The drunken adventures of Luna and Celestia: A night in pony dreams.

When Luna arrived in the dinner hall, she found her company for the night had already been seated at their respective positions with an added chair for Twilight’s unexpected, plus one. Before them was a lavish feast with more food than could possibly be consumed by the nine of them, a thought that would not deter Pinkie from trying. Making her way to her seat beside her sister, Luna tried to listen to the ponies’ chatter to try and find a point where she might enter the conversation without interrupting, but before she could find a place to begin, Twilight opened the door for her.

“Welcome back Princess.” said Twilight with a smile that betrayed the bandages and cotton plugs on her nose. Despite looking a little worse for the wear, Twilight’s minor injury from earlier did nothing to dampen her attitude.

“I hope you’re feeling better, I’m quite sorry for the earlier incident with the door.” Luna grinned nervously.

“It’s no problem, it looks worse than it is. Did you find the rat?” Twilight questioned.
“Wh- Oh yes! Indeed I did, I have purged the vermin from the castle grounds.”

“You didn’t hurt the little guy, did you?” interjected Fluttershy, “I’m sure he was just scared is all.” she sounded genuinely worried.

“Perhaps ‘purged’ was an improper phrasing,” Luna thought quickly, “I had him safely escorted out of the castle in a dust bin by a guard and released outside.” Luna looked calmingly to Fluttershy, who’s worries appeared to melt away with the return of her smile.
“Okay… that’s good to hear.” replied Fluttershy with
a contented smile.
“So how has dinner been going in my absence?”
“It’s been going well,” said Celestia, “Twilight was just telling us about how she and her new friend had settled their differences earlier today.” Celestia’s smile was just a tad bigger than what was called for, and only Luna knew why. Luna herself fought back the urge to giggle as she continued to her chair. “It was quite becoming of the Princess of Friendship, I’m glad to know that she’s setting a shining example for her subjects.” Out of the corner or eye Luna could see Rainbow Dash leaning over and saying something to Applejack, who fought back a smile and gave Rainbow a quick hoof to the shoulder. “So then, now that Luna has joined us, shall we begin?” Celestia asked her guests.

“I thought you’d never ask!” exclaimed Pinkie as she began to open her mouth to almost unnatural width for a pony before having her targeted pie levitated away amidst a magical periwinkle aura.

“Pinkie Pie!” said Rarity curtly, “What did we talk about?”

“Ugh…” she sighed briefly, “fine…” Pinkie then waited with an exasperated sigh as Rarity lowered the delicious looking pie to where it had been in front of her. She then held up both of hooves and proceeded with robotic and synchronous movements to pick up the pie slowly and take a smaller than ”Pinkie normal’”sized bite out of the pie before chewing it slowly and placing the pie back down with an annoyed look on her face.

“There’s no need for such formalities Pinkie Pie. Dig in, the chefs might grow restless if they see you acting differently to their cooking.” said Celestia with a smile as she turned to the door to the kitchen, where the figures of three creatures could be seen through a small crack in the door before it was quickly closed with a small click. “They’re very sensitive you know.”

“Well, if you say so!” replied Pinkie with a smile that threatened to overtake her other facial features as she hoisted the pie above her head and engulfed it as it slid from it’s tin. Rarity simply held her hoof to her forehead before looking away with an aggravated sigh and some quiet words to herself.

The others at the table had already started to munch on their favored dish that they’d eyed out beforehand and most began small talk with one another as they ate. Rainbow Dash and Applejack talked about the up and coming running of the leaves, and Twilight and Trixie exchanged hushed words to one another and made attempts, however in vain, to feed one another small morsels without being spotted.

Everyone at the table seemed to be actively avoiding trying to talk to Twilight or Trixie for most of the meal, everyone except Celestia, who made almost constant prods for her own giggles. Most of which were double entendres that flew straight over Twilight’s head, who did not expect to hear such things from her mentor, even if a few of her questions were odd. “So when you went to the park, which way did you prefer to swing?” “Did the carpet match the drapes in that new restaurant?” “It sounds like you two have the purest form of friendship.”

All of these small quips and euphemisms went totally unnoticed by Twilight, who was naive and innocent to most of the jokes that Celestia was making. But Luna could see that while Twilight answered Celestia’s questions in their literal forms, that Trixie was not amused by the Princess’ jokes. Throughout Celestia’s barrage of disguised jabs. Luna would see Trixie look away from the Princess and give a increasingly more stern and annoyed grimace, it was hardly perceptible at first, but after a moment it became more and more obvious as her movements were slightly more forceful and rushed, and her sighs grew more and more audible. And after a while, Luna tried to bring this to the attention of Celestia, who simply kept at it.

“Th- I need to use the restroom, would you mind showing me where it is Twilight?” interjected Trixie with audible frustration into Celestia’s next comment.

“Sure thing,” responded Twilight with abnormal excitement and playful undertones, contrasted heavily against the backdrop of Trixie’s irritation. Twilight rose from her chair to join her friend and lead the way out of the room through the kitchen door. Shortly after their departure the room grew silent and it was Rarity that broke it with cutting accusation.

“So,” she began with looks to Pinkie Pie and Applejack, who stopped eating and directed their attention forward for a moment, “the three of us were talking before we departed today, and we’ve all come to the conclusion that you two may have had something to do with the current situation involving Twilight and her new charlatan friend.”

“Come again?” said Celestia, trying to feign insult in a situation she knew she could never be angry at her subjects for entering.

“Now, ah ain’t much fer accusin.” replied AJ, “But y’all turned up’n our dreams last night and while y’all may a seen some things that were embarrasin and had yer laughs at our expense, we’re willin to forgive that if’n y’all just just fix this whole Twilight’n Trixie thing. Seein our inner thoughts is one thing, but trickin a poor girl n’ta somthin like that just ain’t gonna fly with us. We’re just tryin to look out for Twi’s sakes, we don’t want her gettin taken advantage of by the likes a Trixie.” Applejack nervously twiddled her hat in her hooves and avoided eye contact for a moment before looking up to Celestia with a worried look.

“Well then,” Celestia said looking to Luna, “it appears we have been caught sister.” Celestia raised her hooves up above the table as if surrendering. “First and foremost, I would like to apologize.”

“And I as well, things got a little out of hoof last night.” added a worried Luna, looking across to address the guests. Applejack still sat with her head turned down at a slight angle, Rarity stared forward with a look of stern confidence, Pinkie Pie was slowly bringing an apple closer and closer to her face, and Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy sat at the corner of the table with nothing to add, to their recollection, the princesses had not been present in their dreams.

“Now, I believe we should offer an explanation for our actions.” began Celestia as she brought her hooves back down. “Since my sister’s return we’ve tried to take as many chances as we could to try and get back in the swing of things, as it were. So aside from the normal attempts to make time to bond we’ve set apart one time of year where it is only us, this time being immediately after the Grand Galloping Galas. Where the ponies are sent away from the castle, the staff is sent home, and the castle is left with naught but the security details. It is then that we have free reign to do what we wish, or at least, we had free reign until last year where our shenanigans got us into a spot of trouble.

So this year, we were confined to the castle, and shunted to bed like children, bound by laws that would prevent us from causing something that could have any serious backlash. And it was this year that Luna and I did something we hadn’t done together in centuries.” Celestia’s audience was at attention, even if their issue had not been addressed yet.

“Last night we were able to go dreamwalking.” started Luna with a smile, “And though we may not have made the best of choices during our time amongst the aether, we were completely free, if not but for a few hours time. Busy as we are, and as heavily watched over, we’ve rarely any time to do such things anymore, but through dreamwalking we can let go of our bonds and be ourselves for a time. We apologize if this had caused you any stress, but we assure you we acted only in the interest of having fun, and not extracting your secrets or desires from you.” The two sister shared a kind look with one another and turned to the ponies across the table, who seemed contented for a moment before Rarity put voice once again, to their concerns.

“I can see how your lives leave you with very little time for yourselves, and I understand that your actions may also have been just as impaired as your judgement, but that still does not offer us any solace in that our friend is presently in relationship that is far too intimate for day one and we want to know why! Rarity slammed her hoof on the table as she shouted, causing everyone else present to jump in their chairs, even the princesses.

“Now, just hold yer horses Rarity, no need to escalate this, just sit back down’n we’ll talk it out.” Applejack put a hoof on Rarity’s shoulder and slowly forced her back into her chair with a strength that Rarity couldn’t fight back against if she tried.

“I’m fine,” she said with frustration, “I’m fine… eh-hmm,” she cleared her throat and returned to her lady-like posture and tone, “now then. What do you propose we do? Should we try and expose her for what she is, or do we plant some stolen-”

“Rarity!” interrupted Applejack, “We ain’t gon be doing none'a the like ya hear?”

“Well excuse me for trying to protect Twilight.” Rarity replied with a final sigh of indignation and an upturned nose.

Applejack turned to the princesses, “The best we can really hope for is that maybe y’all could give Twi a bit of a talkin to, try and let her down easy that this is somethin that ain’t gonna end well fer no pony. We’re pretty sure that Trixie’s after somethin a Twilight’s especially she went and became princess.”

“Well… actually…” Celestia turned to Luna with growing grin, “we know for a fact that Trixie is in this for Twilight.”

“Eh-hmm,” Luna coughed,” Why yes, came across some pretty compelling evidence in our little adventure last night, and suffice it to say, we’re certain that this entire situation is Trixie’s dream come true. By the looks of what was seen, Trixie has had quite the little crush on Twilight, and she’s had for some time.”

“So ultimately, what you’re asking of us is beyond our powers to attempt to tamper with.” added Celestia stifling a giggle, “Now, we ask that you trust us on this at least for now. This entire situation was not the product of us attempting to control the lives of our subjects, but merely the unintended consequence of a joke that may have unlocked something within our little Twilight. Ultimately I cannot say I disapprove of this current turn of events, as despite all of my little nudgings in the past I’d never seen Twilight actually engage with another pony like she did-” Celestia slipped up and almost alluded to the dirty details of last night but quickly recovered, “or, is currently.” Celestia and Luna, both satisfied with the elder sister’s rebuttled, simply nodded slightly to one another and turned to the accusing party.

“Ugh…” Rarity sighed, “fair enough, I suppose. What type of ponies would we be if we stepped in the way of Twilight’s happiness.”

“We could at least give her a second chance,” came a quiet voice from the end of the table, “she may not have been welcoming or kind before, but I thought I noticed a change in Trixie when they’re together, perhaps this could do her some good as well as Twilight.” Fluttershy’s word were followed by Rainbow’s.

“I’m keeping an eye on her though.” added Rainbow Dash, “She hasn’t exactly earned my trust just yet.”

“Well then, now that we’re all in accordance, shall we enjoy the feast before us?” No sooner did Celestia finish her sentence did the crunching sound of an apple being bitten draw everyone’s attention to Pinkie Pie, who had finally brought the fruit to her mouth as slowly advancing it to her face during the course of the conversation. The table broke out once more into jovial giggles as the ponies began to eat once more, after another minute or so however, it came to Applejack’s worry that the two previously occupied chairs next to Celestia remained vacant.

“Sooo… anyone else wonderin where those two got off to? They’d ought to have been back by now, don’t y’all think?” started Applejack.

“Surely they’d have taken care of whatever they needed too by now?” questioned Rarity.

“Perhaps they got lost?” said Fluttershy.

“Yeah right,” cut in Rainbow, “I’m sure they ditched us to go off fooling around somewhere.” Rainbow Dash started to lift from her chair and took to the air, “I’m gonna go see where they got off to, I’ll be back in no time.”

“Do be careful not to get lost.” called Celestia to Rainbow Dash as she flew through the door into the kitchen leaving the rest of the party to return to the feast, now minus three members.

Just as before, and abnormal period of time had passed and neither Rainbow, nor Twilight and Trixie had managed to make an appearance back at the table. Luna sat making small talk with Pinkie Pie, finding her silly ways amusing to no end as she recounted tales of her childhood on the rock farm. Listening intently as Pinkie told the story of the first time she and her big sister Maud had made rock candy necklaces, she would didn’t notice that someone was beckoning for her attention until an errant piece of fruit lobbed by Pinkie in an over-the-top demonstration of placing each piece of rock candy on the string drew her attention to the door on the far side of the room, where a single guardsman started waving his hoof wildly when he saw Luna looking his direction.

After a brief moment to register who exactly was waving at her, she noticed that it was the guardsman she had entrusted with the escorting of the two changelings. Suppressing a shot of panic through her system, Luna turned to Pinkie Pie to try and disengage from conversation.

“Oh… my,” Luna placed a hoof to her stomach, “it would appear as if my food is disagreeing with me.” Pinkie quickly stopped her tale with a curious comment.

“That’s weird, my food always agrees with me, we come to a mutual understanding before hoof so there’s no hard feelings. Maybe you just need to talk to it before you eat it next time?” Pinkie smiled wide as the other participants of the meal stared at her with looks that questioned her mental stability.

“I will certainly try next time Ms. Pie, but until then I must away to the washroom, I shall return in a few minutes.” Luna then backed out of her place and began heading to the door on the far side of the room.

“Where are you going? I thought the bathroom was through the kitchen?” called Pinkie.

“Taking a shortcut!” Luna quickened her pace and proceeded to the door she’d seen the guardsman trying to wave her down in. Entering the door she closed it quickly behind her and turned to address the guardsman before her, who was shuffling nervously in place. “What is it?!” she whispered curtly.

“We have a bit of a problem your highness.” he murmured out.

“They escaped?!” Luna rasped out angrily.

“No we’re here,” came the voice of the male changeling; whose form had yet again changed, “but we’ve hit a bit of an impasse.” Luna turned to him and saw that he no longer bore Luna’s form, but rather that of Rainbow Dash.

“Where is she Bug?” Luna beckoned with slight panic in her voice.

“She’s in here.” the voice of Bit came from the corner of the room, where she stood next to the door of a small broom closet. “She tried to ask Bug, well, you a question, he panicked and before we knew it he was a carbon copy of the little blue pegasus. So, thinking quickly, your honorable guardsman over here planted a swift hoof firmly in the back of her head and she was out cold. It was a solid hit, she went down in one go, and she’s still breathing so I think we’re okay.”

This wasn’t happening right now… this couldn’t be happening. This was supposed to be a calm and enjoyable dinner party with Twilight and company and it was quickly turning into a murder mystery board game. Something had to be done and it had to be done quickly to stabilize this rapidly degrading situation before it spiraled even further out of control. If someone were to discover Luna’s sanctioned guests then it would quickly be assumed that they were behind the disappearances and panic would spread like fire and-

“Are you okay Princess?” asked Bit, the question needed asking as Luna’s breathing had picked up and her eyes were wide as she stared into nothing.

Reality suddenly snapped back to Luna, “I’m… I’m fine, we just… you just… you have to help me fix this now.” Luna pointed to Bit. “This one,” Luna turned her hoof to Bug, “he has little control over his stress, does he change when prompted by it? Can we force him to change?”

“I, I dunno… maybe?” Bit shrugged to the concerned Princess.

“Worth a shot then, guardsman, assail the changeling!”

“What?!” blurted all of them at once.

“You heard me, assault him, verbally, physically, something, just get him to panic, maybe it’ll work.” Luna ordered him.

“Uhm… ahh…” the guardman couldn’t think of anything to say, one of the nicer individuals in the castle, he resorted to the old standby… violence. With little warning he rose to his back hooves and slammed his hoof into Bug’s face with enough force to knock him over.

“Ahh!-mmm” Bug shouted before being quickly muffled by Bit.

“That’s not going to work, we’ll have to try something else, you’ll bludgeon him before we get anywhere with that,” she turned to the guardsman, “Also, nice punch there stud.”

“Why thank yo-”

“Shut up! We have to work fast…” Luna looked around the room and saw a rather large and unwieldy book upon the one desk in the room. Levitating it in Bug’s face she ran right up to him and began shouting in his face. “CHANGE! CHANGE DAMN YOU!” Bug’s eyes grew frightened and his breathing picked up as Luna repeatedly shouted “CHANGE!” in his face. He began hyperventilating as he tried to roll away from Luna to take his eyes away, but she kept floating the book out in front of him and screaming at him to change. After a few more moments of Luna’s sanity seeming to spill onto the floor at her feet, Bug finally reacted. It a small flash of green light and a magical poof the changeling shackled off the form of Rainbow Dash and disappeared.

“Oh my Goddess I killed him!” Luna brought a hoof to her mouth and gasped as she turned around to see Bit in a panic and the guardsman frozen in place.

“BUG!” shouted the changeling as she rushed forward, “C’mon man, where’d you go, tell me where you are, you have to be here, you have to-”

“I’m here.” came a small voice from the floor. Taking a pause, the remaining three normal sized ponies looked to the floor to see a spider about the size of a hoof squaring off with another spider of the same size, “I’m fine for now,” he said as the other spider raised it’s legs and began circling him, matching it’s movements the two motioned around in a small circle on the floor, “but I’m unsure if this guy is trying to kill or mate with me, some assistance would be helpful.”

As soon as he finished talking, one spider rushed the other and began slapping the other spider repeatedly. “Ah so that’s how it’s gonna be is it!” came a tiny shout from the fighting pair on the floor, “Well have at you then!” The one spider who’d been attacked began sparring just as fruitlessly at the other one, and for a moment the pair just stood there circling one another flicking and slapping the fire out of one another until one managed to momentarily flip the other over.

“Ha, take that you son of a mule!” The spider that remained upright simply backed up and held it’s four legs aloft as is it belittled and berated it’s opponent who righted itself before fleeing the battlefield down the hall. “Well then… thanks for all the help guys…”

“You looked like you had it under control.” smiled Bit, “Alright then so what no-”

The moment that no one had accounted for was upon them. Behind them, the tumblers in the door began to pop and click as someone on the other side was starting to open it. The party quickly turned to face the door, and before the door could crack open Bit changed with a flash and a pop to take the form of Rainbow Dash.

“Is everything alright in here?” came the voice of Celestia from the doorway as it opened.

“Certainly sister, I’ve just found Rainbow Dash and we ran into a spot of trouble with- another rat. We’ll certainly have to call for a ratter to visit the castle before too long, they’re making quite the comeback lately. Luna smiled and began making her way to the door, “I was just on my way back, come let us return to the table.”

“Did you manage to find Twilight and her friend Rainbow Dash?” this was the moment of truth, were Bit to mess up here the entire night would come crashing down on it’s head.

“I su-” Bit started to talk before rasping out her voice to fake as if she’s suddenly lost it, followed by a few mouth movements and curious expressions to further sell the lie.

“Are you okay Rainbow Dash?” Celestia cocked her head with curiosity. Bit merely shrugged and pointed to her throat while faking attempts to talk.

“Oh my, that was sudden. I hate it when that happens, happens to me a few times every decade or so, just comes outta nowhere. I’m sure you’ll be fine by tomorrow morning. But let’s get back to it then, I’m sure Twilight and her friend will turn up eventually.” Celestia smiled and left the doorway followed by Bit, skittering across the floor came Bug, who leapt up Bit’s leg and crawled up her neck to hide in her new rainbow mane. Luna wondered how she could stand the sensation without fidgeting, but as with many things in the changeling world, she shuddered to ask.

Before following her sister out the door, Luna turned to the guardsman.

“Go and find Twilight and her friend, a blue unicorn with a pale blue mane and an ego the size of this castle. Find them and get them back to the dinner as soon as possible.”

“Yes, your highness.” the guard sped off down the corridor and Luna gulped down the lump in her throat before heading back into the dining hall to join the other ponies. Bit managed to make it into the proper chair next to Fluttershy and had successfully rused the remaining ponies to believe that she had indeed lost her voice. Luna returned to her chair at her sister’s side and tried to tune in to the dialogue between Twilight’s friends to find a point where she might enter. Presently however, they were talking about the current political situation of Ponyville where Mayor Mare was once again running suspiciously unopposed, a topic that interested Luna about as much as tasting floor tiles.

“So, quite the interesting night eh?” Celestia nudged Luna to get her attention from the small morsels she’d been munching on for the last ten or so minutes.

“Indeed, who’d have thought that one little night of fun would have turned out like this?”

“I’m beginning to think there’s a reason for those intoxication depowerement laws we had to sign in last year. Perhaps we could stand to tone it down next time.”

“Bah, but where would be the fun in that?” Celestia smiled genuinely to Luna.

“I can’t imagine there being much.” Luna returned the gesture of warmth only to have her blood freeze a few seconds later.

A loud series of pops and clicks accompanied by a loud pained moan echoed across the dining hall as the door across the opened to reveal a dizzied Rainbow Dash clutching the back of her head with a hoof. The room fell silent for a moment as Rainbow looked up across the room and shambled toward the table in a haze. All guests at the table took their eyes off of the Rainbow Dash across the room to turn all at once, and lock their collective gaze onto the Rainbow Dash sitting at the table afore them.

Bit was frozen in place with her view locked straight ahead, past all of the ponies staring at her at the table and stuck in a thousand yard stare dead ahead of her. She didn’t so much as flinch when Celestia rose from her chair and levitated Bit from her’s. Floating her across the table she was stopped immediately in front of Celestia who looked her dead in the eyes.

“Shit…” the silence after Bit’s voicing of exasperation was immediately broken by the sudden appearance of a full sized changeling that popped out in front of her and landed on Celestia, breaking her concentration and dropping Bit to the floor.

“LEG IT!” shouted Bug as Bit also took her true form and jumped on and over the table to run frantically for the kitchen door. As soon as Celestia recovered she started off with fire in her eyes and a magic aura about her horn as she leapt over the table to give chase, followed immediately by Luna and all of Twilight’s friends who weren’t dazed.

Bit and Bug were in it now, this was the point of no return, it was what the hive had always called the “Hoof or Poof” situation. You either ran away fast enough to escape Celestia, or received a one way ticket to having you lungs equalized with the void on the moon. The pair clumsily slammed into the cabinets knocking over pots and pans to a cacophony of loud bangs and clangs, clotheslining a passing chef as they attempted to jump over him, no sooner did they reach the turn to make it into the hallway did a bright flash of yellow light blaze past them and slam into the wall, scorching the tiles.

Out in the Hallway they were faced with the choice of either right or left, they would never split up, as they’d been taught to stay together, “We’re born a swarm, we thrive a swarm. You go it alone, you end up bones.” the old adages and slogans from their brief training were coming back to them as they came to the fork.

“Just follow me, I’ll get us out of here!” shouted Bit as yet another beam of magical light whizzed past them and slammed into a vase on a table at the end of the hall, teleporting it to an unknown location they could only assume was the moon. Turning left at the junction they were faced with a patrol guards, who engaged on sight and fired a barrage of multicolored lights in their direction, scorching the tiles and singing the carpets and tapestries. “Remember, no fighting back, just flee!”

“I know, I know!” Bug shouted back as the pair pulled a 180 and went down the hall in the other direction. As they came to the junction Celestia appeared in front of them, and with eyes full of hate, she fired yet another beam at them. Jumping to either side the beam sailed passed them and hit a royal guardsman’s helmet, poofing it off of his head as the pair of changelings dodged around Celestia and made their way to stairs at the end of the hallway amidst a barrage of inaccurate magical beams that singed and scored and teleported everything they touched, except for their intended targets. As they made it to the stairs they took flight and sailed vertically as fast as they could, passing another cadre of guards on the way who also gave chase like those before.

The pair followed the stairs as high as they went, exiting them on the top floor where much to their dismay was a large group of pegasi guards, so at least they wouldn’t have to worry about magic.

“Behind me Bug, it’s about to get rough!” Bit shouted and held out a long and unsure battle cry as she charged the group of guards. Just before reaching them she lunged into the air and transformed into a large oxen. Using her new size she plowed through the guards, knocking them aside like bowling pins to clear a path for Bug and herself. Reaching the other size of the unexpected formation Bit reverted to her normal state with a loud cheer, “Bug, did you see that, I just plowed through those guys, that was awesome!”

“Yeah I did, but,” Bug sounded more worried than impressed, “I also saw her, she and the rest of her goon army have made it up behind us, we gotta get outta here!”

“I’m workin on it Bug, the windows are enchanted to be shatterproof, we gotta make it to the roof somehow or find an open one, keep an eye out… wait, the Princess’ room, they’ve got those open balconies, there’s one up here ahead if I remember right, c’mon.” The pair continued being chased by the hoard of royal guard and royalty, and the magic missile barrage had once again picked back up, the largest beam yet to be fired at them signaled the beginning of another salvo as it sailed ahead of them and blasted a table in half in a fiery explosion. Reaching the end off the hall the pair turned left to see a large, abnormally adorned door at the end of the hall.

“That’s it c’mon, here’s to hoping we can get in or we’re bollixed.” The pair, with objective in sight, gained new legs, and ran harder than before. Beneath a heavy blanket of inaccurate and otherwise ineffective fire the pair reached the door, they grabbed the handles with their magic and flung open the doors before running in and slamming them behind.

Luna was immediately behind Celestia, having had this entire time to attempt to figure out how to explain her involvement to save the two changelings to avoid another incident with the swarm. Having seen the two of them just fling open the doors of Celestia’s chamber, she could only assume that they were trying to make an escape via the balcony. Celestia, also having seen this, gained a sudden burst of speed and bolted forward covering the remaining distance in the blink of an eye as the doors flung wide open before her, and slammed shut behind her.

Celestia was sure that she had them now, surely they were trying to escape, but they would never make it, not with how much of her magic she’d just channeled into her burst of speed, there was no way in Tartarus they’d escape her. The doors flung wide in front of her and she entered her chambers and before she could even register that the changelings were gone she was frozen in place just behind the doors.

Luna watched at the guards attempting to open the doors in front of them fail miserably. The lead element of the royal horde manage to slam into the doors before they’d fully opened, slamming them shut in their faces. This did not, however, stop their momentum. As the guards crashed into the door like a wave they overwhelmed the doors hinges cracked and buckled beneath the sudden force of thirty guards slamming into the door at once. The doors fell into the room beneath a pile of guards and armor as Luna, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Fluttershy clambered over the pile of guards to take their place at Celestia’s side, only to be as horrified as she was when the room was bathed in the light of the hallway.

Upon Celestia’s enormous bed, lay Twilight on her back, clad in golden plates and gauntlets of Celestia’s standard garb, with Trixie, similarly clad in the silver blue plats and gauntlets of Luna’s attire, on all fours above her. And behind Trixie in rutting position, was the armorless royal guard that Luna had sent to look for the two of them not even fifteen minutes ago. The three of them stared on in horror, as did the crowd of ponies who’d been brought here by the chase. The two parties stared on in silence for a solid minute, completely unmoving. It was after that minute that a dazed and confuzed Rainbow Dash clambered to the top of the guard pile and viewed inside the room, to the same dismay of all others present in the room.

“Ugh…” Celestia sighed, using her magic on something not immediately apparent. After a moment a stick came floating across the room in front of Celestia who gave the three of them and frustrated glare. “Which one of you is getting The Knight first?”

Luna and Celestia stood on the castle steps as Twilight’s friends silently left the castle walking in a perfectly straight line. To see their faces one would think that they had gazed into the abyss, and that the abyss had returned the favor ten fold. It was only after all of them had left that Twilight and Trixie, both looking about ten times as red as normal stood side by side and paused at Celestia’s side.

“Nope…” Celestia said without even looking at then, she merely stood staring straight ahead, “You have nothing to say, I have nothing to say. You have no letter to write, I don’t want you to write a letter. There is no lesson about friendship, I don’t want to hear about whatever lesson you think you learned. We are done here for tonight, go home. One more thing.” Celestia hovered all of the pieces of golden and silver armor that Twilight and Trixie had been wearing, “Take these. No I do not want them back. Luna does not want hers back. You have tainted them, they are yours now.”

Twilight and Trixie turned around and followed their friends to what would be the most awkward train ride of their lives. Without looking to either side, the sisters stood beside the doorway looking straight ahead.

“Sister?”

“Yes, Luna?”

“Never… again…”