Chapters "...an' so we're having reunion early," Applebloom finished, "an' my sis is asking everypony to bring all their old family stuff, like letters and diaries and pictures an' all that."
"Writing a book's okay I guess," Scootaloo said, "and getting a royal grant is totally cool, but listening to old ponies talk about their lives for days sounds really boring."
"Yeah," Sweetie Belle said, "we need to get our cutie marks writing a book about something interesting. I never could keep all the dates straight in history anyway."
Applebloom sighed and looked at the clubhouse floorboards. "Sweetie," she said, "I don't think Princess Twilight's gonna give us a royal grant to write a romance novel."
Sweetie blushed and glared at her. "I know that! But can't we do something else?"
"Yeah," Scootaloo said, "something cooler . Ooh, what about a biography? We could write about Rainbow Dash! We could just ask her to tell us her life story, then write it down."
"Yeah," Sweetie said, "then you could ask her out on a date while you're at it."
"H-hey now, she's like my big sister," Scootaloo said, finding it her turn to blush. "Besides, I thought you wanted to write about something interesting? What's more interesting than the first pony to do a Sonic Rainboom on command, Element of Loyalty, hero of Equestria--"
"Dreamy dream mare," Sweetie cut her off, making a kissy face and descending into fake-smooching noises.
"How 'bout a new Princess?" Applebloom asked, causing Sweetie and Scootaloo to stop advancing menacingly on each other and turn to face her instead.
"Huh? You mean Twilight?" Sweetie asked.
"Course I do! It's harder to get her not to talk your ear off than to get her to tell you stuff, and nopony's done that kind of book yet. We could even talk to our sisters about it, Scoots, since it's their story too."
Sweetie and Scootaloo blinked at her for a moment, then broke out in cheers.
"Hey, yeah AB, that's an awesome idea!" Scootaloo said.
"Yeah," Sweetie agreed, "royalty's a classic book subject, everypony knows that."
Applebloom looked sidelong at her. "Have you ever read a book about royalty in your life?"
"Oh yeah," Scootaloo said confidently, "I've seen plenty on her shelves: Princess of Passion , The Courtship of Platinum , Long Nights in Luna's Court --" Sweetie headbutted her, cutting her off. "What? It's true. Besides, I was paying you back for the kissy face."
Both looked at Applebloom, who nodded. "Sustained. But come on girls, let's go talk to Twilight!"
"Oh, right," Sweetie nearly bounced like Pinkie with renewed enthusiasm.
"Cutie Mark Crusader Biographers, yay ," all three shouted in unison, then dashed off towards town, and the Castle of Friendship.
"Twilight? PRINCESS TWILIGHT ," Scootaloo's shout echoed through the cavernous entryway of the castle, which seemed to be devoid of all life.
"I thought she was supposed to have guards," Applebloom said, "where is everypony?"
"Maybe they're doing a training exercise or something," Sweetie said, "or escorting her somewhere."
"Horseapples," Scootaloo said, "what should we do? We need to get her story or we can't start writing and earn our cutie marks!"
"That isn't a ladylike word, Scootaloo," Sweetie sounded, momentarily, very much like Rarity.
"I'm not a ladylike pony."
"Tell me about it."
"We'll need some, what does Miss Cherilee call it, context," Applebloom displayed her practiced ability to ignore her friends' squabbles, "and this castle's going to be in the book anyway. Let's check it out while we wait for her. I've never seen the inside."
"Oh, good idea, I bet it's really pretty upstairs where the light comes in through the crystal," Sweetie said.
Starting at the top, the trio spent quite some time exploring the castle. It wasn't so much that it was bigger than it looked on the outside, as that its massive size compared to Ponyville's other buildings made it nearly impossible to get any sense of scale at all. Most of the upper rooms were completely unfurnished and empty, and they weren't sure anypony, Twilight included, had actually set hoof in them. Sweetie was right, though: the crystalline architecture did sparkle dazzlingly in the midday sunlight.
"Wow," Scootaloo said, "I bet everypony in town could fit in here if they needed to."
"I guess it is a castle," Applebloom said, "didn't Miss Cherilee say they were made so people could hide in them in sieges, back when we did Mareval history?"
"I dunno," Sweetie said, "I was too busy doodling. That'd be spooky though. It looks pretty now, but imagine all those ponies hiding in here, surrounded by changelings or something, out in the dark..." she shivered.
"That'll never happen," Scootaloo leaned against her, "we've got the six awesomest mares in all of Equestria here. Nothing's going to lay siege while they're around."
"Or while we are," Applebloom stomped her hooves. The other two looked a her dubiously, but she pretended not to notice.
"These rooms are boring anyway," Scootaloo said, pressing a little closer to Sweetie, who was still shivering a little. "Let's see what's downstairs, in the part she actually uses."
The next few floors down were more inhabited, but no more exciting. Like Twilight's previous home, they seemed to consist primarily of paper and parchment: not only did they house all the books she'd rescued from the library's untimely destruction, but far more on top of that, gifts from the other Princesses and other well-wishers hoping to help make up for her loss. Applebloom was pretty sure a lot of them were rare or otherwise interesting, but equally sure Scootaloo wouldn't tolerate any investigation, and she wanted to check the rest of the place out in any case.
Next, they came upon the council room. This, at least, they found suitably impressive. While it lay in at the top section of the "trunk" of the treelike castle, and so featured outer walls too thick to let in much light, the center of the table lay under a shaft that appeared to extend all the way to the top, for a single beautifully purple-tinted beam of sunlight illuminated it. The table itself was a great round crystal affair that looked to have grown from the floor, and was surrounded by twelve grand chairs.
"Oh wow," Sweetie said, "this is just perfect."
"I wonder why there are so many chairs," Applebloom said, approaching the table. Eight of the thrones bore symbols at the top: six the familiar cutie marks of Twilight and her companions, plus one bearing a six-sided die and one a reptilian claw. Somepony - almost certainly a pedantic purple princess - had helpfully placed fancy engraved nameplates in front of all the chairs, indicating that the two unknown symbols stood for Discord and Spike. The four blank thrones were equally unlabeled.
"Huh, I wonder who these are for," Scootaloo said.
"Maybe even magic castles play it safe, and they're in case she makes new friends," Sweetie said.
"I bet three of 'em are for us," Scootaloo grinned, "and they're blank since we don't have our cutie marks yet. When we get them they'll show up here and we'll get to go on awesome friendship adventures too."
Applebloom laughed. "Let's get our marks first, huh?"
The trio moved on, glancing into the kitchens and functional rooms that filled the top of the trunk, and then the guard quarters and lookout perches that filled the lower trunk. They couldn't tell the purpose of a few of the mid-level rooms until Scootaloo dredged up the one part of history she actually paid attention to: warfare.
"Oh yeah, I remember this," she said, moving to a strange narrow opening in the wall, "these are spell slits, they're made so a unicorn can see and aim her horn out here, and shoot at attackers. They're angled so you can see a lot out of them, but it's really hard for anypony outside to see in, come look."
The others looked out, surprised at the range of vision they could get from the cleverly designed opening.
Finally, they found themselves back at the entryway. Still there was no sign of Twilight or her guards.
"Well girls, looks like this one's a bust," Sweetie said, "maybe we should talk to our sisters first."
"Hold on," Scootaloo said, "we haven't seen the dungeon yet. Castles always have super cool dungeons, it's like, a rule. I bet there are some stairs down somewhere."
"I dunno," Sweetie said, "I don't think Twilight's the kind of pony to have a creepy dungeon."
"Come on," Scootaloo said, trotting around the perimeter of the entryway, "at least help me look!"
"Uh, Scoots, there's a door right on the other side of this staircase," Applebloom said, tossing her head in that direction. It looked exactly like all the other doors in the castle; there was nothing especially ominous or dungeon-like about it.
"Oh."
Applebloom opened the door and the three fillies trooped down the stairs, Sweetie hanging nervously behind. What they found was more a basement than a dungeon, completely devoid of instruments of torture or imprisonment of all kinds, though it did contain a fair number of arcane devices of unclear purpose.
"Oooh," Sweetie said, "I remember some of this stuff from my magic lessons back in the library."
"What in Equestria is this?" Scootaloo trotted over to a giant machine, covered with wires. Something was attached to it that looked like a hat and, of course, there was a large ream of paper involved as well.
"I've got no idea," Applebloom said absently, eyes running over a treasure trove of potion-making beakers and ingredients.
"Wow, this is pretty. What's Twilight doing with a necklace?" Applebloom looked over to see Sweetie Belle standing in font of a red, black, and silver pendant on a similarly colored torc. The pendant itself bore a unicorn head and pegasus wings surrounding a blood-red gem.
"Sweetie, get away from that," Applebloom yelled as she saw Swetie take it up in her magic, "don't you remember? That's that creepy amulet Trixie was wearing when she took over town!"
Sweetie let the field drop, and the necklace fell back to its display. "Oh yeah, that's right. I forgot, somehow, when I saw it. I just thought it looked pretty." She considered the amulet again. "I guess it must have been a trick of the light or something, it's pretty ugly now that I look at it."
"Why doe she even have that thing?" Scootaloo's voice sounded as confident as usual, but Applebloom saw her glance nervously around the basement. She admitted to herself that the place had suddenly started to creep her out, as well. Did it always have so many dark corners?
"I dunno," she said, "but I think we've checked this place out pretty well, right girls?"
"Yeah," Sweetie said. All three began trotting towards the stairs, faster than perhaps was necessary. Applebloom saw Sweetie glance over her shoulder, a slight frown on her face, but none of the fillies said anything until they were safely out again in the midday sun.
"So I guess we'll start with our sisters, then?" Sweetie opened. "We already know how they all met, but I'm sure there are all sorts of interesting things they never told us."
"Sure," Applebloom said, "I'm sure Applejack has some pre-reunion chores she'll want my help with. It'll put her in a good mood to talk."
"Yeah, and I can go ask Rainbow Dash," Scootaloo said, "she should be finishing up with practice."
Sweetie puckered her lips a little at this, but everypony could tell her heart wasn't quite in it, and three slightly subdued fillies trotted off home, away from the empty castle.
Celestia was already lowering the sun when Twilight and her guards finally returned from their trip to the Everfree forest. She was pleased with the results. The initial team-building and icebreaking exercises had left her knowing all six of her guardponies' names, and the subsequent hike through part of the nearby Everfree had given her many opportunities to acquaint them with the flora and fauna of the forest. They'd left Tower Shield at the hospital and Lance Charge at the spa. She felt that both had paid a small price for a valuable lesson about the importance of listening to her lectures and taking accurate notes - she'd already explained how to recognize both manticore lairs and poison joke at the times of the incidents, after all.
There was a growing part of her that didn't understand the point of the guards. She'd certainly kept them safe on the trip, rather than the other way around. She supposed, though, at the very least, she had to sleep sometimes, and couldn't be everywhere at once. That latter point especially stuck in her mind when, upon her return, she noticed the door to her castle ajar.
"Huh," she said to herself, "maybe I shouldn't have taken all the guards at once."
"I did suggest that, m'am," the captain, Last Standing, said from behind her.
She'd forgotten the guards were still there, and frowned. "Yes, well. Please help me check the castle, Captain. Have your guards secure the upper floors and I'll investigate the basement."
The captain nodded and set off upstairs with her guards, leaving Twilight to trot around the stairs towards the door to the basement. She wasn't afraid, what with all she'd seen in the last few years, but she'd kept it for herself because she knew that any serious intruder would likely have wanted the arcane items stored there, so she prepared a shield spell, just to be safe.
The basement appeared undisturbed, but Twilight couldn't shake an uneasy feeling. She kept looking over her shoulder, thinking she saw something moving, though neither her eyes nor her magical senses found anything. The shadows in the corners of the room seemed deeper, somehow, than she remembered them, despite the steady magical light of the castle, which she'd never known to vary. She picked up the notebook that she'd left next to the bottom of the stairs, containing a detailed inventory of the room, and started checking things off. She got into the routine of it as she went down the list, and soon she was barely thinking about it as she glanced at an item, checked it off, and went on to the next.
"Princess!" She jumped at the sound of Last Standing nearly yelling right next to her.
"Captain?"
"Are you alright, Princess? I've been trying to get your attention."
"Oh, I'm sorry, I must have been lost in my inventory," Twilight frowned and looked down at the checklist. Alicorn Amulet was the final item on the list; there were four tick marks in the box. She really had gotten lost in it! She supposed the trip to the Everfree must have tired her out more than she realized.
"I must be tired," she said, "sorry again. What do you need?"
"The upper floors are secure, m'am. One or more ponies seem to have poked around the empty rooms upstairs, the dust was disturbed. They may also have poked around elsewhere, of course, we can't really tell in the inhabited rooms, unless something seems to be missing. Right now it looks like they were just curious, or perhaps looking for you."
"Mmm, yes, I suppose I should have left a note or something...I'll have to think of a good system for that." Twilight couldn't quite keep the joy out of her voice at the idea, and the captain looked at her and shook her head. "Thank you, Captain, you and your ponies should turn in for the night, it's been a long day. I'll just be heading to my room and making sure nothing's missing, I think everything's fine down here."
"Yes m'am," Last Standing saluted sharply and marched up the stairs. Twilight followed, dropping off the inventory list and shaking her head. She supposed the shadows must just look dark due to fatigue, though she felt sharp enough. It wasn't yet near a late night for her. Still, she went up to her room and dutifully checked her inventory there as well, finding nothing missing. She pushed open the doors to her balcony and walked out. Luna's moon was in the sky now, low on the diamond-strewn horizon. It was looking to be a beautiful night.
The view of Ponyville from this height was nothing like what she was used to from the library. Her old home's balcony had been excellent for stargazing, but the tree wasn't notably taller than the surrounding houses, and was in any case in the middle of town, so she felt nestled among the buildings when she was there, clearly a part of the sleepy town. Here she was above it, unquestionably: the sheer scale of her new castle made her feel separate in a way she hadn't before. She shook her head at the thought, but her eyes were drawn to the empty, dark lot where the library used to stand. It would be a park, someday, the remains of the trunk integrated into a masterfully designed landscape made to both honor it and provide another public space for the residents to enjoy.
She was happy, she supposed, that this would be the old place's fate. Certainly Rarity's eyes had gone appropriately wide at the name of the Canterlot pony that was overseeing the design of the park, though Twilight herself hadn't recognized and couldn't recall it. Still, she wished somepony else could have taken it over. She'd always imagined Spike doing it, someday. In the main, though, she still wished nopony had needed to do it yet. She'd have liked another year before moving into quite so...princessly accommodations. Maybe a decade. Century. How long would she live, anyway?
She shook her head again, and forced her eyes off the park-to-be, hoping her mind would follow. They drifted over the cheerful lights of the town, most of them still lit in the early evening. Near Sweet Apple Acres, her eyes were drawn to an unexpected set of lights high in the air, and she recognized Rainbow Dash's cloud house hovering not far from the farm. For a moment she was puzzled, then remembered that Applejack had conscripted Dash to help her prepare for the impromptu reunion, and that she'd temporarily moved her house over, to help with storage. And, Twilight privately suspected, so she could reduce her commute.
Well, it was still early, after all, and if anypony would have noticed any unusual activity around the castle, Rainbow Dash was a good bet. Twilight nodded to herself and leapt off the balcony, relishing the feel of the cool night air on her wings and coat.
Rainbow Dash came quickly when she knocked, though her mane and tail were even more frazzled than usual.
"Huh? Twi? What's up?"
"Oh, I'm sorry Rainbow, did I wake you?"
"What? Oh," Rainbow looked back at her tail, "nah, I was just lying in bed reading. AJ's got me doing heavy work, you know? Nice to relax a little. But come on in, I've read this one a million times."
"Thanks," Twilight followed her in. "I had a question, though. I took my guard out to the Everfree for training today, but when I came back, we found out somepony'd been in the castle. I'm sure it was nothing, but did you see anything?"
"Oh," Rainbow said, "well, not really, but I know who it was anyway. The Crusaders heard about AJ's book and wanted to get their writing cutie marks. Somehow they decided it'd be cool to write about you and how you got to be a princess. So they went snooping around the castle. When they couldn't find you they came to talk to their sisters instead so Scoots and Applebloom found AJ and I at the farm and started grilling us."
"Oh," Twilight smiled, "well, that's a relief then. I don't think they broke anything. Thanks Rainbow!"
"No sweat ,Twi." Twilight turned to leave, but then Rainbow stepped forward and spoke again. "Uh, hey, it's been forever since we hung out. I'll be up for a while still. Want to stay and read with me a bit? Like old times?"
Twilight smiled. "Of course, Rainbow. Thank you." The two trotted back into the house.
Below the cloud house, the three Cutie Mark Crusaders were in their clubhouse, having a sleepover. This wasn't particularly rare, these days. With school out for the summer, the fillies spent most of their nights together in their hideout, to the point where they were dreading the return to school even more, since it would mostly keep them in their own rooms.
Tonight, though, something was wrong. Sweetie Belle had dutifully reported Rarity's story about Twilight's ascension, but Scootaloo could tell she was phoning it in. Not that this was difficult; Sweetie might have had some flaws, but lack of enthusiasm was rarely among them, so her subdued tale raised both her friends' eyebrows.
"What's wrong, Sweetie?" Scootaloo opened.
Sweetie sighed, and shook her head, but didn't protest. "I dunno," she said, "ever since we went to Twilight's I've felt off. Something about that necklace of Trixie's was just weird. Like when you have something at the back of your mind you just can't quite remember, you know?"
"Well o'course it's weird," Applebloom said, "it somehow made Trixie take over the whole town! Did it curse you somehow, Sweetie? Are you gonna like, steal it and become an evil overlord?"
"What? No! It's not like that, I promise. It's like...well, when Twilight was teaching me magic, she told me how when she hatched Spike, her horn felt like it was doing the spell on its own. And Rarity felt the same way when she followed hers to that rock full of gems. I dunno exactly what they felt but it feels kind of like that, I think. Like my horn wanted me to do something when I saw it, but I don't know what."
"Wait, but in those stories--" Scootaloo said, then was joined by Applebloom saying the same thing in unison, "--they all got their cutie marks !"
"Sweetie," Applebloom said, "why didn't you tell us? This could be our big break, or at least yours! What was your horn telling you? Where did it want you to go?"
"That's just it," Sweetie nearly wailed in frustration, "I couldn't tell! It was just this tingle! I got the feeling the thing was important, but I still have no idea how, and it's driving me crazy!"
"Well," Scootaloo said, "what are we waiting for? Let's go back and see it again! If you just pay attention longer, maybe you'll figure it out!"
"I dunno," Sweetie said, "it felt kind of creepy too, I don't like that amulet."
"Well, it's not too late," Applebloom said, "let's at least go see if Twilight's back. If she is, you can tell her about this and maybe she can help, she knows everything about magic. And if she isn't, maybe your horn was trying to warn you something's wrong, and we need to find her."
Sweetie thought for a moment, then slowly nodded. "Okay," she said, "but I hope she's there."
The three raced off through the night, heading towards the castle on the other side of town. Despite their excitement at the prospect of finally earning a cutie mark, all three were reluctant to break the quiet of the night, mostly out of long habit. While nopony would think twice about fillies their age out this late, they still well remembered their earlier crusading years when being out after dark was forbidden, and kept quiet.
Halfway through town, as they were passing the road to the nicer part of town, this policy bore unexpected fruit. The trio caught sight of two ponies roughly their own size standing in the road, and heard raised voices.
"Is that Silver Spoon?" Scootaloo whispered.
"I think so," Sweetie replied, equally quietly, "and it sounds like Diamond Tiara arguing with her."
"This I've gotta hear," Applebloom said, "stay quiet girls."
The three crept closer along the dark, lightly vegetated verge.
"You're doing this to me now ?" Diamond Tiara raised her voice, hitting a shrill high note. "After everything I've done for you?"
"Please," Silver Spoon was quieter, her voice cold, but they were close enough to hear now, "you never did any of that for me. It was always about you. It still is. Well I've had enough, and now I don't have to put up with it anymore."
"Please," Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle looked at each other, eyes gaping at Diamond Tiara's unexpected tone, "I just need someone now, Silver. I never--"
"Save it," Silver Spoon cut her off, "you're pathetic, and you still don't get it. I'd never have gone to you if I needed a friend, because I knew you'd just use it against me. I'm not going to do that to you, but I'm done pretending to like you."
"You, you," Diamond spluttered.
"What's the matter. Oh Celestia, are you really that sheltered, Diamond? You don't even know a word strong enough to cuss me out? That's just adorable. Well don't worry, I'm sure your daddy will teach you plenty now, after all it's all your--"
Before she could finish the sentence, Silver Spoon's voice cut off in a yelp as Diamond Tiara struck her across the muzzle. The pink pony pushed past her and galloped off. Silver Spoon shook her head and then slunk off in the same direction.
"Wow," Scootaloo whispered, "trouble in Tartarus."
"That sounded really serious," Applebloom said, "I've never seen 'em fight like that before."
"Good," Scootaloo hissed back, "maybe they'll make each other miserable next year, instead of us."
"I guess," Applebloom said.
"Whatever, let's go see Twilight," Sweetie said, "I was enjoying not thinking about those two all summer."
The other two nodded, and the fillies set off across town again.
The Rich mansion was deserted when Diamond Tiara returned, to her relief. It seemed both the servants and her father had gone to bed, so nopony gave her grief for her tear-stained face or dusty coat. She collapsed on her bed unbathed, darkening the white bedspread with dirt, and cried. Tears were not her most common weapon, but were an important tool in her arsenal, so she had experience with a wide variety of feigned or mostly false tears; even her display for Silver Spoon earlier in the evening hadn't been entirely genuine. But alone in her room, she finally gave in entirely to the genuine article. Her wracking sobs shook the bed, and she let her mind go for a while in her grief.
Then a voice broke her out of it, though she couldn't make out the words. She assumed her father or one of the servants was at the door, and spun to snap at the unfortunate intruder, only to find it still closed.
"Over here," she heard clearly, now that she was merely sniffling in confusion. It was a mare's voice that she didn't recognize, warm and kind. Her voice was strangely accented; it reminded Diamond of Rarity's Canterlot affectation, but wasn't precisely the same, and didn't seem forced at all. Confused, she glanced around her room, then froze as she caught sight of her full-length dressing mirror.
The silvered surface showed the reflection of a pony, though Diamond was clearly alone in the room. She wore a gorgeous, archaic outfit that reminded Diamond of the drawings she'd seen of old unicorn nobility: a tastefully cut black gown adorned with pearls, covered by a hooded purple traveling cloak, trimmed with white fur. The hood hid her face in impenetrable shadow, but Diamond could tell from how it fell that she was a unicorn. Most striking, though, was the royal-style tiara she wore over the hood: it exactly matched Diamond Tiara''s cutie mark.
"Hello, little filly," she said, and Diamond felt herself calming a little at her gentle voice, "would you like to talk about it?"
The moon was high, and Twilight was flying back from Rainbow Dash's house. She'd thoroughly enjoyed catching up with the pegasus, interspersed with dramatic readings of Daring Do, but she'd known to leave when Rainbow started fading. With more farm work on her friend's schedule in the morning, Twilight didn't want to keep her up too late, so she'd claimed royal duties and headed home.
She was halfway across town when she felt cold for a moment, and her horn tingled. Frowning, she hovered over the mostly dark, quiet houses, casting all the detection spells she knew. Nothing seemed amiss, and she flew on, but made a mental note to investigate further in the morning. Maybe there was a detection spell she didn't know? After all she'd seen, she wasn't prepared to entirely ignore the strange feelings she'd been having since her earlier trip to her basement.
Far below, the three Cutie Mark Crusaders trotted dejectedly home.
"Already gone to bed," Scootaloo grumbled, "I thought she was way cooler than that."
"I'm sure that guard just wanted us to go away," Sweetie Belle said, "she's probably up in her room reading. If only we could have gotten in..."
"No chance with those guards," Applebloom said, "we'll just have to come back tomorrow like they asked. You gonna be able to sleep okay, Sweetie?"
"I think so," Sweetie said, "my horns's felt a little less weird ever since we saw Diamond and Silver Spoon arguing. Or maybe I'm just getting used to it."
"Unicorns are so weird," Scootaloo said.
"Yeah," Sweetie just agreed, and the trio trotted back off towards their clubhouse.
In her curtained bedroom in her house, the very one Twilight had been flying over when she felt the chill, Diamond Tiara stayed awake until sunrise, talking to the mare in the mirror.
Author's Note
I didn't have a good way to work it into the chapter, but I figure here's a good place for a note on the ages of the CMC and their rivals. The show's of course pretty unclear about chronology, but I figure that a fair amount of time must have passed since Twilight's arrival in Ponyville, just due to all the stuff that's changed, so for the purposes of this story the CMC are now strongly in the "very unusually late bloomers" stage. I have no idea how quickly ponies grow up, of course, but envision them being in the early high school stage, about the developmental equivalent of a 15 or 16 year old human.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders awoke the next day ready to head again to Twilight's castle. Sweetie Belle was eager to ask her about the strange feeling in her horn, and none of them had yet lost interest in earning their cutie marks writing the newest princess's life story. Immediately upon exiting the clubhouse, though, Applejack hailed them.
"Why hey there girls! C'mon up and join us for breakfast, we could really use y'all's help today getting ready for the reunion!"
"Aww," Sweetie Belle drooped, "do we have to?"
"Well, I can't make you, sugarcube, but Applebloom does, and I bet Rainbow'd be real sad if Scoots didn't wanna back her up. The reunion's starting in five days and we could really use the help. 'Sides, there's pancakes in it for y'all, and Granny made way too much pie, so better'n good chances of some of that for lunch."
Sweetie pouted on general principle, but couldn't keep her mouth from watering just a little. Beside her, Scootaloo aborted her own sulk at the mention of Rainbow Dash. Applebloom just shrugged.
"It isn't like Twilight's going anywhere," she said, "we can catch up with her tomorrow."
The other two nodded, and they followed Applejack off towards the farmhouse. As they approached, the smell of pancakes and syrup wafted over the orchard.
"I wish we could get pancake eating cutie marks," Sweetie grumbled.
"If you could, you'd have been first in the class, Sweetie," Scootaloo said.
"You'd have gotten your 'drooling over Rainbow Dash' mark first," she shot back.
"Yeah I've heard that one before, get some new material."
"She's just jealous," Applebloom said.
"I am not! You stay out of this!"
Walking just behind, Applejack sighed and started trying to figure out which jobs the Crusaders could be safely left to do on their own.
Twilight similarly awoke fully prepared to research new magical scans, only to be similarly derailed: in her case, by a delivery from Celestia, via Spike.
"Oh, this is exciting," she told him, scanning the letter, "she's sent the agenda for the next few months! She'll be sending along the first few requests for our friendship services, until we can set up a system for dealing with them here, and we can expect those within a week. Also some additional staff and new jurisdictional laws. She thinks the top two floors could house a courtroom and other things so that we can run Ponyville and the area South ourselves and keep some of the load off Canterlot, that's a good idea. Oh! And here's a list of things from the old castle in the Everfree that might be useful! So much work to do!"
"Jeez, I've never heard anypony so excited about work. Not even Applejack!"
"Spike, these are exciting changes! And we get to be right at the middle of it! This is the kind of thing I was excited about doing when I first became a princess! Sure, it'll be a lot of work, but we'll have our friends to help, and Celestia says she'll be coming too, in a few weeks!"
"Well, you'll have your friends to help after this weekend."
"Oh right," Twilight frowned, "the reunion. Well, we have the guards until then. We can start with the castle, they can use more training dealing with the Everfree anyway. We'll leave today!"
"Ugh," Spike said, "that castle is so spooky."
"Why don't you stay here, then? I was planning to do some research into magical detection and analysis today. I obviously won't have time for a little while, but it'd be a huge help if you could pull the relevant books for me."
"I dunno. What if you need me out there?"
Twilight nuzzled him. "It feels like we've been to the castle almost as often as we've been to the market, and this time I'll have guards with me. We'll be fine, and it really would help if my number one research assistant could get that project ready for me."
Spike brightened and saluted. "Consider it done, your highness!"
Twilight glared at him, but couldn't help but giggle. Leaving him to it, she hurried off to find Last Standing and organize the trip.
Sweetie Belle had a completely successful start to her day. She'd stayed at her parents' house the previous night, both to appease their desire to occasionally see her, and to reduce the chances she'd be waylaid into more farm work before she could head to the castle. This plan succeeded admirably - she rose later than the Sweet Apple Acres' roosters for once, enjoyed breakfast with her family, and by late morning found herself trotting happily in the direction in the still strangely new crystal tower-cum-tree that loomed over the town.
She reached the castle only to find a guardpony standing rigidly outside the gate. With the way their uniform armor disguised their natural coloration and hid their cutie marks - Twilight's guard's coats were the same pristine white of Celestia's, but their armor was a lavender not unlike the Princess's coat - Sweetie couldn't tell if it was one of the same ones that they'd met on their ill-fated late night visit. She trotted up, hoping that the guard's presence meant Twilight had settled on a permanent guard rotation, rather than that she was unavailable.
"Hello sir," she said in her best harmless schoolfilly tone, "is the Princess in?"
She noticed the guard's rigid stance relaxing a little. Harmless schoolfilly worked every time.
"Sorry little lady," he said, "you just missed her."
"Rats, I really need her help on a project. Any idea when she'll be back?" She broke out the watery eyes for good measure.
"I'm afraid you're out of luck," it seemed for a moment like he'd stop there, but then he looked at the watery eyes again, and was lost. "She took most of the guards on a mission to the old castle in the Everfree. Something about retrieving research materials. She said they'd need all day to gather everything, and they don't want to be tromping through the forest at night, so I don't expect them back until tomorrow afternoon. You really did just miss them, I don't think they left more than half an hour ago."
"Awwww," Sweetie said, "thanks anyway, sir." She gave him a smile and saw him nod and smile a bit in return, then she trotted off back the way she'd come.
As soon as she turned the corner out of sight, though, she made a hard turn towards the edge of town and broke into a gallop. She figured if they'd only left half an hour ago, and were planning to go all day, she could probably catch up before they'd gone too far into the forest. Certainly not any further than she and her friends had gone before.
She felt like she'd probably made a personal best time to the edge of the forest, but still there was no sign of Twilight or her guards. She was getting winded, and had to slow her pace a little, but pressed on regardless. She briefly wondered if they'd somehow taken another route, but dismissed the thought - nopony would tromp off through the trackless parts of the Everfree compared to following the path. So she pressed on, her gait gradually slowing.
She lost sight of town distressingly quickly. Ponies used the path often enough, either to go to Zecora's hut or to visit the old castle, that it was well-worn and she was in no danger of getting lost, but she always forgot how dense the Everfree was. She barely felt she'd left Ponyville's outskirts before nothing of the town was visible through the tangled brush, vines, and branches, and the false-dusk of the dense canopy was complete. Enough daylight penetrated that she could follow the path without issue, even with unlit horn, but she could barely see more than two or three of her body lengths off the path through the gloom and vegetation.
As fatigue slowed her, her hoofbeats softened, and she began to be able to make out the softer sounds of the forest. Birdsong filled the air, though none of the birds were kinds she recognized from town, despite barely being out of sight of the forest's entrance. The chaotic trees and strange weather created errant breezes, which rustled branches and grasses and played across Sweetie's coat.
None of it was exactly threatening - in fact, in another context, it might have been pleasant - but it was all so different. Combined with the weird green-tinted half-light, Sweetie found herself glancing nervously around the forest. The hard-packed earth of the trail showed no hoofprints, and she wondered again if Twilight's group had taken a different route. She glanced behind her, and saw that the dry soil was tough enough that her own passage was leaving no trace she could see. Still, she wavered, gazing at the trail she'd tread, and strongly considered heading home.
Just as she was about to turn around, though, her ears pricked up at the sound of a branch snapping behind her and to the left, from the direction of the deepest parts of the forest. Not long after, it was followed by the heavy sound of a large creature moving through the undergrowth. Sweetie'd thought her heart was already pounding from running, but now it sounded nearly as loud in her ears as the snapping branch had. She found her wind again and, all thoughts of moving towards the sound gone, she began to gallop again, going flat-out down the trail deeper into the forest.
She kept her ears pricked as much as she could, straining to hear over the sound of her heart and hoofbeats. She thought she could hear the crunching sound coming steadily from behind, but couldn't be sure whether it was real or a phantasm brought on by her growing panic. She glanced behind, hoping to make something out, but whatever she'd heard (was hearing?) wasn't on the trail, and the dense undergrowth kept her from being able to make it out.
Then the trail hooked sharply to the left, and the undergrowth cleared over a large patch of poison joke - probably the same one that her sister and friends had stumbled over on their first trip to Zecora's. The bright blue plant reflected so much of the dim light it seemed to glow, and it's strange poison kept the patch free of the otherwise ubiquitous undergrowth, allowing her to see clearly if dimly clear across the large patch. At the far side she saw a form of the same size and shape as a pony, and stopped suddenly, fear replaced with confusion.
"Twilight?" she called, "Zecora? Who's there?"
No answer came, but the figure shuffled a little closer to her. Something about its movements looked strange or forced, though Sweetie couldn't tell quite what it was a this distance, through the gloom. She felt an unseasonable chill at the sight, and took a few steps back. The figure turned to look at her, and its eyes glowed with dim blue light. From the darkness of the undergrowth behind it, three more pairs of glowing blue eyes appeared, and the creature began shuffling towards her.
Sweetie had seen enough. She screamed and took off again full-tilt, rushing down the path as quickly as her aching hooves and protesting legs would take her. Before long she heard other hoofbeats echoing through the woods in time with her own, and looked back to see the glowing blue eyes disturbingly close behind her.
"Twilight! Twilight! " she yelled, though more out of desperation than any hope that anypony could hear her at any distance. Then she was panting too hard to speak at all. She kept her eyes locked on the trail in front of her, too frightened of what she might see behind her, though she couldn't stop herself imagining how close the creepy pony-like creatures might be. Her flanks and legs ached, and she could hear almost nothing over the pounding of her heart. Her eyes watered, and she felt like she could barely go on.
The trail turned left again, heading deeper into the forest towards the castle. Sweetie rounded the bend and saw another group of ponies ahead of her. She flagged for a moment, almost collapsing in despair, but her momentum carried her forward close enough to make out the wings on the lead pony's back, and the purple-tinted armor on the others.
"Twilight," she gasped out again, and saw the princess turn to face her, wearing a confused frown, "Twilight, help..."
She stumbled as she approached, her vision swimming. The guards turned too, falling into a combat stance, and Twilight's horn lit up. Sweetie felt herself floating in a magical field, but then her vision faded, and she passed out.
Author's Note
I considered having Sweetie pass out before she realized it was Twilight's group for maximum cliffhanger value, but even though I have the next few days off and should have the next chapter up soon, it seemed like a bit of a jerk move.
Thanks for reading.
Sweetie awoke to a multicolored light seeping through her eyelids, and the smell of dust. At first she remembered nothing of recent events, and groggily wondered why she didn't seem to be in her bedroom. Then she remembered her frantic flight through the woods and started, opening her eyes.
"Hello, Sweetie," Twilight's voice calmed her, and she finished her sit more calmly than it began. She looked around. She was in a room she didn't recognize, though appropriately to Twilight, the walls were covered in dusty tomes, their smell permeating the room. The strange light she'd first noticed was caused by the sun entering through two stained glass windows, one midnight blue the other a warm yellow-orange. If Sweetie hadn't explored Twilight's new castle a few days ago, she'd have thought this must be it. She looked over in the direction of Twilight's voice and saw the Princess lying on a pillow in the corner, book open in front of her.
"Is this the castle in the Everfree?"
"That's right," Twilight smiled at her, "well done, Sweetie. It's proper name is the Castle of the Two Sisters, though it's seen better days. This is one of the few intact rooms left above ground. Thankfully, Luna and Celestia had their priorities right even back then, and made sure the library was nearly indestructible."
"Why'd you bring me here? And did you have to fight those weird ponies?"
"Well," Twilight frowned, "that's just the thing, we couldn't find anything chasing you at all, when we went to look."
"But, they were there, I promise! A bunch of ponies with creepy blue eyes, and they didn't move right."
The frown deepened. "I believe you, Sweetie, and I want to hear all about it in a bit, but let me answer your question first. The Everfree's full of strange things, and we didn't know what had spooked you so much. I was worried you might have some magical malady that wouldn't be obvious right off. Like the poison joke, which takes a little while for symptoms to show. I was on a pretty tight timetable to get these books, so we brought you along. Don't worry, I sent word back to your sister and parents that you're okay and with me."
Sweetie imagined herself back in Ponyville, seeing blue-eyed specters around every corner, jumping at shadows...only for Twilight to come back and tell her it was all in her head, the result of some forest spell. She twitched a little.
"Don't worry," Twilight said, "you seem fine to me. I used a minor sleep spell to make sure you got a good rest, and checked you over for hostile magic while you did. Nothing's out of the ordinary. Whatever you saw was certainly real," she sighed. "Of course, that just raises other questions. I've never heard of a creature like that before. There are a lot of things living in the Everfree, so I'm not too worried, but it's always a bit concerning when something looks like a pony. I'll add it to my research list, maybe there's something about it in all this stuff!"
"Err...thanks?" Sweetie wasn't sure whether to be reassured or not, but at least she was safe.
"What were you doing in the forest, anyway?"
"Oh, right! I was looking for you! We've all been looking for you for a few days now." Twilight tilted her head, and Sweetie pressed on. "We all want to write a book about you and how you became a Princess! But I have a question for you about unicorn magic and cutie marks, too."
"Oh, well, I'm flattered you girls want to write my biography," Twilight smiled, "but that's a big job, we'll probably have to set aside a time when I can talk to all of you for at least a few hours, and when you're ready to take notes. But I can talk to you about magic now, if you like."
"Yeah," Sweetie blushed, "I mostly wanted to talk about that. I mean, I do want to write it with them, but I knew we'd need all of us for that. There's something with my magic that's been bothering me for days, though." Quickly Sweetie told Twilight about the Crusaders' visit to the castle, her experience with the Alicorn Amulet, and the nagging feeling she'd had there was something she was supposed to do.
"Well," Twilight seemed to be trying to keep her face neutral, but her eyes twinkled a little at the opportunity to lecture, "cutie marks are one of the great remaining mysteries of magic. The spell that eventually transformed me into an alicorn, Starswirl's last spell, related to them somehow, and when it went wrong it scrambled up everypony's cutie marks, you might remember. Other than that, I've never heard of anypony being able to change or work with them, and that spell messed everything up when it did. When I first became Celestia's personal student, my mark was on my mind, since I'd just gotten it, so I asked her about it, and even she doesn't really know anything. She has one herself, after all, and got it just like the rest of us, when she first realized she could control the sun alone. It's different for everypony, and every type of pony too. She made it my first research project to interview some ponies about getting their marks, and most of the unicorns described something like Rarity or I had, where they felt a lack of control, or a kind of possession by magic. At the time, my theory was that because unicorns tend to be...a bit particular, the first contact with our life passion brought us out of ourselves in a way that was really memorable. Now I'm not so sure. I think talking mostly to my fellow students selected for a really organized nature. Now I've met unicorns who are less so, like you or Lyra, and Lyra certainly felt something similar when she got her mark, and it sounds like you've been having a similar feeling lately. So maybe there's something else to it, like our more direct control over magic gives us a closer connection to the purposes that control cutie marks, and so we can feel something more of them than pegasi or earth ponies."
Sweetie blinked twice. She thought she'd gotten some of that, but about two-thirds of the way through she'd drifted off and started thinking about Celestia learning to control the sun, and by the time she'd gotten over her vision of herself as a dashing young Princess, all dressed in gleaming armor, learning she could do what had previously taken a whole council of the most powerful unicorns, Twilight was looking at her expectantly.
"Uh, that's neat Twilight, but what should I do? You just cast a spell out of nowhere and got your mark, Rarity knew just what she had to do to follow her magic. I just had this weird feeling that something was up, and this creepy feeling like something's not quite right. It's not fair!"
Twilight got to her hooves and walked over to lean against Sweetie.
"I know, you're right," she wrapped a wing around her, "it isn't. I wish I knew what to tell you. But putting on the Alicorn Amulet isn't safe, and it seems like that's not what you want to do anyway." Twilight paused for a bit, then sighed. "To be honest, I felt something a bit strange myself when I went down to check it out later that day. I couldn't put my finger on what it was, so part of what I wanted to do here was research it. If you felt something strange too, it might be related to your mark, but it might also just mean you have stronger magic than we thought, or that it's focused in a way that's useful here, like detection, or divination, or something involved in making the amulet."
"Oh," Sweetie drooped, then perked up, "but if I did have magic that's really focused, it might be related to my special talent and my cutie mark, right?"
Twilight laughed. "Yes, it very well might. Certainly my guard unicorns haven't mentioned anything unusual about the basement or the Amulet, and I only felt it slightly, it sounds like no stronger than you did and maybe even weaker. Since alicorns are so much more magically sensitive and powerful, that says a lot." She grinned wider at Sweetie's eager look. "How about you help me look into this? I'm not really comfortable sending you home through the forest alone," Sweetie nodded at this, eyes wide, "and it'll take the guards at least a day to gather all this stuff up and pack it. We might not get back much before Applejack's reunion. What if you helped me do some research while you're here?"
"Wow," Sweetie said, "like your own personal student?"
"Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves," Twilight laughed, "I don't even have a school, and I have no idea yet if my duties will let me take on a long-term student. But I was already teaching you magic, and if you do have special skills, I can't think of anypony else in Ponyville who could do it. I wouldn't be much of a Princess of Friendship if I made you choose between learning to use your talents and staying with your friends, would I?"
Sweetie shook her head enthusiastically. "Not much of one at all ."
Twilight smiled at her, removed her wing, and started towards the bookshelves. "Well, we wouldn't want that. Let's get started."
Sweetie'd always secretly had a bit more of an attention span than her friends. While she wasn't always the fastest of them on the uptake, she found that study suited her - she took a while to get going, but once she got enough information to start forming a picture of the thing as a whole, she could reach a complicated understanding. Cherilee alternately praised and lamented this talent, depending on how much she'd let her friends disrupt it over the course of any particular assignment.
Sweetie of course loved them dearly, and was confident they made her a better pony, but just for now, her friends' absence was a blessing. Free of their impulsive influence, she barely noticed the hours fly by as she sat next to Twilight, painstakingly cross-referencing in the old tomes, trying to link the passages her tutor showed her. As the light through both of the stained glass windows tinted red, she finally felt like she was starting to get it.
"Oh! It's kind of like, this part goes here, and this one goes here," she muttered, not really directed at Twilight. She barely noticed her horn beginning to glow as she lined up a section of runes from one of her note cards with a similar section from another. A section six characters long was indeed the same, and the page was briefly bathed in green light as her eyes and horn flashed. She blinked, and when she opened her eyes, the whole room was overlaid with motes of light, multicolored, looking like nothing so much as festive dust motes dancing in an unseen sunbeam.
"Wow," she said, "Twilight, what's this?"
"That," Twilight beamed at her, "is First Law's Illuminator. First Law was one of the first unicorns to write down and codify spells, using those runes you've been working with all afternoon. I've never seen such a complete set of his writings before! That spell shows the flow of magic in your line of sight. In this room, right now, we're not doing anything very powerful, certainly not compared to the leftover magic from the construction and enchanting of the castle itself, so you just see the background magic drifting around like that. That's one of the first spells advanced magic students learn, and it's very useful when you're studying non-unicorn magic, where there isn't a telltale sign like the glowing horn to let you know what's going on. First Law used it to prove earth ponies and pegasus ponies had magic as powerful, if different, than unicorn magic, though sadly it took a long time before it was widely accepted among unicorn academics, and some are still ignorantly dismissive of non-unicorn magic even today."
"Aww," Sweetie said, "I thought you said we were learning new stuff! All that work and I just learned Baby's First Divination?"
Twilight snorted. "I said it was one of the first spells advanced students learn, I didn't learn it until my second year under Celestia and it took me a few days, you did a great job. Besides, that's just the first step in what we're doing, and I hadn't made it yet either. Nopony learns that spell like that anymore, we all learn it on our own, by example or in modern Equestrian. These books we've been looking at form First Law's Unified Theory of Magic. I've only ever heard of it in history books before, and I didn't know there was any of it left! Of course, we can't tell if this set is complete yet, but if it is, I'm hoping it will reveal links between different kinds of magic that we've forgotten about, and so ways to detect kinds of magic we can't see so easily by looking at their effects on what we can."
"Oh." Sweetie wasn't sure she'd gotten quite all of that, but blushed a little when she realized she'd learned something in day that had taken Twilight longer.
"Where did the runes tell you to hum like that, though?"
"What?"
"That tune you were humming when you cast the spell. I've never heard it before, I thought you must have gotten it from the runes."
"Uh...I don't think so. I didn't even notice I was humming."
Twilight frowned. "Strange. Let me see," she quickly scanned the runes looking at how Sweetie had lined them up. Her own eyes and horn briefly glowed, but she remained silent.
"Fascinating, that is a totally different way to form that spell than the one I learned," she muttered, then turned to Sweetie, "did I hum something and not notice?"
"Nope."
Twilight frowned briefly, then grinned. "Oh, this is a mystery, Sweetie Belle, and I do love a mystery! It's almost dark. We should relieve the guards and get them fed, and go to bed. I don't want to burn the magic to be up all night studying here, and honestly this library can get a bit creepy in the dark. But let's look into this more tomorrow. I'm hoping you can learn at least one more spell from these runes, and I'm really interested to see if you hum when you cast it. I've never heard of anything like that before, but it must mean something!"
Sweetie looked around nervously. Unlike Twilight, who was by this point supremely confident (not without reason) that nothing in this old castle could really threaten her, Sweetie found the mystery creepy. Her spine and coat tingled with discomfort at the idea that she'd been humming a melody she couldn't even recall as part of casting an old spell. She moved a little closer to Twilight, and breathed out in relief as she felt the Princess's wing around her.
"Oh, Sweetie, I'm sorry," Twilight said, "it's been too long since I was young and new to magic. You have to remember a unicorn's horn is...it's like at tiller for magic. You control it, you can use it to shape and move the flow of magic, but it works with something that isn't part of you, and runs deep and swift. When you're first learning real power, not the easy stuff like light telekinesis, it's a little bit scary because you don't feel like you're really in control. But I promise I won't let anything hurt you. Everypony manipulates magic in their own way. I'm interested in yours because it's unusual, but that doesn't mean it's weird or creepy. It might be the reason you seem to have so much more talent for some things that others. It's the good kind of mystery, I promise, and when we figure it out, it ,might reveal a lot about your special talent."
Sweetie's ears pricked up at that, and she managed a weak smile. "Okay Twilight, I believe you." Her stomach rumbled, and she suddenly realized she hadn't eaten since before her flight through the forest. "And I think I'm hungry now."
Twilight smiled, and the two walked off to the great hall to meet the guards.
After a satisfying meal, Sweetie found her fatigue catching up to her again. The guards built a large fire in the middle of the broken hall, open to the clear sky, and they clustered around it. The shadows among the old stones scared Sweetie for a little while, but Twilight lay down next to her with, of course, a book, and wrapped a wing around her again, and she felt safe, and drifted off into a deep sleep.
She slept soundly, and awoke refreshed, but she dreamed, or at least, she thought it was a dream, that the old stones of the castle were singing to her, in a language she didn't know, but could almost understand.
Despite Twilight's early start the next day, Sweetie's day passed quickly, engrossed as she was in First Law's ancient work. They still weren't sure if the runic manuscript was complete, but by the time Last Standing reported that the guards expected to be ready to leave around noon the next day, Sweetie had already worked out how one more line of runes lined up with the two she'd sorted out earlier. Not long after, she'd managed to work out what they meant. By late afternoon, the motes of light drifting around the room drew lazy, spiraling trails, each fading into obscurity after a few hooflengths.
"Great job, Sweetie! That's the second magic sensing spell most ponies learn. Those trails you're seeing are showing you where those little bits of magic came from. As you can see, they don't last too long, not much more than a week even if undisturbed, but it can be useful anyway. At the very least, you can see if anyone has recently used magic in the area, and once you learn more, the colors can tell you what kind of power they used, though nothing like the exact spell. I'm really impressed, I never expected you to understand this so quickly, after your problems with telekinesis. "
"Well, I have been working on it all day. And I heard myself humming that time! It's weird though, I don't think I know the tune."
Twilight frowned. "I've never heard of anypony doing that, even one like Lyra who has music as her talent. Maybe she did when she was learning? Let's ask her when we get back."
"Did it sound like I was humming the same thing as yesterday?"
Twilight shook her head. "If you'd ever seen me dance, you'd know I don't really have a head for music. It sounded similar, I guess? But I don't recognize the tune either, so I'm not sure."
"Oh, ok," Sweetie went back to the notes, then gathered her courage and spoke up again. "Hey, Twilight? Thanks for letting me help you out. I've never felt like I'm good at magic before, but this is really making me feel like I might get it."
"Of course, Sweetie! But you don't need to thank me, I think you've really discovered a talent for this stuff! At this rate I might have to bring you on as my student after all."
Sweetie blushed and smiled, and returned to the pages of runes. She felt like there must be something she was missing. She was beginning to understand how the runes indicated tiny movements of the horn or adjustments of the magical field, and she even more was figuring out how she had to think to channel the energy as they indicated. But something about the way they lined up was nagging at the edge of her mind. It felt, much like the feeling she'd had in Twilight's basement, like there was something she almost remembered about it.
She didn't figure it out before dinner, though, nor bed, nor even before noon on the next day, and soon they were again setting out into the Everfree. Sweetie hadn't slept well the night before, despite Twilight's comforting presence, because she'd been worried about returning to the forest, but as it turned out, it wasn't so bad. The midday sun illuminated the forest trail more brightly than she remembered, and she felt safe surrounded by Twilight and the guards. She'd still been some distance from the castle when she'd caught up, so the first few hours of their trip were through terrain she didn't recognize. They started in the rocky lands around the castle, which she'd seen out the castle windows, but spent what felt like forever trudging through the deep woods, which she'd never seen before. The parts of the forest near town mostly looked like the Whitetail Woods but wilder and more overgrown, the trees all oaks and maples and other kinds found near town. Here the trees were different, stunted and twisted, mostly evergreens and some vicious-looking thorny trees, both of kinds she'd never seen around town and couldn't identify. The ground was dry and rocky, and a sickly-looking grey. She realized in a back corner of her mind that if she weren't surrounded by the burly guards (and an actual Princess, to boot) she'd have been terrified. Instead she looked around with interest. Idly, she hummed out the increasingly familiar tune and watched the motes of magic and their swirling trails pop into view. Twilight looked back at her with a little smile and nod.
The magic looked very different from the castle. There the motes were like everything else in the castle: ancient and mostly undisturbed. Many of the motes along the walls and windows there had no trails at all, no magical creatures having disturbed them for centuries. Here, though, the magic was clearly constantly in motion. The air in front of her was crisscrossed with ghostly trails in greens, purples, and reds, and the whole sky swirled with motes of blue, grey, yellow, and white, moving so quickly that she could barely separate the trails left by her sensing spell from the blurs of motion. She wondered where all that magic had come from, and if it was responsible for the Everfree's infamous weather.
"Wow," she said softly.
"Yeah," Twilight said, "when I first moved to town and had time to look into this place, after the whole Nightmare Moon thing, I spent a good week just looking at all the magic swirling around here, seeing if I could figure out where it came from. I still haven't, it seems like something about the forest calls it up somehow. A lot of the trees and plants here are magical, and my current theory is that somehow together they influence the weather here to help them grow, but it'd be on such a large scale I don't know how I'd test the theory."
Sweetie looked over at some of the trees. They did indeed seem to be manipulating the magic somehow - the purple and red trails swerved around the hunched evergreens, but the green ones turned towards the needles, where they clung to them, illuminating them like Hearth Warming lights. The thorn trees, though, looked different - trails of all colors swerved towards them, but only strange deep purplish motes clung to their sharp thorns and small leaves. They weren't exactly black, but if light could be dark, it seemed like they were what it would have to look like.
"What's with the thorny trees?"
"Those strange looking motes are dark magic. It isn't exactly evil, but it's certainly dangerous, and because of what it does, it's often regarded as unwholesome. Remember that inspiration manifestation spell Spike gave your sister?"
Sweetie nodded. "Yeah, that was bad news."
"Dark magic deals specifically with selfish desires, especially those that disregard the feelings of others. That makes it suited to controlling magics, like that inspiration spell, or to those dealing with causing harm, or even death. Because it's so self-centered, it also reacts poorly to other magics trying to control it - that's why it took so much effort to clean up the mess. That also makes it hard to study those trees, so I don't entirely understand them myself. There seems to be a whole genus of them living in various parts of the forest, some of which are very dangerous. These aren't so bad, or I'd have trimmed them back from the path, but you still want to stay away. They use the dark magic to drive off predators. If they stick you with their thorns, you get a pretty nasty dose of it. It won't kill anything as large and magical as a pony, even a young one like you, but it hurts a lot, and if you get too much of it, it can shut off your magic for a few hours or even days until it clears out of your system. And I mean all your magic, not just your horn, so it makes you feel weak and slow and sad, like when Tirek got to everypony."
Sweetie shuddered, and looked elsewhere. They passed the next few hours in idle chatter, Sweetie mostly distracted by the different ways the magical motes swirled and eddied throughout the forest, which Twilight was more than happy to lecture her about. Eventually she mostly tuned it out, but the calming sound of the Princess's voice distracted her so much she didn't notice they were nearing the spot where she was pursued until they rounded the bend and were confronted with a mass of the dark magic motes, trailing long trails in the direction of her pursuit. They were interspersed with crimson motes of a type Sweetie had never seen before.
"Whoa," Twilight muttered, and Sweetie stopped in her tracks.
"I told you something came after me," she said, though she couldn't manage the joking tone she'd intended.
"I believed you," Twilight said, "but if I hadn't, I would now. I wish I'd thought to use this spell when we were here first, but I was too worried about you."
"Thanks," Sweeite said. "What are these weird bright red ones? I've never seen those before."
Twilight swallowed, eyes wide. "Neither have I."
Sweetie shivered. The woods didn't seem so bright anymore, nor the guards so safe.
"Can we go home?" She said.
"Yes," Twilight answered, slowly, "let's do that."
The discovery of magic strange even for the Everfree had shaken Twilight, Sweetie Belle, and the guards. By the time they emerged from the darkness under the Everfree's canopy, the bright Ponyville sun revealed their dusty coats and downcast eyes. Sweetie's magical sight spell was long gone, so only her normal senses registered the beautiful rural day. Nonetheless, every time she turned her head, she thought she saw motes of crimson, and shivered in the warm sun. Beside her, Twilight scowled, an open copy of Autumn Bonny's Magic Identification Guide levitating in front of her. The guards were similarly terse. They'd been hauling heavy carts of books and artifacts for several hours, and their tired legs and sweaty coats only added to their discomfort at their Princesses' nervous confusion.
So Sweetie kept her nervousness to herself, and soon found it fading in the sun. The familiarity of the outskirts of Ponyville calmed her, and before long they could hear the sounds of town as well. Her heart slowed, her vision cleared. They passed over the creek near Fluttershy's cabin, and she discovered a little smile on her face. Then they crested the rise and saw the town below them, streets bustling, carts backed up along Apple Lane towards the Acres. Even this far out, the road was busier than usual, and several ponies passed them on the road.
"D'ya think this is all for the reunion?" Sweetie asked Twilight.
"Sure is," a passing stallion said before she could answer, "I hear it's the biggest they've ever had. And everypony brought stuff too, photo albums and antiques and stuff. Seems like all the Apples want to be in this book."
"Wow," Sweetie said, "I bet Apple Bloom's doing all sorts of exciting stuff! Maybe she even got her cutie mark already for, like, scrapbooking or something! Twilight, I gotta go see her, can I?"
"Of course," Twilight laughed. Sweetie thought her face had lightened, too. "Tell Applejack I'll be over soon if you see her, I just need to get this stuff back to the castle. I'm sure she's frantic, so don't pester her." Sweetie nodded. "Oh, and have fun."
Sweetie caught sight of Twilight lifting the book to her muzzle again, then she was off. She knew the clogged Apple Lane would take forever, but no founding Cutie Mark Crusader cared about following the beaten path. Sweetie weaved between buildings and through alleys, and anypony trying to follow her would have become lost barely after getting out of sight of Twilight. She left town and wriggled under hedges picked through bramble patches, following trails the Crusaders had known for years. Through field and park and thicket, over a creek on a fallen log, and finally along the overgrown outskirts of the orchard, she came finally to the Crusader clubhouse.
Sweetie could hear the noise and commotion at the farm even from here, and so she didn't really expect to find her friends present. To her surprise, though, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo sat on the deck of the clubhouse, gazing dejectedly off at the ground.
"Hey girls," Sweetie called, "what's wrong?" Both looked over at her. Scootaloo jumped to her hooves, flaring her wings, and Apple Bloom's muzzle lifted in a small smile.
"Aw, it's no big deal," Scootaloo said, "Applejack said we were causing trouble when we tried to help out."
"Yeah," Apple Bloom said, "she's just stressed what with all these folks at the farm. We've never had a reunion this big, and they all brought stuff to show her! But who cares, now you're back!"
"You've gotta tell us all about your adventures in the Everfree with Twilight," Scootaloo added. "I bet you did some real serious hero stuff!"
"Well," Sweetie said, flattening her ears, "kinda...but hero stuff is pretty scary."
"Ooh," Apple Bloom said, "you'd better tell us inside, we have a bottle of cider, and some cookies!"
Sweetie smiled and trotted up the ramp. "You girls sure know how to make it easy to tell a scary story."
Above the clubhouse, Twilight flew towards Sweet Apple Acres proper. Though the student in her begged to catalog and investigate her new acquisitions, the Princess of Friendship knew they’d still be there after the reunion.
Even from this far out and up, the unprecedented size of the gathering was clear. The whole of the south field, fallow this season, was covered in wagons, carts, and carriages. Those vehicles in turn were linked into a tented mass by tablecloths, tarps, blankets, quilts, curtains, and any other piece of cloth larger than a pony that seemed to be at hand. Or, indeed, available at all. It seemed the whole town must have come together to help supply materials. Twilight recognized a dozen or more cutie marks, plus half the items seemed to have Rarity’s unmistakable, jewel-encrusted style. She even caught sight of Rainbow Dash’s unmistakable mane, moving rain-laden clouds into what looked to be a shower and privy area.
Outside the farmhouse itself, she caught sight of Applejack talking to two aged family members Twilight didn’t recognize. Her farmer friend looked harried, but not exhausted, and Twilight felt relieved she’d come in time. She landed next to them and folded her wings. The two older Apples began to bend their aging knees towards her, but she quickly shook her head.
“No need to bow, please,” she said, “I’m not here as a Princess, I’m here as a friend. How’re you holding up, Applejack?”
“We’re makin’ do, Twi’,” Applejack replied, “though it’s a mite bigger’n last time. Everypony pitched in to help give ‘em a place to stay, and the weather’s clear ‘till the end.”
“Sorry I was gone,” Twilight frowned, “I didn’t realize they’d start arriving so soon.”
“Neither did I. Seems like everypony wants to get their story in for the book.”
“Well,” Twilight said, and giggled, “I’ve cleared my schedule for the next three days. Your research assistant is at your disposal, Professor Applejack.” She saluted with a wing, and the one of the older ponies had to put her hoof to her gaping mouth to stop her false teeth from falling out.
Applejack laughed back, and some of the lines lifted from her face. “None of that, Twi’, the family don’t know you as well as I do, they’ll think I’m puttin’ on airs. But it’s mighty nice to hear, I was a bit worried. It’ll be a big help to have somepony that’s done this before helping out.”
“I’m excited,” Twilight said, “I haven’t done a real research project like this since I was Celestia’s student. It should be fun!”
“If you say so,” Applejack said. “But for now, I could really use some help haulin’ water and servin’ food. If that ain’t too simple work for a research assistant.”
“Not at all,” Twilight’s smile didn’t fade, and she followed Applejack into the farmhouse.
The next three days passed in a blur. Even for Twilight, the amount of information was massive. It seemed like every Apple family member Applejack had been able to contact had decided to attend, or at least send their mementos with a relative who was. Even Pinkie Pie, still high on her potential connection, had convinced Maud to attend and bring all the rock farm’s records from the days of their potential common ancestor. Written records were the easiest for Twilight to compile, what with her countless notetaking spells, but the rock farm records were so extensive that they took nearly an hour to copy even at the thousands of characters per minute the spell could handle. The primary written sources went on and on - diaries, family trees, town records, business records, old letters of love and hate and business. If they’d had to copy them all, three days wouldn’t have been enough, but fortunately for all but the still-in-use business records, the owners were glad to part with them, and so they finished taking the account of them quite quickly.
More interesting, but also more difficult, were the hundreds of scrapbooks, antiques, artifacts, and other physical pieces of evidence. Here again, the owners were mostly happy to place them on loan for the duration of the project. Many seemed happy to part with them for even longer, and Twilight made a note to raise the possibility of a museum with Applejack later. Still, a surprising number of even the very old items were still in regular use and important to the families. For these there was nothing for it but to take extensive notes on their use and history, and then take a photograph.
Everything else, though, paled in comparison to gathering the anecdotal data. Like Ponyville’s own Granny Smith, all of the older generation of Apples had endless stores of anecdotes about the family, and even longer lists of ancient wisdom about whatever part of Equestria they’d settled in. Often the two were inextricably linked together, like Granny Smith’s Zap Apple Jam techniques, combining the technique with a story about the pony that discovered it. These Twilight found the most fascinating, for it seemed to her like each of them was their own Starswirl the Bearded, making discoveries that, for all they were not as flashy, saw far more daily use on their farms and in their towns than his admittedly obscure magical threory.
For all they were fascinating, though, the anecdotes seemed endless, and Twilight and Applejack insisted on doing each one together. Twilight held that Applejack, as the author, needed to hear how the pony told the story, as much as just the words, and Applejack agreed. Meanwhile, the farmpony’s hoofwriting, while precise, was nowhere near as swift as Twilight’s magical transcription, and couldn’t keep up with a natural rate of speech. So both of them sat with an endless progression of Apples of all ages, listening intently to tales of farms and ranches from Las Pegasus to Baltimare, Galloping Gorge to the Macintosh Hills, and everywhere in between, then asking questions. They talked and listened throughout the days and late into the night, breakfasting with one relative and sharing cider around the evening fire with another. Technically they slept, but for such a short time each night that by the end, Twilight felt as if she’d pulled two consecutive all-nighters studying.
At that end, though, they’d heard them all, and within the three days they’d scheduled for the reunion. Through a desperate determination to be done with it, the adrenaline that comes from the end being in sight, and a liberal use of alicorn magic, they managed to clear up the remains of the encampment in record time, and sort out the loaned textiles by owner. Several barns were full of their assorted research materials, but they were organized enough that even Twilight was willing to leave the precise cataloging for another day.
“Whew,” Applejack said, voice dry with overuse, “I feel like I just had another Iron Pony competition with Dash.”
“Yeah,” Twilight said, horn aching, “I haven’t worked that hard since my second dissertation.”
Applejack laughed. “I guess it’s just the beginning, huh?”
“Mmm,” Twilight nodded, “but the rest won’t be as frantic, and I suspect just from hearing the stories you’ll have a good idea of the big picture. Everything else is the details. There’s still a lot of work to be done, and we’ll have to make sure nothing contradicts any of the personal stories you heard. Still, I’m really impressed, AJ. This is going to be a great book, I can tell already.”
“Thanks, Twi’. It means a lot, coming from somepony that’d know. Still, I think that’ll have to wait. I’m beat.”
Twilight yawned, and leaned against Applejack affectionately. “Me too. I know it’s early, but I could use a nap. Or maybe I’ll sleep right through to morning. I must be getting old, I’m not sure I can fly straight.”
“The guest bed’s still made up, if you’d rather not. I couldn’t figure out which relative to let use it.”
Twilight nearly declined out of habit, but a yawn cut her off and gave her a bit of time to think.
“Actually,” she said, “that sounds great.” She followed Applejack into the farmhouse.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders, more out of pique than any fear of punishment, had indeed spent the reunion out from under Applejack’s hooves. Sweetie was still high on the possibility of being Twilight’s student, and reluctant to bother her. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were just as happy to oblige, after hearing the story of her adventure.
Cookies and cider did their job, and at first the other Crusaders wanted to go out in search of the mysterious pony-like creatures. Sweetie remembered the strange motes, the glow in their eyes, and shuddered, and soon her friends wrapped her in a tight embrace, and reconsidered. Instead, they asked her to show off her new spells.
“I guess I could,” Sweetie replied, “but I don’t think there’ll be much for you to see. They let me see magic trails, but I don’t know if I can use them on anypony else. If I can, I don’t know how yet.”
“Ooh, can you see our magic? Like, the magic inside us? Maybe it’d show you why I can’t fly yet,” Scootaloo said.
“Sorry Scoots,” Sweetie said, remembering Twilight’s explaination back in the castle, “all ponies lots of complicated magic in them, so the spell doesn’t show anything about them or other animals. It just shows magic that’s in the air, or on plants or things.”
“What a rip,” Scootaloo said.
“Oh, but you can track magic, right? I wonder if any unicorns have been snooping around out near our clubhouse,” Applebloom said. “You could track ‘em if they were, right?”
“Probably,” Sweetie said. “If it was recent, and nopony else used magic and confused the trail. We could take a look, anyway.”
So they went outside, and Sweetie hummed her little tune and lit her horn as she worked the spell. She noted Scootaloo and Apple Bloom humming along.
“You know that song too? Twilight was wondering what it was,” she said. “Where’d we hear it?” Slowly the spell took effect, and the motes of magic popped into view all around her.
Instead of answering, her fellow Crusaders just gaped.
“Sweetie,” Apple Bloom said, “does magic look like...a bunch of glowing dots?”
“Uh, yeah,” Sweetie said, “why?”
“Are there a bunch of green ones right in front of me, on the edge of this railing?” Scootaloo asked slowly.
“Yeah, how’d...wait, you can see them too?”
“I can too,” Apple Bloom said.
Sweetie stared at them for a moment, then grinned.
“I guess we weren’t lying when we promised the Crusaders’d share everything!”
“But, you said you didn’t know how to do this, or even if you could,” Apple Bloom said.
“Well, I guess we know I can. Come on AB, this is great, now I don’t have to tell you what I see, we can all check it out together!”
“Yeah,” Scootaloo said, slowly smiling, “think about all the new ways we can try to find our special talents! Sure, we tried being Cutie Mark Crusader Detectives, but not Magic Detectives! They’re totally different things!”
“I dunno, girls,” Apple Bloom said, “this seems kind of weird. Are you sure it’s safe, Sweetie?”
“Twilight would’ve warned me if it wasn’t,” she said, “besides, it’s just another way to see things. What could be dangerous about that?”
“I guess you’re right,” Apple Bloom said. “So what do they all mean?”
“I don’t really know,” Sweetie admitted. “I think the green’s for plant magic. That’s where you always lean, Apple Bloom, so maybe some of your earth pony magic’s rubbed off on the railing.”
“Neat,” Apple Bloom said, “you think it’ll sprout or something next spring?”
“Huh, I dunno, that’d be cool.”
“Yeah, sure, whatever,” Scootaloo said, “what’s that purple trail leading off into the woods? That totally looks like it could be a snooping unicorn!”
“Hey, you’re right,” Sweetie said, following the line of her hoof. “C’mon girls, let’s follow it!” Without another word, the three fillies dashed off into the woods.
They didn’t find a snooping unicorn, but trail did lead to a small nest of tanuki, magical racoon-like creatures that dwelled in burrows and were supposed to bring good luck. They left the benign creatures alone, but caught sight of a trail of indigo sparks leading off towards the park, which eventually led them to a mundane raccoon that had somehow absconded with one of Rarity’s magical hatpins. On their way to Carousel Boutique to return it, they encountered a half-dozen other interesting trails, leading to everything from Lyra playing her lyre in the park to a spilled potion sizzling on the road. It was nearly dark by the time they reached the Boutique, so they stayed the night there. The next morning they were off again, and so it went for the next two days, the Crusaders supplementing their extensive knowledge of Ponyville’s mundane secrets with an understanding of its magical ones.
Finally, their explorations took them to Fluttershy’s cabin, where they discovered Manny Roar was raising cubs safe from the hostile inhabitants of the forest. They were subsequently Pinkie-sworn to secrecy by the pegasus.
“Wow,” Scootaloo said as they walked back towards town proper, “who knew all that stuff was going on and we had no idea?”
“Yeah,” Apple Bloom said, “it was creepy at first, but I’m glad you can share the spell with us, Sweetie.”
“Me too,” Sweetie said, “but it still seems weird that I can. I’ll have to ask Twilight about it next time I see her.”
“Get her to teach you some more, too,” Scootaloo said, “maybe you can share those, too! Like, I dunno, one to see through walls or something.”
“I’m not going to use my magic to help you spy on Rainbow Dash in the shower, Scoots.”
“H-hey, who said anything about that?”
“Why else would you want to see through walls?”
“Girls,” Apple Bloom’s flat, unamused voice cut off Scootaloo’s reply. “Look.” She pointed with her hoof.
The underside of Fluttershy’s bridge was mostly hidden from town, and even from this side, you had to be approaching from a certain angle, or be the height of a foal, to see the water under the low bridge for any length of time. Being foals, though, and being under the influence of a magical sight spell, the Crusaders were just the right height to see the dark surface of the water beneath it.
And to see the unnerving crimson motes, of a kind Sweetie had seen only once before, clinging to the bottom of the bridge.
Author's Note
Whew, sorry this one took so long, folks. I'm ending up having to re-write much more of this story than expected. It's for the best, and it'll be stronger for it, but it does take some time to plan out how to integrate it with things I already have written.
Thanks for your patience, and thanks for reading!
Twilight was halfway through a hearty Sweet Apple Acres lunch when the Crusaders burst in, thereby showcasing both the best and worst things about spending time on the farm.
"Twilight, Twilight," Sweetie Belle gave her no time to get a word in, "we just saw that weird magic over under Fluttershy's bridge!"
Twilight finished her bite. Years of friendship with Pinkie Pie could give any pony a strong resistance to spit-takes.
"Okay," she said, taking a sip of water, "first, you all saw it? Second, what did you actually see?"
"Yeah," Apple Bloom said as Sweetie panted, "she shared the spell. And we saw a dozen or so, on the water under the bridge."
Twilight smiled. "She shared the spell? You mean she cast it on each of you? Sweetie, that's amazing progress!"
"Nah," Scootaloo said, "she just cast it once, it worked on all of us."
Twilight's smiled faded. "That's an incredibly advanced technique. Sweetie, I'm glad you got it right, but you need to be careful with advanced magic! How did you even learn that one? It wasn't in anything I showed you."
"I didn't do anything," Sweetie said, pouting. "I just cast it like I always do. Not my fault they got it too. Aren't you worried about that creepy magic?"
"Didn't you girls learn anything from the first time we met Zecora? Just because something's unusual doesn't make it evil. I'm more interested in how you managed to share a spell without knowing it."
"But," Sweetie said, "those ponies that chased me were really creepy, and that's the only other place we saw it!"
"I admit that is a bit worrying," Twilight said, "and we should look into it. But if you're using magic that advanced unintentionally, you might do something dangerous without even realizing it. Especially since you still don't have your cutie mark."
"Way to rub it in," Scootaloo muttered.
Twilight rolled her eyes. "Of course that's not it. It's just, most of the time if a pony does something way beyond her normal skill, it reveals her cutie mark. Since Sweetie didn't get hers, it makes me more worried she's doing something dangerous. Still, you're right about that strange magic, so let's do two things at once. Why don't I go with you girls to Fluttershy's, and have you show me where and how you saw it? I can look at your spell and we can also check out the area." She turned to Applejack. "Sorry, AJ. I was hoping to help you organize those notes, but the girls are right we should know what kind of magic's being done in town. And I want to make sure they stick to risking their lives in mundane antics. Rain check?"
"O' course, Twi," Applejack smiled at her, "I've been doing the books here for years, I can organize some notes and pictures and things. 'Sides, I reckon it'd take you near as long to explain how you organized 'em as it'll take me to do it myself. Get along, I'll show y'all the draft in a few weeks."
Twilight stared at her. "Given your sources, I think a few weeks is ambitious. But sounds good. Come on, girls."
"Hey Twilight," Apple Bloom said as they left, "we still want to interview you sometime. For our own book."
Twilight laughed. "Let's figure this out first, but I'm sure we can find time someday."
"Okay Sweetie," Twilight said, "show me what you did."
"I just cast it normally, like I said," Sweetie pouted, but obligingly lit her horn and hummed while her friends eagerly looked on. "There, see? Just like usual."
"You already cast it? I can't see anything different," Apple Bloom said.
"I can't either," agreed Scootaloo.
Sweetie groaned. "Really? What gives? That's what we've been doing all week!"
"Yeah," Scootaloo said, "I didn't see anything different."
"We weren't paying real close attention like that before," Apple Bloom said, "maybe that's the difference?"
"Maybe, though it shouldn't have anything to do with what you did," Twilight frowned. "Sweetie cast the spell, after all. Want to try again, or go look at that magic?"
"Let's try again," Sweetie said, "these two'll be bored if they can't see what we're talking about."
Scootaloo found herself getting bored regardless. After the third failure, she found her attention wandering. She glanced around, eyes finally settling on a flock of birds darting around Fluttershy's cottage. Despite being flightless herself, she was long since over pangs of jealousy when watching the birds, and loved watching how easily they darted among the branches and leaves. She followed several, smiling slightly. She caught sight of a bluebird skirmishing with a crow over the feeder and watched them dart in and out, each grabbing a bit of seed before being driven off, squawking. The crow dove, and a faint trail of blue energy lingered in the wake of its wings. Scootaloo twisted her head to look at Sweetie and Twilight and saw both surrounded by coronas of light.
"Hey, it worked that time!" All three ponies looked over at her.
"But Sweetie didn't do anything different," Twilight said.
"I told you," Sweetie grumbled.
"Scoots did," Apple Bloom said. "She hummed along."
"She did?" Twilight said.
"I did?" Scootaloo said.
"I knew the humming meant something," Twilight said, "but I haven't heard of this. This is fascinating! These last few days, so much to research, so little time! Sweetie, can you handle casting it one more time?"
"Sure."
"Okay Apple Bloom, this time you hum along too."
Before long, all three fillies could again see the glowing motes drifting around them, and the now slightly more faded crimson traces beneath the bridge. All four ponies moved over to take a look.
"Interesting," Twilight said, "how did this trail get only on the underside of the bridge?" She paused. "Celestia would have made me answer that. Girls, any ideas?"
The three fillies stared at the bridge. Sweetie Belle trotted across it several times, looking at all four of the exposed sides of the banks. Apple Bloom waded into the stream, which soaked her to the withers, and started rooting around among the rocks. Scootaloo glanced at the surrounding trees, hoping to see more of the motes on branches or caught on leaves. Seeing nothing, she looked back around again and caught a little smile on Apple Bloom's face as she splashed around.
"Hey," Scootaloo said, "that water's deep enough to swim in, if you're our size. Would the water wash the magic away?"
"Good idea," Twilight beamed. "The magic traces aren't like physical things, so it wouldn't wash away, but if the source of the magic didn't touch the rocks, there wouldn't be anything to stick to. And of course the water itself is long gone."
"Okay," Sweetie said, "but there's a good bit of magic on this bridge. She'd be leaving a trail, right? It's not far to the rapids either way, right girls?"
"Yeah," Apple Bloom said, "I remember when we explored it. Not far out of sight either way."
"Well what are we waiting for then? I'll go downstream, you go up, let's see if we can see where she left the water."
The fillies dashed off, and Scootaloo followed Sweetie while Twilight followed Apple Bloom. Not long later, though, both pairs met up again downcast.
"Okay, so no trail anywhere else," Sweetie grumbled. "Scoots, do you think she could have flown?"
"Maybe if she wasn't a pony," Scootaloo said. "A pegasus couldn't, though. I mean, she could have flown in. But we can't fly with wings half in the water. She'd have had to stand up and touch the rocks to leave."
"So she wasn't a pony, or she teleported," Apple Bloom said. "Either way how are we gonna track her?"
"I don't think we can," Twilight agreed. "We'll have to try to figure out what kind of magic this is, instead, which means research. And we can look into this spell sharing at the same time. Back to the castle, girls!"
"Uh, I think I need to help out around the farm," Apple Bloom said. "My sister needs more help so she has time to write."
"Yeah, uh, I think Rainbow Dash wanted someone to watch her tricks," Scootaloo said.
Twilight rolled her eyes. "Sweetie, do you want to help out?"
"Sure," she said, "that other stuff sounds boring. Besides, maybe I'll still get my cutie mark for magic!"
An hour later, Sweetie Belle had cause to reconsider her position. As soon as they'd arrived at the castle, Spike had intercepted Twilight with a hefty package from Canterlot. She'd assigned Sweetie some hefty tomes and then spread the contents of the package out over half of the library's large table. She'd been pouring over it and muttering ever since, leaving Sweetie to try to navigate the tomes herself.
Now she had Travels in Prance With Notes on the Native Magic open in front of her. She ran her hoof along the table of contents for the fifth time. The book was clearly a travel narrative first, and organized as such. She had no idea if the author, one Full Sail, was more likely to have encountered the crimson motes in, say, Maresneigh or Coltais. She thought back to Miss Cherilee's lesson about Prance. She could see the country's rough shape in her mind, but it was all flat blue. She'd seen most of them in the Everfree. Maybe it was a forest thing? She thought she remembered a big forest in Prance. Ardam, maybe? The half-recalled blue map wasn't narrowing the location down, and nothing looked like it in the table of contents.
She thought about just opening it to the first page, but instead she looked over at Twilight. The Princess was giggling and muttering to herself as she read over one of the papers. Sweetie thought she heard Pinkie Pie's name. Then Twilight looked up at her and her grin faded.
"Oh, Sweetie, is something wrong?"
"Not really. It's just...I'm not good at research like you. This is a book about some mare travelling in Prance. I was just trying to...to narrow it down."
"Oh." Twilight moved over and sat next to her. "Well, I have some bad news for you, Sweetie. Research is certainly a skill, and sometimes you can solve the puzzle. But sometimes it's just a lot of hard, frustrating work. You just find a book that looks possible and start at the beginning. You can learn to read faster, or skim better, but at the end of the day? There's only so much you can do."
"Oh," Sweetie said. "I guess I could do that. You don't think it'd make sense to start with forests? I remember Cherilee talked about one, the Ardam?"
Twilight laughed. "Well, it's as good an idea as any, I suppose." She glanced down at the table of contents. "Full Sail organized the chapters by the city she visited. The closest city to the Ardam is Cavalville. No reason not to start with that chapter." She looked over at the pile of papers again, then met Sweetie's eyes. "It might take a while. I understand if you want to go see your friends, I can look into it myself later."
"It's okay. Cherilee's research papers weren't bad, for homework. Besides, I want to be a good student."
Twilight's cheeks colored and her eyes sparkled. "Okay. I have to finish up with this stuff. It's the first batch of friendship problems Celestia wants us to look into! I've already picked out some good ones, I just need to go ask the girls if they're willing to go take a look. Applejack and I will be staying here, though. I need to hold my first few court sessions, and she's busy with her book. Besides, if this strange magic does turn out to be a real threat, I don't want all of us to be away. I'll be back in an hour or two to help you out. Deal?"
"Deal!"
Sweetie's high hopes for the Ardam Forest did not pan out. Full Sail had indeed visited it during her time in the nearby city, but it sounded nothing like the Everfree. It turned out it lay on Prance's border with the Neigherlands and was crisscrossed with roads and full of logging camps, cottages, and hamlets. Full Sail had found magic there, but nothing untamed or mysterious. Twilight returned as she was finishing the chapter.
"No luck?" Sweetie shook her head. "Well," Twilight continued, "the good news is, if we do figure it out, it might be a major breakthrough. Since we've already checked all the common sources, this is probably something really obscure. It might be part of the magical spectrum that nopony knew was usable!"
"But if nopony knows anything," Sweetie said, "aren't we wasting our time trying to look it up?"
"Maybe. But there's not much else we can do. Magical trails like that are notoriously difficult to study. The thaumic echo is about all you can get from it unless you know enough about the original spell to set up some kind of resonance. We could just start casting spells at it until something happened, I suppose, but that's even more of a long shot than hoping to find it in an exotic spellbook." Sweetie pouted. "Chin up! The girls were fine with heading off to handle those friendship problems. Other than court I've got at least a week without much else on my agenda. I'll figure this out, and you can help as much as you like. Even if you don't find anything useful for it, you'll learn a lot about magic. And maybe about Prance, too."
Sweetie managed a smile. "Okay. Rarity loves Prance, anyway. Maybe she'll take me someday and I can show off how much I know about it!"
"There you go! That's the great thing about books. If you don't learn what you were hoping to, you learn something surprising instead!"
Sweetie couldn't help but giggle at the Princess's eager tone, but she went back to hear reading.
Several days dragged by. She did learn a lot about Prance. Their royal magic was apparently a deep navy blue, with the countryside's traditional hedge magic registering mostly in greens and blues.
Then she read about the unicorn soothsayers of ancient Roam, an empire that fell far before the wendigos, so old and shrouded in mystery that nopony knew where its ruins lay, or even if it had been real at all. Their practices were reportedly barbaric. She nearly vomited at the graphic accounts of their pulling out the entrails of murdered birds and beasts with their charged horns, running magic through the still-warm viscera, trying to read the past and future. Their spells had drawn powerful energy, and they'd seen many things, but never the fall of their Empire, and nopony knew their spells, or if they told any futures at all, or just the whispers of ghosts. Despite the morbid methods, all the sources agreed their magical signatures were a rich Imperial purple.
Then she read about the priest-queens of Baybaylon, precursors to the Saddle Arabians. Though they weren't unicorns, indeed like the Saddle Arabians weren't even the same kind of ponies as Equestrians, they could use their magic to bring forth water and vegetation in the deserts. Whole cities rose around the bloodline of a single mare, then vanished into the dust with the end of her line. Sweetie imagined herself dressed in silks, sitting at the top of a tiered palace covered in gardens, at the center of a great city. She imagined water bursting from the top and running through fountains and in aqueducts all throughout the city, and knowing that her magic brought it forth and made the desert bloom. She knew, though, that this magic glittered silver or gold, like sunlight or moonlight sparkling on the water, and was not the answer to her search.
And then, a week had passed. The shadows were growing long with evening, a little earlier than before. The air was no longer quite so heavy with summer, either. A heavy slam drew her to look at Twilight, who had similarly just finished her own book.
"Right then," she let out a long sigh, "I think it's time to give up on the books. The underside of that bridge is pretty sheltered from the elements, but if we wait much longer, the residue might start to wear off anyway. Let's go collect some and take it to the basement for testing. Just throwing spells at it is a long shot, but I think we're out of other good options. Besides, I want to see if you can pick up other spells as easily as you got that detection one. That should help us narrow down your special talent."
Sweetie grinned. "I like that idea. Some of those books were really interesting, but I'm tired of sitting around."
Twilight collected what looked to Sweetie like a fancy sponge on the end of a pole, and they trotted over to Fluttershy's bridge. They turned on their detection magic. It let Sweetie see the slightly faded residue, and see that, much like a mop, Twilight was able to absorb it with the spongy end of the stick to bring back to the basement.
"Okay," she said as they descended the stairs to the basement, "it might take a lot of spells before we find anything that reacts. Don't get discouraged. It'll be good for you just to learn--"
She cut off as soon as she reached the bottom of the stairs. The whole sponge-head of the collector was glowing with intense crimson light.
"It's reacting already? We haven't even cast a spell! It must have a resonance with one of the items I have stored down here..."
Sweetie's heart felt heavy. She swallowed, trying to clear the sudden lump in her throat. She hoped her guess was wrong, but didn't think it would be. "The amulet."
Twilight tilted her head, then nodded slowly. She slid the distant drawer open with her magic, revealing the Alicorn Amulet. As soon as she did so, the crimson light leapt from the sponge-head through the air in a torrent. It washed over the amulet, then swirled into the large centerpiece gem before being consumed. No trace of it remained visible to their magic sight, only a few dark motes swirling around the amulet. Both ponies stared at it in silence.
"I think," Twilight said, "it's time to write a letter to Celestia."
"I can't believe I never went to Las Pegasus before!" Pinkie sounded even closer to giggling than usual, and Rainbow Dash herself had barely stopped smiling over the last week. Even her unfamiliar seat at the castle's council chamber couldn't ruin her mood, even if she still couldn't figure out quite how to sit comfortably in it.
"Yeah, I'm still not sure I do believe it," she said, "it really is your kind of place."
"Well, when I came to Ponyville I was just a teenie-weenie Pinkie-winkie and Las Pegasus doesn't throw those kinds of parties." Rainbow nodded. "And then I just loved Sugarcube Corner and everypony here so much, why would I leave?" She paused. "I still don't wanna leave -leave, of course, Ponyville is still the bestest place, but it sure was nice to visit, wasn't it Dashie?"
"I'll say," Dash grinned. "I hope we have more friendship problems like that. 'Our beach hoofball league referees got sick, now we need ponies to settle rules disputes'? More like sit around and watch ponies in great uniforms and even better shape prance on the beach. That's a real tough one, huh Pinks?"
"Well," Pinkie scrunched up her face in thought, "Twilight sure picked the right mares for the job. D'ya think she picked easy ones to start with, just to ease us in?"
"It certainly felt like it," Rarity settled in next to Dash. She noted with mild irritation that Rarity seemed to flow as easily into the strange stone seat as she did into the Boutique's couches. Fluttershy followed, and even seemed to know what to do with her wings
"She sent us to Veroniegh," Rarity continued, "and we barely had to do anything at all. Their poor colt and filly were obviously smitten with each other. We just had to get them to sit down for five minutes without coming to blows, and the next generation took care of it themselves. We spent an hour being the Equestrian Delegation to force the reception, then got to play tourist for the rest of the trip. It did feel...easy."
"But the baths were very nice," Fluttershy smiled, and Rarity nodded. She was about to speak when the sound of rapid hoofbeats on crystal heralded the arrival of Twilight and Applejack.
"Oh girls, thank Celestia you're all back," Twilight said, her face not quite hitting a smile.
"Oh Twilight," Pinkie said, "you've got to hear all about it, it was the best-" she cut off as Dash pressed a hoof over her muzzle.
"Not now, Pinkie," she whispered.
Twilight slid (gracefully, Dash noted to her increasing disgust) into her own chair, and continued without acknowledging Pinkie's failed sentence.
"We have a big problem here in Ponyville. Or at least I think we do..."
Over the next half hour, Twilight filled them in on the strange magic they'd discovered under the bridge, and its reaction with the Alicorn Amulet.
"So I wrote to Celestia. She wrote me back yesterday, telling me to get as many of you as I could and take the evening train to Dodge Junction. She's been touring our forts bordering the Badlands and plans to meet us there. We're also supposed to take the Amulet, and not tell anypony."
"Well, that's rather sudden," Rarity said.
Twilight nodded. Now that she was closer and in the light, Rainbow could see her mane was slightly out of order and her eyelid had a familiar slight twitch.
"When did you get this letter, darling?" Rarity asked.
"Last night. Or I suppose technically this morning," Applejack said, sighing. "She came right to find me at the farm."
"Sorry about that," Twilight looked down at the translucent table.
"I didn't mean it that way, sugar, I know you're worried."
"She's never seemed so...urgent ," Twilight scowled, "I mean, she knew Nightmare Moon was coming back and she never even showed it, just told me to go make friends!"
"Maybe she's just more open now that you're a princess too," Rarity said. "She was quite open with you about Tirek, after all."
Twilight sighed. "You're right, I'm probably overreacting. I'm glad you're all back. Can you get away again so soon? I understand if any of you can't come."
"You know I'm coming," Applejack said, "I cleared most of my time for this darn book."
"I'm sure we'll all be fine," Rarity said, and everypony nodded. "This isn't the first time we've had to drop everything for Equestria, after all. I'd be surprised if we weren't over ten by now."
"Thanks girls," Twilight grinned. "We have five hours and thirty-seven minutes. Is that long enough for you all to get ready?"
"No problem," Dash said, "I'm still mostly packed from the last trip."
"Yeah, I'll see you at the station!" Pinkie bounced out. The rest agreed and left, until only Dash and Applejack remained.
"Need any help with anything, Twi? Like I said, I'm pretty much ready," Dash said.
"All the help she needs," Applejack said, "is for you to come here an hour before the train and wake her up. I know for a fact she's packed, seeing as I helped her, and I know she hasn't slept a wink, seeing as how I've been with her since hours before dawn. Reckon you can do that, Rainbow?"
"Obviously."
"One condition," Twilight yawned. "Go by Sweet Apple Acres and get AJ first. Like she said, I've kept her up since before dawn."
"That I can definitely handle," Rainbow said, "I was going to go sleep in her tree anyway."
Despite her nap, Twilight was still yawning and blinking as the train pulled on to the platform. Evening was well underway, with only a little light remaining on the horizon to the east, and the bright lights of the train revealed that her friends were in little better shape. As soon as they made their way to their compartment, the others collapsed onto the sleeping couches. Though Dodge Junction was close to Ponyville as the pegasus might fly, the whole Everfree lay between them, as well as a stretch of arid land south of the forest, and the tracks ran a wide arc to bypass them, so the train wasn't scheduled to arrive until nearly noon. Remembering the Amulet, and Celestia's concern about anypony knowing they'd brought it, she locked the compartment door, then joined her friends, and fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.
At first, she couldn't tell what woke her up. The train was still moving, so they weren't there yet, and she hardly felt fully refreshed, though after her marathon day that seemed unlikely no matter how long she'd slept. The sun crept in around the drawn shade, making her guess they were still a few hours out, but it didn't seem bright enough to wake her. Confused, she glanced around. Her friends still slept soundly, leaning against each other. Honestly, it was adorable.
She closed her eyes again, smiling at the thought, but then, just on the edge of sleep, she heard a rattle from the door. Her eyes snapped open and her wings snapped out in surprise, waking Applejack and Pinkie Pie, who were lying on either side of her.
"Mzuh," Pinkie muttered, smacking her lips. Applejack shook herself to her hooves and looked questioningly at Twilight. Before she could answer, the rattle came again, accompanied by the slight movement of the locked lever on the door.
"Who's there?" Applejack called. No answer came, but the others jerked awake. They looked at Applejack and seemed about to speak, when a heavy impact sounded against the door and all six pairs of eyes snapped to it.
"That don't sound friendly," Applejack muttered. "Who could it be?"
"Princess Celestia did say to keep our departure a secret," Rarity said, "perhaps it wasn't secret enough."
Twilight swallowed and nodded.
"Can you teleport us out?" Fluttershy whispered to her.
"I'm not sure I can take all of us, I've never done more than two. And we'd still be moving as fast as the train, and that'd make it really hard to aim. We wouldn't want to slam into a tree, or worse appear inside one..."
"So we fly out the window, or we fight," Applejack said.
Twilight nodded. Another heavy crash filled the room, this one two-tone, like an enthusiastic buck. The doorframe screeched at the stress on the metal.
"I say fight," Dash said. "If we could open the window all the way, I could probably get out and flying before I hit the ground, but I'm not sure Twi or Shy can. And I don't think any of us will fit out with somepony on our back."
Twilight nodded, and her horn began to glow as she faced the door. "Agreed. Get ready, everypony."
The friends braced themselves and faced the tortured door. Moments later, the attacker hit it full-on with a mighty blow, and it crashed flat to the ground. Standing in the doorway was a nondescript monochrome pony. It looked like it had somehow stepped out of an old uncolored photo.
"Who the hay are you?" Applejack said.
The intruder turned from bucking position to face them, and despite being full-grown, as it turned its flank they saw it had no cutie mark. Then its face came in to view, and its eyes were pools of pitch black. With a hissing laugh Twilight was sure no pony could produce, it lunged at them and opened it's mouth, revealing rows of serrated, predatory teeth in place of a normal pony's herbivore molars. As they drew back, it lunged forward and it's jaw seemed to unhinge as it tried to take a massive bite out of Pinkie Pie.
It never quite made it, as Twilight's magic stopped it dead and held it in mid-air, where it twisted about, snapping its freakish mouth at them.
"What is this thing?" Twilight said, walking around the helpless pony-like creature. "I've never seen anything like it."
"Uh, Twi," Rainbow Dash said nervously, "this might not be the time for science. Why didn't anypony come to help before it could take down the door?"
"Horsefeathers," Applejack said quietly, "you think it attacked the train crew?"
"We'd better at least check. AJ, you think you can tie this thing up?" Twilight said.
Applejack just rolled her eyes, then did so.
"Okay," Twilight said, "let's check on the passenger compartment next car down, then we can come back and figure out what to do with that thing."
They walked out into the hall, then froze. The doors on both ends of their car slid open, and from each emerged ranks of grey ponies, horrible mouths spread wide with vicious teeth. One wore a conductor's cap.
"Double horsefeathers," Applejack said as the ponies surged forward, then spun deftly to deliver a punishing double-hoofed buck to the leader of the mob.
Applejack's kicks could knock every apple off a tree, and this one sent her attacker flying backwards, knocking down two or three others at the same time and briefly delaying their advance. Fluttershy was beside her, eyes half closed, but hooves ready. Twilight sprung to the air over her, and her horn glowed as waves of force pushed back the attacking mob, but they seemed heedless of pain or danger, and their hissing pseudo-laugh filled the train-car. Facing away from the mob to deliver her kick, Applejack saw Pinkie and Rainbow standing barrel to barrel against the press of attackers from the other side, delivering blows with their hooves that, for the moment, the horrible creatures seemed to fear. In the center, beneath Twilight, Rarity's own horn glowed and precise waves of magic lanced out, striking the creatures as they moved in.
"Uh, Twilight," said Pinkie nervously, "I think these were the other passengers..."
"I think that's right. What could do this? We need to get to Celestia and find out!"
"I don't think this train's going to get us there!" Rainbow shot back.
"Can you two hold them off back there? I'm going to try to get us to the door."
"Okie dokie!" Pinkie said with disarming cheer, knocking a few teeth from a grey pony's drooling jaws with a well-timed blow.
"Where'd you learn to throw a punch like that, Pinkie?" Rainbow asked.
"Breaking up boulders back on the farm!"
Applejack turned back and saw Twilight straining, glowing horn thrust forward. A wave of her magic pressed against the encroaching horde, driving them back. One, cleverer than the rest, pressed low to the ground, and looked like it might manage to slip under the shield. Applejack bucked it in the head, and it went still before the magic caught it and pressed it back.
"You okay there Twi?" she asked.
"I'll...be fine," her friend replied, "I should have enough power to get us to the door, there are just...so many of them."
As soon as it was clear, Applejack rushed to the door and wrestled it open. She nearly fell as a burst of wind blew in, causing her hooves to slip, but caught herself. The ground rushed by beneath her at a terrifying clip. The others were barely holding off the horde as it surged with fury at the sight of the open door.
"I can hold them for a little while," Twilight cried as her purple globe of force expanded to cover both sides of the train, "Fluttershy and Dash, grab Rarity and Pinkie and get out! Don't go far, in case they have someone in the air!"
"Right!" Rainbow hooked her legs under Pinkie and leapt out the door, spreading her wings and making a short flight to a nearby hilltop. Fluttershy paused for a moment, then Rarity climbed gently on her back and gave her an encouraging squeeze, and she too took wing and landed, less gracefully, next to the others.
"Get on, AJ!" Twilight said, landing next to her friend. Applejack quickly scrambled on to her back and wrapped her legs around her neck.
Twilight turned and jumped out into the morning air, following Rainbow. As she lost sight of the compartment her spell faded and the horde of twisted ponies surged after them, but they were already clear. Two of the attackers stumbled out of the open door and fell hard to the rocky ground along the edge of the tracks. Their legs and necks bent grotesquely, and they did not rise again. The rest pulled back as the train rumbled along. Twilight landed heavily next to the others, and Applejack slid to the ground with a sigh.
"Well, looks like they forgot how to stop the train, thank Celestia," Twilight said, "but what were those things? I've never heard of anything like that, and I think Pinkie was right - at least the conductor turned into one of those!"
"Zooooombie ponies!" Pinkie Pie was using her spooky voice.
"Pinkie, there's no such thing as a zombie pony," Twilight said, "and besides, those ponies were still alive, just...wrong. We need to get to Dodge Junction right away."
"I reckon we've got a bigger worry right now, Twi," Applejack looked at the retreating train, "What happens when that train gets wherever it's going?"
Pinkie stopped bouncing, and Rainbow Dash followed Applejack's gaze with a frown. Twilight let out a long breath.
"You're right, we can't let it go any further," she said slowly, "but I don't want to just destroy the whole thing. We might need the railroad, and maybe Celestia can save those ponies. I have an idea, but it'll take a lot out of me, and I might have to rest."
"I'll carry you if I need to," Applejack said, "you do what you gotta do."
Twilight smiled at them then took to the air. She caught up with the train and took a deep breath. From the hillside, her three friends saw a second, violet sun fill the sky, nearly as bright, keeping pace with the cursed train. The birds stopped singing, and the light afternoon breeze ceased, then picked up again, stronger, and blowing steadily towards Twilight. A few hundred feet ahead of the train, above the tracks, the air crackled and a spray of purple sparks erupted, then a tear opened up, and the air itself parted, revealing a violet portal slightly wider than the engine.
The glow of Twilight's horn grew stationary as she hovered above her creation. Without additional fanfare, the train plunged into the portal and was lost from sight. Not long after, it winked out. The wind shifted, and the birds took up song again. Twilight landed next to her friends, and fell to her knees, eyes drooping.
"Twi," Applejack said softly, "what in Tartarus did you do to that train?"
"Yes, that, Tartarus," the princess replied, then her eyes closed, and she slept.
Everything was now incongruously peaceful. Applejack took stock. She remembered the area well enough from her time working at Dodge Junction. The town lay just on the border of the arid edge of the badlands, and it was into this rough area to the south and west of the town that her friends had pursued her during her shameful last visit. Now, though, they were north and west instead, like Cherry Jubille's groves. The land here was dry but fertile, a lovely dry plain, green and gold in the late summer afternoon, coated in short, golden grass, and graced with the occasional low tree surrounded by thick brush. The afternoon was pleasant, but Applejack found herself on edge. Though they'd seen nothing leave the train before it vanished, she couldn't shake the feeling they were being watched. She tried to shrug it off, and didn't mention it to her friends, but she noticed Rainbow Dash scanning the skies frequently. Even Pinkie Pie seemed subdued.
"Well girls," she broke the silence, "next train should be comin' this time tomorrow. I reckon we can get to town by then on hoof if we please, though, even if we don't travel in the dark. What'da y'all think?"
"Oh, I don't like it here one bit," Fluttershy's ears were flat, "even though that creepy train is gone, I feel like somepony knows where here. Somepony evil ."
"Who wants to sit around waiting for a train for a whole day? Lame." Despite her tone, Applejack caught Rainbow look quickly to the skies again.
"This looks like dreadful land for travel," Rarity eyed a burr-laden shrub as she spoke, "but I would feel safer with Celestia. Besides," she lowered her voice, "who's to say the next train will be any better?"
Suddenly the afternoon didn't feel so warm. No one spoke for a long moment.
"Well, all right then," Applejack tried to rally, "help me get Twi on my back."
It took some doing, but they managed to drape Twilight's legs over Applejack's back well enough to let her walk. The weight wasn't an issue for her, but moving her own legs around her friend's was awkward, and she wasn't able to move quite as quickly as usual. Still, several good hours remained before sunset, and the rolling hills were easy on the ponies - burrs aside. The thick grass and occasional bramble reminded them it was still no walk in a Ponyville park, but in another context it would have been a lovely hike. Not far from the tracks the birds returned in force, and from time to time they caught the grassy wake or shuffling sounds of a larger creature moving about nearby. Still Applejack's uneasy feeling remained, and the group was unusually quiet.
They came upon a reasonably sized copse of trees atop a gentle hill as the light was failing. Between the higher ground and the cover of the trees, it seemed an ideal place to spend the night. Applejack said as much, and the others readily agreed, so they climbed the slope and she let Twilight's still-slumbering form drop from her back to the soft grass.
"Oh, I must say, that looks wonderful," Rarity yawned. "These long walks still wear me out."
"You sure you'll be okay without that big ol' tent of yours?" Applejack's heart wasn't really in the snarky response. She barely kept her own fatigue out of her voice.
"I'll manage somehow," Rarity was on the ground before she finished the sentence. The others similarly settled in.
The sun sank. Despite her fatigue, Applejack's nervous feeling still wouldn't leave her. She found her eyes drifting to the sky, scanning for any shadows passing across stars or moon. But still everything seemed peaceful. This far from the tracks, there was no sign at all of the works of pony civilization. Nothing stirred, and even the normal strange sounds of a country evening seemed absent from the near-timeless night. Gradually, she found herself drifting into sleep.
Later, she wasn't sure what made her snap suddenly awake, if the approaching figure made some noise that registered somewhere below her exhausted consciousness, or if just some wrongness lingered in its presence. Whatever the reason, her head snapped up, her mind suddenly focused, just in time to catch a dark form hurtling at her from the night.
Twilight lay behind her, still peacefully slumbering, and directly in the creature's path. She had time to dodge, barely, but to do so would simply put Twilight in harm's way.
"Heads up, girls," she yelled instead, and launched herself forward.
They collided midair and Applejack felt like she'd jumped into the trunk of her largest tree. The newcomer was pony sized, but she felt only cold metal under her hooves.
"Whoa there, partner," she yelled, "best say somethin' now if you're not here to cause trouble!"
There was no answer. She wrapped her hooves around the dark figure and grappled, kicking upward with her powerful rear legs. Her hooves rang as they connected with thick metal armor. She could tell now that the attacker was at least shaped like a pony, a pegasus to be precise - there was enough starlight and moonlight to let her make out the silhouettes of the wings against the sky and trees. She gave up on kicking and wrapped her hindlegs around the other pony's barrel, and tried to force the wings down with her forelegs instead. She couldn't seem to get a grip, though. Her hooves seemed to slide off, and she felt a chill creeping up her legs like she'd plunged them into icy water.
She was clearly weighing the attacker down, but despite her weight and strength, she wasn't sure it would be enough. She gave up on the wings and locked her forelegs on the other pony's armored ones, trying to force them to the ground. They were tipped with wicked-looking hoofblades, but if she could just drag them low enough, they'd scrape the ground and hopefully stop the charge. Straining her muscles and struggling to hold tight with her rear legs, she began - slowly, so slowly! - to force the armored forelegs down, but now they were nearly on top of Twilight, her gently heaving side completely defenseless against the wicked metal. Desperately Applejack kept hold with her front legs and let go with her own hindquarters, twisting in the air to try to get her hooves around to dig in to the ground.
Halfway through her last-ditch maneuver, Rainbow Dash slammed into the dark pony's side at speed. Applejack lost her tenuous grip at the force of the impact and landed heavily on the ground, half twisted around, rolling several body lengths before managing to stop herself and stumble to her hooves. Rainbow was tangled up in the branches of the tree, dazed, but her maneuver had paid off - their attacker had flown off course back into the darkness before slamming into the ground, and now rose (accursedly smoothly, Applejack noted through gritted teeth) and turned to face them.
Applejack felt a warmth at her side as Pinkie pressed up against her with a strained grin.
"Hey there! Nice of you to come by, we were totally bored all night!"
Applejack chuckled despite herself, and felt Pinkie press a bit closer. Wordlessly they moved to stand in front of Twilight. Rarity and Fluttershy were already on the other side, and Rainbow staggered in front of her. The dark pony looked directly at them, and for the first time they saw her face. The gleam of metal showed that she wore a full helmet, hiding her features, but the eye sockets glowed with a bright blue light, nothing like the reflection of the moon. Applejack shuddered against Pinkie's flank. Their attacker remained completely silent. Her legs tensed, and Applejack similarly prepared to charge. But then, still silently, their attacker spread her wings and vanished into the night.
"Hey, we were just getting to the good part!" Pinkie yelled out into the darkness and frowned. "Some ponies don't have any respect for a dramatic moment."
"I don't get it," Applejack said, "I dunno that we could have stopped her, Pinkie. Why do you reckon she took off like that?"
"Probably some kind of trick," Rainbow Dash said from the tree, where she was disentangling herself. "I bet she'll be back...wait, what's that?"
She fell silent and now all three heard the sound of heavy wingbeats from above. They turned and a much larger winged shape approaching from the south. They rushed to place themselves between the new arrival and Twilight, raising their hooves, while Rainbow Dash returned to the air.
Just as they prepared to charge, the new arrival came close enough to stand out clearly in the moonlight, and glowed brightly in the silver light, her coat pure white. Her mane, not as resplendent as usual in the moonlight, nonetheless floated unmistakably around her head.
"Princess!" Rainbow said. The others bowed.
"Hello, my little ponies," Celestia said, "what a lovely spot you've discovered." She landed gracefully next to them, and Spike leapt off her back.
"I reckon we're glad to see y'all, but what in Equestria are you doing here?" Applejack said.
"I sensed powerful alicorn magic nearby early this afternoon," she eyed the sleeping Twilight, "and feared you might have met difficulty on the way. I followed the tracks out to try to meet your train, but could find no sign of it. I teleported to Ponyville to make sure you'd gotten aboard, and this poor fellow," she nodded at Spike, "wouldn't dream of staying at home when your train vanished. I teleported back to the tracks, of course, but tracking even magic that powerful is sadly not an exact science, and it took me this long to find you. Now please, tell me what happened."
They filled the newcomers in on the situation. Celestia's eyes narrowed at the mention of the strange monochrome ponies and the dark pegasus, but widened at the train's fate.
"I knew Twilight's power would grow, but that spell is still quite the accomplishment. It's no surprise it exhausted her, but I fear we cannot wait for her to recover. Come, we can talk further as we travel, but we should stay off the wing, at least until she awakes. Even I cannot carry all of you."
She levitated Twilight to her back and began trotting north. The others followed.
"Princess," Applejack said, "aren't we going the wrong way? Dodge Junction's south of here. And couldn't you teleport us again?"
Celestia laughed. "There's no reason to go to Dodge Junction anymore. After all, your goal was to meet with me, and here I am." Applejack blushed. "Now I think we should make for Canterlot, as quickly as possible. As for the other question, that was my plan, but I think now it would be unwise. That pegasus you fought is very dangerous. I do not think she will risk facing me alone, but she and her allies can sense alicorn magic as well as I can. That's likely what brought her to you, and more may be nearby. Some have countermagic powerful enough to throw a teleport awry, and moving so many of us would leave me dangerously drained if it did come to a fight. I think our best chance now is to proceed by hoof, and hope to sneak past."
"Who was she, anyway?" Dash asked.
"Yeah," Pinkie said, "I'm dying of suspense! And were those zombie ponies we met, or what?"
"No, Pinkie," Celestia said, "they were not. At least, not exactly. I promise I will tell you all I know, but for now I want to find a place to rest. It is a long story, and I'd rather not tell it a second time once Twilight wakes up. You all did well guarding her tonight, but none of us will travel safely if we do not rest at least for a few hours. The Everfree lies between us and Canterlot. I hope to avoid traveling through the heart of the forest, but the outskirts are dense enough to hide us from the air. I believe we can reach them within an hour, which should leave us at least three before dawn."
She was right, and they settled uneasily beneath thick branches. Applejack lay pressed up against Twilight, between her and the edge of the woods. Though the canopy was so thick above them barely any moonlight entered, sleep did not come easily to her, and she stared suspiciously out at the moonlit plains for what felt like ages, dreading the sight of a dark figure. But none came, and finally her fatigue and Twilight's soft, warm flank caught up to her, and she passed into fitful sleep.
Twilight awoke sometime after dawn. The sun was fully clear of the horizon when she finally stirred; she guessed it was around eight in the morning. She smiled to find Applejack pressed up against her and began to get to her hooves. Her eyes widened when she saw Spike sleeping not far away, and then she stood fully and cried out when she saw Celestia sitting at the edge of the trees, staring east across the plains to the low sun. Twilight trotted over to her, leaving Applejack to groan and stir as she tipped over on to the loamy ground.
"Hello, Twilight," Celestia said as she approached, "I'm glad to see you awake again. Are you feeling rested?"
"I feel great, but where did you and Spike come from? And where are we?"
Celestia filled her in as the others awoke and joined them.
"And so here we are," she finished, "on the southeastern border of the Everfree. Is everypony ready to travel?"
The others nodded and muttered their assents.
"Good. I think we must travel by hoof, as too many of us lack wings, and we may be too visible in the air beside. I would also rather avoid the deep Everfree. If we travel north along this verge, we should be well hidden among the trees, and can cut east along Rambling Rock Ridge. Then we can decide if Ponyville and the train are safe, or if we should continue north through the wilds to Canterlot."
"Agreed," Twilight said, "but am I the only one who still doesn't know what's going on, or why we need to go to Canterlot?"
"Nah, we're all in the dark," Rainbow said, "the Princess didn't want to say anything until you woke up."
"But now she has, and I'll explain everything," Celestia said, "let's go."
They set out, keeping well under the canopy. Here on the edge of the forest it was not as dense as the deep forest they were used to, and emerald light filtered through clearly. The undergrowth was similarly more sparse, and travel was not too difficult. Twilight noticed her friends looking around nervously from time to time, but they made an easy trot, and the weather was pleasant.
"You all know the story of how ponies came to Equestria," she began, in what Twilight thought of as her lecture voice, "since we tell it every year at Hearth's Warming. How the unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies, not yet united, fled their ancient homeland in the face of a killing winter. This story is true, but not the whole truth. The winter was caused by wendigos, but their presence was provoked by another, a creature that was once like Luna and I. He has changed, and his name is long lost to time and memory, but where we are princesses, he is a Prince, the only one left in this world. The last true Prince.
"Once he was like the two of us, powerful and kind, and did many good deeds, but then tragedy struck. I no longer remember the details, it was so long ago, but a group of ponies he loved was destroyed utterly in a terrible accident. In his grief, he swore to grow even more powerful, to make sure no such thing could happen again, and in his quest he forgot his goodness and wisdom. He discovered, as you did, Twilight, the power contained in friendship and love. But his wounded heart could not embrace it as you did, growing and flourishing in harmony with others. Instead he discovered a way to feed on the love of others, to take their power for his own. In doing so, he drained the love and compassion of his victims. He drew recklessly, and the whole continent felt the effects, and in the resulting strife, it became a paradise for wendigos, and there meets the hearth warming tale."
"Brrr," Rarity shivered, "I can almost feel the cold just from thinking about it."
"It ain't from thinking, sugar, I feel it too," Applejack looked around, then pointed her muzzle towards the forest to the northwest. "I think the Everfree weather's acting up again."
Twilight felt it too, now, a chill wind passing through the trees, and shivered a little. Celestia frowned, but continued her tale.
"When the ponies arrived in Equestria, the distance from the Prince, and the true hearts of Equestria's earliest heroes, healed the rift between the tribes, and drove off the wendigos. But the Prince followed, intent on draining this new love of unity. My sister and I pursued, and the Prince was our first great enemy, even before Discord, and the first great test of the new Equestrian society."
The ponies continued to listen in silence, interested to varying levels. The sky darkened from the west, towering stormclouds building over the Everfree. The chill wind continually swirled around them.
"The war lasted nearly a century, and its legacy persists to this day. As is probably obvious, we were victorious, but even in victory we could not kill the Prince, nor force him from Equestria. It was all we could do to defeat and imprison him. He is now sealed in a block of unmelting ice in the deepest pit of Tartarus."
"His power sounds a lot like how the changelings feed," Twilight said, "are they related?"
"Yes," Celestia sighed, "it was some time before we discovered and tamed Tartarus, and we did not at first understand the threat the Prince posed, even sealed away. We put him in a prison and left ponies to guard him, but he was able to speak to them even from his confinement, and tempt them to use his techniques. They were corrupted, and became the first changelings. Most were killed when they revealed their new power, but Chrysalis slipped away instead, and found some way to raise her brood. There are many evils in Equestria for which the Prince takes no blame, but also many for which he must answer."
"This is all fascinating," Rarity said, "but also terrifying, since I fear that you are now going to inform us this Prince is responsible for our recent troubles."
The clouds rolled above the canopy, cutting off the pleasant emerald light entirely. The wind howled, and Celestia scowled, and raised her voice above it.
"I fear this storm is not the Everfree's doing, my little ponies. I now may need to rush the tale. But sadly yes, Rarity. I do not understand why, but the Prince's power has been growing once more. I had seen some signs, but did not believe them. Now, though, I fear there can be no doubt. Those ponies that attacked you on the train are unmistakable. They are known as the empty, and are the remains of those drained of all love by the Prince or his most trusted generals. It was one of these generals that attacked you last night. I fear she also gathers these storm-clouds against us, perhaps with help. I now fear war with the Prince is coming again. The item you carry may hold all our hopes for a quick victory, but I will not name or explain it in their hearing. We must wait until we reach Canterlot."
"Can we save those poor zombie ponies?" Pinkie asked.
"Some of them, perhaps. While they are not exactly 'zombie ponies' as you mean it, you are not too far from the truth. Some of the power the Prince harvests from their love and harmony remains in them, and sustains them in an ageless half-life; some of the forces he has now summoned are survivors even of that first war, so long ago. If the Prince were defeated truly, his corrupt spirit driven from the world, enough love might be returned to restore them, but their years cannot be denied. Those that were turned recently, like the ones you fought on the train, would recover, but the rest would immediately face the full weight of all their lost years."
The other ponies fell silent at this, and from the darkening skies above, a flash of lightning shone an eerie green through the thick canopy, echoed after a distressingly short time by a peal of thunder.
"I'm going to check that out," Rainbow Dash said, and shot into the sky. She alighted on a branch and pressed her head above the canopy to look. With a curse, she leapt off and dove back down to the group.
"Yeah, that's no Everfree storm, I saw a whole flock working the clouds."
As if to mark her words, another bolt of lightning flashed, and the sky opened up in torrential rains.
"Run," Celestia said, and took her own advice, breaking immediately into a gallop. The others joined her. Ahead through the curtains of rain they could see Rambling Rock ridge looming above them, and as they reached it they turned east. The storm grew stronger, and their coats were soaked through. Lightning now flashed steadily, and the rumble of thunder barely faded from one peal to the next. One bolt split a tree in half within sight of the desperate crew. Twilight looked up and saw dark forms striking the clouds above them with their hooves, bringing forth the bolts.
"They're aiming them for us!"
"I don't think we can stay out in it," Applejack yelled over the thunder, "anypony got any ideas?" No one replied, but Celestia increased her pace further.
Large hailstones began to fall along with the rain, and one slammed painfully into Twilight's back. She threw up a shield, but the hammering hail and occasional lightning bolt were hitting it hard.
"Look," Applejack shouted from next to her, pointing up the ridge with a hoof, "we could take shelter in there!"
Twilight's eyes followed and she saw a narrow cave a few hundred feet up the ridge. Celestia frowned at it, and paused, but now pebble-sized hailstones had entirely replaced the rain. Twilight's shield held, but she was straining, and above them the pegasi were pushing the clouds closer and closer.
"I don't think we have a choice," she said, "I can't keep this shield up all the way to Ponyville!"
Celestia nodded and changed course, and they scrambled up the muddy ridge to the cave. The entrance was narrow, but wide and tall enough to take at speed, and it seemed to continue into a tunnel. Applejack arrived first and hurried in, going well back to give the others plenty of room to enter. She got ready to stop, but a blinding flash filled the cave, and then a phenomenal crash as a bolt of lightning struck directly above the entrance.
"Keep running!" came the frantic cry from behind her, and she did, rushing in. A deafening clatter echoed all throughout the cave, massive rocks grinding on each other in the aftermath of the strike. The entrance to the cave was left entirely blocked.
"Everypony still with me?"
The full seven voices shouted out in the affirmative, and Twilight let out a long breath. Behind them, the last rumbles of the collapsing rock face faded, and all of them slowed to a walk, breathing heavily. Celestia seemed to cast her own soft glow, which revealed that the tunnel opened into a substantial cavern. It was large enough that the far wall and ceiling were not visible in the dim light, but the near wall shone with purple and blue.
Rarity gasped, and moved to examine it. All along the wall large crystals protruded, in a variety of colors, though the largest and most common were the purple and blue that dominated Celestia's light. Dazzled, Rarity gazed at the beautiful stones as Twilight moved next to her.
"Oh," Twilight said after a moment, "this is fascinating! I don't think this is a natural formation. Look! These crystals are set in the stone, and it looks like they're cut. I think somepony put these here. Maybe there's a pattern..."
"We shall see about that!" Rarity said, and her horn glowed.
All along the vast wall of the chamber, the gems lit up with Rarity's magic. The ponies stepped back to look, then walked several paces further as the scale of the project hit them, their hoofbeats echoing in the distance. Finally the full image came into view, and arrayed before them was a massive, draconic head, displayed in profile.
The creature had unusually soft features for a dragon, with a face shaped more like a pony's, and was outlined entirely in blue, save the ridge of scales along its head and neck, which were traced in purple, and it's eyes, which were filled in a brilliant yellow. Unlike the dragons they'd encountered in the Great Dragon Migration, this one seemed to carry an intelligent, discerning look, and wore a large gold crown, lovingly detailed in a host of colored gems.
"Whoa," Spike said, "now that's the kind of dragon I'd like to learn from."
"I wish you could as well," Celestia said from behind the others, and they turned to face her. Unlike the awe on their faces, the princess had a small frown, and her eyes were misty. "Alas, none are left. Or at least, almost none. You are right, these dragons are not quite the same as those you've met. They were close relatives, something like ponies are to zebras or mules. Ponies and zebras and mules are all good folk, though, and differ mostly in body, not in mind. These dragons and the ones you met...well, let us say I would much rather have dealt with these. And did, in fact, gladly, when first I came to Equestria."
"Oh," Spike said sadly, "so they aren't the same as me, after all. I thought..."
"Oh my dear Spike," Celestia said, and a tear rolled down her cheek, "I hoped to spare you this pain for some time yet. They were like you. I fear you are the last of them. I am so sorry that our enemy brought us here, before I hoped."
The assembled ponies gasped, and Spike's eyes widened.
"Wait, I'm...what happened? And why are you sorry? This is awesome! I don't have to worry about turning into a monster when I grow up?"
"Not unless you give in to greed," Celestia said, "but as far as I know, you are the very last of your once-great people. This was their city, but now I fear it is their tomb, or worse. I do not know what we will find here, but while I hope it will bring you peace, I do not expect it.
"But let me tell you first your story, as you deserve to hear. I had planned to wait, but this will not be the first plan my old enemy has ruined. That figure on the wall is King Macetail the Great, and he was your grandfather. During the first great war, when we imprisoned the Prince, these dragons were our allies. They were glad to share Equestria with us - they lived underground, in their city of wonders, and traded with us for goods from the surface, rather than venturing out themselves. And so they marched to war with us against the Prince.
"Like all of us, they suffered greatly in the war. They were brave, so brave, Spike, and refused to shy from battle. They served in the front, protecting the unicorns and pegasi from the teeth of the Prince's servants, but many lost their lives early on, including their Prince Steelscale and Princess Longfang, your parents. After that happened, Macetail trusted your egg with me, in case the city fell.
"He proved sadly prescient in this. I don't know exactly what happened, though I have tried over the years to sort it out, but I believe somehow the enemy gained entrance from further underground, and took the city by surprise. By the time Macetail realized the danger, too many of his own people had been turned to empties. He sent me a message with his fire - yes, that is a spell I learned from him - but by the time I arrived, all I could do was wipe out the abominations gloating over the city's corpse." Twilight had never before heard Celestia sound so disgusted.
"But," Spike sat down and paused for a moment, "you said that was ages ago. Why did I take so long to hatch?"
"I don't know," Celestia said, "Macetail gave you to me for safekeeping, but I don't think he expected what happened, just that your egg might be damaged in fighting. So I had no idea what to do with it, or how it might hatch. At first I just let it sit and hoped. Then I researched and tried every method or spell I could find or think of or invent. I even sat on your egg for several months, like a chicken. But finally, I...I'm ashamed to say, Spike, I gave up. When I gave Twilight the egg as her exam, I never expected her to be able to hatch it. I was using it as a test of character, to see how my prospective students dealt with an impossible magical challenge. It was a test I thought everypony would fail."
Spike hung his head to the ground. Quickly, both Twilight and Celestia were at his side. Celestia spoke first.
"Spike, I have never been so happy to be wrong. When Twilight hatched you, I felt a weight lifted from me that I'd forgotten I was carrying, the last gift to Macetail, who gave everything for us. And when she adopted you, and you turned out to be just as brave and noble as your father and grandfather, I was so proud to have had a part in that, so proud of you, no matter how long it took."
Twilight nuzzled him, and he wrapped his arms around her protectively.
"I still don't know what I did to hatch you," she said, "but I've never been happier with a spell. And however many years it took, I'm the luckiest pony ever to have you. I'd have been lost so many times without my number one assistant."
"We all would, darling," Rarity nuzzled Spike from behind, and then was joined by a chorus of agreement from the others, who crowded around the dragon as closely as they could.
"Thanks, everypony," he said unevenly, "I hadn't thought about it like that, but you were all worth the wait, no matter how long it was. And it's okay, Princess, I know you did everything you could."
"I...thank you Spike," Celestia said, "I did, but it makes me feel better to hear you say it. I'm sorry I held this from you. I told myself you were too young, but you're a wonderful young dragon, and wise, and have dealt with so much already. I think I was kidding myself, and didn't want to relive those days, to think about all this again. I'm so sorry."
"It's ok," Spike said, "though I'm really glad you told me now. I can see how that would be hard. But I'm happy to know my parents were so great! I was really worried about getting bigger, that I might turn in to some kind of jerk, like I almost did that once. Knowing there's another way was worth hearing all that sad stuff."
"I fear you may do more than hear about it," Celestia said. "I don't know that we can shift those rocks behind us, and even if we could, they're waiting for us, with I suspect more of the Prince's forces on the way. The city had another gate, on the far side, facing Canterlot, the Trade Gate. If they don't realize what we've found here, we may slip their net. Spike, do you have any more questions before we go?"
"Uh," Spike said, "I'm sure I'll have more later, but for now...you said there were empty dragons that attacked the city. Are you sure you got rid of all of them?"
Celestia turned away and began walking deeper into the cavern. The others followed her, and gradually Macetail's image again sunk into the endless night.
"No," she said finally, "not sure at all."
"I can't believe she didn't take you, Sweetie," Apple Bloom said, "I was sure you were in this thing the whole way!"
"Me too," Sweetie Belle kicked a pebble as she walked, "I bet we'd all get to go if we had our cutie marks. Then they wouldn't treat us like such foals."
"Yeah," Scootaloo said, "and we even have our super special connection with your magic, Sweetie! We'll save them one day, that'll show 'em."
"Wait," Sweetie said, "you're right Scoots, even if we don't have our marks yet, we've got real talents. What if they need us? What if they made a mistake, leaving us behind?"
"Come on Sweetie," Apple Bloom said, "they've saved Equestria a bushel of times. Why would they need us?"
"Everypony starts somewhere," Sweetie huffed, "only Twilight had some fancy title when they took on Nightmare Moon. That's the whole point, you never know when or how your friends'll come through! 'Sides, Twilight didn't always listen to Celestia either, like when she realized Nightmare Moon was coming back herself!"
"But she ended up doing the same stuff she'd have done if she'd listened..."
"Whatever," Scootaloo said, "I'm with Sweetie, we need to figure out where they are and go help!"
"I dunno girls," Apple Bloom said, "I'm not sure we're ready to face the kinds of things that are dangerous to all them..."
"I'm totally ready, Rainbow Dash trained me herself, and Sweetie's almost officially Twilight's personal student! And you're a great organizer just like your sister. Besides, this could get us our cutie marks!"
Apple Bloom's ears pricked up, but she just said, "Yeah? In what?"
Sweetie Belle bounced almost as high as Pinkie Pie. "Being heroes, of course! We never tried that!"
"Oh, I guess you're right," Apple Bloom grinned, "that's gotta be why we've been waiting so long! We just needed a real emergency we could help out in!"
"Yeah, that's gotta be it!" The other two hopped around her. "How're we gonna find them, though?"
"Oh, I've got it!" Scootaloo said, "Twilight writes everything down. I bet we could find some note or something in the castle!"
"Hmmm, maybe, but what about the guards?" Apple Bloom said.
"I bet they'll let me in," Sweetie said, "Come on, let's go!"
The trio dashed off towards the castle at full gallop, caught up again in crusader fever. When they arrived, though, the two guards on the door were asleep, and the front gate was ajar.
"Wait," Apple Bloom whispered, "they're asleep on the job? Both of them? I don't like this, girls."
"It means we were totally right," Sweetie hissed, "something's definitely up. Somepony must have enchanted them or something, we can catch them in the act!"
Scootaloo and Sweetie immediately took off towards the gate.
"Sure, let's catch the pony that put two guard ponies to sleep in the act," Apple Bloom grumbled, but she followed her fellow Crusaders through the gate. Despite the suspicious nature of the entrance, though, they found nothing particularly unusual inside, other than a lack of guards.
"Let's go check the council room," Sweetie whispered, "maybe that's where her records are."
There was no sign of anyone else as they walked to the council chamber, nor in it. The great table was bare, but somepony had attached a small file to the back of each seat, containing a sheaf of notes. They eagerly lifted them out and started looking them over.
"They must have been real distracted," Sweetie said, "or in a big hurry. A couple of these are blank. Twilight might not put something for herself, but Applejack's blank too."
"Yeah, and all the rest still say they're in Las Pegasus or Veroneigh, but they already got back," Scootaloo said.
"Well that's great," Apple Bloom said, "we're no better off than before."
"I saw them leaving on the train, heading south," Scootaloo said, "maybe if we go look at the schedule at the train station, we can see where they were going."
"Yeah, all right."
They turned and walked into the central stairwell of the castle and began back down to ground level. As they approached one of the mid-level doors, though, it creaked open, and another filly darted out into the hallway.
"Diamond?" Apple Bloom said, "what the hay are you doing here?"
The pink filly's head jerked up to look directly at her, expression unreadable. Then without a word she turned away and galloped down the stairway.
"Hey, get back here!" Sweetie called, and the three friends chased after her. She had a significant head start, though, and by the time they emerged on the ground floor, there was no sign of her save the front gate, slightly more open than they'd left it.
"What in Equestria was up with her?" Apple Bloom said, "she's never run from us. And why was she here to begin with?"
"Who cares," Scootaloo said, "she's never made any sense, and if you ask me, her running away's a big improvement."
"But maybe she's got something to do with all this."
"I know she's a big jerk, but I don't think she's a threat to Equestria," Sweetie Belle said.
"I dunno, maybe not," Apple Bloom said, "but somepony put those guards to sleep, and it's awful suspicious she was in here."
"She's not even a unicorn, though," Scootaloo said, "how could she put the guards to sleep?"
"I could do it with a potion, no problem."
"Whatever," Scootaloo said, "I want to find Rainbow Dash, not dumb Diamond Tiara, I'm going to check out the train station. You coming, Sweetie?"
"Yeah," Sweetie said, "let's wake up these guards first. Catch up with you tomorrow, AB?"
"Yeah, sure," Apple Bloom grumbled, but took off down the stairs at speed. By the time she made it out the front gate, though, there was no sign of their old nemesis. She galloped down the road towards town, hoping to bring Diamond into sight, but she'd seen nothing by the time she hit the first major fork. She took her best guess, but it wasn't long before she gave up and headed back to the farm.
They met up again at recess, as usual.
"Any luck, girls?" Apple Bloom opened.
"Nah," Scootaloo said, "that train has tons of stops, and goes all the way to Baltimare. None of them looked all that important."
"Any luck with Diamond?" Sweetie asked.
"I couldn't even find her," Apple Bloom admitted, "I just wandered around town until I had to go home. Maybe I'll just go ask her now, when she can't run away."
"Ugh, I still can't believe you want to talk to her," Scootaloo said, but all three started scanning the yard for Diamond Tiara.
"Huh," Apple Bloom said, finding no sign of her, "I see Silver Spoon over there, but where's Diamond? She was in class, why isn't she out here?"
She walked over to Silver Spoon, followed reluctantly by her friends.
"Hey Silver, where's Diamond?"
"I don't know why you would care, and I certainly don't" Silver Spoon said, "but I think she stayed inside to talk to Ms. Cherilee. I heard her mention something about extra credit."
"I bet she needs it," Sweetie Belle snorted.
"Just because I'm angry at her doesn't mean I'm so desperate as to turn to you blank flanks," Silver Spoon turned her nose up. "But I hoped you'd do better, Sweetie Belle. You should follow your sister's example, she's almost classy. I think these two must be a bad influence."
"I'll influence your face!" Scootaloo said, and reared up before Sweetie and Apple Bloom grabbed her and dragged her away as Silver Spoon sneered at them.
"Come on Scoots," Sweetie said, "if you get detention, it'll slow us down."
Scootaloo stopped struggling and walked off with her friends. "Yeah, yeah. So what are you gonna do, AB?"
"Follow her after school," Apple Bloom said, "and see what she does. Then I guess I'll figure it out from there. Y'all want to come?"
"We didn't talk to the weather team yesterday," Sweetie Belle said, "since we didn't think of it. But they fly all over the place, so if anypony's seen anything, it should be them. We're going to go ask them what they know."
"And you don't mind my doing this instead?"
"Nah, we've got this covered. I still think you're crazy to care about Diamond being weird. Anything'd be an improvement. But I'm not mad at you." Scootaloo said.
"Yeah," said Sweetie Belle, "go for it."
"Thanks, girls."
After school, all three hung about in the playground, idly tussling until the other students left. Sweetie and Scootaloo broke off and headed for the weather team offices downtown, while Apple Bloom snuck off after Diamond Tiara, sticking to the overgrown verge of the path well back from her quarry. Diamond was walking alone, and poking along reluctantly, frequently pausing to look from side to side or kick at a rock with her hooves. She stopped dead at the first fork in the road. Normally none of the young ponies took the righthoof trail at this fork; the left went to Ponyville proper, while the right headed out of town towards the outlying farms and the edge of the Everfree.
Apple Bloom took cover in the undergrowth as Diamond paused, and held her breath as the other pony scanned the area. She seemed to go undetected, as Diamond then began trotting down the righthoof path at a steady clip, her hesitation seemingly vanished. Apple Bloom went after her as fast as she felt she could. The quick dashes from cover to cover tired her out, but it seemed her quarry was dead set on her mysterious destination, and she did not look back again.
Diamond went past the farms, and then veered off the path into the edge of the Everfree. Hoping not to lose her, Apple Bloom quickly followed, but it seemed Diamond was not going far into the woods - almost immediately upon moving into the tree cover, she stopped and sat on her haunches. Apple Bloom was scanning the area for good cover closer by, when she saw another pony approach Diamond out of the woods. Or at least, what appeared to be another pony.
The figure was large enough to be full-grown, and wrapped entirely in a black cloak, though the hood was pushed up in the forehead in the shape of a unicorn's horn. Apple Bloom felt herself sink to the ground in irrational fear, then the figure turned to face Diamond (and incidentally, Apple Bloom herself) and the latter nearly cried out in fear. The inside of the hood was completely dark, as if the sunlight could not enter, without even the hint of an outline of a face, or any features, save two: the glint of blue eyes, and a thin, elegant crown of white metal.
"Princess," Diamond Tiara said, her voice more respectful than Apple Bloom had thought it could be, "your servant returns for your orders."
The hooded figure leaned down, seeming to gaze into Diamond's eyes, and said something in a low, hissing voice that made the fur on Apple Bloom's back stand up, though she could hear none of the words. As the dark pony spoke, a red glow surrounded Diamond Tiara. Apple Bloom recognized it with a shiver as the mysterious magic they'd been searching for with Twilight, before she left. But Diamond didn't seem to notice, and kept her eyes locked on the empty hood. Finally, the hissing ceased.
"Yes, Princess," Diamond said. She turned, and Apple Bloom could have sworn her eyes locked with hers, and she saw them flash red like the magic that had surrounded her. Then the flash was gone, and Diamond's eyes moved on, unseeing, and she trotted past the hidden, petrified Apple Bloom, and off onto the trail.
The Princess, whoever she was, had already left, but still the chill and unease of her presence lingered, and Apple Bloom was unable to muster the courage to move, lest the monster hear and come for her. Finally, after what felt like hours, she crawled back, wincing at every broken twig or crunched leaf, constantly fearing the sound of hooves behind her. She reached the edge of the undergrowth. Now the path was in sight, just one or two full body lengths away, but the open space terrified her, and she lay trembling for several long breaths before she steeled herself. Once she moved, she broke to full gallop, going headlong, heedless down the road, too terrified to look behind her. She was never sure if the terrible hissing she heard mixed in with her heavy hoofbeats was imagined, or not.
But she was, if only for that moment, no longer so excited about a hero cutie mark.
At first, Spike was awed by the decoration of the tunnels of the ancient city. It seemed that every inch of the place had been meticulously detailed. From time to time the carvings looked like letters, but most were abstract geometric designs, full of curves and spade-like shapes. He thought they resembled his scales, or the shape of his tail, or the fins along his back, though it might have been wishful thinking.
"Princess," he asked Celestia, "do you know how long it took to carve all these walls? It feels like this place goes on forever."
"Not exactly, no," she shook her head, "I never had a chance to ask. But your grandfather told me the names of the previous kings in his line, once, that served as king-in-the-hills, and it was very long. I don't know how long your people live, but it is certainly no shorter than a pony. I believe they lived here for many thousands of years before we arrived, and spent the whole time making it beautiful. When the city was inhabited, all these carvings were painted in many colors. Also, deep shafts let in the sunlight, and magical lanterns kept dragonfire alive to make the deeps glow. But it seems the shafts have been overgrown, and the paints decayed. It has, after all, been a very long time."
Spike wanted to say just the right thing, to somehow tell the princess how happy he was that she'd told him, how sad he was about his people, that he understood she was too, that he forgave her but also thought there was nothing to forgive.
"Thanks," was his attempt, and he shook his head and looked down at his feet as he walked on. But in front of him the light grew brighter, and he looked up to see Celestia's head held just a little higher.
The corridors were not massive, just large enough for two ponies to pass, and seemed endless, and straight as rail lines. Quite frequently the path split or came to an intersection, meeting ornate doors or other dark hallways, always at 30 degree angle offsets. Celestia seemed to remember the city well, and walked confidently along her chosen route, never pausing to consider her direction. The dusty timelessness of the place weighed on the group, keeping them in matching silence. Celestia had straight-out told them it was a tomb, but walking through it, they knew it in a way her words couldn't convey, even though any evidence of life or death had long since mingled with the dust that filled the air. The subdued colors of the carved walls, the stillness around them, the utter silence, save their hoofbeats on the worked stone - everything created a sense of melancholy reverence that made time seem to stretch forever, and made speech seem not just unnecessary, but disrespectful.
Eventually, even with Spike's keen interest, the carvings began to blur together, and his attention wandered. When it did, he noticed his legs ached.
"How long have we been at this?" Twilight asked, "I've lost track of time down here."
"I already lowered the sun," Celestia replied, "though not too long ago. It's been a long day since we set out. Forgive me, I realize you are all tired, but I fear resting in the corridors, and we have a long way to go down here. We're nearly to a better spot, I believe. Can you press on for a few more minutes?"
"I can make that," Rarity said, "but perhaps not much more." The others nodded.
"You shouldn't need to," Celestia said, "in fact...yes, here we are."
She turned, and faced a stone door much like the rest, but upon closer examination, Spike noticed that the geometric patterns surrounded a rare representational symbol: there was an ornate crown not unlike the one his grandfather wore in the mosaic inscribed on the center of the door.
"This was your family's vault," Celestia said to Spike. "I'm hoping we will find some legacy for you here. In addition, this is the only entrance, and as a vault, it is quite secure. While we have seen no sign of life here for good or ill, I will feel safer resting in a safe place. Still, Spike," she turned to him, "there may be things in here that make you sad, and it is entirely your choice. I believe you are the only creature in all the world that can open that door."
"What do you mean?" Spike asked.
"I said this was the royal vault, and well secured," Celestia said, "as such, only one of royal blood here can open the door. I am not sure even my magic could breach it, and I very much doubt I could do so without destroying everything inside. But for you, if what Macetail told me was true, if you are his grandson, the door should open easily."
To demonstrate she placed her hooves against the door and pressed her weight against it. It did not budge at all.
Spike gulped. He didn't know whether he wanted the door to open or not. On the one hand, it would prove he was a prince of dragons, of a lineage respected even by Princess Celestia. On the other, it would mean he was almost certainly the last of his kind, alone in the world. But while he didn't know which outcome he preferred, he knew he had to find out.
"I'll do it," he said, and Celestia stepped aside.
Spike walked to the door and gently pressed both of his claws against it. For a moment, nothing happened, and he slowly began to let out his breath. Then the crown design on the door lit up in brilliant colors, gold and red and purple and green, and the door moved inward. It felt nearly weightless, like turning a page in a book, but as it came to rest inside a carefully carved niche in the inner wall, the sound it made was as heavy as the stone looked. As it stopped, the part of the door bearing the crown design slid away, and an actual crown, identical in detail, was revealed. It glowed with Celestia's magic as she placed it on Spike's head with her magic. He turned to look at his friends, their eyes wide.
"Spikey, you really are a prince!" Rarity grinned at him.
"Yeah I am," he said, "how's it look on me?"
"Darling," she said, "you look fabulous!"
Spike retroactively decided he much preferred this outcome. He had plenty of time to be sad, time when the most beautiful creature in the world wasn't admiring him. For now he smiled ear to ear as he led his friends into his family's vault.
It was an impressive room. In the center were a group of five stone statues of various sizes, looking somewhat like dragons, and somewhat not. Mostly, they looked like Spike - wingless, and standing bipedal, with short, pony-like muzzles and large eyes. The smallest of them, in fact, looked very much like Spike in proportion and stature, while the larger ones had longer limbs and thinner forms, but otherwise looked quite similar. It was like they were looking at ways in which he might grow up, and they looked much more like his current form than the dragons he'd met before, which he now knew to have been his close cousins.
Most of the statues were bare, or covered only in tattered bits of cloth, but two - the smallest and one of the medium-sized ones in the rear - wore ornate armor finely fitted to their forms in a lustrous metal Spike didn't recognize, and each wore a sword strapped to the armor.
The room itself was similarly ornate. All along the walls, pictures and characters were carved, filling every inch of space, including what looked like a vast and detailed family tree. Below the walls were rows of sealed stone chests, each as large as a table.
"Wow," Twilight said, "look at this place. All these artifacts, and this family tree must be written! I bet knowing the names Celestia does, we could decipher the language! There's so much history here, and nopony has ever even heard of it! An archaeology team could make their careers in here."
"When this is all over, I should write Daring Do!" Rainbow Dash said. "She'd make sure everypony could learn about this stuff. Err, if that's okay with you, Spike."
"No," he said, "that'd be great. I'd love to know more, and it'd be even better if everybody else did too."
"For now, I think," Celestia said, "we should see if this armor can serve the family once more. It looks like that small suit would fit you."
Her horn glowed and the straps binding the armor to the statue came free. She levitated it to Spike, who picked it up and looked at it in awe. The metal was dark, but so polished he could see his face, darker and slightly distorted in the curved bands that made up most of the chestpiece. The underside of the metal was covered with a layer of purple cloth, which to Spike looked both handsome and comfortable.
"I wonder how that cloth survived," Twilight mused, "when the clothing on the other statues decayed."
"Maybe it's magic cloth!" Spike said.
"I don't sense any on it," she frowned, "but maybe there's something else special about it? It seems remarkably well preserved. So does the metal, really. We might learn a lot from it too! But come on, let's see it on you before we go to sleep."
Spike eagerly obeyed, though it took him a few tries to figure out the straps and buckles involved in fitting the bands of armor around himself. and he needed help from Twilight to fasten a few of the buckles on his back. Still, eventually he stood triumphant, feeling a bit like he'd stepped out of one of his heroic fantasies. The purple cloth and dark metal stood out, he thought, quit nicely against his scales. He drew the sword for effect and struck a pose.
"You look ready to kick some flank!" Rainbow Dash said.
"Indeed, you cut quite the figure in that, Spike. I think I could make you a dashing formal suit inspired by that armor!" Rarity said.
Spike blushed and put the sword away.
"Thanks girls," he said, "you're the best. I'm sure you'll figure out how this survived someday, Twilight, but I'm really glad to have something left of my family, even if it's a bit warlike."
"I fear warlike may prove a benefit, soon," Celestia said, "but it may not be the only thing that remains of them here. We should look through these chests before we go. I think it can wait for morning, though."
The others nodded, and spread their bedrolls over the stone chests, which were not of an unreasonable height to serve as beds. Spike reluctantly took off the armor and crown, then climbed into his own.
He quickly found, though, that he was too excited to sleep, and too distracted by all he'd learned that day. He lay with his eyes closed for a while, listening to the rhythmic breathing of his friends, before finally giving it up as a bad job. He turned and rose, planning to take a closer look at the statues.
As he opened his eyes, he saw Celestia laying in her own soft radiance, eyes still open, and looking thoughtfully at him. She nodded in what looked a bit like embarrassment, and he walked over next to her.
"Was I doing something weird?" He asked.
"Not at all," she said, and shook her head. "I was just thinking. Can you not sleep?"
"It's hard," he said, "so much is going on."
She nodded. "Well, as you're up anyway, would you take a letter? I was planning to ask in the morning, but no reason to waste time."
"Oh, sure! Who's it for?"
"My sister. She needs to know the Prince's forces are free in Equestria. The guard on Tartarus needs to be checked. And if, as I fear, it is impossible to keep his power entirely contained, all of Equestria will need to be prepared."
Spike swallowed hard, but took the letter. In it, Celestia filled Luna in on the events of the last few days.
"Well done. Please send it."
"Is that really all you need to say? You didn't mention the Prince at all. It seems really cryptic. Twilight always freaks out when you do that with her."
Celestia laughed. "When she was my student, it had an instructional purpose. But in this case, I am being cautious. I don't believe the Prince can intercept dragonfire letters, but I learned long ago not to underestimate him. And he may have spies in the palace, even close to Luna. In times like this, you can't be too careful. But she remembers the Prince as well as I do. She'll know what to do."
Spike nodded, and sent the letter. He turned to go, but reconsidered.
"Princess, what were you thinking about before?" Celestia looked away, and in the dim light Spike thought she might have blushed. He was about to tell her to never mind, but she spoke first.
"I was just remembering. I never knew your grandfather when he was young, so you've never reminded me of him all that much, but seeing you in this place, in that armor...you're a fine young dragon, Spike. He would have been so proud of you."
"It sounds like you two were great friends," Spike said. "How long did you know him?"
"Over fifty years." Then, softer: "I loved him a great deal."
"You mean...like a friend. Right?"
"No, Spike, more than that."
"Wait, are you my grandmother?" Spike didn't know if he was ready to be related to the Princess he did know, as well as a king he'd never known. But Celestia stifled a laugh instead.
"No, Spike, your grandmother died before I ever met your grandfather. But we were married. I think most ponies, and most of the dragon folk too, thought it was to seal our alliance, and we didn't care much to deny it. We were at war, after all, to risk fighting our own people as well seemed imprudent. But the truth was, we were in love."
"So you're not my grandmother, but you really are my step-grandmother!"
Celestia drew back in surprise, then did laugh, cutting herself off as she realized she might disturb the others.
"I suppose I am, Spike. I never thought of that. Thank you."
"Why are you thanking me?" Spike asked.
"I've never had any kind of grandson before. In fact, I can't."
"I wish I'd known," Spike said. "I'd have loved to have a grandmother, especially if it was you."
"I wish I'd told you all this long ago," Celestia sighed. "I told myself it was to spare you pain, but I think it was to spare myself. And when you've lived as long as I have, it is so easy to forget how long a dozen or so years are, when they're your first. I'm sorry."
"It's ok," Spike said, "I don't think I really understand all that, but I'm glad you told me now. And I know you had a hard time with it."
Celestia sighed, but smiled a little, and curled one long wing around Spike. He pressed against her side and sighed, and for a while was silent, and Celestia thought he might have fallen asleep.
"So you mean a pony really can love a dragon?" He said finally.
"Of course. The wise heart cares little for silly things like who is or isn't a pony." She sighed as Spike's face lit up. "I think I know why you ask. I don't know that there's much hope there, Spike. Twilight is her friend and peer, and you're somewhere between Twilight's little brother and her son. That's rarely an auspicious start."
"Yeah, I know," he said softly, and buried his head in her wing. He felt like this was too adult a moment to cry. "But is it wrong to hope?"
"Hope is never wrong, my dear. Never."
Again there was a long silence.
"Does it ever get easier?" He asked.
"Does what?"
"I dunno, everything. It seems like life just gets more and more complicated, and I kind of thought that if you went as long as you have, you got used to it all. But it doesn't seem like this was easy for you."
"No, it wasn't," she chuckled sadly, "and of course, the only time anyone can really answer that question is at the end. But it's okay, I think. It keeps getting harder, but I keep getting better."
"Huh," he said, feeling increasingly snug and sleepy under his makeshift feather blanket. He yawned, and lay his head on Celestia's side. As he drifted off to sleep, he felt her kiss him gently on his brow.
Concerning Apples (and Princesses)
Above Sweet Apple Acres, and specifically above the hill Applejack sat on, the sky was on fire.
They'd saved Equestria again, of course. This time from a scourge that hit everypony close to home. While some ponies had managed to evade Tirek until they finally brought him down, they all at least knew from friends and family the pain of losing their magic, their marks, some of the spark that made Equestria what it was. And so now it felt like everypony was celebrating. From Canterlot, professional fireworks rained over what felt like the whole country, but certainly enough of it to dazzle Ponyville. Undeterred by the quality of Canterlot's effort, amateur pyrotechnicians throughout the town and the surrounding hills added their own tributes to the victory. And above it all, Luna put special effort into her night sky, stars wheeling and falling and blooming overhead. All in all, it was a multi-layered light show that, Applejack had to admit, was objectively dazzling. She imagined how much ponies' hearts would swell at the sight, and smiled a little to think of them feeling better after the most recent crisis.
As for her? Mostly, she felt like her rump was wet. To be fair, the grass on the hilltop was quite damp. Her eyes were too, a little. She leaned down and took a sip of the cider sitting in front of her. Her lips might as well join the club.
"Hey sis," Big McIntosh settled his bulky form down beside her. "Not out with your friends?"
"Not tonight, Mac, you know that. I can't be in the mood tonight. I know it's silly, after so long--"
"Eeenope."
She shook her head. "It ain't usually this bad, y'know."
"Eeeup."
She took another sip of cider. It was, she believed, her third mug, and her head buzzed a little.
"It's just not right, y'know? Not right of me . They don't know, and they shouldn't. This is important. Mom and dad, they--"
"Eeeenope."
"Don't you do that to me, Mac. Don't pull that...that...terse horseapples with me." He glanced at her, expression showing just what he thought of her word of the day. "Yeah, you like that one? That's a Princess Twilight special."
"Sis, don't do this. You know they were important. You know nopony'd say they weren't."
She sighed, and took another sip of cider. Mac moved towards the bottle, but she darted her hooves between it and him.
"I know, Mac. You're right, of course. I guess I just feel like they didn't know 'em, y'know? They think they're important 'cause of us. Not 'cause of them. It's how it always is, right? Everypony needs food, all the heroes and wizards and even the Princesses. But all them books Twi has, the Grand History of Equestria and all that. Ain't none of 'em that talks about an Apple. I'll be in..." she had to choke back a sob, "I'll be in all of 'em, and Ma and Pa won't be in any. You reckon that's right, Mac?"
Mac shrugged. Applejack felt his heavy yoke shift against her side with his movement, then a moment later, he wrapped a hoof around her and leaned against her.
"It ain't your fault you're special, sis. They don't mind, wherever they are. They're so proud."
She couldn't hold back the sobs, at that. Mac just stayed quiet, until she ran herself out. He knew when to play to his talents.
"Celestia I'm a mess," she managed. "I wish I could make 'em understand."
Mac was silent for a while.
"Maybe you can. Maybe they don't know 'bout the Apples 'cause nopony ever told 'em."
"What'd'ya mean by that?"
"Well, seems like you reckon they ain't in Miss Twilight's books 'cause no one cares..."
"Mhm."
"Maybe it's the other way 'round. Maybe they don't care 'cause they ain't in the books. Maybe they don't know 'cause nopony ever told 'em."
Applejack looked up at the sky again, all those layers of fireworks: the small Ponyville rockets barely visible against Canterlot's massive display, Luna's subtle tricks serving as backdrop, barely noticed. Finally, she smiled a little.
"Mac, did anypony ever tell you you're a genius?"
"Eeeenope."
"Well...well, maybe that's fair. But that's a darn good idea you've got there."
Mac headbutted her, but she could tell he didn't really mean it.
After everything died down, all the celebration and ceremonies and formalities, Princess Twilight Sparkle found herself at risk of being overwhelmed by her new home and duties. They brought forth that all-too-familiar feeling of an upcoming final: too many big things to really tackle.
So, she confronted them in the same way she confronted all such tasks: she prepared to beat them into small things, and then imprison those small things safely in checklists, schedules, and organizational schema.
"Spike!" Her call echoed in the vast hallways of her castle, and she winced. Before she could do much more than start breathing heavily, though, Spike appeared, scroll in hand.
"Planning checklist?"
She breathed out, normally, and felt herself calming again. "Planning checklist. Item one..."
By the time she'd finished the planning checklist, it was lunch time. She got ready to order out, only to find a guardpony at her side, bearing take-out hayburgers. Twilight thanked him, then added seventeen staff-related items to her checklist, then ate her lunch.
"Okay, Spike, now, I think first we should--" a knock on the study door cut her off. She shook her head. "Come in," she sighed, ready for some order of business that she was not ready for at all .
Instead, Applejack walked in, and Twilight smiled at her, at least as happy at seeing her friend as she was at avoiding the risk to her checklist. Well, probably at least as happy.
"Applejack! What are you doing here?"
"Hey Twi. Uh, do you have a minute?"
"For you? Of course! I was just making my planning checklist for the next few weeks. I have a lot of settling in to do, you know."
"Oh, uh, I wouldn't want to interrupt. I can come back,"
"Nonsense, AJ. I know you're busy, I don't want you to make the trip for nothing. The checklist will keep."
"Err, okay then, thanks. It's sorta official, though. Kind of."
"How can something be 'kind of' official?"
"Well, I was hoping you'd use your princess powers for me," Applejack looked at her hooves.
"Well, I can't promise anything, of course, but I know you wouldn't ask me to abuse it," Twilight tried not to let her curiosity show too much. "What do you need?"
"Well, I was thinking, that is, Mac'n I were talking, about how we never have regular folks showing up in your fancy history books. Like take the Apples. We've got ponies all over Equestria, doing important things. Making food, cutting wood, building farms and houses. We founded Ponyville, near enough! But I never see a book about those folks, just Starswirl, and Hurricane, and the the Princesses. At this rate, I'll be the only Apple in any of 'em!"
Twilight blinked. "Applejack, I had no idea you cared about this sort of thing."
"I mean, I never did before, but well, like I said, we were talking. I know you love all those books, and I'm sure Starswirl did real important things, but it ain't right." Applejack stared at her as if daring her to disagree.
"No I agree, I just...I admit it never occurred to me. All right, what do you want me to do?"
"Well, you're a Princess, I'm sure you can get somepony to write a book about the common folk. Call it 'A Pony's History of Equestria' or something. Fancy professor types are always looking for grants, right? I mean, they need to eat too."
Twilight laughed. "That's right, I suppose they are. But like you said, there are a lot of working ponies in Equestria, far more than there are Princesses or Starswirls. If you made a history like the one you're talking about, I think it wouldn't really be able to tell the stories of many individual ponies. You'd have to cover, say, what it was like to be a farmer in the pre-classical era, rather than tell a farmer's whole story. I'm not sure that's what you want."
"No, maybe not," Applejack sighed. "So...you don't think it's a good idea?"
Twilight held back a smile, feeling a plan come to her. It was one of her favorite feelings.
"I didn't say that. I just think it needs a bit of refinement. What if you just picked a few working ponies and told their stories? Some linked group that were all, or mostly all, farmers and pioneers and all those things you wanted to tell ponies about. Maybe a family, for example?"
"You don't mean..."
"What about a history of the Apple Family? I do!"
"Twi, can you really get somepony to do that? Do you know somepony who'd be able to?"
Twilight finally couldn't hold back her smile, and a little giggle. "I have a pretty good idea."
"Who? I don't reckon any fancy educated types care much about us. Well except you, of course, but you can't do it, with all this."
"I don't know any others that do either. But I do know a pony that just convinced me it's an important story, and who has extensive connections to primary sources inside the Apple family."
"Really...wait. Twi, you want me to write it?"
"Yes! Think about it AJ, you have the reunions at the farm, you already know a lot of the old stories. I bet if you asked, your family would bring scrapbooks, old letters, journals...it'd take an outsider years, decades to assemble all that research. And you know why it's important. You're right, I never thought about it. I love all the books about Starswirl and the Princesses and the heroes and villains and I always will, but you're right, and you made the case for it."
"I ain't a writer, Twi."
"I read your journal entries. You can write. You won't write like an academic, sure, but that's only fitting. You'll write like the ponies you'll be writing about, and the ponies you'll be writing to . You'll be clear, and simple, and make everypony understand how important the Apples are, and how important they are, even the ones that didn't study in Canterlot for years. If I got some professor to write this, it might change a few minds in academia. When you write it, it might change how ponies think about history all throughout Equestria."
"I dunno, Twi, I'm awful busy on the farm..."
"Like you said, I can give grants. I'm afraid, Applejack, you've convinced me of the importance of this project, and I don't think anypony can do it justice except you. Besides," Twilight looked at her sidelong, "if you want ponies, if you want everypony to read it and realize how important the simple ponies are, well, you can use the ways you aren't simple to do that. I know they'll all be happy they read about your granny and your aunts and your uncles, but they won't know that until they do. What they will know is that they want to read about you."
Applejack slumped a little, and let her hat slide down over her face.
"You ain't gonna give up on this until you see the foalish mess I turn out, are you?"
"I'm not going to give up on this until I see your book on the required reading list for Canterlot University's introductory history course. Now, let's talk about this grant."