention to Applejack and Rainbow Dash, who, something told him, weren’t entirely on good terms with him yet.

“Believe me now?” he asked the farmpony.

Applejack half-smiled at him. “Ah reckon you’re a right kinda guy, Alex, even if you are a little nutty. Thanks for your help back there. Couldn’t have done it without ya.” She paused, then, “Sorry for droppin’ ya.”

I was wondering when that would come up. “It’s all right, no harm done. Good luck with your Zap Apples.” He’d overheard someone saying that those were due.

“Thank ya kindly,” she said. She tipped her hat, and turned to leave.

Alex turned to look at Rainbow Dash, hovering near him. She squinted at him, forelegs folded. He stared right back.

After a few seconds, she said, “Yeeeeaaaah, I’m gonna need a little more convincing. But thanks for what you did do.” Reaching down to ruffle his mane, she said, “See you around, squirt!” Alex failed to swat the hoof away in time, and Rainbow flew off laughing.

Alex finally looked over at Twilight, who was not entirely successfully hiding her smile. Alex rolled his eyes, and she laughed.

“So where will you go now?” she asked.

That’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it? “I honestly have no idea. That town, Ponyville, looked pretty nice. Know someplace I could stay there?”

Whatever Twilight said next was drowned out by a rough clap of a hoof on Alex’s back and a strident declaration, “Hey! You just left us earlier! What was that?”

It was Cloud Burst. Lex Rex stood behind him. By way of explanation, Lex said, “A soldier told us we ought to come here now that the trial’s over.”

Burst turned to Lex. “Yeah, and now that it’s over, let’s talk about your ‘I think you’ll get off.’”

Lex looked frustrated. “You got in that fight yesterday! I got you minimal community service! You even get to pick where!”

“I’ll leave you guys to it,” said Twilight.

Alex waved as the six young mares walked out the gate. “Goodbye everybody!”

“Pony,” said Twilight.

“Come again?”

“Everypony. We say everypony here. Everypony, nopony, somepony.”

Alex jerked a hoof back over his shoulder. “But that was a griffon back there. And you live with a dragon.”

Twilight looked a little flustered. “Well, it’s just what we say.”

It was Alex’s turn to squint skeptically. “Body. It’s inclusive.”

Twilight stood her ground. “Pony. It’s traditional.”

“I’ll just leave you guys to it,” called out Cloud Burst. Lex Rex snickered. Twilight rolled her eyes at the pegasus.

The girls started to the train station, leaving the three stallions in their corner of the grand entry hall.

“Well, now what?” asked Alex, as much to himself as to the others.

“Now, I want to set up shop somewhere,” began Lex Rex. “That was my test for after-school aid. You graduate from law school, then they assign you a real case to argue. If you do well enough, the law school helps you set up your own practice. I was thinking someplace small where I do a lot of things. I don’t want to argue the same kind of case over and over.”

Cloud Burst looked unsure. “Are you sure you passed? What with her convicting me and all.” He raised his eyebrow at Lex Rex.

The lawyer raised an eyebrow right back. “I talked to the observer they had in there. He was amazed the earl didn’t throw the book at you. I passed.”

“Well,” grunted Burst, “My family isn’t going to be happy about this. The less said about them, the better. Bottom line, I need a place to start over. Somewhere I can do my community service.” He grimaced at that last, but not so much as he had at ‘family.’ Clearly, that was a story for another day.

“Yep, I’m pretty much starting at zero too,” Alex agreed. Then he had the beginnings of an idea. “Say, I saw this nice little place south of here. Ponyville?”

Lex Rex looked intrigued. “You know…” he glanced at Burst. “They have a reputation for really light criminal punishment down south.”

Cloud Burst stamped once. “Welp, I know where I’m going.”

“And they might not have a general practitioner yet,” mused Lex.

“We could pool our resources, rent a house,” suggested Alex. Surely the railroad has an opening for me.

“I have a cousin in real estate. I bet he could find us one,” said Burst.

“Settled?” asked Alexander.

“Settled,” agreed Cloud Burst.

“All but notarized,” said Lex Rex.

As they left Canterlot Castle, Alex reflected on the last three days’ events.

It was an unfamiliar world, but not a bad one. Just a different one. And he had things to be thankful for. The means to start a new life. The fact that he’d survived his first three days in this place, and even come out ahead. And the fact that someone had referred to Rainbow Dash as a girl before he’d really ticked someone off. In fact, the only thing that bothered him was how he got here, how he still didn't remember it. That and the voice in his head.

Yes, all sunshine and talking, magical, multicolored ponies from here on out, came the comment.

Shut up, Zach, you’re irrelevant. The voice subsided.

Yes, things are looking up. One of his favorite old songs sprang to mind.

(The song is "Here I Go Again" by Whitesnake. It can be found here.)