Mending Hearts

Chapters

Chapter 1: Discovery
Chapter 2: Return
Chapter 3: Preperations
Chapter 4: Sacrifice
Chapter 5: Reunion
Chapter 6: Acceptance
Chapter 8: Inferno
Chapter 9: Assembly
Chapter 10: Delivery
Chapter 11: Retrieval
Prologue
Chapter 7: Celebration

Chapter 1: Discovery

"C'mon Twilight," Spike groaned from the library door, "we're gonna be late!"

"Just a second Spike!" Twilight called from their bedroom, "I need to find my telescope!"

Spike just sat down, waiting impatiently for Twilight to finally join him. On any regular night, Spike would have been fast asleep by this hour, but this was no ordinary night. To celebrate her first full year back from the moon, Princess Luna had scheduled an extraordinary meteor shower in the evening. There had been talks that it would be the most beautiful display in centuries. So naturally Twilight wanted to enjoy the night as much as she could. Even Spike was eager to see what had Twilight so exited.

"Twilight…" Spike started again before hearing hoof clops down the stairs.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," Twilight huffed.

"That's what she said," Spike muttered under his breath as Twilight trotted down the steps. No wonder she had taken so long. It looked like she had packed her whole astronomy kit! Spike could see random scrolls and rods poking out of the overflowing bags.

"Um, Twi, don't you think that's a bit much just for a stargazing trip?" said Spike, still watching Twilight intently, as if she was about to lose her balance and topple over.

"This isn't just a stargazing trip Spike!" Twilight lectured, "This is the most significant meteor shower in centuries! Luna specifically hoof made this night so that…"

Spike just tuned Twilight out, motioning for her to exit the library. Over the years of living with her, Spike had built up immunity to Twilight's rambling. She'd literally go on for hours about the most trivial of subjects. Building up immunity was the only way that Spike had managed to keep sane.

Seeing as though Twilight wouldn't get anywhere explaining the complexities of the meteor shower to Spike, she quietly complied and briskly trotted out of the library. Spike sighed in relief, having closely avoided wasting their entire evening. He walked out the door and locked it, then quickly walked up to Twilight who was busy watching the stars.

Spike looked up himself, but couldn't see much. The lights of the surrounding buildings were too much of a distraction for him to focus on anything in the sky. Twilight on the other hoof was deeply observing the sky, probably just ignoring the town lights.

Even though it was late in the evening, the streets of Ponyville were alive with the sounds of clopping hooves and idle gossip. It wasn't often that there was a meteor shower, let alone one so beautiful. So everypony was taking advantage of it to stay out with friends and enjoy the beautiful weather. Spike could make out a few recognizable ponies enjoying the evening. Lyra and Bon Bon were sitting together at one of the cafes in town, enjoying celery soup and hay fries. Vinyl Scratch had put together an impromptu party in the town square, and Cheerilee was busy trying to keep up with three very energetic little fillies.

"C'mon Girls! We gotta find a crashed star somewhere!" Scootaloo yelled from the front of the group.

"What for!?" asked Sweetie Belle.

"What do you think? To get our Cutie Marks!" Apple Bloom cheered.

The three of them, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, were very energetic fillies hell bent on getting their cutie marks. The self-dubbed "Cutie Mark Crusaders" attempted to do as many things as quickly as possible to force their cutie marks to appear. No matter how much they were told that it wasn't possible to force things like this, the three of them just ignored it and continued on for their marks.

The three of them stopped for a second, allowing Cheerilee to catch up and catch her breath. She had been unlucky enough to be talked into watching the three fillies so their respective families could enjoy the evening. Being the town school teacher meant that she was good with children, therefore it was the logical assumption to ask her first to watch the children.

"Girls, could you-" Cheerilee started, only to find the fillies had started off again.

"Cutie Mark Crusaders Space Rock Finders!!!" the three fillies cried in unison, much to the dismay of Cheerilee and anypony else with functioning ears within the greater equestrian area.

"Girls! Could you please slow down!" Cheerilee called while attempting to catch up.

Spike saw them run off to another part of Ponyville, glad that it wasn't him running after them. He'd spent time with the Cutie Mark Crusaders before, and after a single hour he had already passed out from exhaustion. He couldn't imagine how Cheerilee could still be standing, let alone running after the three. Maybe she led a double life in which she was a track star? Spike quickly brushed away the thought.

"Man, poor Cheerilee. Right Twilight?" Spike looked over to find Twilight completely oblivious to the danger straight ahead. Thinking quickly, Spike, well, he didn't really do anything because he doesn't work well under pressure.

"Um, Twilight, you might want to-" Spike cringed as Twilight crashed right into somepony else.

"Oof, could you please watch where you're going!" the white unicorn chided as she picked herself off the ground. "I hope that- Oh, Twilight!"

"I'm so sorry for bumping into you Rarity!" Twilight apologized as Spike helped her to her hooves.

"Oh, it's quite alright Twilight, no harm done," Rarity breathed as she levitated a comb out of her saddlebags and began to brush her mane.

Twilight began dusting herself off while Spike just watched Rarity fix herself up. Spike had a mad crush on Rarity ever since he first saw her a year ago on the eve of The Summer Sun Celebration. Even though Spike did his best to hide his feelings, he was no master spy and most of Ponyville knew of the young dragon's crush. Although he still kept hope that Rarity would accept one of his date offers, eventually.

"I'm sorry Rarity, I was too engrossed in the sky to watch were I was going," Twilight apologized again.

"Well, I can understand why," Rarity said while turning her head skyward, "The sky tonight is absolutely ravishing."

Twilight and Rarity stood there for a few seconds, observing the night sky until Spike started shooing them along. He narrowly avoided wasting the night earlier, so he wasn't going to allow them another chance.

"Let's go you two, we should have a much better view once we're outside of the town," Spike informed the two.

"Alright, alright. We're moving Spike, calm down," Twilight grumbled.

So the three friends resumed their walk to the fields south of Ponyville, Twilight and Rarity partaking in idle chitchat with Spike bringing up the rear. He never understood how fillies and mares could talk on and on and on about the stupidest things. He himself could talk for a few minutes with Snips and Snails before getting bored and wanting to do something else. How somepony could talk for hours on end baffled him.

"Twilight, I must thank you for convincing me to join you girls this evening," Rarity said.

"Oh? How come?"

"Well as you know I've been working very hard lately to fill a large order from Canterlot, and something like this is just what I needed to relax for an evening."

"Well, you're very welcome Rarity," Twilight said, "it's always nice to have company when stargazing, especially on a night this beautiful.”

"I'm just glad that I was able to find someone to watch after Sweetie Belle," Rarity sighed.

"Oh? You actually found somepony to look after her?" Twilight asked, skeptical of the unicorn's claim.

"Yes, luckily for me Cheerilee was free this evening and agreed to supervise Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo," Rarity explained.

"Wow. Poor Cheerilee," Twilight said, feeling sorry for the earth pony.

"Hey!" Spike exclaimed, "That's what I said!"

Spike grumbled as he saw that Twilight and Rarity had already moved onto talking about something else.

"Girls. How do they work?"

As the group started nearing the edge of Ponyville, Twilight could make out the rest of their friends camped out on a hill under a large oak tree. Applejack was opening a basket of food with Pinkie Pie eagerly awaiting delicious apply-goodness a few feet away. Fluttershy was against the tree trying unsuccessfully to get her pet rabbit Angel to eat a carrot and Rainbow Dash was relaxing on one of the larger branches of the tree.

"Hi girls!" Twilight called as they walked up the hill.

"Good evening, everypony," Rarity echoed right afterwards.

Applejack waved a hello and Rainbow just nodded in acknowledgment. Fluttershy was still too busy working with a very uncooperative rabbit.

"What's this now?" Spike sniffed, walking right up to Pinkie, "Are those pies I'm smelling?"

"Yup! They sure are Spiky!" Pinkie giggled with her trademark enthusiasm, "Applejack made them for us earlier today, and I helped!"

Spike and Pinkie's eyes widened and lips grew into gigantic smiles as Applejack took out the first pie. They had never seen something so beautiful, even taking the sky above them into consideration. Well technically they had seen this beauty whenever Applejack made a specialty pie for some kind of occasion. Only a stern glare from the farmer kept the two from lunging at her for it.

"Applejack, could you scooch over a tad?" Rarity asked while pulling something out from her saddlebags.

"Sure, but for wha- Whoa!" Applejack replied as Rarity used her magic to spread out a large rug over a portion of the hill.

"There we go!" Rarity said while happily taking a seat.

"Was that really necessary? Ah mean is the grass not good 'nuff for yah?"

"Well a lady must take care of herself, and getting grass stains just wouldn't do."

"Beg yer pardon Rarity, but yer not wearing any clothes."

"Yes, but I could still stain my coat which would just be awful!"

"But ah mean-"

Before Applejack and Rarity could get into another one of their arguments, Rainbow decided to intervene. Partly because AJ and Rarity could go on for hours about form verses function, mostly, though, she was just really hungry. She had spent all afternoon practicing a new trick she had invented and had planned to show it off after eating.

"Could we hold off with the arguing until at least after we've eaten? I don't know about you guys but I'm starving over here!" Rainbow said while gliding down from the tree branch.

"Ah reckon she's got a point there. 'Sides, Spike 'n Pinkie look like they're about to go nuts over there," Applejack replied.

It was true. Spike and Pinkie were both practically drooling, eyeing the food basket like vultures closing in for the kill. Even Twilight was eyeing it hungrily, having already set up all her observation equipment a few feet from the group.

"Alright, everypony. So ah got three apple pies, a couple fritters and a few red delicious. So what'r y'all hankering fer?" Applejack questioned while spreading the veritable buffet on the carpet. It didn't take long for everypony to choose.

"Pie!" Spike, Pinkie and Rainbow shouted simultaneously, each snatching up their own culinary delight and digging right in. The three of them devoured their treats like a plague of locusts.

"Err, alright you three, enjoy," said Applejack.

"I'll have an apple fritter, Applejack, if you'd be so kind?" Rarity asked after the other three had moved off.

"Sure thing, Rares, help yourself," Applejack replied, watching Rarity's horn glow as a Fritter floated itself over to her.

"I'll take a fritter as well, Applejack," Twilight said while levitating one for herself.

"Fluttershy, would yah like anything?"

"Umm... I'd like an apple... if you wouldn't mind..." Fluttershy squeaked out, only to be thumped on the leg by a certain white rabbit. She looked down to see Angel staring at her, a half-eaten carrot by his feet. "Oh yes... umm... another apple for Angel... if you could spare one?"

"O'course sugar," Applejack said while bringing two apples to Fluttershy and angel. "Well, ah guess ah'll have a few fritters." Applejack then proceeded to pick up two fritters and she sat down by Rainbow, Pinkie and Spike.

Twilight and Rarity were off to the side chatting about their day and the meteor shower while Spike, Pinkie, Rainbow and Applejack were talking about the food and other assorted subjects. Fluttershy was sitting quietly with Angel, both eating their snacks and watching the beautiful display in the sky.

"You guys should have seen it! It was my best practice yet!" Rainbow exclaimed between bites of pie, "I finally nailed the new trick I've been working on for days!"

"That sounds awesome Dashie! What's the trick called?" Pinkie giggled.

"That's easy! It's called..." Dash paused for a second, "Umm, err, huh. I guess I never actually named it. Hey, you girls want to help me name it now?"

There was a murmur of agreement between the four of them, each one trying to think up some awesome name, except Pinkie. She was already bubbling with ideas.

"Oh! Oh! I got one!" Pinkie giggled with excitement, "How about: 'The Super Duper Rainbow Shriek'!"

"Ehh, I don't think that fits Pinkie," Rainbow said, only slightly disheartened.

"Well, what does this trick look like Rainbow?" Applejack asked.

"Oh, it's like, when I get some water from a few clouds and move it around me while flying so a shining rainbow of colors appears around me!" Rainbow explained excitedly.

"How about: 'The Neon Flash'?" Spike suggested between bites of pie.

Rainbow was quick to jump to the idea. "I like it!" she replied, "It's got some zest, and it fits better than Pinkie's suggestion!"

At Pinkie's hurt look, Dash quickly apologized, which seemed to set the pink earth pony's mood back to “fun.” The four of them continued to talk about random things until sometime later, when Twilight and Rarity joined them.

"Well, girls, it's starting to get late," Rarity sighed, "I think I'll be heading back home."

"Yeah, 'tis getting late," AJ murmured as she got up, "Me 'n Mac are plantin' some new trees tomorrow, so ah best be off too."

"Aww, but we were having so much fun girls!" Pinkie protested.

Ah know sugar, but it's getting late."

"Oh, alright, I guess we can continue the party tomorrow!"

After an evening of fun, everypony was quite tired, except Twilight of course. She'd become accustomed to staying up late from reading books and doing schoolwork alike. Her own internal clock was probably set a couple of hours behind everypony else's. Staying up late and sleeping in would probably do that to somepony.

"I think I'm gonna stay here for a while longer, girls," Twilight said, "I still have a few things to record about the meteor shower."

"Well... alright, Twilight... just don't stay up too late. It gets quite cold during the night," Fluttershy meekly suggested, carrying a sleeping Angel on her back.

"Don't worry, I won't be staying too much longer," Twilight replied.

"Yeah, I'm heading out," Rainbow stated as she got up and stretched her wings. "I'll cya all tomorrow, night girls." With that, Rainbow proceeded to fly off towards her floating home over Ponyville.

"I'll meet you back at the library Twi," Spike said, yawning in the process.

"Okay, goodnight everypony!" Twilight called cheerily.

As everypony said their goodbyes and goodnights, Twilight went back to the area she had created as her makeshift observatory. She wanted to stay behind and document a few more things, since she was a bit busy eating and talking to her friends to really work. But now that she was alone, she could really focus. This is what Twilight loved. Astronomy. Something about the stars calmed and soothed her. She had spent whole nights awake watching certain events, like a lunar eclipse or other meteor showers, so she wouldn't miss a chance on a night like this.

"Okay, now, where is that book on astronomical wonders…" Twilight muttered to herself, sifting through her stack of papers. Maybe she had brought a few too many books? Nah. You can never have enough literature!

As Twilight searched, a certain light in the night sky was slowly shining bigger and brighter. It had a white shine, and yet if one were to look close enough, they would see a black center.

"There we go, now I can- Oh? What's this?" Twilight said while looking up at the sky. "I need to get a closer look at this!" Twilight then quickly adjusted the telescope on the shining object in the sky. Oh, wow, that's beautiful! Umm, is it getting bigger? Twilight enthused, Oh my! It is!

Twilight raised her head to take a look at the object; the telescope being far to bright now. "Ohmygosh! A bolide! I wasn't expecting a fireball during the meteor storm. I wonder if it will land?" Twilight cried in excitement, "Ah, I need to document this!" Twilight then proceeded to scribble down notes on a scroll while observing the falling meteor

The light was steadily getting brighter and brighter, slowly blocking out the lights from the other stars. But it wasn't a normal meteor, as Twilight could sense even from this distance an unholy energy emanating from it. It chilled Twilight to the core, but her curiosity kept her eyes pinned to it.

Twilight was overjoyed, a chance to study a crashed meteorite was a once in a lifetime opportunity. And being so interested in astronomy, she would not waste this opportunity.

"Aheee!" Twilight screamed and ducked for cover while the light whizzed a couple hundred feet above her and into the Everfree Forest. There was a tremendous *Thud* as the star hit the ground, and a plume of smoke could be seen rising above the forest canopy.

"Eeeeeeee!" Twilight exclaimed, giddy with excitement “Yes yes yes yes yes yes yeees! I can't wait to document this!"

Twilight quickly grabbed her quill and ink, and made a beeline straight for the forest, unaware of the danger that was approaching.

Big thanks to Dr. Jekyll & NikitaKitten for editing the chapter!

Chapter 2: Return

Yes, finally! This is my chance to redeem myself! Trixie ran through the woods. Over a year of shame and ridicule, about to be banished with this discovery!

The mare ran towards the crash site at top speed, dodging wayward branches and plants. She came to a clearing, able to see the crashed rock in a smoldering crater. There were scattered rocks all around, leading away from the hole.

Feeling as though nothing could stop her, the mare slowly walked towards the source of the commotion; the stars in the night sky almost seemed to force her towards it.

As she approached it, a cold numbness washed over her, almost as if trying to fight her off. Inside the crater she could see a small black stone, shimmering and glowing with unnatural light. There was also a slight shimmer around it, almost as if it was distorting the space around it.

She reached out with her magic, aiming to lift the shard up for a closer look. The mare felt a strong barrier around the shard, stopping her spell on the spot. She had never heard of anything like this before: an inanimate object actually resisting magic. She was determined though, and with enough force broke through the invisible barrier and latched onto it with her magic.

As soon as she touched the stone however, it lashed out violently with an immense wave of energy and her magic imploded with a painful crack. The black shard seemed to glow slightly brighter as the mare dropped to the ground in agony. “AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!” she screamed, grabbing her horn.

Just entering the clearing now, Twilight felt a powerful wave of ice cold magic pass over her. “Hello!? Is somepony there!?” Twilight yelled at the source of the disturbance.

No! It can’t be her. Not here, not now.

But it was too late; the other mare had already started walking towards her. She could hear her hoofsteps on the overthrown gravel through her own pain.

"Tr- Trixie? Is that you?" Twilight stuttered, slowly approaching the broken mare.

Trixie just buried her face in her hooves and cried, desperately wanting her to leave, but at the same time wanting her to help. The pain, now, was greater than it was before, too Trixie it felt like she was being drained of all her energy. So she did her best to curl into a ball and block herself off.

Twilight stood there, looking over her. It had been a year since the incident in Ponyville, and she could see that Trixie had not done very well. She had become quite thin, a few ribs being visible on either side. Her fur was dirty and disheveled and her mane had lost its silver sheen and had become a dull gray.

The Trixie in front of her had changed a lot from the Trixie that came to Ponyville a year ago. The first time she was bold, brash and beautiful. Now she was dirty, sad and broken. Obviously she had barely survived over the year. Although Twilight had no idea what she went through.

Twilight could obviously tell that Trixie was in pain, so she sat down next to her and put a hoof around her back. She could see that her horn has started to darken slightly, a sign that something was wrong with her magic. Twilight held her until she had calmed down enough to speak.

"I'm sorry Twilight..." was all Trixie managed to say. The pain in her horn and the shame of letting herself be seen so broken, in front of the mare that upstaged her life no less, was just too much for her to think of anything else to say.

"It's alright Trixie, you’re safe now." Twilight nuzzled her neck, hoping to relax her, but then she noticed her horn. "Ohmygosh! Your horn!" Twilight stared in shock: it was almost fully black. She quickly cast a basic healing spell on it, and much to her surprise Trixie’s horn eagerly sucked up all the available magic that was provided. To Trixie the pain slowly stopped. In its place though she felt hollow, she couldn't feel were her horn should be.

Twilight had seen this condition before; she had experienced it before. According to The Royal Encyclopedia of Medical Ailments, or R.E.M.A., this condition is known as “Magical Burnout.” The symptoms are high pain, darkening of a unicorn’s horn and the inability to perform magic. It occurs when very talented unicorns strain their magic too hard at once. Twilight had suffered a magical burnout shortly after passing her entrance exam, and becoming princess Celestia's personal student. She couldn't do any magic for days until her body's natural circuit had recharged itself, and she knew the pain it could cause.

"Tha- thank you…" Trixie said. She started to slowly uncurl herself to look up at the purple unicorn that had probably just saved her life. Twilight looked pretty much the same since the last time she was in Ponyville; Purple hair and mane, starburst cutie mark, and a cute flank.

"What happened?" she slowly asked the purple mare.

"Well, you suffered a magical burnout; a very serious one at that," Twilight replied, "It's a good thing I got to you when I did, any later and you might have experienced permanent damage. Do you have any idea what caused this?"

Trixie slowly raised her hoof and pointed at the crater a few feet away. At this point there was a dark purple glow emanating from the crater. Both of them could sense an immense magical energy being released from it. Obviously this was not a natural occurrence.

"Wait, that's where the meteorite crashed, is that what caused this?" Twilight asked.
Trixie slowly nodded her head.

"I'm going to go have a look, will you be alright here?"

Trixie nodded again.

Twilight got up and slowly crept over to the edge. The same cold empty feeling when she came into the clearing washed over her again, sending shivers up her spine. She then saw the small black shard resting in the middle of the crater.

That's it? If it was something this small that caused such a bright light, then this shard must have immense magical properties. Her brain already off with questions about it.

As Twilight started to reach out with her magic to examine it, Trixie called out a warning to her: "No Twilight, no magic."

She understood and instead walked up to it aiming to inspect it by hoof. Much to her surprise Twilight encountered a small resistance when reaching out for it. Not as much as when Trixie had reached out to levitate it, but still noticeable.

At Twilight's touch the shard sent a small pulse through her, as if sensing her magical ability. The stone offered no more resistance as Twilight picked it up. From Twilight's perspective it almost felt as if it wanted to be picked up. At a closer look, she could see a faint purple glow in the center of the black rock, radiating outward into a mysterious white glow. She could feel herself becoming steadily weaker while holding it, as if it was sucking out her magic.

Twilight set it back down, deciding that at that moment that Trixie was more important than some glowing meteorite. Yes it might be the discovery of the century, holding untold magical wonders and secrets; but Trixie was still a bigger concern for her.

She walked back out of the crater to find Trixie attempting to stand up. She stood up on four hooves after a bit of struggling, but only for a split second before her legs buckled. Luckily she didn't crash onto the hard ground again as Twilight rushed over and used her body to prop her up.

"Don't worry, Trixie, I'm going to take you back home," Twilight cooed.

"So very tired…" Trixie muttered, barely staying awake.

Trixie couldn't hold it any longer. She slowly fell into blissful unconsciousness.

Comfort. It was something that Trixie hadn't felt in a long time. She slowly opened her eyes and took in her surroundings.

She was in a bedroom. Two beds, a window, a small basket and lots of shelves with an incredible array of books. Overall a very warm and cozy environment; one that seemed completely foreign to Trixie. The last time she slept this well was when she was still traveling with her caravan. After the incident she spent most nights under the stars.

Trixie slowly got out of the bed she was in and took notice of a full body mirror a few feet awayIt had been a long time since she had last taken a good look at herself. The last time she didn't look too great, now it was probably even worse. She stepped up and got a good look at herself. Her coat and mane were cleaned and brushed, but Trixie could also see a few ribs while turning sideways. Even her cutie mark had faded slightly. Was that even possible? Could a cutie mark fade and disappear? The thought of losing her wand and dust chilled Trixie to the bone. Then she noticed her horn.

My horn! My magic!

Trixie immediately tried to levitate a nearby pillow, which yielded no resultsThere was no more pain from her horn, just an empty hollow feeling. She immediately thought of the worst possible outcomes. She might not be able to do magic for the rest of her life! She could be the laughing stock of the world! Her horn could fall off!!

No, get a hold of yourself Trixie. Nothing like that is going to happen. I'm going to get fixed up and everything will be alright! She gave a face of mock happiness attempting to lift her own mood, to no avail.

Frustrated, she thought back to the events of the previous night. The crashed meteor, her magic failing, Twilight.

Twilight! I must be somewhere in Ponyville!

Trixie quietly walked up to the nearby door which she presumed lead to the main room of the building. She could hear talking coming from the other side. One voice belonged to Twilight, the other she didn't recognize. Possibly one of her friends that I upstaged? No, that voice sounds like a colt. Maybe if I just take a quick peek...

"-changed Spike, when I found her yesterday she was nothing like when she came here a year ago." Twilight said.

"And how do you know?" Spike questioned, "You said it yourself that she was an arrogant show off."

That comment hurt Trixie. Yes, she was an arrogant show off when her ego was fed. But normally she was quite friendly and polite. How somepony could have such drastic personality changes was beyond Trixie, but maybe she could get help from Twilight? For Trixie this was a once in a lifetime opportunity: somepony actually wanted to help her, so she wanted to make sure not to screw anything up.

"Yes, I did say that," Twilight countered, "but I also saw what she had become since leaving. She needs help Spike, and I'm going to be the one who helps as I doubt anyone else would."

"Fine Twi, just don't do anything drastic," Spike said, "Now I'm starving, so I'm gonna go make a daffodil sandwich; you want one?"

"Yes please, could you also make one for Trixie when she wakes up?"

"Yeah alright…" Spike grumbled while heading into the kitchen.

At the mention of food, Trixie's stomach rumbled, reminding her that she hadn't had a proper meal in days. She debated whether to open the doors and join Twilight, or just sit in the bedroom. It was a very one-sided argument.

Trixie slowly opened the door trying to be as quiet as possible, but of course the door let out a huge groan which anypony in the building would have heard. Twilight's ears perked up at the sound, and she turned towards the staircase to find the azure mare slowly walking down.

"Good morning, Trixie!" Twilight welcomed, cheerfully, "You're looking much better than last night. I trust that you slept well?"

As if on command, hearing compliments instantly bolstered Trixie's ego. She stood up straight, puffed out her chest and looked at Twilight as if above her.

"Yes, The Great and Powerful Trixie must thank you the for- Ahh! No! Stop it, stop it, stop it!" Trixie yelled at herself. She shrunk back down, attempting to push back her ego. It seemed to work for the moment, the real Trixie regaining enough control to push her ego back.

Twilight was immediately at her side, trying to find a way to help. "Trixie! Are you alright!?" she asked.

"I'm sorry Twilight, I'm so sorry," Trixie apologized.

"For what?"

"For letting my ego take control and getting part of the town destroyed."

Trixie was practically crying now. All the hurt and shame of the past year came flooding back, breaking the wall that she had put up in her head. The loss of all her possessions, specifically her hat and cape. The ridicule of being shown up by Twilight. The awful nights she spent alone, trying to piece her life back together, the loneliness. She cried into Twilight's arms until she had run out of things to cry about.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Twilight gently asked Trixie once she has calmed down.

"Well, *sniff* you remember how I acted last time I was here?" she asked.

"Yes, you weren't the nicest pony to ever come into town."

"I was a stuck up, arrogant jerk," Trixie replied flatly.

"And this is relevant how?"

“Well, last year you saw me at my worst. I love performing for ponies, well, loved performing. But every time I get on stage, my ego takes over and I become somepony else entirely. I hate it. I haven't had a show where ponies enjoyed themselves in years.”

Twilight held and listened to Trixie until she was all finished. Which was quite some time, as Spike came in part way through and was forced to wait with the sandwiches until they finished. Spike really couldn't stand Trixie, he had only heard the endings of her sobbing but that was enough to complete reverse his opinion of her. Gone was the boastful jerk that he remembered form a year ago. Now she was just a hurt lonely pony. Taking notice of him, Trixie slowly let go of Twilight.

"Oh, I'm sorry for making you wait, umm…"

"Spike," he replied.

"Well, thank you for being so patient."

"Eh, it's okay. I had my sandwich here," Spike said, gesturing to an empty plate, "Would you two like yours finally?"

"Yes please!" Twilight eagerly accepted Spike's offer, with Trixie following close behind. The three of them then sat together at the table, Twilight enjoying her food and Trixie absolutely adoring it.

The three of them then sat together at the table, Twilight enjoying her food and Trixie absolutely adoring hers. How Trixie had attempted to start up her caravan again, but was met with ridicule and shame wherever she went. Mostly because word of the incident in Ponyville had spread like wildfire, completely destroying any positive reputation she once had. Trixie's attempts to regain fame, and each time she tried, her ego would flare up and cause her to make a foal of herself.

The sun was already setting by the time Trixie's tale had wound down to the last couple of days, though none of the three noticed that they had spent the whole day in the library.

"-and that's when you came running to my side in the clearing. At the time, you were the last pony I would have wanted to run into. But now, it couldn't have gone any better," Trixie said while flashing Twilight a smile. "It's so nice to be able to just talk and have fun with somepony rather than just antagonizing them."

"Huh, sounds to me that you were just very lonely traveling by yourself," Spike suggested.

"Yes… yes I was," Trixie replied, still coming to terms with just how alone she was.

"Well don't worry Trixie, you'll always have a home here in Ponyville," Twilight happily explained. "No matter where you go or what you do, you'll always be welcome here."

"Thank you, Twilight; you have no idea how much that means to me." Trixie paused, a thought coming to her head, "But what about your friends? I didn't exactly leave a good impression with them last time I was here."

"Don't worry about that. I already have a plan to meet up with each one individually tomorrow. You can work up the list to reform each one's impression of you," Twilight said.

"Alright, Twilight, if you think that's the best idea…” Trixie said with a bit of uncertainty in her voice.

"I do, because the sooner you become friends with my friends the better off you'll feel," Twilight smiled.

"Friends?" Trixie asked, almost not believing the word. As if it was some cruel joke.

"Yes! Oh it'll be so much fun!" giggled Twilight, already thinking of the next day.

A small tear dripped down Trixie's cheek, unnoticed by Twilight nor Spike. "Thank you, for everything, Twilight."

"Of course! Friends help each other out!" Twilight said enthusiastically.

Trixie then stood up and stretched her hooves out, taking a deep yawn. "Well, I am starting to get tired, so I think I'll be going to sleep. Umm, where will I be…?"

"Oh! Right, you can use the spare bed in the bedroom," Twilight replied.

"Okay then, goodnight," Trixie said while heading up the staircase.

"Goodnight, Trixie!"

"Night."

After hearing the bedroom door close, Twilight turned to Spike.

"So, Spike, still have any uneasy feelings about her?" she asked, grinning like a mad mare.

"No, Twi, you were right. She really has changed," Spike replied.

Spike's perception on the ex-stuck up showmare had been completely flipped in the afternoon. He now felt sorry for her, having heard what she endured for most of her life.

"Well, I think we should be heading to bed as well," Twilight stated.

"Right behind you."

So the two went up the stairs to the bedroom. Trixie heard them walking in and getting into their respective beds. After many sleepless nights under the open stars, she was finally able to fall asleep with a bright smile across her face, hoping for a new beginning.

"So what'll it be?" Red Cider asked the mare stopping in front of his stall.

Cider was a small apple farmer who ran a stand in Manehattan. He was not related in any way to the Apple family, but he did know of them. He had pretty good business daily, serving out apple-based products from his cart on the busy streets.

"Ah'll have a' apple fritter," the orange mare replied.

“Sure thing, that'll be 2 bits," Cider said while leaning over to scoop up a fritter.

Cider felt something change in the air; not just him but everypony within viewing distance felt it. The air rapidly cooled and a wave of energy washed over him. He didn't think much of it; it was normal for temperatures in Manehattan to change suddenly because of the wind. Cider ignored it, until he looked back up at his customer.

"Say, you at all related to the apple family? Cause you look quite a lot like somepony- Ah... know...” Cider gasped while looking through the glowing mare. "Uh, miss? Are you alright?"

"Why yesss. We’re fiiine," the mare hissed while glaring at Cider, seeming to stare into his soul. Quite a few other ponies were already staring at the sight. Cider felt another wave of cold energy wash over him, as though all the kindness in his hearts just vanished in a puff of smoke. His coat also started to dull in color.

Cider then stopped paying attention to the mare and turned on the ponies who were watching the spectacle.

"What're you all looking at!?" Cider yelled at the onlookers, "Nothin' to see here!"

The sudden reaction startled the group, who immediately started dispersing. There were grumbles throughout, having lost the opportunity to watch a good show. Some leaving ponies however felt quite a bit more rotten then they did a few minutes ago, yelling at a few other ponies.

"I said leave!" Cider yelled, "Don't make me hurt you!"

The glowing mare gave a wicked smile before disappearing in a flash of light.

Big thanks to Dr. Jekyll & NikitaKitten for prereading and editing the chapter!

Chapter 3: Preperations

Chapter 3: Preparations

"Ahh, damn it! I'm going to be late! Excuse me!"

"Hey! Watch where you're going!"

"Sorry!"

Major Silver Rush continued her quick pace through the castle heading for The Throne Room. Today there was a special meeting between the princesses and the heads of the royal guard. It was about the problems in Manehattan, Canterlot and Cloudsdale. Over the past few weeks there had been rioting and a sharp increase in crimes in Equestria's major cities.

Major Rush was the head of the royal guard's response team. She was a silver pegasus with a red mane and a red flaming comet for a cutie mark. It suited her well, seeing as she is the fastest flyer in the royal guard and usually the first to respond to emergencies. It was her job to keep an eye out for problems across the country and report to the princesses and the heads of the guard. Now she was hurrying to the throne room to give an in-depth look at the rioting, and she was late.

Ahh, why did Swift have to go on one of her hour long rants? I swear she’s got a mouth as big as her brain. Sergeant Swift Horn was Rush’s right hoof mare and the intelligence officer for the group. She was a natural choice for the team even though she tended to run her mouth off when explaining things. Rush overlooked it for the most part, but it could backfire when she was in a hurry like today.

Almost there, I hope I haven’t missed anything important. Major Rush quickly rounded a corner and came face to face with the huge doors to the throne room. She calmly stopped to straighten her mane and tail before heading in. The major wasn't nervous at all, unlike most ponies who were about to meet royalty. She saw Princess Celestia on a regular basis as well as Princess Luna who had now returned to the throne. She took a deep breath and pushed open the double doors.

"… and with the rise- oh, Major Rush. How nice of you to join us," General Starburst said, turning to look at the doorway. He was seated with Captain Darkwing across a large table from the two princesses with a number of papers lying between them. General Starburst and Captain Darkwing were the two commanding officers of the royal guard. General Starburst supervised the day guard while Captain Darkwing had command over the night guard. Both were large pegasi easily a foot taller than most ponies. Starburst had a snow-white coat with a gold mane while Darkwing had a grey coat with a dark blue mane. They each had a cutie mark of a gold and blue shield respectively.

Princess Celestia and Princess Luna both sat on adjacent thrones overlooking the whole room. Celestia was a large white alicorn with a shimmering rainbow mane. Being able to raise the sun, it was easy to tell that she had immense magical power, only rivaled by her sister, Princess Luna. Luna was also an alicorn with a dark blue coat and a flowing mane that looked like the night sky. She wasn't as big as her sister, but still taller than most ponies. They both eyed the major intently as she trotted to the other end of the table.

"I'm sorry sir, Sergeant Swift Horn kept me occupied with her latest report," Rush replied, walking up beside the general and captain. "I'm sorry for the interruption Princess Celestia, Luna," she apologized, slightly bowing her head at the princesses.

"It's quite alright major, as you were General," Celestia said.

Starburst turned back to the princesses and regained his train of thought. “As I was saying, the royal guard had been put on high alert with the increased crime and riots throughout Canterlot, Manehattan and Cloudsdale."

"Are there any leads into why this is happening?" Luna queried.

"We do have some information on the incidents, Major Rush if you would?" Captain Darkwing said, turning to her. Major Rush nodded and leaned over to her saddlebags. A moment later she brought a large file and placed it on the table.

"Here is a report on the first recorded incident of random aggression from citizens. It occurred last Saturday on the 23rd," she said. "One guard noticed a crowd gathering around an apple stall, so he went to take a look. He said that the vender suddenly started acting very aggressive towards the crowd, yelling at them to leave. Then there was a bright flash as everypony was dispersing."

"Did he see anything else unusual?" Luna asked.

"The guard said that he regularly talked with the vender, Red Cider. After the mob dispersed he walked up to the stall to talk to Mr. Cider and found that his coat had turned grey and was quite rude to him as well," Rush explained.

"When was this information collected?"

"The guard compiled a report as soon as he got back to his local station."

"How odd, do you have any idea what this could be sister?" Luna asked.

"…"

"Celestia?"

The four of them turned towards Celestia who had been quiet the whole time. She had a face of shock, anger and worry. They had no idea what was going through her head. In fact just the look of worry on her face was enough to unnerve the rest of them. After what seemed like hours, Celestia finally broke the silence.

"What we speak of now never leaves this room, does everypony understand?" she said. Gone was the usual kind caring voice, replaced with one of stern authority. Luna looked over to the other three, who all silently nodded. The last time she looked this serious was when Disc- Luna's face dropped to a ghastly white.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Luna asked with a tone of fear in her voice.

"I'm afraid so," Celestia slowly turned back to the other three and took a deep breath. "I'm afraid that Discord may have found another way to escape."

Starburst and Darkwing both held perfect poker faces. Rush on the other hand had already started to panic. "But how is that possible? Isn't he still trapped in stone in the vault? How could he-"

"Get a hold of yourself Major!" Darkwing bellowed. "Yes, Discord is still trapped down in the vault and he's not getting out anytime soon."

The vault was a secret chamber directly under Canterlot Castle. It was made shortly after Discord’s second banishment specifically to hold him. The brightest unicorns worked along with the two princesses to create the underground chamber, it was made with 10 meter think obsidian walls and enchanted to be magic-proof. The only beings powerful enough to unlock it were Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Once the construction was complete, all but a few select ponies had their memories erased of the project.

"Then what could be causing the riots? Discord can not use magic while trapped."

"No, he can't…" Celestia slowly murmured, "but what if he's not the direct cause?"

Luna looked over to her sister, clearly skeptical of the proposal. "But how could he be the cause yet not be the one controlling it?"

"Um, I have an idea," Major Rush meekly suggested.

"Well, out with it Major," Starburst sharply replied.

"Umm, maybe while Discord was still free, he created some spell in case he was defeated. Like a fallback plan," Rush explained.

"Hmm, I think you might be on to something there," Darkwing said. "Discord might have set up a fallback plan, and the increased crimes and rioting is his improvised chaos."

"That does make sense, but for a spell to be so powerful to reach across the country there would have to be a single control point which would use an immense amount of natural magic."

"Actually I think I may have a solution to that as well."

Everypony turned to Major Rush while she sifted through her saddlebags again. "Where is it… there we go!" Rush said while pulling out another report, much smaller than the last. She set it on the table and opened it a few pages in.

"This is a report on the meteor shower that was made a few nights ago." Rush gestured to the article. "Luna, you created the shower as purely visual correct?"

"Yes."

"Well apparently it was not completely visual." She opened up the next page. "There were reports of a star falling over the Everfree Forest, near Ponyville. The incidents of increased aggression started flowing in the following morning. If there is a central controlling point, there is a possibility that it is whatever fell into the forest.”

"Alright, I will assemble a squad to go and contain the object." Starburst said.

"No," Celestia countered. "If an armed squad of royal guards were seen flying through a populated town, it could cause a panic combined with the riots already occurring. If we do send in a response, it will an undercover agent staying in Ponyville."

General Starburst sat back down, maintaining his poker face at the same time as Major Rush stood up.

"I volunteer to go on the undercover mission," Rush stated.

"And who will fill your position in your absence?" Luna asked.

"Sergeant Swift Horn can fill in for the response team while I'm away. I have a contact in Ponyville I can stay with while I'm there."

There was a silence as everypony thought over the plan. After a few minutes, Celestia finally spoke up: "I believe this would be the best course of action. Major Silver Rush, you will be going undercover to Ponyville and report anything out of the ordinary. If you get the chance, I would also like you to travel into the Everfree Forest and observe the crash site."

"Understood, ma'am."

"One more thing, as you all know the elements of harmony reside in Ponyville." Celestia turned to Major Rush. "While stationed there, I would like you to make contact with my student, Twilight Sparkle. I'm sure she knows something about the crashed object; she wouldn't let such an opportunity pass by her. Although try to refrain from revealing yourself if it is not completely necessary. Any questions?"

"None, ma'am." Rush replied.

"Alright, you may go pack for the trip. A bottle of dragon fire will be ready in the armory for when you leave." Celestia turned back to Starburst and Darkwing. "General, Captain, if you two would stay behind for a few more words with Luna and I."

"Of course your majesty." Starburst and Darkwing replied simultaneously.

Major Rush started packing up her saddlebags while the others continued talking. To be honest she was quite exited. This was her first mission in months. It was a good break from the regular overseeing of the guard. She lifted her bags back onto her back and politely nodded to the Princesses before departing the throne room.

Well, this is going to be fun.

Big thanks to Dr. Jekyll and NikitaKitten for pre-readin and editing this chapter!

Chapter 4: Sacrifice

“Are you sure about this Twilight?” Trixie asked uncertainly.

“Yes, making amends for your last time here will be the best for everypony,” Twilight replied.

It was around noon as the two mares walked through the streets of Ponyville. The town was alive with commotion, ponies going about, enjoying the beautiful weather. A perfect day to relax and have fun, or to start over as Trixie thought about it.

This really is my chance to start over. I may not have noticed it last time I was here but Ponyville really is beautiful and peaceful, unlike the busy streets of Manehattan and Canterlot. Yes, I did miss the action and excitement of the big city; it was something I never did get over while traveling. Ponyville on the other hoof was a quiet town nestled away from the commotion of industry. The biggest business around was the Apple family's farm. I'm really going to enjoy it here.

The plan was to visit each of Twilight's friends one by one, introduce them to the “new” Trixie, and for her to make apologies when necessary. Trixie honestly hoped that she had finally found somewhere to settle down and have friends, because friends are something of a rarity when traveling from town to town.

"So, who is it we're visiting first?" Trixie questioned.

"We'll be visiting Fluttershy. I don’t believe you met her last time you were here. She's a very timid pegasus, but one of the kindest ponies you'll ever meet. She lives on the outskirts of town, so we can have a peaceful walk on the way there," Twilight answered with a smile. "I have full confidence that you can win her over."

I hope so...

As the two walked through town, Trixie swore she could see other ponies stealing resentful glances at her. She was extremely glad to be traveling with Twilight. In fact, her companion was probably the only thing keeping an angry mob from forming and chasing her out of the town. Even though it was over a year ago, most ponies still remembered Trixie's first arrival in Ponyville. It was for the most part not a good memory.

The two of them spent the next while walking through Ponyville, slowly edging towards the Everfree Forest. The hustle and bustle of the market had been traded for the quiet nature along the path to Fluttershy's cottage. Trixie was just relieved to have safely made it out of the town square without causing a riot.

Twilight and Trixie slowly made their way down the path to Fluttershy’s cottage taking in the sights and sounds along the way. Being so close to the Everfree Forest slightly unnerved Trixie; she was glad that they wouldn't actually have to go back in there.

Suddenly a cool feeling washed over the both of them. Twilight shrugged it off, but Trixie by chance turned her head towards the forest edge. There was a mare standing between two very large trees staring right back at her.

"Tw-Twilight..." Trixie looked over to her.

"Yes?"

"Umm, I think..." Trixie stammered, looking back to where the mare was.

The spot between the two trees was empty. Where did she go? Did I just imagine somepony standing there? No, I’m positive there was somepony standing there looking at me.

Apparently, Trixie had been taking some time to say something for Twilight interrupted her train of thought.

"Trixie, are you alright?" Twilight asked.

"Hmm? Oh, yes, I'm fine," Trixie replied, slowly taking her gaze away from the forest. "Let's keep going, shall we?"

"Alright!" Twilight said cheerfully, resuming their walk.

There was a steadily growing amount of animals around the path as the two made their way towards the cottage. It was something that Trixie was quite grateful for; the creepiness of the Everfree Forest was something she'd prefer to forget. Twilight, on the other hoof, was busy dealing with her own form of creepy terror.

"Eeeeeeeeeeeee!! Snake! Get it away from me!!" Twilight yelled out, magically shoving herself behind Trixie. Predictably Trixie burst out laughing.

"Trixie! Stop laughing and help!" Twilight cried in terror.

"Alright, alright miss I'm the greatest unicorn ever!" Trixie giggled. She calmly walked over to the small garden snake and gently pushed it off the path. She couldn't hold it any longer. Trixie burst out into another fit of laughter.

"Not funny," Twilight retorted.

"Oh! I beg to differ," Trixie said, wiping tears from her eyes.

"Beg away," she smirked.

Trixie lowered her head and gave Twilight the biggest, saddest puppy dog eyes she could muster, she even quivered her bottom lip. Twilight fended off the horrible assault of cuteness until she could fight it no longer and caved in. Applebloom would have been proud.

"Okay, okay! You win this round," Twilight giggled.

"As I always do," Trixie grinned.

"Is that your ego that I'm seeing?"

"No, no. I'm still here."

"Great! We're almost there."

"Yes! We can continue our perilous journey now that the great crisis has been averted!" Trixie exaggerated.

"Ahhh, shut up..." Twilight muttered.

"Right back at you. That screaming was probably heard all the way back in town," Trixie joked.

"It was!"

"What?"

"Hahaha! Twilight just got burned!"

"What!? Where is she!?"

"No, no, AJ, she's fine."

"But you just said—"

"Ooo, pie! C'mon!"

"Umm..."

"I'll have a blueberry one!"

*sigh*

Twilight and Trixie continued walking down the path until they reached a small hut in the middle of a clearing. There were even more animals around here than before. They were going in and around the house as if it were a natural creation.

"Okay, Trixie, so this is Fluttershy's cottage."

"It's so peaceful," she replied. "It must be wonderful to live here."

"Well as her name implies, Fluttershy is quite shy. She's also Ponyville's unofficial vet. So mind the animals while your here, she tends to them as her own."

They slowly made their way across the bridge towards the house. Trixie peered over the edge and was rewarded with a splash in the face by a fish. "Ack," Trixie muttered, "stupid fish..." She looked back up to find Twilight knocking on the door to the house. She quickly wiped her face with her hoof and trotted up to join her.

Trixie stood beside Twilight as the door slowly opened. Okay, I have to make a good first impression. Trixie put on a huge happy smile. No, too much. She toned it down a bit. Better. Oh what if she doesn't like me? Maybe I have enough time to get away before... too late.

Trixie shut her eyes, too nervous to face the pegasus.

"Fluttershy? Are you here?" Twilight called into the house. "Hel-" Twilight was interrupted by a thumping on her hoof. She looked down to find a snow white rabbit.

"Oh, hello Angel. Is Fluttershy home?"

Angel shook his head, indicating no. He then proceeded to perform a series of hand gestures, which the lavender unicorn couldn't divulge the meaning of. Maybe he's referring to Fluttershy? Or possibly a giant rampaging manticore about to destroy Ponyville? Or even the zombie apocalypse? Nah, probably Fluttershy.

"So, is that a no?" Twilight asked.

Angel face-palmed. He sighed, or what would be considered the equivalent of a rabbit sighing. He picked up a nearby twig and slowly carved three letters into the dirt.

"S… P… A…" Twilight read aloud. "Spa? Oh! The town Spa! Fluttershy must be off with Rarity right now."

"Well, Trixie, Fluttershy isn't here...what's wrong, Trixie?” Twilight had turned to find Trixie sitting down behind her covering her face. Twilight giggled, she was pulling off a pretty good Fluttershy. She slowly poked her face, earning a quick glance by the unicorn.

"Trixie, you know you're supposed to be meeting Fluttershy, not impersonating her, right?" she laughed.

"Sorry, I can't help but be nervous! What if I screw up and they all hate me again!" Trixie said while getting up. "I...really...couldn't..." Trixie froze up.

"You alright there?" Twilight asked. She waved a hoof in front of Trixie's face only to get no response. Was she hurt? Did she space out again? Twilight traced her gaze back towards the door.

"Is... is that you?" Trixie asked in disbelief.

Angel was just as frozen looking back at Trixie. He slowly nodded as a smile creeped up onto his face. Maybe this meeting was fate, maybe just pure luck; Trixie didn't care. This was the rabbit that had built her back up after the incident a year ago. If he hadn't followed her after running away from Ponyville, she would probably be in an even worse situation then now. She might not have even been alive. Trixie owed this rabbit her life.

"You two know each other?" Twilight asked.

"Yes, after the incident a year ago, he followed me when I ran out of Ponyville." Trixie then turned right to Angel. "Thank you, if you hadn't found me I don't think I would have ever gotten back on my hooves."

Angel gave a quick nod and a smile. He hopped up to Trixie's fore-hoof and gave it a tight hug. Twilight watched the display of affection, glad that not everyone in Ponyville was hostile to Trixie. Feeling a bit like a third wheel at that moment, Twilight's brain started working to think of something to say. Suddenly something clicked.

"Wow! That would actually explain a lot," Twilight started, "After the town had cleaned up, Fluttershy couldn't find Angel anywhere." She turned to the rabbit, who had finally released Trixie's hoof. "You only returned a few hours later."

Angel gave a small nod.

"Thank you, Angel." They both said in unison.

Angel replied with a salute before hopping back inside the cottage.

Trixie turned back to Twilight. "So now I guess we're going to the spa?" she asked.

"I was hoping to reintroduce you to Rarity a bit later, but I guess it can't be helped."

The two friends started on the path back to Ponyville. After the meeting with Angel, Trixie was particularly happy. The thoughts of nervousness were the last thing in her head. Okay, maybe not the last thing but not the first thing either. Okay, maybe they were the first thing but at least she was optimistic!

"I see a smile there," Twilight happily said, "is somepony in a good mood?"

"Yes! I am in a good mood!" Trixie replied. "Eh, I might still be a bit nervous."

"Well, it's good that you're feeling good! That'll make the meetings a lot easier."

"I hope so..."

Trying to relax her mind, she gazed up at the sky. The weather patrol really out-did themselves. A few clouds lazily drifted across the blue sky in the gentle breeze. There was even a rainbow! Hold on a sec, how could there be a rainbow? It hadn't rained anytime recently. Trixie squinted to take a closer look, and noticed that the rainbow was changing colors and moving.

"Twilight, what is that?" Trixie pointed a hoof at the rainbow thing.

"Uh, I think that's Rainbow Dash. She's probably practicing a new trick," Twilight informed her. "She wants to join the Wonderbolts so she practices whenever she can."

Trixie looked back up at Rainbow. She might have been high above Ponyville but her performance could be seen quite easily. From what Trixie could see, she was steadily gaining speed while trailing a rainbow. She chuckled. I suppose the name fits the pony.

A cold shiver ran down Trixie's spine.

Suddenly the rainbow streak veered off course, as if it bounced off something. The rainbow started to lead an erratic path away from the town down towards the two of them. Okay! This is definitely not part of the routine.

"Twilight, is she supposed to do that?" Trixie asked in a worried tone.

Twilight looked up to the streak and gasped. It was heading right for them.

"Ohmigosh! Twilight get down!" Trixie yelled, pushing the both of them down to the ground.

Rainbow went whizzing past right over their heads. There was a large thunderclap as the pressure wave hit them. Trixie was knocked back away from Twilight, stumbling and landing at the water's edge. Twilight landed on her stomach and got winded. Trixie's ears were ringing as she tried to reorient herself. There was a huge splash and a large wave of water crashed into her.

"Ack!" Trixie spat out some water. She looked up towards the lake and saw Rainbow thrashing around in the water. Either she couldn't swim or she was hurt, probably the latter.

Trixie immediately got up and reached out trying to grab Rainbow with her magic. "Damn it! This is not a good time!" Trixie yelled at her horn. "Twilight! Can you help me!?" She called back to the other unicorn. Twilight was still on the grass, gasping for breath. Unfortunately, Trixie was on her own.

What do I do what do I do!? Trixie looked along the riverbank for something to help, but the only things visible were some twigs and stones. She was pretty sure throwing a rock at the struggling pegasus would not yield positive results. Trixie took a few steps back. "Ah hell," she muttered. Seeing no alternative, Trixie took a running leap into the water.

Rainbow was in full panic mode. She was practicing the “Neon Flash” when she suddenly lost control. The next thing she knew she was in a lake and there was a searing pain in her lungs. Rainbow was trying to pull on something to lift herself above the surface of the water. Unluckily, the first thing she grabbed happened to be Trixie.

"Rainbow! *Gasp* Hold Still! *Gasp* I’m here to- woah!!" Trixie panicked as she was shoved underwater. Trixie was not naturally a good swimmer. In all honesty she could barely keep herself above water. So, with a panicking pegasus grabbing on to her she was not in the best position. Trixie tried to suck in a lung-full of air but received water instead.

She couldn't think, she couldn't breathe. So is this were I die? Is this were my story ends? Trixie started to slip into unconsciousness. No! I can’t give up! She focused solely on her magic, giving up on trying to breath. She felt a click in her head, as if something had been reset.

The water around them started to glow, as did Trixie's horn. She felt a huge force underneath her, trying to shove them out of the water. The two mares were launched out of the water by a huge geyser of pure magic and they soared through the air towards the shore.

It was oddly calm flying through the air. Shouldn't I be panicking? Gasping for breath? She could sense everything around her. It was as if time itself had slowed down to a near stop. She looked over to Rainbow who was flying beside her. She had a look on her face of pure horror. She had just crashed and nearly drowned so Trixie could understand. Herself? Trixie couldn't feel any pain. She couldn't feel anything for that matter. That was until the time flow returned to normal.

There was a large *THUD* as Trixie felt herself colliding with the hard ground. Now that hurt. She felt a sickening snap in her left forehoof and a sharp jolt of pain. It didn't really register for Trixie, the pain in her chest and horn was already too overwhelming. So this is what it feels like to die.

She looked over to Rainbow. The pegasus was coughing up water and shaking, but at least she was alive. Well, at least I did something positive with my life. A small smile coming to her face. She was starting to lose feeling in her body. First her hoofs, now her heartbeat was slowing down.

With her last bit of strength, Trixie looked up at the sound of hoofsteps to find three figures running towards them. One was shouting something incomprehensible at the other two. Two of the figures rushed to Rainbow, the other to Trixie. Her vision was getting so blurred all she could make out was a glowing thing on top of a purple mass.

Trixie finally felt like she had done something right in her life. Content with herself, she finally let the darkness surround her.

Everything faded to black.

Big thanks to Dr. Jekyll & Nikitakitten for prereading/editing the chapter!

Chapter 5: Reunion

Her mane whistled in the wind as Major Silver Rush glided through the air. She was currently flying high above the countryside, the houses and farms looking like small dots from her perspective. She had left Canterlot earlier that day on a special assignment to Ponyville. Her saddlebags were filled to the brim with tools and gadgets from the Canterlot armory; she was prepared for practically everything.

Ahh, this fresh air is great; always nice to fly out of the big city. Silver observed a few clouds lazily drifting across the sky in her general direction. Her right wing dipped as she gradually banked out of the way of one of the clouds. She adjusted herself and continued on towards Ponyville.

A flight from Canterlot to Ponyville would usually take an hour or two. Contrary to what she was supposed to be doing, flying full speed for the small town, Silver Rush was lazily gliding along the currents of warm air. Because of her position in the royal guard, she rarely was able to fly outside of Canterlot. So flying all the way to Ponyville was quite the treat.

Silver could see Ponyville steadily growing larger as she approached. It wasn't nearly as big as Canterlot, but she could understand why ponies would live here. The quiet, calm, fresh air. Mmm...It's so nice here. Hey, is that a rainbow? I didn't see any scheduled on Ponyville's weather calendar.

High above the edge of town, Silver could see a rainbow, or what she thought was a rainbow in the sky. The odd thing was that the rainbow was not stationary. Curious, Silver picked up a bit of speed and flew for the shimmering light. As she drew closer, Silver could see that is was an actual pony and not a rainbow.

Wow, that’s a neat trick. Hmm, I wonder how she gets the colors to continuously change. Silver came to a hover a few hundred meters from the swirling pegasi, observing the aerial acrobatics. The pegasus was performing a series of spirals through the clouds around her. Oh, that's probably how she does it: collecting water from the clouds.

She wasn't the only one watching the show however. Hovering at roughly the same altitude was another pony above the Everfree Forest. Silver took notice of the other pegasus.

Black? That’s not a natural color. Silver slowly started gliding to the other spectator, the hairs on her neck stiffening. As she got closer, Silver could see the pegasus was glowing. A cold wave traveled down her spine as the black object quickly accelerated towards the shining rainbow of colors.

"Hey! Stop right there!" Silver yelled out at the menacing figure. Without thinking she bolted right after it.

A dark aura started to glow around the shadow as it gained speed, vaguely resembling the pegasus it was charging. Silver rush beat her wings as fast as she could, planning to intercept the shadow before it collided with the performer. It was fast, she was faster. Silver barreled into the shadow right before it hit the other pegasus. The collision sent out a huge shock wave that knocked the performer into a spiral towards the ground while Silver grappled with the shadow as they fell towards the forest.

"Ack! Hold still!" She yelled. In the midst of the confusion everything ground to a halt. Silver was hanging upside down frantically trying to figure out why they had stopped moving. It wasn't just them that had stopped, everything had stopped moving. The falling performer had frozen in the sky as had Silver's saddlebags which had fallen off.

The shadow pony looked her straight in the eyes and spoke in a deep, unnatural voice. "You know not what you are interfering with. The events of your undoing have already been set in motion; you are only delaying the inevitable." The shadow then phased out of Silver's immovable grasp and flew a few feet away. "Equestria will burn in eternal chaos once again." Time suddenly resumed without so much as a flash of warning and Silver struggled to right herself.

"What the fuck!?" Silver yelled out in astonishment. She quickly flipped head over hooves and righted herself. Silver slowed her decent and came to a stop directly above the tree line before flying straight back up into the sky. Looking around, Silver couldn't see the shadow pony anywhere.

"Well this can't be good," she muttered to herself. Silver flew over to a nearby tree and picked up her saddlebags which had fallen off during the brief struggle. There was a loud beeping coming from the right bag. She reached in with a hoof and brought out a small golden compass. The compass was not used for telling north from south but instead was enchanted to show the strongest source of magic from its current position. The compass was spinning wildly.

Silver put her saddlebags back on and flew up higher, still holding the compass in her right hoof. After climbing a few hundred feet the needle had stopped spinning and was now steadily pointing towards Ponyville. Silver followed the arrow towards the small town.

Silver sighed. "Okay this is going nowhere." She had been flying back and forth over Ponyville for around three hours now. Every time it looked like she was about to find the source, the compass would spin wildly off course and then point somewhere else. Silver had given up trying to pinpoint the source for now. She was currently hovering above the market square with numerous stands below her.

"Eh, what time is it..." Silver glanced over to the nearby clock tower. It showed ten to three. "Probably should be going to see Lee now." Silver looked around and realized that she had no idea where her friend was. Reluctantly she slowly floated down to the ground and turned to the nearest stand which was covered in apples and apple products.

"Hello, miss, I'm looking for the elementary school. Would you be able to point me in the direction?" Silver asked the mare behind the counter. She had an orange coat with a yellow mane and was wearing a brown hat. Silver could see she had three apples for a cutie mark, a bit obvious considering her stand.

"O'course, sugar," the mare replied heartily, raising a hoof towards the left of the clock tower. "If yer flyin, it should be about that way." The mare took a good look at Silver, as if scrutinizing a product to buy. "Hmm, ah don’'t think ah've seen yah in Ponyville before. You new here?"

"Umm, yes. I flew in from Canterlot this morning. My name is Silver Rush." Silver extended a hoof which the farmer gladly shook. "I'm staying here with a friend for a few weeks.”

"Well, it's nice to meet yah, Miss Rush. Ah'm Applejack," she said, "ah run Sweet Apple Acres on the outskirts of town. We got the finest apples 'round these parts."

"The one with the big red barn?" Silver questioned.

"Yeah, how'd yah know?" Applejack replied.

"Oh, I saw it while flying here; quite an impressive orchard," she commented. From the view high in the air, Sweet Apple Acres was almost as big, if not bigger than Ponyville itself.

"Thank yah kindly, Miss Rush," Applejack said, "And what do you do all the way up in Canterlot? If you wouldn't min' me asking."

Silver thought for a second. She couldn't actually say that she worked for the royal guard and was on a secret mission to investigate the outbreaks of violence. Thankfully she had already planned for something like this and had a cover story.

"Not at all. I'm a teacher at the Canterlot School for Pegasi." Silver stole a quick glance at the clock tower. "Well, it was nice talking with you, Applejack, but I must be going now.”

"S'alright sugarcube, ah understand," Applejack said.

"Oh, and you can call me Silver!" she called while taking off.

"Have a nice day, Silver!" Applejack smiled. She waved while silver took to the skies above Ponyville once more. Once she had flown out of site, Applejack turned her attention back to her stand. "Hmm, something don't seem right 'bout that one," Applejack muttered to herself.

Ah, that must be the schoolhouse. By the edge of the town, Silver could see a large red building off the side of the road. There was a torrent of colts and fillies spewing out of the main doors heading in every which way. Silver banked left and gracefully glided down beside the path leading up to the building. She had to wait a few seconds for the students to pass before she could even attempt making it to the door.

Silver walked up and gingerly pushed the door open with a hoof. The first thing that hit her as she walked inside was the huge array of bright colors. The walls were scattered with colorful drawings and posters. There were four rows of desks and a large table at the front of the class. There were also three little fillies talking with their teacher who was behind said table.

"Girls, I don't want to have to tell you again. If you're going to try ridiculous stunts, at least try them outside of class," the teacher scolded.

"We're sorry," the three fillies apologized in practiced unison. It was quite obvious that they were bored.

"Alright, I guess you three can go now," she said.

The three fillies immediately ran for the door, nearly trampling Silver. She had to float into the air to avoid the whirlwind of colors. Once the group had left the building, Silver slowly walked up to the teacher who was erasing something on the chalkboard.

"Cute girls, a bit over energetic though," Silver commented.

"Oh, you have no idea," Cheerilee replied as she turned around. She was an earth pony with a light purple coat and a striped purple mane. She walked up around the table and gave Silver a big hug.

"It's great to see you again, Silver," Cheerilee greeted, "It's been way to long."

"Good to see you as well, Lee," Silver replied. The two of them had known each other for a long time. They both grew up in Ponyville and gone to university in Canterlot. Afterwards Silver stayed while Cheerilee came back to Ponyville. She was one of the few ponies who knew what Silver actually did for a job.

"So, how's the super top secret spy business going?" Cheerilee asked nonchalantly.

"Before this assignment, pretty boring really. Just training recruits and looking at the odd disturbance report. And you?" Silver replied.

"Well, about as good as you'd expect teaching elementary school to go," she sighed, "Very tiring at points."

"Yeah, I could see," Silver joked, "Those three were really messing with you."

"Oh, like you would know," Cheerilee retorted, "Those three are constantly doing stupid things to try and get their cutie marks. It was cute at first but now it's just annoying."

"Sounds fun," Silver feigned interest.

"So, what is your disguise this time?" Cheerilee questioned, "No wait, let me guess. Teachers assistant?"

"Pretty much. Thought it would make the most sense seeing as I'll be staying here." Silver motioned with a hoof to the surrounding schoolhouse. She turned back to Cheerilee with a small smile. "I still think you would've made a great partner on the team."

"Maybe, but I knew right out of university that I wanted to come back here and teach myself," Cheerilee replied, "So, any details you can give me about your super top secret mission?"

"Sorry, I can't at the moment. But there is something you can help me with," Silver countered, "do you know Twilight Sparkle?"

"Oh, of course. She runs the library so I see her whenever I get books for the class. We're rea-"

*grumble*

"Heh, sorry about that," Silver apologized, "guess I am a bit hungry."

"Want to go out for lunch?" Cheerilee asked.

"Sure, let's go to the café by the square. I haven't had a better daisy sandwich anywhere in Canterlot," Silver chuckled.

Silver left her saddlebags next to the table as the two of them walked out the building. A few seconds after the door clicked shut a quiet beeping could be heard from inside the bags.

Big thanks to Dr. Jekyll & Nikitakitten for prereading/editing the chapter!

Chapter 6: Acceptance

Ugh, where am I? Trixie winced at a slight pain in her head. What happened last night? She attempted to remember the events that might have led her to her current predicament. Okay, there was some road and a forest, a bunny thing, and water. None of that really helps. Maybe if a take a peek...

Trixie opened her eyes and slowly raised her head up off an incredibly soft pillow. Okay, I'm in a house. That's a good start. Hey, what's thi- Trixie didn't get the chance to finish the thought as the something barreled into her. The breath was shoved out of her chest as the something proceeded to squeeze the life out of her.

"Trixie, you're okay! Thank Celestia! Please don't ever do something like that again!"

"Can't… breathe…"

"Oh! Sorry, Trixie!"

Twilight stood up off of Trixie, finally allowing her a view of the room she was in. The first thing she noticed were all the animals scurrying about, around and through the room. It was very peaceful here, no noise except for the scurrying animals. Trixie immediately thought of Fluttershy's cottage.

"Twilight, where are we?"

"Oh, right now we're in Fluttershy's cottage."

"How did we get here?" Trixie questioned, "The last thing I remember is laying on the ground soaking wet."

"You don't remember?"

Trixie shook her head.

"While we were walking back to town from Fluttershy's cottage, Rainbow Dash lost control of her flight and crashed into the lake. The pressure wave winded me and knocked you by the water," Twilight explained, "It was just good luck that Rarity and Fluttershy were coming on the way back from the spa at the same time. From what I could see after they rushed over, you dove in after Rainbow and somehow shot the two of you over to the shore from the middle of the lake. Fluttershy and Rarity went to help Rainbow and I came over to you. I think that's when you passed out."

Trixie stared as she listened to what Twilight told her. It was a bit hard to believe. That she risked her life to save somepony that most likely hated her. Would she have done the same for me? Probably not. Right now Trixie wasn't too concerned with herself, she just wanted Rainbow to be okay. "Is Rainbow alright?"

"Why don't you see for yourself?" Twilight replied while turning towards the door. "Girls! You can come in now!"

There was a shuffling of hooves on the other side of the door before it slowly opened. Inside came two pegasi and a unicorn. The unicorn had a snow white coat and a beautifully styled purple mane with three diamonds as a cutie mark. One of the pegasi was light blue with a rainbow colored mane with a lightning bolt for a cutie mark, Trixie guessed that she was Rainbow Dash. The second pegasus had a light yellow coat with a pink mane and three butterflies for a cutie mark.

"Trixie, this is Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Fluttershy," Twilight introduced with a gesture at the three, "Girls, this is Trixie."

An awkward silence descended on the room. Trixie looked back and forth between Twilight's friends, unsure of what to say. Are they going to still hate me? Oh what if I did something wrong already? The silence was deafening. Finally somepony got up the courage to speak.

"Umm, thank you Trixie," Rainbow said, "If you hadn't jumped in and got me out of the water, I don't think I would have made it." Rainbow slowly held out a hoof to Trixie, who gladly shook it.

"I guess you really have changed since the last time you were here," Rarity commented.

"You all saw the worst of me when I was here a year ago," Trixie said, "Twilight, have you talked to them at all?"

"Umm..." Twilight stuttered.

"My dear, Twilight has been sitting by your side since we brought you back here. She hasn't even eaten anything," Rarity explained.

"Oh, how long have I been out?"

"The whole evening...it's Tuesday now," Fluttershy meekly replied. It was the first time she spoke since the three came in. Trixie had almost forgotten she was there. It really wasn't that hard; Fluttershy was attempting to hide herself behind Rainbow and was doing a pretty good job of it.

"Come to think of it, I am a bit hungry," Twilight said.

"Well, Fluttershy and I made a few sandwiches while you two were in here," Rarity spoke, her horn beginning to glow. Five sandwiches floated through the doorway above their heads and landed on the table. Rainbow eyed them expectantly, as if they were taunting her.

"Ugh, can I finally eat one now?" Rainbow groaned.

"Yes you may Rainbow, thank you for being so patient," Rarity replied.

"Awesome, I'm starving!"

The five of them gathered around the table and each picked a sandwich. Rainbow demolished hers in just four bites, much to Rarity's dismay. Twilight chuckled at the scene, and Trixie cracked a weak smile. Maybe I do have a chance to make friends here.

"So, why are you all of a sudden so nice, Trixie? Last time you were here you were a bit of a bitch," Rainbow asked bluntly.

"Rainbow!" Twilight scolded.

"No, no. It's understandable," Trixie cut off Twilight's rant before it could start, "I have a bit of an ego problem. Right now this is me, the real Trixie. But when my ego is fed I become, well, what all of you saw a year ago. I am truly sorry for showing-up all of you and bringing the Ursa to town. I hope you can all forgive me."

"Already done, my dear," Rarity replied, "In fact, that ego reminds me a bit of a certain blue pegasus." She slowly nodded towards Rainbow while taking another bite.

"Hey!"

All of them except Rainbow burst out laughing, and she joined them a few seconds after. This was the first time in years that Trixie had honestly felt happy and enjoyed herself. This was the first time she actually had friends, or at least she hoped she could consider the four of them her friends.

"So Trixie, if I may be so bold, what is or was it like traveling from town to town with a magic act?" Rarity asked.

Trixie gulped down a chunk of sandwich before speaking. "Well, when I first went onto the road, it was quite fun and enjoyable. I had many good shows where ponies enjoyed themselves and so did I. It was very nice traveling across the countryside, taking in the sights of the landscape and various towns. Although at times it did get quite lonely but, for the most part, I enjoyed the time performing and entertaining. But unfortunately as I got older, my ego started getting bigger and bigger when I was on stage. It eventually got to the point where ponies were booing me out of their towns. Ponyville actually saw me at my absolute worst when I came here. But now, I'm glad that I have somewhere to stay with...umm..."

"Friends?" Twilight supplied.

"Yes, friends." Trixie smiled happily at the others, who all returned the gesture.

"Oh my! Have we already been here for so long? I'm sorry girls, but I must go pick up Sweetie Belle from school," Rarity said, looking at the nearby clock on the wall. The clock looked like a kitty.

"Trixie and I should be heading back to town as well, would you like some company?" Twilight offered.

"Sure, maybe we can show Trixie around the town as well," Rarity said with a smile.

"That sounds nice, last time I was here I didn't really get a good look at the town," Trixie replied.

"Yeah, after being out for a day I got some catching up to do with the weather patrol," Rainbow said, "I guess I'll be seeing you all some other time. Thanks for the sandwiches girls, and uh, saving me from drowning and all that."

Trixie got up with Twilight and Rarity, each levitating the plates into the kitchen. Rainbow stretched her wings before speeding out the nearby open window. Hmm, no wonder she crashes so much. With that carelessness, I’m surprised she hasn't gotten seriously hurt already. Trixie offered a polite nod to Fluttershy who returned it with a wave and smile.

The three unicorns exited the cottage and slowly made their way down the path back towards Ponyville. Trixie looked up towards the sky and saw a beautiful rainbow stretching from over their heads towards the skies above the town. She cracked a smile. Finally, things are starting to go right for me.

The weather wasn't perfect; there were a few stray clouds floating around the sky. That's probably because Rainbow wasn't working yesterday or today. I'm sure a pegasus as fast as her will get the sky clear in no time. Trixie turned back to Twilight and Rarity, who were both enjoying the peaceful walk back to town. Trixie's mind started to wander about random things, like the upcoming meeting with Twilight's two other friends. Well if that meeting goes as well as the last one, I might have a chance! Trixie hummed optimistically at the thought and before she knew it, they were already walking through the town square.

"Rarity, if you were with us at Fluttershy's cottage last night and this morning then who took Sweetie Belle to school?" Twilight asked.

"Oh, I took her over to Applejack's farm so she could have a sleep-over with her friends."

"All three of them!?" Twilight asked in disbelief. "How did you manage to get AJ to agree to that?”

"Oh, I hosted the last sleep-over of theirs, so it was her turn this time," Rarity giggled.

Trixie had no idea who they were talking about. She had a vague idea who Applejack was, the mare she tied with a rope on her performance night. She took a wild guess that Sweetie Belle was related to Rarity.

"Is Sweetie Belle..." Trixie started. Rarity could already tell where she was going and cut her off before she could even finish.

"She is my sister, and just so you're prepared, she and her two friends are in a group called The Cutie Mark Crusaders. They are very energetic."

"Sounds fun," Trixie joked.

The three of them continued their walk through Ponyville, Trixie taking in the sights of the small community. She noticed that she was still getting looks from other ponies, but they weren't the hateful glares from the day before. Trixie swore that she saw smiles as ponies looked their way. Is it possible that word spread about what happened at the lake? Well, I guess that would be a good- before Trixie knew what had happened a pink blur shot right in front of them, nearly scaring her out of her hair.

“Hi, Twilight! Hi, Rarity! Hi, Trixie! Is everything okay? I heard what happened at the lake yesterday and was so super worried about Rainbow that I decided to throw her a ‘Hurray for Being Alright Party’ once she was all better but now I see that it was you who saved her so now I'm going to throw a ‘Thanks for Saving My Bestest Friends Ever Party!' Oh! I have so much work to do to make the bestest party ever! Okay! No time to chat, I'll see you three later today at the most super spectacular party ever!" Just as fast as the blur had appeared it disappeared without a trace.

"Umm, what just happened?" Trixie asked.

"That was Pinkie Pie, and it looks like she's throwing you a party," Twilight replied.

"Should I be worried?"

"Not unless you dislike games, candy and music," Rarity answered.

"Is she always like that?"

"Yes," Twilight and Rarity said simultaneously.

"You'll get used to it," Twilight continued.

"Eventually..." Rarity finished.

Okay, so that makes one, two, three, four, five friends. Who am I missing? We have Twilight, Rarity, Rainbow, Fluttershy and now the pink one. Umm, oh! The orange one! Now what was her name again… Oh well, I’m sure we'll run into her at some point. Hmm? What is that ringing? The loud noise was emanating from a bright red building down the block. Perhaps that is the schoolhouse?

Her thoughts were soon proved correct as an avalanche of fillies and colts poured out of the front doors. The three of them had to move to the side of the path as the mob passed by to avoid being trampled. After the main herd had passed, Trixie could see three energetic fillies making a beeline for their position.

"Hi Rarity! Hi Twilight!" the three fillies practically yelled, "Hi miss blue unicorn!"

"Hi girls! How was the sleep-over last night?" Rarity questioned.

"It was great! We stayed up all night telling ghost stories!" the white one replied.

"Oh dear, I hope you three didn't give Applejack too much of a headache," Rarity joked.

"Nah, mah sister was out before midnight and we stayed in the clubhouse!" the yellow one explained, "Oh, who's yer friend?"

Before Trixie could say anything, Twilight already started. "Girls, this is Trixie," she said while gesturing to the azure unicorn. "Trixie, this is Applebloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo," she said while motioning to each of them.

Trixie finally took a look at the three of them. Applebloom had a yellow coat and red hair with a bright red bow. Sweetie Belle had a pure white coat with a pink and purple striped mane and a horn. Scootaloo had an orange coat, purple mane and a pair of folded wings. None of them had their cutie marks.

"Hi girls," Trixie murmured, pulling off an impressive Fluttershy.

"Hi Trixie!" Applebloom and Sweetie Belle replied cheerfully. Scootaloo on the other hoof was standing there wide eyed and mouth agape staring at Trixie. This didn't really help boost her confidence. Applebloom noticed their unresponsive friend and started waving a hoof in front of her face. "Hey Scoots! Yah there? Equestria to Scootaloo! Hello-o!"

"Umm, is this normal?" Trixie asked, getting slightly creeped out by that staring pegasus.

Before any of them could reply, Scootaloo jumped at Trixie and proceeded to hug her like there was no tomorrow.

"Thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!” Scootaloo cried out, never releasing her death grip on the unicorn.

"Can't...breath..." Trixie choked out.

"Scootaloo! Get off'a her!" Applebloom yelled, poking her friend.

Scootaloo reluctantly released Trixie and got back to the ground, sheepishly stealing glances as the gasping unicorn. Rarity, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were staring in shock at the orange pegasus while Twilight was doing her best to comfort Trixie. She decided against hugging her, right now Trixie needed some space to breathe.

"Ack-" *gasp* "-what is with-" *gasp* "-ponies choking-" *gasp* "-me today," Trixie muttered.

"Oh my! Now what was that all about?" Rarity questioned.

"Yeah! Why'd yah almost strangle Miss Trixie?" Applebloom joined in.

Scootaloo just shuffled her hooves and looked at the ground. "Well, umm, I heard what happened at the lake yesterday and how you saved Rainbow Dash," she said meekly, turning towards Trixie, "She's my idol, th-thank you for saving her."

Trixie was stunned. I guess word about what happened did get out into the town. I guess that's a good thing? Her head agreed; her windpipe cried out in protest. Trixie finally caught her breathe enough to respond.

"Is that some kind of greeting here? Strangling and choking new ponies?" Trixie joked.

Twilight and Rarity stifled a laugh. Applebloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo looked between each other not understanding the joke. They were at least glad to have cut the tension that had filled the air.

"Now that introductions are out of the way, are you ready to head home Sweetie Belle?" Rarity asked.

"Yep!" She replied cheerfully.

"And I trust Applejack will be here soon to pick you two up?" Rarity said, turning to Applebloom and Scootaloo.

"Yeah, mah big sis should be here in a few minutes," Applebloom replied.

"Great, shall we ladies?" Rarity said, looking back at Twilight and Trixie who had finally regained their composure and got up off the ground.

"Yes, I suppose we can go now," Trixie said.

The three fillies said their goodbyes as the group started moving away from the school hall towards the town square. Trixie and Twilight were idly chatting, Trixie wanting to learn a bit more about Ponyville as she would be staying there for a while. Rarity was talking to her sister about her day in school.

"Was there anything interesting in school today?" Rarity asked.

"Yeah! Pinkie Pie came into the class near the end and was handing out invitations to a super huge party later tonight! Can we go sis? Pleeeeeeeeeeease?" Sweetie Belle almost begged, not surprising Rarity one bit. Pinkie Pie parties were legendary in Ponyville as being “The biggest, bestest, most funnest parties ever!” to quote a certain pink pony. The mention of Pinkie caught the attention of Twilight and Trixie who both turned to Rarity and Sweetie Belle.

"The invitations got out that fast? Wow. That's a new record for Pinkie," Twilight said, slightly impressed.

"That's for, uh, my party?" Trixie asked skeptically.

"I would think so," Rarity replied, "and it seems that Pinkie Pie isn't pulling any punches this time around." In a slightly sarcastic tone, she added "Lucky you," before continuing, "Pinkie's parties are the most fun around, but sometimes they're a bit much. A perfect example was when Gilda came to Ponyville and she unwittingly blew her top from all the pranks at a party."

"When is the party, Sweetie Belle?" Twilight questioned.

"It's at 6pm at Sugarcube Corner!" she happily chirped. "Oh! One other thing happened today! We got a new teacher's assistant!”

"What, Cheerilee wasn't enough for all of you?" Twilight joked.

"Miss Cheerilee said that she would be staying for a few days helping out teaching." Sweetie Belle continued on with her ramblings, Twilight now fully attentive at the mention of a new educational figure in Ponyville.

Trixie was barely paying attention to the conversation. She was mostly watching the town pass by and thinking about the party later that day. She wasn't sure whether to be scared or to look forward to it. Oh I hope it doesn't go terribly. Maybe Pinkie won't make a big deal out of it? Maybe...

"Trixie? You awake there?" Twilight asked, poking her in the shoulder.

"Hmm? What now?" Trixie muttered.

"We're here," Twilight gestured with a hoof towards the tree library. "You're so cute when you space out like that." She giggled, Trixie blushed.

"How did we get here already? Weren't we just talking with Rarity?"

"They turned towards Carousel Boutique a while ago. You just kept walking beside me towards the library," Twilight answered.

"And I didn't bump into anypony?" Trixie questioned.

"Well, I had to nudge you out of the way one or two times..." Twilight stifled a laugh.

"Oh, hah hah, laugh it up," Trixie prodded. "Could you please open the door now?"

Twilight walked up to the door, still giggling and magicked it open. The two of them walked into the foyer of the library, Trixie closing the door behind her. Twilight quickly walked across the room leaving Trixie by the door.

"Wait here Trixie. I have something for you," Twilight called while heading upstairs to the bedroom.

"If it's another death hug, I think I'll pass," Trixie said half sarcastically. She plopped herself down on the couch and looked around the room. There were full bookshelves along every wall, a couple chairs along with a desk and two doors that lead to the kitchen and basement respectively. There was also a faint smell of apples emanating from the kitchen doorway. Mmm, that smells delicious. Ah, it's probably Spike cooking something.

This time by herself gave Trixie an opportunity to reflect on the last few days. Aside from the loss of magic, the near death drowning and being strangled twice the last few days have been the best I've had in years. This really is my chance to start over. Oh I can’t- Trixie's thoughts ground to a halt as she saw Twilight walking back down the stairs. Her horn was glowing as she floated two objects behind her.

Trixie's hat and cape.

"Here, Trixie, I managed to salvage these from your trailer after the incident," Twilight said while floating the two accessories over to Trixie. "I'm sorry, but these were the only pieces from the trailer that were intact."

Trixie slowly picked up her hat and cape turning them over in her hooves, trying to authenticate if they were actually hers. To absolutely anypony else, these accessories would seem insignificant. To Trixie, her hat and cape had immeasurable value. They were the only objects that she had kept with her since she started traveling, everything else she had gained from performing. Trixie's vision started to blur slightly as she looked back up at Twilight. A single tear rolled down her cheek. She really couldn't believe it, that somepony would go to such great lengths to help and be kind to her. For all the years she had spent traveling, Trixie almost felt as though she didn't deserve it.

"Trixie? Are you okay?" Twilight slowly asked.

Trixie could feel her emotions start to well up inside her. This was the single most thoughtful thing anypony had ever done for her. She slowly got up and approached Twilight. Without saying a word Trixie put a hoof over Twilight's shoulder and pulled her into a warm embrace. Twilight had no idea what to do so she just hugged Trixie back.

"Yes, I'm fine," Trixie murmured, trying to hold herself together "I...Thank you Twilight. You have no idea how much this means to me."

"Of course, Trixie, that's what friends are for," Twilight soothed.

The two unicorns held each other like that for a couple minutes until Trixie had finally calmed down. Very slowly she released Twilight and took a step back trying to collect her thoughts, awaiting the inevitable question.

"May I ask why you value your hat and cape so much?" Twilight questioned.

Trixie took a deep breath. "It's not just the hat and cape I value, but the whole persona of ‘The Great and Powerful Trixie.’ When I was only four or five, a traveling magician came to my hometown. I went with my mother to see the show and was amazed by the display. Ever since then, I've wanted to be a traveling magician myself." Trixie sighed before continuing, "After I finished magic high school, my mother gave me this hat and cloak right before I left on the road. She said that she had received it as a gift from my father before he passed away. At that time everything was going great. I was amazing crowds with my performances and living the dream. I was keeping in touch with my mother with monthly letters.”

Trixie took a pause, unsure of whether to continue. She was basically crying again at this point. "After around three years I received a letter that said my mother was very ill. I put my tour on hold and traveled back to my hometown. By the time I returned home my mother had already passed away." Trixie was now leaning against Twilight, sobbing into her shoulder. "When I left home the second time, I vowed to continue my tour and become the greatest magician ever. But after that, my performances rapidly began to decline in quality. I eventually reached the point of well, what you saw me as a year ago.” Trixie lifted herself off Twilight and looked her right in the eye. "Do you have any idea how lonely it is being a traveling magician? I never stayed in one place for long and I wasn't able to make friends. I didn't even want to make friends." This was the real Trixie. Not the stuck up performer, but the lonely, scared mare.

"No. You can stay here as long as you want. You have friends here in Ponyville, you have a family. And with Pinkie's party tonight, I'm sure the whole town will get to see the real you," Twilight said calmly, nuzzling Trixie's neck.

*sob* "Th-" *sniff* "Thank you, Twilight,” Trixie slowly murmured.

"It's going to be okay Trixie. You don’t ever have to be alone again," Twilight soothed.

The two unicorns, the two friends held each other for what seemed like hours, finding warmth and companionship in the other. Eventually though they would have to let go and continue with their lives, but for now Trixie was content to live and let live.

Big thanks to Dr. Jekyll & Nikitakitten for prereading/editing the chapter!

Chapter 8: Inferno

Ugh, did anypony get the number of that train?

…

Um, where am I?

…

White ground, white chair, white walls. Okay this is really weird.

…

Why can’t I move anything else? Hnng… well, only being able to move my head is a bit of a downer. Oh, I can feel my horn! Maybe I can finally use magic again… nope, nothing is happening.

…

Well this sucks.

…

Heh, heaven isn’t nearly what it’s cracked up to be. Where are all the flowing arches of rainbows, clouds and holy ponies? If this is the afterlife then I think I’d prefer staying at home.

…

Home.

Do I even have a home anymore?

…

Twilight.

No, I do have a home, in Ponyville with Twilight, Spike and all the others.

…

I don’t want to leave them…

…

Hm?

“T------ -a-- -p“

What was that?

…

“Tr--i- -le-s- wa-- -p“

Ok, now I’m sure I heard something.

…

That voice, it sounded familiar, almost like-

“Trixie!! Please for Celestias sake wake up!!!”

Twilight!? Is that you!? Where are you? What’s going on? Cracks began to form around the walls of the white room. Trixie could see swirling orange and red light through the seams. Pieces began falling off the walls floor and ceiling as the room crumbled around her. Oh no no no no no no no no- Aaaaaaahhhhh! The floor gave way beneath her as she plummeted into the fiery abyss below.

…

“Please Trixie wake up!!” Twilight sobbed at the limp form before her.

The square had erupted into chaos immediately following the explosion. Fire had begun spreading across the square, instantly catching onto and burning all the joyous ornaments and decorations that had been placed. The crowd of ponies had become a flailing stampede, their only goal of escaping the monstrous inferno.

In the burning square was a single safe haven, a glowing purple bubble amidst the smoldering wreckage. Within the bubble were the faint silhouettes of two mares, one shaking over the other. However, nopony paid any attention to the tiny sphere or the ponies in it.

…

Mmmm… What’s going on now?

Oh. Twilight. Well, that’s a lot better than the first try.

I wonder- Hurk! Can’t breathe! All of Trixie’s senses rushed back into her in one fluid motion as she fought for her life against the smothering unicorn.

“Eurk, Twilight. Please-” Trixie gasped.

“Oh thank Celestia you’re awake!” Twilight cried, completely oblivious that she was choking the poor mare. It took a second for it to click, but Twilight finally got the message and released Trixie from her death grip. She blushed furiously and took a step back, bumping into the bubble around them.

“So uh, I’m guessing things didn’t go very well,” Trixie observed while peering through the shield. She could see the crumbling husk of the stage all around them with flames biting and hissing at the protective barrier.

“Heh, yeah,” Twilight meekly replied.

“Soooo, what exactly happened?”

Twilight took a moment to think before responding. “I’m not entirely sure actually. There was some kind of explosion that sent all of us flying off the stage. When I regained myself I saw a burning chunk of the stage falling towards you. Then I kind of dove on top of you and threw a shield spell over us.”

“Well, considering what just happened, you don’t look in too rough shape,” Trixie commented. Twilight’s mane and coat were disheveled. She had a couple cuts and burns along her legs and the tip of her tail was singed and blackened. Her horn’s glow was also slowly fading.

“Ugh,” Twilight grunted. “I wish. This shield is taking up a lot of my magic. I won’t be able to hold it up for very much longer.”

“And... and then what?” Trixie gulped as Twilight slowly looked down at her hooves. Neither had to say anything, they stood in silence as they both arrived at the same conclusion. Once the shield ran out there would be nothing between them and the raging inferno.

Without saying a word, Trixie wrapped a hoof around Twilight, who herself did the same. They stayed like that as Twilight’s horn began to fizzle out, waiting for the inevitable. There was a loud pop, barely audible over the flames as the bubble burst, but the heat never came. A huge typhoon of water washed over the two mares.

“EVERYPONY GET AWAY FROM THE STAGE RIGHT N-

*KABOOM*

Silver felt the explosion behind her as she was propelled into the air away from the stage. Unable to right herself in time, she tucked into a ball and barreled into a tree on the edge of the square. Her vision swam as she struggled to regain her sense of direction; it did not take very long.

“Ow,” Silver muttered while spitting out a mouthful of leaves. “I’m gonna feel that in the morning.” Brushing aside the discomfort, she shook loose the tangled limbs holding her and spun around landing hooves first on the ground below. Her brain finally caught up and began to process the scene before her.

The stage had been transformed into a huge flaming wreckage from the explosion. Fire had rapidly begun covering the town, spreading along all the flammable decorations. Ponies were running for their lives in sheer terror. Silver already began thinking of ways to smother the fires. “Okay... that won’t work... neither would that. Maybe if… no, I would need help for that.” Silver’s train of ideas was interrupted as she heard somepony calling her name.

“Silver!” somepony called behind her. She turned and saw Applejack running up to her with two other mares in tow, one a bright cyan pegasus and the other a white unicorn. “What in tarnation just happened!?”

“Yeah!” the pegasus interjected, “Why’d everything go boom!?”

“Listen, I’ll tell you all what I know after this is over because if we don’t do anything right now there’ll be nothing left of Ponyville to talk over,” Silver countered, “Now I don’t think I can snuff out everything by myself, so I might need you three to help me.”

“Of course darling,” the unicorn replied, taking a step forward, “What can we do to assist?”

Silver thought for a moment how each could help. She already had a basic plan, but it would require some tweaking and amplifying to work.

“Do you know any condensation spells?” Silver asked the unicorn.

“Um, I know a spell to fill a jug of water,” she shrugged while gesturing back at the square, “but I hardly think that would be enough to put this out!”

“Don’t worry about that,” Silver said as she turned to the brightly colored pegasus. “I need you to collect as many clouds as you can and bunch them together on the north side of town facing the square, the more compact the better.”

“On it!” the pegasus declared as she launched herself off the ground.

Silver turned back to the unicorn. “Follow her,” she pointed at the pegasus, “and when she’s gathered a large amount of clouds together use the condensation spell on them with as much magic as you can. Work quickly, we don’t have much time.”

“Alright, I hope you know what you’re doing,” the unicorn called as she ran after the pegasus.

“And what do ah do?” Applejack asked

“I need you to help get everypony that’s outdoors inside or behind some stable cover. Also, stay away from any windows when I pass through Ponyville,” Silver said.

“Got it,” Applejack replied, as an afterthought she added, “Yer not planning to do anything stupid now are yah?”

“No promises.” Silver smirked before blasting off into the skies high above Ponyville.

Applejack spun around and ran straight back towards the square. She began furiously directing ponies indoors and away from the fires. It didn’t take too long to get everypony indoors as most had already fled. By this time the damage has worsened considerably. Most of the town square was a burning hell; the fire was still raging and growing every second. Just when it seemed like the square was completely emptied out however, another problem arose.

Applejack could see Pinkie Pie calling from the west side of the square to her. “Hey AJ! Come quickly! I need your help!” the not-so happy looking pink pony yelled.

Applejack ran across as fast as her legs could carry her and found Pinkie hopelessly trying to kick at a huge wooden beam off of a pony wedged underneath it. Even with Pinkie’s strongest bucks, the beam wouldn’t budge an inch.

“Cheerilee got caught under this beam and it’s too big to move!” Pinkie exclaimed.

“Move aside!” Applejack ordered as she spun around and planted her front hooves into the ground. With one solid buck the wooden debris was sent flying back, exposing the unconscious mare that had been held captive.

“Pinkie, get Cheerilee on my back and move! We have to get inside before Silver makes her pass over the town!” Applejack grunted as Cheerilee was placed on her back.

“C’mon! In here!” Pinkie waved at a nearby doorframe. Applejack gladly rushed inside and out of the oppressive heat. The inside of the building was pretty much intact, but Applejack didn’t want to take any chances. She and Pinkie took Cheerilee and moved behind the counter at the far end of the store. All three mares were covered with cuts bruises and burns, but no serious injuries.

It was quiet. The only sounds were the heavy breathing from the three mares and the crackling of fire out on the streets. But there was also something else. A soft high-pitch noise had begun invading the room.

“AJ, do you hear that?” Pinkie whispered, taking a peek over the counter. Both of their ears perked at the unusual, high pitched whine.

“Yeah, ah do, and ah don’t like it,” Applejack softly replied. The noise was steadily growing louder, as if it was something getting closer to Ponyville. Suddenly the sound grew exponentially louder into a high-pitch scream.

“Oh hay sticks! Pinkie get down!” Applejack yelled while ducking behind the counter.

The scream stopped for a split second, but was followed by an earth-shattering CRACK. Every window at the front of the store shattered into millions of pieces and the woodwork gave a loud groan of protest. After the crack, however, it sounded and felt as though a thunderstorm was washing right through the town. A wall of water poured through the street outside, dousing the flames and pushing back the relentless fires.

After a moment Applejack stepped out from behind the counter and slowly walked across the store. Carefully stepping over a large chunk of glass, she peered through one of the shattered windows into the street. “What in the hay was that!?”

“Position the clouds in the middle of Mane Street!” Rarity called out to the speeding pegasus. Rainbow banked left with another cloud between her hooves. She piled it into the large collection and simultaneously sent it sliding over the street.

“Alright Rarity, that’s all the clouds in the area! Use your water spell thingy!” Rainbow echoed back as she glided over the street for a better view of the town. The fire had continued spreading outwards from the square, devouring everything in its path. It did, however, look as though most ponies had made it out of the boiling streets.

“Oh I hope that this will be enough…” Rarity lowered her horn towards the mass of clouds and began to concentrate. Her hooves dug into the ground as blue sparks began shooting off her horn. Her horn began to glow brightly. Sweat started to drip down Rarity’s face as she concentrated harder. While she could do some decently strong magic, she certainly was no Twilight Sparkle.

With an exhausted cry, Rarity let loose a ball of concentrated blue energy at the clouds. The magic bolt was absorbed directly into the mass. Blue swirled with white and grey to form a glowing beacon of… well, something or another. Rainbow looked up at the creation, watching the colors move around each other while Rarity looked up at something different entirely.

“Rainbow, what is that?” Rarity asked as she pointed a hoof up in the sky. From their position, a single glowing light could be seen off in the distance. Rainbow took her eyes off of the cloud mass and rose a few hooves in the air for a better view of the far off object.
,

“Umm, that looks like a meteor. Hold on, meteors don't fly so close to the ground.” Rainbow answered.

A shrill cry pierced the slowly crackling of the distant fire. The object looked like a blazing meteor with a silver trail behind it. Rarity took a step back, worry in her eyes.

“Rainbow,” Rarity began, “do you think that is Silver?”

Rainbow looked back at the object. It was now as bright as the moon, lighting up the countryside as it passed. The cry rose into a high-pitched wail as the object suddenly sped up and became inexplicably brighter.

“Oh Buck! Cover your ears and get down!” Rainbow yelled over the deafening roar. The both of them dropped to the ground and without thinking about it Rarity quickly cast a low-grade muffle spell on their ears.

The flaring object was suddenly at Ponyville in an instance. Even through the muffle spell, both Rarity and Rainbow could hear the enormous CRACK as the object collided with the mass of clouds. It froze there for a split second, enough time for rainbow to steal a glance at the object. Within the blazing sphere she could see the silhouette of a pegasus pony.

The blazing ball then seemed to absorb the group of energized clouds. With a flash it shot over Ponyville, trailing the monsoon-sized storm of water behind it. Glass windows shattered as the ball passed overhead. The fire was no match for the storm as it was smothered instantly.

“Oh my gosh! What was that!?” Rarity exclaimed as she stood up and looked down the street towards the square. Broken glass and smoking wreckage littered the streets. Some ponies had begun looking out their shattered windows to see what in Equestria had just happened. The monsoon had stopped at this point and the bright red ball had come to a halt above the square.

“Hey Look! The thing is stopping!” Rainbow observed, “C’mon Rarity, I want to see just what, or who, it is!” Rainbow lifted right off the ground and flew full tilt down the street with Rarity close behind her. The streets were a complete mess. All of the houses still stood, but most of the decorations and outdoor objects had burned down to crisps. There were also huge puddles forming from the brief but intense storm. The square however was a complete disaster. The explosion had created a large crater in the middle and reduced the stage to a smoking junk heap.

Floating high above the square was a single glowing pegasus. She was not even flapping her wings, the pure magic radiating off was enough to keep her aloft. That magic was about to run out however. The glow suddenly disappeared and the pegasus dropped like a rock towards the ground. One of the first ponies back on the scene, Rainbow saw the falling pony and quickly sprang into action. She gave a strong flap of her wings and zoomed closer towards the falling pony. She outstretched her front hooves and latched onto her right before she hit the ground. Rainbow braced herself as the two of them landed and skidded along the dirt.

“Heh.” The pegasus heavily breathed. “Thanks for that.”

“Yeah. No problem,” Rainbow slowly replied.

As Rarity ran after Rainbow into the square, she could see three other ponies coming in from the opposite side. There was an orange mare being followed close by a light purple mare and a pink mare. Suddenly the light purple mare shouted something that Rarity couldn’t hear and changed course towards Rainbow in the middle of the square.

The other mare made it to Rainbow before Rarity did. When she got closer, Rarity could see that the light purple mare was Cheerilee. Looking up she saw Applejack and Pinkie following close behind. As she finally caught up to Rainbow, Rarity took a moment to catch her breath. She could hear the conversation that Cheerilee was having with the pegasus.

“Really Silver? I thought that you were trying to stay incognito this time,” Cheerilee half heartedly joked.

“Well, desperate times call for desperate measures,” Silver replied with a weak laugh.

“Is everypony here alright?” Applejack asked as she and Pinkie stopped behind Cheerilee.

“Yeah, I think we’re alright here.” Rainbow shrugged. “I don’t know about her though.” All of them turned to Silver.

“I’ll be fine. I just need some rest to restore my magic supply.” Silver sighed. “Applejack, were you able to get everypony out in time?”

“Yeah, ah think so. Ah don’t think ah saw Fluttershy anywhere though,” Applejack stated.

“She was not feeling well this evening,” Rarity interjected, “I believe she is back at her house right now.”

“What about Twilight and Trixie?” Pinkie said, “I haven’t seen them since everything went kablooee!”

“Come to think of it, ah didn’t see neither of ‘em during the evacuation!” Applejack said, getting slightly worried.

Ponies had by this point now began cleaning up the mess from the explosion and fires. There were some small groups removing debris and other removing glass. One pony was clearing away some burned decorations, slowly making her way closer to the crater where the stage used to be. She got a little interested and took a peek over the edge, and was shocked at what she saw.

“Hey!” she called out to everypony around her, “I think there’s somepony in the crater!”

Immediately upon hearing this, Applejack spun around and charged straight for the crater. Leaping over a large chunk of wood, she stopped at the edge. Within the crater she saw two mares, one of which she immediately recognized. Applejack yelled out as she jumped into the hole.

“Twilight!”

Big thanks to Dr. Jekyll & Nikitakitten for pre-reading/editing the chapter!

Chapter 9: Assembly

“Now Silver, if that’s even yer name, ah want to know the truth. Who are yah really?”

Silver sighed. She really hadn’t planned to have her cover blown this early. She hadn’t planned for it to be blown at all, though she hadn’t foreseen half the town catching on fire, and her undercover identity wouldn’t really matter if the town and populace were gone.

Silver could feel the six of them staring directly into her, except for Cheerilee who was standing in the corner and smirking. Applejack and Rainbow Dash were staring her down like a pack of vultures. Twilight, Trixie, Rarity and Pinkie Pie were standing behind them, interested to know the truth but without being so forward and aggressive about it. They were all currently gathered within the Ponyville Library late in the night. Miraculously the tree-building had not sustained any damage whatsoever from the fires.

“I- I don’t know what you guys are talking about,” Silver said nervously with a wide grin.

“Bullshit!” Rainbow countered, “I know everything about the weather, and most pegasi don’t have anywhere close to enough magic to pull off a stunt like that!"

Silver looked quickly between Applejack and Rainbow Dash. Realizing that she couldn’t win this one, Silver finally admitted defeat. “Ugh, fine. No, I’m not just a teacher’s assistant.” The room was silent except for a small “Awww…” from a certain purple unicorn. Silver took a deep breath and outstretched a hoof towards Applejack. “Hello,” she said with a big cheesy grin, “I am Major Silver Rush, third in command of the Canterlot royal guard and head of the investigation and response team, pleasure to make your acquaintance.” It was at this time that Cheerilee burst out laughing. Everypony turned towards her while Silver face hoofed. “You just couldn’t hold it in this time could you?” Silver deadpanned.

Laughing all the way, Cheerilee walked over to Silver and put a hoof around her shoulder. “Now I believe you owe me five bits my dear.” She grinned like an idiot. Grumbling all the way, Silver took out five gold coins from her satchel and hoofed them over to her so-called 'friend'.

“Now what was that all about?” Applejack asked as she looked between the two of them.

“Well, you see we made a bet when she first got here,” Cheerilee giggled, nudging Silver. “If she could stay undercover for a week, I’d owe her five bits, but she didn’t even last three days!” Feeling the need to rub it in further, Cheerilee decided to take the extra step and expand on her streak. “Hey Silver, I believe this would qualify for beating the Manehattan assignment.”

Silver turned beet red as Cheerilee began laughing again. “Oh shut up already,” the pegasus retorted. Cheerilee just laughed harder.

“What’re ya’ll laughin about?” Applejack asked, attempting to make some sense out of the rapidly deteriorating situation, to little avail. She looked over to Rainbow Dash hoping for some assistance, but only received a half-hearted shrug.

“Heh, sorry about that everypony.” Cheerilee gasped between breaths of air.

“You’re never going to drop that are you?” Silver sighed as her coat returned to its natural gray color.

“Not for all the bits in Equestria!” Cheerilee giggled while pulling Silver back in for a large hug. Silver rolled her eyes as she attempted to remove the annoyance. It surprisingly put up quite a fight before finally releasing its death grip.

“Ahem, back to the subject at hoof?” Rainbow butted in.

“Sorry sorry,” Cheerilee apologized. “But uh, yeah. The basic gist of it is that Silver here is an undercover spy.”

“So, you’re not a teacher?” a certain purple unicorn absently queried.

“Yes and no,” Silver replied, “while I don’t sit in classrooms teaching foals, I am one of the instructors for the Canterlot guard’s SCT program.” Twilight opened her mouth to ask something else but was swiftly cut off. “Before you ask that stands for the Specialty Combat Techniques program.”

“Is that what that huge stunt earlier was?” Rainbow butted in, “Cause if it is then you gotta teach it to me! That thing looked awesome!”

Silver hesitated before saying anything in return. “It’s called the Crimson Comet. The thing is while you have the will to learn it you probably don’t have the magical capacity.”

Rainbow’s eyes narrowed and lips turned down into a frown at the remark. “What do you mean I can’t do it? Are you saying you’re a better flyer than me?” Rainbow hissed, wings unfolding into an aggressive stance.

“What? No, I’m not saying anything like that!” Silver responded, surprised at the pegasus’ sudden aggression.

“Oh yeah? What’s your wing power rating?”

“Umm, last I checked I think it was about thirteen point six.”

“Hah! Mine’s sixteen point five! That’s probably no surprise as I can do the amazing Sonic Rainboom! I mean come on, wi-!” Rainbow’s rant was cut short as she received a firm smack upside the head. “Ow! What they hay!?”

“Hush up Rainbow and let the girl speak.” Applejack glared.

Rainbow turned her head and shot Applejack an annoyed sneer and got one straight in return. She lowered her wings and huffed, turning back to Silver.

“Thank you Applejack.” Silver nodded towards the orange mare. “Now as I was trying to say. Rainbow, while the Sonic Rainboom and the Crimson Comet are similar they do have some major differences. They both require large amounts of speed and magic to accomplish. The Rainboom needs an enormous amount of speed to break the light-sound barrier, that’s why you’re one of the only pegasi in history to have pulled it off. The comet however requires a truly ridiculous amount of magic and years of training to perfect, and yet it will still drain you of almost every ounce of magic. You saw how I was afterwards yesterday; I don’t think I need to go into specifics.”

“Ok well, I guess that sounds alright,” Rainbow admitted, “Although, could you at least try to teach it to me?”

Silver mulled it over in her head for a second. No other pegasi had ever attempted the comet, she invented the damn thing! “Eh, I guess it couldn’t hurt.” Silver sighed.

“Awesome! Thanks!” Rainbow grinned.

“If that is all well and done than can we please get back to what in Celestia’s name happened earlier?” Rarity interrupted, “As I recall, you where the one that flew through the curtains just before the fireworks erupted.”

“Hold on a moment, there were fireworks?” Cheerilee asked. “That didn’t, er, doesn’t sound too safe in such a decorated area.”

“That’s what I said! I told you using so many fireworks were dangerous!” Twilight scolded the pink pony.

“What? No! It wasn’t my fault! I triple checked the display and absolutely nothing was wrong or anything!” Pinkie cried out in innocence.

“Don’t worry Pinkie, it wasn’t your fault,” Silver intervened. The pink pony left a soft sigh of relief as everypony turned back to Silver. “Ok, I’m just going to start back at the beginning. You all remember the meteor shower a couple days ago, right?” There was a collective nod from the group. “Did any of you happen to see anything unusual?”

Twilight’s mind instantly thought back to the crashed stone and her meeting with Trixie. In truth, with all the recent events, Twilight had completely forgotten about the event. Her hoof slowly rose in response, but the azure unicorn beat her to it.

“Would ‘anything unusual’ include a black stone that fell from the sky into the Everfree forest during the shower and drained me of all my magic when I attempted to take it leading to Twilight finding me and bringing me back here to Ponyville while I was passed out?” Trixie bluntly stated.

“Oh, uh, yeah. I suppose that would fit the bill quite nicely,” Silver said. “Now I’m assuming you all know about the striking and rioting that has been occurring throughout all the major cities in Equestria, right?”

“Yeah, what’s going on with that?” Rainbow asked. “When I went to Cloudsdale yesterday to get climate reports for the Everfree forest, weather factories B through D where all closed down and the workers were on strike! That’s never happened before! It’s gonna throw off the weather across half the country!”

“I have not been able to send or receive a single shipment of clothing from Manehattan, Canterlot or Fillydelphia either. The Equestrian postal service has been shut down for days,” Rarity added.

“Mhm,” Silver nodded, “we have reason to believe that whatever is causing the rioting may be connected to the meteor that crashed into the forest.”

“Well if that’s the thing controlling all of this then let’s go stop it!” Rainbow announced, wings flaring up once again.

“No no, that’s impossible,” Twilight interrupted, “one single object couldn’t control so much energy across such a vast distance.”

“Exactly,” Silver agreed, “there would have to be relay points for the magic.”

“So, it’s these relay points we need to take care of?” Rainbow guessed.

“That’s part of the idea, yes, and I believe that the points aren’t in fact objects but-”

“Black shadowy looking ponies?” Trixie finished.

“Y- yes,” Silver stuttered, taken aback by the unexpected response. “How did you know?”

“Two days ago,” Trixie began, “when Twilight and I were walking towards Fluttershy’s cottage I felt a cold wave of air hit me as we passed close by the forest. When I looked towards the tree line I saw a black shadowy figure staring back at me. One look away and it was gone.”

“Yes, that does sounds like one of the shadows. Hmm, have any of you by any chance seen them at all?” Silver asked the group.

“I don’t know if this was one of the shadows, but I did see something quite odd a few days back,” Rarity answered. “When Fluttershy and I were walking back to her cottage on Monday after our weekly spa trip, I believe that I saw two objects flying at high speed over the forest towards town. I couldn’t quite make out what they were, but the one leading had a very dark color combination. Now this was right before Twilight ran into us frantically yelling about Trixie and Rainbow drowning in the lake.”

“Ah. I believe that was me chasing one of the shadows,” Silver explained. “When I was traveling here a few days ago I spotted a beautiful moving rainbow over the town. Now I’m pretty sure that it was you Rainbow Dash. I stopped to watch for a moment, and also noticed the shadow pony hovering above the forest. I was just barely fast enough to stop it colliding head on with you. The shockwave sent me and it spiraling towards the treetops.”

“And me crashing into the lake,” Rainbow finished.

“Well if these shadow thingies and that rock are the cause of all of this then let’s go get them!” Applejack hollered.

“Well, it might not be that easy unfortunately,” Silver replied, “From what I’ve gathered we can’t simply pick up the stone.”

“An why not? One little rock doesn’t sound very heavy.”

“It’s not about the weight, Applejack,” Twilight intervened, “just touching it would probably drain you of all your magic and energy. If we were going to transport it somewhere we would need something to carry it in.”

“What? Like a box?” Cheerilee asked.

“No no, it has to be very resistant to magic.”

“Um, I think I could contact the guard armory in Canterlot and have them send a containment cube. It’d probably be here in a day or two,” Silver stated.

“So now we just wait for that cube thingy and then go get the rock when it gets here?” Rainbow said.

“Yeah, pretty much. I also want to go to the site tomorrow and eh, *Yawn* heh, I guess it is getting quite late,” Silver murmured.

“Ah reckon we should all get some shuteye. We have a lot of work to do in the morning.”

“I’m getting sleepy too,” Pinkie yawned, “Good night everypony.” She turned away from the group and hopped out the front door of the library.

“I as well need my beauty sleep; Celestia knows I need to fix my hair,” Rarity added, following Pinkie through the door.

“Goodnight girls.” After their goodbyes, Rainbow and Applejack left through the door splitting off in different directions while Cheerilee and Silver walked off together towards the west part of town.

Trixie let out a long yawn. It had been a very long and very eventful day and she was quite tired. Rubbing her eyes with a hoof, she gingerly began walking up the steps towards the bedroom. “Twilight, I’m heading off to bed.”

Twilight’s head poked out from behind one of the many bookcases in the library. “Alright Trixie, I just want to take a quick peek at a book or two before going myself.”

“Don’t stay up too late,” Trixie called back.

“I won’t, I won’t,” Twilight groaned, “goodnight Trixie.”

“Goodnight Twilight.”

There was a small thump as the next book was closed and placed aside. Twilight grumbled as she ran through the index of what felt like the hundredth book. After Trixie had gone to bed, she had spent her time looking through a number of the books in the building for anything regarding the stone in the forest and the shadows. She hadn’t found one scrap of information.

Sighing in defeat, and drowsiness, Twilight closed her current book and magicked it onto the pile behind the desk. Blowing out the candle in front of her, she stood up and gave her legs a stretch. Twilight then began the arduous journey up the stairs into the bedroom.

The door gave a groan as Twilight gently pushed it aside. She groggily walked into the room, shutting the door behind her. Letting out a long yawn, she approached her bed and began to move aside the covers.

Twilight stopped however as a gentle breeze blew into her. Looking up, she noticed the door to the balcony was open. Interest piqued, Twilight walked over to the door. Luna’s deep blue light washed over her as she poked her head out the door.

“Trixie?”

The blue mare jumped a little and looked back at the intruder. “Oh, hey Twilight.” Trixie sighed in relief.

“What are you doing out here?” Twilight asked as she walked up behind the unicorn.

“I was having trouble sleeping,” she admitted.

Twilight gently sat down next to Trixie and put a hoof around her shoulder. “You know, it’s not that warm out here tonight.”

“Yes well, I don’t have to worry about that anymore.” Trixie smiled, giving Twilight a small nuzzle which she happily returned.

The two of them sat together on the balcony, watching the beautiful night sky stretched out before them. Even in the still of night the town was illuminated by the twinkling stars and the shining moon. Both unicorns basked in the warming presence of Luna’s night sky and each other. The only audible sound was the light whistling of the wind.

Despite the events earlier in the day, Ponyville was surprisingly quiet. The homeless had taken up shelter in undamaged homes for the night. Most of the debris had been cleaned up by now, construction and rebuilding would commence among the next few days.

“Twilight, can I tell you something?” Trixie quietly asked.

Interest piqued, Twilight promptly responded, “Of course, what is it?”

“Maybe it has something to do with the shadow ponies, or the stone in the forest, but I have a feeling that something really really bad is about to happen,” Trixie explained, leaning back onto Twilight.

“Like worse than what happened at the party?” Twilight guessed, “Because I don’t think you can really top that.”

“… Losing you?”

“What? No, get that thought out of your head Trixie. I won’t now or ever leave you alone again,” Twilight asserted. “Letting you run away from Ponyville a year ago was one of the biggest mistakes of my life. It was a miracle that I was lucky enough to find you the night of the meteor shower. When I brought you back to the library I stayed by the bed all night waiting and hoping for you to wake up. I only left because Spike needed to talk in the morning.”

“…”

“I think, I think I-”

Twilight was swiftly cut off as the blue unicorn’s lips touched her own. The shock would last a few seconds, the passion would last a lifetime. An eternity seemed to pass by as the two mares finally drew back from each other. Each locked in the other’s gaze, both confirming what the other was thinking.

“I love you Twilight,” Trixie whispered, “and I will never leave you either.”

“I love you too.”

Trixie let out a large yawn.

“Feeling better now?” Twilight smiled.

“Mmm. Much,” Trixie cooed, giving an affectionate nuzzle.

“Ready to go back inside?”

Trixie gave a slight nod and pecked Twilight’s cheek with another kiss.

A gentle shuffling of hooves could be heard, followed by a creak of an opening and closing door. Luna’s night watched over the balcony, content with the new bond that had been recently forged. The balcony atop the library was once again dark and empty; and the wind whistled on.

Once again big thanks to Dr. Jekyll & Nikitakitten for pre-reading/editing the chapter!

Chapter 10: Delivery

“Excuse me, Major Rush?”

“Yes?”

“… Are you alright Ma’am?”

“Ugh. Yes, I’m fine. You were saying?”

“Package for you.”

“Huzzah! It finally arrived!”

“…”

“What took so long by the way?”

“I am sorry Ma’am. The armory has been on backlog for while now.”

“It’s alright. Oh, and when you get back to Canterlot tell Swift that she owes me ten bits.”

“Will do Ma’am. Is that all?”

“Yep, you can head off now.”

“Have a pleasant day Major.”

“You too!”

Silver wiped a smear of red from her mane as the guard flew off towards Canterlot. Sighing, she looked down at the partially covered hole in the roof. A few nails were lopsided and there was an unattached bracer between two beams. Eh, I’ll finish it later. Biting the rope on the package, Silver picked up the box and casually floated down to the front doors.

Nudging the doors open, Silver stepped into the once pristine schoolhouse. There were multiple science projects scattered around the room. They ranged from model storms to earthquake diagrams and even a miniature tornado-in-a-jar. All of it, however, was covered in a thick red goop that three grumbling fillies were busy cleaning up. The teacher’s desk at the front consisted of a smoldering rock-like creation that vaguely resembled a volcano. Directly above the desk was the aforementioned hole.

“Package delivery!” Silver called. Out from behind the desk popped a purple mane which quickly spun around towards the door.

“Oh hey!” Cheerilee replied, hopping in front of the desk, “It finally came!”

“Yep, and with Swift’s outstanding offer she now owes me ten bits.”

“Does she pay out often?”

“Eh, unfortunately no,” Silver sighed, gesturing to her slightly sagging bit pouch, “she’s usually too punctual for it.”

“Aw, that’s disappointing. I was hoping you could pay somepony to fix up that hole in the roof,” Cheerilee smirked.

“Hey! Don’t you hate on my amazing work!” Silver retorted, putting extra emphases on the amazing. “Work of that quality only comes around once in a lifetime! You can’t appreciate it as the sheer beauty is just incomprehensible to the mortal eye! It should be put on display at the Manehattan royal art gallery!”

“It belongs in a dump, not a museum.”

The patched up hole in the roof gave a groan of disapproval. Foreseeing immanent disaster, the three fillies took cover behind one of the desks. “Oh please, do go on,” Silver grinned like an idiot. Right on cue the mismatched beams and boards let out a huge crack and tumbled down onto the poor, abused teacher’s desk, turning it into a pile of dusty rubble.

A wave of dust and dirt flew out over the classroom, smothering the two mares. Coughing, hacking, wheezing and grunting Silver flapped her wings and removed a good chunk of dirt around her. “Eurg, that’s gonna need a shower,” She groaned, flicking a piecing of wood from her shoulder.

“You were saying?” Cheerilee coughed, still managing a triumphant smile.

“Oh shove it Lee,” Silver deadpanned.

On the opposite end of the room, three heads popped up behind one of the desks. “Miss Cheerilee? Do we have to clean this up too?” one of the heads asked.

“No Applebloom, you girls can go now,” Cheerilee sighed.

Almost instantly the three fillies sprang up from behind their makeshift cover and bolted for the door. “Have a nice day Miss Cheerilee and Miss Rush!” they exclaimed in unison. Within a second only the two adults populated the wrecked schoolhouse.

“You ever think that those girls are more trouble than they’re worth?” Silver asked.

“Eh, they’ll grow on you,” Cheerilee replied.

The two of them turned back to the awaiting mess that was once a classroom. Some of the goop had by this point dried and hardened, caking and crumbling over various objects. There were splinters of desk scattered around the room along with chunks of volcano. Yet all the windows were intact as well as the Tornado-in-a-jar surprisingly.

“Well, looks like we have to clean this up,” Cheerilee groaned, “again.”

“Um, I think this might be a bit much for the two of us to handle,” Silver commented while swiping some loose wood chips into a pile.

“Don’t worry about that,” Cheerilee said, “you finally got the container right? Go see Twilight so you guys can plan out the great heist. I’m going to call a few friends who can better help out with this.”

“So I doubt you’ll be accompanying our little adventuring group.”

“Probably not, it looks like I might be here for a while. Now shoo, I have work to do.”

“Alright Lee, thanks a lot. I’ll see ya' later then,” Silver nodded, giving her wings a stretch and turning towards the door. With a resounding fwoosh she flew out the front door leaving the teacher by herself. Cheerilee just stood there with a smug grin. A couple seconds later Silver came flying back through the doors.

“Forgetting something?” Cheerilee laughed.

“Aw shut up,” Silver huffed as she picked up the package beside the front door.

“Get me something nice while you’re out!”

“Yeah, yeah,” she replied before flying out the door a second time.

“There yah go Spiky, one box of delicious assorted cupcakes!” the pink pony cheered, handing over a multi-colored box.

“Thanks Pinkie!” Spike heartily replied, “I’m sure Twilight and Trixie are going to love these!”

“Oh I know they will! I used my secret recipe on these babies! They’re to die for!” she giggled while spinning away from the library. Before Spike could back out through the doorway however the pink pony was in front of him in an instant. “Oh yeah, tell Silver Pinkie said hi!”

The next instant Spike was once again alone in the doorway. “What the… no Spike. You’re not going down that train of thought again,” the baby dragon muttered to himself.

Taking the chance before heading back inside, Spike opened the magnificent-smelling box of treats. Within was the greatest sight one being could imagine. Each cupcake had its own deliciously delectable design, hoof made and absolutely mouthwatering. Spike resisted valiantly, but the power of the pastries was too great. His defenses crumbled in an instant.

“Yes my precious, I must get you somewhere safe. These fools cannot understand your true meaning of beauty,” the slave whispered.

“Go my minion, take me far away from the non-believers,” the delicious king commanded.

“As you wish my lord.”

“Spike.”

“Yes your majesty?”

“Are you there?

“Sire?

“You in there little guy?”

“Huh? What?” Spike muttered as his fantasy swiftly came to an end. Ever-so-gently he fell backwards onto the ground with a resounding thud. “Ouch, what’s going on?”

“Heh, I should ask you the same question,” the pony replied.

Blinking his eyes, Spike sat up and vigorously shook his head. In front of him was the still-open box of delicacies and two large grey hooves. “Oh, hey Silver. Good to see you again.”

“You too Spike. Need any help with that?” she replied.

“Nah, I got it.” Spike was quick to stand back up and close the enchanted box. He wanted to salvage what little of his pride he had left. “So what can I do you for?” Spike asked, noticing another box at their feet.

“Well as you see, I finally got the package in from Canterlot. Is Twilight home?”

“Yeah, she and Trixie are practicing some spells inside. They ordered this treat box as a kind of lunch,” he said, gesturing to the still delicious smelling box.

“How healthy,” Silver smirked.

“I know right? “ Spike smiled, pushing open the library’s front door. “C’mon in. Oh, and um, Pinkie says hi. I think.”

Carrying their respective deliveries, Spike and Silver entered the library. Once on the inside, Silver had already begun thinking of plans on acquiring the crystal. Counting with so many variables was very difficult. The main point to work around was how many ponies would be able to come and if any of the shadows would be there. The group had to prepare for the worst. Silver’s planning was cut short as she heard words of praise and approval coming from the living room.

“Wow! That’s amazing Trixie!” Twilight cheered.

“Hey Twilight, Trixie, cupcakes and a pegasus delivery!” Spike called, placing the box of goodies on the nearby table. Twilight was quick to notice, spinning towards the table and taking in the amazing smell of pastries.

“Oh my, that’s smells great!” Twilight exclaimed. Noticing Spike wasn’t the only one who had just entered the room, she was quick to correct herself. “Oh hello Silver. Good to see you again.”

“Likewise,” Silver smiled.

Quietly, the lid of the pastry box began to open. A single cupcake floated out and into the middle of the room, catching everyone’s attention. “Hey Twilight, are you going to eat that or something?” Spike wondered, the pastry still floating in the air.

“That’s not me,” Twilight giggled. The entire top half of the cupcake instantly vanished, much to the surprise of Spike and Silver. Now just the bottom half of the cupcake remained floating in the air.

“Okay, what’s going on here?” Silver asked, getting suspicious.

“Alright, you can stop that Trixie,” Twilight sighed.

“Aww, but it was just getting fun!” said a voice out of nowhere. The air around the floating cupcake began to shimmer and glow. Trixie became visible in the center of the room.

She ate the rest of the cupcake with a large grin. “Mmm! That’s delicious!”

“Gah!?” Spike yelped. “Where the hay did you come from Trixie?”

“That was an invisibility spell Spike,” she explained. “That’s the one spell I managed to master during my years as a traveling magician. As long as I wasn’t too distraught, it made a good cover if one of my performances went, well, sour. At peak condition I could cast the veil over my caravan if it was necessary. I just kinda hope that touching that stupid stone didn’t have any lasting effects.”

“Wow,” Silver stared, “that’s very impressive Trixie. I’ve only known a few unicorns who could cast invisibility itself, let alone veil it over external objects.”

Twilight walked up beside the showmare, placing a hoof on her shoulder. “Yep, I guess the cutiemark matches the magician,” she said, gesturing to the blue moon and wand on Trixie’s flank.

“Thanks Twilight, that means a lot coming from you,” Trixie said, gentle nuzzling her.

“You’re welcome.” Twilight affectionately returned the gesture. After a quick few seconds they released and Twilight turned back to their guests. “Now as I understand it Silver, the containment box arrived from Canterlot?”

“Yep, got it right here and good to go,” Silver replied, nudging the box by her hoof. “So do we know who will be coming?”

“Rainbow Dash said she would be accompanying us and Applejack as well,” Twilight explained, “We’re going to be meeting outside the clock tower tomorrow at noon. Once we’ve retrieved the stone we’ll be bringing back here into the basement. I want to run a few test on it to make sure it’s safe.”

“Damn, looks like you didn’t need me and my brilliant planning after all,” Silver sighed, partially used to this. She could come up with the most amazing plans and strategies, which usually got sat on the sidelines by Sergeant Swift’s simple but effective ideas. When Silver did have a good idea however, hell was it a good one.

“Brilliant’s not the word I’d use,” Spike laughed.

“Ugh, everyone’s a critic,” Silver grumbled, “So uh, I guess I’ll see you two tomorrow at noon?”

“Yes, but uh, would it be possible if you could leave the package here?” Twilight meekly asked, “Magic suppression technology is extremely rare. I’d love for a chance to examine it.”

“Oh, um, I suppose that’s alright. Just please don’t break it. As you said it’s not a simple piece of hardware,” Silver replied.

“Great!” Twilight thanked Silver, magically lifting the package away from Silver. She was instantly all over it, scanning every nook and cranny of the mysterious object.

“So is that it?”

“Yes Silver, we’ll be seeing you tomorrow at the clock tower.” Trixie smiled. “When Twilight gets her hooves on something new, there’s no end to it.”

“Sounds good, have a nice afternoon you three.” Silver nodded, turning towards the front door. Soon a quick breeze flew through the door as Spike closed it after the flying pegasus.

Big thanks to Dr. Jekyll & Nikitakitten for proofreading and editing this chapter!

Chapter 11: Retrieval

*Ding, Dong, Ding, Dong* chimed the clock tower, its announcement about the time breaking the peaceful silence that had lulled over the countryside. The silence was quick to recover though, and blanketed the fields once more. “It was shattered a second time, however, as the clock struck a surprise encore.

“Ugh, must that tower be so loud?” Trixie yawned. “It’s too early for this.”

“Too early? Have you spit yer bit or something?” Applejack replied, “By the time ah left the farm ah’d already finished most of the day’s work! ‘Sides, ain’t noon like half the day already?”

“It’s still too early…”

Applejack, Trixie and Twilight were currently standing beside the Ponyville clock tower. They had all recently arrived and had began talking about the trip into the forest. Well at least Twilight and Applejack were, Trixie was doing her best to stay awake. It was a losing battle.

A gentle breeze blew over the group, threatening to tip the showmare over. Trixie nearly did fall over, but the observant farmer was quick to step beside her and brace her. Stifling a yawn, she was slow to stand up of her own accord.

“What’s a’matter girl? You two have too much fun last night to get any shut eye?” Applejack teased.

“Heh, hardly,” Trixie grumpily replied. “This one spent the entire night prodding and sciencing that stupid box Mister Grey gave her.”

Twilight’s horn stopped glowing as she put the containment cube down at her hooves. She smiled at her drowsy roommate who she had unfortunately kept awake all night. “Mister Grey? You do mean Silver right?”

“Yeah, that’s I said the name of who,” Trixie grumbled, before revising her statement. “Eh, shut up. I’m sleepy and I’m do what any grammar mistakes I want.”

“And that’s why you’re so lovable in the morning Trixie!” Twilight cheered.

“Bite me.”

“Proly how she likes it,” Applejack grinned. Trixie muttered something incomprehensible into her hooves, having sat down at some point in the conversation. Twilight on the other hoof blushed a deep shade of crimson. Looking for a distraction, she turned her focus on the clock tower.

“Really! 12:20 and not a sign of either pegasi!” Twilight commented. “I would expect this kind of tardiness from Rainbow Dash but not of Silver! I mean co-”

“Oh, hold yer horses girls. Ah think that’ll be the cavalry approaching!” Applejack hollered, while looking into the skies above them. Twilight and Trixie both followed her gaze upwards past the clock tower. The three of them could see two fast moving objects heading in their general direction. One had a faint multi-colored streak following it while the other had a light red glow.

“Yep, that would be them,” Twilight confirmed. Trixie was too tired to look up. Instead she sat down, rested her head on her fore hooves and closed her eyes.

Up in the sky the red-colored pegasus began turning towards the clock tower while the rainbow one continued flying forward. Noticing the oversight, said rainbow pegasus made a sharp turn towards the clock tower and quickly caught up. The two flyers bounced into each other, making a beeline for the road.

“Oh, we might want to move outta the way,” Applejack warned. She and Twilight took a couple steps back off the road, Trixie still lying on the dirt street. “Trixie! Y’all might wanna get yerself up!”

Trixie ignored them and continued trying to sleep. Unfortunately for her, both pegasi were too busy to notice her until the last moment. “Watch out below!!” one of them called out. It happened too fast for anypony to catch who said it.

Trixie finally raised her head to look at what the commotion was all about. To avoid crashing into the ground, both pegasi flapped their wings which sent a huge gust of wind downwards. While slowing the flyers, the air had the negative side effect of slamming into the road and sending a huge cloud of dust into the air—right into Trixie’s face.

As soon as Rainbow and Silver realized the mess they had created, they both flapped their wings again to push the cloud of dirt away. Twilight and Applejack poked their head out from behind the tower, and began laughing simultaneously. Rainbow joined in once the cloud had passed, even Silver managed a small chuckle.

Trixie was rolling and gagging on the ground in the middle of the group. She had been at ground zero for the dustpocalypse and had taken the worst of it. Slowly she managed to compose herself and stand up. “*Cough* Ugh. *Cough* Okay. *Wheeze* You’ve made your point.” Trixie choked while inhaling a large gulp of fresh air. “I’m getting up.” Still, everypony else was laughing. “What? What is so funny?”

“Over here,” Twilight called, motioning Trixie to walk over to the nearby pond. Apprehensively, she trotted over and stuck her head out over the water for a better view. She was appalled at the view.

Trixie’s eyes were red and bloodshot. Her mane was frazzled every which way and covered in dirt. She looked like she had just been through a sandstorm, which was actually partially correct. Just the thought of not looking flawless when in company was enough to upset the poor mare. Now she looked like a walking disaster. Her left eye twitched as she looked over her shoulder at Rainbow Dash. “Well. Any last words?” She seethed.

“H- hey, now hold on a second!” Rainbow gulped “I can fix this!”

Trixie took a step forward, fully intending to smack Rainbow upside the head, while Rainbow stepped back. She looked around for anything that could save her. Twilight and Applejack were leaning on each other behind Trixie trying their hardest not to burst out laughing again. Rainbow looked over to Silver who only had a smug grin that said, “Have fun with that.”

“Heh. Now let’s be reasonable here Trixie,” Rainbow nervously chuckled, “This was a complete and utter- woah!”

Trixie lunged at her with a head of steam, hooves swiping at any piece of pegasus they could reach. Unfortunately for her said pegasus did in fact, have wings and quickly flew into the air to avoid her wrath.

Up in the air Rainbow had a moment to think. She could book it, but that wouldn’t be upholding loyalty much. Fight? Not an option at this point. Trixie ready to tear Rainbow a new one. Fortunately, an idea struck Rainbow, just as Trixie’s hooves wanted to.

“Hey Trixie! Twilight and Applejack are laughing at you!” she called, drawing the magician’s gaze around and off of herself. Within an instant Rainbow flew to the ground and placed her hooves around Trixie’s waist. “Oh you’re a heavy one! Up we go!”

It took Trixie a moment to register that she had been picked up of the ground. Her brain did eventually catch up with her. “Put me down you belligerent oaf!” she hollered while struggling in Rainbow’s grip.

“As you command.” Rainbow all-to-happily replied. With a huge grin plastered over her face, she let go over Trixie right over the pond. The fall was brief, only about three seconds. Enough time however for Trixie to promise the eventual demise of one Rainbow Dash. A large wave spread out from the impact sight as she smacked full-stomach onto the water.

“Ooooo… That’s gotta hurt,” Silver commented.

A flock of bubbles surfaced from the pond, drawing everypony’s attention. Following close after, Trixie floated up to the surface and took in a huge gulp of air. Slowly she turned towards the group and began paddling to the shore. It wasn’t the largest body of water, and Trixie quickly stood up in the shallow water.

For a moment, nopony said a word. Trixie’s mane and coat where completely soaked and flat. It was debatable if the new look was an improvement over the old one. One interesting feature was that her eyes looked like they were about to shoot lasers at Rainbow Dash. Sensing immediate doom, the pegasus attempted to defuse the situation.

“Hey, hey, hey Trixie, no need to get so upset, I did fix your dirty mane right?” Rainbow pleaded. She shrunk back as Trixie continued to glower at her.

The only possible outcome of this situation that the group could see was Trixie opening a can of whoop-ass on Rainbow Dash. Foreseeing disaster, Twilight began prepping a shield spell to separate the two just in case. This, however, was completely unnecessary however as Trixie’s expression performed a full 180 and even cracked a small giggle.

“Well, I suppose that’s one way to wake up in the morning.” Trixie smiled. Her statement was followed by a sigh of relief from everypony else. Having an all-out fight with the pony she had just saved would not do well for Trixie’s new reputation.

“So if that’s all fine an’ dandy can we head on out to the forest?” Applejack interrupted, “Ah have plans for this afternoon and ah wouldn’t enjoy bein’ late.”

A chorus of nods came from group as they all settled down. With the potential disaster avoided, they could now move onto the actual work ahead.

“Alright girls, I think we’ve spent enough time here,” Twilight announced. With a faint glow of her horn, the cube at her hooves lifted into the air and flew over to Silver. “I believe this belongs to you.”

Silver pulled open her bag with her right wing as the cube floated inside. “Thanks,” she said in return, “So if everypony is good, let’s go.”

With the morning drama behind them, the five ponies began their trek towards the Everfree Forest. Twilight and Trixie led the way, the only two having actually been at the crash site. Silver had planned to visit the area on her own but never got the chance with everything that had occurred recently.

It was a short walk from the clock tower to the edge of the forest. The main dirt road the group had been traveling turned around the forest and headed south, circling the town. A smaller path split off which lead directly into the forest. Twilight came to an abrupt halt at the fork and turned towards everypony else. Both Rainbow and Applejack could sense the oncoming lecture; having heard many from the unicorn.

“Alright girls, I wanted to quickly go over one thing before we head into the forest,” Twilight stated in her loud, authoritative explaining voice, “I cannot stress this enough, be careful when we reach the clearing. Watch out for anything that moves, I’d like to avoid another confrontation with the shadows if possible.”

“Well what’s the problem there?” Rainbow interrupted, “If those black freaks show up we’ll just open up a can of whoop-ass on them!” She exaggerated her words by flaring on her hind legs and punching the air in front of her.

Silver stuck out a hoof and calmly pulled Rainbow back to the ground. “It might not be that easy,” She said “the one I fought at the party was quite tough. It withstood an attack that should have paralyzed it. The best thing we could do if there are more of them than us would be to stall them until we could escape with the stone.”

“Aw. That’s no fun,” Rainbow muttered, slightly deflated.

“We ain’t her for fun RD,” Applejack sighed, “we’re here to pick up that stone and get out with it.”

Twilight was quick to stick in a point before the discussion could get derailed. “Actually that’s the other thing. Whatever any of you do, do not touch or try to pick up the stone. We don’t want anypony to get hurt.” She saw that Rainbow was about to ask why and quickly explained, “We have Silver’s containment cube to transport it, so let’s use it. Any questions?”

A moment of silence passed before anypony in the group said anything. “Uh, yeah, one other thing,” Rainbow said. Twilight simply nodded in her direction. “What is th-”

*Fwoosh*

Rainbow’s question was abruptly halted as a huge beam of light shot straight out of the Everfree into the sky, catching the entire group’s attention. It was a pulsing blue color with a dark purple glow radiating off of it. It stretched up high enough into the sky that nopony could see the end of it. After only a brief moment however, the beam cut off and completely disappeared.

“Okay, no more time for questions! We gotta go!” Silver exclaimed, pushing herself into the air. Rainbow was quick to flare up beside her.

“Agreed,” Twilight said, “Let’s go everypony!”

With the pretense of certain disaster, Twilight, Trixie and Applejack opened into a full gallop towards the forest in the direction where the light was. Being able to fly much faster, Rainbow and Silver shot ahead of the group and flew up and over the tree line.

The beam of light hadn’t come from very far into the Everfree. Once over the trees the pegasi could easily see the large clearing in the forest. Silver quickly slowed down and looked back to where they had just been while Rainbow continued flying at full speed. She could see the three others just approaching the edge of the forest. “Guys! Over this way!” Silver yelled, pointing a hoof towards the clearing. She didn’t hear anything in response, but saw that the group had slightly changed direction to where she had indicated.

Without another moment of pause Silver turned and rocketed off towards the clearing. The compass on her ankle began beeping furiously the closer to the crash site she flew. On her approach she could see Rainbow hovering in the air, her bright colors standing out against the dark shades of the forest. As Silver came closer she could make out a crater at the far end and what looked like multiple other ponies standing around it.

“Oh, this isn’t good.” Silver gulped as she came to a hover beside Rainbow. What she had seen around the crater were not ponies. Six shadows stood around it, glaring intently at the two of them. Silver could make out two unicorns, two pegasi and two earth ponies. None of them however seemed to respond any differently to Silver’s additional presence. “Have they done anything since you got here?” She whispered.

“No, those things just turned and started staring at me!” Rainbow answered. “This is creepy, why aren’t they doing anything?”

“I don’t know, but hopefully they’ll stay like that until our backup arrives.” Silver sighed. She floated down and landed on the grass. If all six of those things were as good fighters as the one at the party the two of them didn’t stand a chance. Rainbow reluctantly flew down beside Silver, staying on edge in case of anything. The six shadows continued to watch them, staying motionless all the while.

With a moment to think, Silver could feel something off about the immediate area. It looked different than the rest of the forest. The grass was a dull green, almost grey. The trees along the edge also seemed to be dulling in color. A familiar shiver ran up Silver’s spine. She could tell something was wrong here, and not the usual wrongness of the Everfree.

“Hey Rainbow, does anything feel off to you?” Silver gently whispered.

“Yeah, it does,” she replied. Rainbow looked down and gave the cold grass a kick. “This numbness, I remember feeling it right before the party fell apart.”

Silver mulled the though over her head for a moment. “This is the same feeling I’ve gotten whenever being near one of those things,” she said, gesturing to the shadows. “Agh. Whatever it is, it can’t be good.”

The situation didn’t look very promising. The group of shadows stood directly between them and the impact site. Silver imagined that she and Rainbow could take two or three, but six would be out of the question until help arrived. Therefore it was a great relief for her to hear the stomping of hooves and breaking of branches from behind them.

“The clearing is right over here!” Twilight called before rounding a particularly large tree and into the open. She was flanked on both sides by Trixie and Applejack. The three of them were quick to reunite with Silver and Rainbow.

“Girls! What’s going on? Has anything- Woah!” Twilight stopped min-sentence as she noticed the six shadows surrounding the impact site. Her horn immediately flared as a bubble of magic enveloped the five of them. “What the hay is going on here?” she asked, unsure of what to make of the situation.

“Yeah, why’re y’all just standing here?” Applejack joined in. “Better question yet, why’re they all just standing there?” She stretched out a hoof and pointed through the bubble at the shadows on the outside.

“I don’t know,” Silver stated matter-of-factly. She looked outside the bubble then back to the group. “They’ve been like that since we got here. We haven’t tried anything because in a straight fight Rainbow and I wouldn’t last very long against so many of them.”

“Well we have to do something!” Rainbow asserted.

“Yes, we can’t just stand around here,” Twilight agreed.

“So what should we do!?”

“Have you tried diplomacy?”

“Okay. Now it’s my turn to comment,” Trixie interrupted. “Diplomacy? Did you already forget what happened only a few nights ago?” Nopony required a reminder about the fire. Something that ruins a town-wide party and destroys half of it isn’t something forgettable. Trixie asked more out of shock than actually from wondering if Twilight had forgotten.

“No, I haven’t,” Twilight deadpanned. “What I’m trying to say is that we need a new plan as fighting won’t solve this one.” She looked over to Silver who nodded in agreement. “Those shadows haven’t shown any hostility now have they? I’m wondering why. If they wanted to fight, they would have attacked already. If they are guarding the stone, it looks like they’re waiting for something. Now since fighting will not go well for us and it seems that the first thing on their minds is not violence, diplomacy looks like our only viable option.”

“Ah don’t like this,” Applejack muttered.

“I agree, but it doesn’t look like we have any another choice,” Silver added, “if this does turn out ugly, we need to be able to escape quickly. Applejack, can you stay by the rear and make sure we have a clear path behind us?”

“No problem Sugar.”

“Hopefully it won’t come to that, but if it does I’ll need your help Rainbow to distract them so all of us can get away safely,” Silver continued.

“You can count on me!” Rainbow energetically replied.

“And uh, here you go,” Silver said while taking the containment cube out of her pack. She tossed it over towards Twilight who caught it within a glow of purple magic. “Once we get the stone, we are out of here. So are we all good?” There was a chorus of nods and agreements that blew through the group. “If you would be so kind then Twilight,” Silver said as she bumped the large purple bubble surrounding them.

“Alright girls, get ready,” Twilight istated. Everypony in the group tensed as the shield disappeared around them. The only change however was the cold breeze washing over them. Twilight took a careful step forward, followed closely behind by the others. The shadows continued to stand and stare as the group slowly marched towards them.

“Hello?” Twilight called out, “Can you understand me?” She received no reply or sign of acknowledgement. “We do not wish to cause a conflict!”

The group froze as all six of the shadow’s eyes began glowing bright red. In unison they spoke in a deep, growling voice: “Oh, but we do.” Upon hearing this, everypony in the group tensed and prepared for a fight. Twilight and Trixie’s horns began to glow while Applejack starting move back, keeping the exit clear. Both Rainbow’s and Silver’s wings rose up in preparation for a diversion. This was all unnecessary however.

A large dark blue glow began emanating from the shadows. With a bright flash of light, they were all gone, leaving the five ponies behind in utter bafflement. All of them still waited, expected something to happen. When nothing did, they slowly lowered their defenses.

“What the hay just happened?” Applejack deadpanned.

“I’ve got as much of an idea as you do,” Trixie replied.

“Well that was unexpected,” Silver stated, “Twilight, can you feel them at all?”

Twilight concentrated for a second, but could only feel the cold magic radiating form the crater. “No, they’re not here. It seems they all teleported away.”

“No fight, running away, it’s almost as if they want us to take the stone,” Trixie guessed.

“Well it’s not like we have much of a choice now. We’re here and we have an anti-magic container. I doubt it would be a good idea to leave the stone here.” Silver replied.

“I don’t like this,” Rainbow added, “let’s just get that rock and get out of here before they come back.”

“Agreed. Twilight?” Silver gestured, pointing to the crater.

“Y- yeah,” she warily responded.

Twilight floated the cube beside her as she and Silver walked over the clearing. “Now that I think about it actually, this area looks quite different than it did two weeks ago,” Twilight commented, “Everything is so much, colder.”

As the two came up to the edge of the crater, they could feel a significant temperature drop in the air. Looking inside, Twilight could now see the shard where she had left it previously. Although this time it wasn’t resting on the ground, but actually floating in the air. A deep blue-purple glow surrounded it, keeping it aloft.

“So you think this is the thing causing us all of these problems?” Silver quietly asked.

“I don’t know,” Twilight replied flatly, “but there’s only one way to find out.” She floated the cube in front of her and clicked open the latch. As soon as it creaked open, Twilight could feel her magic begin to waver. Unlike the stone, which had a cold, dark energy to it, the inside of the cube just felt, empty.

Hovering the cube forward, Twilight encountered the same resistance as she had before. This time it was much stronger, pushing the cube back. She focused more energy into her telekinesis while attempting to force the cube over the shard. It responded by glowing even brighter to the source of magic. After a brief few seconds however Twilight won the battle and successfully clamped the box closed over the shard. Immediately the cold, dark energy in the crater cut off.

“Well, it seems to be holding,” Twilight said, while inspecting the device.

“Thankfully,” Silver commented.

“Alright girls! We’re good to go!” Twilight called as the two of them climbed back out of the crater. Rainbow, Trixie and Applejack all looked relieved as the two of them walked out looking fine.

“So now that y’all have that thing, what’re ya gonna do with it?” Applejack questioned.

“We’re going to take it to the library. I need to examine it in the laboratory before we do anything else with it. Make sure it isn’t harmful,” Twilight answered.

“So are we good to go?” Rainbow asked.

“Yes, we can head back to town now,” Silver stated.

“Finally!” Rainbow yelled. She spread her wings wide and flew up into the air above the tree line. “Ugh, town is that way!” she called out, pointing a hoof in the general direction in which they had come from. With the cube in tow, the group began their quick trot back through the forest, unaware of the danger that loomed over the horizon.

Big thanks to Nikitakitten for prereading/editing the chapter!

Prologue

1 Year Ago

"Hah! You may have vanquished an Ursa Minor, but you will never have the amazing, show stopping ability of The Great and Powerful Trixie!" the mare exclaimed, before using her magic to conjure a cloud of smoke to cover her escape, unsuccessfully, as she galloped away from Ponyville.

"Why that little...." Rainbow Dash started, flying up a few feet, intending to chase Trixie down.

"Just let her go...." Twilight soothed, "maybe someday she'll learn her lesson...." She stared in the direction Trixie had left town for a moment before turning her attention to the two colts responsible for bringing the Ursa to town.

Trixie ran from Ponyville as fast as her hooves could carry her. The humiliation of the past day's events was too much to bear. She was angry at the Ursa... she was angry at the purple mare... but most of all, she was angry at herself. She could not hold back the wave of disappointment she felt at her own foalish self.

As she continued galloping thru the trees of the thick forest she had run into, she came to a slow trot after realizing she was lost. "Humph! How dare they show up The Great and Powerful Trixie!" she huffed, her ego beginning to wane as she passed a large oak tree.

Coming to a stop, Trixie finally took notice of her surroundings. The night was beautiful; she could easily see everything around her, the fallen branches of the trees, the small wildlife scurrying about and the calming pond a few feet away. She slowly walked up to the waters' edge and looked at her own reflection. Her azure coat was frazzled and her normally straight, silver mane stuck out in all directions.

Trixie sat and thought back to the events of the last two days. How she came into town with the hopes of putting on a great performance and how she ended up humiliating the ponies who dared challenge her ego; the eager young colts who had brought the Ursa into town; that purple unicorn, what was her name...? Twilight... yeah, that's it, coming to the rescue and proving how powerless The Great and Powerful Trixie really was.

"That stuck-up purple mare! Twilight! How dare she usurp The Great and Powerful Trixie’s reputation!?" Trixie shouted in blind rage. "I could have had a fresh start here! A brand new chapter in The Great and Powerful Trixie's life... but no! She just had to let her ego take control and ruin everything!"

Trixie realized she was yelling at herself now, venting all the pent up anger and embarrassment that had welled up inside her. After finally calming down, she began to quietly sob on the shore of the small pond. Her ego, defeated by the day's recent events, begrudgingly allowed her to let it all out.

"Every time... every time I try and start over in a new town I blow it. Always someone has to feed my ego until it fights back," Trixie cried into her hooves, "I can never just have a regular show where the ponies actually enjoy themselves."

Trixie felt horrible. Every time she performed in a new town, someone would challenge her ego, which would usually end up badly for the showmare. She hadn't had a good show in months, but this time was different. Instead of just angering some locals, Trixie's boasting accidentally led to part of the town getting destroyed.

"Oh, why can’t I ever just behave myself? Why can't I stop everypony from hating me...?" Trixie began sobbing once more.

Trixie's tears started to subside when she felt something tapping on her shoulder, her ego flared up, instantly trying to save face with whatever had actually taken the time to notice and take pity on her.

"Leave me alone!" Trixie hissed at whoever had just come up to her, "Can't you see that I don't need to be humiliated anymore or was the Ursa not enough for you?"

Instead of being met with the harsh onslaught of words that she was expecting, Trixie felt something squeeze her shoulder.

"What the...!" Trixie started as she looked down to find a small, snow white rabbit hugging her.

"What are you doing?" Trixie asked, shocked and slightly afraid that something was trying to comfort her instead of ridicule her. "The Great and Powerful Trixie does not need companionship from a lowly rodent!"

Angel, for that was his name, looked up at Trixie, staring right into her eyes. They weren't the eyes of malice, only a form of sympathy and a willingness to help. Even without words, Trixie could tell that the rabbit had heard everything that had happened over the last few minutes.

"Do you," Trixie started, unsure whether to trust the rabbit, "actually care about me?"

Angel just nodded and directed Trixie's gaze into the pond.

"Wow...! I guess that I have made a mess of myself,” Trixie said with a dry laugh. "Hmm, better try and fix myself up."

Both of them knew that this was completely irrelevant but it had served its intended purpose: Trixie's mind was starting to wander to things other than the horrible display back in Ponyville. By the time her mane and coat were fixed up, Trixie's tears had stopped flowing and had dried on her cheeks.

"Thank you," Trixie whispered before turning to Angel and giving him the most heartfelt smile she could muster.

Feeling that he had served his purpose, Angel gave a happy nod and hopped away towards Ponyville, leaving Trixie once again alone in the forest.

Trixie sat beside the pond, thinking of the mistakes she’d made while traveling across Equestria and thinking of ways to fix them. Trixie finally gathered up the courage to stand and stare across the vast land before her.

"No!" Trixie proudly proclaimed to anypony who was listening, but mostly to herself. “I won't let this get me down! I may have lost everything, but..." Trixie could feel her emotions well up again, but kept them under control, "I will continue! I will be strong and I will fix the mistakes I've made and reclaim my title of the greatest showmare ever!"

As Trixie looked up into the night sky, she swore that she could see a proud face watching her. She would fix her wrongs and live up to the name her mother had given to her.

Trixie galloped off into the wilds of Equestria, determined to take back her dignity any way she could.

3 Months Ago

"OH my, love, love, love all this chaos," Discord mused to himself.

Being a draconequus, Discord certainly appeared fit for his role as the master of chaos and disharmony. He had the head of a pony, body of a dragon, left and right arms and legs of an eagle, lion, goat and dragon, respectively, and the tail of a snake. He certainly looked the part.

After being resurrected from his stone prison in the Canterlot Castle Royal Gardens and breaking up the elements of harmony, Discord had quickly spread his corrupting touch all over Equestria. With Ponyville being his prime target for a reason: it was home to The Elements.

"Oh! The Elements of Harmony, how I thought you'd be more fun,” Discord continued.

Truth be told, corrupting the bearers of The Elements of Harmony within Canterlot's Royal Hedge Maze was the most fun he'd had in thousands of years. It was the only thing he'd done in thousands of years. Being frozen in stone tended to limit your options when it came to entertainment.

Discord currently sat atop his distorted throne in the center of Ponyville, or what was left of it. He himself had named the place the chaos capital of the world, aptly named considering how much magic he put into corrupting the small town compared to the rest of Equestria.

Now Discord just sat upon his throne, admiring his work and occasionally sending out a puff of magic for a good laugh.

But even with Celestia and Luna powerless to stop him and The Elements of Harmony disbanded, Discord felt uneasy. Like he had won too quickly.

"No no no, I'm Discord! The most powerful and awesome being ever!" Discord grinned triumphantly, "It's no wonder that I won so easily!"

And yet, something just didn't feel right. Like his victory would be short lived because of those pesky Elements.

"Argh!" Discord yelled in frustration. "How can I still feel vulnerable!? I'm the sole king of Equestria!"

Discord thought back to his plan. Step One: Escape and draw out The Elements of Harmony. Step Two: Break apart The Elements of Harmony in Canterlot's Royal Hedge Maze. Step Three: Rule Equestria in eternal chaos. Step Four: ...there was no step 4. Discord didn't have any kind of backup plan in case the Elements actually won.

"Aha, so that's it!" said Discord, already forming an idea. "So, I'll just do this... and that... and some of these...." he said, performing the occasional hand gesture with each exclamation.

Discord lost himself in thought, forming a spell based off the chaotic nature of his magic. For a split second, all the craziness in Ponyville seemed to turn down a couple notches. A few floating objects started to drop back down to the ground, some of the multi-colored surfaces started to fade away and the sun and moon even stopped midway between one of their minute long cycles.

Once Discord finished the spell, Ponyville turned right back to its state of complete and utter chaos. Before him floated the fruits of his labor, two glowing balls of magic. The first orb was a dull swirling of different colors, while the other was a dark purple, blue-black vortex. Discord laughed manically as the two menacing spheres went to work.

The multi-colored orb split off into six smaller dull orbs, each flying far out over the land of Equestria, each heading to a specific destination. The dark orb however flew straight up into the atmosphere until it was no longer in sight.

"Well... that should take care of that," said Discord, reassured that he could never truly be defeated.

So Discord leaned back on his throne and continued admiring his hard work across the land, completely unaware that a certain purple unicorn was already planning his downfall.

Present Day

All of Equestria was looking at the night sky. Luna had out done herself this time. She had prepared this night for weeks, wanting to make sure everything turned out beautifully.

Luna was standing on her bedroom balcony, at the top of the second tallest tower of Canterlot Castle, watching the amazing display of shooting stars magically crafted into the night sky. She was so engrossed in the display that she barely noticed the faint creak coming from her bedroom door.

"You've really out done yourself tonight, sister," Celestia said as she walked up beside Luna. "You should be proud of your hard work."

"Oh! Thank you, Tia. I couldn't have pulled this off without your help."

"You're welcome, Luna, it’s the least I could do to help ponies appreciate the night."

The two princesses stood happily together on the balcony, enjoying the beautiful view of Equestria and pleasure of each others company. Luna took a step closer and nuzzled Celestia's neck, still too short to reach her sister's head. The older sister just lowered herself and affectionately nuzzled her back. They held the silence for a few more minutes before Celestia spoke up.

"I missed you so much while you were gone, Lulu."

"I missed you too, Tia."

"Promise me that you'll never leave again."

"I promise, Tia."

And so the royal sisters held each other in a loving embrace, enjoying one of the rare moments that they had to themselves. Blissfully unaware that one particularly bright light in the night sky was not of the night princess' creation.

Big Thanks to Dr.Jekyll & NikitaKitten for prereading/editing the chapter!

Chapter 7: Celebration

"Wow, I'm pretty sure this can be seen from Canterlot right now."

Silver and Cheerilee were on their way to the town square to attend the party, but it was quickly turning out to be slightly redundant as Pinkie had somehow encompassed over half the town into the event. Every few feet there was some streamer, light or other decoration literally making the town as bright as Manhattan, if not brighter. On a certain level this party reminded Silver of The Grand Galloping Gala, the main difference being that ponies were actually having fun.

Pinkie had visited every building in town earlier that day and handed out invitations to the party, with the schoolhouse being no exception. She had interrupted Cheerilee introducing Ms. Rush to the students; some were not very thrilled about having a second teacher while others were excited at having a new face in the school. The party was all the students really talked about for the rest of the day. At first Silver thought it would be a perfect opportunity to quickly meet Twilight Sparkle. That idea was rapidly deteriorating as she walked among the glowing streets. There were so many ponies attending that finding a single one would be a challenge in itself.

"Probably," Cheerilee chuckled.

"Does Pinkie usually go this far?" Silver asked while gazing around at the town.

"Come to think of it, no," she replied, "If she put this much effort into it then it must be something special."

"I didn't know that my visit would be such an occasion, you shouldn't have gone to all this trouble Lee," Silver laughed sarcastically.

"Oh yes, I spared no expense to welcome my dear friend back to town," Cheerilee played along. This was their thing. They threw jokes back and forth to pass the time and, as usual, it worked splendidly. Before they knew it the two had already made it to the town square. The place was alive with ponies dancing, eating and having fun. A large stage was erected near the clock tower which seemed to be the center of attention. A pony with a blue mane and sunglasses was spinning a disc table and bobbing her head with the beat. The crowd around the stage was cheering and dancing to the music.

"Want to get a snack?”" Cheerilee offered.

"Sure, but you’re paying this time," Silver retorted.

"Yes; because a soup and a sandwich are ssoooo expensive."

"It's not the price but the principle of the thing."

"Sure sure," Cheerilee smirked, "now are you hungry or not?"

The two of them began browsing the assortment of stalls throughout the square. There were vendors for just about anything you could imagine. Vegetables, fruits, cakes, pastries and cookies. The latter probably set up by Pinkie Pie. Oh so many choices. Maybe some fresh fruit or veggies… "Nope! Pie!" Silver cheered. She trotted up to one of the vendors and took out a few bits, purchasing a whole pie.

"At this rate you could be a Wonderbolt in no time!" Cheerilee laughed, getting a slice for herself. The two of them evaded through the crowd and found an unoccupied bench to sit on.

"Hah! Soarin's got nothing on me!" Silver boasted. She had beaten Soarin three years running at the state fair pie-eating contest. They've had a competitive friendship for many years in both flying and pie eating, and recently she had eclipsed him in both, much to his dismay. Silver took a large chunk out of the pie.

"Mmm, this is delicious!" Silver said before taking another bite. “Better than any pastry I've had in Canterlot."

Cheerilee smiled. "Well it is made by Pinkie herself."

A thought struck Silver as she downed her pie in seconds and tossed the tray into a nearby garbage bin. "Hey Lee, do you know if Twilight Sparkle would be here?"

"Probably, *Bite* no one ever misses a Pinkie Pie party," Cheerilee replied, "If she was here she would probably be with one of her friends. *Chomp* Give me a second." She placed the rest of her pie on the bench beside Silver, stood up and began scanning the crowd. There were ponies of all colors talking, dancing and having general fun. Pinkie really had gone all out this time. Multiple games had been set up amongst the venders and a certain orange mare was walking between each of them. "Ah, there's Applejack," Cheerilee stated, "C'mon."

"Hey! Wait up!" Silver called. She hopped off the bench and tried maneuvering through the crowd. However there was no available hole for her to squeeze through. "Ahh, maybe if- excuse me- eh- uh- oh fine," Silver grunted. She flapped her wings and rose into the air above the other partygoers. She got a few wayward glances, but nopony really paid too much attention. Now where did Lee go… There she is! Silver gingerly flew over the street and drifted down beside Cheerilee, but not before tripping on a rock and falling on her face.

"Have a nice trip. See you next fall." Cheerilee stifled a laugh.

"Oh god the puns! You're killing me!" Silver held up a hoof over her chest as if she just received a mortal injury. Cheerilee burst out laughing, and Applejack joined her. Silver quickly got up on her hooves and with a flick of her head straightened out her mane.

"You alright there, Ms. Rush?" Applejack asked after calming down.

Cheerilee giggled and Silver just rolled her eyes. At the confused look on Applejack’s face Cheerilee quickly explained, "She doesn't like being called Miss Rush outside of the classroom. Just stick with Silver."

That statement was only partially correct. Silver never liked it when other ponies called her Ms. Rush, she preferred Silver. While she had never taught at an elementary or high school Silver had been the chief instructor for the royal guards' training program. She didn't like the position too much, not enough flying.

"On another slightly less embarrassing note, have you seen Twilight anywhere here?" Silver questioned. The questions in itself was a bit redundant. There were so many ponies walking around that finding one would be very difficult. And yet somehow Cheerilee had pinpointed Applejack in mere seconds.

"Ah'm sorry sugar, I haven't seen hide nor hair o' Twilight since the meteor shower. From what ah heard something happened at the lake outside of town. That's what ah'm guessing this party is about," Applejack answered.

"Oh, well thank you anyway." Silver sighed, slightly disheartened. "So I wonder if there will be some kind of…"

*DING* *DONG* *DING* *DONG* "Hi everypony!" A loud and cheerful voice rang out over the speakers. "The main presentation of the party is starting, so if you could all make your way to the stage, that would be superly fantastic!" There was a small buzz as the speaker died down.

"Well I guess that answers that," Cheerilee commented.

The three of them moved along with the crowd towards the front of the stage. If Silver thought the square was packed before, she had another thing coming. It looked like nearly the entire town had gathered and squeezed around the stage. The DJ had moved her table to the back and joined the crowd. A pink pony with a curly mane and a huge grin was standing up on the stage with a microphone along with three other ponies beside her. "Well now that the guest of honor is finally here…"

"My, Pinkie really out did herself this time."

"I don't deserve all this."

"Nonsense! You saved Rainbow Dash's life!"

"But-"

"No buts! You will enjoy yourself this evening whether you like it or not!"

*sigh* "Thanks Twilight."

“Anytime.”

Trixie and Twilight had just left the library for the party. The building was almost smack dab in the center of town, so walking to the square only took a few minutes. And in those few minutes Trixie was amazed. The town was damn near as bright and colorful as her own performances. And that was saying something.

"There's no way Pinkie was able to decorate the whole town in one afternoon. It doesn't seem physically possible," Trixie said.

"Hah!" Twilight laughed.

"What’s so funny?"

"Pinkie doesn't seem to follow regular physics. It’s like she had her own rules. Don't ask me how, ignoring it is the only way I haven't gone crazy. Well, completely crazy at least." Twilight giggled. "But this does seem like a bit much. I think she recruited the help of Spike and a few others for this one. Oh, speaking of which…"

The two unicorns had only just walked into the town square prior to being assaulted by a pink blur. Everything happened so fast that afterwards Trixie's brain couldn't register what it had just experienced. Somehow the two of them had gone from the outside of the town square to behind a large curtain on a wooden surface. She had brief images in her mind of somehow floating over the crowd. Looking around Trixie could see that Rainbow Dash was also with them, and she looked just as confused as her. Beyond that she couldn't see too much else, the only light source was a crack between the two curtains. There was a loud tune buzzing from the other side and strobe light peeking through the seam.

"What is this, I don't even…" Trixie began, utterly baffled.

"Stop right there," Twilight warned, "don’t question it, just go with it."

Trixie turned back to Rainbow, who just shrugged. Pinkie was still going on like there was no tomorrow. Words flew from her like miniature Wonderbolts. They went in one ear and came out the left so fast and incoherently that Trixie could feel herself losing brain matter. After a minute or so of the rambling speech she could feel herself growing numb. At no point could she even fathom what she was hearing. Sensing her pain, Twilight came to the rescue.

"Ugh... Pinkie, could we get to the point?" Twilight asked. Trixie mouthed a silent thank you as the pink mass started talking more slowly. Trixie was still only able to catch the last few things it said.

"- and then the fireworks will go off and it'll be superly amazing!" Pinkie finished.

"Fireworks? In such a decorated area? That doesn't seem very safe," Twilight commented in a concerned tone.

"Oh don't worry," Pinkie replied, "I triple checked to make sure that nothing could go wrong!" On that note Pinkie threw open the curtains exposing the group to the on looking crowd. Without a second thought she walked up the stage and tapped a button on the side of the microphone.

*DING* *DONG* *DING* *DONG* "Hi everypony!" Pinkie cheered at the crowd. "The main presentation of the party is starting, so if you could all make your way to the stage, that would be superly fantastic!" Pinkie took a step back and waved a hoof backstage for Trixie, Twilight and Rainbow to join her.

Trixie cautiously walked up beside Twilight with Rainbow bringing up the rear. As soon as they came onstage the curtains snapped shut and a number of bright lights focused on them. Up on stage Trixie could really see the whole scope of the celebration. Nearly the entire square was filled with ponies of all shapes and colors. On a certain level, Trixie was reminded of her performances, the bright lights, interested crowd, and the sense of nervousness.

As Trixie stood up beside Pinkie, that familiar feeling of ridicule returned to her mind. Oh goddesses please don't let this go as it did a year ago. What if everypony still hates me? I wouldn't be surprised. Oh what if I get booed out of town again? I don't want to be alone again... Trixie began to cringe as Pinkie tapped the microphone.

"Well now that the guest of honor is finally here, I'd like to introduce to all of you the new and improved Trixie!" Pinkie cheered into the microphone while sliding it over to Trixie.

"Um, hello everypony," Trixie murmured towards the crowd. A hushed murmur spread out across the square. She tried to muster up a smile, but found her mouth unwilling to cooperate. No no no no. Don't ruin this, I have to- Before Trixie could finish the thought, she felt a slight tapping on her should. She turned to find Rainbow Dash gently nudging her aside. Trixie gladly stepped back beside Twilight while Rainbow stepped up to address the crowd. The murmurs had died down with the new speaker.

"Hi everypony, Rainbow Dash here," she said. "Now I know what all of you are thinking more or less the same thing. What is she doing here?" she said, making a gesture towards Trixie. "Now I want all of you to know, that she is not the same mare that came to town a year ago. What you all saw was her ego." Trixie blushed slightly at the comment. "This, this is the real Trixie. I’m going to put it bluntly, I almost drowned yesterday out at Ponyville Lake. If it wasn't for Trixie who, even without magic, dove in after me, I wouldn't be here right now."

Gasping could be heard across the crowd. There was speculation that something happened at the lake but very few ponies knew what had actually transpired. "And so, I'm asking all of you," Rainbow continued, "to please try to forgive and forget. I'm sure both her and I would be eternally grateful. Now I think Trixie would like to say something.”

Rainbow took a step back from the microphone and allowed Trixie to walk back up. Her confidence had soared during Rainbow's speech. Only pausing for a moment to clear her throat, Trixie began telling everyone present her story. How she left home to be a traveling magician, the death of her mother, her out of control ego, the events after the incident one year ago and her slow spiral into depression and near death. Throughout her entire story, not a single soul spoke a word. After what seemed to her like hours, Trixie's story finally came to a conclusion. "- and finally that brings me to tonight, here, on this stage talking to all of you. I sincerely hope that you all can find it in your hearts to forgive a foolish egotistical jerk. Thank you," she concluded.

Trixie silently bowed her head and stepped back beside Twilight and Rainbow. The silence was deafening. A tiny beeping could be heard somewhere, but it died down after a few seconds. Nopony said a word; nopony knew what to say. To Trixie it was the longest moment of her life: what was only minutes felt like hours. At first she thought that she was about to be run out of town; what actually happened stunned not only her, but all four of them on stage. A single clop was heard of a hoof to the ground, and then another, and another. The silence was broken as a torrent of clops vibrated the stage and square. It felt as though there was a stampede running through town. That was nowhere near what she had been expecting.

A single tear ran down Trixie's cheek which met a growing smile. She looked to Twilight, Rainbow and then back at the crowd. All around she could see smiles and gazes of approval and admiration. So, is that it? Am I now- Oh? What was that?

Trixie's ears perked up as she heard something that sounded like an explosion and felt the stage shake for a second. Was that one of the fireworks? She looked over at Twilight who also looked confused. Before either of them could say anything however Pinkie took the microphone and addressed the crowd.

"Alright everypony! So that's the story, clear as cake! And now it's time for the big finale!" she hollered. Out of nowhere Pinkie produced a bright red button that said FIREWORKS. It was quite obvious that Pinkie had been waiting for this moment all evening, so when nothing happened when she pressed the button she was very upset. "Oh come on! Really!? I triple checked to make sure it was working! How could it-" Pinkie was interrupted as a pegasus flew through the curtains behind them.

“EVERYPONY GET AWAY FROM THE STAGE RIGHT N-"

*KABOOM*

"- and finally that bring me to tonight, here, on this stage talking to all of you. I sincerely hope that you all can find it in your hearts to forgive a foolish egotistical jerk. Thank you." Silver watched from the crowd as Trixie stepped back away from the microphone.

Wow. Now that was some story. Silver looked over to her friends, Cheerilee to her right and Applejack to her left. They had also met up with Rarity and Fluttershy just before the presentation started, the two of them were standing adjacent to Applejack.

A quiet beeping started; it took Silver a second to pinpoint the cause. Oh? This again? She looked down to her compass which she had strapped to her left hoof. It was letting out a slow stream of beeps. She lifted it to take a closer look, and found it pointing a slightly off of the stage. Oh I hope this isn't what it was before.

"Cheerilee, I'll be right back. I need to take a look at something," Silver whispered as she nudged past her.

"Yeah, sure…" Cheerilee quietly replied. She was still looking up at the stage as if waiting for something else to occur.

Silver slowly made her way through the crowd of ponies on foot. It didn't feel appropriate to fly right now. As soon as she found some room Silver began moving in and out of the stalls, slowly edging her way to the side of the stage. She felt a pang of worry hit her gut as her compass began to frantically beep out of control. This can't be good.

Silver readied a shock hoof as she rounded the stage. Royal guards where trained in a wide variety of combat moves both lethal and non lethal. The Shock hoof was the standard non-lethal tactic used by most guards. It worked by sending a pulse of electricity through the target, incapacitating them for a few seconds. Although the heavy duty magic was used by the unicorn division of the guard, pegasi could use weather related magic such as wind and electricity.

A familiar cold shiver ran down her back as Silver found the source of her compass' distress. A unicorn was standing in front of a huge fireworks display. She was completely black, not just a black coat, but just one black shape. Her horn was radiating a dark purple glow encompassing the display.

"Hey!" Silver yelled out. The unicorn didn't as much as twitch. "Unicorn! I'm talking to you!" No response. Silver carefully began walking forward. She didn't get very far before something else caught her eye. There was somepony else, standing high up on one of the rafters looking down on them. Silver could barely see the outline, but she could two piercing red eyes staring back at her.

"What the... Whoa!" Silver jumped back a split second before the other pony - a pegasus as she could now see - smashed into where she had just stood, leaving a small crater in on the ground. Now that was fast… The pegasus spread her wings and moved directly between Silver and the unicorn. Now she was sure of it, this was the same pegasus from the day before.

"So I guess you're not gonna let me have a chat with your friend over there?" Silver rhetorically asked; the pegasus snorted a puff of black smoke in response. Electricity began arcing down Silver’s front hooves as she prepared for the inevitable. "Fine, you wanna dance? Let's dance."

The pegasus instantly charged Silver, attempting to bash her head in. It was fast; she was faster. Silver sidestepped and countered with a shock hoof directly on the pegasus' shoulder sending it skidding towards the wall. The shock didn't seem to faze it as it rebounded off of the wall and shot right back. Silver moved to sidestep but out of nowhere the ground began shaking as if there was an earthquake. The momentary lapse of concentration allowed the pegasus to land a hit on Silver's back leg. The hit sent her sliding across the ground but she quickly regained her balance, shrugging off the searing pain and watched as the pegasus turned for another charge.

"Ah," Silver grunted, "Guess I need to turn up the voltage." The air around her began to spark and crack with electricity. Her mane stood on end from the current as she upgraded her shock hooves to electro-sabers. The sabers were a technique taught only to the elite pegasi guard. They had enough power to incinerate most organic matter and melt right through steel. Though it took an immense amount of magic to use, the results were practically twin thunder rods for front hooves. The pegasus sensed the change in power, but was still undeterred.

"Come at me, bro," Silver glared. The pegasus charged once more, but instead of moving to dodge and counter Silver met it head on. There was a small explosion as the collision sent Silver skidding a few hooves back while the pegasus went soaring into one of the stages support beams. The entire stage shook with the impact as she looked at the smoldering hole in the ground. She took a deep breath and began turning down the electricity coursing through her veins, but a creak from the wreckage focused her once again.

Silver watched in shock as the pegasus slowly stepped out of the crater. "How in Celestia's name are you still alive!? Let alone moving!?" She yelled. The pegasus wasn't moving nearly as fast as before, but it was still up on four hooves. "Well, one more hit like that should finish this."

Silver opened her wings and flew straight for the pegasus intending for a killing blow but collided with a wall of dark purple magic. "Fucking hell." She glared daggers as the unicorn calmly walked beside her bodyguard. Silver could have sworn it smirked before teleporting the two of them away with a flash of magic.

She switched off the current of electricity and took a deep breath. Wait, is that smoke? … Oh no. In the fight she had completely forgotten about the unicorn. Silver turned and saw the fireworks display smoking and glowing a deep red. Without thinking about it Silver took off through a gap in the woodwork and tore through the stage’s front curtains.

“EVERYPONY GET AWAY FROM THE STAGE RIGHT N-"

*KABOOM*

Everypony near the stage was thrown off their hooves as a massive fireball erupted into the night sky.

Silver Rush -

Big thanks to Dr. Jekyll & Nikitakitten for prereading/editing the chapter!