Take Two

by LordBrony2040

Chapters

Prologue: Before The Beginning
Chapter 1: Two Tickets
Chapter 2: Abracadabra
Chapter 3: Here There Be Dragons
Chapter 4: The Cruelest Joke
Chapter 5: Hard Truths
Chapter 6: Teacher and Student
Chapter 7: Canterlot Revelations
Chapter 8: Dreams of Future Past
Chapter 9: Lunar Confrontation
Chapter 10: Return to Abnormality

Prologue: Before The Beginning

Disclaimer: MLP is the property of Hasbro

Prologue: The Beginning

If one were to ask Spike the dragon what his special talent was, he would probably point to the fact the majority of his time was spent asleep, his ability to fall asleep at the drop of a hat, the strange skill that allowed him to stay asleep on the back of a moving equine, as well as his power to nap through Twilight Sparkle’s craziness the night before a test when she read textbooks at volumes loud enough to make his ears ring form the overloading sensory input of the information. Armed with these skills, it was next to impossible to rouse the dragon from his slumber, or keep him from it when it was time for bed.

So when he was awakened from his dream of swimming through a sea of sapphires by a jubilant scream, you might understand just how joyfully loud Twilight was being that morning.

“WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

Spike pulled his head out of his basket and looked on in confusion as Twilight danced around the room in a way that would have made Pinkie Pie jealous while a mess of papers lay strewn about the floor, already dictating his first job of the day. “Ohmygosh! Ponyville! I’m still here! And I'm in the library! The library here in Ponyville! It worked! IT REALLY WORKED!” she cried while sliding forward on her hind knees with upraised forelegs.

The confusing antics of his honorary big sister had Spike scratching his head. As far as he knew, Twilight hadn’t been doing one of her mad science experiments last night. Hay, they hadn’t even gotten her stuff delivered from Canterlot yet.

“Twilight?” the little purple dragon groaned in confusion.

The purple unicorn froze, then slowly turned around to face Spike with wide eyes. “Spike?”

“Ye-”

“SPIKE!” Twilight shouted again before she just…appeared right in front of him in a flash before snatching the dragon up in a crushing hug to nuzzle the smaller reptile. The strange behavior made the dragon tense in surprise and before Spike could even begin to fight her off, Twilight did something that stopped him cold: she kissed him on the forehead.

Then things got really strange as she loosened her grip and looked down on the dragon with some sort of weird expression with a smile that Spike had seen on Princess Celestia a few times and motherly eyes. “I love you Spike.”

After the weird swelling of emotion caused by Twilight's affectionate actions was finally under control, Spike looked up at his caretaker in worry. She had another odd expression on her face that only confused the dragon even more, if anything her joy seemed to fade for every second she looked at him. “T-Twilight?”

“I never told you that enough before, did I?” she asked as her eyes became a bit sadder. “But I do love you, and not just for being my assistant! I love you because you’re you. In fact, forget about being my assistant from now on!”

The declaration snapped Spike out of his confused haze. “W-what?” he nearly screamed as the dragon's brain tried to digest the information. Being Twilight's assistant was...well, it what he did! It was what he always did! In fact, if Spike had been a pony, he was pretty sure that he would have had a crazy purple unicorn assistant cutie mark! If he wasn't Twilight's assistant, then...

He really didn't know what he was.

“But Twilight! I like being your assistant! If I’m not you’re assistant, then what-umph!”

Twilight held her hoof to his mouth for a few more seconds after he stopped talking, and gave him a warm smile; banishing the look of growing depression that had been there a moment before. “Okay Spike, you’re still my assistant. Just…if you don’t want to do something, then tell me and I’ll take care of it instead, okay? I don’t want you to be cooped up in this library all your hatchling life. You need to be like me! Go out and make friends! Live! Play and be happy!"

“Umm, did you read a self-help book again or something?” the dragon asked cautiously. He didn’t want to think about the last time Twilight had tried messing with one of those things. It was supposed to help her get organized, and now she made lists for every little thing. Every. Little. Thing. Twilight even had a whole schedule that covered everything from what she planned to do in the morning that was so broken down it had steps that actually involved getting out of bed and going to the bathroom!

“No silly, I’m just happy! I mean look, we’re in Ponyville!” the unicorn exclaimed as she finally released the dragon and practically bounced away from him in joy. “I can’t wait to go hang out with Pinkie, and Rainbow, and AJ, and Rarity! Oh, and Fluttershy, can’t forget about Fluttershy!”

Spike frowned. “You mean the ponies you were telling me about yesterday? The ones that helped you take down Nightmare Moon a couple of days ago?” They had seemed like a friendly enough bunch, although...that white unicorn named Rarity stood head and shoulders above the rest. He wondered if she needed any help at her... Wait, does she design dresses, or decorate stuff? His memories weren't too clear on that point.

For a moment Twilight’s exuberance vanished, and she rubbed her chin in thought. The action dragged Spike out of his introspection, as the sudden loss of his caretaker holding him nearly made the dragon collapse. “Couple, so that’s two days then?” she asked herself. “Looks like I overshot my mark, but…ah well! Guess that just means more time to enjoy unicorn-hood!”

“Say what?” the dragon asked while Twilight ignored him and just stared at…her back?

Twilight let out a sigh of contentment before Spike began to hear an odd sound coming from the air around him a few seconds before the Music of Harmony kicked in. While Twilight muttered to herself, some music Spike remembered from a puppet show back in Canterlot began to play. “No wings. Oh…

I’ve got no wings

To flap around

To lift me up

And get me down

Plainly, as you can see

I’ve got no wings on me!

“Uh, Twilight?” Spike said as the music abruptly stopped so fast he could practically hear the needle being ripped off the record, “you’re starting to worry me.” Why in the world would Twilight be singing a song about not being a pegasus? Spike had no idea. It was just…freaky.

As soon as he said the words, Spike began to have regrets. Twilight just flashed in front of him again, and her expression changed form insane levels of joy to something approaching panic. “Oh no! Am I neglecting you? I’m sorry! I just got so wrapped up in the fact I’m not an alicorn I couldn’t help it! I… I, oh my gosh, I REALLY AM A HORRIBLE MOTHER!” she cried to the ceiling.

“Really worry me,” Spike continued before trying to back away. Unfortunately, he found himself trapped between his basket, the wall, and Twilight's bed.

A second later, half a dozen gemstones floated over to park themselves in front of the dragon’s face. “Breakfast! You need breakfast, right?”

“Uh-” Spike managed to say before Twilight cut him off with more panicky nonsense.

“Oh jeez, how many years did I have you just slaving away cooking breakfast for me every day?” she asked the ceiling. “That’s not what a mom is supposed to do!" And, before the dragon could point out they were in no way related, Twilight was back to looking at him with some kind of wide-eyed look that was a fifty-percent mix of guilt and worry. "Spike! From now on, I’ll do all the cooking, okay?”

While the rather odd idea of Twilight getting it into her head that she was supposed to be Spike’s mother needed to be addressed, he didn’t want the place they lived in burnt to the ground. “But, you’re a horrible cook,” the dragon pointed out.

“I’ve gotten better!” the unicorn exclaimed before she pointed a hoof at the dragon. “And don’t back talk your mother, it’s rude.”

“Uh, Twilight, you’re not-”

Twilight cut him off with a somewhat forceful poke to the dragon’s gut with her hoof. “I hatched you from an egg,” she told him before he could even finish. “And I’ll admit, I wasn’t ready for you when you first came out. But now we’re on our own. I’m the adult, and I’m ready to take on my parental responsibilities!”

Spike blinked, unsure as to how he could follow that. Although, he was starting to get an idea of what was really wrong. “Please tell me you didn’t read some kind of single mare’s guide to parenting or something,” he groaned while regretting the fact he hadn't gone through the library's stacks of books to get rid of anything that instructed Twilight Sparkle in the way things had to be done.

“Um...no,” Twilight replied before she waved away his concerns and brought the gems up to Spike’s face. “Now, here’s your breakfast. When you’re done, you can…actually, I think I’m going to need this week’s to-do list. So you can find that for me, and…we’ll go from there. I’m going to go make myself some food.”

The looming threat of the incineration of their new home brought out a sigh from Spike. “I’ll go get the fire extinguisher.”

Before Spike could start searching for what Twilight asked for as well as what they‘d need to keep the tree full of books from going up in flames, a knock at the door drew his attention. “Who is it?”

“Spike?” a female voice with a southern drawl called out. “Is Twilight in there? Ah need to ask fer a favor.”

Right as the dragon opened the door, there was a loud pop of displaced air and magical light, and Spike found Twilight standing right behind him with an almost manic level of happiness on her face. “Applejack!” the unicorn said as she grabbed the farmer and brought her into a hug. “It’s so good to see you again! You have no idea how much I’ve missed you!”

“Twilight, we saw each other yesterday,” she managed to get out before fighting the unicorn off of her. When she looked down to the dragon, he just gave a confused shrug as if to say: ‘don’t ask me’.

A few seconds passed as Twilight just stared blankly at the orange pony, then let out a nervous laugh. “Hehe, right…yesterday,” she mumbled. For a moment, Spike was sure he saw the smile on Twilight’s face slip, but it was back less than a second later with renewed vigor. “So, what do you need?”

For a moment, the farmer pony’s face took on a look of embarrassment. “Well, the thing is…Ah might need a tiny bit of help at the farm,” she admitted slowly; clearly not used to asking for assistance. “Ah already asked Rainbow Dash, and-”

Twilight didn’t even give Applejack time to finish before she practically got in the other pony’s face, her own split in a grin of excitement. “You need help on the farm?” she asked in glee. “Oh, I haven’t done that in…okay, well, I haven’t done that at all…yet. Sure I’ll come! No need to thank me. We’re friends, and friends help each other! Oh, this is going to be so much fun! Just let me take care of something real quick.”

The purple unicorn took off in a burst of speed and out of the sight of the dragon, who turned his attention back to Applejack when she asked a question. “Uh, is she always like this in the mornings?”

“Not usually,” Spike replied before a flash of light returned Twilight to the doorway.

“Okay, ready to go!” she exclaimed. “Hey Spike, you want to come with us, or stay here?”

Spike considered his options for the moment. Usually, he would have jumped at the chance to see the sights Ponyville, and Twilight would probably need some help avoiding a few social pitfalls thanks to her complete lack of skills in that regard… But, the way she was acting this morning was a little too weird, even for the wyrm who’d been with her his whole life. “Uh…think I’ll pass. Thanks.”

“Suit yourself,” Twilight said as she stepped outside and turned around. “Be good. And don’t forget, I love you!”

As the purple unicorn waved goodbye, Spike quickly closed the door in her face and made his way back into the library’s kitchen. Much to his surprise, nothing was on fire. But then again, Twilight hadn’t had time to really start cooking. A quick check of her desk did reveal what she had been doing. There was a small checklist that had been left out in the open for the ink to dry.

Spike pulled himself up onto the desk, and read it.

Use Chronomancy Spell: Check

Ensure Proper Temporal Landing: Check (more or less)

Ensure Complete Mental Amalgamation: Check

Obtain Elements of Harmony:

FIX EVERYTHING:

Author's Note

Edited 5/27/2014 with more descriptive actions and misspelling corrections.

Chapter 1: Two Tickets

“And when Ah got home, it just appeared. That’s how Ah got mah cutie mark,” Applejack finished as she gave the apple tree she was working on an extra buck to make sure all the early ripe apples had fallen. As a skilled apple bucker, she would normally only need one, but Francis was a might ornery and usually needed an extra knock for good measure.

Much to Applejack's surprise, the unicorn Twilight Sparkle didn’t have some witty comment or anything to say about how the farm pony had given up high society life. In fact, she just stood there staring at the apple farmer for a few moments. It was quite a change from the trot over, where the purple unicorn had just asked one question after another in such rapid succession Applejack had tried looking for a zipper to see if she was Pinkie Pie in disguise.

The kinds of questions she asked also surprised Applejack. From what she knew of Canterlot ponies and unicorns in general, they didn’t know a sprout from a weed. Twilight had dived right into a conversation with questions about the acreage of Sweet Apple Acres, to the types of apples, quantity of cider production, and a dozen other things before moving onto questions about Applebloom, Big Mac, and Granny Smith. Applejack was rather impressed that Twilight had even remembered their names after just hearing them once during the reunion before the Summer Sun Celebration.

Then again, she is the princess’s student, Applejack reasoned. That probably meant she had a whole mess of knowledge up inside her head about everything, and a curiosity to match if past few hours were any clue.

When she noticed Twilight was still just staring at her, Applejack arched an eyebrow. “Somethin' wrong Twilight?”

The question snapped the unicorn out of her daze. “What?” she asked, "oh right, um…you said you came home where your family was waiting, and then your cutie mark appeared?”

“That’s right,” she told Twilight proudly as they gathered the apples into baskets before Applejack reattached them to her back. “That’s when Ah knew sure as shootin' that Ah was meant to be an apple farmer.”

Twilight smiled and let out a light chuckle and shook her head before she walked past Applejack, headed towards the road. “Can’t believe I never saw that before,” the unicorn mumbled barely loud enough to hear. “Hehehehe, Applejack’s cutie mark. Three apples.”

The odd comment earned a frown from the farmer. “Something funny about my cutie mark?” All her family had apple cutie marks. Well...except for the Oranges, but they were a might strange.

Twilight froze mid-step and looked back up at the farmer with wide eyes. “Did I say that out loud?” she asked in a small panic. “Shoot! I forgot I started talking to myself when-GAAH! Stop talking Twilight!” The unicorn clutched her head long enough to lose her balance, then she fell forward into the dirt and quickly found her face covered in dust. “And…nothing to keep me up when my front hooves are off the ground either. That’s going to take some getting used to again.”

Her ire gone in the face of the unicorn apparently freaking out, Applejack took Twilight's measure, then hesitantly reached down to help the talkative pony up. A second later, as the purple pony dusted her off, Applejack asked, “Uh, Twilight, you okay?”

“Sorry, I just have this habit of talking to myself when I make a discovery. I guess I picked it up since I don’t…have many ponies to talk to. Back in Canterlot, I mean,” she said with a pitiable expression as he ears drooped, followed soon by her whole body. Whatever the unicorn was remembering, the earth pony could see it weighed heavily on her.

Applejack rolled her eyes at what she knew was a huge overestimation. An outgoing pony like Twilight not having friends was as impossible as Pinkie Pie. “Oh come on Twilight, a friendly mare like you? Ah bet you had so many friends you couldn’t even shake a stick at em all. Then there’s Princess Celestia. Ah can’t imagine a better pony to be friends-”

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Twilight’s whole demeanor changed. The smile on her face shattered and was replaced with a scowl that managed to cow the bravest pony in the town. “Celestia is not my friend,” Twilight told Applejack in no uncertain terms.

Still in a huff, Twilight stormed past Applejack, who quickly followed her down the path and towards their storage barn. “I mean seriously? Friends? With her? You were there for that whole Nightmare Moon thing,” she ranted on before switching to a mockery of the princess’s voice. “Oh Twilight, I know I’m the ruler of Equestria and I it's my duty to protect my subjects from this insane goddess that will doom every creature on the planet to a slow death by starvation, but I’m going to go hide somewhere and let you deal with it. What was that? You’re smart enough to figure out what happening before this whole thing started? Here, have some vague hint about how to use these ancient artifacts that you may have a tiniest chance of finding because your cutie mark resembles the base form for the Element of Magic and your life was bound to five other mares who saw a rainbow!”

Then, the unicorn took a deep breath and looked back to Applejack with an angry frown on her face while she poked the mare in the chest rather forcefully. “If it wasn’t for all of you bursting into the library, I would have probably charged off on my own and gotten killed!” she exclaimed before throwing her forelegs up in exasperation. “You saved my life, Pinkie kept us from getting so scared we had heart attacks, Rarity gave up her tail to let us across a river safely, Fluttershy kept us from being mauled by a manticore, and Rainbow Dash-”

“Somepony call my name?” the chromatic pegasus asked as she stuck her head out of a nearby apple tree, bringing Twilight's rant to a halt.

Twilight stopped in mid sentence, her mouth hanging open for a minute before she clamped it shut. “-caught me before you lost your footing and I became a stain on the grass. That’s what friends do,” Twilight grumbled as she finished her conversation. A second later, she put her hoof to her own chest and let out a long breath as she extended her foreleg.

Once the calming exercise was done, it seemed Twilight became a whole ‘nother pony. The scowl disappeared from her face, her mouth twisted back into a smile and she even seemed to brighten in color somehow. “Hey Rainbow. What’s up? Besides you I mean,” she added with a giggle.

“Twilight, you okay?” Applejack asked before Rainbow could answer. She gave the purple unicorn a good look-see to try and figure out what was the matter with her. Her cheerful attitude seemed nice enough, but…nopony just switched their frustrations on and off like that.

Well, no sane pony anyway. But from what Applejack could see, Twilight was just a little kooky, which was a long way from crazy.

Even Rainbow seemed to catch on to the unicorn’s odd behavior, judging by the discerning look she was giving the mare. “Yeah, yesterday you were going on and on about how awesome it was to be Princess Celestia’s student.”

For a moment, Twilight gave the pegasus a confused look, then frowned and looked away. “Well now that I got out of the sun goddess’s presence, I can take the blinders off and see the whole picture,” she grumbled as she turned her head off to the side and shot Canterlot a dirty look.

Unsure how to respond to that, Applejack just stood silent and looked over to Rainbow Dash for ideas, but found the pegasus was just as clueless. Before AJ could even start some real ruminations, Twilight’s stomach grumbled and caused both the ponies to look back towards her.

“Sorry, I skipped breakfast,” she apologized before a sparkling pink glow covered the sacks on Applejack’s back and they flew over to where Twilight was standing. “Let me just drop these off. I need to run back to the library and get lunch going for Spike. Thanks for spending time with me Applejack. Bye girls!”

Before Applejack could ask what the hay Twilight thought she was doing, the unicorn disappeared in a flash of light, leaving the two ponies in the middle of the road with empty hooves.

“So uh…she can teleport now?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Ye-Hey hold on a cotton pickin minute!” Applejack exclaimed before she whirled to face the pegasus. “You said you were too busy to help me with the early apple harvest!”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes as if what she was about to say was obvious. “Uh yeah! Too busy napping. I took the night shift on weather patrol duty, need to get my rest before my shift starts in a few hours.”

Alone in the library, Spike looked up from sorting through the several boxes that the moving company had delivered while Twilight had been out. So far, everything he’d managed to find all belonged to Twilight. Please don’t tell me the princess forgot to send my comic book collection.

As much as he hated to think it, old ponies always undervalued comics, and Celestia was the oldest pony around by far. Well except for Princess Luna, Spike reasoned. Although, he had to wonder if the smaller princess was anywhere close to Celestia in age since she had looked so young when the sun goddess came rolling into town a few days ago with her sister.

The sound of a door opening drew the young dragon out of his thoughts, and he watched Twilight walk into the cluttered minefield of stuff that the dragon had made in his quest for the graphic novels. She took a look around and raised an eyebrow at Spike. “Our stuff from Canterlot finally arrive?”

Spike looked down at the unorganized mess, then over to Twilight, and back to the mess Spike had made. “I’ll clean it up!” he promised before the unicorn could comment on the state of the library’s entrance.

“It’s okay Spike, I’ve got it,” she told him without a hint of unpleasantness before the entire assortment of things were surrounded by her magic’s sparkling purple aura and lifted into the air.

The calm expression on Twilight’s face changed to one of annoyance as some of the packages started to wobble. “Ugh, I was afraid of that,” she grumbled before nearly a fourth of the items floated back down to the ground and the others became still in the air. “Okay so, need to start working on my horn again and check my mana pool while I’m at it. Least I don’t need to waste time with spell theory.”

Spike raised an eyebrow at the unicorn nonsensical ramblings. “Twilight?”

“Hm?” she asked before looking back down at the dragon. “Oh! Sorry Spike, I was just talking out loud again. Let’s get all this stuff into my lab, then we can go get some lunch.”

“Lab?” Spike asked, more than a bit confused. He didn’t know the library had a lab. Was it some kind of super secret hidden lab? A mental image of Twilight dressed like some kind of mad scientist pony wearing a white lab coat and dark goggles passed through his mind and… Okay…it’s kind of creepy just how much that fits her, the dragon told himself.

“Basement!” Twilight exclaimed in surprise before she looked back to Spike with a bit of statement in her eyes. “I meant basement, but I was thinking of turning into a lab to work on a project I’m doing.”

She started to canter towards the stairs down to the aforementioned area, then looked back to Spike, hesitancy showing in her eyes. “But…well, you do need your own space…I think. I don’t want to smother you. Oh no! Am I smothering you?”

As was the norm since this morning, Spike could only scratch his head at the unicorn’s antics as the clip-clop sound of Twilight’s hooves resonated through the library while she quickly paced back and forth, the speed of her trotting increasing along with her crazy ranting. “Uh, are you okay Twilight?”

“Oh my gosh! I did smother you!” she partly shouted, in an almost whiny tone. “You slept next to me in a basket for crying out loud!”

“Twilight-”

“That’s not just me smothering, you, I was neglecting you too!” she exclaimed as she got right back into Spike’s face with wide eyes and a downcast, pitiable expression.

Spike’s confusion could only grow upon hearing the unicorn’s statement. “Uh, how can you pay too much attention to me and not enough at the same time?” he asked with trying to wrap his brain around just how Twilight could come to such an odd conclusion.

The question actually seemed to knock Twilight out of her panic as she actually needed to stop and think. The purple unicorn raised her head back and she tapped her hoof in through for a moment, then looked back down at Spike. “Your bed is right next to mine and it’s just a basket. Most of the food you consume is pony-centric and I never really looked into the proper dietary habits of a dragon. I-”

Spike managed to cut Twilight off with a loud belch that exuded a gout of green fire and deposited scroll on the ground. “Hey a letter from the princess!” the dragon said as he snatched it up before Twilight could. Thank Celestia! Literately!

When she gave him an annoyed look, the dragon pointed towards the things that were still in Twilight‘s telekinetic grip. “Uh, shouldn’t you go put all that stuff up before grabbing something else?”

For a moment he thought Twilight was going to argue, then she sighed and looked back to the basement door. “As much as I hate to admit it, I do still need a place to work theory on the array and recreate my notes in privacy,” she grumbled before whirling around to face Spike with a frown on her face and a scrunched up muzzle that the dragon knew Twilight only got when she had become extremely set in her ways. “But as soon as I’m done, you’re getting your own room!”

“But-”

“And I need to order a real bed for you,” she mumbled as a pencil found its way out of a box along with a note pad. “And I really should look into a proper dragon diet. I think there’s a dragon in the woods west of here, spike tail breed if I recall correctly. I wonder if he’d be willing to-”

As he had stopped paying attention to Twilight’s ramblings a minute ago, Spike just held the letter from the princess out for Twilight to take and read. If there was anything that was going to make her stop going on all crazy, then it was words from her mentor, Celestia. “Here, just read it.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow at him, then took the parchment in her magical grip. “Thank you, and don’t talk that way to your mother,” she scolded him.

Spike looked away to hide the roll of eyes that came from Twilight’s words. The dragon really hoped Twilight would get off this mothering kick she seemed to be on lately. The attention was nice, but any more of it and she really would be smothering him. “So, it anything important?”

As he walked around to Twilight’s side to get a look at her face, the dragon caught the tail end of an angry frown that changed into a disgusted cringe. “Ugh, Grand Galloping Gala tickets,” the unicorn grumbled. “Doesn’t she know I hate the…right, first time.”

The information that Twilight had been given tickets to the most awesome party in Canterlot made a shiver of excitement run through Spike’s spine. “You got tickets to the Gala? That’s great Twilight! We-hey, what’re you doing!?” the dragon shouted as the tickets flew into the library’s trashcan.

“I hate the Gala,” she told him simply before heading down into the basement. “Now come on, the sooner we get this stored away…hmm, you want to go out to lunch today? We could check on Rarity to see if she’s free to join us.”

Spike frowned at the obvious yet tempting bribe to simply drop the conversation or at least move to a more interesting topic. But then again, it is Rarity, Spike reasoned. Another thought also occurred to him. Hey if Twilight doesn’t want to go, and we have two tickets, then…

“Hey Rarity, guess what? Princess Celestia sent Twilight two tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala and-”

“THE GRAND GALLOPING GALA?” Rarity shrieked in excitement at Spike declaration, as she jumped up and down while completely ignoring the dress she had been working on a moment ago. Sure it was unrefined, unladylike, uncouth, but… IT WAS THE GRAND GALLOPING GALA! The social event of the year! The place where the cream of the crop of upper society met!

Besides, there wasn’t anypony else in her shop other than Twilight and Spike, so she could be afford to be a little excited without absolutely killing her reputation. They had shown up just as she closed for lunch, and Rarity counted herself extremely lucky for it.

No, luck had nothing to do with it. It was fate! An act of Destiny!

“Oh I’ve always wanted to go to the Gala!” she exclaimed as she looked over to Twilight, her mind awash with all the possibilities. “Oh please say you’ll take me! You and I at the Gala, we-”

Twilight cut her off. “I’m not going.”

“That means you and I can go!” Spike told her with a grin plastered on his face despite the glare Twilight was giving him.

“SPIKE!”

“What?” he asked with a bit of annoyance that formed into a frown on his face. “You threw the tickets away.”

Rarity felt herself nearly collapse as Spike’s words hit her like a sledgehammer. The very…inconceivableness of somepony not wanting to go to the Grand Galloping Gala. The only thing that kept her standing was the fact that the floor was so dirty.

Why was the never something clean to collapse on when a pony needed it?

“Which means I did not give them to you!” Twilight responded.

So, Rarity‘s mind decided on another course of action: figure out just what was wrong in the mind of Twilight Sparkle. “YOU THREW AWAY TICKETS TO THE GRAND GALLOPING GALA?”

Twilight locked eyes with Rarity for a moment the surprise in them evident. Then Twilight’s expression changed to a frown and Rarity felt as if she was being taken apart, as if she was some puzzle Twilight was trying to solve. The two of them stood there for a good two minutes before Twilight broke the silence.

“Spike, I need you to go get Applejack and the other girls.”

Gathering up the five ponies didn’t turn out to be as much of a hassle as Spike thought it would be. Rainbow Dash had been back in town working on a storm, and had flown out to deliver the message to Applejack for him. Fluttershy was also in town, so the long walk to her cottage was also unnecessary.

As soon as he had gotten the word out, all the ponies gathered at Twilight’s place not ten minutes later. All in all, Spike wasn’t too surprised at what Twilight did next, if anything, it was the most ‘normal Twilight’ thing she had done since waking up in the morning.

She had asked each pony why she wanted to go to the Gala and said that the best two would get the tickets. Of course, each one had their own reasons for wanting to go that each pony thought was better than all the others. All things considered, Spike wasn’t too thrilled about Rarity’s and her wanting to meet some snooty unicorn Spike had only heard about back in Canterlot. And not much of it was nice.

As for the others, Applejack wanted to set up an concession stand at the Gala to sell food, Rainbow wanted to meet the Wonderbolts, Fluttershy wanted to play with the animals, and Pinkie Pie just wanted to party.

Twilight rubbed her forehead as all of the other ponies in the library looked on in eager anticipation. “Girls…look, you’ve all got…okay, I really can’t lie to you girls,” she mumbled. “No offense, but based just on your arguments, Rarity and Fluttershy should be the only ones going to the Gala.”

The farmer pony frowned and stepped forward. “How in the hay does kissing up to some snooty unicorn and playing with a bunch of critters even begin to measure up to taking care of mah family?” she demanded with a bit of anger in her voice. “Ah got the best reason here by far! The rest of these yahoos are just being selfish!”

“Oh so it’s selfish to want to actually live my dream?” Rainbow Dash demanded as she floated up into the air and glared down at AJ. “Oh I forgot who I’m talking to, ‘Hey Rainbow, help me with these apples! Hey Rainbow, I need some extra rain this week even though it’s not scheduled! Hey Rainbow, take time out of YOUR job give me a hoof with MINE, cause I can’t do it on my own and friends is just another name for good workhorse’!”

Not a minute later, Rarity and Pinkie Pie joined in, arguing with each other about parties in general, and Fluttershy backed away before she fell in on herself and looked at the four arguing ponies in fright.

Spikes eyes widened as he watched Twilight looked on in horror at the growing argument, her head darting back and forth between the mares as each one shot their mouths off. As the fight continued, tears began to form in her eyes and the beginnings of a panic attack was evident in her breathing.

“Stop it…just…STOOOOOOP IT!” she screamed at the top of her lungs before a purple magical glow surrounded everypony’s mouth to stop the sound from coming out. “This is why I didn’t want to give anypony a ticket! Look at what you’re fighting over! It’s just a stupid party! One lousy night out of your entire lives! AND IT IS A LOUSY NIGHT AT THAT!”

The unicorn looked over to the orange pony. “Applejack, you wanting to take care of your family is nice, it’s…it’s what you live for! But…you’re not going to sell anything at the Gala! They have a free buffet, and no matter how good your food is, when it comes to a choice between good food and free food, they’re going to pick the free option!”

“Rainbow Dash! Do you honestly think the Wonderbolts are going to like any pony who just buts into their airspace while they’re doing a show? How would you feel if somepony just showed up and interrupted you during a performance?” she demanded before her expression softened. “And I’m sorry but, neither of those tickets is VIP, which is where the Wonderbolts go to hang out during the Gala.”

She took a breath and looked over to Pinkie. “Pinkie Pie, your parties are the most wonderful in all of Equestria,” she said with a smiling face before it turned to a frowned. “But you didn’t plan the Gala, and in comparison, it’s horribly boring!

“Rarity…I’ve met Blueblood,” Twilight told her, although Spike couldn’t remember when that ever happened. “He is a complete egotistical plothole that only cares about himself! The last mare that was with him was treated more like a servant, and that sorry excuse for a stallion ignored the poor filly after rutting her! To be honest, the Gala may be your scene, but I hope you don’t attract his attention because you deserve a million times better!

“Fluttershy,” Twilight paused and took a deep breath. “Well…if you want to go play with animals and look at flowers all night…I got nothing. But…if you do get a ticket and the others don’t…do you really think you could enjoy yourself? Do you think I could stop myself from feeling bad for putting you in that position?”

The magic around the others vanished and everypony in the room turned to look at the cowering pegasus.

“Well…”

“Look Twi, none of us are going to be all resentful if you pick one of us,” Applejack assured her.

“I’ll resent me!” Twilight exclaimed as she swept her gaze over her friends. “You’re my best friends, my first friends ever! How can I pick one or two of you over the others? I’d rather just choose to just burn these bucking tickets altogether and forget about the whole thing!”

“You know Twilight, deciding not to choose isn’t really a choice,” Rainbow Dash told her.

Twilight stared at the pony floating in the air for a moment, then lowered her head and shook it while grumbling to herself. “I knew somepony was going to throw that back in my face one day, I just didn’t expect it to be her,” Spike heard the unicorn grumble to herself.

Then she looked back up to her friends with their expectant faces and sighed. “Look, girls…”

Twilight stopped herself and looked over to her tickets. “The Gala isn’t…” She paused and looked at her tickets, then to Spike, the girls, back to her tickets...and then back to the girls again. “…do you all still really want to go?”

Applejack poked the unicorn in the chest. “Twilight, you can’t tell me ponies ain’t gonna like my food,” the hard headed apple farmer told her. “Just you wait and see.”

“Well, now that you put it that way,” Rainbow Dash said, “I really wouldn’t like it if another pony interrupted my routine…and you said they’re not VIP? I really don’t want to go to the Gala if I can’t meet the Wonderbolts. But…I could still see them, right?”

Pinkie tilted her head as if trying to wrap her mind around an alien concept. “How can a party be boring?”

“But…he’s the most eligible bachelor in Canterlot,” Rarity mumbled as she tapped a hoof to her chin. “Which does raise the question as to why he’s still a bachelor if he attends social events all the time. Hmmm…oh! He’s obviously just looking for the right mare!”

“Well…I guess I would feel guilty,” Fluttershy mumbled barely loud enough for even Spike‘s dragon ears to hear.

A thought occurred to the dragon as the unicorn looked around the room with a growing sense of hopelessness becoming evident on her face. With his caretaker in such distress, he doubted the rational part of her mind would switch back on anytime soon to try a rather obvious answer. “Hey Twilight, can’t you just ask Princess Celestia for more tickets?” She was the princess after all, it shouldn’t have been too hard on her to get a few more.

“VIP tickets?” Dash asked in earnest.

Twilight blinked at the questions, then she looked down at Spike, and back up to her friends before turning her attention over to the writing desk and grabbing a parchment as well as a quill. “Well…I…that means asking Celestia,” she grumbled.

The dark tint to her voice stopped and she gave them all a sad smile. “Sure. Anything for you girls,” she mumbled to herself before she began writing.

“Dear Princess Celestia.

“Thank you, for the Gala invitation and tickets,” she said, practically growling the first two words as the pen copied her words onto the page. “However, my five friends would also like to attend the event. I would…humbly like to ask that you send a few more tickets to accommodate them; along with a VIP pass for Rainbow Dash to meet the Wonderbolts. Prin-oh wait, remove that. Ahem, Twilight Sparkle.”

She looked up at Rainbow Dash, then over to Applejack, and back to her letter. “PS Expect a report on the correlation between friendships and its effects on the causation of favors within the next few weeks.”

A minute later, the sealed latter was being consumed by Spike’s fire, and Twilight was looking over to her friends with a hint of worry in her eyes. “Do you girls want to go grab a late lunch? I think we all need to have a long discussion about-”

“BURP!”

Twilight blinked as the scroll suddenly appeared in a blast of flame and the letter dropped into Spike’s waiting claws. A second later, he opened the letter to read it aloud. “Dear Twilight, of course I’d be willing to accommodate your friends, all you had to do was ask.”

“Wait a minute,” Twilight said quietly as she looked up at the clock. “That wasn’t even two minutes! What the hay? Did she just sit around with four extra tickets waiting for a letter saying I…oh Harmony, she did!”

Spike frowned, unable to follow Twilight’s logic and broken speech. “Uh Twilight, what’re you talking about?”

The unicorn’s eyes narrowed as she stared at the four extra tickets in the scroll that her magic levitated in front of her face, hiding her expression from anypony else in the room. “Nothing Spike, just thinking about the lesson Celestia just taught me in regards to the nature of our old relationship.” Then, she gave one of the tickets to Spike.

A second later, Twilight’s face brightened and she walked up to the girls with her remaining tickets and passed them out. “Here you go girls!”

“Twilight, what about you?” Rarity asked as she took her ticket.

She simply shook her head. “I keep telling you girls I don’t want to go. It’ll be fine,” she said before smiling at the other unicorn. “Besides, that’s Spike’s ticket and-”

The dragon let out another belch of flame and grabbed a scroll. A moment later, he had it opened and was reading what had been written inside. “And here’s one for Spike.” He looked down at the golden ticket that dropped onto the ground and snatched it up before putting it with the other one in his possession. “Huh…guess this one is yours then Twilight.”

“I’m not going to-”

“Oh no you don’t sugar.”

“Indeed, it would be uncouth to allow the friend who gave us admittance to the Gala to waste her night alone in this place.”

“Yeah, I think I can stand you being an egghead, but an antisocial egghead is where I draw the line.”

“A party wouldn’t be a party without all my friends!”

“And I would feel pretty guilty about enjoying the Gala if you were stuck back in Ponyville Twilight.”

“But…I…you all…fine,” she moaned in defeat before the ticket was snatched up by her magic and she hung her head in defeat. “I really can’t say no to you girls. Umm, but can we leave the tickets here? I’m afraid we might get mobbed if we show them around Ponyville.”

As soon as her friends agreed, the purple pony gathered up the tickets and trotted back to the writing desk to place them in storage. “Oh, that’s where I put that list,” she mumbled as she looked at the parchment, then back to her friends. “Everything huh? Rainbow and AJ, Pinkie and Rarity…Pinkie and AJ…looks like I won’t have as much lab time as I thought.”

Author's Note

Edited 5/27/2014

And there we have the first chapter of Take 2

Future Chapters will be slow in coming as this is just a side project to my main work. Also, I won’t be doing every single episode, just ones that would show a major change in Twilight’s actions or show a piece of her personality with a side mention about how Twilight did things a little differently here and there in episodes that are just glossed over.

That said: Next time a certain bragging unicorn comes to Ponyville, and while Twilight has no problem with a show mare going on about herself, you don’t sucker punch the friends of a somewhat unstable future alicorn.

Chapter 2: Abracadabra

If there was one thing Rainbow Dash loved besides flying, it was pulling pranks. It wasn’t just the laughter that came from the event, but the setup of the event as well. It was how she proved to herself she wasn't just some dumb jock without everypony thinking she was some kind of egghead. If too much shock or damage was done, then a prank would come off as mean spirited or even bullying; and Rainbow Dash abhorred bullies as the most un-awsome creatures in the world.

The fact that she had just found out that Pinkie Pie of all ponies was a master at designing such pranks gave Rainbow Dash another input into the planning and helping take the burden off. Plus, the pink pony’s sheer level of innocence practically guaranteed that all of her initial ideas were much less were much less in need of toning down, unlike Dash’s. It helped her to appreciate Pinkie Pie, who had really been more of an annoyance than a friend with the way she was constantly following Rainbow around after the whole Nightmare Moon thing.

Together, they had managed to get Rarity with a few bit of sneezing powder and do a few other things to some other residents of Ponyville. Then, Twilight’s turn had come. Rainbow Dash had been waiting for some payback for that insta-preening she got from the unicorn after AJ had catapulted the pegasus onto Twilight’s balcony and she needed to go through the library thanks to all the damaged feathers the rough landing gave her. While she appreciated the help and all the time it saved, the social awkwardness that was Twilight Sparkle should have known nopony messes with the feathers of a pegasus without express permission.

So, Dash had planned to set up the ultimate embarrassment prank where only Twilight, Pinkie, and Dash herself would be witness to. However, the two ponies found themselves a little put off by the fact that Twilight had locked herself behind her basement door for the fourth time this week to only leave a sign out to greet them.

DANGER!

Magical Lab

Nopony Allowed In Without Strict Supervision!

THIS MEANS YOU PINKAMENA DIANE PIE!!!!

“Okay,” Dash mumbled as she read the sign on the door. “Now I got to know what’s in there!”

Before she could even reach for the knob, a pink hoof came out to stop her. “Dashie wait!”

A little annoyed at the roadblock, Rainbow Dash looked over to its owner. “Oh come on Pinkie, I’m a pegasus, we’ve all got super vision.” They needed the better than average senses to fly and spot things from miles away after all.

“I dunno Dashie, nopony ever uses my real name unless they’re super serious about something,” Pinkie told her. “We might just want to leave Twilight alone till later.”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Pink-wait, your real name is Pinkamena?”

Before Pinkie could answer, there was an audible click, and the door opened to reveal Twilight standing at the other end of the door. What caught Dash’s attention though, was the room behind it.

Although she couldn’t see everything, what she could make out was enough. There was the usual mad scientist chemistry set and a weird floating round-ish block…thingy right above the table the chemistry set rested on, as well as a trio of chalkboards with more numbers and symbols written on them than Dash had thought existed before she laid eyes on them. However, the real scary stuff was written on the walls. It didn’t matter what it was, equations, some letters, a bunch of odd logic circles and other symbols…along with rather good depiction of Dash’s cutie mark minus the cloud; it was the fact that it was writing on the walls!

“Hey girls what’s-” Twilight cut herself off and raised an eyebrow. “Wait, it’s the two of you...together, alone at the front of the library. Ohmygosh, I’ve been pranked!”

The excitement on her face made Rainbow Dash share a look of worry with Pinkie. Their eyes met as if to ask the other ‘did somepony give us away?’.

“Is it disappearing ink?” Twilight asked with glee, causing Dash to hide the gag jar underneath her feathers all that harder. “Whoopie cushions? Covered everything in sneezing powder so when Spike dusts, his fire sends a huge pile of books to bury Princess Celestia? Did you put all the book’s dust covers on upside down again? I don’t mind that, but could you girls mind not swapping them? It’s a pain to have to fix it after somepony does that.”

Pinkie’s eyes widened. “Wow Twilight, that’s a cool idea. Somepony would open a book to read it and be all Gar Bul Error Shmulze cause things are upside down. Hey, you should totally come pranking with us!”

While Rainbow did think the book idea had much merit, Twilight seemed to know a few things about pulling a few fast ones, even if her ideas were pretty old school. Of course, it also helped the mare could teleport and actually make stuff appear out of thin air like no unicorn Rainbow had ever seen before. The stuff the three of them could do together…even a pony as awesome as Rainbow Dash couldn’t imagine it all. “That…actually sounds like a cool idea Pinkie.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow in excited disbelief. “Wait a second, you want me to come with you? The two of you, when you’re pranking other ponies?”

“Uh yeah, you need some fresh air and fun,” Pinkie told her before looking over Twilight’s shoulder at the lab with all the mathematical equations lining the walls. “Even I think this is crazy.”

Rainbow Dash blinked in confusion at Twilight’s reaction. She just stood there for a moment, muttering to herself so softly Dash could only hear a couple of words while straining her ears. “…changes…can I?…Should I?…form better bonds faster…but less time to work…”

“So, is that a no? Or…” Rainbow Dash drawled out.

“No! Oh my gosh! I’m actually going to be pulling pranks with the two of you!” she said while trotting in place. “I always wanted to know what that was like! Just give me two minutes to finish up with this week’s batch of sleep potion, and we can go have some fun!”

Chapter 2: Abracadabra

Spike stood in Twilight’s lab as she continued to jot down her mathematical gibberish on a chalkboard. Nearly bored out of his mind, the dragon looked at the floating dodecahedron and tapped the giant D12 a few times to make it spin. “So uh…what’s this thing do again?”

“It’s a model for a spell that creates an inversely focused harmonic field that can perpetually renew itself by drawing on the magic of harmony in the surrounding area,” Twilight explained without looking away from her work before she went back to mumbling to herself. “Okay so that’s Loyalty, Generosity, Joy, Kindness should be easy enough…ugh, it always comes back to Honesty!”

As soon as Twilight turned away from the board and looked at the clock, she let out a gasp and rushed over to the dragon. “Spike, we’re ten minutes late! Why didn’t you tell me?”

The dragon waved his mother’s face out of his personal space, and shrugged. “Eh, it’s not really that big a deal Twilight. Besides, what you were doing looked important.”

“There is nothing more important than spending time with family Spike,” Twilight scolded him before she picked the dragon up and set him on her back with her magic. “Blood or otherwise. Now, we’ve got two hours, where do you want to go?”

As Spike gave the question a good think, he saw Twilight prepare to activate the dozen or so wards that the room had been surrounded in, most of which were apparently of her own design from what she told him. Although, the Pinkie Pie ward she came up with a few days ago seemed a bit much.

“Still don’t see why you made a whole new spell to keep out one pony,” he mumbled, voicing his doubts.

The shrug Twilight gave made the dragon hold onto the pony tighter, which seemed to put a smile on her face. “Well I’m not even sure that would do it. It’s why I made her give a Pinkie Promise.”

“A what?”

“You know, that silly rhyme you heard her say a few days ago?” Twilight reminded him.

Spike shook his head at the memory. “Still not sure where she got that cupcake, it almost looked like she pulled it out of her…” He paused for a moment when the purple pony gave the dragon a warning frown. “…tail.”

“Yeah, it’s best not to think about it,” the mare said as she looked at the ground and shook her head at the same memory.

With that, the dragon decided to end the conversation and his mind wandered on what they could spend today’s ‘Spike and Twilight Time’ on. In the five weeks they had spent in Ponyville, Twilight had taken the dragon to see the sights, meet the ponies, and eat at all the restaurants.

In all truth, there wasn’t all that much to do in Ponyville. They had run out of new stuff as of last week, and aside from the odd stunt show by Rainbow Dash or weekly party from Pinkie, Spike was starting to dread he’d be spending the rest of his life waiting for a holiday to come around just to liven the place up.

Twilight seemed to pick up on his somber mood. “Something wrong Spike?”

“I dunno, just bored I guess,” he admitted. “There isn’t really all that much to do here in Ponyville.”

A second after the words were out of his mouth, Spike instantly regretted them because Twilight put on her thinking face. As much as he loved the mare, the way her face scrunched up and combined with her frown just made Spike think she looked a little creepy. “I suppose the reduction in assistant responsibilities has caused an excess of free time, or did he always feel this way and I just never noticed before?” she mumbled to herself.

“Twilight?”

“Friends!” she suddenly exclaimed as her head reared up and Spike found himself tumbling off the little purple pony. Before he could recover, she was in his face with a smile plastered on her face. “That’s what you need to do Spike, make some friends!”

The dragon could only blink in confusion as TWILIGHT SPARKLE of all ponies had just said that. Just a few weeks had seen a massive change in her personality, and Spike had yet to see a single self-help book. It was kind of creepy. “But, we have friends,” he said after a moment’s pause.

Twilight pulled herself back up to her full height and nodded slowly before looking back down at the dragon and explaining things to him in a softer tone what what he was used to. “But those are our friends Spike, and as wonderful as they are, they aren’t the only ponies in Ponyville. I’m also trying to make friends with ponies like that teacher Cheerilee who asked us to give a lesson on dragons last week, our mailmare, the Doctor…”

“Dr Who?” Spike asked. Twilight’s argument didn’t seem very sound if she didn’t even know the pony’s name.

“Well he’s still Time Turner right now,” Twilight told him before she looked up into the air a bit and her tone altered to the one she always used when she was thinking out loud. “I’m not sure when he changed really. Would be nice to talk to him about all this timey wimey-ugh!" She shook her head and looked back to Spike."The point is, you should also try and make some friends around town on your own, explore some of your own interests.”

The suggestion made Spike roll his eyes. It was pretty obvious that the unicorn wasn't aware of he dragon's particular predicament since they had moved to Ponyville.

Most of the ponies in town tended to think he was the equivalent of Twilight’s pet, or took the baby dragon comment Twilight made when explaining his origins a little too literal. Spike may have been a baby dragon, but he was still older than the fillies and colts who went to the local schoolhouse. It hadn’t been a problem back when Twilight lived at the castle. All the guards had been around to watch Spike grow up so they knew how old he really was, but now that they were in a new place everypony took one look at the dragon and put him in the same age bracket as Applejack’s younger sister.

As Twilight let him climb onto her back again, Spike found himself wondering what it would be like if he did look his age…or matured at the rate of a pony anyway. Heh, Twilight would probably be the one riding around on my back, he told himself as he pictured himself twice as large as his caretaker, strolling through town as all the little ponies gazed up at him in awe. Rarity would swoon, and then he’d take her into his powerful arms and take her off to...uh…well…do something!

“Coming through!” Spike heard a pony shout before he saw a pair of colts rush by in a hurry. Snips and his friend Snails had been two of the foals Spike had met at the school one day when Twilight introduced him to everypony. Although it seemed the colts and fillies liked it when Spike told them the story of his life, most of them were asleep by the end of the day thanks to a rather dry lecture given by Twilight about dragons in general. Spike had managed to get through it because it was the first time he had ever heard Twilight talk about his species, but they had been the first victims of her teaching methods that only the most caffeinated of ponies could survive.

“Hmm, I wonder what those two are so excited about, want to go check it out Spike?” Twilight asked with that gentle smile she had seemed to develop since coming to Ponyville. For some reason he couldn’t quite figure out, Spike thought it looked a little out of place on the unicorn. It made her seem more…(ugh)…motherly.

Spike thought it over for a few moments. Thanks to his Rarity daydream, he really hadn’t considered what he and Twilight should be doing during their ‘us’ time, and it was still just a little early for lunch. “Might as well,” he said after a few minutes. It beat doing nothing, even if there was going to be a letdown afterwards when it turned out to be just some lame distraction from the smalltown drudgery.

“COME ONE, COME ALL! COME AND WITNESS THE AMAZING MAGIC OF THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE!”

Twilight frowned at the announcement, then raised a hoof to tap her chin. “Hmmm…why does that sound familiar?”

“Watch in awe as the Great and Powerful Trixie performs the most spectacular feats of magic ever witnessed by pony eyes!”

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow at the display in front of her as the showmare made her declaration with a second showing of fireworks like when she had made her introduction before the teleport. All in all, Rainbow thought that she should have stopped it with the appearing on stage since that was the harder trick. Any good showmare knew to end things on a high note.

The examination of this Trixie’s introduction made the pegasus roll her eyes. A few weeks ago when she and Pinkie had dragged Twilight out of her crazy room and gone pranking, the unicorn had explained the extent of her magic so they could work it into their plans. Teleportation was pretty high level stuff, while things like magical eruptions of light and sound was at the easier end of the spectrum; conjuration fell somewhere in the middle, depending on what the unicorn wanted to create.

Rainbow Dash was just surprised she actually managed to remember some of that stuff. But then again, it was all in the name of harmless pranking; and the pegasus lived for performing tricks, so Rainbow guessed it wasn't that odd. Having Twilight around so increased her options while that Failsafe spell she talked about also let the three of them not have to worry so much about causing damage.

“Ugh, what boasting,” a certain white unicorn said as she stood beside Dash.

“Yeah! No pony has as much magic as Twilight. She-oh! Uh, h-hey Rarity, didn’t quite see you there.”

Rainbow Dash looked over past her fancy friendly acquaintance, and over to the new pair of arrivals. Oh yeah, it’s almost lunch, she told herself when she saw Spike riding on Twilight’s back. The two of them always hung out for an hour or so before they grabbed a bite to eat. Twilight liked to call it ‘being a responsible parent’ even though Dash thought she was a little young to consider herself a mom. Still, it was cool how she was doing her best to look after the little guy.

Plus, it got her out of that freaky lab, which was definitely a good thing.

“Correct me if I’m wrong here girls,” Twilight spoke up. “But isn’t that what a showmare is supposed to do?”

Applejack took that opportunity to chime in with her opinion. “Well she ain’t got to be all high and mighty about it! Just cause she can do a few tricks don’t make her better than the rest of us!”

The declaration brought a look of shock and nervousness to Twilight’s face. “Applejack, this isn’t about what happened on your farm a few weeks ago, is it?” she asked before her whole body seemed to wilt. “Do you…resent me for that?”

“What?” AJ asked with wide eyes before rushing over to assure Twilight everything between them was fine with a hoof on her shoulder. “Course not sugar. I needed to be hogtied after knocking Rainbow around like that.”

Of course, she might have asked for help earlier if I hadn’t shot my mouth off when we were fighting over those Gala tickets, Rainbow reminded herself as she thought back to that day a few weeks ago. After crashing into Twilight‘s tree, the purple unicorn had come running out of her lab to see what was wrong, then dragged Rainbow Dash to Applejack’s farm after Dash explained everything…

“Dagnabbit Twilight! Put me down, ya hear?” Applejack shouted as she floated in midair, surrounded by a purple haze.

“LOOK AT YOURSELF!” The irate unicorn shouted, her eyes on the verge of tears. A second later, a mirror just appeared in a puff of smoke, and Applejack floated over to her reflection. “I understand you have your pride, and pride can be a good thing. Pride in your work, your abilities, your farm, it motivate you to keep everything in tip top shape. But too much pride is foolishness! AND WHEN YOUR PRIDE STARTS MAKING YOU HURT YOURSELF OR OTHER PONIES THROUGH CARELESSNESS, THAT’S WHERE I DRAW THE LINE!”

She pointed a hoof at the pegasus that Twilight had practically dragged to the farm. “Rainbow Dash crashed into my house and ruined over two dozen of her feathers thanks to that catapult stunt! What if she had broken a wing or something?”

Applejack looked at the other mare for a moment, then her gaze flickered to Rainbow Dash. “Yeah well…look…it’s just…I don’t want everypony to think all I want my friends to do is help me on the farm. Ya’ll ain’t a bunch of work horses after all,” she mumbled.

“What?” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. “AJ, Where in the hay did you get a stupid idea…oh, me…right,” Rainbow Dash said as she rubbed the back of her neck and averted her gaze from the farm pony.

“Just let her have her five minutes girls,” Twilight told them as she waved her hoof at them. “It’s not like this stuff is all that memorable anyway.”

“EXCUSE ME?”

The four Elements and one dragon turned their attention back to the showmare at her shout, and Dash found the blue unicorn glaring at the little group.

“Who are you to doubt the magic of the Great and Powerful Trixie? Do you wish to try and challenge the magical ability of the Great and Powerful Trixie?”

The annoyingly repetitive Trixie is more like it, Dash thought.

Twilight just shrugged at the invitation. “No thanks, ponies came here to see you do magic. Not me.”

“HA!” the other unicorn shouted as she reared in victory. “Clearly even an inbred country bumpkin like yourself can see Trixie’s superiority!”

“Y-You can’t talk that way about Twilight!” Spike told her as he pointed one of his claws at the unicorn.

“OKAY THAT’S IT!” Applejack shouted as she got in front of Twilight and the dragon, letting multiple snorts of air through her nose like a bull that had seen too much red, the cowpony glared at the magician. “Ah ain’t gonna just stand here and listen to another heap of this hogwallop!”

Twilight groaned and moved up to whisper into AJ’s ear. “Applejack, remember that pride thing we talked about earlier?”

Instead of becoming cowed, the farmer pony turned her head to face Twilight. “Yeah, and one of the things I take pride in is standing up for my friends when they’re getting bullied!”

Not one to be outdone, and Trixie being identified as one of the banes of her own existence, Rainbow Dash flew up next to the orange pony and shot the unicorn a challenging glare. “Same here!”

“Very well then, the Great and Powerful Trixie challenges all comers. Anything you can do, Trixie can do better!” she said before another set of magical fireworks exploded.

“Twilight, pleeeeeeeeheheheeeeeze just shut her up,” Spike begged.

For the first time since the whole mess began, Rainbow Dash saw Twilight’s calm break as she looked down at the pleading dragon with uncertainty. “Spike, it wouldn’t be fair. I… just let Trixie do her act, and we’ll go get lunch. Anything you want, I promise.”

“Fine, I’ll take the hayseed first,” the unicorn announced.

What followed was almost too painful to watch. Applejack did some of her trick roping using her tail and a lasso. When it came to be Trixie’s turn, she used her horn to make the rope move like a snake on one end to distract AJ while the other grabbed an apple. Then the magiced rope struck AJ’s legs before tying her up and shoving an apple in the earth pony’s mouth. The crowd laughed for a few moments, and then Applejack’s rope glowed with a purple aura before it was undone. Applejack left the stage in a sour mood.

“Once again, The Great and Powerful Trixie prevails,” the unicorn said as she struck her win pose with an extended hoof and a superior smirk while the crowd cheered.

Before Rainbow could dash up and challenge the jerk, the image of Twilight sitting on her haunches and knocking her hooves together stopped her. “Oh that was so amazing how you used basic telekinesis,” she said sarcastically.

A second later, Twilight turned to look at three of the unicorns standing behind her. “Lyra, Colgate, Sparkler,” she said with a frown. “You three could do the same thing, right?”

“Well…yeah,” Lyra admitted before adding, “not that I ever would!”

“True,” Colgate admitted.

Amethyst Star stared at the purple unicorn with an open mouth before she managed to close it a few seconds later. “WHAT? H-How do you know my real name-umph!”

“Um…we’ll talk later,” Twilight promised before removing her hoof from the mouth of the wide-eyed unicorn and turning back to the showmare. “You have proven to have the equivalent magical prowess of a seven-year-old filly. Congratulations.”

The sheer level of burn Twilight dished out with her comment had the showmare grinding her teeth. To add insult to injury, Rainbow Dash flew above the crowd and led them in an “Ooooooooooo!”

Trixie glared at Rainbow Dash for a few seconds, her horn glowed and the zany fireworks launchers began to respond again. “Oh please, a true master of magic does not use a hammer when a flyswatter will do,” she said. “But if you wish for a display of Trixie’s true magic prowess, BEHOLD! The tale of how Trixie vanquished the dreaded URSA MAJOR!”

As several fireworks went off behind her, the showmare started a story about how she had saved some town on the other side of the Everfree Forest from an attack by a celestial creature. But Dash lost all interest in the show when she saw Twilight standing there with her mouth hanging open. The sight made Rainbow Dash drop to the ground and tap the purple unicorn on the shoulder. “Uh Twilight, it isn’t all that impressive.”

“Come on Twilight, it’s just a bunch of inflated stories,” Spike told the mare.

Twilight didn’t even seem to hear them, and it was only thanks to the fact a pegasus’s ears were made to hear sound in harsh winds that she could even pick up a few words Twilight was muttering. “Now I remember you.”

Since it seemed the purple unicorn was out of it with one of her self-discussions, Rainbow took the opportunity to get in Trixie’s face. “So your saying your act stinks so bad it makes even monsters run for shelter.”

“How dare you!” the unicorn shrieked.

“Now if you want a light-show, I’ll give you a light-show,” Rainbow Dash told everypony before she flew off and began her newest routine. A few loops around a windmill for extra speed and three white clouds worth of rain later, and Rainbow was standing at her end of the stage with a transparent rainbow shimmering over her head while the crowd cheered. “They don’t call me Rainbow and Dash for nothing!”

“Oh when I’m done with you, the only thing they’ll be calling you is Rainbow Loser,” Trixie mumbled barely loud enough for Dash to hear before she felt an odd and intrusive tingling sensation on her skin.

A second later, the tingling stopped, and the world had taken on a familiar purple hue. Rainbow didn’t even need to look at Twilight to tell her the unicorn was the cause of it.

“W-What the? That’s a full spectrum defensive shield!” Trixie exclaimed.

“Did you honestly think I was going to let you sucker punch one of my friends again?” Twilight asked between gritted teeth. “That was what you were going to do, right?”

A second later, the shield surrounding Dash disappeared, and the world seemed to lurch before going all white. The next thing Rainbow Dash knew, she was standing behind Twilight and trying to keep her footing. Okay yeah, teleporting is not fun, the pegasus thought, glad she didn’t have any lunch to lose at the moment.

“Humph! Well…Trixie doesn’t have to answer such-”

“You said anything we can do, you can do better,” Twilight interrupted with a frown. “Applejack’s roping skills were purely physical, and she jumped through her own lasso several times without tripping up. You couldn’t even emulate her act properly. But I’d really like to see you try and craft weather that’s better than such a beautiful rainbow.”

Rainbow Dash leaned in closer to whisper into Twilight’s ear. “Go with cool Twi, it sounds better.”

For a moment, Trixie just stood there fuming. She looked over to the rainbow Dash had left on stage, then her horn started to glow. A trashcan appeared and the rainbow was surrounded by the pink color of Trixie’s magic. Her telekinesis spell simply crumpled the object up and threw it away. “Oh please, as if the Great and Powerful Trixie would stoop to using her awesome talents for such a boorish thing as weather work. It would be an insult to all unicorn-kind.”

This time, Rainbow noticed the reactions of the crowd were mixed. All of the pegasi in attendance fell somewhere between angry grumbles and scowls, while a few earth ponies had a snicker or two, and not even half the unicorns supported the showmare.

“So that’s it,” Twilight mumbled to herself before disappearing in a flash of light. She reappeared on stage, causing another disgruntled groan from Trixie. “You know Trixie, I never really understood you…and ponies like you before today.”

Then, strangely enough, she turned to look at her assembled friends with sadness in her eyes. “And I have to say, that misunderstanding caused some heartache to the ponies I cared about more than anything.”

“Any idea what she’s talking about?” Rarity asked.

“Nope,” the apple family pony replied.

“Not a clue,” Rainbow added.

Twilight looked back at the showmare and frowned. “There’s two types of entertainers in this world Trixie, the ones like you, and the ones like AJ and Rainbow.”

The statement made Trixie laugh. “Yes, the talented ones, and the fools. I’ll agree with you there.”

“There’s the kind that build ponies up, and the kind that tear them down,” Twilight corrected as she frowned at the other unicorn. “When fillies and colts see Applejack at a rodeo or doing some feat of heroism, or Rainbow doing her stunts and performing a Sonic Rainboom, they may say how amazing those ponies are, but it also gives them hope that one day they can grow up to be just as incredible. Sure, they brag and go on about their accomplishments, but those are the things that give ponies hope for a better future.”

Rainbow’s eyes widened, and she felt as if somepony had just bucked her in the gut. Escaping the legacy of her Sonic Rainboom was one of the reasons she had followed Fluttershy to Ponyville after dropping out of flight school. Well, that and the shy pegasus had needed somepony to look out for her, it was Fluttershy after all. But the fact that Twilight knew about the Rainboom...she didn’t even bother with the how and went straight to the fact that the unicorn had let out Dash’s dark secret.

If anypony in town found out that she couldn't do the Rainboom anymore, Dash’s reputation would be ruined!

“Then there’s ponies like you,” Twilight continued with a scowl darkening her face. “What really makes me sick about ponies like you Trixie, is that you could take your magic act and spread joy, and make ponies believe they can be amazing as well! But all you seem to do is tear other ponies down in order to build yourself up! You’re like a bucking parasite that feeds off the pain she creates!”

Of course, the showmare didn’t take the comparison very well at all. “You compare The Great and Powerful Trixie to some kind of…ugh, bug? Away! Trixie refuses to waste her time with you!”

Twilight scowled right back at her. “What? No demand that I put my bits where my mouth is? But then, you already know you’re outclassed. I can really teleport instead of having to hide behind smoke bombs, and you’ve seen the level of defensive magic in my book of spells. So how about I let you go first?

“No? Okay, how about I do this.”

The purple mare paused for a moment and closed her eyes, a second later she opened them, and they were glowing with a bright light. Rainbow Dash whistled at the cool special effect. She looked beside her to see Rarity’s mouth hanging open…along with the mouth of every other unicorn in the crowd. As for Trixie, the showmare looked like she wanted to crawl under the stage and hide.

“Sweet Celestia, I knew she had power but…no wonder she’s the student of the princess,” Rarity mumbled.

“Anything you conjure, I’ll make something ten times as complicated and a hundred times bigger.” Twilight’s horn lit up and exuded a flash. A second later, a stage twice as big as the one Trixie brought with her appeared out of thin air, dwarfing the traveling showmare’s and covering it in shadow.

“Shoot off your little fireworks, and I’ll show you something that rivals the sun in its brightness and beauty.” Twilight shot a burst of magic into the sky that exploded in the shape of her cutie mark before a rain of tiny stars gently fell down to the ground below.

“Lift up a few pounds with telekinesis, and I’ll turn this entire town into a floating island.” The glow of Twilight’s magic enveloped the entire crowd, and Rainbow Dash found herself rising into the air along with everypony else.

A part of her said to get out now. Rainbow didn’t like being mare-handled, and what Twilight was doing was worse than any time Applejack had ever dragged her by the tail somewhere she didn’t want to go.

But that feeling was soon drowned out by a strange, soothing sensation that told her everything was going to be okay. It wasn’t the invasive tingle that Trixie’s horn had caused, like a million little ants running over Rainbow’s skin. It was more like being wrapped up in a warm blanket on a cold winter’s day, or being in the forelegs of a mother after a bad day of flight camp. It was warm, and kind, and supportive. It was a promise that she would always be there for her friends.

It was the magic of Twilight Sparkle.

“Told you she could lift ponies with her magic Rarity,” Applejack said to the unicorn.

Apparently, the calming effect hadn’t just been for Rainbow Dash, as Rarity was no longer gobsmacked. “Yes well…Darling, you have no idea how impressive this really is.”

“What’cha talkin' about? I saw you haulin' a ton of apples when Twilight talked you into helpin' out on the farm,” the orange pony replied.

“Moving living creatures and moving plants is entirely different,” she explained. “I can lift tons of cloth and dresses, but the biggest living creature I can move without problems is my cat!”

“I’d blink a few ponies around, but conjuration is the limit of your magic, isn’t it?”

On the stage Twilight approached Trixie, who cowered low on the floor and gulped. “I…I just wanted to perform a magic show.”

“No. You wanted to laugh at a bunch of small town ponies who you thought were beneath you, and ruin a few reputations while boosting your own ego,” Twilight said as she got muzzle to muzzle with the other mare. “So the next time you want to put on your little act, I want you to remember what this feels like. I want you to remember when another pony made you look like a complete fool in front of others. Now get out of my town! And if I EVER hear about you doing something like you did to Applejack again, I’ll step on you like the bug you are!”

“Y-Yes Ms Twilight! Th-thank you oh Benevolent and Merciful Twilight! Allow me to pack up my stage, and I shall be gone within the hour!” Trixie assured the purple unicorn as she began running around the wagon-turned-stage before Twilight made her way off it and went back to normal while the conjured stage disappeared in a puff of smoke.

A second after she landed, the crowd erupted into cheers and Twilight blushed at the attention before looking away. The three other Elements in attendance ran up to her, along with one purple dragon.

“That. Was. Awesome!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

“Yes quite…effective Darling,” Rarity commented.

“Wow Twilight, I thought you were going to turn her into a pumpkin or something!”

On the stage, Trixie had apparently heard the last comment and gone stiff.

“Spike!” the unicorn exclaimed. “I’m not a monster!”

“Just monstrously powerful,” Applejack told her with a smile before slapping the unicorn on the back, causing Twilight to stumble forward and nearly fall to the ground.

“You guuuuuuuuys cut it out!” the monstrously powerful unicorn whined before her stomach grumbled for food. “Channeling Magic without my focus really takes it out of me.”

AJ let out another laugh and threw a foreleg around Twilight. “Then let’s head over to Sugarcube Corner and get some grub, my treat.”

“Agreed, a victory feast for the triumphant magician,” Rarity agreed.

“Sounds good to me,” Spike said as he jumped onto Twilight’s back.

With the sides of the unicorn becoming occupied with her friends, Rainbow Dash took the pegasus option and joined the entourage by going into the air. “So uh, Twilight, mind if I ask you something?”

“The Sonic Rainboom?” Twilight asked, although with all the cupcake in her mouth it came out much more garbled and full of crumbs.

Rainbow Dash fidgeted in her seat at Sugarcube Corner at the mention of her greatest triumph that she hadn’t been able to match since she was a filly, something that made every other achievement since then just seem hollow. “Yeah…um, how did you know…”

Thankfully, Twilight waited until she swallowed her food, which Pinkie quickly replaced before the pink pony also took her seat. She apparently hadn’t been at the show because there had been a rush for snacks when Trixie announced her magic act, and ponies wanted something to eat while watching it.

Fluttershy had also joined them since she was in the store as well. The mare had said she had seen the fireworks, and come into the store to hide from all the commotion.

“That it was you?” Twilight asked before a soft smile appeared on her face. “The day I took my entrance exam for The School for Gifted Unicorns, there was a bright flash of light and sound that boosted my magic and allowed me to hatch Spike’s egg. After everything was over, I was curious. So I spent a few days researching what had happened. I learned from weather reports there had been a colorful explosion of magic somewhere between Ponyville and Canterlot that left a rainbow contrail all the way from this town to Manehatten on March the 15th. The same day I got my cutie mark!”

For some reason Rainbow couldn’t understand Applejack spit out the milk she was drinking and swerved her head over to moved it between at the pegasus and the unicorn with wide eyes. “Say what?”

And she wasn’t the only one. Rarity had turned her attention to the prismatic pegasus, and Pinkie was actually struck speechless, frozen in movement halfway to her seat. The only one that didn’t seem to be stunned was Fluttershy, she just nodded and mumbled to herself. “So that’s what caused that loud bang.”

“Then I looked into it and found the only other pegasus to do a Sonic Rainboom was Commander Hurricane back before Equestria was even founded. So, it’s become something of a legend since then.” Twilight continued. “I saw an old painting of her in Canterlot Castle, she was a pegasus with a rainbow mane. When I saw you, then found out we were about the same age a few weeks ago…meaning you would have gotten your cutie mark around the same time for being fast…everything just clicked.”

Twilight let out a tiny giggle and she shook her head. “Of course being a filly, I pushed all of that aside a few days later instead of doing what I should have,” she said before pulling Spike closer to her. “I’m not foolish enough to think without that one moment I wouldn’t have found out what my talent was, but…if your Rainboom hadn’t of come at that precise moment, I would never have been able to hatch Spike’s egg, or pass my test. My knowledge of magic, my son, everything that has made my life worthwhile, I owe to you.”

Rainbow Dash found herself squirming uncomfortably in her seat as Twilight began to tear up. Thankfully, the unicorn bowed her head to the pegasus, breaking their eye contact. “And I’m so sorry it’s taken me so long to thank the little filly who gave me everything important in my life. Thank you Rainbow Dash.”

“Um…that’s…” Rainbow tried to think of something to follow in response to Twilight’s story, but just couldn’t come up with anything cool. “Hey, no problem Twilight.”

It came as no surprise that Pinkie was the one to break the stunned silence. “Whoa heavy,” she said before brightening up. “Hey, anypony want to hear how Dashie’s Rainboom got me my cutie mark? It’s got balloons and parties!”

As the ringing in her ears from Pinkie’s shout died, Rainbow Dash heard Twilight mumbling something to herself.

“Create better bonds faster…check.”

Author's Note

The magical term Abaracadabra is believed to come from an Aramaic phrase meaning “I create as I speak.”

Chapter 3: Here There Be Dragons

Spike ran his eyes over the various books in the library, mentally announcing to himself that everything was in order. Then he looked at the plant next to the door, it was an interesting plant, something that could hold his attention for a good fifteen seconds before his eyes wandered over to the windows.

“So you’re just going to ignore me, huh?”

The dragon gave a little jump and turned to look at the unicorn sitting on the chair in the library’s reading nook. She had come to the library mere minutes after Spike had flipped the closed sign to open, demanding to see Twilight about an incident that happened during Trixie’s magic show the day before. However, since few ponies came into the library so early in the morning, Twilight had been down in her lab and needed to start the rather long process of resetting the numerous wards that protected it just like every time she came and went from the room for any long period of time.

The pink unicorn didn’t seem to like the lack of attention. But then, she didn’t seem to like much of anything in equal amounts, so Spike was able to find some contentment in the fact she at least hadn’t gotten any angrier in the past several minutes. So, Amethyst Star just sat there was a frown on her face that had been there since she came in. The ill tempered unicorn rolled her eyes at Spike’s nervous reaction and sighed. “Go ahead and ask.”

“Hmmm? Oh right, your name,” Spike replied. When the unicorn had come over, Twilight had been referring to her as Sparkler, but Spike had met every pony in town, and he knew the unicorn with the pink coat had introduced herself as something else a few days ago. “So, if your name’s Amethyst Star, then how come Twilight’s calling you Sparkler?”

The unicorn’s mouth twitched in irritation and she looked over to the other unicorn in the room as Twilight continued to reset the seals of magic on her lab to keep out anypony who tried to pry around. “It’s because it’s my real name. Although how she knows that-”

“I like to talk to your mother,” Twilight said without turning around as she continued to work her magic on the door.

Amethyst/Sparkler’s eyes widened in shock and she turned her head to look at Twilight. “W-What?”

A second later, Twilight’s horn stopped glowing and she trotted over to stand next to the seat Spike was using. “I talk to your mom. You…came up in conversation when I accidentally asked Ditzy if she had any children; using the plural I mean. She…kind of let it slip. Then she told me about you.”

“She…she knows who I am?” the other unicorn asked softly, her level of confusion showing her as completely lost plain as day.

“Well, I think the age difference confused her at first…not to mention me,” Twilight added. “Ditzy says you’re only supposed to be sixteen years old, but if you’re living on your own then you’ve got to be at least eighteen.”

The other unicorn broke eye contact and slumped in her seat. “Um…yeah…that,” she mumbled without any of the usual steam.

Twilight tilted her head. “I’ll admit, I am pretty stumped on that. Ditzy may be…well, ditzy, but no mother would forget something like her daughter’s age. So…what happened? If you don’t mind me asking that is.”

Sparkler crossed her forelegs and sighed. “Well, when you’ve been bounced around in the system for as long as I have, you learn how it all works. A little form here, a name mess-up there, put down one number instead of sixteen in a little box, a few days working as a janitor at a new orphanarium until Amethyst Star has a birthday, and boom. I’m on my own early and happy for it.”

The explanation had Twilight giving the unicorn a disbelieving look that Spike had seen one too many times back in Canterlot when she had performed an experiment without getting the results she wanted. This time the confusion was evident on her face, like the anger in her voice. “You can’t honestly tell me this is all a result of some…some clerical error!”

“Of course not,” Sparkler assured her. “I forged the papers myself. Copied the magic seal and everything.”

“WHAT?” Twilight shouted. “How in the hay…you can’t just do something like that! How did you do it? There…there’s got to be some kind of system or…checks…or…something!”

Sparkler rolled her eyes. “Oh please, it’s not like anypony cares enough to check to see if everything matches up once you‘re actually in the system,” she said before her tone became noticeably darker. “A few unicorns from Canterlot will come around a make sure a few foals everypony can see get shipped off to some hole in the wall where nopony will bother to look! Then there’s a grade school education, and Equestria’s child care centers have an endless supply of cheap labor since everypony thirteen and up is expected to work.”

From his spot on the sidelines, Spike could only watch as the pink and purple unicorns conversed. While Twilight just sputtered over the information, trying to cite things about donations to the orphanage from Canterlot ponies and a few notable unicorns who’d been orphans yet gone on to do amazing things, Sparkler had an answer to everything like ‘a million bits divided fifteen ways and handed out only every few years didn’t amount to much’ and ‘yeah, the ones with magic talents who got adopted’.

As Twilight seemed to hit a wall in the conversation, a thought occurred to Spike. They had mentioned the gray mailmare at the beginning of the conversation, but the younger unicorn had successfully sidetracked and distracted Twilight in a way that she wouldn’t be righting anytime soon. “So um…if you and your mom are in Ponyville,” Spike spoke up, “how come you haven’t gone to see her? I mean, you came here looking for her, right?"

As Spike talked, the mare’s expression went through a myriad of emotions. First she seemed almost surprised when he began talking, then afraid, and anger replaced fear when Spike asked his final question.

“Are you kidding me?” she shouted when he finished. “I didn’t bucking know she was here! This was just the closest place to Canterlot and the train tickets cost the least. Plus, ponies come to small towns like this cause they want to breed, which means foalsitting jobs. It’s the only thing I learned how to do while in the system that doesn’t make me want to gag.”

Spike found his gaze drifting to Twilight for a moment as the unicorn stood there silently, then back to Sparkler. “Then why don’t you go see her?”

“WHY THE HAY SHOULD I?” Sparkler demanded. “She…she just bucking gave me up!”

“She only did that because it was what was best for you!” Twilight told her. “She couldn’t take care of a foal on her own!”

“THEN WHY DOES SHE HAVE DINKY?” Sparkler wailed, causing Twilight to step back when the other unicorn looked into the purple one’s eyes. “If she couldn’t take care of me, then why does she have another filly now?”

The question seemed to cow Twilight, making the purple unicorn droop her ears and her stance. “Well…maybe…I…well…I’m not sure. I…I didn’t really ask him too many questions along those lines,” she mumbled with a lowered head.

Spike took a deep breath, and took some time to think about how to explain something to the pink unicorn. After a few minutes, he was ready.

“Twilight is my mother,” the dragon said, causing the aforementioned unicorn’s head to whip around with wide eyes before he dropped his gaze to the ground. “But she hatched me from an egg when she was five years old. She couldn’t even really take care of herself, let alone me,” he said in a low voice. “But we got lucky, and Princess Celestia took care of me till Twilight was ready to look after me for most of the time. Even then, I thought of her as more of a sister than anything else. But since we’ve come to Ponyville, and it’s just been us, she’s checking on me, and making sure I eat right, and go to bed on time, and dozens of other things, and…I have to make a conscious effort not to call her Mom these days.”

Twilight mumbled the dragon’s name, but whatever she said to herself afterwards was completely covered up by the other unicorn's irate tone. “So do you have a point, or are you just bragging?”

“I said we got lucky when Princess Celestia took me in, so I could be with my mother until she was ready to actually be my mom. I know it must not seem fair to you, but…I think your mom is ready now. If you…want her, I mean.”

Sparkler’s face went from pure anger to a soft frown, and she looked down at the floor before she let out a sigh. “I…”

When Sparkler just froze after her first word, Twilight came over to place a hoof on the teenager’s shoulder. “It’s not like you have to decide right now Sparkler, but…I think you should know the option is open for you. And…I know for a fact nothing would make your mother happier than getting to call you her daughter again. And something tells me, you’d like to call her Mom.”

The pink unicorn looked up at Twilight with a frown that Spike was starting to think was her natural expression. She let out another long sigh, and seemed to deflate as the angry tension just leaped out of her. “I…I’ll think about it,” she said before becoming hesitant. “Umm, are you going to tell anypony? About how old I am, I mean.”

Not even a second passed before Twilight shook her head. “No. Although, I would like to make a trip to your house to…check on things. Make sure you’re settled in and all that.”

“Why?”

“You’re Ditzy’s daughter, and she’s my friend,” Twilight answered her simply, as if those few words could explain everything.

Apparently, it was enough for Sparkler, who turned to look at Spike quizzically. “You know, you seem a little smart for a baby.”

The comment got a groan from the dragon. “Oh for crying out…I’m a dragon! I look young cause I’m small! Twilight hatched me almost fifteen years ago!”

Sparkler’s eyes widened as she looked over to Spike’s mother. “He’s rounding up a little too soon. He’s just fourteen and change really.”

“Then why do you call him a baby?” the teenage unicorn asked.

Twilight giggled and moved over to hug the dragon and kissed him on the head. “Hey, he may grow too big to fit in the library one day, but even when it’s him carrying me around on his shoulder or in a claw, Spike will always be my baby.”

“Mooooooom!” the dragon whined while the pony nuzzled him with affection.

Chapter 3: Here There Be Dragons

It was in the much too early hours of the morning that Spike found himself being dragged out of his bed by his mother. Despite his attempts to stay asleep, the purple unicorn removed him from the mattress that had replaced Spike’s basket bed and set him on her back. As if that awakening wasn’t bad enough, the moment Twilight opened the window to let some air in, the Music of Harmony began to play and promised Spike he wouldn’t be getting back to sleep anytime soon.

Morning in Ponyville shimmers

Morning in Ponyville shi~nes

And I’ll make absolute certain

That everything will certainly be fine!

There's the Mayor en route to her office

There's the sofa clerk selling some quills

My Pony~ville is so gentle and still

Can things ever go wrong?

Not if I have a say they will

And there’s the Time Lord, practicing his trade

With Sparkler making nice my debt to him has been re~paid

Morning in Ponyville shimmers

Morning in Ponyville shi~nes

And I’ll make absolute certain

That everything will certainly be fine!

Every po-ny I meet, is scared and on the run

Panicked about the smog that just blocked out the suuuuuuuuuuuuun!

“Morning in Ponyville-wait, smog?”

Twilight blinked and the music of harmony came to a screeching halt as she noticed the huge cloud of smoke coming from a distant mountain. The lavender unicorn let out a loud groan. “Bucking dragon squatters,” she mumbled.

“Say Wha-BURP!” Spike managed to get out before a bust of fire erupted from his mouth.

The second the scroll appeared in the air, Twilight snatched it up with her magic and opened the letter from the princess. “”Dear Twilight, bla bla bla…” the unicorn said to herself before the paper erupted in flames not of Spike’s make and the already unpleasant scowl on Twilight’s face became one of pure rage as she let out a snort that practically bellowed smoke.

With all the trepidation he could muster, Spike looked over to his mother and gulped. “So…um, what's the princess have to say?”

“Apparently, our all-powerful princess protector plans to have me take a baker, a seamstress, a farmer, and an animal caretaker to go fight off a dragon,” Twilight grumbled. She spent a few more seconds just looking at nothing, and then turned her head to glare up at Canterlot. “I can’t believe she just expects us to just canter right into a dragon’s cave and ask him to leave! It’s like she’s trying to get my friends…” Twilight stopped and her frown turned pensive. “No, even Celestia wouldn’t do that.”

Spike frowned at the comment. “What wouldn’t Princess Celestia do?”

Twilight turned her head to look back at her son out of the corner of her eye, and smiled. “It’s nothing Spike,” she assured him. “Just our glorious sun goddess of a leader being a total moron again.”

It was a little disturbing to Spike how easily he had gotten used to Twilight badmouthing Celestia when she did nothing but sing her praises a few weeks ago. But, after meeting Sparkler and seeing how she acted before the unicorn had gotten back together with her pegasus mother, Spike was willing to chalk his own mother’s attitude towards their ruler as some kind of late blooming rebellious phase brought on by Celestia’s absence.

There was also something else on the dragon’s mind. Judging by what Twilight had said, Celestia had wanted the Elements of Harmony to go take care of the dragon, but there was a job missing on the list of employment descriptions. “What about Rainbow Dash? Aren’t you mad about her being told to go fight?”

“Well no,” Twilight told her son. “Me and her can handle a dragon.” Then, the unicorn looked back up towards the mountain and frowned. “And it’s not like I don’t want to give this jerk a piece of my mind! I marked that cave as your lair weeks ago!”

“W-What?” Spike said as the angry declaration rang in his ears. The image of his mother throwing Spike into some dank cave ran through his mind, bringing a severe amount of dread as he imagined Twilight just casting him aside. “You’re planning to kick me out and make me go live in a cave?”

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Twilight’s eyes widened, and Spike found himself being floated to the ground before Twilight wrapped her forelegs around her son. “Oh Spike,” she told him before the hug ended and she held him at leg length. “It’s for when you get too big to wander around Ponyville, and that’s not going to happen for another two hundred years.”

While Spike digested the unicorn’s words, Twilight Sparkle used her magic to set him on her back again. “Now let’s go get the girls and make some plans.”

As she turned her head around, a thought ran through Spike’s mind. It was a thought that sometimes came up every now and then over the years, but he did his best not to pay it any mind. Two hundred years…that’s right…I’ll live to be two hundred…and Twilight…won’t.

“And that’s what’s going on,” Twilight said to the ponies assembled at the liberty. “So to sum it all up, Princess Celestia apparently can’t be bothered to save Equestria from eternal darkness again, and she stuck us with the job, AGAIN.”

As usual whenever the subject of Celestia came up, the purple unicorn looked about two shakes short of a volcanic eruption. Applejack quickly found something interesting on the floor to look at to avoid Twilight’s glare. Although in truth, the farm pony did kind of understand where Twilight was coming from. Applejack had been raised knowing that Celestia watched all over all of Equestria and would always be there to protect each and every one of the ponies.

Only…when Nightmare Moon appeared, she hadn’t done anything. Now there was a dragon causing trouble, and Twilight Sparkle was the one left to tend to the problem again.

For one who followed Celestia like Applejack, it was a hard realization wouldn’t be there to help them out of jams when they needed her. But it was also a bit empowering to know the sun goddess trusted the farmer and her friends to stand on their own.

It was pretty obvious to anypony that looked Twilight was in the former camp 100%.

“I’ll prepare my ensemble immediately darling,” the white unicorn said.

Twilight raised an eyebrow at Rarity and her willingness to volunteer. “That’s very nice of you Rarity, but I assure you all, Rainbow Dash and myself will be enough to handle this,” she assured the unicorn.

“No!” Rarity told her. “I have no intention of just waiting around in my shop while my friends rush off into danger. If you do not have a task for me Twilight, then I am going with you.”

The argument stunned Twilight for a moment. She raised an eyebrow at the other unicorn. “You know, it’ll be a hard trek up a mountain, and the dragon lives in a cave. A dirty, smog filled cave with who knows what-”

“Dirt,” Rarity began before she shivered for an instant, “washes off. Besides, if we hope to have any hope of talking this dragon into relocating, I am by far the most charming. And, if we must resort to bribery, I can offer him my gem finding skills as payment.”

Apparently conceding to the other unicorn, Twilight looked over to the pink pony. “Pinkie Pie, the ponies in town will be worried and I need you to help keep their minds off the dragon. Can you do it?”

“Rodger dodger ma’am!” Pinkie said as she saluted. As soon as Twilight looked away, she lowered her head and muttered to herself so softly only the earth pony standing next to her could hear. “And I wanted to make a Skyrim joke when we met the dragon.”

Then, the purple pony turned to Fluttershy, who was still trembling from hearing the news about the dragon. “I know we said its not a fire, but when animals see smoke, that’s going to be their first thought. Can you keep the wildlife around Ponyville calm while we’re gone Fluttershy?”

For some reason Applejack couldn’t understand, the news the task of dealing with crazed animals whipped into a frenzy by the fear of fire seemed to calm the butter colored pegasus. She stopped shaking entirely, and even stood up straighter than she normally did. “I can handle that.”

“Applejack,” Twilight said “I need you to-”

Seeing where this was headed, which was probably some assignment to go watch the farm, the orange pony cut the unicorn off. “Ah’ll pack us plenty of supplies and meet ya’ll there,” she said before Twilight could finish.

“Ap-”

“Ah’d better be goin,” Applejack continued before Twilight could protest. “Sweet Apple Acres is on the way there, so there’s no reason Ah should come meet up with ya’ll in town.” Then she quickly headed out the door and turned a corner so Twilight couldn’t magic her still.

“AAAAAH! THAT STUBBORN PONY! I THOUGHT WE FIXED THAT!”

“Are you sure you don’t want to stay here? Last chance before we start climbing.”

Spike frowned at his mother’s question and leaned over to look her in the eye from his place on her back. “You’re going to try and talk a dragon into leaving his home, don’t you think you should be taking a dragon with you when you do?”

Of course, Spike wasn’t going to tell Twilight he was also going because he wanted a chance to finally meet another dragon. Ever since Twilight’s lecture to the foals on dragons, Spike had been curious about meeting a real one instead of just getting the information secondhoof from his mom.

He had heard dozens of stories about them in Canterlot that varied from tales of monstrous beasts to civil dragons like himself. It wasn’t till Twilight explained to all the foals about dragon greed that things started to make sense. Now Spike was thinking that all the stories might be true, despite their contradictions. Apparently, dragons could grow up rather fast by giving into their baser instinct of greed, but would be little more than oversized brutes not even capable of speech.

Spike shuddered at the thought of becoming like that.

“Are you cold Spike?” Twilight asked him, drawing the dragon out of his musings.

For a moment he just shook his head, but realizing Twilight couldn’t see him, Spike made to answer verbally. “Uh, Mom, I breath fire. Cold isn’t really a problem when you’ve got an internal heater. But I was wondering…is this dragon feral?”

Thankfully, Twilight didn’t seem to notice his nervousness at the thought of a wild dragon that was little more than a rabid eating machine that liked to collect junk. “Probably not, he just came in last night and didn’t make any noise that would have awoken the town like roars to carve out his territory.”

Spike nodded, then thought that over for a moment. “So…that means he doesn’t have a hoard?”

“WHAT?” Rarity shrieked.

The outburst grabbed Twilight’s attention for a moment, then she looked back to Spike. “Not necessarily. He could just be looking for a place to nap away from the rest of the flock…herd…pack…dragon-flight? Come to think of it, I’ve never really asked a dragon what they call their social gatherings,” she mumbled before turning to Rarity. “And why should it matter if he has a hoard or not?”

“Oh come now Twilight, I’ve heard that dragons keep the most beautiful gems within their lairs,” Rarity explained as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Just think of all the ensembles I could design.”

Twilight’s eye twitched at the explanation as her tone soured. “You got to be kidding me. You’re here for loot?”

“Well, it would be a nice bonus,” Rarity admitted with a little blush coloring her cheeks.

From her place beside the white unicorn, Applejack scoffed. “Rarity, if we’re going to be taking anything home, it should be decided with Need before Greed!” the farm pony explained. “And my family has a powerful need to pay off the mortgage.”

For her part, Twilight stopped trotting to face-hoof at her friend’s conversation. Then she looked up to Rainbow Dash with a frown. “Please don’t tell me you’re here for bits too.”

“Nah,” Rainbow assured her as she crossed her forelegs and shook her head while floating in the air. Right as Twilight sighed in relief, the pegasus finished her thought. “I’m here for the title: Dragonslayer Rainbow Dash! It’s like, twenty-percent cooler than just my name alone, and I think I can add The Awesome in front of it.”

“Wow…just…wow,” Twilight mumbled as she slumped to the ground and shook her head. “Okay, Rainbow Dash! You’re going to be kicking the dragon out of the cave, not slaying it! Rarity, we are not here for swag! And AJ…look, if you need help with the farm, well…I can write Princess Celestia and see if she can help out since we did save the bucking world.”

The farm pony held up her hooves. “Now hold on there Twi, that was different than this.”

The unicorn stomped her hooves and glared AJ in the eye. “Yes! It was a much more dangerous mission where the fate of the world rested in the balance! This is just Equestria! Buck, the last time Princess Luna and Celestia saved the continent, the ponies made them fullon royalty instead of just glorified guardians!”

“Hmmm, Princess Rarity,” the unicorn mumbled. “I have to admit, the idea does strike me as…pleasant.”

“Feh, are you kidding me? Having to sit around and listen to boring ponies yak all day about nothing?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Plus, have you seen how wide Celestia’s flanks are? The things probably creates a drag when she flies thanks to that royal diet and all her sitting. No thanks!”

Rarity let out a gasp. “Rainbow! You do not call a princess’s flanks wide!”

For a second it looked like Applejack was going to add her own comment, but Twilight interrupted her. “BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

Spike let out a startled cry and abandoned his ride as Twilight fell onto her side and clutched her stomach while she let out an uproarious laugh and rolled around. After what had to have been at least two minutes, the purple unicorn finally stopped laughing and started gasping for air. Once she was fully recovered, Twilight looked over to the others and grinned. “Oh mare did I need that,” she said before letting out another snicker. “Air dragging flanks, only you Rainbow. Hehehehe.”

“Yeah I know I’m cool, now let’s go buck a dragon out of Spike’s retirement home,” she said, “or whatever it is.”

Sometimes, it really bucked to have ground bound ponies as friends. They couldn’t come to a cloud house to hangout, didn’t understand the sensitivity of a pegasus’s wings, and always grumbled about the cold before throwing logs on a fire to turn a perfectly comfortable room into a sauna. But the thing that annoyed Rainbow Dash the most, epically now, was that they were so bucking slow!

Twilight, Applejack and Rarity trudged up the mountain, with Spike riding on his mother’s back while reading a map and giving directions every now and then since he was the navigator.

Rainbow Dash groaned as she flapped her wings at the slowest pace she ever had to keep pace with the others. It didn’t help her mood at all that the destination they had was just a two minute flight away. In two measly minutes, she could fly up to the top of the mountain and take care of everything!

In fact, that’s what I’m gonna do, she reasoned before beginning to increase her speed.

“So when are we going to get to see your Sonic Rainboom, Rainbow Dash?”

The question made Rainbows wings spasm and she found herself falling for a moment. Thankfully, she wasn’t above the mountain path and the pegasus only dropped fifty feet instead of landing on the ground like a total loser. When she got back up to eye level with the others, the pegasus found Twilight just looking at her with a neutral expression. “Uh, sorry, wing cramp.”

She quickly regretted the cover up, as Twilight’s eyes went wide, and the next thing she knew, a magenta glow surrounded the pegasus and jerked her over until there was ground under her hooves. “Whoa!”

“Are you okay? Are your wings hurt? You haven’t been practicing the Sonic Rainboom in secret since I mentioned it last week, have you?” Twilight asked at a pace faster than Rainbow could keep up.

The last one made the pegasus stop her struggling in Twilight’s grip. Mostly because she was absolutely right. “W-What? Why would I need to practice the Sonic Rainboom? I did it when I was a filly and-” The weird magical aura of Twilight’s glowed brighter, and Rainbow Dash found there was no more sound coming out of her mouth.

“Twilight…how are you doing that?” Rarity asked as she examined Rainbow's face.

“I neutralized the vibrations in the air that cause sound around Rainbow’s mouth,” she replied without looking away from the pegasus. “And Rainbow it’s okay, I know you can’t do the Sonic Rainboom anymore.”

Inside Twilight’s magical grip, Rainbow Dash visibly flinched before she tried to argue with the nerd. Once again, nothing came out of her mouth no matter how loud she tried to yell. ARG stupid Twilight! This is so not fair! How in the hay am I supposed to argue with her when I can’t talk!

There was also the fact that Twilight just went out and told everypony Rainbow Dash’s biggest secret, the failure she had been so careful to hide from everypony in town. That stung worse than the time she crashed into a hornet’s nest.

She could already see other ponies laughing about how she had been a better flier as a filly than she was now. In fact, the first one of the lot was snickering from beneath her hat. Although Rarity had found something else to put her attention on. Then there was Twilight for sticking her in this position. She was…

…glaring at Applejack?

“Cut it out AJ,” she told the mare evenly.

The earth pony looked over to Twilight and raised an eyebrow. “Pardon?”

“I don’t like it when anypony laughs at another pony,” she said.

Applejack rolled her eyes. “Oh come on Twilight, RD just floating up there kicking like a helpless foal is-”

“I don’t remember Rainbow Dash laughing when I made you look like a helpless foal back on your own farm,” Twilight interrupted, “or when Trixie dressed you up like a pig with an apple in its mouth. The rest of the town was laughing and cheering at your humiliation, but your friends were silent. So you will show her the same courtesy!”

Then Twilight looked over to Rarity for a moment, who was looking at a rock wall she apparently found fascinating. “Umm weren’t you laughing at Princess Celestia’s-”

“Do you see Princess Celestia anywhere around here?” the purple unicorn nearly shouted. “No? Good! Because what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.”

“And you!” she said before spinning to face Rainbow, “I know you can’t do the Sonic Rainboom because I’ve been to each of your showoff sessions since I came to Ponyville, and you haven’t tried, or even mentioned it.”

Her expression softened and she let the pegasus go to float in the air. “And I want to help you do it again. I want to see it again…or, for the first time really, since I just heard it the first time and was caught up in its wave of positive energy,” Twilight said with a small smile. “I just want to help you Rainbow.”

The explanation and the offer cooled Rainbow’s temper. Of course she does, the pegasus told herself. Ever since she came to Ponyville, all Twilight seemed to do was try and help other ponies when she wasn‘t cooped up in her lab. A few days ago she had even gotten that derpy mailmare and one of her kids back together, Ditzy hadn’t stopped singing the unicorn’s praises since. I didn’t even know Ditzy had another unicorn filly.

“Look Twilight, thanks for the offer, but-”

“I’ve read three books on aerodynamics, five on pegasus flight, two on the magic of pegasi themselves, and written a book-I mean, written a paper on a book I, uh read about the Sonic Rainboom itself,” she told Rainbow before the pegasus could utter another word.

Rainbow Dash blinked…several times. “There’s a book about the Sonic Rainboom?”

The question seemed to throw Twilight off for a second, as her eyes widened and she shook her head. “Oh! No, no it’s a uh…scroll! Yeah a scroll, all the way back from when Equestria was founded. You see, Commander Hurricane and…um…Clover the Clever! Yeah, the pegasi commander and the unicorn arch-mage worked together to publish a scroll about the commander’s greatest achievement. She thought it would help inspire other pegasi.”

“That…that might actually be useful,” Rainbow Dash muttered after mulling it over for a few moments. Sure the rest of that stuff didn’t appeal to her, but if the last pegasus to do it had written an instruction manual on the Sonic Rainboom, then she might be up to it. “Thanks Egghead.”

Surprisingly, Twilight just beamed at the insulting nickname.

An extremely excruciating hour of flying slower than a snail later, and they finally reached the dragon’s cave. As per the plan, Rainbow Dash used her weather expertise to blow away the smoke and create an area of fresh air close to the ground.

Once the air cleared and she could see inside, Rainbow Dash took a quick look around from the entrance. As far as caves went…she didn’t really know how this one ranked since she was hardly an expert on the subject, but there were a few natural pillars that and other half-formed pillars she thought were called stalag-somethings.

She could also see the dragon, the very big…red…snoring dragon, who looked like he could swallow a pony in one gulp. Okay, maybe this whole go buck a dragon thing wasn’t such a good idea. But, it wasn’t like she could back out with her friends standing there, watching her. “Uh Twilight, you sure Princess Celestia didn’t send a care package with the Elements of Harmony with your orders?”

The purple unicorn stared at Dash for what seemed like forever with wide eyes and a stunned mouth. Then, she reared up to shake her hooves beneath her head in an angry fashion and let out a frustrated yell while Spike tumbled off her back. “GAAAAAAAH! WHY DIDN’T I THINK OF THAT?”

“Uh…Twilight...darling?” Rarity asked when he unicorn began to bang her head against the nearest rock.

“Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!”

When all of the other ponies looked on in confusion, Spike sighed and shook his head. “Yeah…she’s been doing that from time to time lately.”

“Okay, let’s go buck this dragon in his-”

“NO!” Twilight yelled, apparently recovered from her earlier bout of insanity. She rushed up to grab Rainbow Dash by her shoulders and held the mare in their grip for a moment. “First I’m going to try and talk to him, then we buck him out, or offer him a bribe like Rarity suggested if he’s at least willing to talk.”

Rarity raised a questioning eyebrow. “Pray tell, why do you think why are you so sure we’ll be needing to resort to the second option anyway darling?”

“Because this cave was already reserved for Spike,” Twilight explained for the second time that day. “No dragon with any manners would sleep here unless they were very inconsiderate.”

“Then why are we even botherin’ to talk to-”

“Because I’ve got to set a good example for Spike,” Twilight replied before she put the dragon on her back again and trotted into the cave while the others watched from the entrance.

“Excuse me Mr. Dragon,” the purple unicorn called out, awakening the creature from its slumber. “Yes, I’m here on orders from Princess Celestia, and would kindly ask you to take your nap somewhere else. You see, this cave is clearly marked as belonging to Spike here and-”

The dragon looked down at the purple duo and frowned.

“This little thing claims this cave? In that case, he won’t have a problem when I crush him into paste.”

A new, bright light filled the cave, and Twilight’s voice seemed to reverberate inside Rainbow’s skull despite the distance.

“Oh, you did NOT JUST THREATEN MY SON!”

“Whoa Nelly, I know what’s coming next,” Applejack said before she got away from the entrance to avoid any crossfire from whatever wrath of Luna that Twilight was about to visit upon that poor critter.

But instead of the mountain well…exploding, or something, Twilight just appeared outside the cave in a flash of light, then floated Spike over to Applejack with her magic. “Keep Spike safe AJ. Rainbow, you’re with me,” the god-mode unicorn said before they both disappeared in a flash of light.

Although she was away from the entrance, Applejack could still hear the voices.

“Now you’re going to feel a weird tingle, but just go with it.”

“Huh? Whoa I…

“WHAT THE HAY?”

“Yeah yeah, you always wondered and all that, let’s just hit him!”

What the hay was-Applejack managed to think before a rather loud bang, lots of crashes, and what sounded like a dragon roaring made her whole body shake.

“PIN HIS TAIL, HIS TAIL!”

“Hey! This is the first time I’ve had these weird things, okay?”

“Then use your feet!”

“WHAT ARE FEET?”

There was another crash, followed by a few roars, and a gout of fire came out of the cave, followed by the red dragon running on all fours.

“Y-You big bullies! I was just trying to nap!”

Applejack blinked in confusion at the comment, wondering what in tarnation had been going on in there. A few seconds later, she got her answer.

A dragon slightly larger than the first stuck her head out of the cave and raised a closed claw to shake it at the retreating dragon. The really odd thing was the blue coloring of the dragon’s scales, and that each of the spines on her back was a different color that ran the full spectrum of the…rainbow.

“YEAH YOU BETTER RUN!”

No…there is no bucking way, Applejack told herself as her eyes tried to pop out of her head at the sight.

Rarity didn’t seem to be faring much better. She simply stood there with her mouth hanging open.

A second later, another dragon poked her head out of the cave. This one was of a purple color with a long horn sticking out of the middle of her head and glowing eyes. She let out a groan and face-clawed.

“Rainbow the thumb goes outside the other claws when making a fist.”

Applejack was only aware of her legs going out from under her when her plot his the ground. “R-Rainbow? Twilight? But…you…HOW?”

The purple dragon looked back down with her creepy glowing eyes.

“Hm? Oh, I know a spell that lets me turn ponies into any nearby creature. That reminds me, Rarity can you come closer? It’s easier to change back when I have a template to work off of.”

The question seemed to shock Rarity back to reality by the way her neck snapped up. “What? Oh! Right! Yes, of course darling. Be right there,” she said before trotting over to the glowing eyed one horned purple pony-eater…if Twilight ate ponies that is.

A second later, Twilight the dragon was replaced by Twilight the unicorn. Then, she stretched and got several pops in her back. “Ugh, transformations are always bad on the spine. Okay Rainbow, you’re up, we just need Fluttershy to…uh oh.”

“What?”

Twilight gave a nervous laugh, and looked back up at Rainbow Dash. “Um…you may be kind of a little, tiny bit…stuck like that until we can find a pegasus to help change you back….sorry,” she apologized with a sheepish grin.

“Meh, it’s okay Twi….I…oh I got me some ideas for this new look anyway.”

Although she knew it was her friend saying that, the grin filled with carnivorous teeth bigger than her own body sent a shiver down Applejack’s spine.

“Oh no you don’t! You’re staying here until I can get another pegasus to come up here and help change you back!” the unicorn exclaimed.

“AWWW come on, Cloud Kicker has been annoying me with all her talk about banging and-”

Twilight glared up at the dragon and acted as if to hop up, then looked at her empty back with a frown for moment before turning her attention back to Rainbow. “ABSOLUTELY NOT! YOU ARE NOT GOING ANYWHERE NEAR PONYVILLE LOOKING LIKE THAT! DO YOU WANT TO GIVE EVERYPONY IN TOWN A HEART ATTACK?”

The much larger dragon recoiled at being berated by Twilight, then let out a sigh of defeat.

“Fine.”

With Rainbow Dash promising to remain in the cave for the time being, and Rarity staying there to watch her, Twilight motioned Applejack to follow her back to town. A tug on her mane reminded the earth pony of her passenger, and she looked over as Spike’s gaze lingered on Rainbow, then moved to Twilight, then back to the dragon for a few more moments before he looked down at himself.

“Everything okay Spike?” Applejack asked.

“I…um…yeah,” the dragon answered with an absent tone. “I was just…thinking is all.”

Author's Note

Another day another chapter. Had to rehash an idea after the breezies episode to salvage the one good thing about it.

Don't know when I'll be able to update next since the next chapter is going to be a bigger diversion from the path as Twilight faces her biggest problem as a time traveler: something occurring that never happened before! Expect lots of panic attacks.

Chapter 4: The Cruelest Joke

Rarity dug through the rather gargantuan pile of swag, picking up the most exquisite gems and jewelry. She had to admit, for an awful brute that stole little Spike’s future home, the dragon who had been here before possessed a fair amount of good taste.

It was quite the shame that such a trait wasn’t ingrained in their species.

“Hey this looks kind of cool.”

The unicorn flinched at the loud sound, and looked back to her current companion that blocked her exit to the cave. Despite the hour they’d been digging, she still hadn’t gotten used to Rainbow Dash being…

Celestia who am I kidding? I can’t get used to Rainbow Dash when she’s a pegasus either, the unicorn told herself. If anything, she was worse when they were closer on the species chart. The mare was just so bucking abrasive! She had absolutely no tact, and her mane! It was so unfair that the mane with the most potential Rarity had ever seen in a pony belong to that…that pseudo-stallion!

The only good point Rarity could even think of to counter all her flaws was the pegasus’s dazzling flying abilities, but even those were put to waste thanks to the fact Rainbow only seemed to care about doing fast stunts instead of using her one of a kind contrail to create works of art in the air. If it wasn’t for her Wonderbolts obsession, Rarity wouldn’t have been surprised if Rainbow could have already been a famous aerial acrobat with a special act designed around her unique personality instead of the conformity that was the Wonderbolts.

It wasn’t as if she disliked Rainbow Dash…that much. Rainbow had many good qualities like her bravery after all. Rarity had even tried to get the mare to come with her to the spa like Fluttershy did these days, only Rainbow always refused her generosity quite harshly no matter how many times Rarity made the offer to help Rainbow get her mane done properly and a hooficure.

“Inside voice please darling, I want to be able to hear when I get back home,” Rarity told her before looking over to the statue Rainbow had picked from the pile of golden bits. “And that statue is atrocious.”

The dragon rolled her eyes and her wings ruffled; drawing Rarity’s attention to the oddity of Rainbow Dash still having pegasus wings (if gigantic ones) instead of the leathery wings of a dragon. She guessed it was why Rainbow had been chosen over Applejack as a companion, since the transformed pony also possessed the pegasus-level sight and hearing needed to properly commune with smaller creatures. “More like awesome,” she replied, using a voice that was probably less than a whisper for her at the moment.

“It’s a minotaur,” Rarity stressed as she frowned at the waste of gold.

Rainbow Dash sighed and rolled her eyes before lowering her head until the two of them could almost look eye to eye. “I so don’t get you.”

Rarity rolled her eyes. “That makes two of us.”

“I mean look at you,” the dragon said as she reared up on her hind legs (or were those her only legs?) and motioned to Rarity with open claws. “I’ve been to lunch with Twilight and heard you guys talk. You’re from Manehatten but you want to be one of those snooty Canterlot unicorns, you even talk like one! And you want to make everypony just like you!”

The unicorn was quick with her retort. “You’re one to talk Ms Wonderbolt Wannabe! Not to mention that ego of yours and how to drag everypony you can into fawning over your aerial acrobatics, and how you’ve corrupted Twilight with those pranks of yours!”

Rainbow Dash descended to get in Rarity’s face and slammed one of her claws into the ground with it all bunched up like a fist.

“Hey she practically begged to come along with Pinkie and me!”

A part of Rarity was aware that the gigantic and angry creature in front of her was a friendly acquaintance who styled herself a hero and would never actually use physical violence on another pony. But, a much larger part of Rarity’s mind just saw a very big and angry dragon looking ready to breathe fire. With that in front of her, the unicorn's instincts took over. She shrieked in terror, then turned around to try and find someplace to hide.

However, since there was nothing but a large pile of bits and assorted treasures in front of her, the unicorn’s panicked mind told her the stuff in front of her was just bits, and a little magic could move it aside. Unfortunately, when she did so, the very unstable mountain of bits and other assorted treasures became completely unbalanced and slid forward in a vast wave of riches that probably weighed several tons.

Rarity could only look up at her impending death with wide eyes. The Element of Generosity killed by an avalanche of wealth…Celestia how I hate irony.

Then came the darkness, and the crashing clinking of a million, billion bits.

Death was not what Rarity had expected, not by what her mother had told her. It was dark and suffocating, hot, and she felt a huge amount of pressure on her, crushing the unicorn even more than she already was.

For a moment, she thought that had actually survived the collapse, only to have to die by asphyxiation; the thought was not a pleasant one. Then came the motion, an uncomfortable wrenching that felt as if her whole being was being jerked backward before she was flipped upside down onto her back. That particular unpleasantness was followed by…light?

And the concerned eyes of a blue…dragon?

“Rarity! Rarity, are you okay?”

The unicorn looked up at her savior, almost unbelieving at what she came to see as her sight cleared. “R-Rainbow Dash?”

“I’m sorry! I just stomped my stupid claw into the ground and got all mad and did think and…and…oh Celestia I’m so sorry!”

The light ringing in her ears didn’t help the unicorn come to her senses any faster, but when she did, Rarity found that she was currently laying on her side, in the palm of her savior’s claw. Aside from the mess that her hair had turned into, she was none the worse for wear.

If anything, Rainbow appeared to have taken it even worse than Rarity had herself. She fell back and slumped against the wall, panting heavily while a tell tale heart thump that spoke of just how panicked the rainbow dragon could be heard by the unicorn more than every two seconds.

The two of them sat in the cave for some time after that. Thanks to the avalanche, Rarity had no intentions of going anywhere near that treasure again, and it seemed the dragon wasn’t going to be letting the unicorn out of her grip anyway. All in all, it suited Rarity just fine.

So they just sat there, slowly calming down from their respective waves of panic.

“…you’re better than them, you know?” Rainbow said after what had probably been several minutes.

Rarity blinked in confusion, then looked up at the dragon. “W-What?”

Apparently put off by the attention, Rainbow coughed and looked away to avoid meeting Rarity’s eyes. “The Canterlot ponies, I mean,” she explained before pausing for a moment while Rarity readjusted herself. “I…went to watch the Wonderbolts in Canterlot a few times, and every time I went, they always…looked down on me. You never did stuff like that. You always tried dressing everypony up in your stup…your clothes, but it was because you always wanted to pick ponies up and make them better.

“Those jerks just look down on everypony. That’s why I don’t get why you want to be like them when you’re…better. Sorry, this talking stuff is…”

“I think I understand,” Rarity said as she held out a hoof to paw at the palm of Rainbow’s claw. She hoped the pseudo-dragon understood her meaning, physical interaction with such a different species was hard, and Rarity had no idea how to adjust thanks to the change in respective sizes. “And well…to be honest, I act like them because they are like that.”

“Wait…so…you want to be a plothole?” Rainbow asked, confusion evident on her face despite the species change.

Rarity frowned at the odd accusation. “What? No!” she replied before translating what Rainbow Dash's confusion probably meant. The whole situation left her sighing. “But they’re…well you’ve seen it for yourself, ponies from Canterlot aren’t very inclusive. The truth is, I don’t like anypony who looks down on another either, but well… They wouldn’t even bother to look at me unless I…oh how would you put it?” She paused for a moment to think. “Unless I suck up to them, and one says imitation is the greatest form of flattery. Over the years, the accent just…stuck.”

“So wait…you’re making it look like you’re kissing up to them, while making them all look like idiots cause they’re just hearing your accent, and not what you’re really saying?” Rainbow Dash asked.

In case the smirk on Rarity’s face wasn’t telling enough, she nodded to the dragon. To which Rainbow Dash gave her obvious approval.

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Oh mare, that’s like the best practical joke ever!”

Then, when Rarity cringed at the volume, the dragon turned sheepish and cleared her throat. “Sorry.”

“Quite alright, it’s nice to be praised for my intelligence,” she said with a smile as her opinion of the pegasus-turned-dragon rose a few notches.

Since it would be a shame if the conversation ended there, Rarity decided to switch topics, one that her companion was a bit more familiar with. “So you go to the Wonderbolts Derby? I thought you were just interested in their air shows.”

Rainbow Dash shrugged, an action that didn’t carry over well to her claw that Rarity sat in. “Well, the races aren’t as cool, but considering my speed’s the best thing my flying has going for it, that’s probably where I’m going to end up when I do make it into the Wonderbolts.”

“In that case,” Rarity said with a smile, “I shall do my best to make it to every one of your showings. I know you’d absolutely hate it if the only ponies cheering for you were Canterlot snobs.”

The dragon rolled her eyes at the offer. “Oh come on Rarity, I know you don’t like me all that much. No need to go overboard just cause I saved your flank and all. I know I’m…not easy for a pony like you to get along with.”

The despondent tone in her friend’s voice brought a sad smile to Rarity’s lips. “I’ll admit that you’re a bit…rough Rainbow Dash. But after using my magic for several years, I’ve discovered that’s where you find the best of diamonds.”

A sound reached Rarity’s ears, and upon focusing on it, she could hear the clip clopping of multiple hooves. “Raaaaainbow, Raaaaarity!” Twilight called out, “we’re back, and we brought Fluttershy. Um…you girls haven’t killed each other yet, have you?”

The while unicorn let out a loud humph at the suggestion. “You make it sound as if Rainbow Dash and I have some sort of animosity between us darling! We were just having the most wonderful conversation about the Wonderbolts,” she said while looking through the space between Rainbow’s claws. “I was just about to get her to accompany me to the spa tomorrow when you so rudely barged in.”

“Huh?” Twilight cried out.

“Uh…what?”

Rarity whirled around to face the dragon. “Oh but you must! They have the most excellent masseuse. I bet she could help relieve those muscles of yours after a hard workout, and everypony enjoys a therapeutic soak.”

Apparently, Twilight didn’t think much of the offer. “Rarity, there’s no way Rainbow-”

“Hmm. You know, that sounds pretty cool,” Rainbow said, earning a gobsmacked expression from Twilight.

“But you, and she…you never…HUH?” Twilight exclaimed in a worried voice.

Behind her, Fluttershy just gaped up at the reclining reptile.

Chapter 4: The Cruelest Joke

Spike didn’t know if it was the sound, the light, or the smell that awoke him before the dawn.

No, scratch that, it was the smell, it was definitely the smell.

The odor that assaulted Spike’s nose smelled like a dead possum, wrapped in dead fish, covered in rotten cheese that had been urinated on by a minotaur who had drank too much cola.

Spike gagged, retched, tried to vomit, and did a bunch of other things that added up to the same action before his stomach reminded him that dragon digestive systems didn’t actually allow for that kind of thing. Oh mare, what died, became a zombie, took a nap in a septic tank, and then got out to die all over again?

He got out of bed to look around and noticed something odd, the light from Luna’s moon wasn’t the only thing illuminating the library. There was a soft purple light coming from the bottom floor, originating from the door to Twilight’s laboratory; the open door to Twilight’s lab.

For a moment Spike thought it best to just go back to sleep. This was hardly the first time that he’d awaken in the middle of the night for some water, a snack, or because of a bad dream spooked him awake to find Twilight doing some project. In fact, every one of the times Spike had risen early within the library, Twilight had been whittling away at some project or another.

But this time, things were different. This time, there was that bucking smell.

Well, it could mean anything, Spike told himself. Twilight had an alchemy set down in her lab. She could have been brewing a potion that…smelled like every bad thing Spike had ever sniffed left out in the sun to ripen.

“Right, and I’m an overgrown iguana,” the dragon told himself before getting out of bed and jumping down to the floor while a stab of pain ran through his heart. Ugh, why did I have to make a species joke?

Despite the fact that it had been days ago, Spike still felt the sting of disappointment when he thought of his mother’s words on the way down the mountain.

“A pony?” Twilight asked as she looked over to Spike with a smile and a giggle. “Why would you want me to turn you into a pony?”

“Oh come on it’s uh…curiosity. Yeah! I mean, I’ve lived around ponies all my life, so…it’s only natural to see what its like to be one, you know?”

For a moment, Twilight looked thoughtful, then much to his delight, she nodded. “Yeah, I guess I can understand that,” she said before breaking his heart. “But the spell I know only let’s a pony take on another creature’s physical traits, it doesn’t actually turn us into that creature. That’s why I still had my horn, Dash still had her wings, and neither of us could breathe fire. Besides, there isn’t another dragon around to change you back, and we wouldn’t want that, right?”

Despite the memory of his mother’s cheery smile, Spike could practically feel her ripping out the dragon’s heart. Right cause, finally being able to walk around town without getting a million stares, being able to finally have Rarity notice me, having other ponies think I‘m your son instead of a pet…who’d want something like that? Spike asked himself.

But now wasn’t the time to be such a mope. Twilight could have been hurt…or gagging at least. He needed to save her!

So Spike rushed down into the lab to find his mother…standing there perfectly oblivious to the toxic fumes or Spike’s presence as she stood over her alchemical workbench with a pair of tongs being held by her magic, holding something that looked like a giant black root. “Mom?” he asked as low as he could, as not to disturb her.

The lab had gone through a decorative change since Spike had last been inside it. There were two new chalkboards. The first had small photographs of Twilight’s friends stuck to the front, while lines with equations written above and below them crisscrossed the board every which way until each ended in a boxed in word. The second board was at least slightly understandable, even if the words written on it made no sense.

Parasprites. Preemptive extermination = Infinite variables. Wards = Solution. (check)

Zecora. Make Introduction = Solution

Hydra. Preemptive Extermination = Solution. (check)

Nightmare. Preemptive Extermination = Not Feasible. Dream Wards = Solution (check)

Diamond Dogs. Preemptive Extermination = Solution

Rainboom. Reinact = Too dangerous/blurry. Preempt competition = Too damaging. Failure = Unacceptable. Induce event = Solution.

3G. Mirror Pool = ? Fake Illness = ? Best Night Ever = Unacceptable For them? Possible Outcome.

The unicorn didn’t even turn around as she shushed him while positioning the black vine-root thing into one of her newer inventions that was just a metallic disc attached to another metallic disc held up the first by a few small rods on the side. After Twilight placed the vine/root.. within the area between the two, the discs began to hum and Twilight withdrew her tongs, leaving the vine/root just floating there.

With her job done, the unicorn turned to look down at the dragon. “Did I wake you up Spike?”

“Ugh, what is that smell?” he asked while holding his nose. As bad as the stink had been upstairs, what was in the basement was ten times worse. “And where’d you get that thing?”

Twilight let out a nervous laugh. “ It’s me,” she said, earning a disgusted look from Spike. “Sorry, I needed to collect some reagents from the Everfree and it’s dangerous at night, so I coated myself in Zecora’s animal repellent to keep all the monsters away.”

Upon hearing it was Twilight who was the source of his nausea, Spike took a few steps back to avoid any physical contact with the unicorn that tried to hug him at least three times a day. “Bleh! Twilight that’s just…ugh!” He had thought the zebra living in the Everfree was a little kooky with the way she talked when Twilight had dragged Spike out to meet her the week after they moved to Ponyville, but now she her oddness had reached new heights since she was telling ponies to smear some foul-smelling gunk all over their coat.

“Okay, okay I’ll take a bath…geeze,” the unicorn mumbled before she picked up a small vial of liquid from her lab and headed towards the exit.

As she started to come forward, Spike ran around the table in the middle of Twilight’s lab to keep as far away from her as possible. Unfortunately, that meant by the time Twilight was heading towards the door, Spike was standing in her trail where the smell of her monster repellent still lingered.

In order to keep from gagging, since it seemed claws were not good for holding a dragon’s nose shut, Spike looked around the lab for a cloth, towel, nose plugs…anything that would allow him to avoid breathing in the toxic fumes. However, Twilight tended to conjure and dispel her cleaning rags these days whenever an accident occurred, so there were no handy pieces of cloth to cover himself with.

So, Spike needed to get more creative. He looked around a bit more, and quickly found his salvation. In the few seconds it had been out of sight, the black vine that Twilight had brought home had sprouted a blue flower in full bloom.

Although Twilight had constantly drilled the rules of her new lab into Spike after they moved to Ponyville as well as made him take a test consisting of multiple choice, true/false, and essay questions over those rules and the reasons for their existence, the need to breathe overrode them all and Spike snatched the flower from the vine to inhale its sweet scent and drown out smell of Twilight.

“Spike, you coming?” his mother called from beyond the exit.

“Ye-ye-ACHOO!” The dragon sneezed, burning the flower in his claws to ash a second later. He rubbed a claw beneath his nose and looked back up as Twilight called to him again.

“What was that?”

“Nothing!” Spike assured her as the ashes of the flower dissipated into the air. “I just sneezed. Oh! Nothing’s on fire! Just let me get up the stairs.” Thankfully, what remained of the scent in his nose was enough to counteract whatever toxin Twilight was wearing, and Spike managed to walk by her before she shut the door on the lab and begin the process of reactivating her wards.

As he was already awake at… Spike looked over to the clock and blinked. “It’s two in the morning?”

“I’ve still got a good four hours for sleep,” Twilight said as she held up her sleeping potion. “Thanks to this, its all I need to function at one-hundred-percent.”

The dragon raised an eyebrow. “She wasn’t making much sense with all those rhymes, but…I’m pretty sure Zecora said using that stuff too long was dangerous.” Something about dreaming…or, not dreaming? Ugh, why couldn’t she have just talked normal?

Twilight’s face went from its normal cheer into a droopy sadness, and Spike quickly found himself regretting bringing it up. “It’s fine Spike,” she assured him in a tone that matched her face. “Certainly better than the alternative. Remember?”

The question brought up a memory that Spike had done his best to forget. The day Twilight had given out the gala tickets and gone to bed, she had awaken Spike not fifteen minutes later tossing and turning in bed, sobbing into her pillow, and even screaming for her friends at several points.

Just thinking about that night made Spike shiver. Two nights of that and Twilight took them into the Everfree to look for some herbs that would give her a good night’s sleep. While looking around, they had stumbled across a strange hut with an even stranger pony living within. That night and the next, Spike had slept all the way through just fine.

“Well, come on, you’ll probably need me to scrub your back,” Spike told her before he started towards the bathroom.

Then, he stopped and looked back to his mother. “Just uh…can you turn off my nose like you turned off Rainbow’s mouth that one time?” he asked. The smell of the flower was already starting to be overpowered by the gunk Twilight had coated herself in.

Twilight giggled. “Sure thing Spike. Sure thing.”

It was a few hours before lunch as Sparkler made her way through the grassy streets of Ponyville with her bags that contained the three books she checked out from the library. The weight of the things dragged her down unevenly and caused the unicorn to shift to the left every few steps. It was a pain, but not as much as some of the odd looks she was getting from a few of the townspeople.

Of course, once she moved back in with her mother and made to correct her identity, Sparkler knew she’d have to face some fallout. It helped that Twilight Sparkle had personally wrote a letter to the head of their government to help clear the mess up; grumbling the whole time of course. So she wasn’t facing any penalties for forging government documents or anything thank Celestia.

All in all, Sparkler knew she owed Twilight Sparkle big time, and that was only with the beginnings of her debt to the unicorn arch-mage. The textbooks in her bags were another. Twilight had pointed out a self-study program for unicorns in her situation, ones that went into the workforce for a few years after the basics had been covered and their talents discovered. If Sparkler hit the books and studied enough to pass the entrance exams, she could get into that program and hopefully gain enough education to find a respectable job that matched her talent and provided a decent wage.

Sparkler had no intentions of becoming like her mother, stuck in two and a half dead-end jobs, barely making it by.

The thought of her mother made the unicorn frown. In all honesty, Sparkler didn’t know where she stood when it came to Ditzy. On one hoof, the pegasus was a loving mare…who abandoned her to the system instead of fighting to keep the unicorn, but she also realized her mistake and was working extra hard to make up for it with Dinky…a little too late for it to matter for Sparkler’s foalhood. The four differing opinions made the unicorn feel like she was standing on one of those floor games that told you where to put your hooves, and she ended up with one leg planted on all four corners of the mat. Trying to keep all four hooves on their respective positions was hard, but Sparkler knew she couldn’t just cling to Ditzy’s past mistakes when she was willing to make amends, or simply forgive her mother because she was pitiable.

It was a problem Sparkler just didn’t have an answer for.

So, she had come to the library to go over things and ask Twilight to help her with some of the harder concepts in her study material. Plus, Spike was always nice company. The little dragon was one of the few creature’s in Ponyville who could put up with her snarky attitude. On top of which, he pretty smart when it came to books thanks to years of hanging out with Twilight Sparkle. So Sparkler actually found him pretty easy to hold a conversation with.

The door opened a moment before Sparkler could reach out with her magic, and she saw Twilight standing on the other side of the door. At the same time, her nose detected an odd…funk. “Oh um, hello Ms Sparkle,” she said with more respect than she gave to most other ponies she knew.

The slightly taller lavender unicorn smiled. “You can call me Twilight, Sparkler. Is there something you needed?”

“Uh…” the pink unicorn’s nose twitched. She looked up to Twilight as something to aspire to, but hero worship only went so far. “Okay, what’s with that smell?”

Twilight let out a disgruntled growl. “I know I smell weird,” she said. “I couldn’t get all the stink out even with a hour of scrubbing last night and I need to go see Rarity to ask her if she knows a way to get this stuff out of my coat.”

“Oh…um…” Sparkler repressed the ‘it was nice knowing you comment’ that she wanted to say. Nopony going into Rarity’s boutique smelling like that would ever be walking out alive.

Instead, she opted for a safer topic. “So you’ll be out for…most of the day?” she asked with more disappointment in her tone than she would have liked. “I was hoping to see if you could help me with a few things.”

Twilight gave the other unicorn one of her trademark apologetic looks. “Sorry, but not this morning,” she said. “And Spike’s sleeping in, but you’ve been in the library enough to know your way around in case you need any more books.”

“Well…it’s better than nothing I suppose,” she mumbled before nodding her head. “Thanks…Twilight.”

“Happy to help Sparkler. Just umm…let Spike sleep in a bit more. I might have kept him up a bit too late last night trying to scrub this stuff out of my coat,” the unicorn said before she walked outside and headed in the direction of Rarity’s boutique.

“Thanks for adjusting your time table everypony, I know how difficult it is to rearrange your plans on the spur of the moment.”

“Think nothing of it dear,” Rarity told Twilight as she sunk deeper into the therapeutic tub and let out a sigh of contentment.

For her part, Fluttershy just nodded at the unicorn who was in her own separate bathing tub. The things Aloe had poured into Twilight’s water wouldn’t have mixed well with the therapeutic salts that were inside the larger basin she and Rarity were sharing. “Well it is a bit early for a visit to the spa, but I guess that just means we’ll have lunch afterwards instead of before.”

“Are you kidding? If you ask me, we’re late. I needed this since I woke up this morning,” Rainbow told them as one of the spa ponies worked on her muscles to make them relax.

The statement had all the mares in the room look over to the pegasus laying on the massage table that had been brought into the large bathing room thanks to Rarity’s influence. As a several time repeat customer who had started bringing in friends, Rarity was given a bit of special considerations when it came to such things.

Twilight stood up in her tub a little straighter. “How could your muscles be sore after-Rainbow! Did you do another stint of exercises after I left yesterday?”

The blue pegasus let out an annoyed groan. “Yeah, I always have a workout before I go to bed. It helps me sleep.”

“You need to stick to the training schedule I made for you!” Twilight told her heatedly. “Breaking it will cause undue stress on your muscles and cause much more harm than good!”

Fluttershy held in her opinion of the situation as she looked between Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle. Although she certainly liked the mare for all the help she gave Fluttershy with her animals and introducing her to the Love Lace series of books since romance novels were a secret passion of hers, Twilight could certainly be a bit bossy sometimes; especially when it came to clashing with stubborn mares like Rainbow Dash.

As she expected, Rainbow shot back a retort rather than admit she might need help. “Look you may have some book smarts about flying Twilight, but I’m the one with the wings. I know what I’m doing. If you really want me to do a Rainboom then just give me the how-to book already.”

The unicorn gave the pegasus a pensive frown and was silent for several seconds before she replied. “Rainbow, I know you have tons of experience, and you’re an amazing flier. But it takes more than just muscle to perform that move, but what it does do to the body is create an immense strain…at least that’s what I got from what I read anyway. I just want to make sure your body can take it.”

“Are you calling me a wimp?” Rainbow demanded suddenly.

“What?” Twilight exclaimed, her eyes quickly going wide. “No! This isn’t… Rainbow, you’re the most athletic pegasus I know, and I grew up in the palace next to the royal guard!”

Seeing that this argument was about to go sour, the other pegasus in the room moved over to the edge of the bath where her friend’s massage bed had been placed. “She’s just trying to help you Rainbow.”

Rainbow Dash let out a sigh at Fluttershy’s words. “Yeah I know but…” The pegasus turned her attention back to Twilight. “Look, I really do appreciate the help Twilight. I mean, you’re making all the egghead stuff in those training manuals actually make sense and all… but, it’s kind of weird for a unicorn to be telling a pegasus how to fly.”

“Why’s that?” Twilight asked, tilting her head in confusion.

In response to the question, Rainbow Dash unfolded her wings. “Umm hello? Wings,” she said before pointing a hoof at Twilight. “No wings.”

A rather creepy grin appeared on Twilight’s face as she looked over to Rainbow Dash. “So what you’re saying is… If I were to suddenly gain wings, you’ll do whatever I tell you to?”

“Twilight-darling, that’s the same look you had on your face when you had Applejack and I play your Truth or Dare game during our slumber party,” Rarity said as she gave the other unicorn a nervous look out of the corner of her eye.

Rainbow Dash just laughed. “Okay Twilight, if you suddenly turn into a princess I’ll do whatever you-uh, Twilight?”

Fluttershy looked away from Dash and over to Twilight to see her face had become sullenly and dull with drooping eyes. A second later, the look was gone and replaced with a smile as she looked back to her friends. “I’ll hold you to that Dash.”

As the silence dragged on for a few seconds, Rarity cleared her throat and got everypony’s attention. She apparently wasn’t got to let their visitation end on such a sour note. “So in other news, it appears my parents have decided they’re moving to Ponyville.”

“Really Rarity?” Twilight asked, her excitement evident. “Oh I can’t wait to meet them and Sweetie Belle! I can start teaching her to use her horn if you want. I asked Cheerilee if she wanted me to give the foals any lessons in magic, but I apparently need to get a certification before I’m allowed to teach magic in a classroom setting.” Then, Twilight tapped her hoof to her chin and dropped her voice so low even Fluttershy could barely hear her. “Which is weird because the last time I showed fillies how to do magic they never mentioned…” she paused and looked to her back, “oh yeah.”

For her part, Rarity looked a little…odd. She was giving Twilight a measuring look. It was the same one Fluttershy had seen on her face a few times when the unicorn couldn’t quite figure out what one of her clients should wear. “That’s…very generous of you darling.”

Twilight’s raised an eyebrow at Rarity’s reaction. “Is something wrong?”

“Well it’s just that I don’t remember ever talking about Swee-”

“Ms Sparkle! Ms Sparkle!”

All the mares in the room looked to the double doors as they slammed open to admit a pink unicorn that Fluttershy only half recognized as a pony she’d seen around town, but not really gotten to know. However, Twilight seemed to recognize the unicorn on sight. “Sparkler, what is it?”

“Ditzy didn’t derp up the weather office again, did she?” Rainbow added.

The unicorn named Sparkler shot Rainbow Dash a death glare, then looked over to the purple unicorn with panic in her eyes. “It’s Spike, he’s-”

Twilight was out of her bath and dripping water on the floor in front of the pink unicorn not two seconds later. “Spike! What happened? Is he okay?”

“I’m not sure how to tell you this-”

“Oh no! My little Spiky-whiky’s been hurt?” Rarity shrieked.

Sparkler blinked, then looked over to Rarity with a frown. “Your Spiky-whiky? Seriously?” she asked before raising an eyebrow.

“Sparkler!” Twilight shouted as she spun the mare to face her, “what happened to my son?”

With Twilight glaring at her with a mix of panic and anger, the pink unicorn wilted and gulped. “Well uh, you see…when he finally woke up an hour ago…umm, it’s probably better if I just show you.”

The trip from the spa hadn’t taken five minutes, and even that had been longer than it
should after Twilight made Rainbow Dash stay in her table with a telekinetic field so the masseuse could continue working on her. So, it was only Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rarity that accompanied Sparkler back to the Golden Oaks Library at a fast pace the purple unicorn set.

Despite already being winded, Sparkler was just glad Twilight hadn’t popped back with her magic to check things out. She wanted a chance to explain things before Twilight managed to build up a temper and started addressing questions to the only other creature in the library at the time of the incident.

The moment they got to the library, Twilight reached out to open the door with her hooves, and grunted when she found it locked. When she turned to look at Sparkler, the pink unicorn cleared her throat and looked away before a frown could form. Twilight Sparkle was not a unicorn you got confrontational with.

“I uh, thought it was better if nopony came in to bother him,” she mumbled before raising her voice towards the door. “Hey Spike it’s me, I brought Ms Sparkle and some of her friends.”

“M-Mom?”

“Spike open the door,” the unicorn instructed him, apparently calmed down from the fact her son was still able to talk.

For a few moments, the handle just jiggled, but the door refused to open. “Um…I can’t get a grip on the knob,” Spike’s voice replied.

Sparkler sighed and covered her face with her hoof. “We both know you’ve got no grip, just use your teeth Spike.”

Beside Sparkler, Twilight tilted her head in confusion. “Teeth?”

In response to the question, the knob turned and there was a click as the door automatically unlocked before it slowly opened with a creek that Sparkler could only call ominous, despite the bright and sunny day it was.

Instead of the dragon greeting them, a purple pony that was a shade brighter than Twilight with green hair that looked somewhat scruffy stood in the doorway. Despite the age difference, he came up eye to eye with Twilight, which meant he would probably top her by at least half a head taller when he finished growing.

Twilight looked at the new pony for a second before her head became slightly askew in confusion. “Spike?”

“Umm…h-hey Mom…surprise?”

Since Sparkler had seen him get up an hour ago and the related freak-out, tangle in sheets, and trip down the stars that involved very little walking on Spike’s part, she was more than prepared for the sight. The others however, were not.

Fluttershy simply forgot to keep flapping her wings, and fell to the ground right on her plot. It took her ten whole seconds to finally form words. “Oh…my.”

Rarity seemed to take it the best. “Spike?” she exclaimed while asking a question at the same time. A second later, she was zipping around to look at the male pony from every which way there was, checking every part of his body she could in public.

“It…you…pony…tail…ugh-that mane! Darling, you simply must…sorry, getting a bit off topic here,” she mumbled before shaking herself out of it and going back to her panicked assessment of the new young stallion. “You…HOW?”

For her part, Twilight simply blinked once…twice…thrice… Then, she cleared her throat, and took in a deep breath, raised her head to it’s maximum height, conjured a clipboard with paper on it somewhere along with a red pen to check a trio of things off before nodding to herself. Then, and only then, once she was fully prepared…Twilight Sparkle screamed loud enough to break half the windows in Ponyville.

“This is bad, this is bad, this is very, very veryvery bad!” Twilight cried as Rarity watched her pace around the room at a trot while the rest of her friends and currently equine son stood by.

For his part, Spike simply sighed as if he’d seen this a million times before, which he probably had. “I’ll make some tea for when she starts to calm down.” The dragon-turned-pony then turned around slowly, and started to walk to the kitchen on wobbly legs. It was obvious to the white unicorn that he was having trouble adjusting to the change in species of simple walking was causing him so much trouble.

But with him gone, Rarity was able to focus on helping her…not so together friend. She cleared her throat to get Twilight’s attention. “Twilight-dear, it doesn’t seem to be that bad,” the unicorn told her before she looked over to the departing pony.

It was a little off-putting to see Spike so tall. Of course, Twilight had explained Spike’s age to Rarity during one of their weekly luncheons when all of the Elements got together instead of just a handful here and there. While Spike was five or six years younger than the girls in pony-years, when it came to how dragons aged, he’d still be considered a hatchling for quite some time.

Her ruminations were ended a second later when Twilight teleported right in front of the unicorn with a rather manic look in her eye and Rarity was starting to wonder if it had been a good idea to draw Twilight’s attention. Spike said she had…episodes, but I never imagined they’d be like this.

“Not that bad? NOT THAT BAD?” Twilight shouted before she reached out and grabbed Rarity by the shoulders. “You don’t understand! Something like this has never happened before NOT. EVER. BEFORE. NOW!”

The next thing she knew, Rarity was on her side from being let go in mid-shake and Twilight was back to trotting around the room like a madmare. “What am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to do? I didn’t plan for this! GAAAAAAH! WHY DIDN’T I PLAN FOR SOMETHING LIKE THIS?”

“Ummm, Twilight?”

Despite Fluttershy’s soft voice, Twilight stopped in mid-step and looked over to the shy pegasus. “Yes?”

With the attention on her, Fluttershy seemed to wilt a little, but she was still able to speak. “Well, I don’t think it’s that bad,” she told the unicorn. “I mean, Spike seems to be more or less okay.”

The sound of a dish breaking made the pegasus let out an ‘eep’ and Spike’s voice called out from the kitchen. “Sorry, my fault.”

Sparkler let out a groan before she walked towards the kitchen. “I’ll go check on him. Apparently he hasn’t figured out how to hold things with his hooves yet.”

Hmm strange, even foals can do that, Rarity told herself. Turning her attention back to Twilight, Rarity set her mind to the task at hand: calming the magically gifted unicorn down so she could put that brilliant brain of hers to work on fixing Spike. “Yes dear, since Spike seems to be more or less okay at the moment, I think we should concentrate on fixing the problem rather than panicking about it.”

Despite the sound advice, Twilight looked at the two ponies as if they were completely insane. Then, with a completely straight face, she explained something as if it should be obvious to the two of them. “But I’ve still got five minutes of panicking to do.”

“Be that as it may Dear, I…wait, what?” Rarity asked, Twilight’s words only registering at the last few moments.

A clipboard materialized next to Twilight. “See, it’s all according to my schedule,” she said before the item floated over for Rarity to read.

Unplanned Crisis Plan & Schedule Framework (version 3.65a)

STEP 1: Scream (refer to step by step screaming instructions for maximum effect)

STEP 2: PANIC (allow at least fifteen minutes to achieve proper adrenaline rush)

STEP 3: Examine Problem

STEP 4: Draw Up Maximum Catastrophic Outcome Assessment

STEP 5: Panic Over COA (do only if Equestria will be destroyed as predicted by COA if not, skip to step 6)

STEP 6: Find Solution (see solution finding checklist/plan (attached))

Rarity blinked as her brain tried to process what she’s just read. Apparently Fluttershy got over the confusion quicker, or she really didn’t notice how much crazier the fact Twilight had something like this on hand, as she was the first to react.

“Twilight, you have a…schedule for acting this way?” the pegasus asked.

The unicorn nodded, her serious expression making Rarity really wonder about her friend’s sanity. “Yes, it’s much more efficient than simply running around screaming my head off and hyperventilating at random like I used to do,” she told them with a smile. “Would you like me to make you a copy Fluttershy? It’s much better than those panic attacks you use.”

“Oh no,” Fluttershy replied. “But, thank you for offering.”

Twilight smiled and nodded. “Well, I wouldn’t be much of a friend if I didn’t offer to help,” she said before her expression turned a bit more frightened. “Now, could one of you girls fetch me a paper bag? I need to start hyperventilating.”

The bright light being shined in his eye make Spike turn his head away, which got a frown from his mom before she used her magic to turn his head back and continued her examination that had begun half an hour ago with Twilight poking, prodding, snipping, snapping, clipping, and…doing other things to Spike that made him feel just about as violated as anypony could be.

On top of that, Twilight had gone through his bed and the bathroom with some kind of spell which apparently found something since she wiped the floor and put the rag she used into a sample container as well as his bed sheets.

Then there were the questions Twilight had asked him, which Spike answered to the best of his ability despite some of them being completely foolish. He hadn’t wished on a shooting star, drank a purple potion made from the juice of the poly plant, or gone into the Everfree Forest on his own within the past twenty-four hours.

Thankfully, one of the ponies who had been there this morning wasn’t around to see Twilight go over his new body with a fine-tooth comb. Unfortunately, that pony had been Sparkler. Rarity and Fluttershy had stuck around out of concern.

“Okay Spike, I think I’ve got everything I need,” she told him before writing something down on her notepad and levitating the box filled with his DNA behind her as she headed towards the lab’s door.

Twilight started to undo the wards surrounding her lab’s entrance, Rarity walked up and asked a question that Spike was hoping she wouldn’t bring up. “Twilight, not to second guess you or anything, but…why not simply use that spell of yours to turn Spike back into a dragon?”

As usual when she was working with the entrance to her door, Twilight didn’t bother to look back as she talked. “Because, mixing magic without knowing what I’m mixing might ending up doing more harm than good.”

“That makes sense, I guess,” Rarity replied. “I’d hate to see my little Spiky get hurt.”

The mention of his old nickname made Spike frown. “Hey! I’m just about as tall as you are now Rarity! Well…not counting the horn that is.”

“Yes, what is it with that?” she asked. “From the way you talked before, I would have put him more in step with my little sister than a teenage pony.”

A small ding sounded from the door, announcing that Twilight had removed the last ward, and she turned to face Rarity. Her face was wrinkled in worry. “That’s what scares me about all this Rarity.”

As the door swung open, Spike started to stand up trying his hardest to keep his weight distributed properly between his legs. It was a lot harder than Twilight made it look. Still, if he was going to get married to Rarity, he needed to learn how to walk like a pony. Unfortunately, he was unable to break his record of ten steps without falling flat on his face. I am never waxing this floor again, no matter how little there is to do around the library.

“Um, Fluttershy, could you look after Spike while I go through some particulates I found on his body?” Twilight asked as Spike struggled to pick himself up. “Rarity, I could use a little help down in the lab, if you don’t mind.”

“I can take care of Spike for now,” Fluttershy assured the others, making Spike’s pride take another hit and causing him to lose his balance before he could get himself fully erect.

After Rarity gave the stallion a look that reeked of pity, she turned to Twilight and nodded.

“Okay Rarity, just…give me a second to make sure everything’s safe,” Twilight said to the other unicorn. “I wouldn’t want you changing species on us too.”

Before the two could depart, Spike looked up at the white unicorn, then over to his mother. He couldn’t just stand around and let this chance pass him by! “Twilight, wait! I’m your assistant I can-ugh, stupid hooves, I’m supposed to be the one helping you!”

The declaration had Twilight turning around and giving the teenage stallion an apologetic look. “Spike I love you, and you are an amazing assistant,” she told him. “But, you can barely stand up and walk around, much less hold things. I can’t let you anywhere near the lab or you might crash into something and…well, I don’t even want to think what that might bring.” With that, she went through the box again.

“But-”

Twilight looked up from the box of samples, probably checking to make sure she had enough little pieces of Spike to do whatever with. “Come on Rarity,” Twilight told the other unicorn, leading her out of Spike’s sight.

For the second time since coming to Ponyville, Rarity found herself both in awe of Twilight Sparkle, and more than a little afraid of her.

She tried not to be, Twilight Sparkle was one of the warmest, kindest, most caring individuals that Rarity had met in her life. When she had been wrapped in the unicorn’s magic, Twilight had given Rarity and the others a glimpse into herself through the magic she used in order to keep some of the ponies in the crowd from panicking; Rarity included. It had reminded her of the time she had gone to the Equestrian Fair as a filly and run into a rather loud minotaur with a domineering attitude. The monster had been several times larger and stronger than a full grown pony, and Rarity had found herself petrified at the sight of such a creature. While she hadn’t come to any harm, the minotaur's loud voice and brash nature had left a lasting impression that she still found herself recalling to this day.

Twilight was like a unicorn version of that creature when it came to measuring magic against that of another pony. But that was raw power, what she saw after entering Twilight’s lab was something else.

Like all unicorns, Rarity’s magic was very dependent on the mark that adorned her flank. If it existed outside her sphere of finding beauty, or crafting beauty from gems and cloth, then what she could do was quite limited. Still, Rarity had found ways to stretch the limits of her talent such as a few enchantments on clothes help get her clients noticed or increasing the shine on a coat; and she could even stretch it further by putting a bit of magic in gems to power spells that weren’t limited to fashion. She prided herself on being one of if not the most resourceful and possibly strongest unicorn in Ponyville.

After looking at Twilight’s lab, Rarity was seeing that she was like a child standing next to a giant in terms of both power and ability.

Three seconds after studying the spell formula on the walls, Rarity could tell she would never understand what the thing was meant for other than it was so complex it needed to be recorded on a 3D model. She knew spells like that were beyond complex in the extreme since enchanting a gem required something a little similar; in the way that basic addition was related to advanced calculus.

“One second, let me clear some room,” Twilight said before her horn lit up and the chalkboards that were stationed at various points around the lab shrunk to a tenth of their normal size, then Twilight floated them to a far corner. “Don’t touch anything, or even channel magic.”

Rarity frowned at the odd command that practically made her useless. “Very well darling, but…I don’t see how much help I’m going to be in finding out what’s wrong with Spike if I can’t use my horn.”

Once again, Twilight’s horn lit up, and a pair of couches appeared near the base of the stairs via conjuration magic. After Rarity had taken her seat, Twilight nodded and the door to the upstairs shut hard. “Oh, I already know what’s wrong with Spike,” she said before setting the box of things down and turning to Rarity. “I need you to talk him into taking the antidote.”

Twilight’s words sent Rarity into a whirl of confusion. “But…it…you…how…” She took a deep breath, and calmed herself. “What do you mean, you know what’s wrong with Spike? Why did you bother running all those tests on him if you already knew?”

“Most of the samples I took from Spike either evaporated within a minute, or have turned back into their dragon equivalent now that they’re outside the transformation field,” Twilight explained before she held up a small plastic dish that had a pair of Spike’s purple scales inside. “Added to this are some particulates I found in Spike’s nose, his bed, and the bathroom floor last night that are giving off a chaotic magic aura. That means Spike has been exposed to a magical plant known as Poison Joke. It’s a flower that only grows in the Everfree Forest.”

The news sent a shiver of fear through Rarity’s spine. While she and the others had managed to venture into that forest and survive, that had only been because the girls had gone together. As powerful as she was, Rarity dreaded to think what could happen to Twilight in there. “The Everfree…Darling, please don’t tell me you’ve been going in that horrid place alone!”

“At least once a week since I came to Ponyville, several reagents that grow there can’t be found anywhere else in Equestria,” Twilight told her. “Plus, The Castle of the Two Sisters has a library from before the time of Nightmare Moon, and its got the biggest ley line convergence point in all of Equestria right underneath it.”

“That just makes it all the more dangerous!” Rarity exclaimed. “And you’ve been going in there by yourself?” The purple unicorn’s reckless abandon made Rainbow Dash’s look tame in comparison!

“I’m not stupid Rarity, I went with a guide,” Twilight assured her. “Zecora has been living there for-”

“ZECORA!” Rarity shrieked upon hearing the news that Twilight was involved with that…dreadfully mysterious creature. If she wasn’t already halfway laying down, Rarity was pretty sure she’d have fainted! “Are out of your mind darling? Zecora is the absolute worst thing in that dreadful place!”

A frown crossed Twilight’s face, and her lips scrunched up in the way the unicorn always did when her temper was getting the best of her. “Hey! Zecora is one of the nicest ponies…well, zebras I know. Okay, one of the only zebras I know, but she’s still plenty nice! And for your information, she’s a little upset that every time she comes to town, everypony in Ponyville hides behind locked doors!”

“But-”

“Have you ever talked to her?” Twilight demanded, her anger making Rarity flinch.

A little put off by Twilight’s actions, the unicorn looked away from her accusing friend. “Well…no.”

Twilight was silent for a moment, and when Rarity looked back at the other unicorn to see what was going on, she saw the pony in one of her contemplative moods for a second before Twilight spoke again. “Remember when we first met?”

“Well-”

“You came off as a complete fashion-obsessed unicorn who only seemed to care about looks,” Twilight told her. “What ponies wore, what you looked like, all that stuff. If somepony would have asked me who the most self-obsessed pony out of all of us was the night after we helped Luna, I would have looked right past Rainbow Dash and pointed to you. After all, that shallowness seemed to be what your entire life revolved around: looks.”

The accusation made Rarity’s eye twitch. She could see that Twilight was building to something, but the long way she was going about it was making the white unicorn’s temper start to boil. “And your point, Twilight?”

Twilight sighed and shook her head. “But you're nothing like that,” she continued. “You’re responsible, caring, insightful, intelligent, generous; and I’m talking about true generosity, giving something of yourself to others rather than just what you could afford. You’re all those things and more Rarity, and a pony I am honored just to know. Not to mention call my friend.”

With the assessment of her character over, Rarity felt a flutter in her heart at the appraisal. She had to look away from the mare to hide the tears in her eyes that were threatening to form. She knew Twilight could be a little rough around the edges sometimes, but the harshly honest unicorn saying such things was quite the compliment. Probably the nicest she had ever received. “You’re too kind Twilight.”

“And I never would have gotten to know what a wonderful pony you are had I just gone by what I saw and heard from others,” she said. “So, the next time she comes to town, you might try giving Zecora a chance, okay?”

Sighing in defeat, Rarity nodded. “I suppose you have a…wait…what do you mean listened to what others said about me. What others?”

Twilight cleared her throat. “Oh, never mind about that. Now uh…about Spike.”

“Twilight,” Rarity growled at her concerns being dismissed.

The purple unicorn rolled her eyes and let out a groan. “Pfft, fine. Carrot Top doesn’t like you.”

“Carrot Top doesn’t like anypony,” Rarity countered in a dry tone.

“See, so it’s no big deal, now can we please focus on my son?” Twilight begged.

Rarity sighed and shook her head. “Can you stop talking about him like that?” she asked. “Seeing him as a…how old is Spike again?”

“Fourteen.”

“Yes, well seeing him like this and connecting him back to the baby dragon we know and love is a little…disconcerting,” Rarity said before she shivered a little. A child of the age that Spike appeared to be having a crush was something that Rarity could easily blow off as cute and just one of those little things in life that would never amount to anything more than flattery on the part of the dragon.

However, a young teenage colt of the age Spike was apparently at, those kinds of crushes were far more damaging in the end for ponies. After all, a child would never fully act on such emotions, and what little they did could be written off as cute and mostly ignored. A teenager needed to be shot down before they got any real lewd ideas.

“So, you can see why I need you to talk to Spike about this, or at least back me up when I tell him we’ve got to cure him,” Twilight said.

Rarity couldn’t help but cock her head. She was pretty sure she knew what the other unicorn was going to say, but didn’t want to let it mull in her head for too long. “Why me?”

“Oh come on Rarity!” Twilight exclaimed. “I know my son, I know how he feels about you, and so do you! He’ll fight me hoof and tail if I try to just drag him into the bath to soak him in the transformation’s cure!”

Can’t argue that point, she thought. “But I don’t see the need to crush his hopes so firmly just to make your job a little easier.”

The attempt to protect Spike’s feelings only seemed to enrage Twilight. “Make a little-do you really think that’s what this is about?” she demanded as she sat up on her couch. “Rarity, I know it may be painful for him, but it’s better than giving Spike false hope that will motivate him to run off into the Everfree so he can hunt for more of that bucking weed! I will not let him be put in danger like that!”

With Twilight’s tirade done with, and Rarity sitting up a bit straighter on her couch because of it, she took a moment to consider Twilight’s statement. The thought of Spike going off alone in that ghastly place sent a shiver down her spine. “Do you really think Spike would do something like that over a silly crush?”

“He’s young enough to think he’s pretty much invincible,” Twilight told her. “I doubt he’ll even be thinking about the dangers when he heads to the Everfree. But I do know he’ll eventually build up the courage do it. So I need to get rid of his motivation.”

Rarity raised an eyebrow at Twilight’s logic. “Are you sure that’s the only reason he would try to stay a pony?”

“…yeah, what other reason would there be for him?” Twilight asked after a moment of contemplation.

So she really is clueless then, Rarity thought to herself. It was just another thing on her long list of things that made Twilight Sparkle so confusing: she was always so insightful but missed some of the most obvious things, she seemed to know what the other Bearers wanted before they did themselves, but was unable to wrap her head around the reasons disagreements between the girls, she was a magical genius and neat freak but had table manners on par with Rainbow Dash. “Well Twilight, you’ve already seen how Ponyville isn’t the best place for…Love and Tolerance of others.”

The look Twilight gave Rarity told her the purple unicorn had completely missed the subtext about Zecora. “Rarity what’re you talking about? Ponyville is the very definition of accepting. All three tribes are living here in equal numbers. Do you know how rare that is? Why do you think all the Bearers gathered here? We were drawn by the harmony of this place.”

Rarity raised an eyebrow at what she could only call a guesstimate. “Darling, that’s a little…no, never mind it’s not important.

“Look, I’ll agree that it is nice to see so many different ponies living like this after coming from Manehattan. They might as well of put walls inside the city considering how everypony was so…segregated, but that’s ponies. Look at Zecora, she’s lived in this area longer than you, and still hasn’t made any inroads. Now the ponies of this town have a dragon living among them and well…most don’t know what to think.”

Once again, the unsaid seemed to be lost on Twilight as she just cocked her head. “What’re you talking about? I’ve never noticed anypony snubbing Spike.”

Since it seemed there was no other way, Rarity decided to abandon beating around the bush and get to the heart of the matter. “You’re also a unicorn that can pretty much crush anypony in Ponyville like a bug, not to mention have a direct line to the princess, and let’s not forget the display you put on when Trixie came to town,” Rarity told her. “Nopony’s stupid enough to openly show their…well, I wouldn’t call it something as strong as dislike, but it’s there all the same.”

The news seemed to be a bit of a shock to Twilight. If it wasn’t for the fact that she was already sitting down, Rarity was certain she could have just fallen over right there and there. It took her a full minute to respond, and even then, it seemed to be a bit of her occasional nonsense. “I always wondered why he never had friends his own age. I always chalked it up to size and maturity but…oh Harmony, how could I have been so blind? No wonder he became too dependent on me.”

“Well if it helps, Spike…he hides it very well,” Rarity tried to comfort her. “I think he doesn’t want you to worry.”

Rarity’s words did little to soothe the lavender unicorn. “I’m his mother! I’m supposed to worry about him!” Twilight shouted.

“Yet we’ve seen you don’t do worry very well,” Rarity told her.

She needed to switch topics, they weren’t here to talk about Twilight’s abilities as a caretaker after all. “Perhaps…maybe it would be better if we simply let things continue as they are. You said this plant is a joke right? It hardly seems harmful. Perhaps this was a blessing in-”

“No.”

The seriousness of the tone that Twilight replied to Rarity with stopped her cold. “We need to change Spike back.”

Twilight-”

“I did more than poke him a few times when I examined Spike, Rarity,” she told the unicorn. “Do you want to guess what I found? His draconic abilities are completely out of whack. I don’t even want to know what’s going to happen the next time Princess Celestia sends me a letter. Then there’s Spike’s other problem. The changes are only cosmetic. He may look like one of us, but Spike is lacking even the smallest spark of pony magic. Do you have any idea what that means? How crippling it is?

“He’ll never be able to use his hooves like us, he’ll never be able to use Geomancy or Arbormancy like an earth pony. He’ll never get a cutie mark! He’ll spend the rest of his comparatively short life being little more than the butt of jokes between feeling like a waste of space! Or he’ll live as long as a normal dragon and suffer the same fate for even longer! And that’s even if he can live off the normal food for a pony! If he still needs to eat gems to survive…I…I don’t even want to think what that will do to his intestinal tract.”

Rarity gaped at Twilight’s assessment of the situation. She wanted to try and discount her worries but…the unicorn’s logic seemed pretty sound. “And from the name, I thought what it did was supposed to have a funny effect,” the white unicorn mumbled. “But that hardly seems…no, it’s not funny at all. It’s as if Spike has been given a tiny taste of normalcy, only to have it taken away from him.”

“And in the sick mind of the creature who came up with this stuff Rarity, that’s the joke.”

As Twilight started to get off her sofa, Rarity reached out to stop the other unicorn. “Twilight please wait, there has to be another way for us to convince him to change back.”

“If you have any ideas, I’m listening.”

When the door to Twilight’s lab opened up, Spike found himself dreading whatever his mom had thought up while down there. The reason for this was the time she spent doing whatever she had been doing. Twilight wasn’t one to let things like hunger, sleep, personal hygiene, or even other ponies stop her experiments when she really needed to focus on something.

So the fact that she was coming out of her lab so early could only mean one thing: Twilight had already found a way to undo whatever magic had been cast on Spike. The thought terrified him.

“M-Mom?” Spike asked, his voice trembling.

“Good news Spikey-whikey,” Rarity sung as she followed Twilight out with a bottle of some blue liquid floating behind her. “We found a way to change you back into your cute little scaly self.”

Twilight nodded, just as happy before she turned around and started restoring her wards. “We just need to draw you a bath, mix in this potion, and everything will be right as rain Spike. Just let me fix things here and-”

“No.”

Since Twilight was apparently too busy locking her door behind its fifty some magical seals, it was Rarity that replied to him. “Pardon?”

“I said no,” Spike told them, a little more confidently, “I don’t want to go back to being a dragon!”

“It’s who you are Spike,” Twilight said without looking back. For some reason he couldn‘t quite put his clawless appendage on, Spike thought those words sounded cold and cruel.

For a moment he looked back at Fluttershy for support, but only found the pegasus looking around in confusion. A moment ago they had been talking about how ponies were supposed to pick things up with their hooves, which turned out to be pretty useless for him since it was just ‘touch and take’, while she helped clean up the several shattered pieces of saucers and cups on the ground.

Since it seemed he wasn’t going to get any support from her, Spike turned back to face his mother, who as done reactivating her wards. “Why are you doing this? I want to stay a pony! What’s so wrong with me staying like this?”

“Because it’s not what you are Spike,” Twilight explained, having the gall to wear a sympathetic expression.

In response, Spike stomped his hoof onto the ground. “Yeah, well I’ve seen what I am! Remember that dragon? I DON’T WANT TO BE LIKE THAT!”

Twilight shook her head before giving him a reassuring smile. “Spike, a very wise dragon once wrote, it’s not what you are that determines who you are,” she said. “I know you’ll grow up to be a noble dragon, one I can be proud to call my son.”

“You won’t be calling me anything at all!” Spike yelled at her. “YOU’LL BE DEAD! By the time I’m as big as that dragon we saw in that cave, your bones won’t even be around anymore!

“I don’t want to turn back, I just want to stay a pony!”

This time, it seemed Twilight had nothing to say. She was silent for a minute…two…and then ten. Finally, she walked up to look at him within Spike’s personal space. Spike gulped as his mother studied him up and down for a moment, obviously thinking about something. Twilight circled him, taking time to look at his blank flank and green tail, then came back to face him from the front.

“Okay,” Twilight told him, making Spike’s spirits sour, “but you have to pass a test first.”

The condition didn’t affect his mood. Spike practically ran in place with excitement at the prospect of staying the way he was. He could finally be with Rarity! For that he could run around the town faster than Rainbow Dash could fly, tame more animals than Fluttershy, buck more apples than Applejack, he could do anything!

A small chinking sound grabbed the former dragon’s attention, and he saw that Twilight had moved a cup of tea that Sparkler had made earlier over in front of him. Spike looked at it for a moment, then back to his mom. “Thanks, but I’m not-”

“Pick it up,” Twilight told him evenly.

Spike blinked in confusion, then reached forward with his mouth.

“Pick it up with one hoof, if you can do that, then you can stay a pony.”

The cruel words made Spike freeze. “T-Twilight, that…” Anger rose in the dragon-turned pony’s throat, “That’s not fair!” he shouted. She had seen how he couldn’t hold anything in his hooves like the others. She knew he couldn’t do something like that.

“Even the youngest of foals can create a magic grip in their hooves,” Twilight told him in a stern voice. “If you want to stay a pony, then go on and do what even the youngest of us can, and pick up the cup.”

Spike reached forward and touched the delicate porcelain with his hoof. Lift up, he told the cup in his mind before trying to follow through with the motion with his foreleg. His hoof came up, but the cup stayed down.

Not to be deterred, Spike tried again, and again…and again. On his twelfth try, he looked up to Twilight with a scowl. “How the hay am I supposed to do this?” he demanded before his voice rose to a shout. “How does it work? WHAT’S THE TRICK?”

The two ponies in the room aside from his mother looked away from Spike, refusing to meet his eyes.

“How do you burp fire?” Twilight asked him with that same damnable cold expression. “How do you accidentally do what other dragons do? How do you walk, or breathe? How do you make your heart beat? It just happens Spike. Now pick up the cup.”

The unicorn’s cool expression simply added fuel to the fire burning in Spike’s gut. He swept his hoof to the side, and knocked the cup to the floor, shattering it. “YOU KNOW I CAN’T!”

“Then it looks like I’ll be turning you back into a dragon,” Twilight told him softly. “I’m sorry Spike.”

Once again, Spike was overcome with terror. He didn’t want to be a dragon! Being a dragon meant being different in a town of creatures that were more or less the same. It meant almost never being able to eat what tasted good. It meant having to stay the same while all the ponies around him grew old and died!

“No!” the purple earth pony shouted before he looked around the room for a lifeline, and found one in the marshmallow unicorn. “Rarity, don’t let her do this to me!”

For her part, Rarity slowly backed away from him until she ran into the nearest bookshelf. “Spike…Twilight only wants what’s best for you.”

“But this is what’s best for me, for all of us!” he cried. “Look at me! I’m…you and me…we can finally be together.”

“Spike,” Rarity managed to say before Spike cut her off.

“I love you Rarity!” Spike exclaimed while he looked into her beautiful face. “I’ve loved you since the first moment I saw you! You’re the most beautiful, talented, and amazing unicorn I’ve ever seen! And now that I’m a pony I can-”

Rarity said nothing to stop him from talking, she didn’t need to. The look of pain and unease on her face was all it took. When he backed away from her, she finally spoke. “Spiky-whiky…”

“No,” he whined.

“I know what you think you’re feeling is love,” she continued.

“No!” the former dragon replied with a shake of his head.

“But it’s just a crush.”

“STOP IT!” he shouted as he looked Rarity up and down. Everything he knew about the unicorn told him that what he was hearing was wrong. It was like she had stabbed Spike in the chest with her horn, then ripped out his impaled heart before throwing it in the nearby trashcan because he wouldn’t be needing it anymore. There was no way that Rarity would do something like this to him!

Yeah, there’s no way she would do this, Spike told himself before looking over to Twilight Sparkle, his so-called mother. Seeing her standing there, it all suddenly clicked into place. Twilight had cast some kind of spell. That was the only possible reason Rarity was rejecting him like this. “What did you do to her?” Spike shouted.

The question forced Twilight back a step. “W-What?”

“You took Rarity down into that basement, and now she doesn’t love me anymore!” Spike yelled.

Twilight simply rolled her eyes at the accusation, the tension evaporating as quickly as it had appeared. “Now you’re just being ridiculous Spike. Even if I did have a spell for making one pony fall out of love with another, we both know how bad I am when it comes to mind altering magic. It blows up in my face every time.”

However, Spike wasn’t fooled by her act. “No! I know you Twilight! This is all some stupid plan of yours to make me turn back into a dragon because you’re stupid craziness and how you always want to keep everything the same!”

“Spike that is ridiculous!” she told him with a frown before she approached him again. “You are my son and I love-”

“NO!” Spike roared as he tried to swipe a claw that had become a hoof at the purple unicorn and nearly ended up falling flat on his face. “Stop saying that! You’re not my mom! Celestia raised me a lot more than you ever did! You’re not my sister or ANYTHING! YOU’RE JUST SOME STUPID NEUROTIC UNICORN AND…AND I HATE YOU!”

Twilight recoiled as if struck, and Spike could only feel a twinge of satisfaction as the unicorn’s legs gave out from under her and she fell to the ground with a look of something between shock and pain written all over her face. “W-What?”

“I HATE YOU,” Spike shouted again for Twilight trying to always running his life.

Twilight flinched, curling in on herself.

“I HATE YOU!” Spike shouted once again for making him move to Ponyville and leaving all the ponies who knew him in Canterlot.

The little purple pony cowered under Spike’s gaze even further.

“YOU’RE JUST A SELFISH UNICORN WHO ONLY CARES ABOUT HERSELF AND I HATE YOU!” he shouted one last time before looking around the room in a panic.

Spotting the door, he made a dash for the exit and managed to knock open the way to the outside world without falling down. Before he started sprinting away, Spike heard what he knew to be the beginnings of one of Twilight’s panic attacks, and all he could do was be glad that she was getting what was coming to her.

Author's Note

Oh no! Not tacky family drama! Oh the humanity! Cause you know, ponies always seem above this crap.

Where will Spike go? what will he do?

And will Celestia ever show up? (Uh, she is in the character list, right?)

Tune in next time whenever I get another chapter done and find out!

Chapter 5: Hard Truths

Spike ran through the grassy streets of Ponyville, not sure where he was going or really thinking about it all that much. All he knew was that he wanted to get away from his…from Twilight and Rarity, from the tree house, from everything that was so wrong with the world!

However, the odds against a bipedal creature getting around as quadruped finally won out a minute and a half into his escape. Spike’s unfamiliar body was sent tumbling into the grass and dirt when he turned a corner down a street while going at full speed. It was then he learned taking corners at a ninety degree angle while using hooves was harder than Applejack made it look.

He did his best to ignore the guffaws and snickers that came from some of the younger colts, and was a little glad no one was coming to help him up for fear of somepony recognizing him despite the species change. If they did, then they would go get Twilight. But, the moment Spike stopped and had to right himself made him switch from simply running, to thinking about just where he could go to get help for Rarity, or at least protection from Twilight.

Applejack was too far away…and Spike was pretty sure the farm pony wouldn’t believe him anyway. Twilight had been pretty good at hiding her older odd quirks from other ponies since they moved to Ponyville; and the newer ones she had gained didn’t paint her as unstable enough to try hypnotizing other ponies. In fact, Spike doubted any of the other girls would even listen to his worries, and just drag the ‘baby dragon’ back to Twilight’s place to be ‘cured’ of his ponification.

He couldn’t think of anypony in town who’d be willing to help him, or be able to if it really came down to it. While Rainbow Dash could have probably flown him away, and Pinkie could have…done something Pinkie, the two of them would have just hauled him back to Twilight like Spike knew Applejack would. In fact, the only pony who might be willing to listen to him as all was… Princess Celestia! he realized with a smile.

To top it off, all he would need to do is find some stationary and…mail it like every other normal pony, because that was what he was now.

Maybe I should try going to Canterlot, the former dragon thought. It didn’t just have to be for protection either. It had been some time since he had talked to Princess Celestia except through letters; and their correspondence wasn’t all that great anyway. Since moving to Ponyville, he only sent two of them that didn’t involve Twilight’s studies to the princess, and one of them was just about the unicorn’s odd behavior that Celestia simply wrote off as Twilight growing up.

For awhile, that had consoled Spike because Twilight had been acting more and more like his…

“No!” Spike told himself as he stood up. Twilight wasn’t his mother! She was just a selfish unicorn who made him do chores and help with her research! At least I used to help with her research, the purple pony corrected himself. Aside from placing the odd order in the mail, all the tidying up of the library, and coming along on a few trips into the Everfree for herbs, Spike realized he didn’t really do all that much with Twilight anymore.

Not compared to when they had been in Canterlot together at least. It was like...she didn't need him anymore.

GAH! Stupid brain! Why do you keep going back to Twilight? This is about me, and I want to stay a pony, and she wants to turn me back! She even made Rarity turn against me with her magic!

Any minute now, she was going to come around the corner, and drag him back to the library, and change him back. He needed to act fast! He needed to get to the train station, buy some tickets and…

…find a way to buy train tickets without any bits to pay for them.

The realization that his chances of getting to Canterlot before Twilight tracked him down were next to none made Spike’s back legs give out from under him, and left him without any strength to hold his head up. If he couldn’t get to Canterlot to tell Princess Celestia what was going on, then…he…well…he didn’t know what he could do.

“Hey there Spike. You look sad. Is something wrong? Um, you are Spike, right?”

The odd voice distracted the pony from his emotional fall, and he looked to see who was speaking to him. After flicking his head back to get the green mane out of his eyes, he blinked in confusion at the gray pegasus with the oddly arranged bright eyes.

Spike had to think for a moment to match a name with the face. “Oh, you’re Sparkler’s mom, uh…Derpy, right?” he asked. It figured Sparkler's mom would have known about his condition. If she were anything like Twilight, the first words out of her mouth when they saw each other was 'how was your day' or some such thing.

A giggle escaped from the mailmare’s mouth. “That’s what they call me alright,” the mare called Derpy told him before the look on her face went from amused to a more gentle one that reminded him of Twilight a little too much. “Now what’s wrong? You look sad.”

“I-”

“Wait!” the pegasus said before she placed a hoof over his mouth. “First thing’s first. You need something to cheer you up. Then you can tell me what’s wrong!”

Spike looked at the mare with a raised eyebrow. “Something to cheer me up? Like what?”

“Muffins of course!” she exclaimed.

Chapter 5: Hard Truths

“Think. Think. Think. How do I fix this, can I fix this? I can’t fix this!”

Rarity looked at the scene in front of her with a bit of morbid fascination. It was like when somepony saw a train wreck about to happen, but were unable to look away. So she just stared as the unicorn curled up into a little ball as she petted her own tail while muttering to herself.

It was a rather disturbing sight. Still, she didn’t want to interrupt Twilight’s…thought process. After all, Rarity knew her own path to inspiration sometimes got a little crooked. Never quite as messed up crazy as Twilight apparently preferred, but still crooked.

“What am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to fix this? This has never happened before. He never said things like that to me before. Did he always feel this way? Why did he always feel this way? Why didn’t I see he felt this way? Did I not look hard enough? Did I not love him enough? Why didn’t I love him enough? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?” the unicorn panted out from her position on the floor.

Fluttershy leaned in to whisper in the white unicorn’s ear. “Um, Rarity, shouldn’t we do something?”

The questioning pegasus got a hesitant glance from unicorn. “Dear, you know how Twilight is with her schedules, just give her fifteen minutes and-”

“But she’s been like this for over half an hour,” Fluttershy replied hesitantly.

“Spike hates me. Do they all hate me? Of course they all hate me. Why wouldn’t they hate me? I hate me.”

A look up at the clock confirmed the assessment, and then Rarity turned back to regard her panicky friend. “Oh…well then, I supposed we should do something,” she said before trotting over to Twilight and poking her a few times. “Twilight-dear, I um…I think you might be blowing this a little out of proportion. Why, when I still lived in Manehattan, my sister Sweetie Belle and I-”

“Rarity!” Twilight exclaimed as she jumped up to her knees and looked over to Rarity. The rather terrified and pleading, but definitely manic look in the purple unicorn’s eyes made the fashionista take a step back. “Rarity! I’m sorry,” she continued in a way that made her seem…rather…eccentric, “I didn’t want to. I didn’t mean to! She made me! She-”

Okay, drastic measures time, she told herself. Once again, thanks to her own experiences, Rarity knew that sometimes a pony needed to take certain unladylike actions to save the panic-stricken from themselves.

A hoof across the face from Rarity made Twilight stop talking long enough for the white unicorn to get in her face, and put few choice words in. “Now listen here! I’ve let you wallow around in your little pity party, and Spike has had enough time to cool off.”

She paused for a moment to study Twilight and make sure she was still listening; and not getting angry or illuminating her eyes like that one time she had seen Twilight do. The mare was still breathing rather quickly, but her eyes were trained on Rarity without any hostile intent. “So you need to calm down and figure out what you are going to do with him.”

Twilight reached up and put a hoof to her chest. Slowly, the purple unicorn’s breaths began to become further and further apart until Twilight was breathing at a much more normal pace. When it seemed she had finally got some control to her breath, Twilight looked at Rarity with eyes that said she was still on the brink of another episode. “But…he hates me Rarity.”

The declaration made Rarity lick her lips as she tried to think up the right words to say. Simply consoling Twilight wasn’t going to do much if Spike was still in a foul mood when she found him. Rarity didn’t want to think he would be, but…her disagreements with her own parents reminded her just how venomous a child could be towards their parental figure.

She took a breath, and tried to but the words together properly in her mind before letting them out. Confidence here was the key, and a stumbling tongue did not project that very well. “Only for the moment dear,” the unicorn assured her.

“But he’s never said that before Rarity,” Twilight told her in a pathetic tone. “Never! And…he… I thought letting him get more independent would be a good thing! I want him to be my son! Not some dragon I just keep around to do my work like before!”

Yes, she did mention something to that effect about their time in Canterlot, Rarity thought to herself. Spike had too in fact, now that she thought about it. Only, Twilight seemed to have been ashamed of the fact, while Spike spoke like he was proud about helping Twilight with her studies. The little dragon liked to be useful, it was one of the reasons that Rarity agreed to his assistance every now and then.

“I can’t take it if he’s going to hate me too!”

Rarity rubbed the other mare on the shoulder in a soothing way. “Take it from the queen my dear, this is just a little teenage drama,” she assured Twilight. “It will pass.”

“But-”

“And, if you truly want to be the parent here,” she said before Twilight could get started on her mental breakdown again. “Then you’re going to have to be taking a little bit of that drama. And…well, if you’re not ready for that…then perhaps something else can be worked out. From what I understand, didn’t Princess Celestia-”

“No!”

The white unicorn blinked at Twilight’s declaration. It wasn’t said with much force, but it had more determination behind it than the whining Twilight had done earlier. She took in a deep breath, held it for a few seconds, and then let out slowly. “You’re right Rarity. I need to…I just…focus, come on Twilight, focus.”

For her part, Rarity just stood silently to give emotional support as Twilight mumbled to herself. “Come on Twilight, you can do this. Remember the hospital? You kept from crying all those times. You kept it together then, keep it together now. It’s been awhile but, you can keep it together now.”

After a few more breaths, Twilight looked back at Rarity with a determined face, but slightly trembling legs. “Okay Rarity, I’m ready. Let’s go find Spike.”

“And then?” Rarity asked.

The other unicorn took in another deep breath, and pushed a hoof away from her chest as she let it out. As she did, her knees stopped shaking. Back under control, she looked over to Rarity with a calm face. “What do you mean and then?”

Deciding to stop beating around the bush, the white unicorn just straight out asked. “What do you plan on doing with him? You can’t just drag the colt back here and expect him to take his medicine just like that.”

Twilight looked at Rarity for a moment, her eyes slowly turning to a frown. Still, Rarity could tell the magus seemed more annoyed than angry, so there seemed to be no threat of her being turned into a toad or some other awful thing. “Well actually, Spike doesn’t have to take anything. If it comes down to it, I can just dunk him in-”

Without even waiting for her to finish, Rarity switched subjects. Arguing with stubborn ponies was like beating one’s head against a rock. One needed to make sure her horn impacted on a crack, and then spread it around. “Twilight, if you don’t mind me asking…what was all that about a hospital?”

Twilight looked up at her with wide eyes for a moment, then flinched away. “W-W-What? Oh…that. Um, well…when I was younger, some frien-relatives were put in the hospital for a…condition they had,” she said in a sad tone after the panicked surprise from being asked something like that right out of the blue.

As the unicorn averted her gaze from Rarity, the seamstress wrapped some of Twilight‘s pen and parchment in her magic. “I visited them as much as I could and when I did…it was just really hard for everypony. But I had to keep a smile up when I did it. Crying would have made them sad.”

“Ah…what happened to them?” she asked. When Twilight flinched at her question and gulped, but didn’t do anything else, Rarity found herself emboldened and stepped forward, forcing the more powerful unicorn back.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” she mumbled softly as the trembling in her legs increased and she sunk in on herself just the tiniest bit.

Rarity raised an eyebrow, and Twilight shrunk back even more. “But Twilight, wouldn’t it be better to share this sort of thing with your friends? I mean, a burden shared by many helps with the weight and all that.”

The old quote got a flinch out of the unicorn, but her body language didn’t become any more forthcoming. Twilight simply curled in on herself even more. “Rarity, I…can’t,” she said. “Please, I hate those memories. I don’t want to think about them anymore.”

Rarity gave the mare a reassuring nuzzle, which she flinched away from at first. “Of course my dear, forget I said anything,” she told her friend before looking over to the pegasus who had been standing out of the line of fire.

“Twilight,” the flying member of their little group spoke up, making Rarity turn herself around to look at Fluttershy; who had come in as per the instructions on the note that had been slipped to her. “Um…if you don’t mind me asking, why can’t Spike stay a pony?”

“Muffins muffins making makin’ muffin muffins! Aaaaaaaaaand, they’re done!” the mailmare sang as the timer to her oven went off.

Spike sighed to himself and shook his head as the gray pegasus stopped dancing in her kitchen and began to retrieve the baked goods. As the owner of the house kept herself busy, he looked back to the pony currently occupying the other half of the couch he was sitting on. Although Sparkler was no longer giving him her patented death glare, she didn’t seem to be in a good mood either as she read some magic instruction book that had been picked up earlier at the library. “Um…Sparkler, are you still mad about me calling your mom the wrong name?” he asked tentatively.

The pink unicorn looked up from her book with a scowl on her face, then diverted her gaze from the dragon-turned-pony. “It’s…well, I’m fine with you now that you apologized, but…ugh! It just makes me so mad that my mom let’s ponies walk all over her so much that half the stupid town thinks that stupid nickname of hers is her real one!”

“Awww, it’s no big deal Sparky.”

As Ditzy set a napkin down before putting the try of muffins on the coffee table, Sparkler let out a cry of indignation and glared at the pegasus. “Mom! I’m not a little foal anymore! Stop calling me that! Especially when I’m with my friend!”

While the Ditzy and the unicorn had their mother/daughter banter back and forth, Spike found himself looking at the muffins that were still cooling. “So…uh, anypony want to tell me how this is supposed to cheer me up?”

Sparkler looked away from her mother and over to Spike the pony with a snaky smirk. “According to Mom, muffins fix everything. So I’m sure, by her logic, you’ll just eat one and get out of your funk.”

“Well not really,” Ditzy said, drawing the two younger ponies attention. “You see, when I spotted Spike in the street, I saw he wouldn’t want to listen to anypony because he was too angry for the words to sink in. So I brought him back home to give him some time to cool off, and the smell of the baking muffins got his mind focused on food, rather than just going whatever had made him upset in the first place so he wouldn’t just let it run over and over again in his head. And now, after smelling the muffins cooking for so long, Spike’s subconsciously gotten himself so prepared to eat one that he’ll enjoy it and at least cheer up a little, allowing him to talk it out with somepony he trusts…that’s you Sparky.”

Spike could only sit there, his mouth hanging open alongside Sparkler as Ditzy finished. It was a full three seconds before the former dragon could even find the correct words to voice what was going through his brain. “Sparkler…I think I understand where you get your brains from now.”

“Um…yeah,” the unicorn managed to say as her mother snatched one of the muffins before flapping her wings to get a few inches off the ground.

“It’s a mom thing,” Ditzy replied before she floated towards the stairs. “Now, I’ll leave you foals alone. I’ve got to get some rest before my shift at the delivery company starts. And Sparkler, no hanky panky in the house!”

Hank what now? Spike asked himself while Sparkler let out an embarrassed cry of ‘Moooom’ before Ditzy left them alone. As soon as she was gone, Spike reached out for a muffin and touched it with his hooves…then sighed when he couldn’t pull it back out of the pan they were still in. “Sparkler, how do you do it?”

“Do what?” she asked before her magic dropped the muffin into her waiting hoof for her to take a bite without having to deal with that magic tingle that came from having her glow make contact with her tongue.

“That!” Spike exclaimed as he pointed to the muffin in her hoof, then tried to pick his own up multiple times. “Mom…Twilight said I could stay a pony if I could pick something up with just one hoof, that I could be with Rarity! But I couldn’t! And-”

“Spike.”

“-And-”

“Spike!”

“I-”

“SPIKE!” Sparkler shouted right in his face, making the dragon turned pony let out a squeal of surprise before flailing backwards and falling from the couch.

After letting the last of his dignity die, Spike picked himself off the ground and managed to pull himself back up on the couch where Sparkler had a muffin waiting for him in the grip of her magic. He reached out his hoof to take it, and then watched helplessly when it fell to the floor…only for the unicorn to catch it again and float it back up to him. Once it was level with his mouth, the light purple pony took a bite. The muffin was…good, but not as good as he was expecting it to be for some reason.

It took a moment before Spike realized he was thinking it needed some sweetening, and despite his desire to add sapphires to the recipe, the thought was painfully shoved to the side when he understood that he would never be able to eat gems again. Everything else tasted dull in comparison.

After a moment, Spike realized that Sparkler had never answered his question. “Sorry for freaking out on you. I just…I wanted to know how to pick stuff up with hooves,” he mumbled.

“Oh that,” she said before shrugging. “Same way we all get cutie marks, or pegasi walk on clouds, or earth ponies just know how crops should be tended, or unicorns just move stuff with our horns. It’s our instinctual magic common to all tribes. We just do it. You know, like breathing.”

Then Sparkler let out a sigh and looked over to the pseudo-pony. “So…care to tell me what this is all about? What’s the deal with this staying a pony and being with Rarity manure?”

After finishing the muffin that Sparkler was holding for him, Spike let out a sigh and explained things for her, telling Sparkler about how Twilight had managed to find a way to turn him back into a dragon, and Rarity…the cruel words she had said, that Twilight had obviously made her say.

When he had finished, Sparkler gave him one of her most ‘I can’t believe this’ looks, and let out a sigh before finally breaking the silence.

“Spike…how old is Rarity?”

The question threw him a bit off guard. “Um…well…maybe…nineteen?” In truth, Spike had no idea as to the answer to that was. He assumed she was close to Twilight in age, but…now that he really thought about it, she would have had to been a little bit older if she had an established business.

“Try twenty three,” the unicorn countered. “Now, how much else do you really know about her?”

Spike frowned at the information Sparkler had given him. “Wait, how do you know how old she is?”

As usual, Sparkler met his dissatisfaction with more of her own instead of an apologetic look. “Are you kidding?” she asked with a raised eyebrow. “She’s a single mare with a successful business before thirty, and a gemstone cutie mark. She’s living my dream! Hay, she’s even got…well…let’s just say I look up to her, and leave it at that.” Sparkler looked away to grab another muffin from the tray.

“Oh, that makes sense, I guess,” he mumbled before looking back towards the food for a few moments before Sparkler got him another muffin. Although he felt kind of sad for Sparkler if she was measuring herself against Rarity, the most beautiful, kind and generous unicorn who ever lived.

“And what’s all this about your mom brainwashing Rarity into rejecting you?” she asked after a moment. “You can’t tell me you actually believe that!”

The question made Spike slump over a little. “Well…” He paused in thought. Did he believe it? Twilight did have her…odd moments.

Spike had seen one time when she stayed up for three days straight trying to decode a letter of text Celestia had given her until the princess had explained that the letter had no answer to it, and was merely designed to be a project she was meant to fail on her own before asking for help. By the third day, Twilight had been having conversations with the parchment and convinced that the truth of the test was that the coded letter was in fact the way the Equestrian language was supposed to look, and everything else was wrong. Although she had stopped short of hypnotizing everypony in the palace to agree with her way of thinking.

With no other choice, the dragon-turned-pony relented with a long sigh. “I guess not,” he finally admitted before taking a bite from his floating muffin. “It’s just…when I first saw Rarity…I just…knew she and I would be together. It was love at first sight, it was destiny, it was-”

“An infatuation,” Sparkler cut in, again, shattering Spike‘s mental picture. Before Spike could recover, she kept going. “I mean come on! I There’s no such thing as love at first sight Spike. There’s ‘wow that stallion is hot and I want him to bang my brain out’ kind of stuff, but that’s just you seeing some pony as attractive. Hay, you didn’t even know her at the time!”

Spike deflated a little bit before mumbling, “But I do now.”

At that point, Sparkler had to nod. “I’ll give you that one,” she agreed before her look became scrutinizing again. “And since you know her so well now, tell me… Has she ever looked at you as anything more than the foal of one of her friends, Spiky-wikey?”

The special name Rarity had for him used in such a way made Spike flinch. Whenever Rarity had said that, it had sounded like a special name that only she called him. It was proof of their special bond. But with the way Sparkler had said it and that foal comment made it sound completely different.

“My little Spikey-wikey,” Rarity’s voice resounded in his mind as she spoke to him like…a… Not like somepony she was interested in romantically, or even an equal that might possibly have a chance of one day being considered a romantic interest. If anything, it sounded almost as if she thought of his as…

Well…

Fluttershy gasped and rushed forward with wide eyes. “A baby dragon!” the pegasus said as she went from shy to exited in less than a second upon seeing Spike on Twilight’s back.

…a pet.

The thought made him shiver. Is that really what I am to… NO! Rarity values my help! She thinks of me like a pony and…

“It’s just a crush Spike,” the unicorn’s words echoed in his head.

“And that’s all, isn’t it?” he whispered to himself. At least, that was all she would ever see it as. The foolish infatuations of a foal. “To her, I’m just…Twilight’s…son.” Spike was pretty sure, had he been a dragon, the last word would have had him spitting fire.

The touch of a hoof against the back of his coat brought Spike out of his introspection, and he found Sparkler putting one of her forelegs across his shoulders in a very clumsy hug. When he turned his head to look at her, she blushed a little and cleared her throat. “Sorry. Not good with this touchy-feely stuff like my mom is.”

Spike cleared his own throat and turned his attention back towards the muffins that had cooled. “That’s okay, I’m not one for mushy stuff either,” he said to her. These days, he got more than enough of that ‘I love you’ junk from…Twilight.

For what was going on the thirtieth time since the day began, Spike reached to pick up something in front of him. His hoof touched the muffin, and found it completely unresponsive. “…there’s something wrong with pony-me, isn’t there?”

“I haven’t known your mom that long Spike, but Twilight really doesn’t seem like the type of pony who does stuff without a reason,” Sparkler told him as Spike gave up trying to grab the muffin and leaned back on the couch.

Then, he looked at his bare flank for a minute, before collapsing back onto the couch all the way, where Sparkler was waiting for him.

“So, what now?” she asked him in a soft tone.

“I…” Spike sighed, not quite able to say the words. He knew what he had to do. He needed to go back, and talk to Twilight. The image of the purple unicorn looking at him with her terrified expression, it appeared in his mind again and the former dragon found himself sinking deeper into the pink unicorn’s embrace. “Can you give me a minute on that?”

Rarity gulped as she watched Twilight glare at Fluttershy. The white unicorn wasn’t even aware she had backed up until she felt the table in the middle of the library impact her rump.

Apparently, the sound of light jostle the unicorn bust underwent was enough to shake Twilight out of her frozen stare of cold rage. “What did you just call me?”

“Well it’s just, you…um, I said…you…kind of remind me of a wild animal,” Fluttershy mumbled before she hid behind her mane as best she could, almost cowering as Twilight just stared at her with an open mouth.

As she stood beside her, Rarity just gaped at the pegasus who had said such a thing to Twilight of all ponies. Quietly as she could, the unicorn slowly looked around for someplace to hide.

Across the room, Fluttershy knelt down until she was shivering, and Twilight… The purple unicorn simply watcher her and…much to Rarity's surprise, softened.

It was a strange sight. Five minutes ago, after Twilight had finished explaining to Fluttershy everything that was going on and why she had been so hard on the dragon, the pegasus had said that Twilight could have tried being nicer to Spike, or even let him stay a pony despite the impossible to overcome disabilities.

The arch-mage of a unicorn had not taken the suggestion well. She had stiffened, and gave such a cold, even response to the suggestion that Rarity had practically felt the room’s temperature drop, starting them on the path that had let to the moment they were in. But, instead of the usual explosions that Twilight was known for when she was challenged, as Fluttershy’s fear grew…so did Twilight’s; until the later of the two finally spoke.

“Are…Fluttershy, are you afraid of me?” the unicorn asked, her voice low and full of fear.

After the pegasus managed to remove her face from her mane again, Fluttershy put on a thoughtful look, then let out a tiny sigh. “Well, maybe a little, or…a lot. But, I think you misunderstand what I said,” she went on. “You see, when I first bring an animal into my house from outside, it’s very…rowdy. But it’s not because the animal is bad, it’s just…used to being by itself, used to just getting its way. It has to get used to sharing with others and considering what they want.”

“But I do consider what you all want!” Twilight argued, her voice pleading with the pegasus to understand. “I know Applejack wants her farm to succeed and her family to be happy more than anything in the world, but she can’t do that without all our help! I know Rainbow Dash wants to be the best flyer in Equestria, but joining the Wonderbolts will only make her miserable! It’s great that Pinkie Pie just wants to make other ponies happy, but she needs to stop relying on others to find her own self-worth, and Rarity…you don’t need to give us anything to prove our friendship, I’d love you even if I never got a single dress, cape, vest or scarf from you ever again. Your generosity is wonderful Rarity, but it is not a requirement for our friendship.

“And Fluttershy,” she said, turning to the pegasus. “You’re the most kind and loving pony I’ve ever met! But…you just hide away in your house on the edge of town when you could be out with all of us, having so much more fun. Like…I know you have the most lovely singing voice in the world! You-”

Before Twilight could even get another word in, Fluttershy stood rigid and let out a cry of surprised. “W-WHAT?” she exclaimed before crouching down, seemingly trying to melt into the ground. “Y-You’ve heard me sing?”

The unicorn’s face brightened and she nodded enthusiastically. “Yes! I’ve heard you sing while you were…feeding your animals the other day! Your voice is beautiful, and-and I know you like the Ponytones, and-Rarity is right here!” she exclaimed while pointing to the unicorn, her words slowing down as Fluttershy’s face became more and more terrified. “You…could join…them…Fluttershy? What’s wrong?”

“I…it…you…singing…I…singing, it-you…know…about my…singing.”

Using the clues of the few words she said, and the body language that spoke volumes louder, Rarity cleared her throat and drew Twilight’s attention away from the shivering pegasus. “I think what Fluttershy is trying to say dear, is that while she does enjoy singing,” Rarity began while making a mental note to ask her spa buddy about all of that later, “it isn’t something that she feels comfortable with in public.”

“But, with some work, Fluttershy can overcome her stage fright, and…I know she’d love to join your new singing group Rarity!”

In response, the white unicorn pushed down her fears of Twilight turning her into a toad for the moment. As silly as they were, seeing the girl as she had been just a few moments ago… Rarity didn’t want to know what would happen if she really snapped. “However, that isn’t your decision to make, is it darling?”

Twilight’s “But!” was cut off with a raise of an eyebrow from Rarity, and after her gaze shifted between the unicorn and the pegasus before she lowered her head and let out a tiny sniffle. “I’m sorry. It’s just…I’ve been alone for so long. Locked away, just researching and…I just…I’m sorry if I scare you!” she sobbed as she shook her head.

“I don’t mean to.”

The tiny, squeak of a response from Twilight was quickly reciprocated. Fluttershy slowly approached the distraught unicorn, and wrapped her in a hug. “That’s okay Twilight,” the yellow pegasus told her. “Learning about friendship is what you’re here for, right?”

The purple unicorn sat on her haunches for one…two…nearly three minutes before Rarity finally heard something from her. A tiny snicker escaped her nose, followed by a light giggle that erupted into a moment of laughter before she grabbed Fluttershy by the shoulders and pushed her back to look the mare in the eyes. “Maybe I do still have some things I need to learn from you girls.

“But right now, I need to go find my son,” Twilight said before looking over to Rarity, then back to Fluttershy as she continued to speak. “Today’s Pinkie’s day off from Sugarcube Corner, right?”

While the pegasus gave a ‘no idea’ shrug, Rarity checked her mental calendar. Learning the usual schedules for her friends hadn’t been too hard, with the exception of a cyan pegasus, but despite her out there personality, Pinkie Pie did keep a basic one. “I believe so. But, why do you want to see Pinkie?”

“Just try and beat her in a game of hide and seek without magic and you’ll see what I’m talking about.”

Spike didn’t know how long he sat on the couch beside the unicorn, but by the time he got up to leave, Ditzy had already left for her afternoon job, and the muffins had gotten cold. The clock on the wall said the time with 2:00PM, but since he had come in after Sparkler’s mom finished her morning mail route…or was it newspaper route? Some other job...maybe? He wasn’t sure.

The former dragon shook his head. Well, considering the time, Spike knew he had been at the Do’s residence for too long. And, as much as he hated to admit it to himself, the longer he stayed, the longer he found himself thinking of the state Twilight had been in when he left her.

Sure, she had been pretty harsh with him, but…was that really such a good excuse for his own actions towards her? After everything they’d done together, an entire lifetime of memories for him, all just thrown away for…what?

A crush?

Because Twilight was being bossy with him again?

“Hey Sparkler,” the former dragon finally spoke, making the unicorn lift her head from the book she had been staring at for the past several minutes without turning a page. “Can you help me get home? I don’t think I’ll be able to open the door.”

The unicorn levitated her book back onto the living room’s table and nodded. “No problem Spike,” she said before getting up and walking him out. “So…you going to ask Twilight if you can stay a pony? Cause…uh…okay, I got nothing to help you out on that front with.”

Spike looked over to a mirror on the far side of the wall, and sighed at the pony staring back at him. The light purple pony who had a coat the same color as his old scales, and a mane that matched his old spikes. The muzzle still looked like it had a little ways to grow until it reached full stallion, but Spike was certain nopony would be mistaking him for a mare. The blank flank also stood out to him when he turned to look at his body from another angle.

“No,” the dragon-to-be finally said, more to himself than to the unicorn beside him. “Would have been nice though.”

“Eh, fitting in is overrated anyway,” Sparkler told him before opening the door to her house.

“I know, right?”

While the pink unicorn beside him let out a terrified scream and jumped to grab onto Spike’s neck, dragging them both down to the ground in a tangled mess, Spike had enough experience dealing with Pinkie’s…Pinkie-ness…or was perhaps just overdosed with it enough on a weekly basis that he managed to keep from screaming like a little filly when the party pony popped up behind them a second after the door was opened.

It also helped that Sparkler had a stranglehold on his neck, preventing any sound from escaping, or air from entering.

“There you are Spike!” Pinkie exclaimed as she picked him up out of Sparkler’s grip and gave the light purple pony a hug. “That was the longest anypony’s ever managed to hide from me before! Although…I think it was cheating to hide in a house, those are supposed to be off limits.”

“Oh pony feathers, it’s the crazy one,” Sparkler mumbled as she loosened her death grip enough for Spike to breathe, and eventually escape.

Ignoring the unicorn, Pinkie reached into her poofy mane, and pulled out a rolled up scroll. “Twilight said to give you this when I find you so…here you go!” she exclaimed before handing him the parchment.

Although a bit put off by the fact Twilight had just sent him a letter, obviously for Celestia, the oddity of the pink earth pony in front of him made him keep from blowing his stack. “Uh, Pinkie…I can’t send messages to Princess Celestia,” Spike told her as he looked at the letter.

Pinkie Pie rolled her eyes. “Well duh! You’re a pony now, not a dragon,” she told him like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Besides, the letter is for you, not Princess Celestia! If it was for Princess Celestia, I would have had to give it to Sparkler’s mom!”

“Well, least she’s not calling her Derpy,” the unicorn mumbled.

Tentatively, Spike reached out with his hooves, and stopped a second before he touched the letter. Without any other options, the former dragon sighed and looked over to the unicorn. “Can you give me a horn here?” he asked.

A few seconds later, the letter unrolled in Sparkler’s magic, and Spike read the letter while the other pony averted her eyes.

My Dearest Spike,

If you’re reading this, then the first thing I want to say is, I’m sorry for everything.

Since we came to Ponyville, I know I’ve been more difficult to deal with than what you're used to in the past. I’m more pushy, and even arrogant. I see a problem and I run to fix it, only looking at the end of everything without noticing who I hurt to get things done. I’m afraid it’s become a bad habit of mine.

But I don’t want to make this about me trying to explain myself to you. I just need you to know something, why I am trying to get you to change back into a dragon.

I don’t know where you encountered a blue flower in the past twenty-four hours, but that is the reason for your transformation. It transformed you into a pony, probably because in the eyes of other dragons, you are more pony than dragon. It’s like a joke, you see.

But the joke is a sick one. The transformation isn’t complete, nor was it ever meant to be. Your dragon magic still exists, and you don’t have the magic of a pony. It’s why you can’t pick things up with your hooves, and lack a cutie mark, or anything else we have. I’m sorry I didn’t take the time to tell you this first. Like a fool, I didn’t trust in your ability to see reason, and reacted in fear of your bullheadedness.

It’s not the only thing I’m afraid of either. Like I said, your dragon magic still exists, but your pony body is probably not immune to fire, or even able to excrete it. It terrifies me to think what may happen if Celestia sends you a message while you're in the state you’re in now.

Please come home, or if Pinkie finds you in Canterlot, then tell Celestia you’ve been affected by poison joke. Hopefully, she knows the cure too. And if you are in Canterlot, then I just want to say I’m sorry I drove you away with my harsh actions. I just love you so much, and didn’t want to take the chance of you getting hurt. I know that’s no excuse, but it’s all I have.

As for Rarity, I’m sorry to say that I know you had feelings for her, and I used them against you in such a way. If you hate me for that, then I understand, and to be honest, I more than deserve it for crushing your hopes before their time. Part of me wants to speak up in my defense of my actions with her, but getting back on your good side is nothing when compared with your physical well-being.

So, please come home to the library so I can help you with the magical infection, if your still in Ponyville that is. I never meant to hurt you, and although I can’t ask for forgiveness, I do want you to know that I am sorry that I hurt you.

The walk back to the library took longer than Spike had expected it to. While he found it easier to move at a trot, Spike needed the time it took to get from Ditzy’s house to Twilight’s place to get his head in order, to work out what he wanted…what he needed to say. So he took detours, scenic routes that went by every statue in town, and even managed to get lost for a few seconds in the village that was Ponyville.

Since Sparkler had remained at her house at his request once he read the letter, Spike knocked on the door to his home. He gulped when the entryway opened on it’s own accord. It as an action he immediately regretted because of the letters in his mouth that he had taken out of the mailbox; more out of habit than anything really. One thing he would not miss about being a pony as having to carry things around in his teeth.

The purple unicorn was waiting for him inside. As he crossed the threshold into her house, Spike dropped the mail onto the floor at what he saw. Despite it barely being past three in the afternoon, she looked incredibly worn out, more-so than he had ever seen her since they came to Ponyville. Twilight’s eyes were bloodshot, and it looked like the eyes hadn’t been the only part of her face fluids had leaked from.

“Spike?” his mother called out to the pseudo-pony weakly. “I-”

“I’m sorry!” Spike told her before she could get any further. “I-” the former dragon’s words were cut off as he had to look away when Twilight teleported over and wrapped her forelegs around him in a hug.

“No! Don’t you apologize, d-don’t you dare,” she said before she broke into tears. “I, this is all my fault Spike. You have every right to be mad at me! I was so horrible to you!”

The admittance simply stabbed at the lighter purple pony’s heart. “I…I should have known there was something…something,” he said before finally breaking down into tears. “I’m sorry I hurt you. What I said, I-I’m sorry!”

Finally, with his words bringing back the memories of what had transpired the last time he had been in this room, Spike broke into tears as he sagged into his mother’s forelegs, and she her head on his shoulders. By some miracle, the two managed to remain standing, perfectly supporting the weight of the others.

After it seemed he had no more tears to shed, and Twilight’s breathing had returned to normal, the unicorn was the first to speak. “So…are you going to…stay, with me?”

“Of course I am.”

The mare grip on him tightened. “Thank you. I…I love you Spike.”

“I love you too, Mom.”

Twilight nuzzled the slightly smaller pony for what felt like forever, but when she finally broke the embrace, the clock said only a few minutes had passed since Spike had walked into the tree.

Holding him at forearms length, the unicorn drew in some breath through her nose, making a rather disturbing slurping sound as they had just spent the past several minute crying, and smiled at her son. “I have the cure ready, if you are. It’s upstairs, in the bath.”

Spike couldn’t help but ask, “With bubbles?”

“Of course it has bubbles Spike,” she mumbled with a roll of her eyes.

Then, as she straightened herself back up, Twilight’s gaze fell to the mail that Spike had dropped on the way in. “What’s this?” she mumbled before picking up the letters with her magic and floating them over.

“Just the mail…I kind of got it…habit, I guess,” he mumbled before looking over to where the bathroom was, then back to Twilight. As much as he hated to admit it, Spike was pretty sure he might need help getting in the tub. He did not trust his hooves on any kind of wet surface.

But, when he looked over to Twilight and saw the concerned expression on her face as she scanned a letter floating in front of her face. “What’s wrong?”

Her reply was almost breathless. “It’s…well, you remember that dragon from a few days back?” Twilight asked without waiting for an answer. “They um…finished apprising the value of his horde and selling off the antiquities.”

The soon to be dragon couldn’t help but smile at hearing that news. At the very least, he wouldn’t have to listen to Twilight complain about the ‘substandard’ lab equipment she was forced to ‘get by with’ using the money Princess Celestia had given her. “So how much are we getting?”

“Too much.”

Spike frowned at Twilight’s…depressed reply. If anything, he thought news such as that would have at least brought a little cheer to his mother’s face. “What? What’s that supposed to mean, too much?”

“Even,” Twilight began as she read the letter again, then looked up to Spike with an odd hopelessness in her eyes. “Even if it’s divided six ways, it’s…millions.” Then, she looked back down at the paper like it was her own death certificate. “Me and the girls…we’re rich.”

Author's Note

There's your new chapter!

Probably a few errors in it too but it's 11PM and I got work tomorrow. So meh, editing will come later.

After some thinking I decided to just incorporate the side story I was planning into the main one, and speed things up a bit.

Next time, Twilight has to figure out a way to keep the most friendship killing thing known to man from ruining the ties between her friends.

Chapter 6: Teacher and Student

Spike watched as his mother rubbed her chin and stared at the calendar in front of her as if would tell the unicorn all the secrets of the universe. Considering what she was really trying to do, obtaining enlightenment by looking at a piece of paper was probably an easier task.

“Well, she’s tried the exploding present yesterday when I went to Sugarcube Corner, glued seat three days ago, and Rainbow Dash stopped trying to help her after I conjured that irremovable makeup on her and threatened to leave it on, so that means… today’s spiked food, or a prank involving water.”

After finishing off the last of his ruby breakfast that they had courtesy of the wannabe liar thief, the dragon sighed and shook his head. “Twilight, why do you even bother? Even if you can figure out what prank Pinkie is going to try and pull on you today, the way she does them is impossible to predict.”

Twilight turned away from her calendar and frowned. “Because I’d rather be prepared for it if something does happen,” she told him. “Besides, today we’re all going to Canterlot to divvy up that dragon’s horde and …are you sure you don’t want to come?”

For a moment, Spike felt tempted by the offer of going back to his hometown and maybe seeing Princess Celestia again, but…he didn’t want to be within a hundred miles of the city when Twilight arrived in Canterlot. Plus, Sparkler was coming over later to hang out. So he’d at least have somepony to talk to.

Somepony that was his friend, rather than just a friend of his mom.

Plus, if Spike when with them to Canterlot, he would have to share space with Rarity and…the dragon didn’t quite know how he was going to deal with that little emotional hurdle yet.

“Nah, I’m fine.”

The dragon found himself the object of a scrutinizing look from the unicorn for a few seconds, but then Twilight shrugged, pulled him into a hug, and kissed Spike on the forehead. “Okay Spike. Just don’t eat all the ice cream this time,” she told him with a light smile that had Spike frowning, wondering how in the hay Twilight had known what his plans were.

Then, there was the other part. This time? It was kind of weird how she was able to do that sometimes. But then, maybe Pinkie’s weird theory about Twilight wasn’t so far off.

“Uh…sure thing Mom,” the dragon agreed. He could leave one scoop left for her. But the rest would be all his!

Another kiss to the forehead and her usual ‘I love you’ got a blush of embarrassment from the dragon before the unicorn walked to the door…and got covered in cold water as a bucket fell from above to cover Twilight’s head. Which was strange considering the door had been completely closed…and that it opened outwards.

“Pinkieeeeeeee,” the unicorn growled from inside the metal bucket before the pink pony popped out from the bookshelf behind her, scattering the various volumes that had been placed there.

“Awww, Twilight, I thought for sure you would have seen that one coming!” she exclaimed.

The unicorn levitated the bucket off her head and cast a quick spell that gathered up the water before dropping it on the lawn outside before she turned back to Pinkie Pie with an expression somewhere between tired and irate. “Pinkie I keep telling you, I’m not psychic! I knew your real name because Celestia had you all looked into after we became the Element Bearers and gave me the information. I just burned the folders with all the data without telling any of you because it was creepy that she was spying on us!”

However, Pinkie Pie just gave Twilight a scrutinizing look. “Weeeeellllll, that doesn‘t explain how-”

Twilight held up a hoof to forestall her. “Look, can we just get going? We’re taking the first train to Canterlot, and I know how long getting into these debates with you takes.”

As the pink party pony followed the unicorn magus out the door and closed it behind her, Spike ran to the unicorn’s desk and pulled out a piece of paper. After getting a quill from the desk as well, he began to put the plan he had come up with last night after learning of Twilight’s intentions to head home for a day.

Dear Princess Celestia,

Twilight is headed to Canterlot on important business, and would like to meet you at the train station to talk about some stuff.

Spike.

Chapter 6: Teacher and Student

“Eeeeeek! Everypony run fer their cotton-pickin’ lives!” Applejack shouted in terror as the mare totally screamed in terror at the problem way too big for her to handle and sent her running like a scared little filly in her girly farm dress.

The dragon attacking Ponyville was totally uncool monster from the depths of Tartarus. It stepped on homes, just completely totaled Sugarcube Corner, and even used its okay…somewhat awesome ability to breathe fire to totally blow the egghead tree of dorkiness away.

It was a danger only one kind of pony could take care of.

Okay, two kinds of ponies, but Celestia was out of town for some big princess thing, so she had to call in…

THE WONDERBOLTS

And at their head, was the new team owner and super-captain Rain-Bow Dash!

They-

“Okay…Okay just…let me just stop you right there.”

Applejack held in her groans at the story as the Friendship Express continued on towards Canterlot, carrying them past the rolling hills and towards the mountaintop that held their destination. She also kept the disgruntled frown from coming onto her face that had been threatening to pop up since Twilight had come over to her farm earlier and told Applejack the ponies up in Canterlot had finally finished counting all the gold in the dragon’s horde and turning the rest of the treasure into bits.

Now was not the time to raise an important point about the treasure that just seemed to conveniently slip the minds of the rest of the ponies gathered. That could wait until the bits were about to be passed out. If she spoke now, Twilight would turn the others against her, or bully her way to a solution like she had done before back on the farm.

So Applejack just sat back and listened to the story of how Rainbow would squander her fortune with her delusional ego trip of a story that just left a bad taste in the farmer’s mouth. However, she managed to find some solace in the fact that Twilight had stopped her before the story gotten too unbearable; not that it had started all that well off to begin with of course with the Applejack comment that probably had a lot to do with the fact she had whalloped Rainbow Dash at horseshoes the day before when the pegasus came to give a her a hoof with the late apples that hadn’t quite been ready during the start of apple bucking season.

Of course, that also meant she had to put up with being around Rainbow Dash, which wasn’t that pleasant of an experience these days.

Rainbow’s ego had been growing by leaps and bounds since Twilight had taken down that dragon with a little help from the pegasus, something that wouldn’t have even been possible without the unicorn’s magic. Considering the three other ponies that had gone with her, Rainbow had been lucky to have anything to brag about at all. If Twilight had brought her foal of a lizard along, Applejack knew it would have been the most durable and powerful pony who would have been chosen to help in the job. But, with Rainbow being the type of pony AJ wouldn’t have trusted to watch an apple cart, and Rarity being…well, useless in anything physical, the best choice had gotten stuck holding the proverbial apple basket when it came time to get the job done.

It didn’t help the farmer’s mood any that the blue pegasus hadn’t shut up about her biggest achievement since it happened. And if it kept up, Applejack knew she might just have to show the pegasus just who the real hero of Ponyville was.

But for the moment, she was just willing to just be the better pony, and sit on the bench across from the ego with wings while she watched the unicorn rub her temple and the pegasus looked on in confusion.

Thankfully, Twilight was willing to set the flying hazard straight when it came to her so-called ‘dream’. “Rainbow, while I am sure there might be a way to bribe your way onto the Wonderbolts if you knew the right hooves to grease, you can’t outright buy the team no matter how many bits you have!” she emphasized. “And…would you honestly want to become their leader that way instead of earning the position? I mean, how would you feel if somepony from Cloudsdale just decided to take a pony you’ve never even met and make them head weathermare of Ponyville because the newcomer was their foal or something?”

“Oh…well…okay, you got a point there Twilight. Then…I dunno what’d I do with my share of the treasure,” Rainbow told her with a shrug. “I already got more than enough bits to get by so… Eh, probably just get some new equipment to work out with… Oh, and some season tickets to the Wonderbolts air shows!”

Twilight’s slightly cross mood immediately vanished, and she giggled at the news when Rainbow told her how she was going to selfishly blow her share of the loot on a few cheap thrills. “That definitely sounds like you Dash.”

Then she turned to look at the unicorn sitting next to Applejack. “How about you Rarity? Going to expand the boutique? Oh! You could even buy a whole new house to live in instead of making do with a few rooms above your store.”

“Well, having a business has taught me never to plan on spending money before I have it in my hooves,” Rarity replied slowly before crossing her forearms and looking down in thought. “But…if we are taking turns with our fantasies here, I suppose I’d move to Canterlot.”

The happy look on Twilight’s face died a gruesome death an instant later as her expression quickly fell to became one of a kind of dreaded confusion, as if Rarity had just said the world was going to end tomorrow with the same enthusiasm of how ponies discussed the weather. Then Twilight licked her lips, and gulped. “W-What?”

Not even bothering to notice the lavender unicorn’s response, Rarity continued on. “Oh! And I could hire a private magic tutor for Sweetie Belle! Not to mention letting my mother and father retire early. Of course I’d open up a shop in Canterlot and…Twilight, do nobles still sell their titles?” she asked while looking over to her purple friend. “I bet being Lady Rarity would help me be able to get my hoof in the door better than…Twilight? Are you alright?”

“You…Rarity…you want to…leave Ponyville?” Twilight asked as she looked back at the other unicorn with an expression that seemed one trot away from…well, Applejack didn’t know, but she was pretty sure it was going to be bad. The farm pony could already see the purple unicorn’s chest going up and down a crazy amount as she sucked in too much air far too quickly.

As Rarity sat there telling Twilight how much better things would be in Canterlot, Applejack just watched the lavender unicorn’s face fall further and further into a state of panic. “And Sweetie Belle! Oh, I could afford to get her into Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns!”

“But…but your mom and dad!” Twilight exclaimed. “You said they were moving to Ponyville! Won’t you feel bad if you just up and moved away from them? And your sister… I could teach her magic! In fact, I still know the same lessons plans I used from before! I…I know exactly how to get through to her.”

Rarity tapped her chin in thought for a moment. “Tempting, but…well, Twilight you have so much work of your own,” she said before looking back to the other unicorn. “And to be quite honest dear, you seem a little…advanced in your explanations for Sweetie to grasp.”

“But I…you…” Then, the purple unicorn let out a dejected sigh. When she looked back up at the other unicorn, there was a gut wrenching look of sadness in her eyes. “Rarity…I…you…can’t-”

“Cheer up frowny face!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed as she jumped over to stand next to Twilight’s seat, blocking her view of the fashionista for a few seconds before she started moving around in thought. “Just because Rarity’s wanting to move away doesn’t stop us all from being friends! And going someplace else sounds fun! Hey, if I get some bits, I could travel around Equestria, throwing all sorts of parties and meeting all new kinds of friends! Wouldn’t that be awesome? I… Ooooooo I could even try to be the first pony in Equestrian history to throw a party for every single pony in Equestria! Or maybe I could make an all the time traveling party that just goes around the country from town to town, never stopping at one town for more than once a year…or maybe less if the party gets so big that we can’t move very fast…but then how would I visit all the town in Equestria? Maybe I should just stick the rout to the big cities. What do you think Twilight? You’re good at that planning stuff!” she said as she bounced all around the car and came to a stop next to Twilight’s seat again.

Twilight looked over to Pinkie Pie with wide eyes. “W-What? But Pinkie, what about the Cakes? What about the…um…your sister! Isn’t Maud going off to Canterlot University in a few years to study geology? Wouldn’t you want to spend as much time with her as you can before she’s so busy with rocks you’ll only be able to visit her during the breaks?”

The question actually seemed to knock Pinkie for a loop, and made her sit down on the ground before she tapped her chin in thought for a moment. Then, she reached up into her mane to pull out a green present wrapped in a yellow bow. “Quick Twilight! What’s in the box?”

“Pinkie,” the unicorn groaned. “For the last time, I am not psychic!”

As the train entered the tunnel and began its climb up Alicorn Mountain, Pinkie Pie let out a tiny laugh in the glow of the train‘s artificial light. “Oh no silly! I don’t think you’re psychic anymore. At least, not after I spiked your cupcakes with hot sauce and you ate them anyway two weeks ago. Now I think you can just see the future!”

A groan came from out of Twilight’s mouth as she covered her face with a hoof for a moment before responding. “Pinkie…even if I was clairvoyant, it would amount to pretty much the same thing because I’d be able to respond to the information I got.”

Pinkie Pie nodded. “Hmm…good point,” she agreed.

“Now, would you please stop trying to test me for a bunch of supernatural abilities that I don’t have?” Twilight asked evenly. “I love you to death, but it’s starting to get on my nerves when I tell you no, and you just keep going. I promise you on our friendship that I’m not psychic, or have futuristic knowledge brought on by unexplainable mental powers, or access to a secret book that enables me to know the future by reading about it.”

For the rest of the time they climbed the mountain, Pinkie Pie just sat in the middle of the floor, tapping her chin in thought as she digested Twilight's words. “Yeah, I guess the team really wouldn’t mesh well if you had a extrasensory perception that beat my Pinkie-sense,” she finally agreed a few seconds after the car they were in was exposed to daylight that easily overshadowed the lamps in their car. “Sorry for going on so long about all that stuff Twilight. I didn’t know it was getting to you.”

Twilight sighed in obvious relief. “Thank you. I’ll be glad to finally know I can stop expecting to be-”

“So if you don’t have psychic future-reading powers of any kind, then...that means you’ve got to be a time traveler Twilight!” the pink party pony exclaimed as she pointed an accusing hoof at the purple unicorn.

The silly declaration just seemed to make Twilight freeze in place, her mouth hanging open just a little bit to allow air in as she just stared at Pinkie Pie for a good minute. Then, the train came to a stop that made her nearly fall forward out of her seat if it wasn‘t for the fact Twilight’s cheek impacted the seat in front of her and kept her from falling on the ground. “…you have got to be kidding me.”

Rainbow Dash let out a laugh. “Pinkie, you are so random,” the pegasus said as she flew up and over Twilight before the rest of her friends joined her in lining up to depart the train. Thanks to being knocked senseless by Pinkie’s odd declaration, Twilight was last in line.

After the pegasus flew past, Applejack didn’t see any point in waiting around and followed her out immediately with Rarity trailing behind and all her other friends eventually joining in. Then, as she reached the exit and took a second to check they were all still together, Applejack ran into the flank of the pony in front of her. “What the-Rainbow! What’s-” she got out while turning to look at her friend…and seeing what had stopped the pegasus dead in her tracks.

A group of four royal guards were directing other ponies away from the very large pony with white wings, a horn nearly as long as some ponies were, and golden regalia. And she was just standing there by the train like any other pony might.

“Is everything okay up there?”

Fluttershy’s voice snapped Applejack out of her faze, who in turn smacked Rainbow on the flank to get her moving. Then she reached back to get Fluttershy out of the way while a stunned Rarity was just bowled over by the pink pony behind her upon seeing the leader of all Equestria.

Then came Twilight.

“Pinkie, watch where you’re bounce…ing,” she trailed off when she saw the pony waiting for them. The unicorn tensed for a moment at the sight of the alicorn and crouched down, half in a bow for a moment as she looked up at Princess Celestia before completing the motion.

A few seconds later, the biggest pony in Equestria walked towards Twilight with all the grace such a magnificent being should possess, and seemed to give Twilight a measuring look. After a tense ten seconds, the goddess finally spoke in a voice that seemed just a tiniest bit less gentle than Applejack remembered from her first time seeing the monach up close. “Rise, my student.”

Applejack watched the purple unicorn as she slowly stood to her full height. Her movements were stiffer than an ornery cart’s wheels on a muddy day. And her voice had none of the usual cheer Twilight usually had for her friends. But, it wasn’t quite disrespectful either. “Princess Celestia, what’s going on? Did something bad happen?”

For a moment, it looked to the farm pony that the princess gave her student a sideways glance, then she turned her head all the way towards Twilight and smiled at the much smaller mare. “Can I not take an interest in my student’s activities?”

“I write you a report on what I’m doing every week,” Twilight deadpanned. “I think the last one was on how two ponies with completely opposite interests can find connections based on shared experiences in which a debt is concerned, complete with a debt to fondness ratio with twenty five different odd quirks factored in. How can you possibly need more?”

Celestia cleared her throat. “Yes, well…to be honest…your ten page reports on friendship are a bit more…academic than I was expecting,” the said hesitantly. “So I want you to have tea with me this afternoon so I can discuss what’s going on in your life.”

Then, Twilight Sparkle’s face darkened ever so slightly, and her flat tone slid a tenth of an inch on the anger scale as she gave her response. “Thank you but no, I’m afraid me and my friends are busy. We have urgent business in Canterlot today.”

Every single pony at the train station stopped as Twilight Sparkle simply blew off an invitation from Princess Celestia Herself. Even the princess was looking at the unicorn with wide pink eyes. Then, they narrowed just a little, and the giant pony turned her full attention towards Twilight. “I’m afraid that I must insist.”

“Excuse me?” Twilight nearly growled as her eyes narrowed.

“I said, I must insist,” Celestia repeated, her tone becoming much more even. “Spike said that you’ve been acting odd lately, and now it seems that my attempts to dissuade his worries with but-”

“SPIKE?” Twilight shouted as she pulled her head back in in surprise. Her expression softened and turned to one very similar to what Applejack had seen on the train when Rarity declared her intentions to move to Manhattan. “Spike told you to come here? To do this?”

Celestia nodded. “Yes, and apparently he was right to think that there was something wrong with you.”

“Wrong with me?” Twilight grumbled as her face took on a look that seemed awfully close to a sneer, and her whole body began to shake. “There’s nothing wrong with me! Just because I don’t want to go to your little tea party-”

“YOU’RE SAYING NO TO A PARTY?” a horrified yet somehow still cheerful voice that left Applejack’s ears ringing when it shouted so loud it felt like the world shook and her eardrums exploded.

By the time her vision had cleared, Applejack saw Pinkie had knocked Twilight to the ground in a tackle and was…wearing a stethoscope that was pressed up to the unicorn’s chest while she was looking into Twilight’s ear with another instrument. Of course, the farm pony had lived in Ponyville far too long to be affected by such things and just lowered her hat in embarrassment. She couldn’t believe Pinkie was…being Pinkie in front of Princess Celestia on top of Twilight’s rudeness.

They were all going to get in so much trouble for this.

“Pinkie?” Twilight cried out. “What are you doing?”

Completely ignoring the unicorn, Pinkie Pie reached into her mane as she barked orders. “Quick! I need three cupcakes and a mixture of thirty-percent apple juice, seventy-percent sugar for an IV stat!” the pink pony’s words rang throughout the train station before she pulled out a blood pressure monitor from her mane and strapped it around Twilight’s right foreleg. “Let’s hurry it up ponies, we’ve got a frown to turn upside down!”

When Applejack peeked back out from her hat to see how the spectacle in front of her was playing out at large, she had to repress a groan as she saw Pinkie Pie’s last moments as a free mare run out as the guard moved in with the intent to apprehend what was obviously a very disturbed individual. The orange pony had to wonder just how many years it would be until she saw the town nuisance again, or town nuisance number two, right after Rainbow Dash.

Then, the princess stepped between her guards and Pinkie as if the sentries weren’t even there before she leaned down to talk to Pinkie face to face. “How is she Doctor?” Celestia asked with an amused smirk on her face.

“Excuse me?” Twilight murmured in a guarded tone that was barely loud enough to hear.

Still ignoring the unicorn pinned under her, Pinkie looked back up at Princess Celestia like she was just another pony before she crossed her arms. “I’m afraid my patient is showing signs of severe stress and lack of enjoyment, along with a dangerously low genuine smile count. She needs a class two social gathering of immediate highly supportive emotional relations Princess,” the pink pony explained in all seriousness. Although, talking like that to Princess Celestia made Applejack wonder if the mare even knew just who she was speaking to.

“I see,” Celestia said before drawing herself back up to her full height. “Sergeant, please send for three chariots to transport Twilight and her friends to the castle. And have the chefs prepare enough food for myself and six guests.”

Back down on the ground, Twilight didn’t quite glare at Pinkie Pie, but she didn’t look none too pleased at the earth pony’s antics either. “Pinkie, what the hay do you think you’re doing?”

The even tone got the pink pony’s attention, and she looked back down at the prone unicorn. “Trying to cheer you up, duh. You’ve been way too frowny since you’ve come to Ponyville, and now I’ve figured out what’s wrong, I’m going to fix it!”

Twilight lay on her back for a good thirty seconds, her breathing steady and even before she finally spoke in an almost emotionless tone. “You don’t know what you’re getting into Pinkie. And this is not cheering me up! Now get off me, we have a schedule to keep.”

“Nope! You need a party, and the princess is giving you one, and you’re going to cheer up!”

The unicorn’s eyes became an outright scowl. “PINKIE-”

“Twilight, do it for me, please?” Pinkie Pie asked before all the other ponies saw her eyes become watery and her lips go into a pout.

And then the scowl fanished like it hadn’t even existed. “I…you…that’s not fair,” the unicorn complained before she laid her head back on the ground and sighed in defeat. “You know, this means we’re going to have to reschedule our meeting with the lawyers and accountants at the bank.”

Celestia was quick to swoop in, probably saving Twilight from her single greatest annoyance as far as Applejack knew. “I can have that arranged for you Twilight. And I’ve been needing to catch up to you. I’m quite interested to hear about just where you learned the pony transmogrification spell you know.”

As the odd scene in front of her began to return to semblance of normalcy, or as normal as a pony could get when the immortal leader of one’s country was standing a few feet away talking to Pinkie Pie about her favorite cake, the reality of the situation hit Applejack like a hammer.

“Where having tea with the princess?” Rarity exclaimed a second after the farm pony’s eyes went wide. “BUT I DIDN’T BRING ANYTHING TO WEAR!”

Perhaps this wasn’t such a good idea, Celestia thought herself as she watched the majority of the ponies sitting around the table. The introductions hadn’t gone very well, with all but two of Twilight’s friends providing uneasy murmurs for their names…if they even bothered to speak at all instead of hide like the yellow pegasus had. Most of them were so nervous or downright apprehensive that the very air was so thick with unease that it probably could have been cut with a knife.

Even the alicorn felt a little out of sorts with the cold shoulder treatment she was given via short answers from her student when it came to her studies, and how Twilight was sitting on the opposite end of the table instead of at Celestia’s side like she always had before. Over a thousand years of gossip overheard from the staff of two palaces had given her a myriad of information to draw from regarding rebellious youths, but experiencing it in pony with a young mare like Twilight Sparkle was something else.

Twilight’s friends weren’t taking the private time with the princess much better. The white unicorn was so distraught over her lack of formal attire that she was trying to crouch down as much as possible to hide her nudity. The farmer was constantly switching between unease, and dirty looks out of the corner of her eye directed towards the blue pegasus sitting at Celestia’s side, while the rainbow maned flyer showed apparent displeasure with the size of her tea cup because it only held a single swig. The yellow pegasus seemed to be taking things the best by just calmly sitting her tea now that she wasn’t the object of Celestia's attention, and the pink one was…

“And that’s how me and Twilight came up with the idea for the Chimicherrychanga!” Pinkie said, finishing her story of how Twilight had helped her out in the bakery one day when one of the ponies she lived with had contracted a sickness that lasted all morning.

Celestia smiled as she nodded, and didn’t comment on what she…and probably Twilight if the princess was reading her student’s body language correctly, could guess about the baker’s ‘illness’. “That’s very creative Ms Pie,” the alicorn said before looking over to her student. “Tell me Twilight, how did you and your friend come up with such an…interesting combination for a new recipe?”

“Pinky Pie did most of the work, I just learned from the cookbooks,” she replied simply in an even tone that wasn’t quite rude, but a long way from the cheery unicorn that Celestia remembered from just prior to Nightmare Moon’s return.

The alicorn wanted to address the issue, but in all honesty, she wasn’t sure how. Twilight wasn’t acting like herself, but Celestia could sense no taint of dark magic or other signs of magic that might affect the mind. So she could only continue on with her roundabout examination of her student by exploring her past actions with her friends.

There was also something else about Twilight that was a bit more disturbing than her guarded demeanor. Celestia had always had a certain sense about ponies. While it had sort-of developed over years and years of ruling, the core of it came from an extrasensory kind of perception that gave her little bits of insight into the hearts and futures of her subjects. With it, Celestia could measure a pony at a glance, and know things about them that even they weren’t really aware of. Sometimes she was even able to catch a glimpse of their destiny.

And this deep, supernatural sense of understanding that allowed the alicorn to know ponies better than they knew themselves was telling her absolutely nothing when Celestia looked at Twilight Sparkle.

It was such a disturbing thing that she had to look away and try drawing Twilight’s other, more enthusiastic friend into the conversation.

“And what of you…Rainbow?” Celestia asked as she quickly guessed her name by the pegasus’s mane. “What has been your most interesting time in these recent weeks?”

The cyan pegasus looked up at the alicorn sitting beside her for a moment, and put on a smirk that reminded Celestia far too much of several of her more ambitious guards. “Well there was that little dragon thing I took care of the other week,” she told the sun goddess, earning another hidden glare from the earth pony sitting across the table from the pegasus. “You should have seen it Princess! I-”

Celestia interrupted her story with a chuckle. “I did see it actually,” the princess told her, getting looks of surprise from most of the other ponies in the room. Twilight’s expression was one of barely repressed anger, not surprise.

After hearing that, the unicorn finally spoke at her own behest. Her tone was also not as…cordial as it had been during Pinkie Pie’s story. “Are you meaning to tell me you knew Equestria was in danger, and you just sat around in Canterlot while sending my friends into a situation that could have gotten them killed?!” the unicorn demanded as she sat up to slam her hooves onto the table.

Ah, so that’s it, Celestia told herself as the mystery behind Twilight’s anger was solved. The princess could understand her student being upset with her over some perceived abandonment, but once she got this all sorted out, Spike’s growing fears and Twilight’s problems could be put to rest. Of course, she still needed conformation of her theory. “Is that why you’re so angry with me, for putting your friends in danger?”

“Angry? Angry doesn’t even begin to describe how I feel over what you’ve done!” Twilight shouted. “You send a single ticket for me to have to chose between all my friends when you knew, KNEW how important they are to me! Then you send us after a DRAGON! A BUCKING DRAGON! If it weren’t for the spells I’ve learned from your old castle, my friends would have gotten themselves killed! THEY’D BE DEAD BECAUSE OF YOU!”

Celestia’s eyes widened at the sudden revelation as to where Twilight’s increased knowledge of magic had come from. Her old castle might have been a crumbling ruin, but the artifacts of magic still stored within it were very powerful. For a moment, she considered the fact Twilight might have come across one of them and it was making her act irrationally, but her earlier scans of the unicorn had detected no dark magic in her whatsoever. So, Celestia discarded that fear once again.

The anger Twilight was feeling towards her was genuine. As illogical as it was, and despite the relief that came with knowing her student’s mind hadn’t been corrupted by dark magic, Celestia found that the fact the feelings Twilight was having hadn’t been placed there by some dark force was in a way, even more disturbing.

Still, the knowledge that Twilight had ventured into the Castle of the Sisters did make Celestia worry, even with the fact that the unicorn hadn’t fallen prey to dark magic. But, that was a conversation that needed to be saved until after Celestia had dealt with her student’s misplaced anger; one bit of it at a time.

She decided to start with the smaller of the accusations. “Twilight, I didn’t know any of your friends wanted to go to the Gala,” she assured her student in a gentle tone. “I sent you two tickets because how much you said you wanted to go last year. Remember?”

To help clear some of the tension in the air, Celestia let out a tiny chuckle. “To be honest, I don’t like going to the Gala. It’s the most boring affair in all of Equestria,” she told her student before hesitantly moving onto the next part of her explanation. “And the Gala is still quite a ways away so…I thought you might have gotten a special somepony by the time it rolled around. You know, a coltfriend. Taking your, well…friend friends didn’t really occur to me.”

Twilight continued to frown at the alicorn, but looked down at her tea and cake for a few moments, her head darting back and forth between the two without really focusing on them. It was an odd sight, almost as if she was reading a book that wasn’t there. “I don’t remember ever asking her for tickets,” the unicorn mumbled in a tone that said she was talking to herself more than anypony else. “Why don’t I remember that? I should be able to remember that. It wasn’t new like…”

A second later, she looked back up at the alicorn with a frown. However, it wasn’t the type that she wore when trying to figure out a difficult puzzle, or the kind of frown that Twilight got when she had been reading for far too long and her eyes were starting to hurt. The expression Twilight had was one of anger. “Wait a second… You just happened to have enough tickets for my friends just floating around, ready to be sent? Am I supposed to actually believe that?”

Twilight’s question, or rather, the fact she asked such a question in the first place made Celestia hold back a frown of her own. She didn’t want Twilight to think the alicorn was cross with her. If the unicorn had one of her fits now, the possibility of Celestia getting to the bottom of things in a timely manner would be greatly diminished.

Still, the mistrust Twilight had just shown with that single statement... Has her faith in me truly been so shaken? The the dragon incident scared her so much, she was going back and deconstructing everything she could to find more perceived slights?

It seemed impossible that the filly who had hung on Celestia’s words her whole life had undergone such a change in such a short amount of time. Twilight was even resisting the truth of the situation, trying to find an explanation that still clung to her mistaken view that the princess still wasn’t completely sure of.

“I’m afraid I don’t follow your logic Twilight.”

“Spike sends you a letter requesting more Gala tickets, and seconds later we get a reply with exactly what we’re asking for,” the unicorn clarified in a gruff tone. “What? Were you just sitting around, waiting for me to write back to you? Waiting for a letter telling you that all my friends had decided to break apart and fight over a ticket to that stupid par-Gala?” She spared a glance at Ms Pie for a moment, but when the pink pony continued to sit at the table as silently as the others, all of Twilight’s attention went back to Celestia. “Admit it! You just wanted to make me take some stupid test again, AND TRIED TO DESTROY MY FRIENDSHIP IN THE PROCESS!”

Silence reigned for a good five seconds. Then, Celestia blinked when it was broken by the mirthful rush of air through a pony’s lips.

“Wait a minute darling,” the white unicorn sitting next to Twilight said with a small snicker. “You mean to tell me that you think Princess Celestia…” Another snicker came from her mouth, prompting a pause, “was trying to sabotage our friendship and…” Another snicker. “I’m sorry Twilight it’s just…that just…that seems…so ridiculous!” she finished before bursting into laughter.

A second later, all the other mares around the table joined in. Twilight looked around at them with a wild, almost panicky expression. “What…but…no you don’t understand! Celestia…she…” the mare got out as all the others continued to laugh before lowering her head with a moan and spoke in a whiney voice. “You guys.”

The farm pony spoke up. “Hehehe! Seriously Twi? Alright look, Ah’m willing to halfway agree with you on that whole dragon thing,” she said with her odd Apple family twang. “But…the Gala tickets were some big plan by Celestia to what? Break us up? Sugarcube, that sounds pretty silly. Don’t ya think?”

Twilight’s rebuttal consisted of another light moan and crouching lower in her seat before letting out a single ‘but’. Across from her, Celestia blinked in the closest thing she had felt to astonishment in ages. The unicorn had been so adamant on the issue when facing the alicorn, but a few words from the other ponies, and she crumpled like paper.

Seeing her student’s waving resolve, Celestia gave Twilight a half smile, and decided to explain herself. “Twilight, of course they were just sitting conveniently next to me. I conjure the tickets for the Gala,” the alicorn explained before summoning her magic to do just that before continuing. “About a decade ago, I discovered a small group of ponies had managed to fake Gala tickets, and were using them to sneak in. Since then, I create them personally and add a tiny bit of my magic to each one to ensure it is authentic. We haven’t had a problem since…well, unless you count that stallion Gate Crasher who got in a couple years ago.” He had made that Gala the liveliest it had been in years.

Across the table, it seemed Celestia’s words had managed to light a fire inside of Twilight again, judging by how her eye twitched and her shoulders shook every few seconds, like she was holding down another huge eruption of anger. “Okay fine,” Twilight admitted with a grumble. “I’ll admit that you might have just been an idiot that time. But that still doesn’t explain all the other things!”

While all the other ponies in the room quieted down at the unicorn’s insult of the alicorn, Celestia found the feeling of unease creeping back into her gut. The way Twilight of all ponies had so casually insulted her… She put it out of her mind, and continued on.

Twilight hadn’t been Celestia’s first student to throw a tantrum, and she had learned meeting anger with anger wasn’t the proper way to settle such issues. “Very well, let us talk about these other things.

“When it came to the dragon, I wanted you to find a peaceful solution to the problem,” Celestia explained gently. “If I had come, or sent members of the military, then there would have been a great deal of damage and risk that it would spill over into the nearby forest. It was a fire-breather you dealt with after all.”

Twilight scowl deepened. “So you care more about a bunch of trees and manticores than you do your own subjects?” she demanded in a raised voice. “And there was no peaceful solution! I marked that cave as Spike’s lair, but that dragon still slept there! I tried to talk to him, and the very first thing he did was threaten my son’s life! You don’t deal with a species whose one and only law is might makes right!”

An oddity in Twilight’s rebuttal threw Celestia off for a moment. “Your…son?”

“Spike!” Twilight exclaimed before looking away from the alicorn for a moment and grumbling to herself. “Oh he is so grounded for this when I get back to Ponyville.”

For the third time since Twilight had come to Canterlot an hour ago, Celestia found herself in a state of shock. While she couldn’t debate that Twilight had every right to claim the title of Spike’s mother, the fact that she was doing so after so many years made the Alicorn of the Sun smile once she managed to wrap her head around it. “I’m glad that your newfound independence has allowed you to grow closer to Spike and take on a new level of responsibility for his wellbeing, my student.”

Twilight glare flared for a moment, and she looked down at the table. It took Celestia a moment to realize that was actually bowing her head in thanks. “I…look… Even with how much I ha…how much I’m angry at you…I do want to thank you for taking care of Spike when I couldn’t.”

The odd pause and correction mid-sentence wasn’t missed by the princess, but she filed it away for later and simply nodded towards her student. “There is no need to thank me Twilight,” Celestia assured the little unicorn. “If anything, it was an honor.”

As some of Twilight’s friends began to look uncomfortable at the scene, recognizing the private moment for what it was, Celestia decided to get the situation back on track and perhaps put some of the unicorn’s fears to rest. “As for the dragon, I was watching over you the whole time. If anything looked to get even the least bit out of hoof, I would have teleported in and stopped it.

“But I was assured of your safety. No creature that dwells within my borders would dare threaten one of my little ponies without incurring my wrath. I have spent the past thousand years assuring the safety of Equestria almost on my reputation alone.”

Celestia knew the explanation was a risky one. She needed Twilight to face challenges in the future to prepare her for the real problems that were coming once the time had come for her to take her proper place in Equestria. Knowing that there was a safety net in case she failed would do little to help the unicorn deal with real trouble when the time came that Celestia could no longer aid her.

On the other side of the table, Twilight continued to glare at the princess. Her hooves shook as her body physically reacted to the unicorn holding something back, which was quite the worry for the princess, but when Twilight let out a loud sigh and practically deflated. “You know what? Just…forget it,” she mumbled. “I don’t even know why I’m bothering trying to get through to you. I know you won’t listen. You never listen.”

“Twilight,” Celestia said as she saw the unicorn’s fire just die in front of her while the rest of the ponies in the room looked on in uncomfortable worry. “If there is something bothering you, please tell me and I will do everything I can to-”

“WHAT’S BOTHERING ME IS YOU!” Twilight shouted as she pointed a hoof at the princess. “You say you would have jumped in to help us if we were in danger, but-but Spike’s LIFE was threatened, and you didn’t appear! What were you waiting for then?”

She slammed her hooves down on the table and continued on her tirade. “One of us to get eaten or barbecued? I know the Elements of Harmony have a little say over our destiny and can protect us in that way, but that doesn’t make us invincible!” the unicorn went on. “My friends could have just walked to their deaths, and you just sit there like some all-knowing figure, but you really don’t know a tenth of what I do you…you…really rotten princess of Equestria!”

While all of her friends gasped at Twilight’s outburst, Celestia found herself just staring at the unicorn in shock. It wasn’t the fact that Twilight had insulted her, she had been doing that since she sat down with the way she acted, but that particular insult made the sun goddess blink in surprise.

It was something she hadn’t really forgotten, but never needed to remember before either. The day that she had been crowned as a Princess of Equestria, Celestia had started a journal that she shared with her sister. They had intended to write down their hopes, dreams, innermost thoughts, and tell of their adventures. But the very first journal entry had all been about Princess Celestia’s fear of the future…and her worries that she would be remembered as Celestia the Really Rotten Princess of Equestria.

The fact that Twilight had read her diary didn’t really bother Celestia. Although…she was starting to understand her student’s sudden turn of attitude. In truth, Celestia knew she had been quite the…worrywart when she was younger. If anything, she had been exactly like Twilight in so many ways, and for the unicorn to see those faults in somepony Twilight had seen as perfect for all her life… Well, now I understand what’s going on at least.

“Well duh Twilight,” the pink pony interjected. “Of course she doesn’t know as much as you. You’re a time traveler!”

In her seat beside the princess, the cyan pegasus with the rainbow mane groaned. “Pinkie…it was funny the first time because it was random. But two random jokes in a row just doesn’t work.”

“But she is a time traveler!” the earth pony insisted. “She is Dashie! Think about it! She knew about my name, she knew about your Sonic Rainboom, she knew about the Chimicherrychanga, aaaaaaaaaaand wait…Twilight, if you’re a time traveler, then does that mean you know something bad is going to happen at the Grand Galloping Gala that ruins the party, and that’s why you didn’t want us to go?”

The white unicorn let out a sigh. “Twilight could you please tell her to stop with this nonsense and tell Pinkie that you’re not a…” she said before trailing off as her gaze fell on the lavender unicorn. “Twilight? Are you alright?”

Twilight’s whole body moved away from the other unicorn as she flinched, and Celestia’s eyes widened as she made a stark realization. If Twilight had read her old diary, then she would have known that Starswirl had used his magic to travel to the future at one point in time using a powerful spell…a spell that was currently in the Starswirl the Bearded wing of the Library…which Twilight had full access to as Celestia’s student.

All of a sudden, Celestia saw Twilight’s reactions to her presence in a whole new light. Whatever she was feeling, it wasn’t some simple anger over finding out the pony she put on a pedestal wasn’t perfect, it was a visceral hatred that she was barely holding back.

Then there was her age. Starswirl had developed his time travel spell when he had been an old unicorn, but an error in its use caused him to lose several years and revert back to a time when his beard had been a dark brown instead of the white that Celestia had seen upon first meeting him. She never was able to calculate just how many years he lost whenever he went into the future, but it had been decades.

Twilight was just as old as she had been upon leaving Canterlot that first time.

Conflict raged within the alicorn’s mind for an instant. Starswirl had never revealed what he had learned in the future beyond a few knowing smiles when she asked about the Tree of Harmony and if they would find an alicorn with a star shaped cutie mark like the ones that decorated the tree.

“I’m afraid she can’t Miss…”

“Rarity,” the unicorn supplied.

Celestia nodded her head. “Ah yes, Ms Rarity,” she said as the memory of the unicorn muttering her name so softly the alicorn couldn’t make it out replied in Celestia’s mind. “And I’m afraid Twilight can’t deny your friend’s accusation because…it’s true. She has traveled through time.”

As several exclamations were made around the table that ranged everywhere from disbelief to shocked realizations and excitement at being correct, Celestia watched the purple unicorn draw in on herself so much she seemed to be trying to sink into the folds of her seat.

“Twilight-darling, does that mean…you’ve been to the future?”

“Oh! Oh oh oh! Twilight! Twilight, what am I getting for my birthday present this year?”

“So wait…if you know what’s going to happen…am I gonna be a Wonderbolt?”

The yellow pegasus was silent, but she looked over to Rainbow for a moment with wide eyes. “Wait…Twilight said you’d be…”

“Hey Twilight, why didn’t ya tell any of us?” the pony in the hat asked the unicorn beside her.

As she was assaulted with question, terror and rage fought a visible battle within the unicorn as her eyes darted around the table frantically and only managed incoherent, single syllable babble in response to the Bearer’s question. However, every time they fell on Celestia, Twilight’s gaze lingered for several seconds and she shot the alicorn a glare that the princess understood was more than just some silly bout of anger.

Since it seemed nothing would come from the chaotic mess that she was witnessing, Celestia brought her hoof down on the table loud enough the sound of the impact resounded throughout the room, and she spoke with a level of authority that came from centuries of practice. “That is enough!”

As the endless string of questions quickly ceased, the alicorn looked around at the ponies that had come with Twilight, and let out a long sigh. “I ask that all of you please give me a moment with my student in private.”

There were a few murmurs passed around between the ponies, but they all vacated the room fast enough at the gently worded request. As soon as the door closed behind them, Celestia watched the mask Twilight had been wearing slip away, to be replaced by a perpetual scowl. “So...here we are,” she said as a sneer crept up her lips. “Can’t say I didn’t see this coming. Didn’t expect it so soon though. What now? You lock me in some dungeon? Try and take my memories because they might be too dangerous?”

Twilight’s words and gruff tone got a sigh from the goddess. Celestia looked down at her student with a sorrow that filled her entire being. “Twilight, what did I do to make you hate me so?”

After the door slammed shut behind them, the Bearers of the Elements shared a few confused looks, and stood around in the empty hallway that led to Celestia's private sitting room. The seconds ticked by and no one spoke for awhile until Rainbow Dash broke the silence. “So...Twilight’s been to the future...didn’t see that one coming.”

“Eh, It was pretty easy when you think about it,” Pinkie replied. “Although, now I think Im going to have a hard time picking out presents for her birthday, I mean. If she’s been to the future then she must already know them all, right?”

“Girls.”

Applejack let out a groan. “Pinkie, Ah don’t think Twilight would've bothered learning something like that.”

“Um, girls?”

“Hmmm, good point Applejack. I mean, it would ruin the surprise, right?”

“Girls!”

“Wait,” Rarity mumbled in a low tone only a pegasus had any hopes of hearing, “she knew about Sweetie Belle, and now that I think about it, I don’t remember telling her about my sister...is something going to happen to her in the future?”

Rainbow Dash crossed her forelegs and frowned. “You mean she doesn’t know if I got into the Wonderbolts or not?”

Just the tiny bit tired of being ignored, Fluttershy took in a deep breath to shout. “GIRLS!”

When the shout got all the ponies attention, and snapped Rarity out of her introspection, Fluttershy found herself under way too much attention, and crouched down low. “I’m sorry I was was just thinking about something that happened during the tea party and...um...maybe I shouldn’t…”

Rainbow sighed. “Spit it out Fluttershy.”

“Well it’s just...Twilight was so angry at Princess Celestia for sending us up against that dragon because one of us could have gotten hurt and well...what if...umm, she traveled to the future and found out that one of us really did get hurt, and then did something to change it?”

The suggestion got a laugh from Rainbow Dash. “Oh come on Fluttershy, I took care of that thing-”

Rarity cut her off. “Because of a spell Twilight learned on her own, in a place that she wasn’t supposed to go to,” the unicorn said as the emotion slowly left her voice and she fell to the ground. “Sweet Celestia...I think you have something there Fluttershy. Do you remember that breakdown she had when Spike and Twilight had their fight? She mentioned...ponies in a hospital.”

Fluttershy nodded. “I remember that. For a second it did sound like she was going to say friends but she said family instead and...do you really think one of us could have gotten really hurt?”

“With the way Twilight’s been acting?” Rarity replied before she looked over to the others. “Girls...I think she may have gone into the future and saw one of us...maybe even more than one of us...die.”

Author's Note

Well obviously they have it all wrong, but... you know what they say, misconception is magic

And you can blame Amazon for the lateness of the chapter...been waiting weeks to get my two pony sister journal. Damn you free shipping!

Chapter 7: Canterlot Revelations

Celestia gave her student a concerned look as she watched the purple unicorn’s face twist into rage while her hooves shook on the table. “How could you not know their names?” she practically growled at the alicorn.

The question made Celestia raise an eyebrow. Thanks to the way Twilight had found to hide herself from the alicorn’s extra-perception, Celestia was left feeling a little out of sorts. A sense that had been with her for years was suddenly rendered inert, and she was starting to wonder just how politicians dealt with the press without such insight. On top of which, for the first time in what felt like forever, Celestia understood she didn’t have control of the conversation. She didn’t have a clue what Twilight was going to say before she said it, a hint about what was wrong, where things could go, or anything! It was…both odd and confusing. “Excuse me?”

“Their names!” Twilight repeated. “You asked them to introduce themselves and…were you even listening? Did you even care?”

“Twilight-”

“No!” the unicorn shouted as she pointed an accusing hoof at the alicorn. “You didn’t care! YOU NEVER CARED ABOUT THEM!”

Celestia let the sorrow she was feeling over her student’s rage show, and responded as gently as she could manage. “I care for all my little ponies Twilight, you know that.”

The words only seemed to infuriate Twilight even more, although she looked down at the table before speaking. “Your. Little. Ponies,” she seethed. “That’s what’s wrong with all of this, you know. Celestia and her little ponies! You talk about them like you...you...AGH!”

When it seemed that was all Twilight was going to give her, Celestia let out another long sigh. There was a part of her that was angry at her student’s reaction…if Twilight could even be called that anymore considering how old she had to be after the side effects of traveling to the future, but it paled compared to the sadness building in the alicorn’s heart. Never before had she encountered another pony that showed her such disdain.

No, that’s not true, Celestia told herself. She had encountered one other pony to show her such loathing for a short time, if not more. After all, Twilight had not tried to strike at her in the way Luna had.

Even though it had been so long ago, she still remembered the way Luna had been back then. So withdrawn, alone, angry, and Celestia had been too into experimenting with magic in her free time to bother noticing the worsening trend of her sister’s emotional state. Then one day the moon hadn’t gone down, and Celestia found Luna had joined with some nightmarish force. Then, after their brief battle, she was forced to send her sister away.

The sadness building in Celestia’s heart was quickly countered with the knowledge that everything had worked out as it was meant to. By becoming Nightmare Moon, Luna had started the course of events to Celestia finding the pony who was supposed to use the Elements of Harmony. It had taken a thousand years, but Luna was once again fine, Twilight was found, and everything was on course to how it was supposed to be.

But at the moment, she had a student to deal with.

“Is it the conversation I had with your friends?” Celestia asked as she turned her mind back on the immediate task of calming Twilight down. Although, Celestia had to admit to herself she was grasping at straws for the reason pertaining to Twilight’s rising anger. “I…” She paused, not quite sure of how to continue. Blame couldn’t be leveled at the others for the volume of their introductions. “I admit the tea party was a mistake that I should have seen coming. Common ponies haven’t ever been comfortable around me for some time I’m afraid.”

“Uncomfortable? DO YOU HONESTLY THINK I CARE ABOUT THAT?” Twilight yelled. “You raise the sun and have existed since before Equestria was made! Of course they’re uncomfortable around you! But what the buck do you care? They’re just some stupid little ponies just like aaallll the others! What the buck should they matter to the oh so great Celestia sitting in her ivory tower of a castle on her mountain!”

Celestia took in a breath and steeled herself for what she would know to be another emotional storm of anger coming from the unicorn while she let the little mare continue to vent. “If it was not the reception that I provided, then tell me what I did wrong,” she said while trying not to sound harsh. What Twilight needed was understanding, not judgement.

“You want to know what you did?” Twilight demanded with a frown. “You abandoned your duty because you didn’t want to hurt you sister when Nightmare Moon returned and used five ponies to turn me into your little weapon! And then, you…you…after everything...EVERYTHING! You…”

Her student, which Celestia had to admit she did feel that way about the unicorn still, went silent before Twilight’s whole body began to shake. Her breaths became ragged, and Celestia found her own worry over the little unicorn’s condition growing as she started to see some of the signs of one of Twilight’s little episodes that she still apparently had, despite being of an unknown advanced age. “Twilight?”

“YOU LIED TO ME!” the unicorn shrieked at the alicorn.

Chapter 7: Canterlot Revelations

Although she didn’t see much point in fancy things and tended to avoid them because of their usual amount of uselessness, Applejack had to admit that the castle that Celestia had built was just about the spiffiest place she had come across in her life. She had seen it all on her way in too, but the apple farmer had been a mite distracted by the goddess escorting them down the hallway. That, and how Princess Celestia was trying to make light conversation with a unicorn who seemed to only want to blow her off.

Free of such a sight, she was able to take a look around and notice all the effort went into Canterlot Palace. Of course, Applejack also took a moment to steal a look out the window and look down into Princess Celestia’s garden where the alicorn’s rumored golden apple tree grew. However, she couldn’t see any plants that grew apples of unnatural colors from her position, and chalked that little story Granny had told her up to just being another myth like the Pony of Shadows.

But even with the myth Applejack had just busted, she still found plenty of things to stare at and focus on. Looking at everything helped keep her mind off the foolish notion that Rarity had voiced about one of them dying. Because of that, nopony was much in a talking mood.

Unfortunately, the fact she was waiting on the princess and Twilight to finish up meant that she couldn’t go exploring on her own and get away from more…irritating things.

“So, royal guards huh? You ever fight a dragon?”

An annoyed groan escaped from Applejack’s throat. “Rainbow, would ya drop it already?” she yelled at the irritating blue pegasus as the immature flier as Dash hovered in the air above two of Princess Celestia’s pegasus guards that flanked the door to the room said princess was in.

Thankfully, the pegasus just rolled her eyes and started to fly in a big circle around there all the other mares were sitting in the hallway instead of starting something with the farmer. Although...a part of Applejack was a little angry about how Rainbow didn’t try and start something so the earth pony could finally put the annoying pegasus in her proper place.

But instead of starting something herself when Rainbow didn’t, Applejack found herself staring at the fancy window in the hallway that showed her and five other ponies zapping Nightmare Moon with those magic necklaces that Princess Celestia had carted off when everything was done. Whatever happened to them things anyway? Applejack asked herself. Did they go back to being Celestia’s now that the girls were through with them?

For some reason, the idea didn’t sit too well with Applejack. It wasn’t a logic thing. Just an odd feeling deep in her gut that didn’t like the idea of somepony else carting around that orange apple that was the representation of Honesty. It had her cutie mark on it after all.

It would have been nice to of had them for that dragon debacle. At least then Rainbow Dash wouldn’t have gotten unbearable over the past couple of days. Although, considering how much of a braggart she was, Applejack knew Rainbow still would have found something to try and make herself sound like some kinda big shot hero. In truth, the only thing Dash could lay claim to was the title of lazy braggart that slept in trees for half of the day and ran her mouth for another fourth.

How that pony got to be Ponyville’s top weathermare when she hardly did a lick of work to actually earn the title was beyond Applejack.

The clip clop of hooves from down the hallway brought Applejack out of her ruminations, and she looked over to see a unicorn with a dark coat underneath some fancy clothes being escorted by a pair of guards. He took one look around, then walked right over to Rarity.

“Pardon miss, are you Twilight Sparkle? The description said purple unicorn, but you know how these guard ponies are,” he said in an accent that matched the one Rarity had, only with a bit more…snootiness to it. “Honestly I’m surprised they got your mane color right.”

His tone actually got a look of confusion from Applejack. If that was what a real upper class Canterlot pony sounded like, then Rarity had a bit of a ways to go. She may have sounded fru-fru and all, but the messenger managed to sound like he was looking down at all four of the guards standing in the hallway without even glancing in their direction. Rarity might have turned away from her roots, but at least she wasn’t that bad.

Not yet anyway, Applejack told herself. If she ending up just throwing away her roots altogether and moved to the city that teetered over the edge of a mountain, Applejack was pretty sure that was going to up and change in a minute. It was like the city did something to the ponies that lived there. Like how they all have to be holdin’ their noses up in the air all the time, else they ain’t gonna see the ground ain’t nowhere near their hooves.

Apparently, the Ponyville unicorn wasn’t all that enamored with the stallion either, as she gave him a level look that held none of her usual pleasantness. “Twilight Sparkle is currently meeting with-”

The door to the room the alicorn had called them all into just a few minutes earlier slammed open with a burst of purple magic, and the unicorn in question stormed out with a scowl on her face. The action startled all the ponies present, but the guards reactions were more confusion than some overprotective thing where they tried to tackle Twilight because her horn was glowing.

“Twilight Sparkle,” a voice came from the room she had just walked out of with a level of authority that made the hairs on Applejack’s coat stand on end. The irate unicorn stopped in her tracks before looking back. “I do not know what has caused this animosity-”

“I think I made it perfectly clear,” the unicorn replied, cutting the alicorn off as Celestia came into Applejack’s view.

For a moment, the expression on Celestia’s face turned to something approaching displeasure, but faded so fast Applejack didn’t know if she imagined it, or if Princess Celestia had really frowned at Twilight there for a second. Then the goddess spoke in a tone that almost sounded tired. “Twilight, when you’re really ready to talk to me, I’ll be waiting.”

The words of comfort made the unicorn freeze for a moment and it looked like she had even stopped bothering to breathe. But then the moment was gone. Twilight didn’t acknowledge the princess in any other way that Applejack could see, and she looked over to the pony in the suit. “Who’s this?”

The snooty stallion’s gaze shifted to Princess Celestia for a moment as he looked at her in surprise, then focused his attention on Twilight and cleared his throat before speaking. “Ms Sparkle, I am here on behalf of Finagle and Larceny, the firm you contacted in order to find buyers for the collection of gems and artifacts you delivered to us and oversee the division of the bits into six accounts. We were informed that you had an urgent meeting with the princess and I am here to tell you that the meeting with my associates has been pushed back to tomorrow at nine AM. Although if that is unacceptable, we do have an opening at noon as well.”

Twilight frowned at the unicorn for a moment before a bit. “But that’s tomorrow!” she exclaimed in anger. “It’s only…” She looked around the hallway for a moment, then over to the guards. “Does anypony know what time it is?”

“Six o’clock,” Princess Celestia provided.

The news got a wide-eyed gasp from Twilight. “But the last train to Ponyville departs at five!” she exclaimed before Applejack saw the telltale signs of another 'Twilight fit' starting to form. “How’re we supposed to get home?”

Although the question was directed at the whole room, Princess Celestia answered gently with a tiny smile. “Twilight, I would be happy to let you and your friends stay in a suite at the castle.”

The news of sleeping at the castle drew the interest of every one of the mares, and even Applejack had to admit that experiencing what was a once in a lifetime...experience...was something that peaked her interest. Even though a fancy bed was probably made for looks and not comfort, and the high altitude was probably causing too little oxygen to make it to her brain for her to think straight like every other mortal pony in the capital, Applejack supposed one night in Canterlot couldn’t hurt.

Of course, Rarity took it the worst out of all of them when it came to holding back. “A night at the castle? In a suite? Castle…Suite… Squeeeeeeeeeeeeee!” she proclaimed while dancing on her hind legs.

However, the other unicorn didn’t take the offer too well. “N-no…I-I can’t…” Twilight panted as she worked to breathe, which apparently drew Fluttershy’s attention and put the yellow pegasus beside her in an instant with a question about if she was feeling okay.

Even Princess Celestia looked to the purple pony with concern evident on her face and trotted a few steps closer to lean down. “Twilight? What’s wrong?”

Then Pinkie Pie jumped in into the middle of the little group, managing to even force the sun goddess back with her sudden appearance. “Ohmygosh! This is gonna be so awesome! It’ll be our first ever castle SLUMBER PARTY!” the pink pony exclaimed before her expression changed to one of confusion as she looked over to Twilight.

“Although, why does everypony call it a slumber party when nopony ever slumbers? We stay up all night and play games, have fun and eat snacks, but nopony can go to sleep at a slumber party. So shouldn’t it be called a non-slumber party?

“Wait, that makes it sound like it’s a non-party, so we can’t call it that.”

Fluttershy looked over to the bouncy bubblegum pony a second later. “Maybe a slumber-less party?”

“Oooooo, good one,” Pinkie said before looking over to the unicorn standing next to Fluttershy. Apparently, Pinkie’s attitude had managed to infect her, and made Twilight go from teetering on the edge to a fragile smile. “What do you think Twilight?”

By the time Applejack managed to tear her eyes off Pinkie, she saw Fluttershy standing with her wing across the unicorn’s back, and that Twilight’s episode had ended before it began. A tiny laugh escaped from the unicorn’s mouth, and she nodded a bit before speaking. “A slumber-less party sounds wonderful Pinkie.”

Pinkie Pie gave the unicorn a measuring look, and visibly calmed down to something approaching a normal pony’s level of excitement. “Well…it’s a start I guess,” she said as she studied Twilight’s…mouth?

Princess Celestia stepped out of her room the whole way. Her very presence seemed to demand the attention of nearly everypony there, and even Rainbow Dash came back down to the ground when the princess cleared her throat. “Very well then, I will have the staff prepare the proper amenities and send a letter so Spike knows what is going on.”

“That...sounds good,” Twilight reluctantly replied before she looked away from the goddess and over to the others. “So um…while that’s going on...how about a tour of the castle?”

This is stupid, Sparkler decided as she looked away from the little dragon eating ice cream right from the carton as he went around with a duster that had been repurposed to fit his tail. As he continued to dust the room and bottom shelf of the library just by walking around, the teenage unicorn went back to reading her book.

Part of her said to just go home and forget about some of the things that had entered her mind since the other day. But...it was time for school to get out and Dinky hadn’t quite gotten through her adorably thick skull that some fillies still needed to study even after the school bell rang. Ditzy did what she could to keep the foal from getting too under-hoof, but Sparkler understood all too well how much something shiny and new could be to resist interacting with. Plus, the older daughter didn’t really like having to tell her half-sister to buzz off.

So the library seemed like the perfect place to hide.

Except…

“Hey Sparkler, could you give me a horn with these?” Spike asked as he stood near a pile of books that needed to be reshelved a few shelves too high for him to reach.

...the dragon was there. While Sparkler usually enjoyed his company...ever since seeming him as a rather...cute stallion...the idea of maybe trying to see if they were kind of compatible when it came to the whole spending time together alone while having something to eat had been popping up in her head from time to time. Which was stupid. Spike was a dragon, Sparkler was a unicorn. End of story.

Just because he was the one male creature in the entire one horse town of Ponyville that was the least bit interesting and could stand to be around her without Sparkler’s personality causing Spike to never hang out with her again didn’t mean that anything was going to come of it. Hay, Spike was already starting to get on her nerves, asking for silly things he could do himself!

The unicorn looked up, then over to the ladder on the far end of the room, and back to Spike. “Something wrong with the ladder?” she asked in her usual unamused tone. She would have thought that the dragon of all...ponies would have understood using magic was just as exhausting as any physical labor.

A second later, Sparkler was thinking she might have been a bit too unamused and offended what was quite possibly her only real friend in town despite the species difference and weird age gap that may or may not have impacted his maturity in an odd fashion. Spike frowned at her, then looked over to the ladder. “Yeah, Twilight put a spell on it so I couldn’t get it out of the corner while she was away. Said I might fall and hurt myself.”

Sparkler’s eye twitched. “Uh...really?” she asked. Twilight had seemed a bit more...together than the average overprotective parent.

“Yeah, she gets like this sometimes,” Spike admitted. “Well, not like this, this, but...overacting to stuff kind of this. But...after that dragon kind of threatened to kill me and the whole blue transformation flower thing I kind of understand-BURP!”

The unicorn blinked as the dragon let out a rather rude burst of smoke that...turned into a letter? Oh right, Spike said he can get messages straight from the princess, but...I didn’t think it would be like...that.

Her astute yet traitorous mind quickly took in the latest fact about the dragon and…

For some reason she couldn’t comprehend, Sparkler found herself sitting on a park bench next to a slightly larger Spike with a mustache. They moved in to kiss and the unicorn found that the bipedal creature had the most wicked tongue that snacked down her throat right before the dragon made an awful retching sound...and Sparkler found herself gagging on a piece of paper while Spike attempted the heimlich maneuver to dislodge it and keep her from dying.

As the mental image faded, Sparkler sighed. Stupid pessimistic brain, she told herself while Spike read off the letter from the princess.

“Huh Princess Celestia says Twilight and the others didn’t catch the train and are staying in Canterlot over...uh-oh,” he mumbled as he lowered the paper.

Sparkler frowned in worry at the dragon’s sudden unease. “What? Something wrong?”

For a moment, Spike just stared off into space, then looked up at the pink unicorn. “Twilight...she...um…” He looked away from Sparkler, uncertain for a moment. “She has...problems sleeping unless she takes a potion before bed and...I don’t...she didn’t bring any with her to Canterlot!”

“Oh is that all,” Sparkler replied with a roll of her eyes. But when she saw the action only angered the dragon, the unicorn let out a sigh and explained to him just why it was no big deal. “It’s one night Spike, what’s the worst that could happen?”

The following hours had Rarity discovering that she was in Elysium, or as close to the fields of eternal bliss one could get without dying at any rate.

After Celestia had left to arrange everything and sent Spike the message they wouldn't be back until tomorrow, Twilight had given them a tour of the castle that covered everything from the aviary to the portcullis, with several stops along the way that seemed geared towards grabbing the interest of each and every one of the ponies in the group at one time or another. Although, she did make a wrong turn here and there and became quite embarrassed when she led them to the dungeon instead of the alchemical lab, it more or less went off without a hitch.

Rarity loved it all. The decor, the history, all the noble ponies she met just trotting around for a few hours, it was like a glimpse of the perfect life she always wanted to have. Still, it wasn’t enough to take her mind off the more important matter of what was going on; that being, the time visiting with her friends as she gauged Twilight’s emotional state.

Once the girls got to their collection of rooms, which turned out to be an entire section of the palace apartments meant for visiting dignitaries with a shared common room and several private rooms that were meant for sleeping and taking care of certain necessities, Rarity quickly found herself unable to ignore things anymore. She had given Twilight time to recover,to think, to calm down, and the others had thankfully followed her lead thanks to a few quick glares that kept Rainbow quiet.

So after they got into the room that had several couches for leisurely discussions and as well as a miniature buffet waiting on them, and when their attempts to make light conversation over their sleeping arrangements hit a lull, Rarity cleared her throat and looked over to the purple unicorn. “Twilight? Would you mind telling us now? I think we’ve given you enough time to organize your thoughts.”

Twilight looked up from the small plate of snacks she had purloined from the buffet of slow perishables and looked at Rarity in confusion. “Tell you what?”

“What do ya mean what?” Applejack stepped in with a much harsher tone before Rarity could think of a tactful way to introduce the topic of what was disturbing Twilight so. “What’s this whole future thing ya been keeping from us?”

The eyes of the lavender unicorn widened for a moment, and Rarity was left wondering if she really had forgotten they knew, or was just hoping none of the girls would have brought it up again. Both of which were ridiculous of course. Still, she had seen ponies hope for more outlandish things in her life.

“Oh,” Twilight mumbled before she sat down at the edge of the room and reached to nervously rub her shoulder with her hoof. “Right…um…”

She sighed and hung her head as her shoulder slumped and her breath became ragged. After a few minutes, Rarity wondered if the unicorn had just zoned out like she tended to do every now and then, but right before anypony could ask if she was alright, Twilight looked back up at them with a harder expression than she had when the question was asked. “If you girls want me to ask me questions…I’ll tell you what I can, but…it’s not going to make things easier for you,” she told them in a tired voice that made her seem more like a mare in her nineties than the youngest pony in the room.

For a moment, Rarity found herself hesitating. As far as she could tell, Twilight had always acted with their best interests at heart, even though she could be a little pushy at times. At least she had been until after Fluttershy’s little episode the other day. Since Rarity had seen her this morning, Twilight seemed to have lost some of her usual fire and seemed much more docile, willing to cave to the girls at the drop of a hat.

It seemed that putting Fluttershy in such a position had affected the poor unicorn terribly. So much that she was still feeling the effects even after a good night’s sleep.

Applejack was the first to speak, slamming a hoof down onto the ground of their apartment that the princess had given them for their stay. “Ah want you to tell me what’s goin’ on here!”

“I know honesty is important to you Applejack, but...” Twilight paused as she looked away from the farm pony for a moment. Then she began speaking in an even tone as she brought her head back up with a frown. “What I know…it’s not a blessing. And I…I don’t want to keep any of you in the dark, but…the less you all know, the better it is. Believe me. I only want what’s best for you girls.”

The offhand slight caught Rainbow Dash’s attention, and she scowled at the unicorn. “So…what? You’re only one who gets to know what’s going on? You think we’re too stupid to understand or something?”

Twilight looked up at the pegasus with a wide-eyed expression full of hurt. “I never thought about any of you Rainbow! I just…I’m just asking you all to trust me!”

Applejack frowned and stepped up into Twilight’s face. “How the hay are we supposed to trust somepony who's been lying to us this whole time, huh?” she demanded as she advanced, making Twilight back into the wall behind her. “Keepin’ secrets and doing Celestia knows what else? What kinda friend is that?”

“Lying? What?...” The pain on the unicorn’s face doubled, and she couched down under the accusation. “I told a few fibs here and there, but I never once lied about how much I felt about any of you!” Twilight insisted. “I don’t…I’m not doing this because I want to! I…you all…” She took in a deep breath, and let it out in a long sigh before looking back at the farm pony with a tired expression. “Do you think I like having to sit back and hide everything I know from you?”

She looked over to the blue pegasus. “Do you think I like not being able to tell you how amazing you’re going to be?” Twilight asked before turning to Rarity with a pained expression. “Or how little living in Ponyville is going to matter when it comes time to make your mark on the world?

“Girls please trust me on this, I know things you don’t want to know. Things you shouldn’t know, things you can’t know… Things that might even put your lives at stake if you do know them! And I can’t...I can’t do that to any of you!”

Rarity found herself taken aback by Twilight’s words. She had thought it had been something of a nature involving their safety, but to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth was another thing entirely. The panic in Twilight’s words just added more weight.

What was going on was big, really big. Nightmare Moon big. To top it off, this time she was wandering into the proverbial forest with the life threatening danger at the forefront of her mind instead of the need to help a friend, and fear churned in her stomach.

“But,” Twilight went on after a moments pause before she lowered her head, drawing Rarity out of her thoughts. “I…I just...I can’t just…not...” She stopped for a second and took a breath, then pushed her foreleg away as she breathed out.

“Look, I’ll… I’ll answer any questions you have about...what I know. Some of it...the things that arn’t...dangerous to talk about. I can...there’s plenty of that I can tell you...I think.” She let out a long sigh, and looked back up at the other mares in the room. “But only if all of you are around to hear the answers, and all of you agree to hear them. And only if…what I tell you won’t be dangerous.”

Applejack frowned at her. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

For a moment, it looked to Rarity as if the other unicorn was going to respond with just as much ire, but she let out a sigh a few moments later and shook her head. “You gripe about me keeping secrets and how you deserve to know what I know Applejack,” Twilight recapped before looking over to the others. “And if that’s the way you want things, then I’ll tell you what I can…but only if everypony wants to hear the answers. And only the things that are safe to hear.”

A spark of understanding flashed in Rarity’s mind. “In other words, we all have to agree to hear the answers, or none of us get them.” She didn’t know whether to call Twilight’s terms fair, or devious. The unicorn had no idea if she would say yes to allow the others to hear their future, or no out of fear of what was to come.

Twilight had said she wouldn’t tell them anything dangerous, but...the lack of an answer could be just as telling as no reply at all.

“No way!” Rainbow Dash said as she zoomed up to meet Twilight eye to eye. “That way if just one of us says no, then none of us get anything! We…well…we should take a vote!”

Twilight stared at the pegasus for a few seconds, then put on a small smile that had the anger on Rainbow Dash’s face turning to confusion. Most likely because it seemed to be a happy smile, not one of a master schemer. “Okay then,” the unicorn said before she looked around the room. “Does everypony agree with that?”

“Agreeing or not gots nothing to do with it, you should be telling us what we wanna know!” Applejack insisted heatedly.

Fluttershy simply nodded, and Rarity spoke up her agreement to the conditions as well. Pinkie Pie was a bit more vocal in her acceptance to the conditions. “Sounds good to me!” she said. “Oh! Are we going to have like a special voting party with red white and blue hats? Or…gold and white hats I mean? Because we’re in Equestria you know. Although…is blue one of the national colors again? Because with Princess Luna being back I think that black and blue and silver should be somewhere in there too, don’t you?”

The lavender unicorn giggled. “No Pinkie, I think we can just go with a basic count,” she said. “Is that okay with everypony?”

Applejack grumbled a bit, making all the ponies in the room turn towards her. “Don’t think voting should have anything to do with it! But…if ya’ll going to be doing it that way, then I vote yes. Twilight should tell us what’s going on.”

“Same here,” Rainbow agreed before she looked over to Twilight with a nervous expression. “Uh, sorry Twilight it’s just…you know. I gotta go with my gut, and it’s saying I should find out what happens to me.”

Rarity took in a deep breath as she tried to think about what to say. On the surface, it seemed like a dream of an offer. What pony wouldn’t want to know about her future? On the other hand, how much would that information ruin?

A dozen new original designs went through her head at the thought, but…which of them would be considered garish, and which magnifique? And that’s just dresses, Rarity told herself. Twilight would not have gone through the trouble of doing everything she was doing down in her basement because of just some dresses…no matter how spectacular they were.

That was just the small stuff. Rarity didn’t even want to think about just why Twilight broke the rules of time. The other unicorn apparently had a handle on the situation, so…

“I vote no,” she said making all the ponies in the room turn to look at her.

After Rainbow Dash and Applejack had finished with their protests, Rarity locked eyes with the surprised time traveler and smiled. “I will admit to some curiosity darling, but…my faith in you outweighs that by far. So no, you don’t have to tell us if you think its for the best.”

Fluttershy spoke up in the ensuing silence as everypony in the room had their attentions on Rarity. “I vote no too.”

“WHAT?” Rainbow Dash shouted before she turned around to face the other pegasus. “Fluttershy! Why?”

For a moment the yellow pegasus simply sat where she was on the couch, her face half-hidden by her mane, and then she looked back at the other flying pony. “I remember when we had our celebration after Nightmare Moon, and the day after that when we all had lunch together and how happy Twilight was,” she said before turning her head.

“And then when I saw you later that week, you were so…different,” she said to Twilight after shifting her attention to the purple unicorn. “And until I saw you on the floor of your house the other day, I didn’t realize what it was. But now…Twilight, you’re afraid. You’re afraid, all the time. And if learning what you know did that to you then…I don’t want any part of it.”

With only one pony left, they all turned to Pinkie Pie, who gave them all a slight frown as she sat down so hard Rarity winced at the sound of her plot smacking the floor. “Really? You all give me the deciding vote?” she asked in a whine.

“Come on Pinkie, you want to know the truth as much as me!” Applejack exclaimed.

“Think of everything we could find out!” Rainbow Dash added.

“Darling, we know enough. Let Twilight have her secrets,” Rarity told her.

“I don’t think it will make any of us happy to know our future Pinkie,” Fluttershy said.

Once they had all made their case and gotten a shush from Pinkie, the pink party pony was silent for a good five minutes before she looked up at the purple arch-mage. “Twilight…you’re a super fantastic friend,” she finally said in a much more somber tone than Rarity had heard from her before. “You play with me and Dashie, and help Applejack on her farm, and Fluttershy with her animals, and hang out with Rarity at that bathhouse.”

Rarity cleared her throat. “Spa.” Bathhouses were where ponies went to bathe, spas were for rejuvenation.

“You spend all your time trying to make us happy, and I may not know anything about magic, but I’d bet my party pony license whatever it is you’re working on down there in your super secret basement has something to do with helping us too. And I know it’s something big and super important,” Pinkie continued. “But...I want to help you. I want to see you happy and see you smile like I did the second day I saw you.”

Across the room, Twilight let out a laugh through her nose. “Pinkie I’m happy around you girls. You all make me plenty happy,” she said before her mouth curved upwards.

Pinkie shook her head. “That’s not a real smile,” she said before her mane seemed to deflate a little. “There’s a...sadness in you. You try and hide it, and you’re really good at it. But I can see it sometimes, like when we argue, or when you were talking to Princess Celestia…and I… I want to make you happy again Twilight, like when we were all in the forest together. I want…I want to see you really smile again.

“But I can’t do that unless you tell me what’s wrong…so I vote yes,” Pinkie finished.

The whole room was silent for a moment, and Twilight looked around at all the other ponies. “Honesty, Loyalty, Generosity, Kindness and Joy…like I really even needed to ask how it would go,” she said with a sad smile plastered on her lips before she licked them and took in a deep breath.

Then Rainbow Dash spoke with her usual level of subtlety. “We didn’t get eaten by a dragon or something, did we?”

Twilight’s face twisted into confused revulsion for a moment. “What? No!” she exclaimed. “Even with… I would have never let something like that happen to you girls!”

Tension she didn’t know she was holding released and Rarity sagged in relief while some of other girls also visibly relaxed. “Okay then...just what did you learn on your trip to the future then darling?”

For a moment, Rarity thought that Twilight hadn’t heard her, but then the other unicorn let out a long sigh before she spoke again. “Okay, but I suppose I should tell you all something before we start. Celestia was wrong about me traveling to the future and picking up some foreknowledge. She thinks I used Starswirl’s Temporal Rubber Band spell to travel to a distant point in the future and then come back here with a ton of historical knowledge. The truth is, Celestia has it backwards. I didn’t travel into the future…I um...well, I… I came from it.”

“What?” most of the ponies in the room asked, Rarity among them.

“I came back from the future,” Twilight explained. “But I never went there with magic.”

Pinkie Pie tilted her head. “But if you’re from the future, then how come you’re not super old and wrinkly?”

Another sigh came from Twilight’s lips. “Okay, that’s going to take a bit more explanation…”

Twilight opened her eyes as a strange sound assaulted her ears, waking the unicorn from a beautiful dream that involved a hundred item checklist listing all her new duties as a librarian, a guardian of books, a dispenser of knowledge, a…some other grandiose title she could probably come up with if she wasn’t just being woken up by Spike’s…wild wind that was blowing things all around her bedroom without any visible cause?

Wait a second, Spike isn’t doing this, she told herself after looking down to check on the dragon. As expected, the unicorn found her baby brother sleeping away in the basket she had found for him to serve as a bed.

A part of Twilight thought she needed to get a real bed for him one day, but…he just looked so cute in his little basket that it seemed almost a crime to make such a change!

“So if its not Spike,” the unicorn muttered before getting out of bed and looked around at the windows to find that they were all closed. “What’s causing-”

A bright flash and the sound of a magical displacement cut Twilight off and made her shield her eyes from the incoming teleport. When she looked back to see what had caused the loud disturbance that scattered all of the unicorn’s papers everywhere, Twilight’s mouth dropped open in shock.

An alicorn was standing in the middle of her bedroom, but it was unlike any alicorn that Twilight had ever seen. The creature had to be approaching ten feet tall and almost filled the room with her presence, while a dark mane with light tan and hot pink highlights flowed around in the air flowed in the air. Even the giant pony’s wings and coat seemed to have been colored from being so overflowing with magical power, and her eyes glowed with a strange dance of light that cycled through every color of the rainbow. “Twilight Sparkle.”

The creature’s very presence filled the air with so much magic that Twilight felt a pressure on her horn, and when she spoke...Twilight didn’t just hear the words, her entire body felt them. They went beyond just making her bones fibrate, beyond something physically comprehensible and Twilight knew even what she could feel with her horn was just the tip of an iceberg.

“W-Who’re you?” the little unicorn asked the pony that towered over her as Twilight’s instincts told her a myriad of conflicting commands.

The sheer size of the alicorn in front of her which even Princess Celestia would have been unable to match made the young pony want to run and hide under the bed. But the more magically inclined senses that every unicorn had told Twilight that it was a pointless effort. The thing in front of her was beyond any power Twilight had ever felt before. It made her mind hurt just being in the thing’s presence and…as terrifying as what she could feel coming from the goddess in front of her, Twilight knew that she shouldn’t panic.

“You don’t recognize me?” she asked before looking at herself for a second, then back to the unicorn after mumbling to herself, “no, I suppose you wouldn’t.”

“I don’t have time to explain but…I only have the best of intentions for you and friends. I just want to help them, but I can’t do it without you.”

The magic resonating within the mystery alicorn’s words made Twilight’s head feel like it was going to slit open but at the same time, there was something in it that made Twilight know what she was saying was true. It didn’t feel like any of the mind-warping magic Celestia had described to her student, it was simply...truth.

Still, whenever all-powerful god-beings just appeared in one’s bedroom begging for help…one just didn’t nod their head. “Okay…but why? And how?”

“I made a mistake, a big mistake…the Elements, they’re not…it’s not right!” the mystery goddess exclaimed as her enigmatic emotional shell cracked a little and some emotion leaked into her voice. “I can fix it, I can fix everything, but I need you to agree.”

Twilight gave the alicorn a cautious frown. “Agree to what?”

The alicorn shuffled her hooves around a bit like Twilight tended to do sometimes, and the relatively tiny mage wondered if she should also be worried if something like the Goddess before her seemed nervous. “The spell I’m using to travel through time, it doesn’t last very long, so I need you to…the best way to explain it is that you will...or I will… I will give you everything that I am but the end result… You won't be you anymore. You’ll be…maybe me, or…something else. I’m sorry, the full explanation would take too long and that is the only way I can describe what‘s going to happen in the time we have.”

“WHAT?” Twilight shouted as she backed away from the alicorn in fear, her mind running a mile a minute as she tried to explain how that was even possible. “You want to…to replace me?” Despite the creature’s power, a new kind of fear pushed Twilight forward as her mind quickly calculated that running away from the thing in front of her was impossible. “No way!”

“Twilight,” the mystery alicorn shouted as she prostrated herself in front of the unicorn. “We have to save them, we have to protect them. I’ve tried so long and so hard. I’ve tried everything, and now that I finally found a way, it’s all up to you and I’m running out time! Please Twilight, I’m begging you. Say yes, and we can finally save our friends!”

The change in diction caught Twilight’s attention as the alicorn changed from using the words I and my to we and our, and Twilight’s eyes drifted over to the titanic pony’s cutie mark. It was…different, but she could see the Element of Magic at its center.

What was more, she recognized it as the Element of Magic. It wasn’t just some odd coincidence like with Colgate and that stallion who sold clocks having somewhat similar cutie marks. The mark of a ponys destiny didn’t work like that. Each and every one was special and had a magical element to it that made it unique.

What Twilight was looking at. It. Was. Her. Cutie. Mark.

Or at least...part of it was.

Realization made Twilight’s legs go weak, and she forced herself to sit down to avoid falling over. She…that’s not…possible…but…

Twilight looked back to the alicorn, and gulped. Her horn was much longer, she was big enough to make Celestia seem like a normal-sized pony, her coat glowed a much darker shade, and the amount of power radiating from her made Twilight feel like a flea staring at a dragon, but…

The hairstyle was the same, and Twilight recognized the same tone of panic in the goddess’s voice that the unicorn herself had been stuck in from time to time.

“You’re me,” she mumbled. “But…your cutie mark, your…alicorn! How?”

It was impossible, absolutely impossible, and if it wasn’t for the other Twilight’s titanic presence, the unicorn would have been elated at the impossibility of it all.

“There’s not time to explain, and now that you know, just…please Twilight, if we don’t do this…I can’t go back there Twilight. I can’t… Please, help me save them! I...I’m begging you.”

Twilight gulped again, although this time it was to help get her nervousness under control. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what was going on, just which ponies the future her was talking about. Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Fluttershy…Twilight had only just met them the other day and yet…they had gone with her into the most dangerous land Equestria had to offer and pulled her through the Everfree before rushing in to save her when Nightmare Moon appeared.

They had charged into certain death to help a stranger, and made Twilight understand just how special each one of them was. And now, she was faced with the same choice.

With that being the case, only one option was open to her.

“Will I die?” Twilight asked, forcing herself to take in breath after breath to try and keep herself focused

“I do not know,” the goddess that Twilight would become answered. “The spell…it may change you into me, or simply give you the information in my head, or it may overwrite you completely, and leave only me. I’ve never been able to properly test it. I’m sorry to ask this of you, I’m sorry to take this all away from you. But…I don’t have any other options.”

Twilight forced herself to smile. “Don’t feel too bad. I mean, even if I disappear completely…I’m still you, right?” she asked while her body began to tremble. “And Spike…you’ll look after him too, right?”

For a moment Twilight didn’t know why she asked that particular question but… No…she knew what was coming. What this would entail. Even if it was just information, what were ponies but a collection of their experiences guided by their destiny?

The giant goddess of an alicorn that stood before Twilight was what she would become one day. What she was doing was just...taking a little shortcut, in a way.

“Of course I will,” the Goddess assured her. “Now we’re almost out of time. Touch your horn to mine, and we can begin.”

Three seconds later, Twilight found herself backing away from the brain-dead alicorn that no longer held the correct mental programming or magical aura to continue functioning. One had been given away, and the other completely spent. Five seconds after that, the body vanished as the temporal rubber band effect caused Twilight’s original body to disappear in another flash of light.

The unicorn blinked at her last thought, and how she had thought of the alicorn form as hers. She reached up and touched a hoof to her head as she recalled a million other things like Rainbow Dash’s Wonderbolt’s inauguration, Rarity’s first wedding, dozens of battles, the hundred thousand experiments she had done to come to this point in time, her friends…

A shiver passed through her body as she remember seeing them in their private hospital room that last time before entombing them. As well as the several times after that.

And later, when she had...

Twilight forced her eyes closed to keep from crying while she fought to keep her emotions under control. The battle was lost in the blink of an eye, and tears began to form. The unicorn let out a sob before she managed to surround herself in a soundproof force field as the pain of loss became overwhelming, and tears fell down her face like from a waterfall.

She remembered their slumbering faces, Applejack...Fluttershy...Rarity...Pinkie Pie…and… Another shudder passed through the unicorn’s body as she remembered Rainbow Dash being awoken and… Twilight let out a piercing wail as the memory washed over her.

Ten minutes later, after her tear ducts had run dry, Twilight found herself laying on the floor and trying to find her breath as she ordered her thoughts. Crying…it’s been...centuries? Millennia? How long has it been since I allowed myself to feel for them? Yet, as the former alicorn dried her tears and conjured a tissue for her to blow her nose, she had to admit that it had felt…good.

She wondered how long it had been since she felt like that too, but Twilight shoved the petty concern for her own mental wellbeing to the side in favor of thoughts of her friends. Her Family.

They needed to be cried over, they deserved it. The fact that she hadn’t done it in so long made Twilight feel sick to her stomach. It didn’t matter that she didn’t have time to do it before. It didn’t matter that she had needed to push her emotions to the side in order to get the job done!

The fact that she had stopped mourning them, stopped honoring them…it made Twilight sick with herself more so than anything else that the alicorn had done afterwards. She should have built monuments to them! Not that stupid little statue in Canterlot Castle’s garden that Celestia made!

They deserved better than that! They deserved every pony in Equestria knowing their names from the first year they got into school and thanking each and every one of those mares for the day their sacrifices allowed them to live through every night before they went to bed!

And they will, Twilight told herself in order to calm down. I’ll make sure they get everything they want and more! What the buck did Celestia ever give them? Some windows when they were alive? A statue when they were dead? Never once gave them what they really wanted, what they needed, what they deserved. ALL SHE DID WAS TAKE IT ALL AWAY!

Twilight frowned when she noticed her breathing. She was…upset?

First the tears, and then…anger? She hadn’t been angry since…she couldn’t remember. Since Celestia at least, or… No, it had been the last time she and Cadence had spoken, before the alicorn had left her former sister-in-law to her rather ironic fate.

Bile rose in Twilight’s throat at the memory, and the unicorn barely kept herself from throwing up. Sweet Celestia I...I did that to her and… No, she was the one who wanted the heart, the unicorn reminded herself. She was the one who started everything! She was the one who said I-Twilight realized she was paning through her teeth again, and forced herself to calm down...again.

She had to wonder if it was that the other Twilight’s presence. The former alicorn didn’t feel all that different that she had a second ago, but…there was no denying the fact that such emotional responses had long since been under control. Twilight couldn’t have done a tenth of what she had needed to if she had been so controlled by her emotions.

A wave of memories pushed themselves up from the depths of Twilight’s mind. The experiments… Twilight’s eyes widened as a million memories play out in her mind, and she felt like retching again. I…how could I have…oh Celes-No! I won’t think of her like that anymore! It was her fault! It was all HER FAULT! I shouldn’t feel guilty! None of that happened anymore! AND IT’S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN! I WON’T LET IT!

Twilight realized she was panting, and forced herself to slow her breathing down using an exercise she hadn‘t done in forever. “Okay, focus Twilight, focus on the good things,” she told herself as the light of a day began to shine through the windows of her library’s bedroom.

Minutes ticked by, and slowly, Twilight forced herself to get herself under control. She looked at where she was. Reminded herself when she was. She was before when everything went wrong. The exact date was hard to pin down as the memories of Twilight’s future-past self continued to find a place to settle in her mind, but that was a worry for another time.

“The library,” she told herself as a smile started to creep up on her cheeks. “I’m in the library. Golden Oaks Library. In Ponyville. It’s not a reconstruction, a simulation, or a dream. I’m really here…I’m home.”

A tiny laugh escaped her lips, and Twilight dropped the magical barrier that stopped sound from escaping within the small radius around her.

“I’m f-finally home!” she exclaimed as several more laughs escaped her mouth. “I…hehe…I…hehehe…I just…WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!”

Twilight finished her recap of the events, careful to leave out a few minor details, like the fact she had been an alicorn at the time. They didn’t need to know something like that until it was time. The bare bones version of things would do until they were ready for when she could tell them more; if they needed to know at all.

“So wait, Ah’m confused. Are you…future-Twilight, or…past-Twilight with future Twilight’s memories?” Applejack asked as she gave the former alicorn a tilted look.

Twilight forced herself not to call up the series of images that came with the farm pony’s face. Weeks of exposure to her friends had allowed it to become second nature for the unicorn to block out the dozens emotions and memories that came with just seeing them, but it was still something Twilight couldn’t allow herself to dwell on for too long before the guilt came.

The guilt for having to lie to her friends.

For abandoning them when they needed her most.

For not giving them enough.

For not standing up for them.

For not loving them enough.

But this was different than most times. She felt no cramps in her stomach from having to tell even the smallest of deceits, or the sadness of needing to hide something from the ponies she loved.

Twilight lifted her shoulders in a shrug while resisting the urge to giggle at the silliness of feeling good just for being able to tell her friends the truth…or most of it anyway. The important part of it. The rest...didn’t matter.

“I don’t think it’s that simple. I…my memories, the way I remember things is like they happened years ago, for me anyway. But…I’m not…I don’t have something that I used to.” Or was it that she had regained something? “It’s like I’m not as…hard as I used to be, I guess you could say. Back when I was…older,” she said before giving them all a smile as a blush crept up her cheeks.

A second later a better descriptive entered her head. Cold...I should have said cold. But cold sounds too...cold. And if they found out-NO! I can’t tell them that. They’d never understand. It doesn’t matter anymore anyway. That never happened anymore. None of it happened, and if none of it happened, then it doesn’t count. “I’m fine,” Twilight whispered to herself. “Perfectly fine. Just fine.”

“Twilight?”

The low whisper from...Twilight guessed with a 89.764367% certainty that it had to have been Fluttershy who talked...it brought her out of her self-assurances and back to reality.

The fact she had given such a shoddy explanation despite numerous decorates, three of which in fields Twilight had herself invented, embarrassed the former alicorn to no end. “Sorry, I’m usually better at this. It’s just…new! And I’m here with all of you!”

Which was so exciting that she wanted to shout out in joy and yet scary in a way that made her want to crawl into a ball and hide both at the same time. Things had changed from what she remembered, or half-remembered from before since her memory of every little thing wasn’t all that perfect as she knew it should be, but Twilight knew there was going to be some small alterations from what had been. She had realized that after her second week in Ponyville.

Several moments would be relived, that was unavoidable because of how things were, but Twilight was certain...the worst of things could be avoided and the good times made better with her efforts. Twilight couldn't wait to see a real Rainboom again, or experience authentic Sweet Apple cider, to listen to Fluttershy’s voice in pony...

“Twilight?”

The sound of her friend’s voice brought Twilight out of her introspection, and she looked over to Fluttershy. Twilight cleared her mind and her throat, then gave Fluttershy her full attention while mentally berating herself. The pegasus deserved her full attention, she deserved everything Twilight could give her, but attention was all she needed right now.

Thankfully, her face was just curious, not guilty or sad, or...afraid…

Fluttershy looked up from where she covered on the floor of Twilight’s treehouse, giving the unicorn a terrified look with wide eyes. The simple act froze Twilight solid and made her breath seize. Fluttershy had NEVER looked at her like that. Even after Twilight had become an alicorn, Fluttershy had always put her trust and faith in the purple pony.

Now she had scared Fluttershy. Failed her. Twilight’s breath seized as she realized that fact, her entire being buckled, and everything she had worked to prove to herself came undone at that moment as she realized that she really was...

Twilight banished the memory from the forefront of her mind and into the dark recesses where her older ones were kept as she reminded herself that she had not failed her friend. It had been a mistake, all a mistake! Fluttershy had forgiven her, and they were all friends again.

So why does it haunt me so much? Twilight asked herself.

Because it was new?

Because it couldn’t be undone?

Because...it truly was her fault, this time?

Twilight realized that the pegasus was giving her an odd look, and then realized she hadn’t responded to Fluttershy’s question. She had cast her aside...again!

“Yes Fluttershy?”

“Rainbow asked you a question,” the pegasus said before pointing over to the cyan pony.

The sight made Twilight wince. The last time she had seen Rainbow, just ten seconds ago, she had been fine. Since then, she had become a hair’s breadth away from a nervous wreck that was barely holding it together as she waited for Twilight’s response. She may have looked fine, but Twilight could see the worried expression she was trying to conceal.

And…

“Twilight PLEASE!”

The former alicorn pushed the memory away before it could fully form and beat it down harder than the previous one along with the guilt that came with it. That didn’t happen anymore, it NEVER happened! NONE OF IT! RAINBOW IS FINE, SHE’S RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME AND HAPPY!

After her thoughts cleared, it took all of five seconds to figure out what the blue pegasus had asked with a 99.999% chance of certainty; especially with her reaction to Twilight’s delayed answer factored in. Seeing Rainbow just a hair’s breath from cowering on the ground made the unicorn wanted to kick herself in the head for ignoring the pegasus like that. But Twilight managed to put on a gentle smile to hide her self-hatred over causing the situation and addressed the troubled pony.

Risk assessments with giving her future knowledge weren’t even calculated. Twilight simply told her what she wanted to hear in order to ease the pegasus’s nerves. “Rainbow, of course you’re going to be a Wonderbolt. You’re the most amazing pegasus in Equestria.”

Rainbow gave Twilight a curious frown. “Wait…really? That’s…that’s awesome!” she said before picking herself up in the air and doing a backwards flip while laughing with enough joy to put a real smile on Twilight’s face.

But despite the joy her former guard was experiencing, Twilight began to wonder if telling her that had been a mistake. Rainbow’s stint with the Wonderbolts hadn’t lasted that long, or brought her any real joy thanks to everything else, but that bit of her future was easily changeable.

“But uh…that’s not what I asked,” Rainbow said, shattering Twilight’s recollection of things.

Twilight blinked. Wait…I guessed wrong? I guessed wrong? How can I guess wrong? Becoming a Wonderbolt is the only thing Rainbow cares about…except…oh, right…the things we’ve been talking about for the past few days, she realized with a sigh before she dropped her head in shame. She needed to pay more attention! What kind of friend ignored her friends when they were speaking?

The mares she was talking to weren’t a bunch of noponies, or traitors, or monsters that needed to be crushed under hoof, they were her best friends! Her family! HOW CAN YOU JUST IGNORE THEM LIKE THAT? Twilight scolded herself.

She would have never have ignored them like that before...except for during extenuating circumstances. But that was back before Twilight had understood just how precious each and every one of them truly was! How important their happiness was!

If she couldn’t make them happy and give them the lives they deserved, then everything she did...it would all be for nothing!

After taking another breath to calm herself down, Twilight looked back up at Rainbow Dash. “I’m sorry Rainbow, I let my mind wander,” she apologized, taking extreme care not to sound as pathetic as she was feeling on the inside. She didn’t want to worry the girls. She couldn’t worry them like that and add even more to their discomfort.

It was awkward enough with Twilight being mentally old enough to be their great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother. She couldn’t make them feel even worse than she already had. Not them! Never them!

“It’s okay,” Rainbow told her, making Twilight nearly smile at being forgiven so easily. But of course Rainbow would forgive her for that. Rainbow forgave anything…as long as the pony was one of her friends. Once somepony got into that circle the pegasus drew around herself, there was almost no way of getting out unless a pony pitted themselves against another pony in that circle and forced Dash to choose.

But Twilight knew she would never do that.

Ever.

“We were all just kind of wondering,” she said in a tone growing more uncomfortable by the second. “Why um…what happened that was so bad you uh…went back in time?”

Oh buck, am I gonna die? I did, didn’t I? Rainbow Dash asked herself as she saw Twilight’s expression change after hearing the question.

It made sense. She was the dare devil. She was the one who always charged in first. Now that she knew she was going to be in the Wonderbolts, a military organization that did some pretty dangerous stunts in their off time to keep their skills sharp left Rainbow Dash feeling like she was going to throw up because it could very well be the reason everything went wrong for her.

The news that she was going to be a Wonderbolt cheered her up a bit, but once she thought about it for a second, Rainbow just saw joining that legendary team as the path that would lead to her eventual death!

Which was totally messed up! Live the dream, and then die because of it? Sure there was that whole brightest candle burns the fastest saying, but that was just a stupid saying! What the buck did a buck of words know? Sayings didn’t die!

Then she noticed Twilight’s reaction a second later. As soon as she saw the unicorn, Rainbow Dash knew she had made a mistake. While not the most emphatic of ponies, the pegasus did realize what it meant when the purple pony’s eyes got all wide. It was the same expression Twilight got those few times the pranks they played went a bit too far, and Twilight begged for forgiveness in her Twilight way before magically fixing everything with her awesome nerd skills.

Rainbow dropped out of the air, and waited for a second before Twilight started her whole apologizing thing. Then her lip began to tremble and the sniffles started not a second after tears began to form in her eyes, and Rainbow got a bad feeling that she was about to be hit with a whole new level of a Twilight freak out. “Um…Twilight?”

“I’m sorry!” she cried before he whole body began to shake and her head dropped to the floor before tears poured from her eyes like rain, while her breath came in short gasps for air. “Rainbow, I’m sorry!”

The pegasus gulped at the reaction, and then slowly approached her friend, unsure of what to do. At which point Twilight latched onto the pegasus with her forelegs, and buried her head in Rainbow’s shoulder. The extra weight dragged her down for a moment, and then Rainbow found herself spreading her wings to get the unicorn upright before she rebalanced herself into the hug while Twilight half whispered, half whined into her ear. “She lied Rainbow…she said…said you’d all…”

Twilight’s words degenerated into a fit of pure sobs and whines Rainbow would have expected from a little filly instead of some ancient, all-powerful unicorn that could just buck the rules of time and space in the face. Rainbow gulped, and put a foreleg around Twilight’s neck while desperately looking around at the rest of the girls for help. Upset ponies were not something a pony like Rainbow Dash was used to dealing with.

A few seconds later, Rarity and Fluttershy joined in on the supportive embrace, and Pinkie was there shortly after them. When Rainbow looked back to see what was taking Applejack, she saw a look of stark fear in the farmer’s eyes before Rainbow rolled her own and motioned for the orange pony to come over already.

Ten minutes later, after they had managed to get Twilight calmed down, and she trotted off to the guest suite’s bathroom to clean up, Pinkie called an Elements of Harmony minus one meeting and looked at all the others with a face that was actually so serious it kind of creeped Rainbow out.

“Okay, nopony is allowed to ask that question anymore,” the usually happy go lucky pony said with a straight face and mane that looked a lot less poofy than it should have been.

No kidding, Rainbow told herself as she tried to calm her own nerves. All of a sudden, she wished that she had voted no when it came to the whole thing. While knowing about the Wonderbolts was great and all, there was no way it was worth causing that kind of pain to her…well…Rainbow supposed that Twilight could very easily take the title of oldest friend in more ways than one considering all the time travel stuff she had been involved with.

There was a round of nods, except for one, which made Rainbow frown at Applejack a moment before the farmer started speaking. “Now just a darn minute! That was the whole point of taking that stupid vote!” she said with a stomp of her hoof. “We deserve to know what’s sposta happen!”

“I said yes because I wanted to help her, not make her cry!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed.

“Besides darling, I hardly think that knowing what’s going to happen is going to do us any good other than cause extreme amount of stress…for…us,” Rarity trailed off before she looked over to the bathroom for a moment with a sad expression. “Oh you poor dear. It isn’t just guilt that’s weighing you down, is it Twilight?”

Applejack stomped a hoof onto the floor. “Consarnit Rarity! Quit trying to change the subject!” she demanded with a frown on her face. “This ain’t about how Twilight feels! This about her keeping her word to us and telling us what we want to know like she agreed to do!”

As the unicorn and the earth pony exchanged glares, even more of the stuff Pinkie Pie used to make her mane all poofy wore off, Fluttershy fidgeted on the couch she was sitting on, and Rainbow Dash felt torn over everything.

“Well…do we even need her to?” the butter-yellow pegasus spoke up, drawing everypony’s attention. “I mean, she’s already said so much about everything…maybe Twilight’s told us what happened without meaning to.”

Rarity sat back on her haunches before placing a hoof on her chin. “You might have a point there Fluttershy,” she mumbled before looking at everypony else. “Think about it. Twilight’s shown an intense…dislike for Princess Celestia, not to mention what she said to me the other day inside her tree house. She mentioned friends in the hospital, and…something about being made to do something.”

“She’s so sad and afraid all the time,” Fluttershy added softly.

What Twilight had whispered into Rainbow’s ear replayed in her head for a few seconds, and Rainbow Dash sighed. “And she kept apologizing and saying somepony lied.”

A sigh drew Rainbow’s attention, and Applejack shook her head while looking at the ground. “Well if ya’ll wanna play it this way…it’s pretty obvious that liar thing’s got to be ‘bout Princess Celestia,” AJ said after she raised her head to look at the others. “Course Ah don’t right see the point when we can just ask that pony what’s going on.”

“Because guessing games are more fun!” Pinkie Pie chipped in, with her hair becoming a bit more…Pinkie as she sat down to think. “Now what about that other stuff? Oh, like all the crazy writing in her lab? That’s another clue, right?”

Rarity nodded, then winced when all the ponies looked to her for an answer. “Well don’t look at me if you’re hoping to understand it,” she told them. “I make dresses. Twilight’s a…an arch-mage or something. I have about as much chance of understanding that as the rest of you have when it comes to understanding Pinkie Pie’s…intuition.”

A moments pause made all the other ponies look at each other with lost expressions before Rarity spoke again. “At the moment, I’m more concerned with what Fluttershy and I heard about a hospital. It’s pretty obvious some of us ended up there.”

Rainbow Dash gulped as a theory started to take form in her head. “What if there was this big bad monster or something like that dragon, and we got into a fight with it, and we…lost?” she asked. The idea was pretty stupid, something being able to take down Rainbow and the other girls that had beaten Nightmare Moon and the Everfree, and a dragon?

She couldn’t even imagine something like that, but…it was the only thing that made sense to her. So when Rarity shot Rainbow’s idea down with a shake of her head, the pegasus was left frowning at the unicorn. “That wouldn’t explain her anger at Princess Celestia, or all that work she’s doing down in her lab.”

“Plus she already said it wasn’t a dragon,” Fluttershy reminded everypony. “So I don’t think it was a fight.”

Before Rainbow could say that it might have to do with some super awesome combat spell to beat whatever bad guy that had managed to cheat his way to victory the first time around, Fluttershy spoke up again, cutting her off.

“What if it was an accident?”

Once again, all the ponies turned to look over at the yellow pegasus, while Rarity was the one to speak. “What do you mean darling?”

Fluttershy gulped from all the attention being focused on her, but went on. “Well…we know Twilight is Princess Celestia’s student…or, she was, or is still?” she said before pausing to shake her head. “Anyway, we all know that Princess Celestia gives her things to do. What if the princess gave her an assignment, or an experiment to do, and something went wrong? What if we got hurt because of it?”

A sense of guilt slammed into Rainbow Dash so hard she winced. “And that’s why she started crying,” the pegasus realized out loud. “I might as well have said, hey Twilight, remember when you sent all your friends into intensive care?”

“She lied to me, she made me,” Rarity went on in a distant tone. “If Princess Celestia told her to do something, and said nothing bad was going to happen…” The unicorn shivered.

Pinkie tilted her head. “But Princess Celestia is super nice, she wouldn’t do something like that,” she said. “That’s like a pony sending a bomb in the mail in a box with a bow on top, and not a party bomb either!”

“Are ya’ll realizing what we’re talkin’ about here?” Applejack spoke up. “Ya’ll are makin’ it sound like Princess Celestia sent Twilight some kinda kooky project that she meant to blow up in Twilight’s face.”

Fluttershy shook her head. “I’m not saying that. It could have all been an accident.”

Before Rainbow could add her two bits about how ponies didn’t go psycho crazy angry over accidents and decided to rewrite history, the door to the bathroom creaked open and Twilight walked back into the room, killing all further conversation on the subject. Twilight looked a bit better, but her eyes were still red from crying, although the wash her face had just been through kind of made her a little less…pathetic looking. Although that was offset by the slightly confused look that was plastered on her face as she turned her head back and forth.

“Hey girls…what were you talking about?”

All the other ponies shared a look of trepidation, and Rainbow could see that they were just as torn between going out and asking her, and not knowing. For a moment, Rainbow thought since she had already bucked things up once, that she might as well be the one to send Twilight into tears again…but, she just couldn’t do it.

Although she still thought it would be cool to know a few things about her future, how she she got hurt or even checked out definitely wasn’t one of them. Sheer creepiness aside, Rainbow couldn’t do that to Twilight a second time.

“Okay Twi, what happened to-”

Pinkie stepped in front of Applejack, cutting her off. “Hey Twilight, how old are you?”

The question made the unicorn blink, and actually had Dash wondering just why Pinkie would ask something as random as that before she realized something. Twilight was from the future, far enough for Rainbow to have at least joined the Wonderbolts. Which mean she had to be from at least four years in the yet-to-be.

So, the purple unicorn that had been the youngest member of their group was now the oldest? That actually seemed a little cool.

“Um…actually, I…don’t really know,” she said as her ears dropped and the visible signs of depression quickly started to return.

“What?” Pinkie demanded like she had run into an impossibility that was greater than even her. “How could you not know? Didn’t you have to know how many candles were on your birthday cake?”

As Pinkie had her conversation with Twilight, Rainbow saw Rarity trot over to Applejack and mumble something in the other mare’s ear that the orange pony apparently didn’t like. Then, after a brief argument that was so low even Rainbow’s pegasus hearing couldn’t make it out, Applejack rolled her eyes and let out a sigh of defeat.

Back at the center of attention, Twilight looked away from the slightly irate party pony as Pinkie drew in closer. “There was…they just weren’t as important as before. So, I didn’t really count the years, or have any parties.”

A silence descended on a room for a moment as the other meaning of that statement set in. It wasn’t the fact that Twilight Sparkle stopped having birthday parties that floored Rainbow Dash, it was the fact that information led to that gave the pegasus pause. There was no way Pinkie Pie wouldn’t throw a birthday party for one of her closest friends whether that pony wanted one or not.

Unless she…couldn’t.

Right Dash…hospital, remember, the pegasus reminded herself. Although, she had a hard time seeing even something as bad as being in traction managing to stop Pinkie from throwing a party once she got really creative.

Pinkie Pie gasped in horror and stood up on her hind hooves in absolute terror as she backed away from what she probably saw as the greatest atrocity in the world. “No birthday parties? It’s worse than I thought!” she said before turning to the others. “Okay everypony! Our emergency slumber party starts right now! …or, non-slumber party since you’re not allowed to sleep at a slumber party!”

Then, she reached into her mane to pull out several rectangular boxes, followed by several other items. “Let’s see, we got games, my emergency party cannon for noise in case somepony tries to fall asleep, a spin bottle for Truth or Dare, Gummy…oh that’s where you went. Punch bowl…aaaaaaaaaaand, that feels like everything.”

“Excuse me darling,” Rarity spoke up. “But won’t we need some makeup, curlers, and conditioner for when it comes time to do our makeovers? How come you haven’t pulled out any of those?”

While Applejack rolled her eyes and grumbled something unintelligible, Pinkie Pie gave Rarity a confused look. “Why would that kind of stuff be in my mane?”

Despite the immaculate…everything about Canterlot Castle, fifteen minutes of wandering its halls had Rarity thinking they could have put up a few signs to give directions or something. She would have liked to ask a guard, but the setting of the sun was apparently a sign for a shift change and the unicorn hadn’t seen a single one of the new guardstallions come around.

A part of her, albeit small, was also blaming her rather distracting company for her lack of directional sense. Although Applejack hadn’t spoken a word since they left to find some beautification supplies, Rarity was finding the other pony’s dour presence to be quite the fly in her ointment.

She had wanted to get her away from the others to talk, but...it seemed that the unicorn would be needing to make the first offer with Applejack being as silent as she was. “So, would you like to share what’s bothering you dear, or do you wish to continue suffering in silence?”

“Wut?” the farmer replied a second before a frown crossed her face. “Ugh, Rarity, what’s got you all in a fuss now?”

Rarity resisted the urge to roll her eyes as she slowed her pacing to let Applejack catch up with her. “Darling, I think you’re the one out of sorts here. What’s wrong?”

The question got a huff from Applejack, and Rarity braced herself from the coming tirade. “What’s wrong? You were in there Rarity, Twilight’s been lying to us from day one!”

After giving the orange farmer a moment to make sure she was done, the fashionista nodded. “Well, I wouldn’t say it was that bad...especially considering the alternative would be everypony thinking Twilight was even less stable than she is now, but...you’ve been in a huff since this morning, long before Twilight’s time travel was made public knowledge. I’d like to know why.”

“That ain’t-” Applejack let out a groan. “That’s...private. It’s tween me and another pony.”

Rarity raised an eyebrow at the withdrawal. Although seeing as how she had seen Applejack glaring at Rainbow Dash all morning whenever the pegasus even began to open her mouth, it wasn’t hard to guess the cause of her distress. “Rainbow Dash play a prank on you?”

The slight bristling of Applejack’s coat was all the confirmation Rarity required that she had chosen the right subject.

“No,” the farm pony replied, making the unicorn frown in thought.

“But it is about Rainbow Dash, correct?”

Applejack rolled her eyes. “Yes,” she grumbled. “Apparently, everything’s about Rainbow Dash these days.”

For a minute Rarity found herself trying to think of what kind of action Rainbow Dash could take that would create such a hostility in one of their best friends but...for the life of her, Rarity couldn’t discern an answer. The pegasus was quite brash, but she hadn’t thought that somepony like Applejack would have been put off by such a thing. At first Rarity had supposed Rainbow could have pulled a prank on the farm pony, but Applejack had shot that idea down.

“So...what did she do?”

Applejack stopped and turned to face the unicorn, and Rarity saw the anger in the earth pony’s eyes ratchet up a few notches. “What did she-Rarity! You were listenin’ to her yammerin all morning too! Don’t tell me you didn’t hear all that boastin’ bout how great she thinks she is!”

With Applejack’s explanation doing nothing for her, Rarity raised an eyebrow. “I was in the car same as you but...I’m not seeing the problem here,” Rarity continued. “What’s so wrong with Rainbow being vocal about her accomplishments?”

“WHAT?” Applejack demanded before she looked the unicorn up and down. “Don’t tell me yer okay with all that manure she’s spouting ‘bout her being so great an runnin’ her mouth all the time?”

Rarity stared at the farm pony for a moment, not sure of how she could follow that. “Excuse me?” she asked to buy herself some time and not appear apathetic.

“She just goes flyin around all day doin’ nothin’ steada puttin’ in an honest day’s work,” the mare went on. “Sleepin’ through half the day and bein’ all lazy fer another third!”

As Rarity continued to listen to the orange mare rant on about Rainbow Dash’s work ethic, she had to fight to keep a scowl from forming. Ever since Rainbow had saved the unicorn’s life, Rarity had made it a point to get to know the mare. While they had only had a single lunch together so far, that one meal had been quite satisfying in the way the two of them had managed to...dash the misconceptions each mare had about the other.

Despite her habit of napping, the unicorn knew that Rainbow Dash wasn’t a slacker on the job or otherwise, and ponies that thought so usually irritated the pegasus to know end. It was something Rarity had learned from personal experience when she commented on it. “You know Applejack-”

“-no good mare that ain’t never done nothin’ even apprachin’ a hard day’s work like an honest pony,” the mare finished before she looked over to Rarity. “You say something?”

Rarity sighed at the question. “Applejack, is this another one of your looking down at another pony because she’s different than you?”

The farmer’s scowl lessened a bit into a confused frown. “What the hay you talkin ‘bout Rarity? I don’t look down on nopony! That’s...them, hoity-toity frou-frou ponies like-”

“Me?” Rarity asked, not bothering to keep the dry irritation out of her tone.. Then, before the farmer could get another word in, Rarity kept going. “Applejack, the only pony in our little group that looks down on everypony else is you!”

Applejack went back to glaring and directed her anger at the unicorn. “What’d you say?” she demanded loud enough for an echo to be heard in the hallway. “I ain’t some kinda nose in the air fancy pants pony like you!”

The other pony’s ire made Rarity let out a long sigh. “You know darling, just because you don’t dress up in fancy clothes doesn’t mean you’re not a snob that likes to judge everypony around her,” she replied evenly before anger began to find a foothold in her voice. “If a pony isn’t covered in sweat all day like you then she must be lazy! If she actually wipes her feet on the carpet puts on makeup then she must be stuck up because you never do!”

“Hey! Quit putting words in my mouth Rarity!” the farmer pony said angrily.

Rarity rolled her eyes and repressed a snide comment about how they fit so well. “And then there’s the way you’re behaving with Twilight,” she went on, choosing to try and focus what was left of her conversation towards something constructive.

“What about Twilight?”

“You’re kidding, right?” Rarity went on. “The poor dear’s traumatized, and you pressure her like that!”

“Well maybe she should just bite down and take care of business!” Applejack exclaimed before her nose let out an angry snort. “All she’s doin is holdin on to what’s eatin’ at her! She just needs to bite the spur and yank it out! Lettin everythin’ fester just makes it worse!”

The train of thought Rarity’s anger was riding in her mind hit a bump, and the fashionista blinked. “Wait, what?” she asked after a second. It almost sounded as if Applejack was…

Applejack let out a sigh. “Ya know what?” she said before holding up a hoof. “You go find yer frou-frou things on yer own. I gotta go cool off fore Ah do somethin’ Ah’m gonna regret.”

Rarity felt that she needed to chase after the other pony for a moment, but the realization that even if she got the stubborn farmer to halt, she had no idea what to say to defuse the situation came and stopped her. For the first time that night, the unicorn found herself agreeing with Applejack and decided to wait till they had both gotten a bit of air to continue their discussion.

“Still, I need to find somepony who know’s the castle,” the unicorn mumbled to herself as she continued on down the hall to make a few more random turns in search of a guard.

However, several minutes later, she had yet to find such a stallion... So Rarity was reduced to walking up to a kind of pony best avoided by mares that detested anything icky such as herself: a member of the cleaning staff.

The stallion in question was an earth pony and looked a bit…rough around the edges, specifically his rather unkempt gray mustache that could have used a good trim. But Rarity consoled herself with the fact that this would all be over in a moment, and she would be getting a makeover…and hopefully save Rainbow Dash from that mess she called a mane now that she finally had an excuse to.

“Excuse me my good stallion, I am Rarity,” she introduced herself as the pony in question turned to face her. For a moment she thought about just making her request, but the dereliction of one’s manners was a slippery slope. “And you are?”

“Scruffy, the janitor,” he replied in a rough voice. It was a fitting name, considering his appearance.

Rarity nervously cleared her throat. “Yes well, I was wondering if you could direct me to where Princess Celestia keeps her beauty products…or perhaps the royal beautician?” she asked.

With Canterlot Castle being a small city in and of itself, Rarity was certain she had such a pony on staff…unless the princess knew a spell for always making her white coat eternally bright. Which the unicorn supposed was more than possible when Twilight could travel through time.

“Right this way ma’am.”

The janitorial pony put up his mop, and Rarity followed him down the hallway without another word. While the unicorn would have liked to have been polite and made some conversation…she had no idea what to approach as far as topics went with a pony like him without it either going over his head, or sounding pretty condescending. So she chose the lesser of two evils and kept quiet.

Thankfully, the stallion didn’t seem to mind.

Unfortunately, the silence gave time for her mind to wander back to the encounter she had just left. Part of her felt bad for just leaving Applejack like that but...the other mare hadn’t even been willing to listen!

They came to a pair a extremely immaculate doors that seemed to have the only non-bat pony guards in the castle at such a late hour. Rarity was left wondering if they had wandered into the wrong hallway for a moment while her guide knocked on the door. Then Rarity realized that they had come to the wrong hallway. In fact, it wasn’t just the wrong hallway. Rarity had been led to the worst possible door they could have possibly come to in the realm of possibility! Because a telltale golden glow surrounded the doors a second before they opened to reveal Princess Celestia sitting on a couch in her personal chamber’s private parlor.

Princess Celestia looked over and blinked at the sight. “Yes?”

“Princes Ma’am, this Lady here wants to borrow some of your fancy shampoo,” Scruffy told the goddess as if he were talking to just another pony.

The whole thing set Rarity’s eye to twitching quite a bit, and the unicorn spoke to defend herself. “But the, no that’s not… Um…Princess Celestia!” Rarity managed before finally remembering her manners and bowing to her ruler and goddess.

A sigh escaped the alicorn’s lips, and Rarity was worried that she had offended the Princess of the Sun. But she managed to hide her embarrassment…not in the slightest as the goddess spoke. “Thank you Scruffy, I will take it from here. Ms Rarity, would you like to come in?”

After what felt like forever, Rarity managed to get her legs working and make her way into the princess’s room. Princess Celestia closed the doors behind her, and the unicorn found herself trapped in what was probably the most uncomfortable situation of her life. At least at the tea party she had her friends and a table to hide behind while Twilight took most of the princess’s attention.

Now she had nothing.

“What was that about shampoo?” the goddess asked, making Rarity fidget for a minute before replying.

“Well, um, you see…makeovers! My friends and I wanted to give each other makeovers and we didn’t have the materials so I decided to go find some and then I ran into that janitor and he led me here and then I started talking to you and now I’m rambling and I’m dreadfully embarrassed and I can’t seem to stop talking and you’re starting to give me an odd look that-urp!”

Rarity blinked when her mouth shut on its own accord. Then she looked up to Princess Celestia to see her horn was glowing and a sad look covered the alicorn’s face. “Ms Rarity, there’s no need for you to be so nervous,” she told the little pony before a hint of a smile pushed its way to the forefront. “And I apologize for forgetting that makeovers were part of any good slumber party. I will have the staff collect what you need at once.”

As the princess opened the door to call for a guard and delivered some instructions, Rarity found herself pushed forward by the alicorn’s magic until she was sitting next to a small table. A cup of tea landed beside her a moment later.

“Drink this, it will calm your nerves,” Princess Celestia told her before the silence resumed.

Rarity looked down at her tea in worry. Like Pinkie had said, slumber parties weren’t supposed to include any slumber, and a tea that calmed one’s nerves would most undoubtedly make her tired as well. On the other hand, she could hardly just say no to the Princess. So, unsure of what to do, the unicorn could only sit frozen while she stared down at her drink.

“Is there something wrong?”

The question drew Rarity’s attention away from her drink, and up to the alicorn. “Oh, um well…it’s just…I’m not…thirsty?” she replied nervously, unsure how bad it would be to decline the offer of simple tea.

Thankfully, Princess Celestia said nothing in response, which brought about another uncomfortable silence.

“So…tell me about yourself,” the princess commanded, making Rarity looked back up at her with wide eyes. A second later, the alicorn winced. “If you would like to, I mean.”

Rarity gulped, but managed to make conversation thanks mostly in part to the fact that Princess Celestia had started the topic was one she knew well. “I design dresses your highness. Mostly they’re special orders for well to do ponies in Canterlot. I also design and build other things upon commission, but it’s the seamstress work I enjoy the most,” she explained before looking at the area directly behind the princess to try and ignore the building pressure of being in the same room as the alicorn.

It didn’t last. Princess Celestia let out a low sigh, and Rarity’s attention was back on her once again as she spoke. “Why do I make you so nervous?”

The oddity of the question made Rarity tilt her head and actually forget herself for a moment. “E-Excuse me?”

“When I spoke to Twilight earlier, she was angry at some perceived slight I might have done to you girls, whether it’s now or to come I don’t know, but…it did get me thinking about things. My personal relationships of the past…and present, or lack thereof I should say. And so I wish to know, what is it about me that makes me seem so unapproachable?

“Is it my title and the authority that comes with it? My strength in magic? My age? My size?” she asked before paused for a moment and smirking. “Do you know my first coltfriend dumped me because I outgrew him by a head?”

Curiosity overcame nervousness for a moment, and Rarity found herself latching onto what could quite possibly the juiciest piece of gossip in…well, ever! “Y-You had a coltfriend? And he…dumped you? You? Princess Celestia?”

A soft giggle escaped the alicorn’s throat and she smiled down at the unicorn. “I wasn’t always a princess you know,” Princess Celestia informed her. “You remember the stories about how the three tribes were once separate? Well, back then, Luna and I traveled from place to place, finding what adventures we could. And yes, I did fall for a strapping young stallion...or...five.”

Rarity frowned at the information. “When the three tribes…you mean...you predate Equestria?”

The alicorn looked at the unicorn for a moment, then let out a tiny laugh and shook her head. “Well, at least you’re not one of those foalish ponies that thinks I made Equestria from dust or something,” she said before shaking her head at the notion. “But yes, Luna and I are a few years older than Equestria. But...not that much older.”

When she realized just how close that came to asking Princess Celestia’s actual age, Rarity’s eyes widened, and she remembered just whom she was talking to.

Then the alicorn sighed. “And now you’re looking at my crown again,” Princess Celestia mumbled before she reached up a hoof, and took her crown off before she tossed it into a corner of the room behind her. A second later, her torque went onto the floor as well. “Let’s see what else? Ah, since we are alone, let us drop the formalities shall we, Rarity?”

Sheer confusion over the impossibility of what was going on made the unicorn down her tea in a single gulp, despite the steam that still rose from the cup. Rarity hardly noticed the heat. “W-What?”

“It’s something Twilight…yelled at me about,” Princess Celestia admitted. “I find myself thinking, she had a bit of a point about matters earlier today. At least in the fact that I only used the lot of you to get her to come along with me. For that, I am sorry and…to be perfectly honest, I would like to get to know the five mares that saved my sister from the Nightmare better than just what we are now.”

Rarity stayed silent unsure of what to say, and not even sure as to what Princess Celestia had said. By dropping the formalities…did she mean her title? It certainly seemed that way with how she had simply tossed the thing aside, but…it was just unthinkable!

She was Princess Celestia, Alicorn of the Sun, Princess of the Day, and up until recently, The Supreme Authority of all Equestria! To think of her as otherwise would just be…be…scandalous!

“Princess, I just...I couldn’t,” the unicorn admitted.

The eyebrow Celestia raised made Rarity need to hide a flinch. “And why not?”

With such an question posed to her, Rarity found herself at a loss. “Well, it...you...you’re...you and-” Before Rarity could finish her comparison, the door opened, and a unicorn servant poked his head in. “Princess, we have the items you ordered.”

“Well, so much for that,” Celestia mumbled before she ordered the servant to come in and drew Rarity’s rather strange audience with her to a close. “It was nice talking to you Rarity. Perhaps I shall make time to visit Ponyville in the near future and we can have a proper discussion.”

After her heart started beating again, the unicorn started to turn and make her departure. Halfway to the door, Rarity turned and summoned up all of the courage she possessed. “Prin...Celestia,” she said after forcing herself to drop the title using every bit of willpower available, “may ask you for some advice?”

Celestia smiled at the smaller white pony, and nodded. “Please do. It’s rather rare for a pony to ask for such a thing these days I’m afraid,” she said. “At least...before the mistakes are made.”

“One of my friends...I don’t want to name names you understand,” Rarity told her while hoping the goddess didn’t pry. When no questions came, she continued on. “I know she’s a good mare but...she can be rather stubborn to the point of foalishness and...doesn’t like it when a pony calls her out on something. I was wondering...how would you approach such a pony?”

As she turned down yet another hallway that looked like the last five she had walked down, Applejack was starting to regret just ditching Rarity and trying to head back to their apartment. After all, the unicorn would probably have been able to puzzle out just where the hay their room was. Without the sun or moon overhead to help give some direction, Applejack had to admit that she was just plum lost.

However, the sound of several hooves approaching made Applejack sigh in relief. Just because Rarity didn’t want to talk to any of them hard-working ponies didn’t mean Applejack had to avoid them now that she was gone. Then, as the footsteps came closer, the farm pony was able to make out voices.

“Of course we’re still waiting for word of the northern and southern colonies Princess,” a deep voice said, making Applejack freeze at the last word. “But they have kept the faith like the East and our own. Your guard should be fully staffed within the month, and another should enable us to give proper training so all of the brothers and sisters are able to work together as a unit.”

A bit of indecision had the farm pony wondering if it would be right to ask Princes Celestia of all ponies for directions, and then the princess turned a corner with a pair of pegasus guards flanking her.

Only...it wasn’t Princess Celestia, and the guards she had were unlike any pegasi Applejack had ever seen.

Despite her slightly larger than average pony size, Princess Luna looked like she should still be in high school. The dark alicorn didn’t have the signs of age that a full grown pony should have, or her big sister’s impressive size. She just looked like an...overgrown filly.

But more than twenty odd years of stories from her parents and Granny told Applejack different. The filly in front of her was in fact Nightmare Moon, mother to the Pony of Shadows, cause of all the bad dreams in Equestria, the Mare in the Moon that came around once the sun was down to gobble up all the bad little fillies and colts that didn’t do their chores like she did to Great Uncle Slacker when Granny was just a filly. She was the monster that could take the form of any pony she wanted, who was always on the lookout for somepony new to eat.

Then there were the strange ponies she was with. Applejack had never seen their like before. Both of them had wings but...where there should have been feathers, there was just an expanse of skin. Eyes like a predator's looked down at Applejack, and the ears of the strange ponies were just too big a pointy to be natural. It was as if a vampire fruit bat and a pony had some kind of monstrous foal together.

“You there, remove yourself from Princess Luna’s-”

“Savior Applejack, is it thee?” the princess spoke up as she walked between the guards with a smile on her face. Despite the soft voice that came from her muzzle, the large bat-pegasus closed his immediately once she started jawing. “Oh lucky stars it is! Tis a great pleasure for Us to see thee again! What brings you to Canterlot?”

A second later, Applejack realized that she had been spoken to, and gave an uneasy smile to the overgrown filly that was very much the stuff of nightmares. “Oh, just...me and the girls...we was just...takin’ care of some business in town is all and...things happened to slow us down a bit so….yer sister was kind enough to let us stay in the castle.”

“And thou wished to visit Us!” she exclaimed she exclaimed with all the excitement that a giant filly of supreme darkness could manage, which was apparently as much as Applejack’s little sister could show. “Excellent! We shall retire to our quarters and partake of some confections.”

She turned to the odd pair of pegasi and smiled. “Nightwing, Wane, head into the kitchens and bring forth something suitable for our guest. We shall take her to bed ourselves!”

Oh horse apples, Applejack thought to herself before Luna’s horn lit up and the world disappeared in a flash of light.

As everything came back into focus, Applejack looked around to find herself in a room that was decorated with every shade of dark blue that existed, a ceiling made to look like the night sky, and several fancy chairs that didn’t look all that comfortable to be sitting in. Although she found it a mite peculiar that all the dark blue and such were several shades darker than the alicorn’s coat. Applejack might not have been Rarity, but she knew that ponies tended to decorate their homes to match their colors. The way things were inside Luna’s apartment were just a tad off.

“Bah!” the little alicorn exclaimed. “Apologies for the lack of proper seating Good Applejack, but some ponies seem to think that We shall devour them whole should We receive less than the most immaculate furniture. Come, We did secret away something that does not feel harder than stone or make thine plot itch from contact within Our bedchambers.”

The mare’s eyes widened at the invitation, and she parted her plot right where it was. “T-Thank ya kindly Princess, but...right here’s fine fer me.” There was no way in the pit of Tartarus that Applejack was going anywhere near Nightmare Moon’s bucking bedroom!

Luna turned and gave her a good eyeballing, then let out a sigh and hung her head. Despite what the pony in front of her was, Applejack got an odd feeling in her stomach, like she had just kicked a puppy. “We understand...thou...did not come to visit Us upon this late hour, did you Applejack?”

Caught redhoofed, the farmer gulped. “Um…no ma’am, Ms Princess...ma’am.”

“No,” Luna held up a hoof. “Tis our fault for acting with such haste. We did merely glimpse you up at such a late hour with a troubled mind, when all but our own guard and the good servants that tend to the halls slumber and jumped to conclusions, believing you did seek our counsel.”

For a moment, Applejack’s curiosity overpowered her fear of the mare in front of her and she frowned. “Pardon?”

Luna looked up at her, and the mare’s face became even more...depressed. “Of course...nopony remembers that about us either. It’s all Nightmare Moon blocked out the sun,” she grumbled in a imitation of a terrified voice while waving her hooves in the air. “Nopony seems to remember that We were the guardian of dreams and the protector of Equestria when the sun went down and the horrors came out to hunt.

“But some ponies didn’t wait until their subconscious decided to ruin their sleep and sought out our advice on how to deal with such things before slumber came upon them,” she continued before shrugging. “Plus, the line of our nightly court was shorter than a que that consisted of every sleeping pony in Equestria. Even at the height of our power, We could only do so much.”

After translating all of the princess’s fancy talk, then sorting through the information, Applejack tilted her head. “So...back in the day...yer job was to listen to ponies problems and help em with whatever was givin them troubles?”

“Or the reassurance and guidance they needed to solve their problems themselves,” she replied with a tiny smile before her face turned all analytical again. “Do you wish such aid?”

Applejack started to tell the goddess no. She was a big pony after all, and could deal with her own problems like always. But...it did seem a mite rude to get the alicorn filly’s hopes up like she had and then walk away. “Well...it’s all a bit complicated.”

“If thy conundrum were not, then We doubt it would be a problem,” Luna replied. “And tis usually best to break such things down to their roots. Once done, things become simpler.”

The sound advice had Applejack nodding before she knew it. “Well, I reckon it all started with this dragon,” she said before telling Luna everything she remembered...with the princess actually adding information that Applejack had forgotten as the yarn went on, making her wonder just how much Luna could see when it came down to it. “And now we’re all waiting to get paid.”

Luna nodded. “Yes, the old dragon code of might makes right. We doubt you need to worry about reprisal from the beast by the way. They are a cowardly lot that tend to stand down when confronted. Several of the beasts that thought to take from Equestria in the past turned tail and fled simply from Sister or myself shouting at them. But...We still do not see what grief gaining such wealth would cause.”

“It ain’t bout getting the bits,” Applejack began before she sighed and corrected herself. “Well...it is...but… Okay, you remember how Ah said it was me, Twilight, Dash and Rarity that went up the mountain? Well...Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie are also getting some of the loot, and they didn’t do nothin!”

Instead of nodding her head in agreement, Luna raised an eyebrow. “Did not Ms Pie and little Fluttershy keep the town safe from hysteria and panicking wildlife?”

Applejack let out a sigh. “Well, yes...but that’s a whole different kinda apple than having to climb a mountain to mess with a dragon!”

“But from your recollections and what We can see...you did not do battle with the beast,” the princess replied evenly before she frowned at something above Applejack’s head. “You...carried lunch?”

“Well Ah woulda, Twilight just...needed me to look after Spike!” Applejack said with a bit more heat than she mean to. Then, she remembered just whom she was talking to, and gulped.

If Luna had noticed, she didn’t seem to care, and if she didn’t...Applejack figured she had just about used up all her luck for the following three weeks. Either way, all she did was nod. “But you didn’t. In fact...if we were to combine the...usefulness of your efforts and measure it against the others...you would come in next to last in overall importance when it came to the activities of your quest.”

“NEXT TO LAST?” Applejack asked rather forcefully.

Luna raised an eyebrow and Applejack flinched. “Yes. While Lady Rarity offered her magic to aid in negotiation. Things never progressed that far. But Rainbow Dash did battle with the beast alongside Twilight Sparkle, and the rest of your companions insured the safety of the town. Depending on thy views and giving weight to the short or long term. Although personally, We believe the whole confrontation with the dragon to be a rather foolish risk to the lot of you and place highest honors upon young Pinkie and Fluttershy. Sister should have handled the beast rather than risk the lives of those to whom We are so indebted.”

Applejack’s mouth dropped. “Wait, yet tellin me the whole thing was...pointless?”

“Oh, We are sure our sister had some greater plan and saw this as some foolish test in destiny’s great web. She was always better at seeing such things than We were, but...well, no use talking about such things now We suppose.”

Once again, Applejack found herself a little put off and confused by the alicorn’s words, but shook her head and went on. “But...Ah mean...it just don’t seem right to me that they should be gettin equal shares when they didn’t even walk up that mountain. They ain’t even gonna use the money proper.”

“Like you?” Luna asked.

Applejack nodded fiercely. “That’s right. Ah got a whole mess of family in need of help! Mah farm could use a whole bunch of new tools, and mah granny needs hip replacement surgery, and mah cousin Braburn could use some bits to help get Appleloosa up and running better, and mah cousin Carmel is in powerful need of a new barn and mah other cousin Cobbler could use a few fixes to his shop up in Manehattan, and that’s just what Ah could think of off the top of mah head!”

A moment of silence passed, and Applejack was fretted that she might have gone and rilled the alicorn up somehow. But after a moment, Luna raised an eyebrow. “And if your family is in such a...powerful need...why did you not simply ask assistance from the crown? You actions would have warranted at least such a reward back before our banishment. If you like, We will address all the financial needs of your kinsmen yourself and insure they want for nothing.”

“No!” Applejack exclaimed, then gulped when Luna frowned at her. It didn’t look like one of them angry frowns but...better safe than sorry. “Princess...I...my family couldn’t accept that kind of help.”

“Oh? And why not? Is our charity something to be looked down upon now?” she asked.

She couldn't stop herself. Applejack stomp her hoof and nodded. “My family don’t need no charity!”

“Yet you just told me how many problems your kinsmen face that could be solved by the addition of funds,” Luna pointed out as she raised a hoof at Applejack. “Or is it the fact that the help shall not come from thine own hoof that bothers you?”

Applejack frowned at the accusation. “W-What?”

Luna went on as if she hadn’t even heard the farmer. “From our curiosity of thine family We have...researched thee, in a way. One would do such for the ponies that hold the safety of the realm within their hooves you understand? We do believe thy Orange relatives hold a great deal of financial clout, do they not? If thy family required aid, would they not give it if asked?”

“I…” Applejack mumbled as she tried to tell Luna just why they hadn’t asked for her Aunt and Uncle’s money, if just to fix Granny’s hip. They would have given her the money. But… “It just...wouldn’t be right is all.”

“Because you must ask for it first?”

Applejack shook her head at that. Even if Aunt and Uncle Orange just showed up with a mess of doctors and everything, she knew it still would have been too much to accept. “It just...ain’t right.”

“Yet you can offer aid to others and it be right?”

The question made her hesitate for a moment, but Applejack nodded. “Of course. Ah should be able to help mah family when they need it!”

Luna let out a snort. “Pride, it is certainly a double-edged sword, is it not?”

As the P-word reached her ears, Applejack frowned. “Pardon?”

“Why is it that you can offer aid, but can never accept it? Why your contribution to Twilight’s quest should be seen as the greatest, or how a frown crosses your face whenever you speak of Rainbow Dash’s involvement in the affair and do We detect a bit of green in thine eyes?” Luna asked. “Your pride lays at the source of all these things that trouble you so. It blinds you to the truth, and keeps you from even taking joy in another's accomplishments, one that you call friend even. Did not she announce your triumph when Ponyville was saved from a stampede?”

Applejack frowned. “How in the hay do you know about that?”

A giggle came from the alicorn filly. “Our sister may have better foresight, but my hindsight when it comes to a pony We look upon is all encompassing dear Applejack,” she said before her eyes narrowed. “Now answer the bucking question.”

“...yeah, Rainbow was up there with all the others,” Applejack admitted as she felt a bit of shame creep up on her. After all, she hadn’t patted Rainbow on the back for what she had done, but… “Still don’t change the fact she wouldn’t have been able to do what she did without Twilight! Ah probably coulda done it better, Ah’m stronger and faster than any pegasus! And she hasn’t stopped goin' on about it since! Ah woulda just been happy to help get thanked and be on my way, but her ego’s gettin outta hoof and somepony needs to do something about it!”

Luna smirked at the outburst. “So sayeth Applejack, the most loyal, hardworking, and dependable of ponies, supreme judge of modesty and she who looks down from upon high to pass sentence on all. Greatest hero of all Equestria, to whom not even the sun or moon can compare!” she said to the mare who flinched at all the accolades before becoming serious once again. “Just because you do not speak of your actions to others does not make you humble my friend, only more quiet. Especially when you pride yourself in your humility. Nor does it mean thy jealousy is not plain for all to see.”

Despite her youthful appearance, the steady gaze Luna gave Applejack made the earth pony wilt under the alicorn’s glare. “Take it from one who knows just how much harm such feelings of resentment can do. Let. It. Go. For such a path can only lead to thine own destruction, and that of which everything you hold dear.”

Applejack gulped, and nodded at the mare ponies had called Nightmare Moon. “Ah uh...see you might have a point there,” she mumbled while frowning at her own thoughts. Was she jealous of Rainbow Dash?

No, that’s just stupid, Applejack told herself. She had no reason to be. She had so much more than Rainbow. Not counting their shared friends, Applejack had her farm, her family, the respect of the town, and Rainbow Dash had…

Well…

She had…

I don’t rightly know, Applejack told herself. Despite all the time they had spent together...she didn’t know all that much about the other mare. All she seemed to go on about were her plans for the Wonderbolts and that flying competition of hers. While everypony else had at least mentioned their family in passing once or twice, Applejack couldn’t remember a single time Rainbow Dash had ever talked about her past.That seemed a mighty...telling omission.

“Is something amiss?”

Applejack looked up at Luna’s concerned gaze, and shook her head. “Naw, Ah was just...thinkin is all.”

“Well, as long as the thoughts are good ones,” Luna replied. “So...is anything else troubling you Applejack?”

The farmer let out a long sigh, and shook her head. She had to admit, talking with Luna seemed to help get a weight off her chest that had been building since...well, for some time. “Ah think Ah’m gonna be-wait,” she said before something occurred to her. “There is something else that’s been gnawing at me, if not as long. Um...ya see, apparently...Twilight used some fancy spell to come back from the future and-”

Luna’s eyes widened. “What? That filly used Starswirl’s spell to jump through time?”

“That’s what Princess Celestia said, but-”

“Is she alright?” Luna demanded in a panic.

A frown crossed Applejack's face. “Well...not...really,” the farmer admitted. “There’s somethin’ really bothering her. But she says she can fix it somehow and everything’ll be fine as far as she’s concer-”

“And she is wrong,” Luna spoke cutting Applejack off.

“W-What?” Applejack stuttered as she felt her gut lurch as Rarity and Fluttershy’s theories ran through her head. “But...but Twilight said...she said…”

Luna sighed and shook her head sadly. Somehow, the effect made her seem older than even Granny, despite her being a filly of an alicorn. “If what you say is true young Applejack, then We pity that poor foal. One can sooner change that mark upon your flank than stray from the path that destiny has decreed for you,” the young goddess explained. “Thus is fate.”

As the door behind her opened to admit Luna’s guards, Applejack slowly rose up. “Ah...um...Ah think Ah need to get going,” she mumbled. “Um...thank you kindly Princess. Fer all the help, Ah mean.”

The other female pony barely seemed to register the goodbye as Applejack made her way past the guards that were bringing in a cart of food. As for the farmer, she had too much on her mind at the moment to bother with a quick bite.

Although Pinkie’s parties weren’t something a pony fell asleep at, Pinkie had decided that she didn’t want Rarity or AJ missing out on anything and declared a break for everypony to take a few minutes for themselves to do what they needed to do. For Rainbow, that involved catching some high-altitude air to help her fight off the complaints that her wings were giving her about not doing any real flying all day. So a good ten minute trip around Canterlot had put an end to the lazy soreness that the pegasus had been experiencing and killed some time in the most awesome way possible.

It was nothing fancy or death-defying though, she needed to keep the balcony that their room had in sight and Twilight had kind of threatened to tell everypony about her most embarrassing secret if she accidentally missed out on any of the fun. However, the fact that she found Twilight waiting on the balcony like she was checking up on the pegasus made Rainbow a little angry.

As soon as she landed, Rainbow shot the unicorn a frown. “Geeze Twilight, I said I’d be back. No need to watch me.”

For her part, Twilight gave a little jump, and Rainbow realized she had been taken out of Egghead Land, or wherever she went when she just zoned out…which meant she probably hadn’t been guarding the pegasus to make sure she didn’t fly off.

“Oh! Rainbow, sorry, I didn’t see you there,” she apologized in a normal tone. Considering it was the first time Rainbow had heard her friend say those words when not in a panicked mess...it actually made her worry. “I just needed to get some time alone to think about things.”

Rainbow got an uneasy feeling in her gut from those words as she thought about Twilight’s lab, all the stuff she had laid on them just awhile ago, and how the unicorn had just broke down crying afterwards. The pegasus may have not have had the unicorn’s IQ, but Rainbow understood that up until then, Twilight had been keeping herself isolated from the rest of the girls in more ways than one. She had been all alone.

Being all alone was bad.

So Rainbow wouldn’t let her be that way, whether Twilight wanted it or not.

“Thinking about what?” she asked, trying to make conversation so the lavender unicorn wouldn't just slip off again.

Twilight looked over to her in confusion for a second, and then a tiny smile appeared on her lips before she looked back out at the night sky. “Oh just life, the universe…everything,” she told Rainbow. Then she stood around for a few seconds just staring at the confused pegasus, and let out a sigh. “Right…sorry, you wouldn’t get that joke yet.”

That little hint Rainbow managed to pick up on. “Future stuff?”

“The joke, yes,” Twilight replied before she sighed and looked back out at the sight sky. “And…actually, I guess I really am thinking about everything. At least everything that’s happened, going to happen, and…what I hope’s going to happen.”

“And not happen, right?” Rainbow reminded her. Even if she didn’t understand half of what was going on, she did get that Twilight had to have come back in time for a reason.

When the unicorn visibly stiffened, Rainbow realized she probably should have been a bit more careful with her words. She moved closer to Twilight while trying to think of some reassuring junk to say in order to cheer her up, but froze when Twilight looked at her with teary eyes. “I…I’ll keep my promise this time Rainbow, y-you won’t-”

Before she could start up the waterworks again, Rainbow held out her hooves to grab Twilight by the shoulders and help steady the mare. “Hey whoa there Twilight, it’s okay,” she said in an uneasy tone. “I…um, I’m sorry I probably shouldn’t have said-”

Rainbow looked away from the unicorn for an instant in the middle of her uneasy apology, and grunted when she felt Twilight latch onto her in a hug. Despite the total uncoolness of the situation, the pegasus reached around with a foreleg and put a hoof on the other mare’s back.

“It’s okay,” she said, making Rainbow a little surprised. Hadn’t Twilight been the one who’d been doing the comforting just a second ago? How in the hay had she managed to turn it all around?

Then Twilight nuzzled her a little, and the pegasus started to feel that things were starting to get a little awkward, Twilight froze again and suddenly backed off. “Sorry! Sorry, I didn’t think…oh pony feathers…sorry,” she apologized as a small blush showed on her cheeks.

After putting two and two together, Rainbow raised an eyebrow at Twilight’s actions. It looked like she was embarrassed. Like, when a pony accidentally made the move on another pony kind embarrassed. “Uh Twilight…in the future…are we um…you know…a couple?”

It wasn’t that she had anything against ponies like that, but dating a brainiac like Twilight…well…Rainbow just couldn’t see it happening no matter how messed up the future had gotten. Although when Twilight’s frightened eyes changed to show a look of revulsion, Rainbow didn’t know if she should be relieved…or insulted.

“What? Rainbow, no! Just…ew!” the unicorn replied, all her nervousness gone in a wave of denial. “You…for Harmony’s sake Rainbow, you’re like my sister!”

Rainbow Dash’s brain threatened to shut down for a moment as it tried to process that bit of information…and failed rather spectacularly. Twilight had told everypony she had an older brother, but she had also declared him hooves-off material when Rainbow had asked if he was hot.

Not that she was into unicorns, or had anything against them really. Big wings were more her thing.

So when Twilight just went out and declared they were family, Rainbow couldn’t make the leap of logic that took to reach understanding of what she meant. “Um…what? How the hay are we…I thought you said your brother had somepony or something.”

“Well not officially!” Twilight declared before she let out a sigh. “Buck, I didn’t want to go into this but…you and me, we’re a lot alike.” Rainbow had to let out a snort that that information, and Twilight raised an eyebrow at her, but otherwise ignored the pegasus as she went on. “You and I, we spent a lot of time together, and…you…well, while the other girls were kind of finding other things to get involved with…you stayed with me.”

As that bit of information made its way through her system, Rainbow noticed something wrong with what Twilight had said earlier, and the two of them seemed to butt heads. Wait a second…how can I be a Wonderbolt, and ‘stay’ with Twilight?

Although she helped Rainbow practice her moves and actually had several helpful suggestions…which Dash was pretty sure came from the fact Twilight already knew what her best moves were going to look like now, Twilight hadn’t really seemed all that interested in flying. In fact, she had outright said plenty of times she was just there to help Rainbow.

So the thought of her being a Wonderbolt groupie just didn’t work.

Plus, even with that cloud walking spell of hers that allowed Twilight to visit Rainbow’s house, the pegasus didn’t think the unicorn would be moving to Cloudsdale anytime in forever.

The whole thing just confused the hay out of her, and Rainbow Dash hated confusing things. So she decided to ditch it and get the conversation back on track. “So uh…what future stuff were you thinking about again?”

Twilight blinked at the question and just stared at Rainbow for a few moments, probably trying to get her brain back on track or something. Dash had seen her do that a few times when they had been out pranking. While Twilight was probably the smartest pony alive, when somepony caught her off guard, she seemed to just shut down for a few seconds longer than most other ponies.

“Oh, right…your original question,” she finally said before pausing for a moment to think. “Well, I was thinking about how our paths have diverged since everything started.”

Since the explanation was about as clear as an Everfree storm cloud, Rainbow Dash cocked her head in confusion. “And that means…what?”

Once again, Twilight took a moment to reply. “Okay um…if you and the girls haven’t guessed yet, some things are happening differently than when I did things the first around. I...changed things...sort of, unless they correct... Sorry, the full explanation of how-"

Rainbow nodded. “Yeah, I kind of guessed that when you started yelling at Princess Celestia about the dragon,” she said while trying not to let her irritation at that whole thing show. Twilight had been a bit angry, sure…but that had been Princess Celestia she was yelling at! It wasn’t Twilight’s most awesome moment.

“”Of course I was yelling at her!” she exclaimed, going from uncompromisable nerd to full on angry in a split second. “Celestia! She-she sent all of you into danger again, just hoping that bucking destiny would see us all through because of…AGH! I really hate that old nag!”

Completely lost, Rainbow titled her head. “Uh…what?” From what she could remember, Princess Celestia had did what she did because she didn’t want anypony else getting hurt. While the pegasus totally stood by Twilight’s decision to keep Fluttershy out of the mess, everything else had turned out okay enough…except for how Rainbow had almost gotten Rarity killed, that memory still kinda stung.

For a moment, Rainbow wasn’t sure if Twilight had heard her, what with the unicorn simmering in anger and all, but she shook it off a few seconds later and sighed. “Sorry, it’s just…something Celestia and I are going to end up butting horns over and…I really don’t want to have to make you worry about it.”

A bit of the unease from hearing that must have made it to her face, because Twilight gave the other mare a surprised look and held up her hooves. “It’s nothing bad!” she assured Rainbow. “And I’m not going to ask you to choose between us or anything like that! I know how divided loyalties can tear at you. It’s just a…difference of opinion she and I have. Nothing serious like me wanting to rule Equestria or anything!”

The look of regret on Twilight’s face told Rainbow it was probably way more than that, but…after what had happened inside… Rainbow shook the memory of Twilight breaking down right in front of her off. She trusted her friend, and when it really came down to it, that was all that really mattered.

But before she could figure out a way to tell Twilight it was alright without sounding too mushy, the door to the common room burst open and Pinkie stuck her head out. “Hey girls Rarity’s back! It’s time for makeovers!”

After Rarity returned a good ten minutes after Applejack, Twilight managed to point out an error with the sleepover 101 book that had the girls performing beautification treatments before a pillow fight that would leave a few of them out of sorts, so the makeover session was delayed for a bit…but not forever. Thankfully, the pillow fight didn’t last too long, and only served to get the blood flowing again after the party’s lull tried to remind all the mares that they should have been asleep hours ago.

Once the girls had their mud masks on and curlers in their mane, with Fluttershy doing Rarity’s, Applejack taking care of Fluttershy before Twilight did hers, Rarity managing to get Rainbow to hold still for her, and Twilight ending up with a mess thanks to the fact she was taken care of by the cyan pegasus before everypony cringed at the sight and Rarity straightened it all out. Pinkie Pie was considered a lost cause in the hair department since her poofy mane managed to resist any attempts to tame it. It did make Twilight giggle a little as all the girls attempted it though.

Apparently, it hadn’t been the first time somepony tried to turn the poofy to curly...at least in Twilight's recollection.

Then came the Truth or Dare activity, and Twilight found herself the center of attention as the bottle pointed to her from Applejack’s spin. However, it was the question that put a disbelieving frown on her face.

“Seriously? You’re are going to ask me about future stuff now? I’m more than happy to tell you girls anything you want to know…with certain restrictions of course. Besides, I thought truth was supposed to be things like embarrassing secrets involving that pony’s past.”

Fluttershy found herself confused for a minute. “Well, we are asking about your past Twilight...in a way, I think.”

A pang of guilt hit the yellow pegasus a second later when Twilight cleared her throat and looked away. Fluttershy realized the actions of a pony remembering something painful and wanted to withdraw her question, but felt that would simply draw too much attention to Twilight’s distress, so she kept silent.

Pinkie Pie interjected, holding up the sleepover book. “Sorry Twilight, but you chose truth, and that means you have to answer any question asked to you truthfully, or pay a penalty,” she said before a little frown appeared on her face and she looked at the others. “But we won’t be asking any mean questions, right girls?”

The slightly regretful looks the rest of the girls gave Pinkie showed that they all understood what she was talking about, but Twilight didn’t seem to notice the change in atmosphere since she was lost in thought.

Applejack let out a tired sigh, and asked something different from the usual thing that had been on her tongue all night. While Fluttershy was glad she had finally dropped it, Rainbow Dash scowled at the question and Applejack as well, while Twilight began to answer.

“Okay…I guess Rainbow’s most embarrassing moment would have to be…our one month anniversary party that Pinkie threw for us,” Twilight said, getting a confused ‘what?’ from everypony present, with Rainbow actually rising up into the air.

“Wait a second, back on the balcony you were all denying the whole couple thing!” she exclaimed.

Rarity’s ears perked up. “A couple? You and Rainbow Dash? Oh my this is just so-”

Twilight’s giggles cut Rarity off, and everypony went back to looking at her for a moment. She held up a hoof and waved away their questions, then looked back up. “That’s just it, we weren’t a couple…everypony just thought we were because of this article that was printed that talked about me and Rainbow sharing a bed this one time. The suite we had reserved got water damaged, and thanks to the magic conference I had to go to, nearly every other room at the hotel was taken. Then the pegasus paparazzi saw us through the window and it kind of snowballed from there to the point where we were declared Equestria’s cutest couple! After that, everypony just assumed and…um…well, it’s pretty embarrassing when your own friends think you’re are going out for a month and don’t realize it’s all a mistake. I mean, just because we spent a lot of time together didn’t mean we were dating!”

“That doesn’t sound that embarrassing,” Fluttershy admitted.

A sigh escaped the unicorn’s mouth, and she rolled her eyes, “Well I think it was. Although some ponies would probably say the time Rainbow got turned into a stal-”

“Wait a tick, what was Rainbow doing at a magic conference?” Applejack asked, cutting Twilight off.

Despite it being another question without a spin, Twilight answered. “Rainbow was….well, you know how I said she was going to be a Wonderbolt, right? Technically that’s part of the EUP, and so...a princess assigned Rainbow as my personal guard.”

Fluttershy looked over to Rainbow Dash for a moment, remembering what Twilight had said when they were in her tree house the other day about the pegasus being miserable in the Wonderbolts for some reason. Although personally, she couldn’t see how. Rainbow had been training to be a stunt flier for practically her whole life. She knew everything about the Wonderbolts, including what to expect from their work schedules, daily lives...everything.

The information did bring up a worry in Fluttershy’s mind though. “Um Twilight? Does that mean we’re all going to have personal guards following us around all the time?” She didn’t really like the idea of a pair of ponies practically stalking her.

Twilight’s mood visibly darkened as the cheer just seemed to drain out of her. “No, apparently, I was the only one Celestia considered important enough to-”

“Twilight you’re breaking the rules!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, cutting the purple pony off and drawing her attention. “If anypony wants to ask another question, they have to get you on the bottle spin! Now hurry up and take your turn.”

For a moment the unicorn’s cheeks blushed with embarrassment…or flushed with anger, Fluttershy wasn’t sure, but she hoped it was the first one, and then Twilight brightened back up and nodded to Pinkie before spinning the bottle.

When it ended up pointing to Rainbow Dash, the pegasus rolled her eyes and smirked. “Dare.”

The response seemed to make Twilight a bit confused for a moment. Then she glanced at Applejack, and turned her attention back to Rainbow Dash. “Right…dealing with Rainbow Dash here,” Twilight mumbled to herself barely loud enough for Fluttershy to hear. “Okay Rainbow, I dare you to tell me three things you like about Applejack.”

Rainbow frowned at the question, and looked around until she saw Pinkie holding the sleepover book. “Can she do that?”

As the game went on, each pony got to find out some future success or embarrassment that Twilight had seen them experience. Most usually asked how good their life was going to turn out when they got Twilight the first time, and on the second…

“Well…I’d have to say Applejack’s most embarrassing experience was when she accidentally swallowed some poison joke,” Twilight said in response to Rainbow’s question.

Rarity seemed to take the strange news as absolutely horrific. “You mean that awful plant that caused Spike so much heartbreak? Dear that…wait…what did it do? Turn her into a dragon?”

The question made Twilight shake her head as second after the mirth disappeared. “No, the plant affects everypony differently depending on the victim,” she explained before her face became serious. “At first we had thought that it just did something silly to a pony as a pun on their name, but…what it really does is attempt to ruin a pony’s life, usually by making it next to impossible to practice their talent. Like when Rainbow Dash got exposed, it messed up her wings and made it impossible for her to fly properly. She kept running into everything. Spike just giggled and renamed her Rainbow Crash but…”

Rainbow shuttered for a moment and Fluttershy had a brief flash of memory from their foalhood when that had been a nickname several bullies had tried to stick on the other pegasus. “I couldn’t fly? How is that a joke?” Rainbow demanded.

“It’s not,” Twilight replied. “It’s just cruel, and that’s what he finds funny about it.”

Before Fluttershy could ask just who this ‘he’ was, Twilight cleared her throat. “But we’re getting off topic,” she said before addressing Rainbow. “Anyway, poison joke usually spreads its magic through skin contact when a pony goes to sleep, although special salves can be made to make the effect take hold quicker. So when Applejack swallowed some, we had to wait for it to pass through her system before the cure would take and…she end up spending about four days as a three-inch tall pony. You can imagine how being so helpless and unable to do any farm work would affect the strongest earth pony in town.”

Applejack gulped as the color drained from her face. “That…don’t sound too fun.”

“Tell me about it,” Twilight said with a roll of her eyes. “The first day alone, Opal and about half of the animals around Fluttershy’s cottage tried to eat you, the...a group of foals played with you like a doll, and I don’t even want to think about when I nearly drowned you in the bathtub after that bubble bath mix of Spike‘s fell in… If it wasn’t for Rainbow Dash taking care of you those last two days in her cloud house where nopony or animal could get at you, I don’t even want to think about what could have happened.”

Fluttershy frowned at the story. “Twilight! None of my animal friends would ever do something like try to eat another pony! Especially one so helpless and…why are you all looking at me like that?” she asked while everypony in the room stared at her with deadpan expressions. “What?”

“You mean them snakes you keep around, or that bear…and Ah’ve chased them rabbits outta my field at least once a week,” Applejack replied evenly.

Before Fluttershy could explain about the circle of life and tell Applejack that her animal friends needed food too, Rarity spoke up. “You grow carrots darling? I thought apples were your families specialty.”

The farm pony let out a suffering sigh. “We just sell apples, but we have a little bit of land set aside for food the family eats. Just because they’re the best food don’t mean we can live off apples alone…unfortunately,” she mumbled. “Plus it’s cheaper.”

The game got off track from there, with Twilight simply answering questions in return for being able to ask questions which involved things like what other ponies thought Rarity’s best quality was, or what everypony liked most about Fluttershy while everypony else got questions about the future answered.

Twilight refused to answer a few questions, mostly ones that involved personal relationships, or the one Applejack posed involving her sister’s cutie mark.

Other answers were somewhat vague. Pinkie Pie learned that her best party would be a wedding reception, although Twilight was silent as to just which pony it was for. Rarity was eventually told she would be discovered in Ponyville so there was no need to move to Canterlot and ruin her inspiration. Rainbow Dash didn’t have many other questions that revolved around herself, having already learned about her future as a Wonderbolt, she asked Twilight what was the coolest trick she ever did, and then about just how successful the others would be later on; all of which got vague replies as well from Twilight. Applejack asked about her family, which Twilight admitted to only knowing the barest of information when it came to her extended family, although…

“Wait…me and Pinkie are related?” Applejack asked with wide eyes.

“THAT’S SO AWESOME!”

“I don’t see why it’s so surprising,” Twilight replied after Pinkie landed back on the floor. “The Pie family has lived around Ponyville for awhile, and the Apples settled the town in the first place. I have the genealogy records at the library if you want to see them.”

A second after Twilight had spoken, Pinkie Pie wrapped her forelegs around Applejack’s neck in a hug. “I can’t believe I didn’t see it before! I mean, look! It’s so obvious you can tell just by looking at us.”

In all honesty, Fluttershy couldn’t see it as she studied the most down to earth pony of their group as she was being squeezed to death by the most out there pony in history. But, the pegasus didn’t want to draw anypony’s attention by pointing that out.

Hours passed with all the ponies asking Twilight about their futures, and the purple unicorn got asked something by Pinkie Pie that made her pause for a moment and repeat the question. “My happiest memory?” she asked.

“Yeah!” Pinkie replied. “We’ve been asking about everypony else tonight, but what about you?”

Twilight was silent for a good minute, lost in thought. Then she looked back at the others with a smile on her face. “This is.”

Fluttershy, along with all the others frowned in confusion at the response. But it was Applejack that spoke. “Come again?”

“Look girls…when I first got here, I was…well, to be honest…I landed a lot earlier in the timeline than I expected to,” Twilight told them. “Then, as everything started happening I was so happy to see you all again, but…at the same time I just felt horrible because I couldn’t…show you…the real me. I couldn’t even tell you half of what I knew, and I was so afraid about w-what would happen if-”

Rarity cut her off with a hoof to the other unicorn’s mouth. “Twilight, we’re your friends,” she said with a smile. “And I daresay, I would have hoped you’d have known us better than that. Especially considering how long you’ve known us.”

As a chorus of agreements went up around their circle, the lavender unicorn got even more teary-eyed. “I-I know, but…well…when Applejack-”

“Hold on there Twi,” the farmer interjected as she raised a hoof. “I’m a little peeved at this whole darn hiding secrets from us thing…and, wait…that first morning we met, did you already know everything I was going to tell you?”

Twilight shook her head at the apple farmer while the orange pony gave her a measuring look. “Not really. I mean, I did remember the gist of how you got your cutie mark, and some of the basic information about your farm, but it had been years since I got any specifics about it. Plus I remember your orchards going through some expansions and contractions over the years. But, what does that have to do with anything?”

“Contractions?” Applejack grumbled in surprise. “Might need to talk to ya about that later I guess. Umm…it’s just…you know… Are you really friends with us? Or are you friends with the ponies you remember in your head?”

A silence fell on the room from Applejack’s question, and Fluttershy suddenly found herself wondering if that was also the case. When she had first met the changed Twilight the unicorn had seem so much more…accommodating to the pegasus’s needs when they were alone…most of the time anyway. It wasn’t nothing really big, but Fluttershy realized that one day Twilight had just started being less invasive than other ponies when they were together, giving the pegasus her personal space, and just doing things that made Fluttershy feel a bit more comfortable when Twilight came over to visit and have tea. It was just a million little things that her animal friends picked up on as time went by, but Twilight acted like she had been doing it for years the first time she had come over.

Probably because she had.

But…those actions had made Fluttershy like her more. Without them…would she have even considered Twilight such a close friend?

Or a friend at all?

Oh now I’m just being silly, Fluttershy told herself. Twilight was a nice pony…despite her quirks…and forcefulness…and mental instability…

But then she remembered what Twilight had said about Fluttershy’s singing, and the Ponytones, and it also stood to reason that if she knew about that secret passion of Fluttershy’s, she also knew about the pegasus’s penchant for sewing and knitting. Oh please don’t tell Rarity about that Twilight, she mentally pleaded. Having a real seamstress critique her work would be just awful!

“What kind of question is that?” Twilight’s voice pulled Fluttershy out of her fear-filled spiral, and she looked back up to see the unicorn was looking at Applejack with a pained expression. “You’re my friend Applejack, you all are!”

The gaze put the farm pony on the defensive, and she broke eye contact with the unicorn. “Look…I just…it’s a fair question Twilight,” she replied.

“I love you for who you are Applejack,” Twilight replied in an even tone. “A little stubborn and bullheaded, but a kind pony who always does what she thinks is right. Just because I...well...I know some thing you will do, does that change how you feel about me?”

For a minute Applejack held Twilight’s gaze, then looked away from her. “Sorry Twi...it’s just...Ah got a lot on my mind right now. Sortin’ through some things and all.”

“Do you need some help?” she asked in concerned voice before a tiny smiled appeared on her face. “I mean...that’s literally what I’m here for Applejack. To help you girls. Well...it’s a bit more complicated than that but...it is what I’m here for when it comes down to it.”

“Not...right...now,” the farm pony admitted. “Ah just...need to think about something for a bit.”

The unicorn studied her for a moment, and nodded. “Okay Applejack. But...don’t let whatever's bothering you weigh you down,” she said before looking around. “We’re all here for you...for eachother. Please don’t forget that.”

For some reason, Fluttershy thought she saw a bit of uneasiness in Applejack's expression as Twilight spoke.

Applejack fought to keep the sleep out of her eyes as she sat her whole body on the bed. Despite Pinkie’s best efforts, exhaustion had set in when everypony started with the boardgames and she had called another bathroom break. With the time being 4AM, nopony wanted to kill the achievement of staying up all night together, and they had all agreed to a good fifteen minutes for taking care of their needs and getting the blood flowing again.

It also gave Applejack the chance to talk to somepony she needed to in private. The sound of running water cut off, and a few seconds later, the pony in question came out from the bathroom.

“Oh, hey Applejack. What’s up?”

The farm pony gulped the nervousness she was feeling. “Rainbow, Ah um...wanted to apologize...about um...hoo, boy. This...um, sorry, Ah don’t hoof out many of these apologies.”

The pegasus gave her a measuring look. “Um, is this about that frown you’ve been giving me all day?”

“I…” Applejack blinked. “Wait, what? How in the hay do you know about that?”

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow at the earth pony. “Um, don’t you remember when I asked Twilight what the coolest thing about me is, as she went into that omni-direction information absorption...thing?” she replied before giving a shudder. “I mean geez, I know she’s an egghead and all, but how in the hay can she say the coolest thing about me is the ability to learn stuff? How does that compare with a Rainboom? Which we all know I’m going to do again, and be like the most awesome pegasus in the history of ever!”

For a second, Applejack stared at the ego of the mare and felt...nothing. Part of her wondered why, but before she could ruminate too long on it, Rainbow opened her big mouth again.

“And then there’s you,” she went on in an excited voice. “What’d Twilight say? Most um...ribbons won in a single rodeo at Canterlot? That’s gonna be pretty sweet too, right?”

Applejack blinked as Luna’s words repeated themselves in her mind. “Um...yeah,” she managed while looking at, but not really listening to Rainbow’s words about how awesome it was that the most powerful unicorn, coolest pegasus, and best rodeo pony were all on the same team.

When Rainbow finally stopped gushing about everything, Applejack cleared her throat. “Um, look Rainbow about mah apology...Ah um...the looks Ah was givin you all day...and to be honest, the thoughts Ah’d been having for the past couple of days… Ah just wanted to say Ah’m sorry.”

“Oh, okay,” she replied like it was nothing. “What was all that glaring about anyway?”

Applejack gulped. “Ah was...jealous...and being stupid,” she admitted before looking away. “Course it ain’t much better being stuck in Canterlot. Ponies in these parts are born looking down at every…an there Ah go, doin it again.

“Look, long story short, Ah heard you bragging all that about the dragon this and dragon that and...Ah started hearing it as how much better you thought you were than everypony-or, me Ah mean, cause you kept going on about that dragon thing.

“So...Ah’m sorry.”

The pegasus landed on the ground and gave Applejack a measuring look, then shrugged. Eh, so what?” she asked. “Honestly? I don’t like it when ponies show me up either. But you know, that’s what being an athlete is about, right? Can’t be the best if you don’t care about it.”

Applejack raised an eyebrow. “That’s it?”

Rainbow Dash blinked in confusion. “What’s it?”

“What about...the whole...lookin’ down on ya? And the...the snootiness! Ain’t you gonna let at me fer that?”

A burst of laughter came out from Rainbow Dash’s gut. “You think you’re snooty?” she got out before another bout of laughter escaped. “Oh...oh mare Applejack, you...where the buck did you get an idea like that? You’re like the most...non-snooty pony in Ponyville. Well, cept you know, for me. You actually comb your hair.” She reached up a hoof to touch her madeover mane. “And this doesn’t count.”

“Ah…” Applejack managed before she shook off the oddity of the fact Rainbow was bragging about being a slob. “It was something Rarity told me.”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Pfft! That mare is way too...what’s the word I’m looking for? You know how she like...makes everything a big deal?”

“Overblown?” Applejack suggested.

“Yeah!” Rainbow agreed. “I mean, she’s awesome and all, but...have lunch with her sometime. She’ll be all Worst. Possible. Thing. Ever! And...did you know she has a couch to faint into now?”

Applejack raised an eyebrow at that. “Really?”

And Rainbow nodded. “Yeah, but...hey, if she’s feeding you that kind of stuff, we should definitely have a talk with her. Like I said, she’s cool and all, but...way overblown.”

“Wait,” Applejack called out. “Ain’t ya...mad or somthin?”

Rainbow Dash looked back at the farm pony in blinked in confusion. “What for?”

“Cause I was...you know...mad about yer goin on about that dragon and all!” Applejack exclaimed.

“...eh, if it was getting annoying, I’ll tone it down,” Rainbow replied with a shrug. “I mean...I suppose if somepony else was going on and on about themselves…I’d be...well...nah. Nevermind. But if you want me to tone it down, sure. No problem.”

Applejack raised an eyebrow at her friend. “Wait, you can’t just, that ain’t…”

“What?”

The farmer let out a sigh and hung her head. She didn’t get why Rainbow Dash wasn’t getting all upset at her for being all judgmental. “Never mind.” She didn’t see the point of trying to make Rainbow get all riled up after all the apologies were said. Maybe she just didn’t get that way with other ponies. “Ah still gotta go talk to Rarity anyway.”

A snort came out of Rainbow’s nose. “No kidding. I mean, calling you snooty? We need to go set her straight.”

“N-No Rainbow, that ain’t,” she paused, and let out a sigh. “All right come on, just um...let me do the talking.”

Rainbow shrugged, but followed Applejack towards the door. But before the farmer could reach it, Rainbow touched her on the shoulder. “Oh hey AJ, before I forget...um...I’m changing my vote,” she said, making Applejack whip her head around in surprise.

“Say what now?”

The pegasus stopped, and cleared her throat before looking away. “Yeah...look...I thought it was cool and all that we’d get to know the future and everything but…not anymore,” she said before turning her head back to Applejack. “So...ask Twilight whatever you want at the party, but after tonight...we’re not doing this again. Ever. I saw what talking about this stuff does to her, and...I know Twilight’s my friend. The rest...I don’t care about. And if you don’t like that, then I’m the pony you need to blame, not her.”

For a minute, Applejack opened her mouth to argue that Twilight still needed to be upfront with them. All the way upfront. Hearing about a few things here and there was fine and dandy, but not getting the whole truth made it seem...wrong to Applejack.

She had seen how carrying whatever burden Twilight was lugging around was crushing her. Being honest about it, sharing the truth about what was bothering her with her friends would help. Pinkie had said so too, if in slightly different words.

Twilight herself had even cheered up and said how much better she was with the whole time travel mess out in the open!

Although, now that she looked back on things. Applejack supposed that she could have been a little bit more tactful in the asking, fancied it up a bit. She understood that the truth was sometimes painful, but it was like pulling out a bad nail in a horseshoe. It hurt some while it was inside, hurt a lot coming out, but felt a lot better when it was done, and needed to be taken care of as soon as possible.

If Twilight would just tell them what had been so horrible they could face it together and… “One can sooner change that mark upon your flank than stray from the path that destiny has decreed for you,” Luna’s words resounded in her mind.

Applejack’s mind froze as her memory replayed the conversation from just a few short hours ago.

The words Luna had spoken to her came to the forefront of her mind, and went up against what Twilight had told them about the future unicorn coming back and giving her memories to the past Twilight. From the sound of things, something bad had happened from when Twilight had come from, something she was hoping to fix somehow, or prevent.

But Luna had more or less said that was impossible.

As much as it pained her to admit it, between the formerly crazy goddess with the odd way of talking, and the kooky unicorn from beyond the land of tomorrow...Applejack was inclined to believe the alicorn. Which meant what Twilight had seen happen, what had already happened for her, what was going to happen to the girls...Applejack was starting to think that it couldn’t be stopped.

Like...destiny.

That revelation made the farmer’s mental gears grind to a halt completely as they came upon the problem in front of her, and she remembered Twilight’s words from earlier as well as the desperation that had filled her voice, the sadness and panic. A deep, cold feeling filled Applejack's stomach, and all of a sudden...she didn’t want to know what Twilight did.

Maybe not ever.

The unicorn...she wasn’t trying to be deceitful, at least...not really. She was trying to be like when Applejack had to not tell her little little sister something...like what Big Mac did in the barn every now and then, or back when she was younger and the town had to deal with a certain problem every month.

Twilight was trying to protect them from something they just weren’t ready to know yet. She may have been going about it in a...disagreeable manner, but Applejack could at least see the good intentions in her actions and respect her for them. And I suppose that’ll have to be enough.

“Okay Rainbow,” Applejack said after a moment of rumination. “Ah...maybe that’s for the best. Ah mean...just what pony wants all them spoilers anyhoo, right?”

A yawn escaped Rainbow’s mouth and she shook the tiredness from her eyes. “Ugh, I’ll be glad when this is over and I can nap on the way back to Ponyville.”

The mention of sleeping during the day and the pegasus’s usual habits made Applejack stop...and chuckle. “Well, least you’ll have a good reason this time ‘round,” she said. “Shoot, Ah might even join ya.”

“...don’t be getting weird on me AJ,” Rainbow Dash told her after a long pause and a frown that made the earth pony confused. “I already had the whole fillyfriend scare with Twilight tonight. Now come on, let’s go get this whole snooty thing cleared up with you and Rarity. She’s probably doing something with her mane in the mirror again. Why she wanted somepony to do it for her if she’s gonna just keep messing with it...mare, that unicorn is confusing.”

The orange apple farmer just laughed. “Partner, you don’t know the half of it. The first...well, Ah guess it wasn’t her first sleepover, but...me and Rarity got trapped in her library, but before then, she was turning leaves into some kinda garden art when we needed to be pulling branches down!”

“Pfft! That’s nothing, do you know why she has the accent?” Rainbow asked as the two friends opened the door and talked quietly on their way to the bedroom Rarity had been given.

As they tried to make their way across the common room while talking, Applejack saw Twilight was still off in her room, and Fluttershy was getting some fresh air on the balcony while Pinkie was looking through some pamphlets.

The the party pony called out to them. “Hey girls! We need to decide to do for our now we have a ton of money, or we will tomorrow at least, party. I was going to do it tomorrow, but then I realized it is tomorrow from the time I was going to do it and just figured to go ahead and start planning! It’s time to let the good times roll with a real road trip vacation get away once we celebrate our windfall! I was thinking, monocle party for Ponyville, and then...well, what do you think? Trip to Manehattan, or Los Pegasus?”

The two ponies shared a hesitant look, and then turned their attentions back to Pinkie. “Pinkie, ain’t this the celebratory party?”

The pink party pony rolled her eyes. “No, this was just to stop Twilight from falling asleep. I mean, did you see the look on her face when Princess Celestia said she couldn't sleep in her own bed? Total scaredy pants. Which is weird because she doesn’t wear pants,” she asked before immediately changing the topic as Dash and Applejack shared a worried look.

“So, Manehattan, or Las Pegasus? Come on! I mean, I know the first ones fancier, but...Los Pegasus is like...party town! And what better place to celebrate than a party town? But then I remembered it’s a vacation, not a party, but we could have a vacation while on a party, or a party on a vacation! I might even hire a party pony to plan it because I’m on vacation! But then I remembered how much fun I have when planning parties, and you're supposed to have fun on a vacation so… Las Pegasus, or Manehattan?”

Rainbow blinked. “Um...wait, is it Las, or Los?”

“I’ve heard it both ways,” the pink party pony replied with a shrug. “Now what about-”

Applejack cleared her throat. “Um, how about you just give us a few to think on it Pinkie. We need to go see Rarity for a spell.”

The comment got a cock of the head from Pinkie. “But...wouldn’t Twilight be better? I mean, she’s got to me like a super, mega old and ancient powerful unicorn if she can’t remember the number of birthday parties she’s had. It must be like when my great granny got so old she couldn't even remember my name, but don’t worry, I’ll always remember everypony’s name! Hey, that reminds me, I been thinking about Twilight, and why she’s so sad, and I think-”

As Pinkie continued to ramble, Applejack leaned over to whisper into Rainbow’s hear. “How much coffee you think she’s had tonight?”

“-and then, Twilight was probably all, ‘no! it’s not true!’ and the bad guy was probably ‘go ahead and search for-”

“Honestly? The thought of Pinkie with any amount of caffeine...scares me,” Rainbow admitted before she shook her head. “I don’t want to even try to think about it.”

“-then I bet she got really, really really really really really angry, and was all-”

Applejack chuckled and pushed Rainbow forward. “Well then, you keep her busy fer minute, and I’ll go talk to Rarity.”

“-and Twilight probably got all, lose one friend, lose all friends, lose yoursel-”

“Applejack!”

“-so she worked super duper mega super hard to-”

The farmer chuckled as she looked at the rainbow pony with the look of terror on her face. “Come on now Rainbow, compared to a dragon, Pinkie’s easy!”

“-got like ultra mega unbelievably desperate-”

“Hate you AJ-”

“-all kinds of experiments that-”

“-so much right now!” Rainbow finished before Applejack opened the door to Rarity’s room and went inside.

“-and that’s probably why Twilight’s all bonk-”

The door closed, and of course, Applejack found Rarity fussing over her mane. But instead of calling attention to it, the farmer just took in a deep breath. “Rarity, can we have a talk? Ah think...there’s some air we got to clear between us before it...gets all...murky and bad.”

Despite the fact that they had a little more than two hours until sunrise, Applejack figured that it was going to be a long night. After all, she still had another unicorn to talk to after this one.

Chapter 8: Dreams of Future Past

Twilight opened her eyes to the familiar sight of her palace’s most important room. Although the cutie map no longer occupied the center, the former crystal thrones that now housed her friends made this place far more precious than what it had been before. She took a moment to admire the sleeping forms of her friends sealed in their crystal containers, then steeled herself for what was coming.

The presence that had drawn the goddess out of her meditation was quickly approaching, and made the alicorn repress her annoyance. Although she couldn’t feel any disharmony in Equestria outside of Discord’s little corner, Celestia didn’t bother her these days without good reason. And if the ruler of Equestria was approaching her, then Twilight knew there had to be something going on. The possibility of ponies in danger was one she couldn’t ignore.

Her friends would never forgive her if Twilight allowed herself to let ponies suffer because she merely wanted to continue their fun. Even if most of the ponies outside the chamber weren’t really worth Twilight’s intervention. All the ponies she cared about were with her now.

Twilight’s ear twitched as the doors opened, although the goddess didn’t bother turning around to know who it was. “Celestia,” she addressed the distraction as the other alicorn walked into Twilight’s chamber. “You had better have a good reason for being here. My friends and I were playing pin the tail on the pony, and I was next in line.”

“I came to invite you to Cadence’s wedding,” Celestia half-lied, which made Twilight frown just a bit and look at her former teacher. She had to wonder if the older alicorn would ever just go out and tell her everything from the beginning. “And I wanted to see how you were doing. We’re worried about you…and the girls.”

The fact that she actually meant it made Twilight release the bit of anger she had been holding before she turned around fully to look Celestia in the eyes. After so many years of looking up at the white alicorn during her childhood, it was still strange to stand as her equal in stature.

“Thank you for the concern,” Twilight replied before looking over to the pony sleeping inside the crystal next to her. She reached over with her hoof to brush the dust away and get a clear view of Fluttershy, then frowned at her hoof. It nearly covered the old pegasus’s face. Years of experience had taught Twilight that she was never going to get used to her height. “But I don’t see why I should have to go to Cadence’s latest wedding.”

Twilight looked away from her friends and back to the white alicorn that was quickly wearing out what little welcome she had. “What happened to her last one?” she asked while remembering just why she had forbidden Cadence from ever seeing her again. “Did she at least wait till he was dead before she left him?”

The growling question made Celestia’s ears fall. “Twilight, she was still young back then, and afraid. You know she loved Shining Armor…and besides, if you hadn’t shown her how to-”

“DON’T YOU DARE BLAME WHAT HAPPENED ON ME!”

Twilight roared and loosed the restraints on her power as she unfurled her wings. The walls of her palace lit with her magic. She watched the lesser alicorn’s legs shake from strain of having Twilight focus her attention on the weaker princess. “Cadence promised she would love Shiny forever, and then she abandoned him in the end! She found a younger colt to be with, and left my big brother to die alone! And she’s supposed to be the a princess? She’s supposed to represent love?

“WHAT A JOKE!” the goddess went on before she snatched the five crystals containing her friends and brought them up to her for support before knocking Celestia to the ground with a wave of magic and pinning her down so she couldn‘t turn away from what was in front of her. “What we have is a thousand times greater than what Cadence ever felt for anypony Celestia! Pure and perfect, untainted by a stupid lust that fades the older a stallion gets.” She narrowed her eyes at the little trembling pony being crushed by the sheer weight of Twilight’s power. “Or forced upon us by family bonds that make us endure all betrayals and remain connected.”

“Twilight please…you’re…hurting me,” Celestia choked out from her prone position on the floor.

The declaration from Celestia made Twilight come up short, and she sucked in a tiny breath at her carelessness before recalling the power of her Element back into her body. She held back what came by instinct for a moment to take a magical scan of her old teacher and make sure Celestia was alright, and then looked away from the lesser goddess. “I’m sorry…I just…I don’t like talking about…her.”

For a moment Twilight feared that Celestia was angry at her, but such worries disappeared when the sun goddess’s little hoof reached over to touch her face. “It’s alright Twilight. I know the subject can be…difficult for you,” she said before looking over to her friend’s crystal containers. “How are they by the way?”

A chance to talk about her friends lifted Twilight’s mood, and she sat down to smile at her teacher. “They’re great! We were in the middle of a pin the tail on the pony game when you…uh, broke into my castle, but other than that little scare, everypony’s fine,” she said before looking back to her friends. “I should probably get back to them soon to assure them everything’s okay.”

“Pin the tail on the pony?” Celestia repeated hesitantly. “It’s that game a little…old? I would have thought you would have been showing the girls all the latest toys Equestria has to offer since they…went under.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “You’d be surprised with they like. Pinkie got addicted to that revolutionary dance game that showed up a few decades ago, but…well I thought Rainbow Dash and Applejack would love the neigh station, or at least one of its predecessors, but…they just looked at me like I was crazy when I managed to recreate one for them. Called it an egghead game.” Twilight couldn’t stop the giggle that came from that particular memory. “And it's not like I can’t make hydras and monsters for the girls to fight if Rainbow or Applejack want to take one on. Hooves on is more fun than any joystick for them.”

“I…see,” Celestia said before pausing for a few more seconds to glance over to the girls again. “Twilight…have you thought about what we discussed-”

Twilight could tell where the other alicorn was getting at before she could get any further, and used magic to promptly shut Celestia’s mouth for her just hard enough to remind her former teacher who was in control here. “You need to leave now…and don’t come back until there’s either a threat to Equestria, or you’re willing to help me help them.”

As she released Celestia’s mouth from her magic, Twilight watched her teacher rub her muzzle for a few seconds before the smaller alicorn spoke again. “Twilight…I already told you…what your asking is-”

“All you need to do is give them the same thing you gave me!” Twilight shouted, but not with the same authority and power she had been threatening Celestia with since their meeting. She fell to her knees and looked up at the lesser goddess. “Just do this for me, and I’ll leave this place like you want. I’ll do anything you want! We all will! We don’t have to be princesses, we don’t have to rule anything. We-we can stay here, in Ponyville. We don’t even have to do that if you don't want us to! We can leave! Go into seclusion! The world doesn’t even have to know about us. We can just…be together.”

A gentle leg reached out to caress Twilight’s cheek before it ran up to her blowing mane and Celestia pulled herself into Twilight for a hug. “Oh Twilight, you know I would if I could,” she whispered into her student’s ear before shaking her head. “But such a thing is not for them. You know what needs to be done.”

The memory of a discussion they had years ago made Twilight stiffen. “No.”

“I know it will be hard for you Twilight, but think of your friends. They’ll be happier-”

Twilight knocked Celestia away and rose to her full height again. “No.”

“It’s what’s best for them-”

“NO!” Twilight shouted as she gathered her power, her words cuing the entire castle to shake with her anger. “You don’t know that! How could you say something like that? You don’t know ANYTHING!”

Celestia flinched as the room was filled with Twilight’s magic once again, unfocused and unrestrained. Twilight barely noticed the alicorn gather her meager strength to shield herself and remain standing and…for a fraction of a second, Twilight considered popping the soap bubble Celestia thought to protect herself with and showing the lesser alicorn just who was really in charge. She could force Celestia to help her, and if the she refused, well…Luna had always been a weak point of the elder alicorn. If I do something to Luna, then Celestia will have to…

All of a sudden, Twilight looked at where her thoughts were going, and looked back to her friends floating behind her. Her gaze lingered on Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, who would have either been cowering from such a display or glaring at the big bully she had become. I’m sorry, she mentally apologized to the girls she considered more than family. I just…she’s been trying to take you girls away for so long…

When none of her friends replied to the thought, Twilight lowered her head in shame and drew her magic back in on herself again before she looked over to Celestia. “Please, just go away. And…no more stupid wedding invitations. If you want to help me with my research, or there’s something threatening Equestria, then come and talk to me. But…you have my answer about the girls, and…just go.”

“Twilight-”

“I SAID GO!” Twilight thundered before she restrained herself again. “Before I…before I do something stupid.”

Celestia did her best to hide her approach as she came up from behind the little purple mare that had changed so much since she had last seen the filly. Sleep had brought with it disturbing dreams of her student shouting at the goddess all of her mishaps over the long years. None of which Twilight had been privy to of course, but that mattered little to Celestia’s guilty conscience. While Luna had thankfully managed to calm the elder alicorn after sensing Celestia’s distress, the sun goddess had used the little bit of dream magic she had to remain lucid while unconscious for time to think.

The facts known were thus: Twilight possessed a completely new opinion of Celestia than what the alicorn had previously known, she was somehow immune to the sight that Celestia had developed to see the possibilities of where a pony’s life could lead, and that she had traveled through time. On top of which, her stay in the future had been so long that once Twilight was returned to her proper place, the age regression side effect that accompanied such magic didn’t appear in effect.

Twilight had gone to the future and stayed there for so long that she ended up being regressed in age by decades. By the time she returned, she was restored her to the eighteen-year-old mare that Celestia had seen grow up.

And then there was her attachment to the other Bearers…

Celestia felt like shaking her head in frustration at the memory of those mares; yet another thing she had not seen coming.

Twilight had been expected. Celestia would even go as far as to say prophesized. She and Luna had waited centuries to find the pony with the six pointed star cutie mark to come and wield the Elements. The others…Celestia knew that what to do regarding those five mares would be revealed to her in time. As it was, the possibilities involving the ponies that had ended up with the other Elements were too numerous to count. Once she had observed them for a couple of years, the goddess would best know how to deal with them and set things back on their proper path.

But at the moment, her attentions needed to be turned towards the mare leaning on the palace balcony, glaring down at the gardens below. There was a slight shake in her rear leg, a slump in her stance, and a few other signs of exhaustion that years of looking into the mirror after a long day let Celestia notice. The poor girl had been up all night, on top of the financial meeting she and her friends had just returned from.

The other five had decided on a quick nap at the castle before the train was due to leave.

Twilight remained awake.

“What do you want Celestia?”

For some reason, the alicorn felt like the foal with her hoof caught in the cookie jar. It was a foolish notion, as she was still the elder of the two by far, and yet…the heaviness of Twilight’s voice made the little unicorn seem far older than she could possibly be, even with the age regression side effects of time travel.

Still, Celestia knew reasserting herself as the authority wasn’t the right move in this situation. She needed to draw Twilight in. Remind her of the long forgotten past. Guide her in the proper direction. Authoritarianism wasn’t the way to go with that. A lesson Celestia had learned all too well thanks to previous failings.

“Twilight,” Celestia began hesitantly. “I was doing some thinking last night and…have I ever told you how Luna…became Nightmare Moon?”

It was a simple question that Twilight didn’t know the answer to, and the perfect way to open the conversation. From there, she would point out how Twilight was also pulling away from her, becoming more and more like Luna had all those years ago. In so doing Celestia would show the little unicorn that she cared for her almost as much as Luna thanks to the comparison, and help put her back on the right path.

The unicorn continued to look out into the center of the hedge maze garden with a deep frown, but Celestia saw a minor twitch in her left ear. “Yes, you made her that way.”

Celestia frowned at the reply. It wasn’t what she had been expecting. Still, the feelings in the alicorn’s heart agreed Twilight’s words. Although her mind screamed otherwise and threw Celestia into a light confusion that demanded to be cleared up. “And how did I do that?”

A second later, Twilight rounded on Celestia. Despite the almost comical bags under the unicorn’s eyes, her gaze held Celestia firmly in its grasp. The wild rage that the alicorn had seen during their tea the day before was gone. More than likely, Twilight was far too tired for such antics.

But what had replaced it was even worse. It was just a cold stare. Despite their lack of danger, Celestia felt a long way from calm. The tiny flame of doubt that she had about Twilight not experiencing age regression faded under that artic look the unicorn gave. Celestia could see that the little thing in front of her was old, impossibly old. “Do you know the driving force of every pony’s life?”

It was a simple question that any adult would know. Still, Celestia found herself a little off balance at being addressed so by Twilight, as if the alicorn was the student, and the unicorn was the teacher. So she answered almost on instinct. “The expression of their talent,” she replied.

Twilight sighed and lowered her head for a moment and mumbled something the alicorn couldn’t understand other than a few words before Twilight broke into a yawn.

“Luna…obsession…just got her back…use that.”

“What?” Celestia asked a second before Twilight looked up at her.

“Luna did what she did because nopony appreciated what she did. Especially not you,” she said. “And from that, her position as princess was eroded, her friends lessened to nothing, and she was left alone with those bat-pony sycophants that…worship her.” Twilight spat the word out like the curse. “All because of you.”

A bit of anger showed on Celestia’s face. “You overstep,Twilight Sparkle.”

“Really?” Twilight challenged. “Before you played with the sun and the moon, the two of you used to rule from your castle in the Everfree together. Then you took over the day, and she got the nightshift. You got all the lively and happy ponies coming to your court, while Luna was stuck with the tired and irritable that didn’t have time for tea and hay because they wanted to go home. You performed ceremonies, she fought monsters. You went to garden parties where ponies would guard their tongues about what they thought, she dealt with the darkest dreams and unabashed opinions that were inside pony heads. You got all the praise, and Luna got…nothing.”

Despite her anger, Celestia had to acknowledge her student might have had a few points. Ones that she had raised herself over the centuries of her sister’s absence when it came time for second-guessing every day they had spent together. “That…that was a long time ago,” she said. “Things are different now. There is a…a night scene in Canterlot, and once Luna sees-”

“Why hasn’t Luna started raising the moon again?” Twilight asked evenly.

The interruption made Celestia frown, but the question had her washing away another bit of indignation at the snub. It was the same question that had plagued Celestia’s mind since Luna returned. While the younger sister assured Celestia she simply needed rest, a few days would have solved that. The elder goddess knew Luna was just avoiding the task for some reason she hadn’t thought of.

So, instead of gaining the added power, height, and longevity that came with her duty, Luna remained the size of a normal pony. And mortal.

The fact that Twilight was asking such a thing out of the blue like she did… Celestia knew that it meant the unicorn also knew the answer to her own question. Even without her ability to see the possible actions that Twilight could undertake, Celestia knew that she was being baited.

She also didn’t care.

Celestia’s heart rate increased, and she had to fight the urge to nervously lick her lips. “You’re the one who knows the answer to that, Twilight.”

Something…sparkled in Twilight’s eyes, and they widened at Celestia’s reply. But then the look of a pony having a sudden realization was replaced by a cunning frown and smirk that made Celestia want to back away from the little mare.

“Oh come on Celestia,” the unicorn said in a strange tone that made her seem happy, and yet…dark, at the same time. “Don’t tell me you can’t see the problem. You’re the all-knowing goddess that makes everypony dance on her strings, the manipulator that turns little fillies into weapons and risks the safety of all Equestria by just hoping her insane little sister just doesn’t hurl the moon right at Canterlot in revenge.”

Celestia bristled. “I would hardly call myself a master manipulator. My ability to see the course of destiny is not without limits Twilight Sparkle,” she said with a frown while she looked at Twilight and was privy to nothing that a normal pony would see. “As you are well aware.”

The comment on her apparent immunity to Celestia’s sight got a curious frown from Twilight, but the unicorn shook off the expression and went back to matching the larger pony stare for stare. “Don’t tell me you haven’t figured it out,” Twilight mumbled before she let out a sigh so long her whole body sagged. “But then…I guess it would be impossible for somepony like you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Celestia grumbled.

No response came for several minutes, and although Celestia heard Twilight mumbling to herself, it was too low for even her alicorn hearing to perceive beyond a few words such as Nightmare Night, the mention of some type of festival, and term ‘idiot with the weighty plot’ that Celestia felt was directed at her.

Then Twilight’s dark smile returned, and she looked up at Celestia as if the purple unicorn knew some sick joke that the goddess was both not privy to, and the butt of at the same time. “It’s because she hates you.”

Celestia…didn’t know how to react to Twilight’s answer. Her mouth went dry, and she felt a tiny shiver of fear crawl up her spine at the accusation. “What? No…that’s not…she was cleaned of her taint by the Elements,” Celestia said in an even, if lower than normal voice.

“Oh, she doesn’t want to blot out the sun and kill us all in an insane attempt to gain worship,” Twilight agreed. “But that doesn’t mean everything that wasn’t there before Nightmare Moon isn’t still going through her head.” There was a slight pause as she let out a tiny laugh. “Heh, if anything, it’s even worse!”

The last bit that Twilight doled out made Celestia’s cry that such a thing wasn’t true die on her lips. The fear snuffed it out. “What’s that supposed to mean?” the goddess asked with a frown.

Twilight actually rolled her eyes and looked up at Celestia like she was a student who wasn’t paying attention in class. “You have a holiday celebrating your victory over Nightmare Moon, and another one that has foals offering up a candy tribute so that she doesn’t come down and kill them!” the little unicorn exclaimed. “The ponies of Equestria don’t just feel apathetic towards Luna anymore, they outright fear and hate her! And they’ve done so for generations! Everypony was sent to bed without supper at least once while being told that one day Nightmare Moon would come for them if they didn’t do their homework. Do you think that’s just going to disappear because of your say so? Because Luna looks different?”

The lavender unicorn let out a mirthless laugh. “You stupid old nag. During her absence, you have taken what drove Luna to become Nightmare Moon in the first place and made it a thousand times worse! Nopony is ever going to appreciate her, nopony’s ever going to love her-”

A tiny spark of anger lit in Celestia’s heart at Twilight’s words and she stepped forward and brought her hoof down hard enough to crack the stone beneath them. “I LOVE HER!” the alicorn shouted back at the unicorn.

It was anger that Twilight returned in earnest. “AND IT’S ALWAYS ABOUT YOU, ISN’T IT!?” she screeched. “Always about what you want, always about you, you, YOU! Nopony else matters but CELESTIA! Who cares if everypony hates Luna? As long as Celestia likes her, it’s all fine! Who cares if she’s always alone, as long as Celestia is happy? What does it matter if she’s miserable as long as CELESTIA GETS WHAT SHE WANTS?”

For moment, Celestia opened her mouth to argue the point. She wanted to tell Twilight that the Summer Sun Celebration had never been her idea. She wanted to profess her innocence to being behind Nightmare Night. One was a festival that Celestia had agreed to in order to placate the unicorns bothering her in Canterlot while she had been too depressed to deal with their constant nagging on the date approaching the one year anniversary of her sister’s ‘disappearance’. It was only when the thing was half over that Celestia realized the Summer Sun Celebration wasn’t just some party to try and get her out of her funk, but a victory party of Celestia’s triumph over the darkness. The celebration of her little sister’s banishment.

As for Nightmare Night, that tradition started much smaller. A few hushed whispers, a little town here and there creating one or two holiday ideas before ponies moving from place to place carried their traditions with them. Then, over a hundred years of blending, and Nightmare Night was born.

“I…never…” Celestia said before she stopped herself, unsure of how to proceed.

Twilight let out another long sigh, and the anger drained from her face. “You don’t have to worry about Luna rebelling against you again,” she mumbled. “She’s learned her lesson.”

A pitiful amount of relief entered into Celestia’s body after hearing that. Even if her sister did need to be…taken care of, Celestia knew that Twilight would have been up to the task. “Thank you,” she said. “But…Twilight…I…” She stopped unsure of how to continue.

“You want to know what happens to her?” Twilight asked.

Celestia tensed, and strained to keep herself from nodding. She knew she was approaching dangerous territory by talking about such things. There was a reason Star Swirl never revealed what he had learned during his trips into the future. If he had…

The alicorn’s eyes widened as something occurred to her. Starswirl had known about Twilight’s eventual appearance as Celestia had suspected given the unicorn’s cutie mark... He must have also known about Luna as well. The facts surrounding her fall were not exactly easy to find, but they were hardly hidden!

If he had traveled through time far enough to learn of Twilight’s existence, Starswirl would have found the information on Luna as well.

He knew, Celestia told herself. All this time, he knew what was going to happen! He KNEW Luna would succumb to the darkness in her isolation while the two of us just…played around with magic! HE KNEW, and he did NOTHING!

Celestia was ripped from her introspection at the sound of breaking stone, and she looked down at the cracked ground beneath her hooves. Then, she looked up to Twilight and saw the unicorn was backing away from her with wide eyes that couldn’t hide her fear.

And Celestia felt ashamed for her loss of control.

After taking a deep breath, the goddess resumed her normal calm, and looked over to her student. “Twilight…what happens to Luna? In the future, I mean.”

The unicorn was silent for a moment, and Celestia was afraid that Twilight was fighting an order that some future Princess Celestia had given her not to reveal anything to her younger self. A Celestia that had lived with the consequences of her actions for nopony knew how long, and grown to accept them.

But she wasn’t that Princess Celestia. She was the Celestia with a little sister that was alive and well. A little sister she loved more than anything. More than Equestria. More than all the little ponies that populated her world. More than the irrefutable laws of time itself.

A part of Celestia knew that whatever Twilight had seen couldn’t be undone. It was the future that was meant to be. It was destined.

Yet another part of her, a much larger part railed against that fact. It crushed that first part like an ant beneath Celestia’s own hoof, and denounced it with a volume that made even the Royal Canterlot Voice seem a whisper.

Twilight seemed to undergo her own struggle, visibly tensing as she closed her eyes and her legs trembled. “I want to tell you-” the unicorn grumbled.

“THEN DO IT!” Celestia ordered in a shout before her voice started sliding from demand to plea. “I don’t care about the timeline, or any stupid rules regarding time travel, or anything else! JUST TELL ME WHAT HAPPENS TO MY BABY SISTER!”

The demand made Twilight look back to Celestia, and she matched the goddess glare for glare. “I want to tell you,” Twilight repeated while Celestia’s heart missed a beat at the news. “I want to tell you that Luna never raised the moon again. I want to tell you that she never took up her mantle and reestablished her connection with the Tree of Harmony. I want to tell you that she grew older with each passing day, and made you watch as the gray hairs appeared on her coat, and wrinkles began to show under her eyes. And you had to watch her die a wrinkled old nag because she couldn‘t stand to be in this world you made!”

Celestia’s breath caught, and she felt her heart stop beating for a moment at the news.

“But...I can’t,” the unicorn grumbled before she let out a snort. “As much as I hate you...taking that away from you, even after what you did to me… I can’t even bring myself to trade that foreknowledge for a mystical oath from you to leave my friends alone.”

After taking a moment to look away from the larger pony, Twilight visibly gathered herself. A moment later, she had locked her gaze with Celestia again. “The truth is, in the future that I know, Luna just dealt with some issues, and then she was back to normal. Or…no.” Twilight’s face darkened. “She was better,” the unicorn sneered. “After that, she was perfect little princess for you. She did everything you wanted.

“That’s what’s going to happen,” Twilight spat. “You’re going to get everything you want. Everypony will love you, and Luna will accept her place. You’ll rule Equestria, and she’ll sit at your hooves, doing everything you say, following your orders, knowing where she belongs, and accept that she’ll never be loved or appreciated by anypony. But what the hay does that matter, right? You’ve got her back! You love her. And if you appreciate her presence, who cares if nopony else ever will? After all, your opinion is the only one that matters, right? As long as Celestia has what she wants, what else matters, right?”

The world faded away as Celestia digested what the little unicorn had said. As much as she wanted to call Twilight a liar on what she had just said as some attempt to cause pain, she couldn’t. There was an undeniable ring of truth to Twilight’s words thanks to the emotion she put behind them. On top of which, Celestia couldn’t deny that such events were more than possible.

Before Nightmare Moon, Luna had always had a fire in her that Celestia had been disapproving of. It caused her to argue, even though Celestia had been the one in the right thanks to her superior foresight. When she had returned, Luna finally seemed to have understood that and bowed to her sister’s greater experience and knowledge.

She had thought it a good thing, that Luna had finally learned humility. That other alicorn no longer needed the praise of other ponies. After all, Celestia had felt such things and found them trivial. So Luna should have done the same.

Only…with the way Twilight had spoken, it seemed that her interpretation of the future had Luna being little more than a servant. And…as Celestia reexamined some of the plan she had for her little sister, the alicorn began to see that perhaps Twilight’s interpretation of things might not be so far of from what could easily come to be.

By the time Celestia was finished processing Twilight’s words, she noticed the unicorn was more than halfway towards the door. “Twilight…whatever happened, please…let us set it straight,” she said before choosing her next words carefully. “What you said…what did you mean, I lied to you?”

The way the mare had reacted the first time Celestia had asked such questions, she had been insufferably vague and in a fury. Perhaps if offered another chance to explain things…

“What the buck is wrong with you?” Twilight forced out between clenched teeth before she looked back at Celestia with a frown. “I’ve done my job, I’ve saved your previous sister and all of Equestria while you just went and…ran away. Doesn’t that give me the right not to fawn over you like every other pony on this planet? To have my own ideas? To be left alone from now on?

“Of course not!” she spat. “The great Princess Celestia isn’t worshiped by her student! But instead of accepting this and going on with her delusional little lie of life where everypony is happy, she just has to try and figure out why I don’t want to kiss her plot anymore! Instead of, I don’t know, taking the time to visit with her estranged sister and help Luna adjust to this new time period she‘s found herself in, she comes running to me because I don’t like her anymore!”

Twilight’s face darkened, and she turned away from the princess. “You turn away from the most important pony in your life to try and tend to your wounded ego, and you wonder why you disgust me?” she sneered. “You’re pathetic.”

Before the unicorn could take a single step, Celestia called out to her. “Twilight! This isn’t about me, it’s about you! I see the pain in your eyes and it feels like a knife has been plunged into my heart. I can’t take it! Please, let me in, let me help you.”

The unicorn looked back at the alicorn with a snarl. “The pain in your heart? I should let you help me to make YOU feel better? It’s always about you, isn’t it?”

As Twilight finished twisting the knife, Celestia let out a breath she hadn’t been aware she had been holding, and lowered her head. She had approached Twilight for one last attempt at reconciliation, one more try that the alicorn simply had to do while her student was within the castle. Now, Celestia had seen such an action as the mistake that it was. She needed to wait until Twilight came to her.

But...memory told Celestia that such an action was...inadvisable.

“I can see that telling you the answer to that wouldn’t do any good,” Celestia replied sadly. “You seem obsessed with trying to turn everything into something that paints me in the worst possible light and…if that helps you in some way, then do it.”

When Twilight frowned in obvious confusion at the larger pony, Celestia gave her a sad smile in return. “But…whatever’s going through your mind Twilight, talk to your friends about it. They seem to care about you a great deal, and if this is causing me pain to see you like this, what do you think it's doing to them?”

The unicorn stiffened at the question, and Celestia knew she had struck a vital spot as Twilight became downcast. Then, the alicorn moved forward with the opening it created. “If you won’t talk to me, then open up to them Twilight. Talk with them, laugh and cry…do all the things with your friends you're supposed to and…let them share this burden you are straining under. If you do this and one other thing…then I shall honor your wishes and no longer interfere with your life.”

For a few seconds, Twilight simply stood there looking into the distance. By the time she turned around, Celestia had nearly managed to get on top of her, but the unicorn didn’t back away. “And the other thing?”

Now in range, Celestia reached forward with a hoof and snatched Twilight up before bringing the unicorn into a hug as the large pony fell back on her haunches to stay upright. She completed the maneuver by wrapping her wings around the little pony in a cocoon of white feathers. “Twilight, I do not know what you happened to you that changed you so, or if I was the one who changed one day, and the pain and fear I see within you now is merely a consequence of my foolishness. But I just want you to know that today, in the now, I love you. And I will always love you, no matter what should come between us.”

The alicorn held the little pony in her forelegs and waited for Twilight to decide what to do next. To throw her off, or accept the gesture of affection. Whatever she decided, Celestia would allow it and let her go in peace.

“…Princess,” Twilight spoke softly, drawing Celestia’s attention. She blinked at hearing Twilight call her by her title. Ever since the little unicorn had come back to Canterlot, she had shown an extreme amount of disrespect towards the goddess, not even bothering with it.

The fact she was using it once again made Celestia hold onto Twilight just a little bit tighter.

“…can I ask you something? And you…tell me the answer?”

Even though she knew Twilight couldn’t see her, Celestia nodded. “Of course my student.”

“What happens…after a pony dies?”

Celestia found herself tensing just from the oddity of the question straight out of the blue. It wasn’t that she hadn’t been asked such a question before. Being as old as she was, many ponies had thought she knew the answers to all the questions in the universe. And several of the palace staff with a loved one on death’s door, or a pony who had crossed that threshold had come to her seeking solace.

But Twilight had none of those as far as Celestia knew. Her family was healthy, and her friends were in the prime of their lives.

“Well, many ponies believe that after they pass on, they come to a new land with a bright shore, and clear fields as far as the eye can see. A place where all of their loved ones gather to greet them before moving onto the next journey,” Celestia began. And when she felt Twilight tense, the goddess sighed and released her hold enough to look down on the unicorn. “But the truth is Twilight…I do not know what awaits us after death.” She smiled ever so slightly to ward off the memories such a question always brought up, memories of countless ponies that were no longer with her. “While I have seen many ponies off on the journey myself. Such a voyage has always been denied to me.”

Despite the fact that Celestia knew that it was impossible, it felt as if Twilight stared at her for several hours with a confused expression, trying to figure out a puzzle that had her completely baffled by its mere existence. Then, she shook her head and sighed before breaking away from the princess while stifling another yawn. “I need to get back to my friends.”

A bit of anxiousness welled up in Celestia was she watched the unicorn head towards the balcony door in a bit of an odd canter, her exhaustion evident as she stumbled every few steps. “Twilight.”

The purple unicorn looked around with her tired eyes. “Yes?”

“I know I said that I would leave your friends alone if that was your wish, so long as you share your burdens with them. But…I will need some kind of proof you are doing that,” Celestia told her. “So…I was thinking a few friendship reports might do the trick. Whenever they feel like sending them, I mean.”

Twilight stood where she was for a moment, obviously mulling over the answer with the expression on her face. “That…okay. We can do that…as long as you hold up your end of the deal.”

“Ah don’t know ‘bout ya’ll, but soon as Ah get back to the farm, Ah’m gonna be…”

Twilight concentrated on the sound of the rail tracks beneath her as the Friendship Express headed towards her beloved Ponyville at a gloriously leisurely pace that she hadn’t experienced since upgrading the system to ‘enable ponies to connect across the distances faster’. All that time wanting to get through things faster, to just rush to the end of it all. Twilight couldn’t believe how stupid she had been in her youth.

The mortal unicorn fought to keep her eyes open, and looked at her friends as they went on about the plans for when they got home. She smiled to stifle a yawn that threatened to come up. For a few seconds she was tempted to cast a temporal alteration spell and slow down time to enjoy the moment she was in for as long as possible, but…Twilight decided against it.

Her friends weren’t ornaments to be hung and admired by an old mare who just wanted to wallow in nostalgia. They weren’t even there to help her relive old memories anymore. They were making new ones, better ones! Twilight played with Pinkie and Rainbow more than ever before, and Applejack would be coming to her for help thanks to the years of agriculture knowledge she had. The same was true with Rarity once the unicorn figured out that Twilight could keep her ahead of Equestria fashion trends for the foreseeable future. And Fluttershy, Twilight had a feeling she would be visiting the pegasus more than ever thanks to her peaceful influence.

As the train continued on, Twilight found herself closing her eyes to relax as she pictured what a visit to her friend’s cottage would be like…

“Will there be animals?” Fluttershy asked in her timid voice as Twilight smiled down on her, glad that none of her friends would ever be able to see her tears within the…

Twilight’s eyes snapped open and her muscles tensed before she sat up on her bench with a gasp before she tried to suck in a lot of air and had to exhale it immediately. As her legs continued to shake, the unicorn closed her eyes and tried to calm herself down. No, that didn’t happen. That didn’t happen yet. “That didn’t happen. That’s not going to happen. You’re going to fix it. You’re going to fix everything,” she told herself fiercely.

“Uh, Twilight?”

Rainbow’s voice cut through Twilight’s mantra, and the unicorn looked over to the pegasus floating in the air above the aisle.

And that was when she noticed something was wrong.

The rest of her friends were nowhere in sight. Just Rainbow Dash was around. Twilight had been certain at least one of them had been sitting in the seat across from her, and…she frowned when she caught sight of a black numeral on the pegasus's forehead, half-hidden underneath Rainbow’s wild bangs.

“Hey Twilight, you okay? You’re doing the whole mumbling thing again.”

Twilight stared at the dark marking for a moment, and then closed her eyes. No, that’s not possible, she told herself before opening her eyes again. The second look of Rainbow showed that the ID had disappeared. After letting out a sigh of relief Twilight put the worries that she was experiencing some kind of side effect from her sleeping potions off to the side in order to properly address Dash’s concern. “Just…tired.”

And then her own selfish fears caused her to speak instead of concentrating on Rainbow’s needs. “Where’d everypony go?”

There was a soft thunk when Rainbow’s hooves hit the ground. “Oh, Fluttershy saw you were starting to doze off, so we all moved up a few seats to help keep the noise down and let you get some rest. Pinkie was kind of against it but...Fluttershy got her to go. ”

Despite the sweetness of her beloved friend’s actions, Twilight’s own fears were what filled her mind. If she happened to doze off…

A million billion pony faces glared at her in anger and hatred as they shouted at Twilight. Some called her monster, others demanded her death, and others…they did their best to hurt Twilight the only way they could.

Twilight shook off the mental image before her conscience could conjure up something truly remorseful. And, before she could reassure herself that everything had been worth it with her usual defensive bulwark, Twilight reminded herself that would only make the blue pegasus start to ask too many painful questions.

Some things about her past, none of the girls could find out about. Ever!

Not that it mattered. None of it mattered!

It hadn’t happened yet, and never would in the new future that they were going to build together! So there was no need to tell her friends and ruin their friendship over such stupid things!

“I don’t…feel like napping just yet,” Twilight half-lied. She ignored her protesting body and looked up at the others chatting away and laughing at something the unicorn couldn’t hear, and turned to face the accusing ponies in her mind.

It was all worth it for this.

“Let’s go and join the others.”

When Rainbow stepped over to let Twilight through and then walked by her side down the aisle, the former alicorn had to fight not to collapse into the wings of her future honor guard and hug Rainbow Dash for simply being there as she fought to resist falling into another memory.

It was a futile attempt...

Twilight didn’t know why she was so disappointed as she sat up in her hotel bed while staring at the window with the calendar hanging next to it as Celestia brought an end to the day; Twilight’s day. A day she had spent talking to the gruff griffon ambassador about asinine trade agreements concerning apricots.

But, that was the burden of being an alicorn. Such ponies had to put aside their own dreams and desires for the greater good of Equestria.

The sound of a door opening didn’t move Twilight from her position, but the appearance of a cupcake with a candle and purple frosting left by a rainbow contrail made the goddess lift her head just a little. And the thing that plopped down on the bed behind her before it wrapped a pair of blue legs and wings around her put a smile on Twilight’s face.

“Sorry it’s not a big one. They were all sold out of the good stuff by the time the meeting was over.”

Twilight didn’t know whether the tears that threaded to come were ones of happiness at seeing the gesture in front of her, or that only one of her friends could attend the alicorn on her birthday because of the gulf her royal duties had created between them. “I’m trying to watch my weight anyway,” she said before lifting the cupcake in her magic, blowing out the single candle that was there, and then splitting it in half for the two of them.

“Uh Twilight, what’re you doing?”

“Oh come on Rainbow, everypony knows birthday cakes only taste good if they’re shared.”

“Uh, Twilight…what’re you doing?”

The unicorn slowly pulled herself out of her daydream and looked over to the apprehensive pegasus…that Twilight noticed she was leaning against a second later. Confusion was replaced by surprise when she remembered such an action was out of place at the current time, and the lavender unicorn managed to stand up on her own. “Sorry Rainbow…I’m just a little tired.”

Rainbow shrugged slightly as they made it to the others. “Nah, it’s fine. Don’t see why you didn’t nap with the rest of us though.”

For a second Twilight smirked at the comment, considering it was coming from the greatest napper in all of Ponyville, and shook her head. “Too much on my mind,” she confessed.

“Twilight, I thought you were settling in for some sleep.”

The question directed towards her made Twilight look at the other unicorn in their group while she let Rainbow settle in near the window seat of a seat. “I can sleep when we’re home. So, what’s everypony talking about?”

“Oh nothing more than the usual topic for the past few days,” Rarity replied. “Although I do fear I might have found a problem with our newfound wealth. Or mine at least.”

Applejack let out a little snort, although Twilight could tell there was not any animosity behind it. The farm pony might have well as been reacting to one of Rainbow’s lewder jokes. “Rarity, yer about the only pony Ah know that can find a problem in havin’ too much money.”

The sharp stab of fear helped keep Twilight out of her sleep-deprived daze a little longer, and the lavender unicorn’s eyes went wide. “W-What problem? Is there something wrong Rarity?”

“Well…I know it’s silly but…the more I think about it, the more I find myself asking…what am I supposed to do now?” Rarity mumbled before letting out a sigh and raising her head towards the ceiling despite the fact she was turned around to talk to Twilight in the bench behind her. “At first I thought I would open a shop in Canterlot, but…when I actually saw just how much I would be getting, even if I lived in opulence, I would never be able to spend it all. Why bother making dresses when I no longer need to?”

In her seat next to Twilight, Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Yeah,” she drawled before kicking back and slouching just a bit. “Not really seeing a problem there. Hay, soon as I can find a pony that’s good enough to handle some rouge Everfree weather, I’m going to quit the weather patrol and go into full-time Wonderbolts preparation training.”

Twilight looked over to her friend with a frown. “Rainbow! Just because you don’t understand Rarity’s reasoning doesn’t mean you can’t be empathetic to her distress!” she scolded the pegasus who just looked back at her in confusion. It was rather obvious to Twilight that Rainbow had absolutely no understanding of what the unicorn had just said.

I really need to get her into reading, Twilight told herself. Too many years of talking to Rainbow once the pegasus had been challenged to expand her vocabulary were still inside her head.

“And Rarity,” the former alicorn went on before hesitation started to creep into her mind. Mostly because in all honesty, Twilight didn’t see much in the way of downsides when it came to their newfound wealth. As long as things didn’t get too out of control of course. “Um…well…just because you don’t need the money from the sales…” She paused and took a deep breath to help fight the nervousness. “Look, I know I shouldn’t be saying this, but…you hit it big in the fashion world Rarity.”

Twilight wrestled with the decision to say more. She didn’t want to tarnish Rarity’s hopes and dreams involving fashion, but…if things continued unabated…

Princess Twilight Sparkle kept the scowl from her face as she ducked her head to enter the Carousel Fashions main design studio before blowing more than a few strands of her ethereal mane out of her eyes. With all the annoyances her continually moving hair had given her, the Princess of Friendship was seriously considering to either permanently water her mane down with a spell to draw in moisture from the air, or invent a magical mousse that would work on the bucking thing. Of course, that would be after Twilight wrote a spell to make her a normal-sized pony that could still contain the power of her Element.

Sweet Celestia did she hate being tall. Being a head above her friends was bad enough, but her latest spurt had nearly put her on equal level with her old teacher!

As always, the entrance to the building with its marble walls adored with gems was immaculate enough to look like a palace. That helped her to not focus on the ponies that reacted to one of their rulers simply walking in on them without an escort or announcement. Twilight calculated she had about five minutes before Rainbow finally got over her hesitation and flew to her own personal Tartarus. It would be enough time to get everything set up.

The purple goddess did her best to ignore the surprised comments of “Majesty” and “Highness” on top of all the ponies prostrating themselves in intense bows, it was one of the good things her height allowed her to do without seeming too aloof. However, the mare Twilight found herself unable to ignore was standing towards the back and had her face near the ground along with all the others.

“Rise, my little ponies,” Twilight commanded with a gentle authority while repressing the urge to shout at all of them to get their faces off the floor and stand on their own four hooves. Protocol, she had to remember there were protocols for this sort of thing.

Wanting to get away from ‘her’ little ponies as fast as possible, Twilight trotted as fast as formality would allow, and approached the comparatively little unicorn that had been talking with a pair of business ponies before Twilight’s untimely entrance. “Rarity, I hope I am not disturbing you.”

It only lasted for an instant, but the unicorn’s eyes darted to the ponies she had been talking to, and then back to Twilight. “Of course not your majesty. We at Carousel Fashions are always happy to welcome a princess.”

Twilight knew that the formal tone and address was only because they were in public, but it still irked her. “I have a personal order I would like to make, if that would be alright?” she added before glancing at the two ponies Rarity had been talking to a moment before. Considering the unicorn had gone out to greet them personally, they had to be either extremely important clients, or business partners. Either way, Twilight felt bad for interrupting Rarity’s time with them.

“Of course, come with me to my office, if you would your Highness,” the unicorn replied with a bow.

After the two ponies had managed to get away from the others, Twilight followed Rarity into her familiar office, and the two smiled before exchanging much more friendly greetings and a hug that had Rarity standing on her hind hooves and Twilight only needing one of her legs.

Once they were done, the unicorn circled the alicorn with eyes that practically sparkled. “My Twilight, these growth spurts of yours are certainly something. You’re as big as Celestia now!”

“And in need of a new dress for formal parties,” the alicorn admitted as she blushed at the attention.

Rarity absently nodded. Twilight could tell she was already measuring the alicorn with her eyes and just let her friend do her thing while making small talk. “Unfortunately,” the goddess mumbled.

In response, Rarity giggled. “Well at least it gives us an excuse to see each other. Right?”

“Right,” Twilight mumbled as she tried to recall the last time she had seen Rarity…when she had needed another dress. “An excuse.”

As Twilight finished her tale, the other unicorn smiled down at her. “Well I was rather hoping that was the case Twilight. But now-”

Twilight held up a hoof to forestall her. “Let me finish. You hit it big and get major stars and very important ponies ordering dresses from you, and it was always something new, and big, and fancy. So even with our help, and even after you started hiring some other ponies to help you fill orders, you still had to design everything and oversee the originals being sewn together. And all that work took you away from us.”

Her vision blurred, and Twilight shook her head to try and clear it. In the end, she settled for looking down at the ground. “I know you love what you do Rarity, and I know it’s selfish and wrong of me to say this but…please don’t go to Canterlot. Please don’t expand beyond the boutique in Ponyville,” she begged while keeping her emotions in check. “Please, please, please don’t get caught up in that world again. You wasted so many years in that world, alone.

“I’m not saying stop doing what you love but…y-you have all the bits you could want now, right?” the former alicorn went on slowly as she grasped onto the most reasonable argument she could find. “And just because you live in a small town doesn’t mean that you can’t create beautiful dresses Rarity!”

Across the isle, Rarity blinked at Twilight when the purple unicorn went silent. “Well…that’s…interesting,” Rarity mumbled before pausing for a moment and moving her lips as if her next words had a taste to them. “So I’ll become famous, but it won’t be very fulfilling. That’s what you’re saying?”

Twilight repressed the urge to kick herself at the disappointment in Rarity’s voice. “I’m sorry, I should never have told you something like that. Please, I…I’m just being selfish, and tired, and…”

“No,” Rarity said gently. “It’s okay. And thank you for telling me. It’s better I know. I think I need to mull over this for a minute.”

“That means you can do me next Twilight!”

The shock to her system that Pinkie provided by just popping up from beneath Twilight’s field of vision made Twilight give out a little scream, with made the pink party pony giggle to no end. “Pinkie!”

“Teeehehe, that’ll keep your blood pumping,” Pinkie replied before she sat in the bench across from the unicorn. “Now come on Twilight give us some good news!”

Twilight tensed, unsure of what to say. While she could indeed remember a million and one times that she and the girls had plenty of fun times, it the way everything had ended helped cast an extremely dark cloud over everything. All the parties, the weddings, the foals and everything else were just brief happy moments in the lives of her friends that had gone so wrong because of her actions.

Actions that in the end, weren’t really her fault.

Actions that Celestia had both tricked and forced her into in the former timeline.

Actions that she had a chance to avoid before she set the future back onto its proper course.

“Hey! Now hold on just a cotton pickin’ minute!” Applejack cut in with a harsh tone and frown on her face. “Didn’t we agree not to talk about all this with Twilight if she’s gonna get all upset about it?”

The angry glare Applejack gave the other ponies made Twilight curious as to just what had gone on between them while she had been gone for a few seconds before brushing her curiosity aside. After what she had done, Twilight couldn’t say that her friends didn’t deserve their privacy.

Still, it was a little heartening to see her most staunch friend being the mare she remembered. Even though Applejack may not have liked the decision of the group, she stuck with it more firmly than any of the others a course of action had been agreed to.

It was why she had been the hardest of the holdouts…

“Ah said no.”

At six feet, the alicorn towered over the wrinkled little pony that might as well have been a foal in comparison to Twilight’s size. Even in her prime, Applejack would have been able to walk under Twilight’s body with her head held high. But at one-hundred and twenty, the wrinkled old mare was a shadow of what Twilight’s memories said she should be.

What she was supposed to be.

What she could be again.

Twilight shot Applejack a glare that had driven dragons into a panic and made the entire griffon army surrender in fear. “It wasn’t a request Applejack. You will be coming with me, even if I have to drag you and pin you down with my magic. I’ve given you more than enough time, more than any of the others ever had. Now say goodbye to your family, and lets get going.”

Instead of falling in line or being cowed as easily as Celestia was, the old pony just rolled her eyes before she spoke. “Don’t you go lookin’ at me like I’m some kinda foal to be pushed around by yer stare. Don’t care how much more magic you got than Fluttershy, hers didn’t never work on me, and neither does yers.”

The accusation got Twilight to flinch. “Applejack, I wasn’t staring at you.” The very thought of such an act terrified her. If the old pony’s heart was put into such strain, Twilight didn’t know if Applejack would have been able to live through it. “And I’m sorry if I’m being too aggressive but…please look at this from my perspective.”

“Yer gonna lose a friend,” Applejack said. “Ah know it’s a horrible feelin’. Lost plenty mahself over the years. You’ll…learn to deal with it like Ah did.”

Twilight’s legs shook as Applejack’s words hit her with the force of a deep space meteor impact. “Why’re you saying that?” she cried before bending down to look her oldest friend in the eyes. “Are you angry at me?”

“Twilight-”

“Is it because I’m stronger than you now?” the goddess went on. “Rainbow Dash never really forgave me when my speed surpassed hers. I tried to say it was just because she was getting old but…the magic of Harmony is what did it. My body just kept adjusting and adjusting and I managed to hide it for a few years but-”

Applejack rolled her eyes. “Ah ain’t no overgrown filly like that pegasus,” she said before Twilight could finish. “And Ah sure as hay ain’t mad at ya about something like that! Or even doin’ somethin’ like this if Ah was!”

Even with the assurances, Twilight remained on the ground in supplication to the older mare. “Then please, tell me what’s wrong so we can fix it and go home.”

“You-Everything’s wrong!” Applejack shouted in Twilight’s face, causing the larger mare to cringe. “All of it! It ain’t natural! Me. You. None of this is! And you doin’ what yer doin’ ain’t gonna change that! It’s just makin’ everything worse with the way ya’ll are lyin’ to each other!”

Twilight blinked at the comment, and all of a sudden everything became clear. As she figured why Applejack was so reluctant to join the others, it made her both relieved, and more than a bit angry.

It was only with a mild interest that she noticed the skies above darkened with her mood as the alicorn sat up to her full height. However, despite the fact she towered over Applejack once again, the smaller pony showed no fear or hesitation. “So…is that what your problem is? The illusion? All these years, you’ve been saying no because of that?”

Applejack sighed and shook her head. “Among other things. But what you and others are doin’ Twilight, it ain’t right.”

“The dream construct allows everypony full mobility and absolute freedom,” the goddess replied evenly. “Without it, most of them would be worse off than you.”

“But it ain’t real! The things ya’ll do in there, the stuff ya eat, the parties and games. Ain’t none of it is real,” Applejack told her evenly before reaching down to run her hoof through the dirt. “This. The feel, the smell, the taste, this is what’s real Twilight. And I’ll be bucked by a mule before I replace all of this, with a lie.”

Twilight let out a long sigh and shook her head at the situation. “Well I guess that’s it then.”

Applejack nodded. “Yes it-what the? TWILIGHT!” she shouted as the goddess wrapped Applejack up in her magic to lift the pony into the air. “You put me down right this instant, ya hear?”

“No! I waited until your great-great-grand foals were old enough to get to know you out of respect for you Applejack, because I love you more than any other pony outside my palace,” she said. “But now that they got to know you and vice versa, I’m taking you home.”

“Ah am home!”

“Well in five or six decades, I’m sure you’ll come to see things from a different perspective,” she replied before pausing at the rather depressing time table. “If it even takes that long I mean. Once all of you are with me, I’m sure I’ll be able to solve your problem. With the six of us together, there’s nothing we can’t do.”

“TWILIGHT, PUT ME DOWN DANGNABIT!”

…

The former goddess shook away the memory, and looked around to her friends. “Applejack’s right,” she told them. “We shouldn’t be talking about these things. I’m sorry everypony, it’s just so hard, knowing how amazing your all going to be and not being able to say anything.”

A lighthearted giggle from beside her drew the unicorn’s attention to Pinkie. “That’s okay Twilight. You don’t have to feel like we need to know. The surprise is half the fun of life, right?”

Twilight took a seat next to Pinkie to give her a hug when the party pony scooted over to make room, and leaned onto her most joyous friend to breath in the strange cotton-candy scent that lingered in Pinikie’s mane to help calm herself down and relax. “Thank you Pinkie.”

The pink pony just smiled back at her, and Twilight saw it was one of her special smiles. Not a grin, or some huge showing to teeth, just a little upward turning of her mouth and dimpling that expressed a moment Pinkie had found some happiness for herself.

Twilight yawned, and leaned to rest of her friend’s shoulder. Memories of a million sleepovers entered her mind, reminding Twilight just how comfortable Pinkie was to sleep against.

Her mind clouded some more, and Twilight began to wonder if-

“I’ve got it!”

The cry from Rarity jolted Twilight up, and she looked around in alarm. “Huh? What? Whozzit?”

Further down the row of seats, Rarity giggled before she raised up and turned around to look at Twilight. “You’re right Twilight! Just because I don’t need to income doesn’t mean I need to stop doing what I love!”

“Well that’s-”

Before Twilight could get out another word, Rarity cut her off with another laugh. “In fact, I’ll be able to do even better! I won’t have to accept every request that comes by and overwork myself staying up all hours of the night. I can pick and choose my clients, and even take some time to make a few dresses for a few ponies in town that I know need a new wardrobe, but can’t afford it. I mean, did you see what Ponyville’s mailmare wore to the last formal dance we had? If there’s a pony who needs a new outfit, it’s her!”

Twilight smiled at her friends outpouring of generosity before her eyelids started to become heavy again. “That’s…nice…Rarity,” she mumbled before latching onto her pink pillow.

“And the Gala! If we’re all going to the Gala, then what better place to show off my…” The rest of what the marshmallow unicorn faded to a buzz as Twilight lost the battle to keep her eyes open. Her last conscious thoughts, confused as she was when Celestia asked for friendship reports from the girls. Wait…that’s not supposed to happen yet either.

Twilight stumbled forward in confusion as she found herself on dark soil. Hadn’t she been on a train just a moment ago? What was…

A slight tingling in her horn made Twilight’s eyes widen in realization. “Oh no,” she mumbled before looking around at the incomplete landscape. All around her, rich brown dirt stretched out for as far as she could see, but nothing else. Despite the fact no sun shined overhead and the sky was black as night, her visibility wasn’t impaired at all.

The fact of her being in an impossible place drove the face home.

She was dreaming.

I fell asleep. How Could I fall asleep? Even without being able to feel her heartbeat, Twilight knew it must be racing. Idiot! Why did you have to go and relax?

“Okay, okay it’s not that bad,” the unicorn told herself…before she felt her feathers rustle and looked back to find her old wings on her back. A quick look around at the rest of her body showed Twilight that she was in her early ascended form, the body she wore in the years before she had fully unlocked the flow of energy from Magic to surpass Celestia’s power.

Twilight furiously shook her head. What she looked like didn’t matter. Everything here was inside her own head, and the spell she had prepared to automatically put her into a lucid state upon dreaming was working just fine. At the very least, she wouldn’t be some kind of helpless observer when…

“WHY?”

The pained cry made Twilight stiffen, and all of a sudden, the empty dreamscape of fresh soil wasn’t so empty. Gravestones stretched out into the darkness as far as the alicorn could see. The new scenery put Twilight on edge, and she slowly backed away from all of the stone markers.

Twilight fiercely shook her head again. She needed to focus, she couldn’t get caught up in the dream. Her wards wouldn’t be enough to keep Luna out… If she’s even awake right now, the dream-alicorn theorized.

With it being after breakfast, Twilight knew Luna would have been settling into bed for the morning. With a little luck, there wouldn’t be any intrusion and she could deal with whatever her subconscious dragged up.

The ground in front of one erupted, and the half-decayed corpse of a stallion pulled itself out of the ground. “Why?”

Okay Twilight keep calm, she told herself as she looked at the zombie. Remember how Spike was acting after that first night? You don’t want to worry your friends. You don’t want to scare them. Don’t scream, don’t let the dream take you in. You’re in control this time. This is your head, and these are just stupid guilt manifestations.

Another pony crawled it’s way to the surface. It was a mare this time. “Why didn’t you save me?”

You can handle this, she thought.

Another appeared. “I played the violin!”

“Shut up,” Twilight grumbled as she felt the tugging of the dream trying to pull her into it. To force her into a state of helplessness as the dead wrongfully accused her of wrongdoing. Oh please don’t let me talk in my sleep.

And another. “I had foals!”

Willing her horn to ignite with power, Twilight gritted her teeth. While she may have been dreaming, the imagery of her magic still had power. It was something to focus on, something she knew would allow her to affect change to scenario that was in front of her. “I said shut up!”

And still, another. “You killed us!”

“I SAID SHUT UP!” Twilight howled before she fired a burst of purple energy from her horn that destroyed three of the walking dead ponies that were coming after her.

More of the dead pulled themselves up from their graves, cursing the goddess for her inaction, trying to guilt her with details of their lives, or outright blaming one of the beings responsible for their deaths. And all of them were given the same response by the princess.

“SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!” Twilight screamed as she fired energy blast after energy blast at the crowd to keep them from touching her and dragging her off who knows where. “NONE OF THAT MATTERS! NONE OF YOU MATTER! NONE OF IT HAPPENED ANYMORE, SO STOP HAUNTING ME!”

With a final burst of power, Twilight stuck at the dreamscape itself, shattering everything around her like glass before she fell into the darkness that replaced the world.

She flapped her wings, but nothing would stop Twilight from falling through the infinite blackness. The alicorn closed her eyes to scream in a mix of frustration at her useless wings, and horror at the situation of her descent.

And then she felt herself on solid ground again. There was no simple landing, she was just…there.

The sudden change in her situation made Twilight groan. “This is why I hate dreaming,” she grumbled before taking a look around to see what nonsense she had fallen into now.

Twilight found herself in a clean room with a tiled flood and electric lamps overhead. Her surroundings were obviously based off a memory rather than some hodgepodge of horror settings. As she looked around, the hospital she was in became more and more defined with doors and a dozen other minor details. As things started to fall into place, Twilight actually found herself a little more at ease.

Wherever she had ended up, it wasn’t the room Fluttershy and Rainbow had shared after their accident. That realization made Twilight sigh in relief. Even knowing how everything involved with the hospitalization of the elderly ponies had ended, the memory of her former guard captain and most gentle friend made Twilight shiver.

The sound of a heartbeat monitor coming from behind made Twilight turn around, and she saw a curtain that was obviously hiding a hospital bed. Its sudden appearance made the goddess roll her eyes before she approached the curtain and threw it back.

The stallion laying on the bed was old and wrinkled. Tubes running into his nose kept the oxygen flying into lungs that were barely functioning, and an IV tied to his leg continued to drip a magical potion into his body that worked to prolong his life for a few more days.

Although she recognized him, Twilight didn’t feel any pangs of guilt. The only emotion that registered was annoyance. “Oh…it’s you. Experiment A.L. One,” she muttered before looking up at the ceiling. “You know subconscious, if you’re trying to guilt me into something involving this pony, you’re wasting our time.”

“Why…” the old stallion paused to breathe. “Why did you kill me?”

Twilight frowned. “Because that was the experiment.” Then, rather than waste more time talking to the failure, she turned and left through the door and slammed it behind her.

After moving through the doorway, Twilight frowned at the room in front of her. The endless beds laying side by side looked a lot like a ward she and the other girls had visited countless times to cheer up foals resting there. But instead of the young, every bed that she came across held an elderly stallion or mare. All ponies she had killed to observe the moment of their deaths.

As she walked through the mass of failures, Twilight heard them calling out to her, demanding the reason for their deaths. Five. Ten. A dozen. Two dozen. The number of ponies crying out to her continued to increase until they had the alicorn growling with irritation.

Finally, she turned to face them all and screamed. “Oh quit complaining! You agreed to it! You all agreed to it! I gave your families compensation! Scholarships! Letters of recommendation for the military! Every last one of you traded the last few days of your worthless lives to make things better for your families! And it’s not like a single one of you helped me in return! SO DON’T COME WHINING TO ME NOW!”

“And me?”

The new voice drew Twilight’s attention to one of the beds still behind her. She turned, and frowned at the middle-aged pony laying there. The dark red stallion with a black mane and a pair of crossed bones underneath a skull got a growl from Twilight before he spoke. “You didn’t give me anything before you killed me.”

“You were a murderer,” the alicorn told the rather pathetic manifestation of her guilt. “You deserved to die, and I needed to observe the death of a pony with more magic in him than somepony who could barely stand. It was a success by the way, all thanks to you…and the others.”

Twilight continued on down the hallway full of beds, ignoring the other ponies that were closer to her apparent age than the first group. When she finally reached the end, the alicorn glared at the blank wall and closed her eyes.

When she opened them, a door had appeared.

After taking one last look at the pathetic attempt to assail her mind, Twilight rolled her eyes. A part of her pointed out the logic of staying in such a room wouldn’t be too bad but...the elderly ponies crying for restitution might just annoy her to death by the time she woke up.

Plus, time flowed differently in the unconscious world. But progression would allow things to pass faster. “Whatever’s next better be better than this,” she mumbled. If it wasn’t, Twilight was going to feel really stupid for all the precautions she had taken to avoid her nightmares.

With a final thought of contempt for the ponies around her, Twilight willed an exit to the room to appear in front of her, and stepped through the door.

The world around her changed.

A strange sense of vertigo assaulted Twilight’s senses, and the next thing she knew, she was standing on a crystal floor that looked all too familiar. “My castle?” the goddess mumbled before everything started to take shape.

The room she was in was cavernous, but not in an impossible way. In fact, the dimensions of the place she was in made Twilight realize exactly where he was before everything had appeared. That knowledge sent a shiver of fear through her spine. “Oh no. Not this. Please, not this.”

Anxiety started to build in her mind, and Twilight started to feel that the verbal assault of the elderly was preferable to what she knew was coming next. She turned around, and found herself facing the same direction she had been a moment ago, with one change. The room was complete.

Two dozen rows of giant glass cylinders decorated what had been the space in front of Twilight, grown from the magic of her palace for her experiments. Each one with a crystal console interface in front of each to monitor the life form within. All of them filled with a thick fluid, holding a sleeping pegasus pony at various stages of her development, from embryo to young adult.

Memories of a time gone by threatened to assault her, and Twilight fiercely shook her head to try and keep it clear. She stumbled back away from the display, and blinked when her body didn’t move the way she expected it too.

The oddity made Twilight open her eyes to look around, and she had found her body had changed once again to the one she had spent so many more years in. At nine feet tall, she was the largest and most powerful of the alicorns by far. Her mane and tail flowed on their own, and a pair of wings surpassing Celestia’s in their beauty. The complete magic of Harmony had truly transformed her into the form of a goddess that surpassed all others.

Shame built in Twilight’s mind, and she looked back at her flank. Her six pointed star shone with its own light, surrounded by a collection of other symbols that included red apple, a diamond, a single party balloon, a lone butterfly, and a lightning bolt that looked to be made from a rainbow.

“Why?” the goddess asked whatever part of her mind was forcing her into her final form. “Why are you making me look like this? I DON’T WANT TO BE THIS WAY ANYMORE!”

Twilight closed her eyes and willed herself to transform back into the little alicorn body she had. But when she opened them, she saw herself as she had been before the temporal magic had allowed her to return to a simpler time.

Another attempt to remake herself into a unicorn was met with the same result. As was Twilight’s attempt to change into a smaller, six-foot alicorn.

Breathing in air through her teeth, Twilight forced herself to try and calm down. “Fine,” she told herself. “I’ll stay like this then. It’s only a dream. I’m not really… It’s fine. I can deal with this. I can deal with this, and I can deal with the rebirthing chamb-”

“Hey Egghead,” a voice called out, freezing Twilight in mid-word.

Oh no, she thought to herself in horror. The goddess's ears detected the flapping of wings a second before there was sound of hooves scraping against the crystal floor. No, no, no, no. Not this...please...anything but this.

“Wow! You got tall! Nice wings too. Bet I can still beat you in a race though.”

Twilight let out a tiny squeak as the words assaulted her, and forced the goddess to open her eyes. She looked down in apprehension at the pegasus standing in front of her, a fully grown version of what floated in the tanks.

Rainbow Dash looked up at Twilight with a smile on the face of her unofficial big sister. “Come on Twilight, let’s go race. We don’t have much time, and we gotta do the most with it, right?”

“No...no,” Twilight whispered to herself as she backed away from the blue pony that looked so much like her old friend.

It followed her until Twilight’s plot hit the wall, and she found herself trapped in a corner that had just...appeared. “Please don’t do this.”

“Do what?” the Rainbow Dash asked with a frown as its features slowly darkened turning from excitement to anger. “Remind you how you murdered me?”

Author's Note

Editing note: Corrected typos and a minor plot point that would have become apparent two chapters down the line

Chapter 9: Lunar Confrontation

The goddess Twilight Sparkle read through the information on the crystal screen attached to the collecting crystal in front of her. In fifteen hours, the last bits of Rainbow’s essence would be pulled from the aether and her 275,654th attempt to revive the first of her friends would be ready. Then all she had to do was implant it into the blank pegasus, wait for the body to adapt, and Rainbow Dash would emerge from her chamber and into the world.

A sliver of doubt crawled its way up through Twilight’s mind, informing her of the futility of it all. That if it hadn’t worked in all these years, there was no reason for it to start now. The imperfections would begin to show once testing began, and she would need to recycle the materials to start everything over.

Twilight crushed the thought. It didn’t matter if the process hadn’t worked so far. All she needed was a single success. And she would never give up. She had promised Rainbow that the pegasus would fly again one day. Pinkie Promised.

After Twilight finished her final checks to make sure everything was going smoothly, she headed for the exit from her lab. A nap before Rainbow was reborn sounded like a good idea. Not to mention fitting.

A sudden disturbance in the magic of her castle made Twilight stop in mid-step and frown. “What is that?” she mumbled to herself. It felt like somepony was wandering around inside her domain. But that was impossible.

Reacting almost on instinct, Twilight called up her magic and created a dozen scrying windows to display the perimeter of the area around her home. While nopony lived within one hundred miles of her castle, she did get visitors from time to time. Tourists wanting to photograph the Palace of Friendship came nosing around about once a month, hoping to catch a glimpse of the most powerful alicorn.

Twilight always made it a point to avoid them. The last time she had felt like smiling and waving at such ponies, Celestia had thought it was a sign she was getting ready to come back into the world. Kicking her old teacher out hadn’t been a pleasant experience.

When her scrying found nothing, Twilight frowned at the empty projections. A pegasus doing a flyby wouldn’t have been detected unless it landed on the balcony. Which would have then activated the enchantment to teleport the pony back to wherever they came from with a sign stuck to their head for a week that read ‘I LIKE TRESPASSING!’.

The only ponies allowed in Twilight’s palace were her friends.

And Princess Celestia…if only out of necessity.

Twilight found herself a little excited by the mystery. She hadn’t had a good one of those in millennia. The break in her schedule was almost…refreshing.

“Okay so…quick scan of the castle then,” she mumbled to herself before lighting up her horn again to display a map of her home, complete with the location of every pony inside.

The goddess nodded to herself as she saw her own magical signature displayed in the basement section of her map. Nothing out of the ordinary there. However, Twilight paused at the section displaying the first floor. According to it, there was an earth pony just wandering around unhindered.

Curiosity, shock, disbelief, worry over her sanity, Twilight’s mind went through half a dozen different emotions and a million more possibilities as she looked at the impossibility in front of her. There was no possible way that a pony, dragon, diamond dog, or anything from beyond Equestria’s borders could get in. Much less roam around without activating her palace’s defenses!

Feelings of intrigue were replaced by those of anger. The only creatures that were allowed to roam within Twilight’s Palace of Friendship were her friends! All of whom were murdered long before any living creature in Equestria was born. The fact that something had found a way to bypass that requirement and trod upon ground meant only for those dear to her made the goddess furious.

After calling up enough magic to crush mountains, Twilight bent the fabric of spacetime to change her location so that she stood in front of the intruder that was daring to wander around the palace’s entry hall in her full glory. Ablaze with her power, she glared at the tan earth pony with the brown mane and spread her wings in a display meant to cow him. “Who dares trespass within these sacred halls?”

Twilight’s voice shook the ground for miles around, and she glared at the little pony in front of her with contempt. If some party pony had managed to sneak in by deciding everypony in the world was his friend, Twilight would quickly dissuade him of such a notion.

“Ah Twilight, good to see you again old girl,” the earth pony in a tie exclaimed before he completely ignored the all-powerful being that could crush him like a bug and actually walked a circuit around her before coming back to look at the goddess face to face. “Had another one of those growth spurts did you? Although what’s with the cutie mark? I didn’t think those things could be altered. Removed, yes. Switched around…with certain side effects, doable. But outright changed? That’s new! Oh I do love new things!”

The familiarity that the stallion spoke to her made Twilight’s mouth drop out of surprise…and stay down as she noticed his cutie mark. She had seen dozens of timepiece cutie marks over the years. When she first came to Ponyville there was a stallion with one that nearly matched Minuette’s. So Twilight ignored its outward appearance and examined its magical signature, something that was different for every pony. When the goddess recognized it, she only became more confused.

“T-Time Turner?” she asked while her back legs gave out and she fell to the ground with a loud smack. Her magic didn’t lie. The pony standing in front of her was indeed the wacky inventor that ran the Wibbly-Wobbly clock shop. The stallion that had disappeared eons ago. “But…you…how? Y-You left Ponyville a year after Ditzy passed.”

Upon hearing the name, the little pony cleared his throat and blinked a few times. “Yes well, that wound is still a bit fresh. So I’ll thank you not to mention it so casually,” he told her before letting out a long sigh. “And I thought I had told you to call me Doctor.”

Despite her age, the impossibility of it all, and a million other things, Twilight found herself doing what she always did when her old friend made that request. She pointed her hoof at him and frowned. “I’ve checked with every single University and Med school in Equestria, and not a single one says you attended. No doctorate, no Dr title!” Twilight told the stallion.

Then she suddenly noticed the foolishness of what was going on, and shook herself out of the routed response. “Wait a minute, never mind that! How the buck are you even here!?”

Time Turner blinked. “Ah yes, that. Well, after Ditzy…you know. I got back to tinkering with my TARDIS,” he said before pointing to the far corner of the hallway next to the door where a strange blue box sat. “Still can’t get it to go backwards in time. The time stream of this universe operates on a different…well, flow you could say, than my old one you see. But forward in time is easy enough. Thought I’d jump a few thousand years to see if ponies ever managed to make a proper English muffin.”

Twilight…blinked…and looked over to the unassuming blue box that looked a great deal like a fancy outhouse with windows. “You have a…time machine?”

Princess Celestia stood outside the large golden double doors to her little sister’s quarters, trying to find the words she needed to say, unsure if she even should go in at this time. Twilight had mentioned that Luna would eventually take up her duties on her own but…the way she said it…

Obviously, Twilight’s interpretation of things were slanted.

Still…Celestia couldn’t help but acknowledge the underlying theme in all of Twilight’s accusations. Even if a quarter of what she said was true, it made the Alicorn of the Sun more depressed than she had been in months.

There wouldn’t be any more trouble from Luna, because her little sister had…accepted her place. No more Nightmare Moon, because Luna had gotten used to feeling inferior. No more arguments from Luna because…Celestia had tamed her.

Part of Celestia went over the information in the best possible light. The arguments, the countermanding of orders, the constant use of the Royal Canterlot Voice, all of it was something Celestia would no longer have to worry about! Celestia found herself feeling ill at the fact her Luna’s loss of her fire was a good thing. Oh sister, all I want for you is to be happy.

She took in a deep breath, and walked past the guards to enter into the sitting room of Luna’s quarters. The collection of rooms Luna had been given to sleep in were a near-duplicate of her own. Celestia had ordered constructed a year ago in anticipation of her sister’s return. Off to her right was Luna’s bathroom, while a door to her left held the alicorn’s private study. It was the door to Luna’s bedroom that lay straight ahead that she headed towards.

The loud hoof strikes echoed throughout the room, and Celestia waited for a few seconds while the noise did its job and awoke Luna from her slumber. “Sister, might I come in?”

A low moan came from the other side of the doorway that made Celestia think of those silly zompony picture books that had gained some popularity in the past five years. “Whaaaaaat?” the voice on the other side of the door asked in a long drawl.

“I was hoping to talk to you,” Celestia replied. “I’m sorry if I woke you, I was…” The goddess stopped herself before she said the wrong word. Busy. Too busy to talk to you while you were awake. Yes, that’s going to go over real well Tia.

She took a deep breath and let out a long sigh. Even with a canceled schedule for most of the day, Celestia had still needed to hold court and address the problems of her little ponies.

“I was talking to somepony earlier and…she made me realize a few things,” Celestia told her while hesitation built in her mind. “Can I…come in and talk?”

Another groan came from inside the room. “If you wish.”

Celestia steeled herself, and opened the door to step inside the room.

The sight that greeted her made Celestia tense. The form that laid on the bed left much of the mattress unclaimed. Her coat was too light, and the mane of the alicorn that was looking up at her lacked the magical infusion of Celestia’s that had it blowing around without a wind to provide motion.

This was not the sister that Celestia remembered. The Luna of Celestia’s memories was proud, powerful, sure of herself and strong. She had almost always had a smile on her face…at least until…their falling out.

The Luna in front of her was small and weak, a simple shadow of the power she should have possessed. But what was worse was the air of depression that the little alicorn wore like a cloak. She looked up at Celestia with tired eyes that screamed a need for sleep. “Is there something you needed, big sister?”

A tiny bit of hesitation in Luna’s soft voice tore at Celestia’s heart. Luna should have been angry at being awoken so soon into her sleep. Instead, she simply laid there, waiting for Celestia to talk.

To give orders.

“Like a good little princess,” Twilight’s voice echoed in Celestia’s head.

It was disturbing how easily the word ‘princess’ was almost replaced with ‘servant’.

Centuries of experience kept Celestia’s worry from showing on her face, and she laid down on the floor. With Celestia’s much larger size, the act only put her and Luna eye to eye.

“Luna…” The feeling of unease in Celestia’s heart tripled and…all of a sudden, slowly leading the conversation into what she was hoping to talk about seemed like a better idea than just cutting to the chase. That way, she could gauge Luna’s mood, see the possibilities, and guide her sister towards the proper responses.

Once again, Celestia managed to bar her apprehension from entering her voice. “How are you feeling?”

“Tired. Now ask what you came here to ask so that I may return to my slumber, lest I throw you out and let all of our little ponies know what weight the scales proclaim when you stand upon them should you try again,” Celestia’s memory told her Luna should have said.

Instead, the alicorn sighed and looked away from her. “Well enough. Although I still feel in need of rest before I resume my duties. Apologies for my selfishness sister. But I beg of you to continue to move the moon through the sky for me a bit longer?”

The moon. Before her exile, Luna had always referred to it as hers. The fact that she wasn’t was another worry for Celestia to fret over. Still, Celestia looked at her little sister with her full attention, and then moved her vision beyond the Luna in front of her, and the ones that could be.

Celestia would be the first to admit that her foresight was…confusing in the extreme. It was a combination of centuries of experience, her own mind’s ability to quickly solve problems, and a little bit of precognition that she had suspected for a long time was a gift from the Tree of Harmony. Although…Cadence’s ability to predict the romantic future of a stallion seemed to disprove that, as she had no link with the Tree.

Thanks to her foresight, Celestia had managed to ward off evil before it grew too threatening several times in the past, and maintained the delicate balance of Harmony that kept Equestria the most prosperous nation on the planet.

Several possibilities laid themselves out before Celestia as she searched for the perfect way to cheer her sister up so they could get down to what was really bothering the rightful Alicorn of the Moon.

If she were to ask Luna about the reconstruction of her Night Guard…Luna’s depression would grow.

If Celestia tried to talk about the décor…Luna’s unhappiness would increase.

A conversation about the Canterlot night scene…would drive Luna into a deeper funk.

Talking about when she would be ready to move the moon again…was the worse option that she had seen yet by far.

After seeing four of her options come to unsatisfactory ends, Celestia put her focus back on the alicorn in front of her now rather than the ones that could be and decided to skip the small talk. “Luna, what’s wrong?”

The much smaller alicorn blinked in confusion. “Big Sister?”

“I know you are not ill,” Celestia told her with a concerned voice. “Or tired…in the permanent sense, I mean. You are fully recovered from the events at our former castle. Yet still you lay in your bed, or spend only a few hours each night wandering the halls. Your Night Guard’s return lifted your spirits a little but…I still see how troubled you are and it worries me.”

Luna gasped. Her eyes widened, and she stood up. “Big Sister no! You do not have reason to worry. I would not converse with the Nightmare again! I-I have learned my lesson about-”

Celestia stood up to her full height. “That is not what I mean at all!” she shouted in a panic. The fact that Luna would even consider Celestia suspecting her younger sister of working with that…creature again made Celestia feel…ashamed of herself. Does she truly think so little of me?

“Oh Luna no,” she mumbled with a shake of her head at the situation. “I know you would never…I’m not afraid of you Luna. I’m concerned for you. Ever since you came back you’ve been hesitant and…a shadow of your former self. I see you sitting there, wrapped in your own sadness and… All I want to do is see you smile again Luna! I want to see the mare I remember from when we lived in the Everfree. I love you with all my heart and, seeing you like this…it hurts. Please, tell me what I need to do to help you Luna.”

The alicorn on the bed held Celestia’s gaze for a moment, then looked away. “You have already done everything you needed to Sister,” she replied. A brief moment of silence passed between the two, and Luna let out a long sigh. “And I am not faking my exhaustion. Yes, my magic has recovered, my body healed, my mind cleared, and yet…exhaustion lingers.”

Then, the light blue alicorn looked back up to the larger one. “Some nights, I find it hard just to get out of bed, Big Sister. It is not a physical malady though. Nor a magical one. And just last night, I believed myself recovered for a few moments when I thought another pony came to seek my council.”

Although Celestia was afraid she knew the cause of Luna’s problem, she focused on the positive. “Somepony came to see you?”

The glimmer of happiness in Luna’s eyes faded at Celestia’s question, and she drew into herself just a bit. “No. One of the mares that saved me crossed my path the other night. It was a mistake on my part to think she had been brought to me by anything other than coincidence,” she said before brightening up just a little. “Still, I did manage to be a bit of some help to her. Like in the old days.”

Celestia smiled at the news. “That’s good,” she replied as a plan formulated in her head. “You know, an arrangement could be made if you want to see them again. I’m certain they would enjoy your company.” While Twilight would probably raise holy hay and dig her hooves in, it wasn’t really going against her word since it was Luna they would be dealing with, not Celestia herself.

That was apparently the wrong thing to say, as Luna’s face became a scowl. “And shall you be scheduling play dates for me with the local foals as well?”

Rather than step up to the challenge, Celestia backed away from the alicorn and lowered her head slightly in a bow. “I’m sorry if I offended you Luna. I just…” she took a deep breath to giver herself some time in order to find the proper words. “I want you to be happy Sister, and I know that you have been rather…reclusive since your return.”

“Well with all the changes that have occurred, what did you expect Big Sister?” she mumbled. “I have fallen one-thousand years behind the times. It shall take months before I can hope to make a public appearance without embarrassing myself.”

Celestia nodded as she worked her mind to at least try and work the situation to its best outcome. “Perhaps a private audience then?” she asked as new ideas formed in her mind. “Twilight and her friends were here the night before. If one of them met you, I am certain the rest would be interested in doing the same.” Rarity seemed like quite the wannabe socialite, she would certainly jump at the chance to be one of the first mares to get an in with the new princess. “We could invite them all back for…a private function, perhaps?” Once again, the goddesses mind called up the memory of her discussion with Twilight and she pushed it to the side.

When weighed against her sister, such things mattered little. It was doubtful the purple unicorn would accept anyway.

“So you are hoping to set me up on a play date then?” Luna deadpanned.

Celestia groaned in response. “You know that isn’t it sister!” she countered. “But…grumble if you wish for me mentioning this, but if you had a few personal relationships, then you might have not turned to the Nightmare.”

She turned away from her little sister’s bed. “And I know I was the same! With a few friends to whisper in my ear, I might have bothered to be there for you rather than been so willing to busy myself with meaningless things,” the goddess admitted.

Memories of a thousand years ago assaulted Celestia. Despite not wanting to remember, they came in force. As Twilight had said, she had been invited to a thousand balls when the night began and her duties ended, oversaw hundreds of celebrations that she had worked into her schedule as part of those duties, and her stomach turned as she remembered a thousand ponies looking up at her in admiration, thinking at the time that was proof of her magnificence.

But, as always whenever such doubts crept in…Celestia consoled herself with the fact that everything that had happened, had to happen. If Luna hadn’t become the Nightmare, Celestia wouldn’t have realized her own flaws and worked to remove them. On top off which, now that Luna had learned the error of her ways, Celestia could…show her…how to be the princess she was…supposed to...be.

“You really rotten princess!” Twilight’s voice accused Celestia, using the goddesses own childish reservations against her.

Still…the accusation lingered, despite her attempts to shake it off.

But that was the problem with personal relationships. The weight their words carried was more than any cheering crowd or faceless admirers. And the fact that Twilight was armed with knowledge Celestia couldn’t know made her attempts to bring forth a defense useless.

On top of which, the anger her student had towards Celestia…it pointed to a future that wasn’t what she had envisioned. A future that, despite all her suffering and sacrifice to make things perfect in the wake of her sister’s banishment, was anything but.

But WHY? What was it that she was missing? What she had overlooked to cause such a disruption to her plans so close to their fruition?

The obvious answer were the five friends that Twilight had made, and how they rose to claim an Element for each one of themselves, rather than teaching Twilight about the five that made up her own so that she could wield them all herself. But how that could have made such a difference in the long term, Celestia just couldn’t understand.

The alicorn cleared her mind with a sigh. Now was not the time to think of such things. Her sister was more important than the oddities that were Twilight’s friends.

Another deep breath, and she turned again to face Luna. The smaller alicorn was looking out the window, making Celestia wonder if she had even been heard what she had said previously. “Luna?”

The other alicorn winced as if in pain.

Celestia was by her side in an instant. “LUNA!”

“Apologies Sister I…Twilight Sparkle is experiencing a nightmare,” Luna replied with a little grimace. “A nightmare the likes of which I have not felt since…I was on the moon.” Unsaid went the fact that she had been a captive of the creature that created such things. “I must go to her sister. This is one duty I cannot shirk.”

For the tiniest moment, Celestia actually considered telling Luna to forget about it, and let the little mare face what was more than likely a guilty conscience. It served her right for how she had acted. The fact that such a thought existed at all also shamed the larger princess.

“Then go Little Sister. Go and perform your duties.”

Luna was filled with an odd sense of trepidation as she floated through the land between wakefulness and dreams. Despite the area of the place having no true form, Luna willed it into a semblance of navigability. Two long rows of doors appeared and flanked her. Although thy extended into the distance, the alicorn didn’t walk down the hallway or even need to move to locate what she was looking for.

She opened the door to Twilight Sparkle’s dream, and stepped inside. A tingling sensation passed through Luna’s dream body as she crossed the threshold of the unicorn’s dream, and the Princess of the Night took note of the toothless defense before continuing on.

The first section of the dream that Luna came across was shattered, yet she could detect the lingering remains of several guilt phantoms calling attention to something that Twilight had tried to bury in her mind. The second area of her journey brought the alicorn through a modern hospital that, like the first section of Twilight’s dreamscape, was littered with reminders. Not as intense as the guilt that had come before, but still possessing a special weight of their own, all the same.

Luna moved through the area as quickly as she could, feeling Twilight’s presence up ahead. She ducked into the next area of Twilight’s mind and-

“DON’T GIVE ME THAT!” Twilight’s voice rang out. “You’re a part of me! You know as well as I do what had to be done! THE ONLY WAY TO BRING HER BACK WAS TO GET RID OF YOU!”

Luna slowed her pace as the world around her turned to crystal, reminiscent of the ancient empire so long vanished even before her departure from Equestria. In front of her, she made out two occupants in the room, as well as several more pony-like shapes floating in large glass cylinders spaced evenly throughout the room. As was her usual method, she concealed herself within the background of the dream, then slowly moved into a position to observe.

The sight before her was…disturbing. While seeing a pony’s dream persona change was not unheard of, the image Twilight cast of herself brought memories Luna would rather leave in the past. By her stature alone, Luna could tell the student had decided that she was far greater than the teacher.

The other pony was another guilt manifestation, only conversing with its creator. It didn’t take much for Luna to recognize the form it had been crafted into as one of the pegasi that had freed her using the Elements of Harmony. The only difference between the two was the number one upon the manifestation’s head, and the missing lightning bolt on her cutie mark. But why Twilight would be feeling guilty about Rainbow Dash, Luna couldn’t comprehend.

“Even if I wasn’t her,” the Rainbow-guilt went on as she looked up at Twilight. “Wasn’t I a friend? We spent weeks together, flying and having more fun that you ever did since Ponyville was destroyed! You were finally getting out of the castle again!And then you ruined it all! All because I couldn’t remember one stupid little filly!”

Twilight stomped her hoof down, and the dream shook. “Scootaloo was Rainbow’s little sister! She would NEVER forget about her! AND THAT MEANT YOU WEREN’T RAINBOW! You were just some stupid doll I made that looked and sounded like her because I gave you an incomplete soul! You weren’t her! You were never her! NOW PLEASE JUST GO AWAY!”

From her hiding place, Luna watched on in rapt attention as dreamtime magic coalesced around Twilight’s horn into a deconstructing spell. There was a bright flash of light, and when it cleared, she saw that the Rainbow-guilt was gone, banished to the back of Twilight’s mind until she awoke. It was hardly a permanent solution to a pony’s mental distress, but usually the first one Luna used to allow her time to converse with one of the ponies under her care.

It was also a spell only she could have access to. Dream magic was her domain, and had been accessible only by her since Luna had trained no others for one-thousand years. The fact that Twilight Sparkle had used it was…odd.

Twilight stood motionless, staring at the empty space where what she had called a faux Rainbow Dash had been a moment before. Then, her rump fell to the crystal cavern's floor with a loud smack, and the pseudo-alicorn’s body shivered. Glistening droplets of water fell from her eyes as the goddess took in a sniffling breath. “I’m sorry,” she told the empty room before letting out a tiny whimper. “I’m sorry I couldn’t do it right. I tried so hard, so many times, but I could never do it right. Memory…personality…skill…there was always a piece of you missing no matter how many times I tried.”

Another shudder wracked the giant alicorn’s body, and she slid forward into a slump onto the crystal floor. After what felt like half an hour, Twilight let out a long sigh, and picked her head up to look in Luna’s direction with tired eyes. “Did you enjoy the show, Luna?”

The Princess of the Night stiffened. For a moment, she wondered how Twilight could have possibly known of her presence, but… The ward spell, she realized. It must have been set to detect intrusions. Caught red-hoofed, Luna strained her back and slowly walked out of the shadows in all her regal countenance. “If you seek to try and force me into embarrassment for watching your actions Twilight Sparkle, you waste your time. Long have I guarded the dreams of my little-uh…why are you looking at me like that?”

The expression on Twilight’s face was not one of shame for dreaming above her station or anger at being intruded upon within her own mind. Rather, she looked like a mare that had just seen the most adorable of animals and was barely holding in making one of those ridiculously annoying sounds.

But as soon as Luna asked her pointed question, Twilight’s expression cleared. “Oh! Ah-he, sorry. It’s just been so long since I’ve seen you look so…um, young!” It was obvious that was most definitely not what had been coming out before Twilight’s proprieties beat her mouth to the punch.

Luna blinked at the oddity and let out a suffering sigh. A big rear and that line, it was almost as if she were speaking with another version of her older sister. “Yes, my appearance is most different from that of the Nightmare that-wait! What are you talking about? This is the second form that you have seen me in, not the first. Explain yourself Twilight Sparkle!”

Despite the fact she was laying down on the floor, Twilight was able to look Luna right in the eyes, and the look she gave was one of annoyed confusion with one eyebrow frowning, and the other raised. “Wait, you mean Celestia didn’t give you her half-baked idea about me using a time spell and going into the future for so many years that when the backlash, the de-aging side effect occurred, I ended up back in the current era at pretty much the same age that I left it?”

“What?” Luna managed to asked as her confusion built.

Twilight sighed in an aggravated way, and turned her head away from Luna. “So she’s actually keeping everything from you too,” the apparent alicorn grumbled. “I guess the little princess doesn’t think she has you under her hoof enough to tell you anything yet.Typical.”

Annoyed at the insult to her kin, Princess Luna drew herself back up to her full height. “Twilight Sparkle! You will not speak of my sister in such a way while you stand within my presence!”

The seemingly larger alicorn looked over to Luna with an annoyed expression. “Seriously?” she asked. “I know you’re probably feeling a bit lessened by the lack of your lunar empowerment, but you can’t expect me to believe that you're actually more of a lap dog than-”

“And you shall stop this cryptic rigmarole and tell me what is going on at once!” Luna commanded as she struck a hoof to the ground.

Twilight stared at Luna for a long moment, and then let out a long sigh. “Okay…I guess you deserve the truth as well,” she told the other mare before her expression hardened. “But I should warn you. This isn’t going to be something you’ll find pleasant.”

The warning was appreciated, but unneeded. “Very well. You may begin.”

“It all started when Celestia tricked me into casting this stupid spell that swapped the cutie marks of my friends,” Twilight told her. “If I had known what she was planning for me to do with what I made from that spell, I would have burned that stupid book and shoved the ashes down her throat.”

Luna sat on a soft bench she had made for herself in mirror of the one Twilight created for herself as the larger alicorn came to the end of her tale. “…and then, I transported myself back into the past,” she said before a small smile crossed her lips. “It wasn’t until I looked at myself that I found this one tiny flaw in my plan. I only had a few seconds to talk to…well, myself. If I hadn’t said yes…thousands of years of planning, all my experiments, what I did to…to get here. All of it would have been for nothing, and I would have to bear the guilt everything that I had done.”

Throughout the tale, Luna had managed to keep her composure. While the revelations that Twilight had given her were…disturbing, the alicorn could tell the purple pony was still holding things back. Some of them things she obviously didn’t want to think about, while others probably revolved around information that the other…sort-of-alicorn was trying to hide.

While it was within her power to look into such things with a normal pony, Luna was unsure what her hindsight would reveal. The events Twilight described had not happened yet to the general populace, and from the fake alicorn’s own admission, much of it would not be happening again. So, Luna was unsure what she would see when gazing at Twilight, and decided not to risk it at the moment.

“These’s something I don’t understand Twilight,” Luna spoke as she readjusted on her seat. “Why do you place so much blame at the hooves of my sister?”

Twilight’s face darkened, and she looked away from the smaller alicorn. “Right, guess this is the first time we’ve had this conversation from your perspective.” she grumbled before addressing Luna directly. “Celestia may have not have done everything personally, but she got the ball rolling and made sure things occurred according to her plans, no matter who she hurt along the way.”

A glistening on the edge of Twilight’s eyes made Luna wonder if she should continue the questioning. Whatever the other alicorn was remembering, the pain it caused her must have been great. To continue with the inquiry would have only brought her more suffering.

“Twilight, my sister is many things, but…what you’re saying…I can’t believe that she would have personally engineered the death of your friends,” Luna told her.

Twilight snorted. “Because you don’t know her like I do Luna.”

The larger alicorn’s words caused the smaller to frown. “You claim I do not know my own sister better than some…” Luna searched for a word to correctly describe the creature that was sitting in front of her.

“The term you're looking for is sociopath,” Twilight told her with a bored tone and a shrug. “I’ve been called worse, but I won’t deny it. After Ponyville and my friends were taken away from me…I...lost myself. I stopped caring for anything outside my little corner of the world. I know I don’t…function well…without my friends and Spike.”

Luna raised an eyebrow at the mention of the dragon Celestia had told her was responsible for communications between her and the unicorn. “Yes, that is something I was wondering. Would not your child be able to help you cope with your loss?”

For a moment, Luna was afraid she had overstepped, as Twilight closed her eyes in pain. “No, he…Spike…” A shivered rushed through her body and she took a shuddering breath. “He died with Ponyville.”

Another mention of something Twilight had avoided speaking of made the temptation to see for herself rise in Luna. The fact that there was a future threat involved only made her decision all the more made up the second she considered it.

The deposed Alicorn of the Moon took and deep breath, and gazed upon Twilight Sparkle. She looked past the mare that was sitting in front of her, to the pony she had been before this day, or the day before, the week, the month, year…decade…

…century…

……millennium…

………and…

Luna blinked as she found herself standing in the town Twilight had been speaking of, much different than the one she could see from her tower’s window. The buildings were a tiny bit more upscale, with roofs of tile instead of thatch, and brick walkways ran their way through the grass. A large palace made from crystal loomed large in the center of down, refracting the sunlight and transforming it into every color of the rainbow. A simple wooden fortification surrounded the large village, and…

…the world…

……changed…

The alicorn fought to keep her footing as everything around her suddenly shifted. Without warning, the ground turned to…boiling pudding?

Luna leaped into the air and willed herself to stand as the entirety of the town suddenly shifted from a picturesque scene of tranquility, into something of a horror novel written by a madman. Beneath her, she saw ponies screaming as they sunk an impossible amount of feet until the burning lake of chocolate swallowed them up.

Inside the buildings, Luna could only catch glimpses of what looked to be insanity made manifest. Surprise slowed her thinking, but after the surprised horror of watching foals being eaten by gingerbread ponies inside their own homes, Luna believed she knew what was going on.

“DISCORD!”

The name of her ancient enemy drew Luna’s attention to the sky a second before Twilight descend from the sky at an impossible speed.

The alicorn was exactly the same as Luna had seen in the dream, only more…real. Larger than Tia by several feet, the future version of Twilight Sparkle glowed with the power of a million suns.

The second she touched the ground, the lake of boiling chocolate became grass, and other comic horrors were undone by Twilight’s very presence as if an invisible wave of harmonious magic washed out from where she impacted the ground. However, the restoration of the natural order was too late for the occupants of the town.

All around, what had been a perfect little community just moments ago was no more. Ponies laid on the ground and inside their homes. Some with their coats mostly gone and burn marks covering all of the visible skin, others had been put through other terrors that looked just as painful judging by the conditions of their bodies. None of them were moving. None of them were alive.

“DIIIIIIIIISSCORD!” Twilight howled again, her horn lighting with every color of the rainbow to the point where Luna had to shield her eyes. When she looked again, the Spirit of Chaos was standing in the middle of the field of corpses.

Twilight seethed as the draconequus as he gave the alicorn an obviously fake look of surprise. “Why Twilight, you’re looking…taller? Been drinking your milk?”

“You!” she growled with closed teeth. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE YOU MONSTER?”

Discord blinked, then smirked a little bit. “Now Twilight, there’s no reason to lose your head,” he said before sticking his arm behind his back. “Your assistant’s already taken care of that for you.”

He pulled his arm out from behind his back, and Luna fought the urge to gag. At the end of the draconequus’s lion arm was the severed head that he was manipulating like some sick puppet. “Don’t worry Twilight. I’m way ahead of you.”

On the other side of what Luan was sure to soon be a battlefield, Twilight began to breathe much too quickly to make use of the breaths she was using. “You…you killed…you…WHY?”

Discord blinked, and then looked at the severed dragon head before coming to a decision of some sort and tossing it over his shoulder like some bit of junk. “Come now Twilight, I’m just trying to do what Celestia told me.”

“You…what?” Twilight demanded, surprise overtaking her anger for a moment.

“Oh, just something she said a few months after I got free and found myself getting bored. She said, I needed to seek a balance. Didn’t really understand it until now though,” she replied as he held his hand together. “She told me to…seek a balance. I thought she was just talking about finding a way to have some fun without doing any damage, or maybe find a way to help ponies while still having fun. But no. No…now I understand what this whole balance thing means.

“You kill my friends,” Discord continued as she slowly spread his arms. “So I got to kill all of yours. Isn’t that great?!” There was flash of light, and then a scroll and quill appeared floating next to the creature. “Although I’m curious who I’m supposed to send the friendship report to these days. You, or sunbutt? I mean, you are bigger now, and everypony knows it’s size that determines who rules in Equestria.”

Another light began to build in Twilight’s horn.

“Okay, so I only had two friends, and the smooze went all purple again and tried to eat the world while you had...how many in this town? One thousand? Two? Never did learn to count right you understand. Numbers just mean so little to someone such as myself,” Discord asked. “But that’s just quality versus quality. It’s not like they mattered nearly as much as Fl-”

Discord was cut off as Twilight let out a bloodcurdling scream as she released her magic. “DIE!”

Luna blinked as the vision faded, and she was once again in the crystal chamber, on the dream bench across from Twilight as she sat on her own. She was glad she was sitting down, as the fact that Discord of all things had been shown to her, once again free and more malevolent than ever would have knocked Luna on her dream plot. The fear and pain on the faces of nearly a thousand ponies made the former Alicorn of the Moon tremble with the horrid realization that the draconequus hadn’t just taken the lives of that small town, but ensured that every one of them had been suffering to the maximum possible amount when they did go.

He had tortured them to death.

Twilight’s expression was slightly annoyed. “So, what did you see?” she asked.

The question made Luna focus on the presence rather than the extremely disturbing pictures that would be frozen in her mind for years to come. “Discord…he…breaks free?” she asked before another realization occurred. Something Luna knew she would have spotted earlier if not for the horror of the scene. “And the way he spoke to you. He knew you.”

Twilight frowned and grit her teeth. “He didn’t know…oh, you mean…” The larger alicorn let out a disgruntled sigh and shook her head. “Yes, Discord knew me. Within the year, Celestia will have a bout of insanity, and somehow decide that Discord deserves freedom. That he can be reformed,” she spat as her forelegs shook in rage. “One of my friends, Fluttershy, actually manages to make us all think she befriended him, and so Celestia just gives him a tiny little corner of Equestria to treat as his own personal play pen.”

As the explanation finished, Luna managed to keep her mind calm. The reason for Discord’s release was disturbing indeed. It nearly made her nearly look deeper into Twilight’s past to see if it was indeed true, but Luna resisted the urge to concentrate what was being said in the present with some effort, and picked out an oddity in Twilight’s words.

“What do you mean that Fluttershy made you all think she befriended Discord? Why would she spread such a falsehood?”

Once again, Luna feared that she had misspoke. Twilight raised her head up and glared at the smaller alicorn. “Fluttershy would never-oh…wait,” she mumbled before letting out an angry breath and breaking eye contact for a few seconds.

When Twilight looked at Luna again, the smaller alicorn could see that the purple one was still angry, although that anger was most certainly not directed towards her. “You misunderstand. Fluttershy…she managed to…well, she managed to give Discord something he never had before. A companion.”

Luna nodded once. “So, she did manage to befriend him.”

“No,” Twilight replied with a shake of her head. “While I’m sure Fluttershy considered Discord her friend, to him, she was…well… Fluttershy was somepony he could use to make himself feel good. He could show her things, and get an ego boost when she said how impressed she was. He could have someone to talk to in order to help fight off boredom. Everything Discord did with Fluttershy was so that she could applaud him, and feed his ego. Not once was there ever any true sacrifice on Discord’s part in Fluttershy’s name, or real expressions of care for her feelings. True friends care for one another on a level Discord never did for anything that wasn’t useful to him. So for Discord, all Fluttershy ever was…was an audience for his comedy.

“After I killed him-”

The rest of Twilight’s words were lost to Luna as she steadied herself. “You…what?”

Twilight tensed and looked away from her. “I used the full power of Harmony to end his existence. I’m not…proud of it, but…I just…” The purple alicorn’s breathing began to increase, and she looked down at the ground.

Not wanting to disturb the creature in front of her any further, Luna delved back into the road Twilight had walked down to get where she was…

When the memory came into focus, Luna watched as Twilight fired a rainbow at Discord from the air above as the draconequus looked around wildly in a panic. Judging from the positions, Luna was certain this showing of the past was only a few more moments along than her previous vision.

Down on the ground, repeatedly snapped his fingers in agitation. “Why in the name of all things random won’t my magic work?” he demanded just before looking up in time to see the rainbow strike him.

The draconequus let out a scream of pain. His tattered body flew from the impact site to slid a good five feet on the ground before Twilight landed near him, her horn already aglow with the light of harmony. “M-My magic.”

“An inverse harmonic energy field centered around you,” she explained in a hard voice as she began to slowly walk toward him. “Hay, it just feeds of the magic around us. After the startup, I don’t even have to maintain it.”

Discord began to rise, and then collapsed as his mismatched appendages gave out from under him. “You…why?”

The alicorn paused misstep, and narrowed her eyes. “You…you have the GALL to ask me that?” she demanded. “Three hundred years, I have lived in this town! I have seen every single stallion and mare on the day they were born, gone to parties to celebrate their lives, and paid my respects when they passed! And every night they would dream with me and my friends to share their joy and friendship with all of us! Every single pony in this town considered the six of us FAMILY! AND YOU ASK ME WHY? EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM WAS PRECIOUS BEYOND ANYTHING YOU COULD EVER HOPE TO IMAGINE!”

“No,” Discord choked out. “Only one pony…was ever…really important.”

“OH SHUT UP!” Twilight screeched before she sent a rainbow beam through Discord’s body, making him cry out in pain. “You…you say something like that, but you…you never really cared about her!”

The draconequus coughed heavily. “That’s…not true. I cared for Fluttershy, more than you ever did.”

“LIAR!” Twilight accused. “If you had respected her, you never would have done something like this!”

Discord sneered. “And if you had truly care for her, you never would have taken her connection to the Tree. Without that-”

Another beam of rainbow light cut Discord off and changed his words to a scream. A second later, Twilight was standing over him in all her anger. “BE QUIET! I don’t want to hear that from you! What I was doing to them was selfish! I only kept them around for my own benefit, not theirs! And the happiness I was able to give them is NOTHING compared to what they’re experiencing now in Elysium, surrounded by everypony who’s ever loved them for eternity!”

Despite his predicament, Discord let out a laugh. “Elysium? Is that how Celestia convinced you to finally take the Elements away from your friends? To kill them? Oh Twilight, aren’t you a little too old to be believing in fairy tales?” he asked as Twilight prepared to fire another blast of harmonic wrath from her horn. “You stupid little pony.”

The rainbow loosed.

And Discord gave a final grin filled with cruelty.

“There is no such thing as Elysium.”

The memory faded, and Luna found herself sitting back inside of Twilight’s dreamscape with the other alicorn frowning at her. “Luna…would you please stop doing that?” she asked before shuddering a little bit. “No offense, but it gives me the creeps.”

Luna frowned back at her. “It would appear I had to, as your explanation of what happened to you after becoming an alicorn was extremely lacking in detail. Such as the end of Discord, and the continued life of your friends.”

“That…” Twilight paused and sighed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think it was relevant to…no.” Once again, she sighed. “No, the truth is…I didn’t want you to know.”

The odd reasoning made Luna cock her head. “Pardon?”

Twilight looked over to the other alicorn. “Luna, after my friends…died,” she said with great difficulty. “You were there for me. You comforted me. You kept me together. Without you…I…I would have become a true Nightmare! I would have killed Celestia and plunged Equestria into…well…to tell the truth, I’m not sure what I would have done to the rest of Equestria. I didn’t really care about anypony outside of Ponyville, and after it was gone…” she sadly shook her head. “You gave me focus, and let me find my hope again.”

“Hope?“ Luna questioned. “Explain.”

After taking in another deep breath, Twilight looked back to where the door leading in had been. “Well, I take it you saw what my mind was like on the way in?”

“Yes,” Luna acknowledged.

Twilight nodded and licked her lips nervously. “It didn’t happen for about one hundred years, but…eventually, I started to consider Discord’s words. Both you and Celestia assured me he was just trying to get one final lick in, wound me where it mattered rather than simply damaging me physically. But I couldn’t let it go. So, I started my experiments involving the afterlife.

“At first, I was hopeful,” she went on. “I worked under the theory that there was an Elysium, or at least some place to go after death. And to find it, I needed to try and follow somepony who went there. So I traveled across Equestria, going to every hospital and hospice there was. I would find terminally ill patients close to their expiration dates and offer them whatever monetary or political favor they wanted. After awhile, I also posted guards in hospitals with orders to inform me if mortally wounded ponies should be brought in.”

Luna raised an eyebrow. “Ponies you could have healed.”

“Ponis I did heal,” Twilight countered as she frowned at Luna. “I’m not Celestia. Yes, as a ruler, Celestia is able to help more ponies than she would be able to if she just went around Equestria mending broken bones, but…that wasn’t me.”

Twilight closed her eyes and shook her head. “Getting off topic,” she said before a resolved look reappeared on her face. “After several years of observing the deaths of the elderly and healing the injured with no success, I decided to reexamine my approach. While I couldn’t stand by and let a good pony die, the life force of a healthy pony presented me with a stronger signal to follow. With some veiled threats to Celestia to keep her from opposing me, I reinstated the death penalty for criminals who had proven to be unrepentant for heinous actions. I had hoped with a stronger pool of magic to trace, I would be able to find the dimensional frequency or the afterlife to prove Discord wrong and reassure myself that everything was okay.

“Instead…I proved the exact opposite,” she said with another sigh.

The rather…disturbing implications of Twilight’s words made Luna become tense. “What do you mean?”

After a few seconds, Twilight spoke again. “I found out where dead ponies go when they die, and it is not an eternally green land filled with friends. Or…well…the later might be true, in a way.”

Luna’s nervousness grew upon hearing Twilight’s words. “Explain.”

“Well…a basic law of the universe is the conservation of magic. The very makeup of what we are shall always exist in one form or another. You can’t take it away, and even our methods of neutralizing magic doesn’t really cancel it out, just suppresses it. So, when a pony passes on…their magical energy, the essence of their being, it joins the ether, the background magic of Equestria.

“I…guess you could call it an afterlife…of sorts, where all are one,” she said with a shrug. “I’m not really into the theology of it. Even after so many years, I never bothered looking into it because the answers given aren’t all that solid. I just know what happens to the core of our being after our bodies are done.

“And then I developed a magical system to find specific trace elements of that energy and collect them to be inserted into a vessel,” Twilight explained as she looked around at the crystal cave.

Luna’s eyes widened as she looked around the cave, and then turned back to the alicorn. “Twilight…are you saying you…found a way to restore a dead pony to life?”

“Yes,” she replied softly. “It takes some time. The first time I remade her, she was…very incomplete. Even with my spells to restore her memory, Rainbow Dash couldn’t recall important details of her life, and her personality was slightly off. It took me a few years to understand the reason for this was that I hadn’t reconstructed her in full. Some of her soul-stuff had been used to construct another pony.”

There was a pause, and Twilight took in a deep breath, only to let it out a few seconds later. “So I had to…try and recreate her again,” she said, obviously choosing her words very carefully. “Which meant recycling the reborn Rainbow to make the new one.”

Luna’s eyes narrowed. “In other words, you killed her.”

“I didn’t know it was going to be permanent!” Twilight said in her defense. “But…when I added in the missing pieces of Rainbow’s essence, I hadn’t tried doing that before it had rejoined the greater mass. It was unstable. New information as overwritten, and the pony I had gotten to know in those five months just…ceased to exist.” She shook her head. “After that, I promised myself to perfect the process. It took longer to pull her essence out of the greater mass rather than just collect it from her corpse, but...I could never manage to stabilize it any other way.”

When Twilight paused for several more seconds, Luna gave her a good ten count to allow her some time to gather herself before prompting a continuation. “And then?”

“Failure,” Twilight answered softly. “Failure, after failure, after failure. The new Rainbow Dashes were…more her, but…something was always missing.” She looked over to her own flank. “Because I carried a piece of her…inside of me.”

Tears welled in Twilight’s eyes. “Hundreds of thousands of times, I tried to bring my best friend back into the world, to perfect the process so I could bring the others I had gathered as well. We were going to be together forever. But…because of that stupid spell that Celestia tricked me into casting, I would never truly get to see my friends again.”

Luna did her best not to let her emotions show as Twilight curled up into a depressed ball. Mostly because she didn’t know what to feel.

Angry at the disruption of the natural order?

Disturbed at Twilight’s actions?

Terrified of the creature in front of her?

And the way Twilight had described this rebirthing process… “Twilight…would not your friends be…mostly there?” she asked hesitantly.

“Luna,” Twilight replied as she raised her head back up to look at the other alicorn with tired eyes. “If Celestia were to die. Would you want her back? Or somepony that was just ninety-nine-percent her?”

Once again, she sighed and shook her head. “Eventually, things changed. Somepony…showed me my foolishness in just endlessly trying the same process forever. I would never be able to get my friends back,” Twilight told Luna. “But…then he offered me a new solution.”

Luna nodded once. “Your time travel, I take it?”

Twilight became hesitant for some reason. “Yes, but…it isn’t really that simple,” she admitted. “I could go back in time, but what would that solve? I could meet and play with my friends all over again” She paused, and tears began to form in her eyes. “And it has been more wonderful than I had ever dreamed, but…”

A few moments later, and Twilight had managed to put on a mask of composure, if barely. “But what would any of it have accomplished if I had no solutions to the long-term problems?”

“Which are what?” Luna asked as her eyes narrowed.

Twilight studied the other alicorn for a moment and then shook her head as she sighed. “Luna…I don’t want to hurt or dethrone Celestia. As monstrous as she is, she is still a better ruler than I could ever be. Scare her a little, make her feel a little of the pain I have gone through, but…physical harm and death…that’s…no,” Twilight assured her. “Still, I’m not as strong as I used to be. In the time I came from, I wielded the full might of Harmony. Even four alicorns aided by the magic of the Crystal Heart were no match to the power I controlled. Now…I’m only a unicorn with the power of Magic. I may not be able to be as gentle as I once was, if she tries to get in my way.”

The roundabout threat had Luna on her hooves in an instant. She found herself on the floor and glaring at Twilight Sparkle. “If you should try and set yourself against my sister-”

“Luna please!” Twilight pleaded with more emotion than she had shown since they began talking. Although whether it was from her sincerity, or merely a leftover of the emotional moment from before, she wasn’t sure. “I don’t want to hurt anypony! I’ve never wanted to hurt anypony! All I want to do is set things right! Put them the way they were supposed to be from the beginning!”

“So you say,” Luna replied as her eyes narrowed. “Yet you know not the powers my sister-”

Twilight was on her hooves as well, and Luna tensed as the giant alicorn loomed over her, the smaller alicorn nearly the size of a foal in comparison. “Don’t mention Celestia’s stupid foresight to me! That…idiot thinks it makes her so infallible, when it’s really nothing more than an excuse for her own foolishness!”

“Twilight-” Luna began as she stepped backwards.

“If her sight is truly so grand, where was she when you fell into darkness?” the other alicorn demeaned. “Why was she unaware of your creation of the Tanabus? How did she not know that Discord fed every pony that delivered a letter to his house to monsters in a maze of chaos, or that he would attack Ponyville?

“The only reason your stupid sister holds to her destiny rhetoric is to excuse her own foolish actions as something that had to happen to alleviate her own guilt!” Twilight went on. “Anything that doesn’t fit her vision threatens to break apart her delusion, threatens to lay the guilt where it’s supposed to be, and so it must dealt with.

“That’s why my friends had to die! Not because I needed the full power of Harmony to stop the Smooze, not because it was destiny. My friends died because Celestia couldn’t admit to herself that she wasn’t perfect!”

Although she had heard everything Twilight had said, Luna had latched onto something that demanded her attention. “You…know about Tantabus? I only crafted it days ago!”

Twilight’s expression softened. “Oh Luna…take it from a pony who’s been there. Beating yourself up over these things…it’s not worth it.” The irony that they were meeting in Twilight Sparkle’s nightmare at the moment was not lost on the smaller alicorn. “You brought about the eclipse that let the Nightmare in,” she continued. “But…everything else was not your doing.

“And…” she took a deep breath and placed her hoof on Luna’s shoulder. “When it comes time, I know you will be ready to face it again.”

Luna tensed. “You know about it then?” she asked as she spoke the basic realization. Which made her feel foolish. If Twilight was from the future, then of course she would have known about the creature. “I’ve felt it, waiting for me on the moon. If I should raise it once more…”

Twilight nodded. “Do not be afraid. After all, it’s not the first time I’ve dealt with that particular monster, or even the second. You’re stronger than that thing, and my friends will be here for you when it returns.”

The world rumbled, and both the alicorns looked at the ceiling. “My friends…they’re waking me up.”

“Then it would appear we shall finish this conversation later Twilight Sparkle,” Luna replied as they looked back to each other.

Twilight tensed, and then sighed when there was another dream quake. “Listen, about Celestia…”

Luna’s frown returned. “I say again Twilight Sparkle, should you threaten my sister-”

“ARGH!” Twilight cried in aggravation as she stomped her hoof onto the ground. “Look! I don’t want to hurt Celestia! I’ve never wanted to hurt Celestia! Even after she made me-”

Another shake cut Twilight off and she focused back to Luna after finding her footing. “Look, I promise I won’t harm Celestia. And if she still tries to stick her muzzle into my business, tell her that I made a deal with her in the future! If she stays out of my way, I will return to Celestia what was lost fif-”

“TWILIGHT!”

Twilight shot up and looked around. Then, she winced at the ringing in her ears, and gave Pinkie a half-lidded expression when she noticed the megaphone in the pink pony’s hoof. “Hello Pinkie. Had a hard time waking me up?”

Pinkie Pie put the megaphone back into her mane and giggled nervously. It took Twilight by surprise when Fluttershy of all her friends answered her surly question.

“You were tossing in your sleep and crying out,” she said. “But we, um…you needed your rest Twilight. Even if you were having bad dreams.”

The reminder of her night terrors made Twilight have to fight from getting too aggravated. “It’s fine,” she assured Fluttershy, albeit not too gently. “I…Princess Luna showed up to help me deal with them. Still, thank you for your concern everypony. Hope you weren’t all too worried.”

“Somethin’ you need to get off yer chest sugarcube?” Applejack asked in concern.

Twilight thought about it for a few moments, and then shook her head. “No, I was just…reliving some bad memories,” she said before forcing herself to smile. It was an act that got her a slight frown from Pinkie. “But that’s why I’m here, right? To make sure I don’t have to.”

The train slowly came to a stop, and Rainbow Dash jumped into the air. “Alright! Finally get to stitch my wings. See you girls later!”

“That pony, I swear,” Rarity mumbled as the rainbow trail vanished. She looked over to Twilight. “Darling, you still look a bit uneasy. Need some help getting home?”

The offer of help brightened Twilight’s spirits considerably. “Thank you Rarity. With the headache Pinkie’s wakeup call gave me, I don’t even want to try using my horn.”

“Sorry,” Pinkie apologized.

After she had assured the pink pony everything was fine, Twilight left the train with her unicorn friend, a fair bit of luggage floating behind them. Thankfully, Rarity was quiet most of the way back to the library.

“So…any plans for the rest of the day?” she asked when they made it to the door.

Twilight gave a little smile. “Since I barely got two hours on the ride back, I think my body spent more energy getting into sleep mode then it got out of it. I’m going to down a sleep potion, and then hit the hay until tomorrow. You?”

Rarity smiled. “Well, with the Grand Galloping Gala coming up and my time now free of the need to actually make bits, I’m going to buy some fabric, and get to work on some dresses for the lot of you.”

If Twilight had more energy, she knew she would have spent some time gushing over Rarity’s declaration. Her original dress had never fit correctly after becoming an alicorn, even with the resizing Rarity performed. She looked forward to seeing herself in it again. “That sounds great,” she said before a poor attempt to resist certain urges made her take a step closer. “Oh…and don’t work yourself half to death on them this time Rarity. The last time was just…pretty terrifying.”

“Wait,” Rarity spoke up, confused. “I did this before?”

Twilight did her best to give Rarity a bright smile in response. “And they were wonderful,” she assured the unicorn.

With the usefulness of her foreknowledge returning, Twilight found her body relaxing in the want of a bed. As far as she could tell, everything was looking up. Her friends knew the truth, Luna had been…contacted, and Celestia…

Twilight let out a long sigh to let go of her anger before it could build up too much.

Celestia would be dealt with if she tried anything. Luna had been told about their agreement, and… “Oh who am I kidding?” she asked herself quietly before taking the luggage from Rarity now that her headache was gone. “I do it even if she does try something.”

Even Celestia didn’t deserve the pain of what Twilight had felt for all those years.

Still…Twilight couldn’t help but think she was forgetting something as she opened the door and…blinked at the sight in front of her.

On the other side of the room, Spike and the pink unicorn Sparkler were on the couch. With the vertical order of things being: Sparkler, Spike, and couch.

Twilight’s bags fell onto the grass.

Lips detached.

Sparkler’s eyes widened. “Uh! M-Ms Sparkle! We were just-”

Twilight let out a groan of a sigh as she looked at the young mare laying atop her still pretty much colt of a son, attempting to make use of the impressive length of tongue that dragon’s possessed.

“I’m well aware of what you were doing,” Twilight told her in a grumpy tone. As her luggage was wrapped up in her magic, Twilight’s mind decided that it was a good time to remind her that colts tended to fall for mares that had things in common with their mother.

Bucking half-plotted organizing unicorn with a thirst for knowledge. Spike was too young for her!

She walked into the library and shut the door behind her. For some reason, it made a rather loud bang that had Sparkler jumping off the couch. Judging by the look on her face, something had scared her. “Sparkler.”

“Y-Yes ma’am?” the unicorn asked as her legs trembled beneath her.

Twilight groaned. She wanted to go into a dreamless sleep, not deal with…whatever the hay this was. “We’ll talk tomorrow. Go home. Now.”

“Yes ma’am!” she said before running out the door, taking care to open and close it as she did.

“Spike?” Twilight spoke.

The dragon looked around nervously. “Um…yes Mom?”

Twilight stood there for a few moments, and let out another sigh. “I love you very much, and clean up all the empty tubs of ice cream you’ve got behind the couch, and anywhere else you made a mess.”

After looking behind the couch, he looked back to her nervously. “Uh…how did you-”

“Mom status has given me all-knowing magical powers,” Twilight told him on her way to the stairs.

On the way to her room, she paused in thought. Her friends were one thing, but Spike…certainly the dragon deserved to know, but…

Sleep first. Latest crises...later.

Author's Note

Damn green smooze, had planned on that thing being the reason Twilight needed the full power of the Elements when her friends were too disabled/old to do anything with them from day one, and then the Gala happened.

THANKS ~~M.A. LARSON!~~ NATASHA LEVINGER!

Chapter 10: Return to Abnormality

Twilight tapped her hoof on the floor of her castle, feeling both nervous and…

“Huh…that’s strange, I haven’t felt nervous in…five? Six-hundred years? Longer?” she asked the pony next to her floating in the breadbox-sized crystal. “Well what would you know? I only started on your reconstruction one-hundred and fifty years ago. Needed those extra years to make sure you were all there.”

The supreme alicorn made a circuit around the sleeping crystal, just as a last second double-check to make sure everything was perfect inside. Halfway through, she realized the foolishness of doing something with only her eyes, and went back to waiting.

"...am I doing the smart move here?" she asked the crystal's occupant. "What am I going to do if she says no? I can't exactly keep you in there. I don't even want to. But if I let you out, I know you'll side with her." Twilight sighed and hung her head. She had wished Time Turner had stuck around for more than fifty years. It had been fun having a friendly acquaintance to talk to.

His absence had made Twilight toy with bringing some of the other ponies she had known back, but...there was a danger in that. Celestia would just take them away from her. Stopping her physically wouldn't work either. If ponies saw that, they would leave on their own. Celestia had everypony wrapped around her horn so well that even when Twilight showed them the truth of how she really was, they still worshiped her in every possibly way.

So, she couldn't bring anypony else back. And the only one she had was because it needed to be done.

There was a bright flash, and Twilight hid the crystal behind her magic as a streak of light came from the sun to land on her castle. The white alicorn appeared in all her usual radiance that came with her long-range teleportation. Like always, just being near Celestia made it hard to resist some of the more…violent urges that had been creeping into her mind as her plans for reunion entered their final stages.

After all, what did it matter what happened to Celestia now?

For Twilight, nothing had mattered since Time Turner helped her crack the paradox barrier, freeing her from the normal constraints of temporal magic. At the very least, the big one. The moment she went back to fix everything, everything in the horrible world she now stood in would be undone. All the death, all the pain, all the mistakes, all gone.

Unless of course…it didn’t work.

And that was the problem. The one possible kink that she had no way to truly account for. While Twilight had checked the math so many times the griffons had rebuilt and lost their empire again, she hadn’t actually tested her spell to see if she could actually change the past. But using a time travel spell as she was would put her back into the ‘just one trip into the past’ constraint that Twilight had managed to sidestep by becoming an alicorn. Since only the unicorn known as Twilight had cast the spell, the alicorn that had reborn from her old self could still use it once.

And with the power of Harmony fueling her magic, there was no constraint on how far back she could go.

But it was still just a single trip. One tiny chance to make everything right.

Now, she only needed one last piece of research to make everything work. One question answered. A final solution to discover before she could go back with all the answers, and fix everything.

If it worked.

If it didn’t… “No,” she told herself. “No I can’t go down that road.” It would work. It HAD to work! After everything she had done, after all the plans she had laid, it simply had to.

“Still talking to yourself I see.”

Twilight looked over at Celestia, and frowned. “Well, it’s so hard to find good conversation these days, I had to find a way to compensate.”

The smaller white alicorn gave her a look of concern, and stepped forward. “Twilight, you called me here. I’m taking that as a good sign. I told you I would always be here for you. Now, what is it you need?”

Rage boiled its way up from Twilight’s stomach. With Celestia talking as if she actually cared, the larger alicorn couldn’t stop herself. “I had ponies that were here for me. Five of them that are gone because of you! And the one-thousand seven-hundred and fifty-three that monster you let roam free killed on top of that!”

Celestia sighed, and lowered her head. “Do you think I do not carry them upon my conscience as well?” Her remorse was plain for the greater goddess to see.

That…Twilight couldn’t dispute. Despite the other sins she had committed, Twilight knew that Celestia cared for the little ones. Not as much as Twilight had for those particular ponies, but the smaller alicorn was hardly uncaring of her charges.

It didn’t mean she was worth any sympathy though. For those losses at least.

Twilight took in a few breaths to get herself back under control. “Control. I can stay in control. I can do this,” she whispered before she looked back at her amalgam mark. The sin that Celestia had forced her to commit. “Watch me do this girls.”

“Is truly there something you wanted?” Celestia asked as her gentleness was slowly replaced with hesitation. “Or did you simply come to speak of the past?”

A few more breaths put Twilight back where she needed to be. “No, I really came to offer you a…present,” Twilight said before she looked back to where she had hidden the stasis crystal behind a concealment field. Was it a good idea to just show the alicorn, or make offer with words first? For some reason, Twilight found herself wanting to do neither.

Celestia frowned. “You’ve been removed from the Equestrian government for a reason Twilight, I’m not giving you back your crown,” she told the larger alicorn in an even tone.

“No, that’s not…” Twilight growled as she felt another wave of hesitation enter her throat, but not for the reasons that made sense. Offering the gift to Celestia wasn’t the problem, it was the strings that came with it that made Twilight feel sick.

Or perhaps, it was what came after, once she had the alicorn’s complacency.

“I’m not here for that,” she finished assuring the lesser goddess. “I…” Twilight let out another sigh. “Celestia…I…do you remember the clone of Rainbow?” How many years ago had that been? Twilight had left her palace with the incomplete duplicate to parade her in front of the princesses as proof that she wasn’t wrong in her actions to restore her friends to life. How foolish she had been back then. The new plan was much better.

The smaller alicorn’s face became a frown. “What of her?”

Twilight caught the emphasis. Unlike Twilight, Celestia had never seen that…thing for what it truly was, an incomplete pony. A failure, with only part of what was needed to make Rainbow Dash, Rainbow Dash. Without all of her, the blue pegasus had just been a twisted version of what had crawled out of the mirror pool so many centuries ago in Twilight's opinion.

“I tried for years to perfect the process to remake her,” she went on.

When Celestia moved to speak, Twilight shook her head. “No, I’m not here to talk about the phoenix project. It’s never going to do what I want it to,” she said before looking at her flank for a few seconds. She couldn't remove the parts of them that had joined with her. At least, not without ending the means to restore them to life in the first place.

After pushing back the rising sadness, Twilight put her attention back onto Celestia. “While it will not work for them…there are…others that can be reconstituted,” she said before using her magic to bring out her bribe. The crystal came over to hover next to Twilight.

A second after it did, Celestia’s calm demeanor vanished. Her legs buckled. Her eyes widened, and she sucked in a breath before speaking. “That…is that?”

“One month old, and already ascended,” Twilight replied before her eyes drifted to the red and gold cutie mark that looked like a blazing sun on the alicorn foal’s body. “She’s already earned it after all. And all of my genetic samples from her old mane brush were from after it happened anyway.”

Celestia fell back onto her haunches, and reached out with her forelegs when Twilight sent the crystal over to her. “Sunset.”

Even though Twilight wasn’t sure if she was being listened to, the alicorn continued her explanation. “I sealed away her memories until she reaches the age of sixteen. After that, they’ll start being unlocked at a steady pace and continue until she’s eighteen.” Twilight cleared her throat and looked away. “I thought she…deserved a chance to grow up…with her Mom.”

It might have been an honor that Twilight would have felt jealous about during her first hundred years of life, but these days, it was just a simple fact. Out of all the students that had been taught by Celestia and Luna, both before and after her banishment, Sunset had been the only one the Alicorn of the Sun had trained to become her official heir. When she came back from the human world, Celestia had taken her back in, and officially adopted the fiery pony as her daughter not long after Sunset's ascension.

Out of the corner of her eye, Twilight watched as Celestia held the container for several minutes. She examined the tiny foal within, and Twilight nervously ran her tongue across her lips. “Although...if you want, I have magic that will allow me to permanently age her until she is eighteen. You can have her back, and all of her memories up to the moment she passed, right now if you want.”

The offer brought the other goddess out of her examination. She looked at Twilight with nothing but confusion showing on her face. Her words, little more than a breath that struggled to escape. “…why?”

“Well, I wasn’t sure if you wanted another chance from the beginning, or-”

“No,” Celestia interrupted, her eyes threatening to rain down tears. “Why are you doing this? You hate me! Even now, I can practically feel it in your magical aura. You want nothing more than to strike me down. Yet instead, you give me back the one pony I have ever thought of as more than just a student. So…why? I’m not stupid Twilight. You would never do something like this unless you wanted a trade. So what do I have to do to get my daughter back?”

The question…stopped Twilight in the middle of her answer. Logically, she knew the answer to the question. It was part of the plan after all. And Celestia was right. Sunset was an offering. A trade. One adopted alicorn, for another.

Celestia would get Sunset, along with a promise from Twilight to continue the rebirthing process until the end of time.

And Twilight would get Cadance. She needed a pony linked to an eternal object to move onto the next phase of her plan, and out of the three Twilight had to choose from, Cadance was the only one that was truly expendable. After all, Celestia and Luna were needed to move the sun and moon, all Cadance did was sleep with a new stallion every forty or so years. The Crystal Empire would be fine without her.

But…seeing the two of them together again…another reason made itself known in Twilight’s mind that she found counterproductive to the logic of it all. A reason that came from the heart. The two warred within her. But while Twilight’s logic was a powerful thing, it found itself at the mercy of her heart. Be it anger, love, compassion or rage, Twilight had learned long ago that it was her heart that decided what she would do.

A tiredness filled her body, and Twilight found herself modifying her original plans, if only slightly. Sunset…wasn’t a bargaining chip. She was a friend, and a daughter. And she deserved as much happiness as any of the others.

And as for Celestia…

Twilight regarded the other alicorn to answer her question. “You’re right. I do hate you Celestia, more than you will ever know. But even you don’t deserve what you did to me. You don’t deserve to be separated from the ponies you love.” She blinked away some of the tears, and let out another long sigh. “In a few days, I’m going to be doing something that’ll probably have you up in arms to oppose me, but for right now…take your daughter and go.”

The crystal surrounding the sleeping filly disappeared at Twilight’s mental command, and the goddess conjured some swaddling for Sunset to keep her warm as Celestia held the baby close. Sunset opened her eyes, and nuzzled Celestia’s coat.

“Well, isn’t that interesting.”

Twilight looked up from her old friend and to Celestia. “It’s just imprinting.” Nothing special, something Twilight had seen thousands of times before in ponies.

“Not that,” Celestia replied. “You. You are still capable of kindness.”

The larger alicorn let out a snort. “Just take your daughter and go Celestia.”

As the smaller alicorn nodded her head, and did just that, Twilight walked back into her palace with a frown. In a few days, she would show Celestia that the princess hoping for Twilight to come back into her indoctrinated fold were nothing but the delusions of a fool.

“And it's completely ridiculous!”

Rarity nodded as the purple pony finished ranting on the subject of her adopted son and his new crush. She gave a light sound of agreement to show that she was indeed listening and ran the tape measure under Twilight’s tail to determine her friend’s proper dress size. Of course she still had to measure the rest, such as barrel width, neck length, hoof size, and others but…one down, five to go.

“I mean, Spike is…uh…Rarity, how old are you right now?” Twilight asked as she looked back at the dressmaker.

The other unicorn blinked. “I’m twenty-five darling. Why?” The fact that she was the oldest of their group, at least physically, had always been a bit of a sore point for Rarity. After all, her looks would probably end up going first, what with all the worrying that she did.

“Thirteen!” Twilight exclaimed with a stomp of her hoof on the carpet. “That’s three years difference Rarity! Three years! She is much too old for him!”

Rarity let out a tiny moan of disapproval to that statement. “And I wasn’t?”

Twilight flinched so hard she practically went into a cower. “That…um…t-that’s different!” she exclaimed weakly before sighing. “You and Spike never really got together, and he eventually accepted the fact that nopony was going to…well…be around for him.”

“Pardon?” Rarity asked as she tried to wrap her mind around the fact that such a sweet child like Spike would never find anypony…at least as far as Twilight knew. Since finding out about Twilight's foreknowledge the night before last, Rarity had come up with a few questions that needed answering. But, they were on the subject of Spike right now, and she would do her best to allay her friend's fears. “That sounds a little…sad, Twilight. Not to have a special somepony.”

The statement put Twilight into a defensive stance. “H-He had friends!”

Rarity raised an eyebrow. “But not a special somepony.”

“That-” Twilight abruptly stopped and sighed before she raised a hoof to rub her head. “Right, you’re still a hopeless romantic right now, aren’t you?”

Twilight’s words made Rarity’s heart speed up just a tad. “What do you mean still?” And more importantly, what in the hay caused her to stop being one? The desire for romance was one of the things that made life worth living! If something had happened to stop her from being that way, Rarity did not want to know about it.

She needed to find something else to talk about.

Something to calm her fears of that happening.

“Say Twilight…there’s something I’m wondering about this time travel…issue,” she spoke up while getting back to her work. “You said that things have changed, so…is what you know still…useable?”

Twilight looked back at the other unicorn as Rarity finished the last of her legs. “Well the full explanation would take the better part of the week, but…in simplistic terms…yes,” she answered. “At least until it isn’t.”

The utter nonsense that Twilight just spouted made Rarity withdraw her tape measure. “What do you mean darling?”

“Okay, try and imagine this,” Twilight said before picking up two thimblefuls of thread in her magic and holding them up to Rarity's face, a red and a green one. “There are two major forces always pulling at a pony. The first of which is choice, a pony’s ability to decide what she wants to do." The green thread shook. "We all have it, and use it every second of every day in all our decisions. Then there’s fate, the complete lack of choice in what a pony wants to do." The red thread shook. "The thing that says no matter what happens, certain events will occur. It is these two forces constantly pulling at a pony that determines her destiny.”

She paused to a moment after putting the threads back where they had been on the shelf and looked around. Then looked down at Rarity’s flank. “For example, your cutie mark.”

Rarity turned to look at her diamonds for a few seconds, and then back to Twilight. “What about it?” She was rather fond of her triple diamonds. Even if the story involving them was a little...dirty.

“A cutie mark is the ultimate expression of a pony’s fate,” Twilight told her. “It didn’t matter where you lived, or what you did, you were always going to get that particular cutie mark. You were always going to get a special talent for discovering beauty and bringing it out. However, you could have done that as a sculptor, a hairdresser, or a dozen other things. Being a dressmaker, that was a choice within the constraints fate had given to you.”

The white unicorn started to nod and then stopped when she noticed something peculiar. “You haven’t answered my question though.”

Twilight stared at Rarity in obvious surprise. “Huh…didn’t think you’d actually pick up on that.”

The comment made Rarity frown and shoot her older friend with her ire. “Twilight!” she exclaimed in a huff that had the other unicorn wincing. It wasn’t as if she was a dense as Rainbow Dash!

“Okay, okay!” she said before raising her hooves in defense. “I’m sorry. T-That was just for some background info.”

After taking a few seconds to get control of herself, Twilight started again. “Now time travel is in a nutshell, an attempt to cheat fate. After all, I’m going back to before something that has happened, or will happen now, and if I know the steps leading up to an event then I should be able to avoid it. However, fate isn’t some random chance thing that can only happen if a million dominoes are precisely set up in a row, it’s Fate. It is absolute, a defining force of the universe! The same as time, and magic, and space. Time might as well not exist in fate’s opinion. As far as fate is concerned, if something has happened before, then it will happen again.

“Like you making us all gala dresses,” Twilight finished with a smile.

Rarity frowned as she mulled over the information for a few seconds. “But if I wanted to, I could stop making the dresses right now. Nothing’s making me do it.” Even if she had promised the girls, and Pinkie Pie had looked so excited at the thought of going to the Gala with a new dress.

The smile on Twilight’s face continued, as if she were reading Rarity’s thoughts. "Really? You could just stop, right now, and this very instant?"

“Well okay, it’s a little too late for me to stop making Gala dresses, but give me another one of your…fated events, and I’ll have time to say no!” Rarity exclaimed. IT really would have been a shame not to make eveypony's clothes for the Gala. After making her promise, she couldn't just welch out on them for something so inconsequential as to just prove that she could.

Twilight shook her head. “Doesn’t work like that,” she said before sighing. “And…it’s not exactly tit for tat either.”

“Huh?” Rarity asked.

“Well…” Twilight reached up and scratched her head. “Look, I talked to a stallion about this in my original timeline, and it’s only theory, but…the bigger and more important an event is, the harder it is to change.”

With Twilight’s words doing nothing for her, Rarity frowned. “Explain please.”

“Alright. My…friend was also a time traveler, somepony who had found a way to do it more than once, like me,” she explained slowly. “Still, he just…went places to basically sight see. He didn’t try to do what I’m doing. Until one day, by some...fluke, he had the choice to save a pony from drowning, or just…let her die.”

Rarity raised an eyebrow. “Hardly a choice darling.”

“Even if history said she died?” Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow.

The question didn’t slow Rarity down. “Then pardon my language darling, but buck history.”

Twilight smiled. “And that’s what he thought too,” she went on. “He took the mare, and using his magic, my friend…teleported the two of them back to her home. She was soaking wet, but alive.” Her face became serious. “Five minutes later, while running up the wooden stairs in her home for a towel, the mare slipped on her own wet hooves, fell backwards and broke her neck.”

After a few moments of silence, Twilight sighed and shook her head. “Changing things, it’s not as easy as moving one little pebble in a stream. Something drastic has to occur to make fate move, something to change the direction of a raging river. And to change something like the end of a life…an alteration involving something like that would take-”

The door to Rarity’s shop banged open, cutting Twilight off and making both unicorns look over in time to see Rainbow Dash fly in, followed by Applejack a few seconds later.

“Twilight! We need your help with something,” Rainbow said.

Rarity sighed as the purple unicorn rushed away, her eyes in a panic. “What’s wrong? Is a monster attacking Ponyville? Timberwolves invading Applejack’s farm?” she asked before looking over to Rainbow hesitantly. “Um…Fluttershy’s okay, right?”

Rainbow frowned quizzically. “Uh, last I saw, why?”

The response killed Twilight’s panic and made her give both of the mare’s a half-lidded glare. “Because the two of you just came in here like your tails were on fire,” she deadpanned.

Next to the pegasus, Applejack chuckled. “Oh, that, we were just racin’. Anyhoo, me an Rainbow here were just throwing some horseshoes, what with the harvest being near done for the Fall, and we got to arguin’ about which one of us is the better athlete.”

“Oh no,” Twilight mumbled as she slumped.

“So, we were thinking we were going to have a few contests to prove it,” Rainbow added before smirking and jumped up to hover in the air. “Of course, we both know that’s gonna be me that comes home with the gold!”

Applejack let out snort. “Rainbow, if you actually believe that, you can stop flappin’ yer wings and just let all that hot air you got hold ya up.”

There was a little thud and a small groan as Twilight’s plot hit the floor. Which was shortly accompanied by a fearful little groan. “But-but the Running of the Leafs isn’t for…oh, buck. I’ll need to do this on the fly,” she mumbled before falling forward completely, and then turning her head to look at Rarity. “You’re done with my measurements, right?”

“Well…yes,” she replied. Although she hadn’t gotten all of them with the tape measure, Rarity had looked at Twilight close enough to get a good estimation. Adjustments could be made later.

Twilight gave a little nod, and got back up on all four hooves. “Okay you two, let’s get going,” she said before pausing mid-trot, and then looking over towards the earth pony. “By the way Applejack…if you came home one day and found Apple Bloom making out with a colt three years older than her, what would you do?”

For a few seconds, Applejack gave Twilight an even look. Then she spoke in an equally even tone. “Let’s just say there’d be a Stallion in the Moon to take Luna’s place.”

“What about you Rainbow?”

The pegasus cocked her head. “What? If I found Applejack’s little sister making out with some colt? I dunno.” She shrugged. “Tell Applejack?”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “No, if you came home and found Scoooo-um, on second thought, let’s get going! Come on girls, Iron Pony awaits!”

As Twilight dashed out the door, Rainbow looked over to the earth pony. “Hey Applejack, did we tell her that’s what we were calling this thing?”

Applejack groaned. “Aw shoot. This is gonna be one of them weird time travel knowledge things she warned us about, ain’t it?”

Unable to stop herself, Rarity decided to give Applejack an answer in the language the farm pony would understand. “Eeyup.”

While she considered herself a patient pony, Applejack had to admit that she was starting to get a mite angry with how long Twilight was taking to set things up. While the unicorn was the natural choice to judge the little contest that they had come up with, she had only done so on the condition that she was allowed to prepare everything.

Applejack had agreed, thinking that Twilight would of just used her fancy magic to arrange all the things for the events. Instead, she walked the circumference of the farm with her horn all glowing, setting up what she called a 'misdirecting' spell. Whatever that was. After everything was done, she had Applejack bring them back to her private rodeo practice arena.

“Ugh!” Rainbow exclaimed when they finally got back. “Okay Twilight, what was up with the whole circuit run?” she asked.

The little unicorn gave the pegasus a blushing smile. “Sorry Rainbow, I just didn’t want anypony else coming to watch us,” she apologized with a little embarrassment before grabbing the stopwatch they had left at the rodeo pens with her magic.

Applejack blinked at the news. She didn’t mind none not having an audience, although Rainbow Dash…

“Are you kidding?” the pegasus demanded before she zoomed up above Twilight. “That would have been awesome!”

After she took a second to smirk at Rainbow’s reaction, Twilight stepped back and nodded. “Rainbow, you’re an athlete. I know you live to compete, to test yourself and win, and when other ponies see that, you love it. You love being cheered for, and…well, who doesn’t?” she asked before looking past the floating pegasus and over to the earth pony. “Right Applejack?”

The question posed by the smiling unicorn made the farmer shrug. While she wasn’t one for over the top bragging like a certain pegasus, Applejack did like it when other ponies tooted her horn for her, or when her little sister looked up at her for winning a blue ribbon. “Well…I’d be lying if Ah said that weren’t true.” If just a mite.

“Yeah, so far, I’m not seeing the point not to have a crowd here Twilight,” Rainbow added as she crossed her forelegs and flew backwards a bit.

Twilight giggled. “Well, you will…when the two of you lose to me,” she said with a smile and a puffed out chest.

The sheer confidence the little unicorn excluded had Rainbow landing right next to Applejack a few seconds later. Probably because she fell down to the ground, and started laughing her plot off as soon as she did. And…being honest with herself, Applejack probably would have been down there with her if not for the fact that she saw what it looked like when Rainbow did it.

“Y-You’re kidding, right?” Rainbow asked from the ground after she finally got her mouth under control. “You think you can even compete against me and Applejack?”

The smile Twilight gave Rainbow was full of innocence as she gave her reply. “Sure! It’s just a friendly competition, right?”

Which made Applejack more nervous than a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. Because, she knew Twilight Sparkle was in fact not some innocent little filly. She was a unicorn that rolled her eyes at Celestia, and stared down dragons.

In short, she was up to something.

But…the farm pony didn’t want to go making Twilight feel like she was left out. Especially considering how the old filly might react if she got some fool notion Applejack was upset with her.

On a personal level anyway. Applejack still didn’t like the fact that the unicorn had hidden the truth from them for all the weeks they had known each other, but that was more of a…philosophical level issue. She could still be friends with a pony she disagreed with on issues like that. Like her cousins in Manehattan that would rather own orange groves instead of apple orchards. No matter how wrong they were, they were still family, and thus friends.

“Alright, but no using yer horn fer levitatin' stuff, or teleportin' around,” Applejack told her with a frown. She was pretty sure that would handle most of anything. Except… “In fact, no magic of any kind during the events at all.” That should take care of any horn-related advantages.

Twilight nodded. “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

As soon as Twilight was done, Rainbow got back up into the air and frowned. “Wait, if you’re going to be competing. Who’s gonna be keeping times and scores?”

“Well, there is only three of us Rainbow, I think we can manage to keep our scores straight,” Twilight replied. “And as for the time, I can enchant the stopwatch to give perfect times better than if a pony did it. You said no magic during the contests, but…I can still use my magic for that and getting ready. That sound good?”

A quick look to Dash for a confirming nod had Applejack looking back to Twilight a second later. “Sounds good.”

“Good, now let me just get set up,” Twilight replied as she trotted over to where the two mares were standing.

Applejack blinked, and looked over to where the barrels were waiting for the race. “Uh Twilight, the first course is already-” the farm pony was cut off when she looked back to the unicorn out of the corner of her eye, and watched as Twilight had her eyes closed in intense concentration, or maybe strain. There was a bright flash and when Applejack’s vision cleared, she blinked.

In front of her were four very thick and furry purple poles as thick as any apple tree. A sinking feeling overcame the farm pony as she looked up, and saw Twilight’s smirking face looking down at her from a height that had to be at least twice of Celestia’s, if not an even fifteen feet.

“W-What the hay Twilight?” Rainbow Dash demanded as she flew into the air high enough to look the unicorn in the face. “We said no magic!”

“No,”Twilight’s now deeper voice corrected, which sounded odd as hay coming from her mouth. “You said no levitation or teleportation, or magic during the events. Which this isn’t. All I did was a little body modification beforehand.”

Applejack groaned. Looking back, she really should have seen something like this coming. Twilight had put on that same bucking smile she had when Applejack had stayed at the library with Rarity for a sleepover and suggested they play truth or dare. Knowing what she knew now about the unicorn, the earth pony had a feeling that they were going to get one of those ‘friendship lessons’ she talked about before in Canterlot.

Like a lesson in humility.

Or maybe not letting your mouth write checks your hooves couldn’t cash.

Up in the air, Rainbow spun around and started to fly away. “Well you can-”

“What’s wrong Rainbow? Afraid you can’t take on a big pony?” Twilight asked with a face that didn’t match her confident voice. Thanks to the size increase, Applejack could clearly tell that Twilight was worried from the widened eyes and slightly down turned mouth. If Rainbow pushed the issue, the unicorn would probably cave.

And…all of a sudden, the lack of spectators was making an awful lot of sense to Applejack. Getting whooped by your friends in a competition was one thing. Getting whooped by your friends in front of half the town was…humiliating.

Rainbow stopped, and spun around with a frown. “Oh I see how it is!” she explained. “Okay Twilight, fine. I can beat you no matter what shoe-size you wear!”

A second later, Applejack was looking at Rainbow’s ether trail, and Twilight visibly slumped as she let out a loud sigh. Then, she noticed Applejack down on the ground, and gave her a worried look. “Think I went too far?”

“Nah. I figure Rainbow’s gonna need to get taught a little something,” Applejack replied.

Twilight’s eyes became half-lidded. “Who says I’m just going to be schooling Rainbow?”

“GAAAAH! THIS BUCKS!” Rainbow Dash shouted as she let everypony in hearing range know just how un-awesome she was feeling right now.

Which was a lot. A way lot.

Mostly because…she was losing.

Not to Applejack though. Rainbow had managed to score twice the amount of victories than the farm pony did, but since her mental scoreboard read: Applejack 1, Rainbow Dash 2, and Twilight 9, the pegasus wasn’t feeling all that great about her one point lead over last place.

When the whole thing started, Rainbow had been a little worried about Applejack’s barrel racing skills, but Dash had still pulled a victory and took the lead from the get go. Not to mention giggled at Twilight as the giant pony had to forfeit that part of the competition because she was too big to fit between the barrels.

It had looked liked things were really going her way.

Then, came the strength tester. While Applejack had knocked the weight off, Twilight had completely demolished the entire scale. So the point went to her.

Twilight then went on to win the bronco buck, knocking off one of the farm animals because she was too big to get a real good grip on.

Applejack managed to finally score when they lassoed some hay.

The ball bounce ended when Twilight stomped her hoof down hard enough to cause a small earthquake, messing up both Rainbow and Applejack’s concentration, and they never did find the hale bale she tossed. It probably landed in Canterlot somewhere. Same with the hoofball.

Sure, Rainbow managed to pick up another win with the pushup contest by switching to her wings, but the 2 that win gave her wasn’t anywhere near Twilight’s 9.

And even if she didn’t think about how many times the egghead had just totally demolished her, there was also the fact that Twilight had the pegasus currently pinned under her left hoof after a modified hoof wrestling match that Rainbow had been allowed to use her whole body, and was still beaten like she was just a little foal.

“Rainbow! Are you okay?!” Twilight asked a second after Rainbow shouted, the giant purple pony’s face filling her vision. “I didn’t hurt you did I? I’m sorry! I’m not as good with my left hoof, and I-”

“TWILIGHT!” Rainbow shouted to get the panicked purple pony to be quiet. As much losing ate at her, seeing the unicorn with that kind of expression hurt even more. “It’s fine. Only thing you hurt is my pride.” Which was still made her feel like a bunch of horse apples.

That didn’t seem to cheer the big pony up any. If anything, she just winced again. “I-I’m sorry Rainbow! I just…look, can we call this whole thing off? Everypony agrees to a forfeit so I can talk to you girls for a second?”

The suggestion made Rainbow want to yell back at the purple giant that she never quit. And she would have too, if Applejack hadn’t spoken up first. “Sounds good. Ain’t like we’re gonna win now anyhoo.”

“Hey!” Rainbow Dash yelled. The very idea of quitting made her want to pluck her wings bald. “You might be willing to just give up Applejack! But I’m-”

“Rainbow please!” Twilight pleaded, which managed to actually made Rainbow feel bad, despite the way she had tricked her way into a nearly unbeatable advantage. “You think I like doing this to you? I’ve already won nearly half the events, and since we haven’t even done the hay-carry or tug of war, you know you can’t beat me right now in a contest of strength. Can’t we just drop this whole thing and call it a three-way tie?”

For a moment, Rainbow opened her mouth to tell Twilight that she could beat a...pony five times her size.

Then, the remembered how far Twilight had flung things, bucked, stomped, and the fact she didn’t even seem to notice Rainbow struggling from underneath her hoof helped hammer the fact home. “…fine,” she finally gave in. “You’re the Iron Pony.”

“No I’m not!” Twilight insisted. “I won because I cheated!”

The fact that she was trying to make excuses after winning just made Rainbow feel worse. “No, we didn’t say you couldn’t buff yourself up with magic beforehand. That means you won.”

“Oh for the love of-” she grumbled before Rainbow felt a strong tug on her tail, and found herself hanging upside down next to Applejack as the earth pony fought to hold onto her hat. As for Twilight, there was a loud thud as the unicorn sat back on her plot and raised the two of them to her eye level “Okay, I was going to try and lead the two of you into this, but if you want to be so bucking thick about it…PHYSICAL CONTESTS LIKE THIS BETWEEN THE TWO OF YOU ARE STUPID!”

Rainbow fought with her wings as the pair of appendages caught enough wind coming out Twilight’s mouth to blow her around a bit. When the ringing in her ears started dying down, Twilight was talking again.

“And another thing,” Twilight said to Rainbow Dash. “If you want to say you lost, okay then. You. Lost.” She took in a deep breath, and let out a sigh before giving Rainbow a concerned look. “But…is it really that bad Rainbow? I mean, other than a little contest, what did you really lose? You’re still here with more bits than you know what to do with, and we’re still friends…right?”

Her face took on a worried look that matched her tone. “W-We are still friends...right?”

The pegasus crossed her forelegs at the silly question. “Well…yeah,” she admitted. Just because Twilight had gotten her win on a technicality didn’t mean they weren’t friends anymore.

And…looking around the field from her upside down vantage point, Rainbow realized something: it was empty. Nopony actually saw her and Applejack get completely owned by Twilight in nearly every contest under the sun. Because Twilight had made sure they wouldn’t. She had spared anypony else from seeing Rainbow Dash rack up some pretty ridiculous losses to an overgrown unicorn.

That realization put a warm feeling in Rainbow’s heart that quickly got rid of that dirty sock taste in her mouth that came whenever she lost at something.

“Of course we’re still friends, stupid egghead,” the pegasus added before Twilight could do something to ruin the moment.

From her place in the air beside Rainbow, AJ let out a little snort. “Course, woulda been a completely different contest if there wasn’t all this cheatin’ goin’ on.”

A second later, Twilight’s face morphed back into a frown. “Applejack, we were all cheating,” she told the earth pony. “I was just doing it better than the two of you.”

As Applejack cocked her head, Rainbow bristled at the accusation. “Hey! Since when did I cheat?”

“Well, you did use yer wings for that pushup contest,” Applejack deadpanned at her. “I’d be callin’ that an unfair advantage.”

The totally wrong view that AJ was spouting had Rainbow frowning at her a second later. “So I’m not supposed to use the best part of me?” Rainbow demanded. She didn’t get upset at Applejack for bucking with her hind legs!

“And then there was how you stacked the deck Applejack,” Twilight added with a little smirk. “Nothing but unfair there.”

Applejack looked over to Twilight with a frown. “Pardon?”

Instead of replying immediately, Twilight put on a thoughtful look for a few seconds, and then looked over to Rainbow. “Dash, how many rodeos have you competed in?”

Rainbow frowned at Twilight in confusion. “Uh…none.” Rodeos were an earth pony thing, pegasi had their own sports to do. Earth ponies had rodeos, and unicorns had...well...egghead contests, or something.

Twilight looked back at Applejack. “Yet more than half the events of this competition are things like lassoing, bronco bucking, hay tossing, and be honest Applejack, how many of these events are just you kicking at something with your rear legs?” she asked.

After thinking the question over for a second, Applejack slowly nodded. “Alright, Ah guess Ah can see yer point there,” she admitted. “But it ain’t exactly like Ah can compete with a pegasus in flying or nothin’. Hay, even if I did just sprout wings right this instant, Dash has got years more experience than me.”

“Yeah, I’d totally whoop your tail,” Rainbow agreed, which got a little frown from both of the other ponies. Which had her sweating for a moment. “But uh…you’re way better with ropes, and bucking and junk.” Not that Rainbow was a slouch or anything. Trees must have just been harder to knock around than clouds. Or maybe it was the fact that Applejack's front legs were still on the ground when she kicked.

“Look girls…I love you more than anything, and…pushing yourselves to be the best you can be…even competing like this, as lopsided as it is, it’s fine. Just…don’t put so much on the line with all this resentment. Please?”

Rainbow looked over to Applejack, who was staring back at her. And…Rainbow had to admit that it did seem a little silly for a pegasus getting mad at being beaten by an earth pony of Applejack’s level at a rodeo. Which…she had to admit that after seeing how Applejack did, there was a good chance it would happen. She would totally put up a fight, but…Rainbow was pretty sure the score would have ended 9 to 11, in Applejack’s favor by the end of the day.

“Yeeeeah, you may have something there,” Rainbow admitted.

“Alright Twilight, Ah get yer point,” AJ agreed.

Twilight let out a loud sigh and set the two ponies down in time for both Rainbow and Applejack to hear the roar of the over-sized unicorn’s stomach. The bucking thing sounded like an angry bear. And a second later, the giant purple pony was gripping her midsection.

“Uh…you okay up there Twi?” Applejack asked the wincing unicorn.

She nodded before her stomach gurgled again. “Yes, it’s just…size increasing spells really burn the calories. And getting enough food when you’re this size isn’t really an option.”

Rainbow flew up to look her friend in the eye. “Wait, so you’re saying…I could have won if we kept going?”

After a few seconds of staring at Rainbow with a face that looked like her muscles had slackened, Twilight broke down into a fit of giggles that sounded more like light thunder to Dash.

“It was a sunny sun day, not to be confused with a Sunday, or even a sundae, despite how they all sound alike. Nope, the sun with just out today in my town of Ponyville. Not a bad place to live if you didn’t mind all the crazies. Which I was one of. In fact, most ponies called me the queen. Or they would have if that title existed in Equestria. For some reason, we don’t have any titles higher than Princess. It think it was because of some sort of marketing thing. Because queenies are meanies.

“So rather than Queen, or better yet, Empress Pinkamena Diane Pie, first of her name. Partyingest pony in all of Equestria, most ponies just called me Pinkie Pie! Except my mom, she always stuck with Pinkamena, or used my full name when I was in trouble. But, that’s how mom’s are, ya know?

“Anyhoo, it was about noon when they came into a bakery that I worked at because…despite the fact that our little town had well over three-hundred and sixty-five and a quarter ponies living in town, I somehow had enough time left to be a baker while my chosen profession was party planner. Don’t ask me how I only throw one party a week when just by the size of my clientele, I should have more than one a day.

“Ooops, sorry, got sidetracked there.

“Now, like I was saying before, they came into the bakery. There was three of them, a pegasus, a unicorn, and an earth pony, one for each of the tribes. And all of them were my friends too!

“The earth pony was named Applejack. A super hard worker with a little bit of a stubborn streak that came back to bite her in the plot as of late, but she was a real dependable that would do her best to be there for you, even if it killed her. Which I really, really super duper hope it doesn’t.

“Then there was the pegasus, Dashie. I think she’s my favorite. We have loads and loads of fun together. Don’t tell Fluttershy though, I really don’t want to hurt her feelings.

“And last but not least, there was the unicorn Twilight Sparkle. To be honest…I’m not even sure what to think about her anymore. Yes, she’s my friend, part of a very select group of super friends, and I love her just like the others. But…every time I look at her eyes… It’s as if there’s this ball of anger deep inside her wrapped in a ton of guilt and deep fried in sadness.

“And despite all of that, the only thing she wants to do is try and help me. So of course I want to help her right back. But…the last time I tried…it…didn’t go so well. But I’ll keep trying, because that’s what friends do!

“When they got to the counter, which took forever, because Twilight was actually having to lean on Dashie for some reason and-”

“Pinkie?” Twilight asked the pink party pony as she got up to the counter. “What’re you doing?”

Pinkie blinked at the odd question. She had thought it was pretty obvious. “I’m narrating Twilight! I said with a roll of my eyes. And here I thought she was supposed to be the brains of the group.”

Twilight blinked. “Um, can you stop doing that? Long enough take our orders at least?” she asked.

“Oh, sure,” Pinkie Pie told her before she got ready to add everything up on the cash register. Which was odd, because the main currency of Equestria wasn't paper.

And it really did seem like Twilight wanted an order that included everything. She asked for a total of twenty-seven items just for herself. Dashie just went for three cupcakes, and Applejack ordered some muffins. “And as fast as you possibly can,” Twilight’s belly added in Stomach.

Not that Pinkie spoke Stomach. But since it was what her tummy always said in relation to food when it talked, she was pretty sure Twilight’s was saying the same. If a little bit more articulately.

“Okay girls, I’ll have these out in a minute,” Pinkie Pie assured them. With it being the end of the lunch rush, there was plenty of baking space, and some things that had been pre-made survived the busy ordeal.

“Do you think we should have swung by Fluttershy’s and picked her up?” Twilight asked hesitantly before her tummy rumbled. “I don’t want her to feel left out.”

Although Pinkie couldn’t see Dashie roll her eyes as she headed back to start baking, it sure felt like something the pegasus would do before responding to a question like that. “Come on Twilight. You know how that pony is. Give her a day off. We just got back home.”

The party pony went back into the kitchen to give the Cakes the orders from her friends. Then gathered up the food they still had left that would meet part of Twilight’s order, and headed back out.

“So let me get this straight,” Applejack said when Pinkie reached her table to set down the tray. “We did this whole Iron Pony last time too?”

“Who won?” Dashie immediately asked on top of Applejack.

Twilight let out a tired grunt. “Rainbow, are you kidding? You heard me go on how that whole contest was so lopsided and mismatched in so many ways-”

“Okay okay,” Dashie said as she raised her hooves. “I was just wondering was all.”

The second Pinkie started putting the plates of food out in front of Twilight, the unicorn grabbed the first cupcake, and nearly devoured it whole, as well as the second, and the third. Icing splashed on her lips and cherries that topped some of the miniature confections disappeared down her pie hole whole.

“Ah was wondering more ‘bout the fact we went and did somethin’ like that twice in a row,” Applejack said as Twilight scarfed down a croquette in three bites that left her cheeks puffed out. “And now I’m worried about how much you’re puttin’ away there, sugarcube.”

Dashie leaned over the side of the booth and looked down just a bit. “Yeah Twilight. That stuff is totally going to your flanks.”

Twilight looked up from the desolate plates, her face covered with the remains of her devoured food while her cheeks puffed with the holdouts. “Hey! I just beat the Equestrian weight-loss record by both time and tonnage, so give me a break!” she said while spraying crumbs everywhere.

Then, she looked down at the table that had just become decorated by little bits of food, and swallowed what was left in her mouth. “Sorry everypony,” she apologized with a blush before she sank in her seat. “I-I, didn’t-hunger! I’m not used to be hungry, and with this whole Spike thing, and my-no…” She sunk in her seat. “There’s no excuse for snapping at you when I’ve got no good reason to Rainbow-”

Like she always did when Twilight overreacted to such things, Dashie rolled her eyes and snorted. “Twilight, it’s fine.”

“Huh, thought you were starin’ to get better at this sorta stuff,” Applejack said right on top of her. “Sides, Rainbow needs a little snap now an’ then.”

Dashie turned her head to look over to Applejack with a tiny frown, then moved her eyes towards Twilight before she shrugged. “Ya know, I apologized for the dragon bragging AJ, you can let it go.”

Twilight slowly pushed herself back up until she was putting her plot to the cushion of her booth again, and let out a long sigh. “Better how?”

“You mean how she always seems to break down at every little thing and goes into complete freak-out mode if one of us gets upset?” Pinkie Pie asked. By the end, Twilight had gone back to blushing.

“You ain’t got nothin’ to be worried about sugarcube,” Applejack assured her. “I mean, we done found out yer big dark secret, and even though I am a mite upset with ya fer not tellin’ us sooner, Ah still call ya mah friend.”

Twilight looked down at her food. “Dark secrets…right,” she repeated in a whisper with a face that so obviously wanted to become an unhappy droop, Pinkie had to fight herself from wrapping her into a super-tight-uber-friendship-special-I’m-here-for-you-super-hug-deluxe or break Mr. and Mrs. Cake’s ‘no depriving the customers of oxygen’ rule. And all of that became super hard when the purple unicorn looked up at her. “Um, Pinkie, can I get the rest of my order to go?”

The pink party pony looked over to Twilight in confusion. “But you just got here. And the lunch rush is over, and I wanted to finally get a Twilight and Pinkie bonding moment like everypony else!”

A strange look that a lot of ponies got when Pinkie forgot to watch herself too much appeared on Twilight’s face for the teeniest tiniest moment, which just made the pink pony as happy as could be, at least until she saw the sadness that replaced it. “I’m sorry,” Twilight softly apologized. “I-”

“Nononono!” Pinkie told her as she raised her hooves towards the one pony in town that actually understood her top to bottom. “No need to be sad for me Twilight. I’ve bet you’ve got some super-important future work to do, right?”

Twilight gulped. “Actually…it’s Spike. I wanted to talk to Ditzy about Sparkler and Spike wanting to um…date, and I just realized I might be able to catch her on her lunch break.”

Even though she wasn’t completely sure what was going on, Pinkie nodded. “See, I was right about the super important thing. You go. In fact, you go now. I’ll drop off the rest of your order at the library, and you go take care of what you need to, okay?”

There was some small hesitation, but Twilight nodded. “Okay, that sounds good. Thanks Pinkie.”

Happy that she could help, Pinkie gave her friend a smile. “No problemo Twilight!”

The purple unicorn started to get up, and then stopped when she got to the edge off her seat to give Pinkie a measuring look. “Uh…Pinkie, if you came home to see one of your younger sisters making out with another pony that was three years older than her, what would you do?”

Pinkie blinked at the question. It wasn’t confusing. Twilight was obviously asking her for her opinion about her son and that mare. However, what did give her pause was the fact that somepony was actually asking her a question like that. Most ponies didn’t ask her stuff like that. Serious stuff.

Ever.

So, she thought about it for a second. A good long second. A second so long that it might have actually lasted a minute.

But…Pinkie found that she just didn’t have enough information.

“Well…do you trust Spike?”

Twilight nodded. “Of course I do.”

“And Sparkler?”

“Um…yes,” she answered. “She’s a little rough around the edges right now. But she’s good for Ponyville, and a great librarian. Uh…” Twilight’s eyes widened. “Not that we’re going to need a librarian when that’s my job, um, right?”

Applejack rolled her eyes. “Why Ah didn’t see any of this before, Ah do not know.”

Dashie smirked. “Yeah, because a unicorn that throws around magic to take down dragons and actually manages to outdo me with a prank like you did today, totally belongs in a library.”

“Okay then, if you think they’re both good uh, creatures, and you trust them, and they make each other happy, then what’s the problem?” Pinkie asked, because she couldn’t really see one.

Twilight tilted her head to the side just a little bit. “Well…Spike’s so much younger than Sparkler, and…um…”

Finally understanding what was wrong, Pinkie nodded. “Oh, I get it now! If you just have a bunch of unfounded fears about your son spending time with an older mare, then all you have to do is spy on him for his first few times alone with her after setting up some basic ground rules. Then you’ll just find out there’s nothing to worry about and feel bad for a little while for not trusting Spike, but that’ll be counterbalanced by the fact that you know you did what you did for his safety, and you’ll also gain the assurance that comes with seeing everything going like it was supposed to, so the next time something comes up, you can be more trusting!” she explained happily, glad she could help.

“Hm, you’re right,” Twilight mumbled before brightening just a little bit. She still didn’t smile though. The upturning of the unicorn’s mouth only amounted to a smirk. “Thanks for the help Pinkie Pie.”

As Twilight trotted off, Pinkie turned her attention back to Dashie and Applejack to see them staring at her with gaping mouths. “What? I do have two younger sisters ya know!”

Applejack blinked, and closed her mouth. “Huh,” she mumbled before looking down to the empty plates and staring at the crumbs Twilight had left behind. “Hey, you mind if I asked you girls something?”

Not even needing Applejack to continue, Pinkie Pie nodded. “Yeah, I’m still super worried about Twilight too,” she said. “I mean, sure she told us about the whole future thing, but she’s still all jumpy at the littlest thing, and you saw how she slept on the train. I had figured out that she was having super scary dreams back in Canterlot and didn’t want to go to sleep, but…I didn’t think it would be that bad.”

“Well…that too,” Applejack said. “But, Ah was just wondering why the two of ya are still working. ‘Specially you Pinkie Pie.”

Dashie looked over to Applejack and sighed. “I thought about it, but…you have no idea how bad the Everfree messes with the weather around Ponyville Applejack. Sure, I could up and quit, but…finding anypony to replace me would take forever. And that’s if he doesn’t get fed up with all the freak rainstorms and rouge winds ruining the stuff that’s supposed to happen. I can’t just leave the town hanging like that.”

“And Mrs Cake’s got her foals on the way,” Pinkie Pie told her. “Sure I want to start super funtabulous party that goes all across Equestria without ever stopping. But it would just be mean for me to take my bits and run. Plus, I like working in Sugar Cube Corner, and I love the Cakes.”

After a few seconds of silence, Applejack let out a chuckle. “And Ah can’t exactly stop bucking apples on my family’s farm,” she said before another laugh came out of her mouth. “Even with us having all these bits, not a single one of us is actually going to be able to do anythin’ different.”

Pinkie shrugged. “Eh, I’m thinking of at least buying my own house,” she said before something occurred to her. “Well, gotta go get Twilight’s order. See you girls later!”

As she started to walk away, Pinkie listened to the last bits of Dashie and AJ’s conversation that she could.

“Hey, where is the rest of you family anyway? I didn’t see them on the farm.”

“Hmm? Oh, Big Mac took Granny to Canterlot so she can get looked at by them fancy doctors there about gettin’ a new hip, and Apple Bloom went with em.”

“And that was all I was able to discern,” Luna finished before picking up a cup of tea from the small table in front of the couch she was laying on and used it to wet a throat that had been parched from the long explanation that lasted from noon until sunset.

Celestia was glad she too had been on her own seat. Even the centuries of experience she possessed didn’t prepare her for what she had just heard from Luna. The elder alicorn’s mind had trouble wrapping around the possibility of it all. And after a minute of silence, she simply stopped trying to discern how such a thing could happen to focus on the important things.

Twilight’s current self was from the future, a future where for some reason, Twilight had gained immortality and blamed Celestia for the deaths of her friends. Which made no sense! If Twilight had become an alicorn as was her destiny and became the third alicorn tied to the Tree of Harmony like Celestia knew she would be, then she would have simply outlived her friends naturally.

So then, why the animosity?

“YOU LIED TO ME!”

Celestia pushed the memory of her pupil shouting at her back to the depths of her mind. Now was not the time to dwell on such things.

Instead, she reviewed all that Luna had told her. Twilight had explained that she had become an alicorn after completing the spell that Starswirl had left, a task that Celestia had been preparing her for. Such a feat would have been enough to prove her worthiness for alicorn-hood by demonstrating her knowledge of the ties that bound ponies together. And the news that Twilight would one day return the Elements to the Tree of Harmony settled the question of what to do about the purple unicorn’s friends.

But then there was the disturbing news…

“What do you mean, I am supposed to free Discord?” Celestia asked.

Luna let out a sigh and shook her head. “This I did not learn from Twilight directly, but rather by looking onto the path she had tread to reach her current place Sister. However, what Twilight tell me was the reason behind it. According to her, you wanted to...befriend Discord.” The next to last word had nearly made Luna gag.

The tone the younger alicorn used told her what she had thought of that idea, and Celestia had to agree. In the brief time that he had ruled over Equestria, Discord had been little more than a monster with a sick sense of humor, using the silliest means to ruin the lives of any pony he came across.

And while Celestia could see the humor in some of the things he did, she also remembered the terror on the faces of the ponies he tormented, the homes and livelihoods that were destroyed by his antics, and the way he laughed at all the fear and pain that was left in his wake. Never would Celestia allow such a creature to walk Equestria again.

“No,” Celestia told her. “Something like Discord, he is incapable of experiencing friendship Luna. What you saw…”

Luna took up the conversation while Celestia fought for a way to defend actions that hadn’t even happened yet. “We were in a dream sister, I would have know if she had told a lie.”

An argument Celestia had no defense against. “But…if she remembers Discord being free, then it must happen, mustn’t it?”

“Do not ask me Celestia, you have always been the more…academic of us,” Luna replied. “From what I remember about Starswirl’s spell, tis merely an exercise in futility that only provides headaches. Yet Twilight has obviously found some loophole in its magic.”

Celestia shook her head. “Starswirl’s spell only sent the caster back for a few moments, this spell that Twilight described to you is far more than that,” she said. “Although, it would explain why I cannot see her path into the future.”

Luna raised an eyebrow at the statement. “You know I detest your being cryptic Sister.”

“Sorry,” she apologized. “But if this Twilight…or at least her mind is from the future. Then, she is living her past, and so I am blind to her.” It wasn’t a complete theory, but…it sounded better than the alternative that Twilight had somehow found a means to block her sight. Very few things could do that, much less a mere unicorn. Celestia didn’t like being blind.

She pushed the thought from her mind, and focused on something more important. “And her friends. Twilight told you that I am responsible for their deaths?” Another thought that troubled her greatly. Unknowns they may have been, but they were still ponies. Not to mention the ones responsible for the salvation of her sister! Celestia would have given them anything they wanted!

Luna nodded. “She told me that it was your fault they passed, but…the vision of Discord had him blaming her for Fluttershy’s death, saying outright that Twilight Sparkle killed her,” the smaller alicorn explained before her expression turned grim. “And the vision I saw of Twilight did not deny it.”

Another obvious riddle. It was clear to Celestia that both she and Twilight both must have born some of the responsibility for whatever happened to the unicorn’s companions. That realization formed another weight in her heart.

“And Twilight herself, how is she?” Celestia asked.

Luna looked out her window, towards Ponyville. “She is…complicated.”

The answer made Celestia give a disgruntled groaned. “I did not ask for an assessment of her personality Luna, but her emotional state. Is she alright?”

“One can find happiness amidst despair Celestia,” Luna told her. “She feels guilty for several of her past actions, anger at herself for feeling guilty for others, glad that she is with her friends, and…afraid of many things. Mostly, she is afraid. I think she turns to the anger to help her deal with it. And you seem to make a fine target.”

What was most telling about Luna’s statement was some of the words that were missing from her assessment. Like the word happy.

There was also another question Celestia needed answered. “Why you?” she asked while doing her best to contain her emotions.

“Pardon?” Luna asked in confusion.

Celestia shook off the bit of jealousy that Twilight had turned to Luna for help, given her explanations and truths instead of Celestia. Of course, logically, Celestia knew that it was because of this future event that even Luna hadn’t been told about beyond some vague mention in a vision involving Discord. But, to have the unicorn that Celestia had groomed for so long turn against her in such a way…just like… “Why you?” she managed in an even tone. “Why did she see fit to trust you?”

Despite the weight of the question, Luna simply shrugged her shoulders. “Twilight mentioned that I helped her through a hard time after her friends passed,” the smaller alicorn replied. “As she knows my dream magic, we must have spent a great deal of time together. And…perhaps she feels a kinship with me. After all, we both had our falling out with you.”

But they weren’t the only ones. Something Celestia hated to acknowledge, but…something that could not simply cast aside. Luna, her current student, and her past one that she had grown far too close to. All had raised grievances against her before sliding into darkness. And while Twilight wasn’t completely gone, she did seem well on her way.

With such evidence, Celestia was afraid to consider the possibility, but…was it…her fault in some way? Luna, Sunset, and now Twilight. Although she had kept her distance from the unicorn during her tutelage, Celestia had every intention of bringing her into the fold once the purple pony had become an alicorn. And that had apparently brought about the same end as the others.

“Very well then,” Celestia mumbled as she looked out the window to the night outside, towards Ponyville. “Since it is apparent that I should keep my distance from Twilight, that is what I shall do. But I will not allow her to slip into darkness without a fight.”

Luna nodded. “If you wish for me to speak with her again Sister, and act as thy representative I shall. Still, I will need to discover her method of hiding her dreams from me first.”

Although Celestia thought about telling Luna she could simply visit Ponyville in pony, thus killing two birds with one stone, she shook her head. “That’s alright Luna, but I would like to try something else, if you don’t mind.”

While she trusted her sister was capable for many things, Twilight needed a pony she trusted and loved to help her. A pony that Celestia could easily call back to Canterlot to help the purple unicorn remember the love she once felt for her mentor.

Such things were that mare’s specialty after all.