Ars Magica: Book One, The Thirty Second Blackout

Chapters

1 The Immediate Effects
2 Unmasked
3 A House Built on Sand
4 Picking up the Pieces

1 The Immediate Effects

Twilight Sparkle’s relief was palpable. Her heart was still beating like a marching band drummer and her breath was coming in rapped pace but that feeling of dread was slowly fading away. She was still trembling as it lingered in her chest but for now it seemed everything was back in order.

Twilight looked at the shattered glass on the floor. She had been making herself a glass of milk when it happened. The cup was levitated in her magical field when, out of nowhere, she felt as if she was backhanded by a minotaur. A shockwave had washed over her entire castle, she didn’t see it, but she most definitely felt it. It was like standing in an ocean and being struck by a five foot wave.

At first she didn’t notice anything amiss. It wasn’t until she absent mindedly tried to clean up the scattered pieces of glass while pondering what just happened when a dreadful pit began to form in her chest, her body seeming to realize what was wrong a split second before her mind put it together.

Her magic wasn’t working.

It was like trying to move a limb that had been slept on wrong and was completely numb. She could feel her brain sending the instructions to her horn but nothing was happening. So, Twilight Sparkle did what was expected of her brilliant, rational, and priencessy self, she flipped the heck out.

“Why isn’t it working? It has to work, it has to work.” She sputtered frantically, all other things in the world completely forgotten in favor of this small pile of glass shards and their refusal to obey one of the most basic axioms of the universe. That is, when Twilight grabs them with her magic, they respond.

“No. No no no. Nonononononononono! What’s going…..” Whhhiimm, her magic suddenly grabbed the glass shards and brought them, a little too quickly, likely due to the hoofculean effort she was putting into it at that point, up level with her eyes. “Whew, thank goodness.” She said as calm slowly returned. She waved the glass shards around a bit, putting them down and picking them back up to make sure everything was working and it seemed to be.

Collecting herself and breathing deeply, as her sister-in-law Cadence had taught her, Twilight began to ponder what had just transpired. Could it have been Magic Exhaustion? She thought, No, no, that doesn’t make any sense. I don’t have any of the symptoms and I haven’t exerted myself lately.

Ah! She reminded herself, but you did channel an immeasurable amount of power to defeat Tirek.

Yes, but that was the Tree of Harmony’s power, not mine. That wouldn’t cause M.E. would it?

That was still an incredible amount of power being squeezed all at once through your horn. Maybe it’s…..

It’s not Mana Burn, I would definitely *feel** that.*

Just as Twilight was beginning to grow concerned anew, a groan of pain drew her attention to the castles dining area. She arrived in the kitchen to find a certain baby dragon on his back holding the side of his mouth with one hand and his belly with the other. An orange citrine on the floor and a bowl of other assorted gemstones on the table were evidence that he had been preparing himself some Jewel Pancakes for breakfast.

“Spike! Are you ok? What’s wrong?” Twilight asked, her concern over her possible disability completely forgotten in the wake of seeing her oldest friend and Number One Assistant on the floor in obvious discomfort.

“Owwww, oh, my stomach. It feels like I swallowed a knife. Auugh, and I think I broke a tooth on that last one.” Spike tried to get to his feet but a sudden lance of pain struck him in his stomach again and he doubled over. “Arrgh, my horde for an antacid.”

“Hold on Spike, I’ll cast a pain reliever on you…..as soon as I find it. Come on,” she lifted spike up onto her back, “let’s go to the library.”

Twilight’s castle library was a sight to behold. The destruction of her old treehouse library at the hands of Tirek had left her in a state of depression. She knew that it could be replaced but it was still saddening, like losing an old friend. Of course her first act as the newly dubbed Princess of Friendship was to commission a new library. It proved unnecessary however as the Tree of Harmony seemed to anticipate her wants and accommodated. On her first night in the new castle, while exploring, she and Spike had come across the room and lo and behold, therein was a fully stocked library to rival that of the Canterlot Archives.

The library was a two story circular room with bookshelves lining the walls in both directions and two elegant curved staircases that merged into one towards the back. Lanterns adorned every second bookshelf as well as on the ceiling with a chandelier that was at once both modest and somehow fitting of royalty. The center was lined with a royal blue carpet with bare stone around the outer edges and a statue in the middle of a certain famous belle clad wizard whom Twilight idolized. There we also, of course, reading couches.

Twilight, upon discovering this little gift left to her by the Tree, stood in the entrance way, frozen in place. Not moving, not blinking, and barely even breathing. Spike started to worry about her after ten minutes of this and absolutely no response to any of his calls or pokes. Eventually he managed to break her from her stooper by declaring Pi to be exactly three. One remedial mathematics lesson later, she was whinnying like a school filly and bouncing around her new Mecca, until her body finally forced her to sleep at 5 in the morning.

Now though, the grandeur of the library was the furthest thing from her mind. Laying a still groaning spike on the couch, she immediately set about a search for a book that had a pain relief spell. “Ok Spike, now tell me what happened. I need to know if I should take you to Zecora.” Twilight didn’t even consider a doctor or a vet as both had tried and failed to diagnose a problem with spike in the past.

“I…I’m not sure” Spike said as he rubbed the scales on his belly. “I was making us breakfast and the next thing I know, I’m on the floor hurting like a unicorn is trying to poke a hole in my stomach from the inside.

“Did you eat anything this morning?” Twilight asked, discarding a book with the title “Viruses, Bacteria, and Microbes, Oh My!”

“I just had a few gems while I was making my Jewel Pancakes. Don’t think I’ll ever touch a citrine again.”

“Why not? You eat citrines all the time.” Daring Doo’s Field Survival Guide. No that’s not it, why isn’t this in the fiction section. Actually, should the Daring Doo series be in the Autobiography section? Gah, focus, Twilight, where was that one with the unicorn coltscout leader on the cover?

“I took a bite out of it and my tooth broke in two. I’m just glad dragon teeth grow back more than once. Still really hurt though.” Spike was panting heavily, still in obvious discomfort but not, it seemed, as much as he had been.

“That doesn’t make any sense, I thought diamonds were the only thing that could break dragon teeth. Ah ha! Here it is, Twenty One Spells Every Unicorn Should Know. Let’s see, spell 17, the Pain Numbing Enchantment. A simple spell that provides immediate relief from all but the worst aches and pains. WARNING: THIS IS NOT A HEALING SPELL. Medical treatment should be sought immediately for serious injuries.”

The floating book snapped shut in front of Twilight as she turned her attention to Spike. “Okay,” she said, “This should just take a second.” Spike felt as his body was engulfed in Twilight’s familiar purple aura and then, the pain slowly ebbed away and finally stopped all together.

“Oh thank goodness. I don’t know if I could have lasted much longer,” The relief on Spike’s face exceedingly visible. “You’re the best Twi.”

“You’re welcome, Number One Assistant. Now back to the matter at hoof, are you sure that’s all you did this morning?”

“Uh huh.”

“What about in the past few days? There has to have been something you ate.” Twilight was already pulling other books from the shelves, looking for causes of illness in dragons. Unfortunately, there was very little on the subject of dragon anatomy. Not that there weren’t ponies who got to study a dragon’s insides up close, rather they weren’t really in a position to publish books on the subject afterwards.

“I’m positive, Twilight, I think I would remember eating something strange.”

“Did you eat any…meat?”

“Wha..? NO! I definitely didn’t eat any meat.”

Twilight looked at Spike skeptically, “Its ok Spike, I understand, dragons need protein and…”

“Twilight! The only things I’ve eaten in my life that are even remotely carnivorous are eggs and fish, and I only tried fish once. You know me, I like gems.”

This was true, Twilight thought, Spike’s diet was exclusively gems. While not much was known about dragons, what was known was that dragons could eat literally anything they could fit into their mouths. Their stomachs had enchanted enzymes that could break down even the hardest materials. And gems were rich in magic that they needed to survive.

Magic? Twilight’s magic had been refusing to work around the same time Spike had had his incident. But that couldn’t be related, could it? “Spike, I’m going to go see Zecora, she helped us last time with your growth spurt so maybe she can shed some light on this. Will you be ok on your own?”

“Yeah, yeah. I feel loads better, in fact I think I’ll go finish making breakfast.” He was off the couch and out the door before Twilight could point out the obvious problem with eating again so soon.

“Ugh, Owlowiscious?” She called, he pet owl who had been sitting on his roost the whole time, quietly watching the exchange quickly fluttered down and perched on the armrest of one of the chairs.

“Hoo?” While Twilight couldn’t speak Owl, she always manage to infer what Owlowiscious was saying from context. At least she liked to think she did, sometimes he really was just saying ‘who.’

“Would you look after Spike for me? I need to run to Zecora’ s, if he starts hurting again please come get me right away.”

“Hoo”, and with that, he flew off towards the kitchen. Satisfied that Spike was ok for the time being, Twilight set out for Zecora’ s Everfree Forest hut.

***

“You are right in thinking it strange, very little can cause a dragon stomach pain.” The zebra shaman, Zecora, spoke in her usual rhyming dialect after listening to Twilights tale. On another day Twilight might have pointed out that ‘strange’ and ‘pain’ technically didn’t rhyme but she was more focused on her Number One Assistant’s ailment. “These Symptoms you are describing, sound like a tear in stomach lining.”

Twilight Sparkle’s mind works in a strange way. It will hear the words, define them, and then combine them to draw a conclusion. In this case, she heard ‘tear’ which means to cut or rip, a negative word. Then there was ‘stomach ’, a noun describing a vital organ that needs to be in perfect working order at all times for a being to survive. Tear plus stomach equals PANIC!!!!!!!!!!

In her mind, the part that controls emotion running around with her hooves flailing and screaming, “Spike’s mortally wounded, he’s going to die!!!! What do I do, what do I do?!?!?!?!” Meanwhile, in another part of her head, there was the one who was responsible for calm rational thought. She tried to say that such injuries were often minor and perhaps they should let the expert tell them what to do, however, she had a nasty habit of speaking in a voice that even Fluttershy would call ‘too quiet’ during times when it really mattered. Now was one such time.

All this took place in less than a second and Twilight began hyperventilating for the second time in as many hours. Gabbing Zecora by her withers she voiced what her inner self had been screaming, “What do I do? How do I fix it? Is Spike going to be alright? What do I do?”

“Calm yourself Princess Twilight, I assure you Spike will be alright.” Zecora replied in a calm motherly tone. It worked wonders, reminding Twilight of the way Princess Celestia had often spoke to her. “Spike’s lack of vomiting is a good sign, it means his injury is benign. Prepare soft foods for his meal, and in a few days he shall heal.”

Twilight let out a quick sigh and wiped her brow, “phew, I was almost worried there for a moment.” Zecora smiled and while Twilight wasn’t looking rolled her eyes. Now that Twilight was able to think strait, a thought occurred to her. “Zecora, dragon’s stomachs are magically reinforced aren’t they? I’ve even heard stories of minotaur’s making armor out of it in the Pre Celestial age. What could spike have eaten that would have done such a thing?”

“Not much can harm a dragon this is true, I fear I don’t have an answer for you.” Twilight’s ears drooped, she hated not knowing something. But at least Spike would be alright.

“Thank you Zecora, you’ve been a big help. Spike isn’t going to be happy about not being able to eat gems for a few days though.” Twilight turned to leave.

“Your thanks warm my heart, tis why I practice the herbal arts. And if a diet of gems he insists, I can make you a quick list, of alchemical potions and balms, that will insure his healing won’t go wrong.” Zecora went to her cabinet and placed several bottles in a pouch which she handed to Twilight. “These medicines of red, purple and orange, will insure that Spike…..”

Zecora never got to finish her sentence as right at that moment the door burst open to reveal a certain blue pegasus with a rainbow mane.

“Twilight! I’ve been looking all over for you, you have to come quick! There’s an emergency, well two emergencies but one is bigger.” Rainbow Dash already had Twilight by the hoof and was dragging her out the door. Twilight wrested her herself free and looked up at her panicked friend.

“Rainbow what in Equestria is going on, what emergency?”

“We’ll my cloud house fell out of the sky, but that’s not important now, there’s a CHANGELING in ponyville!”

Twilight had just begun to process the part about Rainbow’s house falling out of the sky but everything skidded to a halt at the word ‘changeling’. It was going to be a long day.

2 Unmasked

“Rain..ha..bow, slow down. You know I’m…ha, ha.. not nearly as.. ha… fast as you.” Twilight landed on a cloud panting as she spoke. After Rainbow Dash had grabbed Twilight she took off, dragging the befuddled princess behind her. As they breached the canopy of the Everfree Forest, Rainbow let go of her purple friend and darted towards Ponyville at what, in her mind at least, was a painfully slow pace. Evidently not slow enough for the still relatively new to flying Twilight.

Rainbow turned and landed on the cloud next to Twilight with a frustrated huff. “Come on Twi, we don’t have time for this. Or did you miss the part about the CHANGELING?”

Twilight magically grabbed a puff of the cloud they were on and floated it above her head. Turning her mouth up she then rang the cloud puff like a sponge to let the cool refreshing rainwater fall onto her tongue. With her breath slowing, she glared at her impatient friend.

“I know we need to hurry, but I’ve only just gotten the hang of flying. I’m not an athlete.”

“Said the pony who just the other day broke every speed record in the book. I still say that doesn’t count by the way.”

“Exactly, I had the power of four alicorns when I did that. Now I’m flying on my own power.”

Rainbow Dash sighed and rolled her eyes. She took off and hovered just off to the side of the cloud, looking towards Ponyville. “Fine we can slow down, but still we should get moving. AJ and Pinky have the changeling cornered but who knows if he’s the only one.”

“Your right, let’s get moving.” They took off, flying at a more reasonable pace for Twilight. “You also said something about your house falling?”

“Yeah, but I saved it though. Well, most of it anyway.” Rainbow mumbled the last part to herself.

“That’s just strange, why would your house fall out of the sky? I mean it’s made from clouds for Pony’s sake.”

“Well, yea but there are clouds and then there’s clouds.” Rainbow said, as if Twilight understood what she meant. Seeing the confusion on the lavender alicorn’s face, she knew she had to elaborate. “You see the base and the furniture and stuff are made out of regular clouds, the kind only pegasi can stand on, but then you have what we call ‘condensed clouds’ which are a lot more solid. You remember that time at the Wonderbolt’s Academy when I saved you guys by grabbing a bunch of clouds and squeezing them together?”

“Yea.” Twilight said, starting to get a slight idea of what Rainbow was getting at.

“Well that was kinda like a condensed cloud, or c-cloud as some ponies call it. It’s basically a whole bunch of clouds squished together really, really tight to make it solid. And that’s what the columns, pathways and the walls were made out of. That’s the part that fell though the bottom.”

Twilight rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “Any idea why it would suddenly fall through regular clouds then?”

“Beats me, they’re made with pegasus magic so they should be able to float on clouds for like, ever.”

Twilight was struck with a sudden thought. All of the disasters that morning seemed to have one thing in common, magic. When she had last fought Queen Chrysalis after the changeling attack on Ponyville, The Queen had let slip that she could drain magic as well as love. And now there was a changeling in Ponyville, it couldn’t be coincidence. If this changeling was the one responsible for Spike’s injury and Rainbow’s destroyed house, well, Magic Kindergarten was about to have its first ever non-unicorn student.

***

It had been nearly a year since Rep had one of his ‘how in Equestria did I end up here?’ moments, he was beginning to wonder if he was finally pulling off the fabled ‘normal life’ as they call it. Unfortunately, he was playing a game with the Universe called ‘Up yours, Rep.’ and it was now the Universe’s turn.

Hogtied and exposed in his changeling form, he looked up at his captors who not half an hour ago were chatting with him like friends. Applejack, the one responsible for his capture and rather uncomfortable position, was pacing back and forth in front of the Ponyville fountain against which his back was propped. Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie was giving him a death glare that was at once comically innocent and terrifyingly serious. She wore what was obviously a bicycle helmet that had been painted army green to look like something a solider would wear into battle and pointed a toy rifle with a wooden cork on a string right at his face.

Normally he would have laughed at the idea that she could pose any threat with a toy that wouldn’t qualify as a weapon even if used as a blunt object but during the initial chase, not only had she managed to hit him with it but it actually hurt. Rather than risk getting hit again, Rep decided to think back on his day and try to pinpoint where everything had gone to the moon.

It all started normally enough; Rep woke up, ate breakfast, brushed his teeth, the usual morning routine. He stepped in front of his vanity mirror to make sure his pony disguise was in order, a light brown coated stallion with a white mane and a simple lock and key cutie mark, perfect for blending in with the crowd. As far as the residents of Ponyville were concerned, he was just Lock Tight, your friendly neighborhood locksmith.

Most ponies also assumed that the reason he didn’t open up shop until 10:00 am was because he liked to do his shopping in the morning. This was only half true, while he did do his shopping in the mornings; it was also the time when he fed on the emotions of the citizens. Like all changelings, he was addicted to the essence of emotion.

He had to choose his targets carefully as he no longer had his fellow changelings or a home to run back to. Ponyville was his home now, and he needed to avoid suspicion at all costs. Obviously he couldn’t suck a pony completely dry of emotions as that would reveal his presence immediately. And, though Rep would never admit it, he had also grown somewhat fond of the ponies of Ponyville in the months since he moved in. So he would take only a little bit of love and happiness from a number of different ponies each day. Not enough to cause permanent damage, but enough to sate his addiction and leave his victims a bit grouchy for a few hours.

As Rep reflected on the morning’s events he mused at his luck of choosing Applejack’s apple stall on that day of all days. Had he known that his guise would suddenly and for no apparent reason drop, he probably would have just stayed home. Blissfully ignorant of The Universe’s impending round winning play, he approached the farm pony’s stall as he would have on any other occasion.

“Mornin’ Miss Apple, beautiful day today. Got my usual?” Rep could already feel the warm, oh so satisfying love radiating from Applejack. Platonic love wasn’t as good as romantic love but that would require a relationship and Rep wasn’t willing to risk that.

“Sheer is Mr. Lock Tight, and I got your usual order right here.” Applejack ducked behind the counter and returned with a burlap sack full of apples. “One dozen Red Delicious, that’ll be fifteen bits.”

Rep, or rather Lock Tight as he was currently being addressed, got out his bit bag then attempted to engage AJ in some small talk. He needed at least a minute or two to drain enough of her love. The great thing about AJ was that she was so friendly to others that she could keep him sated for hours. Though she was nothing compared to Pinkie Pie, that mare could feed an army.

“So how’s your family doing? Little Apple Bloom get her cutie mark yet?” Rep said as he began syphoning off AJ’s love.

“Nah, not yet. Trust me, Sugar Cube, you’ll know when she gets it, the whole town’ll know I reckon.”

“I’ll bet there’ll be two parties, a cuteceañera for Apple Bloom, and an ‘End of the Crusade’ party for the rest of us.”

“Heh heh, yea, but we’ll still have two ta go. Those fillies, I tell ya.” As Applejack mentioned her sister, Rep got a rather large boost in the love he was harvesting. Just a little more…

That’s when he felt it, like a wave, something washed over him and caused him to lose balance. Rep fell to the ground and for the briefest of moments he thought he’d been hit with another shield spell like the one that cast him and his fellows out of Canterlot nearly two years ago.

“Whew did you feel that? What in tarnation do you suppose……” Rep looked up to see why AJ had stopped and noticed that she was staring at him with her mouth agape. Following her gaze to his legs he couldn’t help but notice that they were decidedly more black and full of holes than they were a moment ago.

Standing back up he put on the most innocent smile he could and said “So, 15 bits right?”

“Ch-CHANGELING!” AJ shouted and dove over her apple stand towards Rep. He just barely managed to dodge and took off running, he had to get out of town. He made a quick dart to the left between two buildings, hoping to change into another pony to hide long enough to make an escape. But when he tried, nothing happened, whatever had hit him seemed to have removed his ability to shape shift.

“Get back here ya varmint!” Applejack was closing fast, if he was going to have any hope of escape, he would have to lose her somehow. Flying wasn’t an option, in his exposed form he’d be seen by every pony in town.

Looking out at the street, he noticed that the farm pony was presently distracted. A Pegasus was on the ground, nursing what looked like a sprained hoof. Actually there were a number of pegasi that appeared to be injured. One green mare was crawling out of a pile of broken crates and scattered fruit and yet another grey pegasus mare with a blond tail and bubble cutie mark was attempting to pull her head out of a hole she had made in the roof of one of the buildings.

Seizing his chance, Rep darted out of the alleyway and ran as fast as he could for the path leading to the Everfree Forest. He could hide in there for a little while and come up with a plan of action. He got about 10 feet before he was tackled by a pink blur. He looked up to see a cork gun pointed right at his face and an angry, at least by Pinkie standards, Pinkie Pie on top of him.

“Freeze, Mister, or I’ll give ya a taste of Ol’ Popy.” Pinkie said in her ‘angry voice’ as she called it. Rep blinked then furrowed his brow.

“What are you going to do? Pester me to death? Because I happen to be a highly trained…ouch!” Rep wouldn’t have believed it but it seemed that ‘Ol Popy’ packed a punch. Before he had time to recover, his legs were suddenly caught by a lasso and bound by Applejack.

And so he came to the present, trying to figure out why his magic had failed him. At first he thought it was some new spell the ponies had developed to fight changelings but that was ruled out when Rainbow Dash had shown up saying something about pegasi and cloud homes falling out of the sky. He didn’t get much more sense as soon as she saw him, she darted off to find Princess Twilight.

As Rep awaited his fate, Applejack continued her pacing in front of the fountain. “Ah just don’t get it. Pegasi falling out of the sky all over the place, and them unicorns all dropping the stuff they were carrying with their floaty magic an runnin’ around all scared like a timber wolf in a lumber yard. And this changeling...” She shot a glance at Rep, he looked back, trying his best to look innocent which is hard to do with fangs and pupil-less eyes. “Just you wait till Twilight gets here, she’ll give ya what fer.”

“She’ll get the same thing you did, Miss Apple, I don’t know where Chrysalis or any of the other changelings are. I haven’t seen anyone else since we escaped that castle.”

“That’s reminds me,” Pinkie suddenly spoke up, “how did you get past my Pinkie Suite™? You better not have broken it!”

Rep shuttered in horror as memories of that abomination came forward. “I think it ran out of magic, that or it was over powered by the collective will of every changeling in existence.” He shuttered. “I always thought we were masters of torture but that…that song…..it was just…cruel.”

Pinkie suddenly perked up, “Oh yea, I remember that song. ‘This is the song that neeeveer eeeennnddds!’” Pinkie sang as she bounced around in front of Rep. He immediately sized up and began to tremble.

“Nooooooooo stop please I beg you, anything but that!” Rep curled into a ball trying desperately to cover his ears.

Applejack rolled her eyes and went back to her pacing. A whoosh singled the arrival of Twilight and Rainbow Dash. “What in tarnation took ya so long Rainbow? Y’all said ya be back before I could say ‘fastest pony alive’. I could‘a wrote a book about it by now.”

“Hey give me a break, AJ, Twilight wasn’t home. I had to go all the way to Zacora’s to get her.”

Applejack turned to face Twilight, “Why were you at Zecora’s? Does she know what’s goin’ on?”

“No, I had to get medicine for Spike, I’ll explain later. How many changelings are there?” Twilight looked over to Rep who was attempting to bang the hideous song out of his head.

"Just this one so far, but Ah been thinkin’ bout it for a bit and it just don’t make sense. He was standin’ right in front a’ me, Twi, and he seemed just as shocked as Ah was when his disguise fell. I think there’s somethin’ bigger than changelings goin’ on here.”

“Well let’s find out what he knows.” Twilight walked over to Rep and lifted him up so that he was sitting eye level with herself. Rep came back to his senses and saw the princess of friendship staring him down. He furrowed his brow and stilled himself, This is it, he thought, interrogation time.

Twilight flared her wings and bore the most intimidating expression she could think of, namely, that of a teacher about to scold a student. “Changeling, in the name of the crown of Equestria, I demand you tell me what you’re doing here and were the rest of your army is!” Twilight smiled internally, she had been looking for a reason to use the Royal Canterlot Voice for a while now.

For a few moments, there was silence. Then, Rep snickered and finally broke out into a full blown laugh. Twilight could only stare in bewilderment. “What’s so funny?”

“Ah hah ha, I..ha..I’m sorry, it just….pwehaaa you had such a serious look on your face, it was adorable.” Rep fell on his side, still laughing.

Twilight blushed, turning her purple face a shade of magenta. “I..I’m not adorable, I’m intimidating, you’re supposed to be intimidated!” As she said that, there was a light snort from her side, then a giggle as Pinkie began laughing as well.

“Ughh, Pinkie, not helping.”

Applejack was suppressing a grin of her own, Rainbow on the other hoof wasn’t in a laughing mood. “Alright that’s it, somepony owes me a house and you,” she said as hovered in front of the changeling who was slowly recovering from hysterics, her nose less than an inch from his own, “you are going to tell us what you did to knock us pegasi AND my house out of the sky.”

Twilight was surprised by that last bit of information. “Wait, what do you mean ‘knocked you out of the sky’?”

“That’s right,” Applejack spoke up before Rainbow could, “While I was chasing this here varmint, I saw a bunch o’ other pegasi crashing into buildings and unicorns were dropping everything they were holdin’. Actually, now that Ah think about it,” she put a hoof to her chin in thought, “for a moment there Ah felt real tired all of a sudden. Kinda like Ah did when that Tirek fella took mah earth pony magic.”

Twilight was trying to put it all together in her head, had what happened to her and Spike that morning happened to all of Ponyville? “You, changeling,” she turned to the detainee who had finally recovered from his laughing fit.

“Rep.”

“What?”

“My name, it’s Rep.”

“Fine, Rep, do you know anything about what’s causing this?”

“No I don’t, look, I’ll admit I’ve been taking the love energy from the ponies of Ponyville but not enough to hurt any of them. And before you ask, no, I don’t know what happened to Chrysalis.”

Part of Twilight wanted to trust that Rep was being honest, but it’s hard to trust a creature for whom deception part of their existence. “I noticed you didn’t call her ‘queen’.”

“Yea, that’s part of why I’m here. A lot of us decided we’d had enough of the ‘Good Queen’” he said the last part with no attempt to hide his distain. “She promised us a paradise in Equestria, we thought she genuinely wanted to help us with our curse. All she wanted was power, that became clear when she ordered us to attack Ponyville even though there was no need. The place we landed after we were cast out of Canterlot was full of simple little cat-like creatures that could provide all the love we’d ever want. After our second defeat at the castle, I decided I was done following her, and I wasn’t alone in that regard. When we escaped, those of us with half a brain left Chrysalis and the few still stupid enough to follow her behind. I came to Ponyville because it was the closest town and I needed something to sate my addiction.”

Rep’s story left Twilight with more questions than answers. “What addiction? And you mentioned a curse, ignoring the fact that there’s no such thing as curses, what did you mean by that?” Rep was about to respond but never got a chance.

A distant boom, like a roar of thunder, overtook Rep and the 4 ponies causeing them all to look around for the source of the noise.

Twilight blinked, “What in the world was…”

“Look, over there!” Rainbow yelled as she took to the sky for a better view. Twilight joined her and followed her gaze. There, in the distance was a large black cloud that seemed to be rising from the earth, the boom still echoed in her ears. There was only one explanation, some sort of explosion had taken place, from the looks of things it must have been a large one.

“What was that?” Rainbow asked, never taking her eyes off the massive smoke plume. “Did we get hit by a meteor or something?”

Twilight considered, “Maybe but I don’t think so, it definitely looks like something fell out of the sky.” She froze as soon as she finished speaking, something in her mind clicking at what Rainbow had said on the way to the town square.

Well that was kinda like a condensed cloud, or c-cloud as some ponies call it….And that’s what the columns, pathways and the walls were made out of. That’s the part that fell though the bottom.

“Rainbow……” Twilight spoke in a quiet steady voice, “those condensed clouds you told me about, how much of it is used in the construction of cloud cities and such?” She hoped, prayed to all the powers that are, were, or ever would be that her hunch was wrong.

Rainbow turned to face twilight for the first time since the explosion. “Like, practically the whole thing. Only the foundation is regular cloud, why?”

Twilight suddenly felt sick, she posed one more question but in her heart she already knew the answer. “And….what’s in that direction?” She gestured towards the smoke.

Rainbow seemed to finally catch on to what her friend was trying to say. Her eyes became pinpricks and her heart rose in her throat as she spoke the answer.

“C-Cloudsdale……”

3 A House Built on Sand

4 Hours earlier…

Celestia yawned as she made her way to the veranda where she and her sister Luna shared their morning tea. It was still dusk out but the two alicorns were about to change that. She found Luna sitting at the table where an elderly unicorn stallion was preparing their tea. On Luna’s head sat Tiberius, her pet opossum, napping peacefully.

“Ah, sister, just in time, I was just telling Kibitz here about my latest foray into the Dream-scape.”

“It must be a fascinating tale; it seems my dear adviser can’t contain himself.” Celestia grinned, knowing full well the real reason Kibitz was antsy.

The old cream colored stallion ruffled his mustache, “Not that I don’t appreciate a good tale but I simply must insist that I be excused. I’m already two and a half minutes behind schedule.” He pulled a pocket watch matching his cutie mark from his jacket and eyed it nervously.

“Very well, your excused Kibitz,” Celestia said as she took the seat across from her sister. “So Luna, how was your night?”

“Most exciting, five Tirek nightmares tonight and only three of them were Discord’s.”

Celestia smiled as she sipped her tea, “He must be feeling guilty still, hard to believe he actually has a conscience.”

“And just why is that so hard to believe?” a disembodied voice said.

The two sisters began looking around for the source of the voice, which they knew to belong to Discord himself. “Up here” he said, drawing their attention to the moon. As they looked up, the moon rotated around to reveal a grinning, moon-shaped face of the draconequis. In a flash his face vanished returning the moon to normal while he crawled onto the veranda, appearing to lift the skyline of Canterlot as one would a stage curtain. “I’ll have you know I have a very good conscience, see?” He held up a small bird cage which contained an apathetic looking cricket wearing a top hat and a cane discarded on the floor next to it.

Celestia hid her eye roll by sipping a cup of tea at the same time. “Good morning to you too, Discord.”

“I couldn’t help but over hear your little conversation, mind if I join your little princess tea party?” Celestia wasn’t sure what annoyed her more, that he compared her and her sister’s bonding time to a little girl’s game, or the fact that he was technically correct in that they were in fact princesses having a tea party.

“I don’t particularly mind, but is there a reason you’re joining us? You usually don’t come to me unless you want something.”

Discord disappeared and re-appeared an instant later wearing what appeared to be an old sage’s robe and short white hair. Placing a hand on his forehead he said, “I sensed a great disturbance in the force, of magic.” Opening one eye, he continued in a far more casual tone, “and I thought I’d let you know.”

Luna spoke up for the first time since Discord arrived, “Care to elaborate, Discord, or do you plan on telling jokes all night?”

“As much as I would love to do that, I fear this is a bit of a serious matter.” That immediately got Celestia and Luna’s attention. If Discord thought something was serious enough to get right to the point, then it had to be dire indeed. “You see a few moments ago I felt a rather large shift in the flow of magic, as if it was all converging on one spot. In fact it’s still flowing and it’s getting faster. I trust I don’t need to tell you that this could result in a great deal of chaos, and not the cheeky and fun kind of chaos that I offer, but the cruel and tragic kind of chaos.”

Celestia paused and closed her eyes, she concentrated hard on The Weave, the fabric that was the magic of Equis, she couldn’t feel it like Discord but if she knew what to look for she could almost sense it. Sure enough, there was something strange about how it felt. Celestia couldn’t quite place it but she could only assume what Discord had said was correct.

“I can feel it, just barely, though I can’t say why, something feels different about The Weave.”

“So what does this mean, sister?” Luna asked. Luna, who had been a pegasus before her apotheosis lacked the thorough understanding of magic that Celestia, who had been a unicorn, possessed.

Before Celestia could answer, there came a grunting sound to her left. Looking over, they both saw Discord sitting at a school desk wearing a propeller hat and holding up his right arm with his left. Fidgeting, the ever joking draconequis waved his hand back and forth, practically jumping out of the desk.

Luna let out a sigh, “Discord?”

“It’s simple really; imagine a big pool of water.” Discord snapped his fingers producing filly-pool filled with water. “Now imagine that there’s a device in the middle trying to suck all that water in.” A small SCUBA tank appeared in the center of the pool with a vacuum hosed attached and began drawing in the water. “There’s two possible outcomes of this; one, all the water gets sucked in leaving nothing for the poor little kiddies to swim in or two, the device takes too much aannnnnddd….” The tank in the middle grew to a comically bloated size before it exploded, dousing the two princesses in water while Discord hid behind a little black umbrella.

Celestia and Luna gave the amused prankster a deadpan stare, their soaked mains clinging to the side and front of their faces. Tiberius, disturbed from his nap, shook off the water and scurried off to find a better sleeping spot. “Opsie, let me get that for you.” Discord said with blow-dryer in hand. With a gale force, Luna suddenly found herself dry but now had a frizzy afro for her trouble. Discord held up a small mirror, “you like?”

“Is there a point to any of this?” Luna asked in the royal canterlot voice while Celestia, whom had already dried herself, stifled a giggle.

“Certainly, you see I highly doubt that there’s anything in the world that can hold all that magic, which means that whatever is doing this is about to go boom.”

“And how much damage would that cause?”

“None, I would think,” Celestia said after regaining her composure, “raw magic isn’t physical, us and our subjects might feel the shockwave of magic but it won’t do anything.”

Discord clicked his tongue, “My dear Celestia, weren’t you paying attention?” He placed an arm around Celestia's neck and with his other hand produced a black rectangular object with different shaped buttons. Pointing the object at the pool of water he pressed the button shaped like two left pointing arrows causing the previous explosion of water to reverse. As the pieces of debris came back together to form the SCUBA tank, Discord pressed the right pointing triangle shaped button causing the reversal to stop and the event to play out as it had before.

“It’s riiiiiiiiggghht here.” He said, pressing a third button shaped like two parallel lines. The tank, which had exploded exactly as before, was now frozen mid blast. Pieces of the tank hung in the air while water appeared frozen in a tidal wave rushing away from the center of the pool. “Now then, what do you notice about the middle area there?”

Celestia and Luna looked; the Sun Princess suddenly went wide eyed. In the center of the pool was a small radius of empty space where the water had been pushed away by the force of the blast. If the water represented The Weave, then the area nearest the center would be devoid of any and all magic until the water/Weave returned.

Discord grinned, “I see you’ve caught on.”

Luna seemed to as well, “are you saying that if this…magic vacuum or whatever it is, explodes then magic will be pushed out of the area in the middle like the water was?”

“Correct, gold star for you!”

“I still fail to see the problem,” Luna said as Discord handed her a gold star sticker. “So there will be areas that lose their magic for a few moments. If your demonstration is apt, however, magic will quickly return just as the water did.”

“No, Luna, that is the problem,” Celestia said, her voice quiet and borderline trembling. “Even if it’s only for an instant, the damage caused would be unprecedented.”

“Indeed, apart from the obvious things like unicorns losing their powers, other creatures that depend on magic will be in danger. Enchantments will also fail, and unlike natural magic, enchantments won’t come back on their own. And I’d certainly hate to be a pegasus flying really high up when that happens.”

Celestia quickly stood, “Discord, how much time do we have and how big of an area will be affected?”

Discord popped in and out of existence again, changing into a costume. This time he wore a white lab coat with glasses. With him was a large machine of some kind with rotating spools and flashing lights. Celestia would later think it reminded her of the ones Twilight Sparkle kept in her basement. The machine spit out a long strip of paper that Discord tore off and read while holding his glasses with one hand.

“Assuming Tirek to be the largest know vessel for containing magic and how much it would take for him to pop like a balloon aaannndd the force such a pop would release, I’d say all of Equestria at least, perhaps even some parts of the lands beyond. As for the time, at the rate its going, I’d say we have a few hours at best. It really all depends on how large this vessel is and whether or not the being operating it can shut it off.”

“We have to assume that they don’t. Luna, how fast can you communicate with your dream magic? We need to make sure no pegasus is flying for the next few hours.”

“I fear I can’t reach every pegasus in time with such a message, sister. There is one thing I could do, though I am loath to do it. I could send out a subliminal dream.” Luna grimaced, as though the idea seemed to repulse her. A subliminal dream was like a subconscious message where in a subtle idea or suggestion could be planted in a pony’s mind. The pony would not remember the dream but the subconscious mind would and in that way, behavior could be influenced. Luna had discovered this ability by accident and she was horrified by it. Just thinking about what the Nightmare could have done if it knew how to utilize that ability made Luna shudder.

“Luna,” Celestia placed a gentle hoof on her sister’s, snapping her back to reality. “I would not ask you to do that, knowing how you feel about it. Surly there is another way….”

“Perhaps there is, sister but if Discord is correct, we don’t have time to find one. I will send out the subliminal dream en mass to every pegasus in Equestria to make them feel as though today would be a terrible day to fly. It won’t keep them grounded but perhaps it will make them want to stay close to the ground.”

“Thank you, Luna. Discord, you’re coming with me, we need to send out correspondents to make sure any wards that fail are re-established and…..what?”

Discord was massaging his temples and sighing. “Oh, just thinking about a quote I heard once, ‘Like a foolish pony who built his house on sand’ or in the sky in this case.”

“In the sky……by the stars, Cloudsdale!” Celestia raced back into the castle and into the throne room.

Kibitz jumped as she busted through the doors. “You’re Majesty, what’s…”

“Kibitz, clear my schedule, there’s been an emergency. I need you summon the Royal Guard, and send a message to the headmaster of the school for gifted unicorns to have Inkwell and eleven of their most experienced casters to meet here as soon as possible. They are going to have to raise the sun for me today. Inkwell knows how but she’ll need the others help.”

“Of course, You’re Majesty; I shall contact them at once.”

“As quickly as you can, Kibitz, we only have a few hours to evacuate Cloudsdale.”

***

Rainbow Blaze had to put up with a lot of things in his life. As head of the Cloudsdale rainbow factory, he had colts and fillies who acted nervous around him because of that stupid (and completely untrue) urban legend about what happened to bad little ponies who misbehaved. As the father of Rainbow Dash, he was constantly bombarded with questions from fans and reporters who wanted to know about ‘the stallion that raised the mare’. And as one of the only ponies with a rainbow colored main, he suffered no end of teasing from peers calling his masculinity into question. Being woken up at six in the morning by a royal guard, told to pack only essentials and evacuate the city was a new one though.

Blaze looked over at Cloudsdale off in the distance, roughly five miles from where the refugee camp was setting up. More and more ponies were pouring in from the city, most of them pegasi and all told by officials to walk instead of fly. Countless tents of different shapes and sizes littered the landscape. Some were filled with families tending to crying foals or keeping constant vigil of the line of incoming ponies no doubt looking for family or friends that were separated when the order to evacuate came down. Others were housed by individuals or small groups of adults looking annoyed and frustrated. Blaze couldn’t help but share in their confusion as no one was told exactly what the emergency was.

He was startled out of his ponderings by a pegasus tapping him on his withers. With a start, he turned to find he’d been joined by his two oldest friends. One was a pale yellow mare with a lime green main and three red ribbons for a cutie mark. Though she appeared to be relatively young, her blue eyes betrayed her middle age status. The other was a stallion with a gray coat and silver main who sported a snowflake cutie mark. They were Red Ribbon and Ice Mane, whom Rainbow Blaze had been friends with for as long as any of them could remember.

“You’re so easy to scare, Blaze,” Red giggled.

“I…it’s called ‘being startled’, it’s an involuntary reaction and is completely different from being scared.”

“Yea whatever,” Ice grinned, “you have any idea what’s going on? I heard there was some sort of hazardous leak in one of the factories.”

“And I’ve heard everything from ‘it’s just a drill’ to ‘a massive outbreak of Poniebola.’“ Red added.

“I honestly have no idea,” Blaze sighed, “I brought my blanket and pillow just in case.” The three pegasi sat down in the grass and watched the scene unfold. None of them had any idea of what to expect or how long before they would see their homes again.

***

“Report, captain.” Celestia was doing her best to maintain the calm and sure tone expected of a leader but it was proving difficult in the face of a disaster that could take place any moment. Her command center was set up directly below Cloudsdale and on any other day she would have marveled at the view of the gorgeous cloud formations that made up the city’s underside. Now it just seemed like an ominous bolder perched precariously on a ledge and poised to fall at the slightest touch.

Captain Stalwart gave a salute to the princess as he relayed his message, “Ma’am! Roughly three-fourths of the city has been moved to the safe zone, the hospital and the elderly have all been cleared, it should only be another hour or so until Cloudsdale is fully evacuated.”

Celestia nodded, “Good, I just hope we have that much time.”

“Oh I’m sure we do,” came the voice of the playful in any situation Discord who was standing at a chalk board filled with complex equations, graphs and what appeared to be a sketch of a boat with a squirrel holding a fishing rod. At the bottom right of the board he circled the number forty two, “by my calculations, we should have several more hours at least.”

“Good, captain, please proceed as planned and let me know the moment we finish….” She felt it then, the wave of force that knocked her breath away. She had never felt anything like it in her long life but she knew what it was even if she hadn’t heard the sounds of hovering ponies falling to the ground and the screams of horror coming from outside.

Celestia looked at Discord who had a genuinely confused look on his face. He glanced back at his board, “ah, I forgot to carry the one.”

Bursting from the tent, Celestia looked around to see several ponies yelling and pointing to the sky. Looking up, she saw the mighty cloud city listing to one side, bits of debris already falling to the ground. “Captain, get everyone out of here, NOW!” The captain began issuing orders immediately but Celestia knew it wouldn’t be enough; there were too many ponies still under the city and a few still inside. Her breath was shortening and panic was slowly setting in, for the first time in nearly two thousand years, she didn’t know what to do.

“Oh my, this is problematic,” Discord said looking up at the falling mass. “I do hope our magic returns soon.”

Celestia could only watch, helpless as her little ponies ran in terror, dodging falling pieces of buildings slamming into the ground like meteorites. It was then that she heard a sound that made her heart truly stop. “HELP, I can’t fly, I’m falling!” Above them was a small pegasus colt who couldn’t have been older than ten was falling to the earth. He was flapping his wings to no avail, and begging anyone to save him from gravity’s cold indifference.

Celestia spread her wings and with a powerful thrust…nothing happened. It was as she feared, ponies were not capable of flying on their own. Like unicorn horns, pegasi wings, and by extension alicorn wings, were conduits of magic allowing for flight, while the wings did provide lift and thrust, without magic, pony bodies were simply too heavy for wings alone to carry them into the sky.

The sun princess felt sick, watching the poor little colt tumble and flail as he fell. All sound seemed to stop save for the beating of her own heart, time seemed to slow to a crawl. Celestia closed her eyes as tears began to form, “please” she whispered, “please…..”

She felt it then, the magic came back. For an immeasurably brief moment she felt a euphoria like she’d never known, relief, joy, confidence, all restored in one instant when she knew, on a subconscious level at least, that she could act once again. And she wasted no time.

With the speed and grace of an ancient immortal, Celestia shot towards the falling colt. Appearing above him, she dove downward to match his velocity. He was a mere three feet from the ground when he felt himself embraced in the forelegs of the solar diarch. There was a flash of light and the next thing he knew, they were much higher than they had been an instant before but no longer falling.

Celestia knew they were not out of danger as there was still the matter of an entire city falling right on top of them all. With magic restored, she contacted Discord telepathically. Discord, we need more time, please, use your powers to slow the fall of Cloudsdale so the rest of my subjects can get to safety.

I’m already on it, nice catch by the way, very dramatic. Back on the ground, Discord adopted an uncharacteristically serious face as he raised his arms towards the city. With a flash, a wave of energy shot from his hands, growing in size as it traveled until it finally hit the city. At once, everything seemed to freeze in place. Rubble and broken pillars hung in the air completely motionless. Cloudsdale looked for all the world like an oddly shaped sinking ship, its western side pointing at the ground while its eastern side reached skyward.

Celestia, do be a dear and tell your ponies to move, Cloudsdale is quite heavy for a city made of clouds. Even in her mind, Celestia could hear the strain in his voice.

The colt she had rescued still clang to her, trembling and sniffling as she landed. Captain Stalwart and a second guard, Lieutenant Rampart approached her. “Shhh, its ok little one” she said to her young charge, “this nice stallion is going to help you find your parents.”

“Th-thank you, p-p-princess” the child said as she handed him off to Lt. Rampart.

“Captain, I’m going to go assist Discord while he holds the city in place. Keep everypony moving, we may only have an hour at best.” Captain Stalwart saluted his princess and marched off to perform his duties. Despite his years of training and discipline, he could not help but smile to himself. Never had he been so proud to serve the princess.

***

Lieutenant Rampart cautiously approached the princesses and Discord, not wanting to break their concentration. Luna had joined with Celestia and the draconequis moments after she arrived and been appraised of the situation. She had been in Canterlot making sure the Pink Cross and other relief efforts were ready to go when the call for aid came in from towns and villages around Equestria. All three appeared to be deeply focused, even Discord albeit with a comical expression.

“Your Majesties? I have an update on the situation; everypony has been cleared out of the immediate area and accounted for. Injuries range from minor sprains to several broken bones, but overall no fatalities.”

“Are you absolutely sure there is no one left under the city?” Celestia asked not opening her eyes.

“Yes Ma’am, Captain Stalwart has guards posted at several overlooking locations. They all report the area is clear.”

“Very well, Luna, Discord, we’ve done all we can, now we must let Cloudsdale fall.”

“Are you sure you want me to let it go now?” Discord asked, “I don’t think I’ll be able to catch it again once I do, I don’t have the energy, plus that spell has a thirty minute cool down.”

“Yes I’m sure, we can’t save it now, and it would take too long to re-enchant everything. On three we will stop channeling our energy into you and you can let it fall. One, two…… three!” Luna and Celestia cut their connection with Discord who moments later lowered his arms with a gasp of relief.

All eyes were on Cloudsdale now, the royal sisters stood like statues, sadness clearly visible on their faces. Discord on the other hand was now in a lounge chair wearing 3-D glasses and eating popcorn.

With a thunderous crash, Cloudsdale, The Jewel of the Heavens and testament to Equestrian engineering, was no more.

4 Picking up the Pieces

Rainbow Dash felt like her heart was in her throat. She pushed her wings to their absolute limit, despite the burning ache she was feeling, flying as fast as she possibly could. After she and Twilight had determined the explosion had been caused by Cloudsdale, Dash shot off towards the disaster area lingering only long enough to say “I have to go find my dad!” She didn’t even hear Twilight calling for her to wait having already broken the rainboom barrier.

Not that Dash would have waited had she heard, her tendency to act rashly was amplified tenfold when the thought that her dad or the rest of her family might be hurt or worse. He’s ok. She told herself over and over again. He’s ok, and so are Uncle Ice and Aunty Red. They’re too awesome to be… Oh please, let them be ok. Every inch closer to Cloudsdale she got, the pit in her stomach grew more and more.

As she approached the impact site, what she saw did nothing to help stem the fear she was feeling. Wreckage was spread as far as the eye could see, clouds had dissipated leaving only the wood, metal, glass and plastic that made up the buildings and fixtures of the city. There were street lights split completely in half, piles of rubble containing larger pieces of what use to be buildings, and scattered about were small fires.

Dash landed, or rather slammed into the ground next to the first pony she saw wearing guard armor. She didn’t even wait to catch her breath. “Where’s my dad…haha…Rainbow Blaze…ha…has a mah… mane like mine, please you gotta tell me.”

The guard checked his list. “Let’s see, Blaze…Blaze…sorry, no one by that name has checked in.”

Dash had thought that the feeling of dread couldn’t have gotten any worse, she was wrong. The feeling of her heart in her throat was such that she would later swear that there was nothing metaphorical about that saying and that her heart was literally in her throat. “That can’t be right! Check again!” She demanded, her voice was shaky with panic.

She shook the guard roughly causing his voice to wobble as he spoke. “Callllmee doowwnnn miiisss.” Dash let go causing the guard to drop to the ground with a thud. “There were no reported fatalities, I’m sure it’s just a mistake. Try talking to one of the Pink Cross admins over-” She was gone before he could blink. “-there…” He sighed, “third one in an hour, I’m getting to old for this.”

***

Rainbow Blaze fought the fatigue as hard as he could. In retrospect, volunteering to help the Pink Cross with sorting which ponies had minor injuries and which needed to see a doctor immediately while running on about three hours sleep might not have been the best idea. Come on, Blaze, he thought to himself, you’ve pulled longer hours on less sleep than this. Remember last spring when the color pallets got swapped?

That had been a long one, the coloring for the rainbows had been in reverse. The rainbows were coming out of the factory as violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red instead of vice versa as normal. It took all night long to completely flush out the pipes and reverse the process. As a result, color blind ponies were no longer assigned to quality control in the rainbow factory.

Tired or not, Rainbow Blaze simply couldn’t sit around doing nothing while his friends and neighbors were in need. He and his two friends, Ice Mane and Red Ribbon had all offered their services the moment the Pink Cross had arrived. Red had offered to help dress the wounded while Ice was busy building relief tents. Blaze’s job was to take down a pony’s name, assess the nature of their injury and direct them accordingly. Thankfully there weren’t too many serious injuries as for some reason, nearly every pegasus was either walking or flying only a story or so from the ground. Everypony said the same thing, something just felt off about flying that morning.

It was several hours since the incident and the demeanor of the camp had changed quite a bit. At first there was shock followed by a slowly building fear. Fear from families who still had members unaccounted for, fear from others that this was some kind of attack, perhaps retaliation from Tirek. Now though, as families had been slowly reunited and word spread that, despite all the injuries, no one had died, a new emotion had taken hold, sadness. All around ponies could be seen holding each other, some sniffling, some with no tears but looks of sorrow in their eyes and others were all out bawling, for it was beginning to sink in that they had lost their homes and most, if not all, of what they spent a lifetime accumulating.

After Rainbow Blaze directed the last of the injured ponies, a young magenta pegasus mare with a hold main and a gimp in her leg, to the third tent on the left he sighed, hoping that maybe he could get some rest finally. Something made him pause, he could have sworn he heard a familiar voice on the wind.

”ohmygoshomygoshomygoshomygosh”

As Blaze turned toward the direction the sound was coming from, he was tackled by a blur of sky blue with a rainbow outline. Rolling a several feet, he found himself in a death grip-like hug of his daughter Rainbow Dash. Her face was buried in his chest as they came to a stop and he could feel tears dripping onto his fur.

“Ohmygoshomygosh, you’re alright, I was so worried! We heard the bang from Ponyville and I got here as fast as I could and I was so worried and I got here and I couldn’t find you and no one had seen you and…and…” Dash finally slowed her histerical rant and began sobbing. The entire flight from Ponyville she had held in her emotions, fighting the fear that she had lost the only family she had left. Now that she saw he was safe, she was able to let her guard down, which meant that all that anxiety was free to pour out of the young mare no matter how ‘un-cool’ she thought it might be. “I thought…I th-thought…”

“It’s alright, Squirt, it’s alright, but do you think you could ease up a bit? You’re kind ‘a strangling your old pops.”

“Huh, oh right, sorry.” Dash loosed her grip and got back to her hooves. She wiped the tears from her eyes and put on a fake smile, it just wouldn’t do to have the most awesome dad in the world see her crying like a baby.

Blaze likewise got to his hooves, and then proceeded to give his daughter a proper hug. To him, the tough girl act was as transparent as air. “How about you? I heard this…whatever it was, happened everywhere else too.”

“Yea it did, Twilight was saying something but I didn’t hear much. Too busy worrying about y…I mean focusing on flying.”

Blaze cracked a grin, that’s my filly, he thought, even when it’s obvious she’s worried she always tries to act all cool. Rather than tease her on it like normal he instead changed the topic. “So, are your friends all here? I suppose they’re with the princesses.”

“Yea, they should be here any time now. Twilight wanted to talk to Princess Celestia about what’s been going on. We even caught a changeling in the middle of Ponyville when it all went down so yea, she needs to deal with that too.” Rainbow finally let go of her dad and tried, unsuccessfully, to mask her sniffling.

“Sounds like you had quite a day as well,” came a voice from behind Rainbow. She turned around and immediately shot forward towards the new comer to give him a hug.

“Uncle Ice Mane! You’re ok!” Ice Mane dodged her hug and proceeded to place Rainbow in a headlock and gave her a gentle noogie. Rainbow laughed as she playfully struggled to free herself.

“Of course I’m ok, lil’ Maverick,” Ice replied, calling Rainbow by the childhood nickname he gave her. Ice Mane and Red Ribbon were not related to Rainbow Dash by blood or marriage but they both helped Blaze raise her. As far as she was concerned, they were as much her family as her father. Ice was like the cool grown up older brother and Red was the closest thing she had to a mother. She had no memory of her real mother, a pegasus by the name of Rainbow Bright. According to her father, Bright had passed away giving birth. “It takes more than a city falling to get me down.”

Red also joined the group upon seeing Rainbow Dash and she too was given a relieved hug. The four pegasi adjourned to Blaze’s tent shelter to discuss the events of the day; Rainbow was immensely relieved to hear that there had been no fatalities. Once both sides had shared their experience of the disaster, Dash addressed the topic that the others had been purposefully avoiding.

“So, where are you guys gonna live now? I mean, you’ve kinda lost everything you own.” Anypony else would have thought Dash’s bluntness insensitive but the three middle-aged pegasi, to each of whom she was considered a daughter even if only one could make that claim in truth, knew that she meant no offense.

“To be honest, Squirt, I don’t know,” Blaze said somberly, “I can live off my savings for a while but after that....not to mention there’s a few thousand other ponies that are suddenly without jobs or a home. It’s gonna be hard.”

Red Ribbon and Ice Mane both looked worried as well, the Dash jumped up, a wide smile on her face. “I know, you guys should all move to Ponyville. I can get you jobs on the weather team and you can even stay with me until you get your own places. We’ll get to hang out again like when I was a filly, it’ll be awesome!” Dash was hovering in the air, enjoying that pumped up feeling that had eluded her all day.

“Ah Squirt?” Blaze said, “not that I wouldn’t enjoy that but didn’t you say your house was destroyed too?”

“O…oh, yea.” Dash landed with a soft thud as her wings drooped to her side and her head hung in defeat.

“Hey, cheer up, Sweetheart,” Red said as she placed a wing over Dash, “everything is going to work out. Who knows, maybe if we pull our money we can all buy a nice place in Ponyville, maybe one with I giant net under it.” Dash laughed weakly at the mental image.

“Well, sounds like we got something that might resemble a plan after adding a few details but I wonder what the rest of Cloudsdale’s citizens are going to do.” Ice said as he looked out over the myriad of tents.

“Yea, I have no idea,” Dash answered. “Twilight and the others are over there talking with them, I’ll bet they come up with a plan. Twilight’s such an egghead, I bet she already thought of something. Say, dad?” Dash looked at her father, “Can…can I hang with you guys for a while? Not that I’m worried or anything it’s just….you know…I’m uh…tired, yea that’s it, from flying all the way here so fast. Don’t want to pull a muscle, heh, heh.”

Despite her efforts to hide it, it was obvious to all present that she was still shaken by the thought that she might have lost her family and just wanted to stay with them for a little while longer. “Of course you can stay, Squirt,” Blaze said as he wrapped his little girl in his wing, “if Celestia needs you I’m sure she’ll send a messenger.”

A great weight was lifted off of Rainbow Dash. There were still a number of problems that needed to be sorted out and she would be mortified to have any of her friends see her in such a childish position. Right now though, with her father’s strong wing draped over her back and the smiling faces of the two ponies whom would always be family looking down at her, none of that mattered. For the moment, all was right in the world.

***

Twilight Sparkle and her four other friends were preparing the hot air balloon to follow Rainbow Dash to Cloudsdale. “This is humiliating!” Came the voice of the bound and disgruntled changeling, Rep. He as in the basket of the balloon with both front hooves tided to the rim. On his horn was the most infuriatingly bright pink bow he had ever seen. “The rope I understand but can you please remove this pink bow from my horn? I promise I won’t shape-shift.”

“Sorry, buddy but we ain’t takin’ that chance.” Applejack said as she checked the last of the cables that secured the balloon to the basket.

“Did it have to be pink though? Of all the colors of bows you could’ve magically stuck to my horn you had to pick pink?”

“Sorry, dear, pink and red were the only colors I had on such short notice.” Rarity spoke up as she trotted towards the balloon. Rep saw she was wearing her beige sunhat and magically levitating two luggage cases.

“And you couldn’t give me the red one because…” He asked irritably.

“Your black chitin, darling, red and black together is so gouache”. She said as she moved to put her bags in the basket.

“Land sakes, Rarity, we’re goin’ to a disaster area. What’re ya bringin’ all that stuff for?” Applejack had long since come to expect this sort of thing from her fashion minded friend but she couldn’t help but ask.

“Don’t be silly, AJ, we are going to help those poor ponies, and who would want help from somepony who looked like a ragamuffin? They’d think we were in just as bad a shape as they are.”

“I’d love help from a ragamuffin.” Pinkie chirped as she bounced towards the group. “Unless it was help making muffins, a ragamuffin might not like that. Wait, what’s a ragamuffin?”

“It’s a type of cat, Pinks, and what in tarnation are you bringing?” Applejack saw Pinkie Pie wearing a red clown nose, confetti in her hair and saddle bags filled with heaven only knew what. On her back was the rubber chicken, Boneless, a gift given to her by her good friend and party partner Cheese Sandwich.

“I’m bringing all my cheering up tools. The Cloudsdale ponies just lost their homes and they’re going to be extra sad, so I need all of my most super-duper party props to make them feel better. Now where can I put my party cannon?”

“Sorry, Pinkie, it’s already gonna be a tight fit with the three of us and him.” Applejack motioned towards Rep who rolled his eyes. “Don’t think there’s gonna be any room for your party cannon.”

“Awww…” Pinkie deflated a little at the news. “Oh well, I guess I’ll have to make due.”

“Can’t you just ‘magic’ it there or something?” Rep asked. “I’ve seen you pull things like that out of thin air whenever you want.”

“I can’t just do it whenever I want, silly, only when it’s funny.” Pinkie replied nonchalantly.

While Rep was working out what Pinkie had said, Twilight and Fluttershy arrived. “Everything ready, AJ?” Twilight asked.

“Eyep, just gotta pile on in.” Applejack handed a rope and pair of harnesses to Twilight. “You sure you n’ Shy are up to pullin us all the way to Cloudsdale?”

“I should be able to handle it, how about you Fluttershy?” Twilight asked the timid pegasus.

“Oh, I can fly all the way, I’m just…not very fast.” She said, looking down. Twilight put a hoof around her neck.

“Don’t worry, Fluttershy, I’m not the best flyer either, we can pace ourselves.”

“Princess,” Rep asked as Twilight and Fluttershy attached themselves to the balloon. “Not that I prefer a dungeon cell or anything but why exactly am I being dragged into this?”

“Because, there’s a standing order to bring any changeling believed to be acting alone directly to either Celestia or Captain Stalwart. You said yourself that you were here on your own.”

Rep winced as she said that, feeling a chill run through him. Twilight didn’t fail to notice his reaction. “Are you ok? Really the princess won’t hurt you, in fact, if you’re telling the truth and you’re no longer with Queen Chrysalis, she may even help you make a better life for yourself.”

“I…I’m fine, I just need a moment.” Rep closed his eyes and took a deep breath. In truth he was far from fine but it wasn’t Celestia that had him worried. His hooves were starting to shake and feel slightly clammy. He knew what this meant, every changeling did. They were the first signs of withdrawal. It’s only been a few hours since the incident, He thought. How is this happening already? I should have at least a day or two… Rep composed himself, I’ll be fine, it’s not that bad yet, I’ll just get some love the first chance I get.

With the balloon packed and its passengers secure the five ponies and their changeling ward made their way to Cloudsdale. With Twilight and Fluttershy pulling, the group arrived after about an hour’s journey. As they came into view of the city ruins, they we’re shocked at the devastation.

“Good heavens!” Rarity exclaimed, “This place is simply a wreck!”

“Oh my, I hope nopony was hurt.” Fluttershy said as she looked below her.

“Look, there’s a bunch of ponies and tents, I bet the princess is somewhere over there.” Twilight pointed her hoof to the hill about a mile away from the wreckage.

“How in tarnation are we supposed to find the princess in all that?”

“Oh, oh, itchy nose, blinking eyes, floppy ears; I know where the princess is!” Pinkie said excitedly. “That’s the combo for when there’s a princess below and slightly to the left!”

The group all looked in the direction Pinkie indicated except for Rep who simply stared dumbfounded. “Can somepony please tell me what in the hive that was?”

“Don’t go down that road, trust me” Twilight said.

Applejack pulled on the ripcord allowing the balloon to descend. They landed in a clearing beside a large looking white tent with a large image of Celestia’s cutie mark on the side. Twilight and Fluttershy detached themselves from the harness while Pinkie and Rarity climbed out of the basket. Applejack turned to Rep and began untying the rope that bound his front legs. “Now don’t you go tryin’ anything. Remember, ifn’ ya transform, that bow will let us find ya.”

“Don’t remind me.” Rep sighed as he thought about how ridiculous he must look with a bright pink bow on his horn.

As the group approached the tent, a guard greeted them and ushered them inside. Celestia was standing before a wooden table topped with a map that bore hastily written notes on certain parts. Beside her was Captain Stalwart whose helm was being used as a makeshift paper weight for one of the map corners.

"Ah, Twilight Sparkle.” Celestia said as she looked up from the map table. Despite her smile and warm welcoming tone, Twilight could see in her eyes that she was very tired. “I’m glad you and your friends have arrived. We have much to discuss and I’m sure you have many questions.” Celestia paused as she spotted Rep, if she was surprised, she didn’t show it. “I see you also have an…unusual guest.”

Rep wasn’t sure what to make of Celestia’s passive response to his presence. Sure, he’d heard of her mercy and tolerance, it was one of the reasons Chrysalis believed she was weak, but he expected at least some kind of reaction.

“Yes, princess, so much has happened today, I don’t even know where to begin.” Twilight felt a great relief wash over her. Now that they were with Celestia, everything would be alright. Celestia always knew what to do.

“Beggin yer pardon, Princess,” Applejack removed her hat as she spoke. “It sounds like you and Twilight have a lot to talk about so in the mean time we’d like to help however we can.”

“Of course, any help is welcomed.” Celestia motioned for one of the royal guards. “Please escort these four to Lt. Rampart.”

“At once, your Majesty.”

“Rampart is overseeing the relief effort in this area, I’m sure he’ll have need of your assistance.” Celestia said, smiling.

“Thank ya, kindly ma’am.” Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Fluttershy followed the royal guard out of the tent, leaving only Twilight, Celestia, Captain Stalwart and Rep alone in the tent.

“Now then, before we get to the events of today, I’d like to know more about how this changeling came to be in our presence.” Celestia turned to Rep and walked towards him. He maintained his composure but it was difficult. This wasn’t like AJ or Pinkie who were on his level, nor was it like Twilight who, despite her abilities, was still just a child in terms of experience. This was Celestia, the ancient ruler and guardian of Equestria. He tried to remember the words of Chrysalis, that Celestia was just another pony, ageless and powerful perhaps, but a mortal, imperfect pony. However, Rep was having a hard time believing that now that he was actually in her presence, and his withdrawal symptoms weren’t helping matters.

“Changeling,” Celestia spoke with a calm but firm and authoritative voice. “What is your name?”

“Rep, your Grace.”

“Very well, Rep, I would like to hear your story, and how you came to be here.”