Twilight Manages to Screw Up More Than Usual

by Fire Gazer the Alchemist

Rating: everyone
Tags: Comedy, Bon-Bon, Adventure, Derpy Hooves, DJ P0N-3, Twilight Sparkle, Lyra, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe
Length: 126891

Twilight has to find the Elements of Harmony to stop Nightmare Moon... and she screws it up.

Twilight was supposed to gather the Elements of Harmony the way Princess Celestia planned it: meet the embodiments of the Elements while running errands in Ponyville, team up with them, discover the meaning of friendship, and then defeat Nightmare Moon. It was all so simple.

Too bad she really underestimated Twilight's ability to screw things up.

Additional Character Tags: Octavia, Nightmare Moon, Princess Celestia, Shining Armor, Princess Cadance

Edited by WorkbenchManiac: chapter 7-25, 27 onwards
Edited by docontra: chapter 26 onwards

Published 2014-11-02 18:50:03 UTC
Last updated 2016-12-08 18:12:30 UTC

Acquaintanceship is Magic [Part One]

“There are six Elements of Harmony, but only five are known: Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Honesty, and Loyalty. The sixth is a complete mystery. It is said that the last known location of the five elements was in the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters. It is located in what is now....” Twilight trailed off, reading the rest of the passage in her head.

“Uh, Twilight?”

Poking her head up from the book, Twilight looked at the five mares behind her. “Yeah?”

“Where exactly are the elements located? Ya kinda stopped readin’ out loud there fer a second.”

“Sorry Applejack. Force of habit I suppose.” Twilight shut the book with her magic, and nestled it back onto the shelf. “The castle is located in a place called the Everfree Forest.”

Five sets of eyes suddenly bulged out as she spoke the words. Twilight watched as each of the mares shot each other nervous looks. “What’s the matter?”

“It’s just…” Fluttershy whispered. “The Everfree Forest is a really dangerous place.”

“The plants grow unattended, the animals live on their own, and the weather moves about without any guidance,” Rarity elaborated, her voice becoming more panicky with each statement.

Twilight blinked, none of the aforementioned seemed all that scary to her. It was unusual sure, but not scary.

“And nopony who’s gone in there has ever come out,” Rainbow Dash accentuated with a spooky voice.

“Has anypony ever actually gone in there?”

“Not that I know of.” Pinkie shivered at the thought. “They’re all too terrified. Which makes sense, cause the Everfree Forest doesn’t have any candy in it. Isn’t that just horrendous?”

“I’m quaking with fear,” Twilight deadpanned. “Look, if you all are too scared to go, that’s fine. I’d rather do this by myself anyways.”

“Now hold on a minute. What gave ya the idea that we’d let ya go all by yer lonesome? We’ll stick to ya like caramel on a candy apple.”

“Um… actually, I’d rather… not go if that’s okay with you,” Fluttershy whimpered.

“Come on Fluttershy, don’t be scared.” Rainbow Dash swung a hoof around her friend. “It’s just a dark, creepy forest... with terrifying… pony-eating creatures…” Rainbow bit her lip. “Actually now that I think about it… I uh, don’t really think I can go.”

“Don’t tell me yer scared,” Applejack accused.

“Am not! I just… left the water running at home. That’s it.”

“Sugarcube, ya live in a cloud. Ya don’t got plumbing.”

“Shows how much you know!”

“Will you all just stop?” Twilight demanded. She singled out the pegasi. “If you two are too scared, then that’s fine. I’m not asking you to go.”

“I’m not sc–”

“And as for the rest of you.” Twilight turned to the remaining three mares. “You should probably go home. I have no idea what sort of damage Nightmare Moon has done, but at the very least you should check on your homes and your families.”

“Ah reckon yer right,” Applejack admitted. “And… oh consarnit! I left mah little sister at town hall!”

“As did I!” Rarity realized, her pupils dilating. “Oh, poor Sweetie Belle, she must be panicking so much right now.”

“Come on, we better go get ‘em.” Applejack and Rarity raced towards the door. Fluttershy wasn’t far behind, mumbling an apology under her breath as she flew away.

“I better get going too.” Rainbow Dash inched towards the door with every word. “Got that running water to take care of, and it will probably take all night you know? Cause…” She bolted out the door without finishing that thought.

Twilight turned to Pinkie Pie, the last mare to leave. “Don’t you have somewhere to go? Somepony to check on?”

“Nope.” Pinkie jovially shook her head, then froze. “Well, actually now that you mention it, Sugar Cube Corner is right next to town hall, Nightmare Moon may have decided to stop by there to get a quick bite to eat, and if nopony’s there she might blow it up out of anger. She’s snooty like that.” Twilight began leading the babbling Pinkie Pie towards the door. “Also, Mrs. Cake is pregnant, all this scary stuff happening probably isn’t good for the foal, and Mr. Cake has this heart condition. I don’t know the specifics, but I’m pretty sure a terrifying, thousand year-old evil returning to conquer Equestria and blot out the sun could be one of the things to keep away from him. And–” Twilight shut the door, cutting off Pinkie Pie’s next barrage of prattle. She slumped against the door with a sigh of relief.

“Well, at least I don’t have to worry about them anymore.” Reminding herself of the matter at hoof, Twilight quickly rushed over to her bags, which had yet to be unpacked. She grabbed her saddlebags and quickly filled them with anything she thought might be useful. It wasn’t much, considering she felt her magic would be sufficient enough to get by. Twilight did opt to bring the Elements of Harmony reference guide, thinking it would likely help her when she finally did find the Elements.

Before Twilight left she made sure to check up on Spike. He was still softly snoring, occasionally sleep-mumbling about Nightmare Moon.

“Don’t worry Spike, by the time you wake up, this should all be over.” Twilight hurried down stairs and opened the door to her library. Pinkie Pie was still on the other side, rambling on.

“...but if the kumquats get into the pickle barrel, then all of that would just be pointless. Not to mention–”

“Pinkie?” Twilight cut the mare off. ‘What are you still doing here?”

“Right, sorry.” She began galloping away. “Good luck, Twilight!”

Sighing, Twilight shut the library door behind her and trotted away. All the ponies in this town are crazy, she lamented for the second time that day… er, night. But at least now I can focus on finding the castle in the Everfree Forest. Wait a minute… where even is the Everfree Forest?

Pausing, Twilight looked around. Even with only the light of the moon to see by, she couldn't find anything that looked remotely like a forest. Probably because she was in the exact center of town. Great. Just great. I should’ve at least gotten directions before sending those mares away. I might end up wasting hours just trying to find the Everfree Forest.

Twilight hoped that maybe another pony would be able to help her, but the streets were nearly empty. Most sane ponies had locked themselves in their houses, likely having varying degrees of panic attacks. It only seemed like four or five were still out.

Lighting up her horn to see better, Twilight trotted to the nearest pair. A gray earth pony seemed to be arguing with a white unicorn who had some sunglasses resting on the top of her head. The latter of whom was tugging a very large piece of equipment, and as Twilight got closer she heard what they were talking about.

“Vinyl, this is absolutely ridiculous. How can you think about DJ-ing at a time like this?”

“Chill out Tavi. Besides, I’m pretty sure my logic is good.”

“That's debatable,” the earth pony mumbled.

“If night’s going to last forever now, then the nightclubs are probably going to be open 24/7. So yes, I’d say that is logic.”

“I swear, you are the most insufferable-”

Twilight cleared her throat loudly. “Excuse me.” Both heads swiveled to face her. “Sorry to interrupt your… discussion, but would either of you happen to know where the Everfree Forest is?”

The two shared a look. “Why in Equestria would you want to go there?”

“I’m trying to stop Nightmare Moon,” Twilight admitted.

“Those two things don’t sound like they’re even remotely connected,” Vinyl remarked. “And you thought my logic was bad, Octavia.”

“Trust me, it’s vital that I find out where the Everfree Forest is.”

“Well, to tell you the truth, we don’t know,” Octavia said. “We just got in town a week ago. I can barely find my way to orchestra rehearsal, let alone that place.”

Twilight deflated a little. “Oh, well, thanks anyway.” She walked away, already looking for somepony else.

“Vinyl, what are you doing?”

Curious, Twilight glanced back and saw the pony named Vinyl trotting after her.

“I’m going with this chick,” Vinyl called back. “No offense to nightclubs, but stopping Nightmare Moon sounds way cooler. Besides, think of how famous I’ll get once the press hears I helped stop an eternity of nighttime. I'll be able to DJ clubs in Las Pegasus instead of small towns like this.”

“Oh no!” Twilight shouted as Octavia caught up to them. “You can’t come with me.”

“Why not?” Vinyl asked.

“Because it’s dangerous, I mean this is the Everfree Forest we’re talking about.” Twilight still wasn’t convinced of the forest’s danger herself, but hoped it’s reputation would be enough to frighten off the pair right behind her.

“I don’t care. I’ve survived hundreds of mosh pits; a leisurely stroll through the forest is nothing compared to that.”

“But…” Twilight struggled to think of another reason. “I’ll be fighting Nightmare Moon! Do you really want to be a part of that?”

“No,” Octavia barked at Vinyl. “No you don’t.”

“Hey relax, Tavi. This mare looks like she’s got a plan. You do have a plan, right?”

“Part of one,” Twilight admitted. Find Elements of Harmony was more a goal and less of a plan at this point.

“That’s usually more than I have when I do something dangerously stupid.” Vinyl took the lead. “So what are we waiting for? Let’s find somepony who knows where the Neverlee Forest is!”

“Everfree Forest,” Twilight corrected.

“That too.”

“But what about your… thing?” Twilight indicated the large piece of equipment Vinyl left behind.

“Nopony’s going to steal my amp.” She waved off Twilight’s worries with a flick of her hoof. “Everypony’s too terrified to leave their homes.” Vinyl began trotting toward some other ponies. Twilight sighed, with no choice but to follow. Octavia began walking alongside her.

“You’re coming too?” Twilight groaned.

“Vinyl’s my best friend. I don’t approve of most of the stuff she does, but I can’t stop her. The least I can do is come along and make sure she doesn’t get hurt.”

“Great,” Twilight mumbled under her breath

“I’m Octavia by the way... please don’t call me Tavi like she does.”

“I’m Twilight Sparkle.”

“Pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

“I suppose the feeling is mutual.” At least she isn’t asserting herself as my friend.

“Hey slowpokes, hurry up!” Vinyl called back to them. She was a blur in the dark night, but it seemed like she was standing near two other ponies. “These guys know how to get to that Severtree place!”

“Everfree!” Twilight shouted, quickening her pace. She was grateful Vinyl was at least able to make herself useful. Octavia cantered beside her until the caught up with Vinyl. There was a mint green unicorn and cream colored Earth pony next to her, each squinting at Twilight’s oncoming light spell. “Is it true? Do you really know where the Everfree Forest is?”

“Yeah, it’s on the other side of town,” the unicorn said, pointing. She blinked a few times against the light. “Why do you want to know?”

“I’m going in there.”

“We’re going in there,” Vinyl amended. Twilight growled briefly.

“It’s near Bon Bon’s candy shop. We were just about to go there if you guys want to tag along.”

“That sounds like a plan,” Octavia said before Twilight could voice any discontent.

“Why are you going into the Everfree Forest?” The apparently named Bon Bon asked.

“I’m going in there to stop Nightmare Moon.”

“Those two things don’t sound like they’re even remotely connected.”

“That’s what I said!” Vinyl agreed.

“I don’t care!” Twilight yelled. “Can we just go?” She was tired of fighting against these ponies.

“Sure, this way,” Bon Bon took the lead, Vinyl excitedly following. The unicorn opted to trot with Octavia and Twilight.

“So,” she curiously poked. “How exactly is going into the Everfree Forest supposed to stop Nightmare Moon?”

“I was wondering that myself,” Octavia concurred.

Twilight sighed. “I’m looking for the Elements of Harmony. They’re supposedly the only things that can stop Nightmare Moon.”

“Do you think you’ll need some help? The Everfree isn’t some namby pampy forest; there’s supposedly monsters in there.”

“M-Monsters?” Twilight stuttered. The other five hadn’t said anything about monsters in the Everfree. Her job may have just gotten a whole lot harder. A few wild animals would have been nothing, but a few wild monsters might be more than her magic could handle.

“You okay?” Octavia asked. “You've become much paler.”

Twilight quickly shook her head. “I’m fine, I just… uh… was caught a little off guard. Thanks for warning me though… um…”

“Lyra.”

“Thanks Lyra.” Twilight bit her lip. “Monsters… that’s not good.”

“You thinking you’ll need help?” Lyra asked. “I may not know a lot of magic, but it’s not like it’ll hurt.”

“You’d come with us into the Everfree?”

“Well, sure. I don’t exactly want to live in eternal night, and besides, with all of us combined what could go wrong?”

“That sounds sensible,” Twilight admitted. She really didn’t want any other ponies joining her, but at this point there wasn't that many options.

“Hi Bon Bon,” a cheery voice called out from ahead. Twilight looked forward and saw a gray pegasus with out of sync eyeballs and a mailbag landing near the candy shop.

“Derpy, what are you doing out here?”

“I’m working the night shift for the post office. I’m actually glad I caught you, here’s your mail.” Derpy reached into her mailbag and pulled out a few envelopes.

“Don’t you know what’s going on?” Lyra asked, trotting up.

“What do you mean?”

“The Summer Sun Celebration?” Twilight said.

“Was there a delay or something? I had to leave before Princess Celestia showed up.”

“No… well, kind of. You remember the story The Mare in the Moon?” Derpy nodded and Lyra continued. “Well, turns out it’s true, and now there’s eternal night.”

“Oh… I hope my boss doesn’t make me work forever then.”

“Is that your only concern?” Twilight asked, bewildered. “What about crops dying from lack of sunlight? Or the immensely cold winters that we’ll undoubtedly have now? Or the…”

“Twilight,” Octavia interrupted. “She gets it.”

Twilight looked and saw the mortified expression Derpy’s face. “Right… well… we just really need to get to the Everfree Forest and stop the eternal night.”

Derpy’s eyes narrowed. “Those two things don’t sound like-”

“Like they’re even remotely connected,” Twilight finished. “Yeah, I’ve been told.”

“Why the Everfree though?”

“There’s a massive castle that holds the Elements of Harmony in them.”

Derpy perked up. “You mean that big, broken down building in the middle of the forest?”

“Yeah- wait, you know where it is?”

Derpy nodded. “Yeah, I deliver mail to a zebra in the forest so I pass that place all the time.”

“Do you think you could lead us there?” Vinyl piped up. Twilight was about to overrule that request, but couldn’t find a logical reason for not wanting a seasoned veteran to guide them through a dangerous forest.

“Yeah I guess,” Derpy decided. “Beats having to work. Bon Bon, can I leave this in your shop for now?” Derpy slung the mail bag off her back.

“Sure.” Bon Bon unlocked the door. “You can set it on the counter while Lyra and I start barricading the windows.”

“Actually Bonnie, I think I’m going with these guys.”

Bon Bon whirled her head around, causing Lyra to flinch. “What?”

“I… well, they need some help so I figured–”

“Are you kidding me? There's a maniac alicorn on the loose, the sun won't rise, and you want to go a frivolous quest with ponies you just met?"

"Actually I've known Lyra for a year," Derpy interjected.

Bon Bon rolled her eyes. "Bottom line, it's a stupid idea."

"But Bonnie, I could help."

"Or die. Do you really want to go off and potentially get yourself killed for nothing?" Bon Bon stared down Lyra furiously. "Well, do you?"

"Geeze Bonnie, I'm not going to die." Lyra attempted to console her friend by touching her shoulder.

"Are you kidding? You're talking about going into the Everfree Forest? Death isn't a possibility, it's a fact."

"I've been in there dozens of times," Derpy interjected. "And there's a zebra who lives in there."

"Argument invalid!" Vinyl whooped, earning an icy glare from Bon Bon. Twilight got the feeling that the DJ was enjoying this argument a little too much.

Lyra pointed to Derpy. "She's got a point, though. If Derpy of all ponies can survive it than so can I."

"Hey, what's that supposed to–"

"Well forgive me for not wanting to lose my best friend." Bon Bon looked away, ears folding down.

"Oh dang, she's playing the guilt card. Whatcha going to do now, Lyra?" Vinyl grinned at her commentary, and Twilight half expected her to pull out some popcorn to munch on.

"Just shut up, Vinyl," Octavia moaned, slapping the back of Vinyl's head with her hoof.

"Look Bonnie, it's dangerous, I get that. I'm a little scared myself, but I'd rather give it a shot than live in a world controlled by Nightmare Moon." Lyra put a hoof around her friend. "And besides, there's like, five of us. What could go wrong?"

Bon Bon looked at her friend, then at the ground, then back up. "Make that six."

"What?" Twilight asked.

"I'm coming too." Bon Bon had a fierce determination in her eye. "If Lyra's in, then I won't let her go it alone."

"She won't be alone, there's already five of us. We don't need an extra set of hooves!" Twilight yelled, desperately trying to prevent their numbers from increasing anymore. Her complaint went unheard, as the rest of the group already welcomed Bon Bon's choice to help. It seemed fate liked playing tricks on her; she got rid of five mares only to be stuck with five more. For the introverted Twilight, it was a nightmare.

"It looks like all of us are going then," Derpy observed. "I'm going to need to pack a few muffins for the trip."

"Oh, I have some in the shop." Bon Bon pushed open the door. "Come on, I've got some stuff to grab before we go anyways."

"We don't have time for this. Nightmare Moon might do something in the time it takes to get ready." Twilight stamped her hoof in an effort to emphasize her point.

"Do what?" Vinyl asked. "She's already keeping the sun from rising. That was like, her plan right? Is there really anything else she said she's going to do?"

"Well..." Twilight stumbled, trying to think of any other threat Nightmare Moon posed at the moment. Vinyl shrugged.

"Yeah, I thought so."

"But she could be watching us right now, plotting to stop us from getting the Elements!" Twilight glanced around, looking for a sign of the tall, menacing alicorn, or a tendril of the inky smoke she was able to turn into. "What if she's in that bush? Or that building? Or that tree?

"Just calm down," Octavia told her. "It's highly unlikely that Nightmare Moon could be spying on us. I mean... for starters, why would she care about six random ponies?"

Twilight calmed down a little, reassured by Octavia's words. She glanced over at Vinyl and Lyra; both watched her freakout with interest and were now wondering if she'd do it again. Instead, Twilight forced an embarrassed grin.

"I've got muffins!" Derpy's cheery voice rang out. She stepped out of the shop, her mailbag bulging. "And they're blueberry!"

"Sweet." Vinyl held out her hoof. "Toss me one." Derpy reached in and lobbed a muffin at Vinyl. Her coordination was fairly bad, but Vinyl caught the muffin with her magic, giving the pegasus a slight nod of thanks.

"I'm ready too," Bon Bon announced, stepping out. She had saddlebags of her own. Twilight didn't bother guessing their contents; she just wanted to get a move on.

"All right, so far so good," Lyra said. "You know guys, I think this is the start of a really amazing friendship."

“We’re not friends,” Twilight asserted, gesturing to herself, and then the other five mares collectively. “At best, we’re barely acquaintances.”

“Fair enough.”

Vinyl smacked her lips together, sending a few muffin bits in all directions, including Twilight's face. Derpy stretched out her wings in preparation, only to clumsily bump into Lyra, who backpedalled into Bon Bon. They dissolved into a few giggles. Twilight turned to Octavia. “This is going to be a long night, isn’t it?” She nodded.

“Oh I get it. Long night! Nice one.” Vinyl began cracking up, and Twilight could only sigh in response.

The six of them began cantering through town, Derpy leading the way. Twilight thanked Celestia – who she wasn't even sure was still alive at this point – that they didn't run into anypony else as they made their way through town.

A dark, gloomy forest slowly rose in the distance, and Twilight assumed that this was the infamous Everfree. She had to admit that it did have the creepy factor that seemed to ward off many ponies, but refused to let it do the same thing to her. The Elements of Harmony were in there somewhere, and she had to find them. Derpy halted at the entrance, and checked to make sure that they all made it.

"You guys ready?"

"Bring it on," Vinyl exclaimed.

With significantly less reservation than everypony else, Derpy flew into the Forest. Twilight was nervous, but she compelled herself to be the second one in. She heard the hoofsteps of the other four mares follow her, and a small part of her was disappointed that they didn't turn back.

Here we go.

Author's Note

And thus the party is formed. Part two coming soonish.

Acquaintanceship is Magic [Part Two]

Acquaintanceship is Magic [Part Two]

Twilight forced herself to walk at a steady pace behind Derpy, but she was finding it difficult. Their traveling speed as a whole was irritating her; they were moving at barely a brisk walk when in all actuality cantering was their best option. She’d already spoken up about this once to Derpy, but the pegasus had given her a resounding shush before whimsically saying something about needing to concentrate on the path.

Aside from wanting to get to their destination quicker, Twilight also wanted to move faster in order to distance herself from the other mares. She’d accepted their presence by now, knowing that some would likely be needed, but accepting and enjoying were two different things.

“So…” Vinyl slowly articulated the word. “Are we there yet?”

Octavia sighed. “Do you see castle ruins anywhere?”

“Nope, but somepony had to ask.”

“Why Vinyl? Why in Equestria did anypony need to ask?”

“Cause roadtrips are only fun when that question is asked at inappropriate times.” Vinyl grinned, despite a hard look from Octavia.

“Well here’s an idea, don’t try to have fun when the fate of the entire world hangs in the balance,” Twilight snapped.

Mercifully, there was silence. Then…

“Well geeze, somepony’s got a pole up her plot.”

Twilight whipped her head around, only to be met with an assortment of laughter from a few of the ponies behind her. She even heard Derpy giving a few giggles up ahead. “Real mature girls. Real mature.” In an instant, the light from her horn went out. The laughter turned to light screams of panic.

“What the heck?” Vinyl cried. “You didn’t need to blind us! Can’t you take a joke?”

“I didn’t do it on purpose,” Twilight fired back. “I’ve just been keeping the spell going for too long. Besides, I should probably save what’s left of my magic for when we face Nightmare Moon.”

“I’ll take over for a little while,” Lyra offered, her horn sparking to life with a golden glow. She trotted ahead of Twilight and shined the light forward for Derpy to see.

They began walking again, nopony dared talk lest they wished to incur the wrath of Twilight, which made her at least a little happy. Their silence left the only sounds to be the continual crunching of the crisp grass beneath their hooves, and the occasional forest commentary of animals far away. Then without so much as a warning, Derpy stopped. “Hmm,” she uttered as five ponies bumped into each other behind her.

“What’s going on? Why did we stop?” Twilight asked.

“Does this mean we’re there?” Vinyl’s question was answered with a cold glare.

“We got ourselves a cliff,” Derpy informed them.

Bon Bon trotted over to check, poking her head over the edge. “Oh yeah, that’s steep.” To be sure, she kicked a small pebble over the edge and listened. Nine seconds later, a faint thud was heard.

“Oh boy,” Lyra backed up with a gulp. “I’m not real good with heights.”

“Great,” Twilight mumbled under her breath. She trotted over to the edged and checked for herself. Even with low light, she could tell the cliff was steep just by the jelly feeling it instilled in her legs.. “Okay yeah… that’s a little daunting.”

“So what’s the plan, smart mare?” Vinyl asked expectantly.

Twilight glanced at everypony. Lyra still appeared very weak in the knees just from hearing about the cliff, while everypony else remained apathetic. “Well, I haven’t really mastered teleportation or anything of the sort, so it looks like our best bet is to have Derpy fly us down one by one.”

“No!” Lyra screamed, backpedalling. The light sourced flickered due to her fear. “No, no, no, no, no, no!”

“I won’t drop you,” an offended Derpy pouted.

“No!”

“Lyra, relax,” Bon Bon insisted. “Nopony’s going to force you down that cliff.”

Twilight decided it was best not to voice the fact that she was very willing to coerce Lyra down.

Despite a few more attempts to console her, Lyra didn’t budge. She shook with mild fright while everypony else decided what to do. After a few suggested alternatives that led to nowhere - including Vinyl’s plan to “chuck her over the edge” - Derpy had an idea that the majority agreed on.

“Muffin break!”

Twilight groaned as the corrupt democracy of the group overruled the logic that demanded they press forward, and reluctantly sat down with everypony else to be handed a muffin. Even Lyra took a few deep breaths in order to calm down enough to eat.

Derpy landed, tucking in her wings, and proudly reached in the mail bag producing six muffins. Twilight was impressed to find they were still warm, before remembering that they had been in Derpy’s sweaty bag and that was probably why. Nevertheless, she took a bite if to do nothing more than avoid angering the gray pegasus. She was surprised to find the explosion of fluffly, blueberry flavor to be good, and she stuffed the whole treat in her mouth.

“I’m guessing you like them,” Bon Bon giggled.

Twilight blushed, swallowed her cheekful of muffin, and admitted, “Yes, they’re amazing.”

Bon Bon smiled.

“Eh, I’d say they're a six out of ten,” Vinyl interjected.

Bon Bon scowled.

“Fine, seven. Gheesh.”

“Well, I like them.” Octavia daintily bit into her muffin again. “Remind me to visit your shop some more once this whole mess blows over. I might just have to become a regular.”

“I’d like that.”

“So how are we going to get down the c-cliff?” Lyra asked through her food.

“Well, we could try to find a way to climb down.” Twilight could tell based on a pair of widening golden irises that that plan was out.

“Hey, is that smoke?” Derpy inquired, her eyes pointed away from the group.

“Or see if there is a passage we could use, but that may take too long,” Twilight continued.

“It’s getting closer.”

“There’s always my idea.” Vinyl smirked at Lyra, who venomously slapped her fellow unicorn on the back of the head.

“What if we-AHH!”

The ground beneath them suddenly crumbled away in a manner ironically similar to the muffins. Five shouts and one unbearably loud shriek echoed through the forest as they plummeted. Twilight saw Derpy attempt to snap open her wings and fly, but a jagged rock hit her on the side.

Seeing the ground fast approaching, Twilight knew she had to do something quick. Summoning as much energy into her horn as she possibly could, Twilight used her levitation to cushion their impact.

Hitting the ground was almost like hitting a pillow. She landed, the telekinesis taking the brunt of the blow, and rolled over unharmed. For half a second, Twilight was able to smile at a job well done. Then all the rubble slammed down on top of her.

An outstretched hoof felt the weight of the first rock, and there was a sickening crunch sound that followed. Pain shot through her foreleg and she cried out. Sheer luck saved her from being crushed, as that rock was prevented from moving any farther thanks to the rubble around her catching it. Several other rocks slammed around her, and miraculously, the rest of Twilight’s body survived unscathed. She managed to breath a sigh of relief, until realizing her new problem.

She was completely entombed.

Squirming, her body pressed against debris on all sides of her. There was almost no wiggle room. Her breathing became quick and panicky, and she used her good hoof to press against the rubble on top of her. Even using all of her strength, the rocks barely gave an inch.

Okay… no problem. I’ll just use my magic and… Her horn flickered to life, made a sputtering noise, and dimmed. Twilight’s pupil dilated. Oh no! I must have overexerted myself with that landing.

“Help!” she called out. Her good hoof struck the rocks, trying in desperation to make noise and attract potential rescuers. “Anypony, help!” It was no use, there wasn’t a single response offered.

Twilight should have expected as much; she had no idea if the others had been affected by her landing spell, and even if they had there was always the possibility that they’d ended up in the same spot as her… or worse.

Oh Celestia, they’re all dead aren’t they?

“HELP!”

The rock above her head shifted and eventually tumbled off to the side. A figure appeared in her vision, and Twilight waited for her eyes to adjust to the moonlight before making them out.

“Octavia?”

“Twilight, there you are.” Octavia grabbed Twilight from underneath her shoulders and lifted. Her injured hoof hit a rock on the way out and she cringed, but otherwise she was grateful.

“How did you move the rubble?” Twilight looked at the boulder, easily weighing a hundred pounds or more.

“A combination of Earth pony strength, and the fact that I play one of the heaviest instruments ever conceived.” She laid Twilight on the ground softly. “Are you okay?”

“My hoof…” Twilight lifted her limp wound, the bones undoubtedly shattered.

Octavia bit her lip. “Okay, you wait here, I’m going to get everypony else.”

“By yourself?” Twilight asked incredulously.

“Nopony’s getting left behind on my watch.” Octavia trotted back over the rubble.

Twilight could only nurse her wound. The hoof was bent in an awkward angle, but nothing was cut or bleeding. She looked around for something to make a makeshift splint, but rocks and grass were the only thing in her line of sight. For a moment, she considered trying to make a light, but that would sap away whatever strength her magic had left. It would be a while before she’d be able to use it again, and silently she cursed herself for not finding a more efficient solution when they’d all been falling.

She glanced toward Octavia, who was helping Derpy stand up. The pegasus’ wing looked about as healthy as Twilight’s hoof. She tried stretching it, only cringe and yelp loudly. Octavia sifted through the rubble and picked up a tattered mail bag. The face Derpy made told Twilight that her precious muffins had been flattened.

Sniffling, Derpy walked over to Twilight. “Are you going to be okay?”

“Yeah,” Derpy overturned her bag, letting the ruined muffins fall to the ground. “I’ve hurt my wing before… this just means a few more months of physical therapy.”

“Do you get hurt a lot?”

Derpy stared at her, out-of-sync eyes letting Twilight know that was a dumb question. “I’m an uncoordinated klutz who likes to fly everywhere I go. What do you think?”

“...Sorry.”

“It’s not your fault. I’m more upset about the muffins anyways.” Derpy looked down at the flattened treats. The mare genuinely looked crushed about the fact that her muffins were… well… crushed.

"Don't worry, I'm sure Bon Bon would be more than happy to make you some more when we get back."

Derpy perked up slightly. “Where is Bon Bon anyways?”

“Over here.” Twilight and Derpy turned to see Octavia pushing over several tall rocks that surrounded two mares.

Bon Bon managed to survive unscathed, and clinging to her neck, eyes shut in terror, was Lyra. She trotted over, bringing the shaking mare with her.

“You guys alright?” Bon Bon asked. Twilight held up her broken hoof, Derpy indicated her ruined muffins. “Yeesh, that doesn’t look good.”

“I know,” Derpy said. “And there were so many of them too. Now what are we going to eat?”

“I’m going to go look for Vinyl,” Octavia called, walking back through the wreckage.

A scared noise came from the mare clinging to Bon Bon. “Lyra, get off me please."

“Are we on the ground yet?” Lyra whimpered.

“Yes,” Bon Bon replied with annoyance.

“Then why can’t I feel it?”

“Because all four of your hooves are currently wrapped around me!”

Lyra’s eyes shot open. “Oh.” She saw Twilight and Derpy looking at her. “Oh.” Lyra disentangled herself from Bon Bon, looking a little sheepish. “Sorry. I just really, really hate heights.”

“I had no idea,” Twilight sardonically stated.

“How are we even alive right now?” Bon Bon inquired before Lyra could pick up on the sarcasm.

“I cast a spell to cushion our fall, but it took a lot more out of me than I expected.” Twilight rubbed her horn. “My magic’s depleted.”

“So what does that mean?” Derpy asked.

“Our chances of stopping Nightmare Moon just decreased. Dramatically.” Twilight reached for her saddlebags. One side had been crushed and torn by debris, but luckily the side she needed was miraculously unharmed. She picked up and set down the Elements of Harmony Reference Guide on the ground. Lyra lit up her horn to allow everypony to see it.

“It says that once five of the elements are brought together, a spark is needed in order to reveal the sixth, but without my magic I don’t even know where to begin with something like that.”

“Well, you’ll recover soon,” Lyra hopefully suggested. “I once wore out my magic playing my lyre for four hours straight, but it came back quickly.”

“I don’t know,” Twilight admitted. “I’ve worn out my magic before. Usually I need a good night’s sleep to get it back.”

“Perhaps this will help.” Bon Bon reached into her own saddlebags, which had fared better than Twilight’s. She deposited four individually wrapped candies in Twilight’s hoof.

Twilight skeptically raised an eyebrow. “Uh… how exactly are these supposed do anything?”

Bon Bon shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe the sugar will give you energy?”

“You know nothing about magic, do you?” Bon Bon responded by patting her bare forehead. “Bottom line, candy’s no help.”

“Vinyl!” They heard Octavia shout. “There you are.” Twilight looked over and saw Vinyl was buried under assorted rubble up to her head. She looked bruised, but otherwise undamaged. Concerned, the whole group trotted over.

“S’up, Tavi?” Vinyl sounded completely nonchalant, as if falling off a cliff was a typical Tuesday night for her.

“Oh my Celestia! Vinyl, are you okay?”

“Doing great. Hey guess what, this whole journey… really rocks.” Vinyl laughed, her horrifying pun fueling her. Octavia groaned. “Yep, despite the fact that it’s been a rocky road so far, I’m feeling confident that we won’t fall into any more trouble.”

“...I should leave you here.”

“Please don’t.”

Octavia sighed, and looked back, silently asking for help with her eyes. Twilight and the other mares begrudgingly helped dig Vinyl out, though Twilight had to be extra careful with her hoof injury.

Finally, Vinyl was excavated. She shook off the dust, proudly surveying her cut and bruised body. “This is pretty cool. I look all kinds of scrappy.”

“Only you can find excitement in falling eight stories,” Lyra remarked. Twilight could tell the mare was shook up… almost enough to want to turn around.

“We should keep moving,” she said. “Derpy, how much farther until the castle?”

“Hmm… judging by the fact that the moon is at its peak, the wind is moderately fair, and the nearest oak tree is to the left, I would have to say… I have no idea.”

“And now we’re lost.” Twilight groaned, shoving her book back in its place. “Fantastic.”

“If it helps, I got a decent view of the castle as we were plummeting to our almost-deaths,” Bon Bon spoke up. She pointed to a clearing. “I think that’s the best way to get there.”

Thank Celestia these mares continue to be useful. “Okay, let’s go.” Forgetting her injury, Twilight put nearly all of her weight on her bad hoof as she prepared to march forward. “Ah!” she bit her lip before words of a more profane nature could escape.

“Here, you can put your hoof around me,” Lyra offered. Before Twilight could offer any sort of protest, she found her foreleg wrapped in a golden aura and slung haphazardly around Lyra’s neck.

“I call point!” Vinyl yelled, dashing forward and lighting her horn.

“Is this some kind of game to you?” Octavia called after her.

“Well it’s fun.”

They bickered onwards, Twilight and Lyra took up the rear of the group.

“So why are you so afraid of heights?” Twilight asked.

“Taking an interest in my personal life, acquaintance?”

“I’m curious by nature.”

Lyra sighed. “When I was just a filly, my sister dared me to jump off the roof of our house with an umbrella as a parachute.”

“And you actually did it?”

“She triple diamond dog dared me too!” Lyra exclaimed, as if that justified anything. “Long story short I broke all four of my legs.”

“Ouch.”

“Yeah, it wasn’t pretty.”

“No, I mean ‘ouch’ as in my hoof keeps bumping off your collar bone and it hurts.”

“Oh my gosh. Sorry about that.” Lyra moved Twilight’s foreleg down lower. “Better?”

“Yeah, tha-”

“ROAR!” A jolt shot through Lyra and Twilight simultaneously, and both mares leapt into the air. The rest of the group backpedaled frightfully. Towering in front of them, was one of the most ferocious beasts Twilight had ever seen.

It had the head and body of a lion, frothing mouth and all, but sported leathery bat-like wings and scorpion tail. Her brain immediately kicked into gear as she mentally flipped through every book rare monsters she had ever read. Finally, she recalled its name.

“Manticore!” she screamed. “That thing’s a manticore!”

The monster howled again, this time raising both paws in the air aggressively. Vinyl puffed out her chest, horn brightening as if she was attempting to challenge the beast. Everypony else had the opposite reaction.

“Run for your life!” Derpy wailed. She whirled around and bumped into Octavia. Both mares landed on their plots.

The manticore stalked towards them, its eyes displayed a primal hunger. Twilight felt concern grip her -- which she would later attribute only to the heat of the moment and most certainly not because she had a sudden, blooming compassion for the ponies helping her.

“Can’t you do something?” She asked Lyra. Gritting her teeth, Lyra shook her head.

“I… I can’t hold back a manticore with my magic.”

Vinyl stepped in between the manticore and the scrambling mares. “Hey ugly,” she promptly yelled at it. “Bring it on!” She stamped her hoof firmly in the dirt, and dragged it back, kicking up a cloud of dust in order to issue the beast a challenge.

Octavia and Derpy clamored to their hooves and took refuge behind a nearby tree. Lyra began backing up, taking Twilight along with her.

Vinyl’s horn was brimming with magic, ready to strike the manticore with one defiant blast. Distantly Twilight heard Octavia call her friend insane. Twilight had to agree; there was no way Vinyl could produce enough magic to take out a manticore, at best she would just make the monster angrier.

Bon Bon walked in between Vinyl and the manticore suddenly, causing Lyra to squeak in panic.

“That’s enough out of you,” Bon Bon stated, flicking Vinyl’s horn with her hoof. The magic sputtered and fizzed, dissipating within seconds.

“What the heck?” Vinyl asked, recoiling. Twilight knew from experience that horns were especially sensitive, and cringed internally.

“Hi there,” Bon Bon sweetly said to the manticore. It roared angrily as a response and raised it’s paw to strike her.

“Bon Bon, run!” Lyra screamed.

Ignoring her friend, Bon Bon reached into her pouch and pulled out several candies. The manticore paused, sniffing softly. It looked down at the extended hoof and noticed the treats it held.

“You want some?” Bon Bon sweetly asked. She held her hoof further, enticing the beast.

The manticore leaned in some, inhaling the sugary aroma of the candy. He opened his maw, revealing several menacingly sharp teeth.

Twilight and the other mares held their breaths, each fearful that Bon Bon would lose her hoof. Instead, the manticore extended a forked tongue and whipped it outward, picking up each candy one by one. When Bon Bon’s hoof was empty, the manticore sat back on his haunches, purring as it chewed its new treats.

Bon Bon smiled, and everypony else exhaled with relief. “Yep, I thought you’d like those.” She looked down at the manticore’s paw. A dark thorn was jammed in it. “Oh my, no wonder you were so grumpy.” As the manticore continued to chew, Bon Bon bit down on the thorn and yanked it out in one swift jerk. She turned back to the rest of the mares “We’re good you guys.”

“Bonnie that was incredible!” Lyra rushed forward, dropping Twilight in her hurry. She wrapped her hooves around Bon Bon and grinned wildly.

“You know, I was just about to make my move,” Vinyl harumphed. “But… uh… that was pretty awesome.” She clapped Bon Bon on the back.

Octavia and Derpy both moved out from behind the boulder. They approached cautiously, still wary of the manticore’s presence.

“Way to go!” Derpy cheered when she was confident the manticore was no longer on the warpath. Octavia nodded.

“How did you know that would work?”

Bon Bon shrugged. “What cold, heartless creature would turn down free candy?” Twilight recalled their earlier exchange, and was mildly offended. She hobbled over to the group, careful not to put any weight on her bad hoof.

“Twilight, wasn’t Bon Bon amazing?” Derpy asked.

“Yeah, sure.” Twilight wasn’t one for fan-fare. She was more focused on getting to the castle ruins. “Is everypony ready to move on? We still have a lot of ground to cover.”

The five mare’s shot each other glances, all likely confused by Twilight’s lack of willingness to celebrate surviving a manticore.

Silently they all resigned to move along. Lyra trotted alongside Bon Bon, her horn sparking to life to light their way. Vinyl and Derpy weren’t far behind, each still in awe from the manticore attack. Twilight was about to protest them leaving her behind when Octavia walked over.

“Need a helping hoof?”

“Yes.” Twilight allowed her hoof to be flung over Octavia’s shoulders. They started walking in tandem, catching up to the group.

Suddenly Bon Bon turned around. “Hold on for a second guys,” she called as she cantered over to the manticore. The monster was more or less finished with the candy it had been given. When Bon Bon reached it, she slung off her saddlebags and dumped the contents on the ground. The manticore yipped in happiness and began to greedily eat the candy. Bon Bon trotted back with a smile on her face.

“Did you seriously give away the last of our food to a manticore?” Vinyl asked her.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Bon Bon scrunched up her face as the group began walking again. “Because I thought he would like it. If that’s a problem for you, then why don’t you go back and get them?”

Vinyl shot a glance to the ferocious manticore lapping up the sugary sweets. “Yeah… nope.”

“I thought so.” Bon Bon waltzed past Vinyl and took her spot near the front.

Lyra giggled. “That’s what you get for not liking her muffins.”

“I said they were a seven out of ten!” Vinyl protested.

“So no pony’s going to bring up the fact that the manticore’s thorn just turned into a bunch of smoke?” Derpy asked the group, her head still pointed backwards. Everypony shot her a what-the-heck-are-you-even-talking-about look. “Okay fine. I was just checking.”

They trudged onwards, not bringing up Derpy’s random comment. The woods became much darker as the thick foliage blocked out the moonlight. Lyra’s skinny beam of light was joined by a second one from Vinyl, and even that was hardly enough to see properly.

“Can anypony tell where the path is?” Twilight asked.

“No,” came five answers at once.

“I can hardly see my own hoof in front of my face,” Derpy informed everypony. She moved her hoof closer to her face until it was practically touching. “Still nothing.” Without any warning Vinyl shined her magic beam straight at Derpy. “Ah!” the mare cried at the sudden rush of light. Blinking, she replied. “Oh, now I see it. Thanks Vinyl”

“Anytime.”

“Can you focus your light to where it would be more useful?” Twilight stressed. Vinyl groaned.

“Fine, Miss Prick.” Vinyl focused her beam elsewhere, earning a sigh of disappointment from Derpy as her hoof sank back into darkness. “It’s not like it makes a difference. I can barely see anyways.”

“Maybe it would help to remove your sunglasses, Vinyl,” Octavia suggested.

“Yeah, but then I would look less cool,” Vinyl poignantly stated.

Twilight and Octavia uttered simultaneous groans. “For Celestia’s sake, Vinyl, we’re shrouded in darkness in one of the most isolated places in Equestia. Is ‘looking cool’ really relevant right now?”

“Guh! Alright, I’ll do it.” Vinyl levitated her glasses off and allowed them to rest on her horn. “Happy now, Tavi?”

“Immensely,” Octavia deadpanned.

“Great, now can I finally concentrate on the- OH HOLY CRAP!” Vinyl’s beam of light suddenly became irrelevant as the trees around them suddenly lit up, each sporting a grotesque face of horror. Five screams reverberated through the woods as the forest suddenly came to life. The mares huddled up closely, all fearing for their lives.

“What are we going to do?” Lyra cried.

“The trees are evil!” Derpy wailed. “We’re all going to die!”

“Somepony save us.”

The tree’s glowed brighter, each one of a daunting size and their faces growing in terror. Twilight facehoofed as the mares around her continued to scream

“Just be quiet!” she yelled. The shrieks silenced immediately. “Geeze girls, it’s not that big of a deal.”

“But… the trees are evil…”

“They have spooky faces on them,” Twilight returned. “They aren’t coming alive and attacking us. Just calm down.”

“Huh…” Octavia realized. “I guess you’re right.” The group slowly dispersed.

Bon Bon walked up to one tree and tapped on it. It did nothing but look at her with it’s haunting face. “Yeah this isn't so bad,” she said. “They can’t do anything to us.”

“I can’t believe I got so worked up for nothing.” Derpy bowed her head in shame. “Sorry for calling you evil, scary-looking trees.”

“And look at that,” Twilight pointed. The path before them was lit up clear as day. “Now we can see where we’re going.”

The other five murmured concurringly, and they trotted along once more. The path quickly led them out of the thicker part of the forest. Twilight noted that their timing was convenient as well, for when they made it to a lighter area, the glow from the trees vanished.

“Hey, there goes that smoke again,” Derpy noted. Twilight swiveled her head around. She only saw the night sky and the moon. “Uh… Derpy there’s nothing here.”

“I’m telling you I saw smoke.” Derpy stamped her hoof. “In fact, I’ve been seeing that same smoke during this whole journey. Why won’t you guys believe me?”

“Probably because of the fact that you couldn’t see your own hoof when it was right in front of your face,” Vinyl muttered.

“Hey, it was dark!”

“Leave her alone, Vinyl,” Bon Bon said. “She just has uh… vision difficulties.”

Derpy’s befuddled eyeballs honed in on the cream colored mare angrily. “What?”

“N-nothing. I said nothing!”

“I believe you, Derpy,” Lyra threw in to appease her.

“I don’t.”

“Nope.”

“Doubt it.”

“Sorry Derpy,” Twilight said. “But… I don’t believe you either.”

“I’m not seeing things,” Derpy protested.

“Be quiet.”

“I won’t, I’m telling you-”

“No Derpy, seriously, be quiet. I think I hear something.” All chatter stopped as Twilight flicked her ear closer to a faint sound in the distance. “You girls hear that?”

“It sounds like… running water,” Octavia guessed. “Maybe there’s a river nearby.”

“I hear something too,” Lyra said. “It sounds like something’s crying. Come on, let’s see if we can help.”

“What?” Twilight said as Lyra scurried ahead. “No! We can’t just abandon the castle ruins. We need to press forward, not randomly wander off to help something that could potentially eat us!”

It was too late. Bon Bon was following Lyra, and a curious Vinyl and concerned Derpy were in turn following them. Octavia began to go after them, taking Twilight with her.

“I’m starting to see why Celestia prefers ruling with absolute power,” Twilight grumbled.

“They just want to help."

“Then why aren't they helping me?"

Octavia shook her head, much to Twilight's irritation. "Maybe you should just try being a little friendlier."

"Maybe they should try having an attention span longer than five seconds."

They brushed aside a few branches that the other four disappeared behind. The sight Twilight came across was undoubtedly the strangest she’d seen all night.

“But I just don’t understand how something this horrible could happen to me!” A giant sea serpent was sprawled across the clearing between the woods and a nearby creek. It was reclined as if sitting in a therapists office, it’s tail dipped in the water, thrashing about in dismay. What made Twilight’s already slack jaw hit the ground was that Lyra was patting him gingerly, and taking a keen interest in his troubles.

“It’s okay,” she cooed. “Just calm down and tell me what happened.”

“And speak coherently this time,” Bon Bon pleaded.

“Well… here I was just minding my own business, when the most terrible thing ever happened! A giant cloud of smoke whipped by and chopped off half of my fabulous moustache!” The sea serpent pointed to the bare side of his face. “And now I’m hideous! Oh, this is just awful! I’ll never be accepted into the League of Serpent Elites looking this atrocious.”

“You poor thing,” Lyra consoled him.

“There’s a League of Serpent Elites?” Vinyl asked.

“You mean you saw the smoke too?”

“Since when can reptiles grow hair?”

“Hey!” Twilight yelled. All four mares and the serpent flinched. “What are you guys doing? We need to get to the castle ruins, not sit around and play twenty questions with a monster!”

“Oh,” the serpent scoffed. “Well that’s a fine how-do-you-do!”

“And the castle ruins are over there.” Bon Bon pointed with her hoof. In the distance, Twilight could see an outline of what could only be a castle.

“Not to mention we only asked three questions,” Derpy threw in.

Twilight’s eyelid twitched.

“Are you doing okay?” Octavia asked.

“No… as a matter of fact I think I’m about to snap.”

“Lovely.”

Lyra turned back to the serpent. “You don’t have to listen to her. I know you’re not a monster.”

“Thank you,” it sniffled. “But without my full moustache… I might as well be.”

“Don’t say that,” Lyra gently said. “You still look amazing.”

“I… I do?”

“Absolutely. In fact, without your full stache, I’d say you look even better.”

“Really?” Lyra turned to everypony else, begging with her eyes for them to play along.

“Uh… yeah!” Vinyl improvised. “You got this cool… um… flare now.”

“You could be a trendsetter!” Bon Bon suggested.

“And you’re really tall,” Derpy added. The serpent broke into a huge grin.

“Are you kidding?” Twilight asked. “He looks-” She was cut off as Octavia shoved a hoof in her mouth.

“Fantastic,” she filled in. “Gorgeous even. Why, I bet the L.O.S.E. will be knocking down your door just begging for you to join them.”

“Oh, thanks girls.” The serpent beamed. “I feel so much better.” He glanced over to the castle ruins. “Didn’t one you say something about needing to get over there?”

“Yes,” Twilight yelled, removing Octavia’s hoof.

“Well, in that case why don’t I help you out.” The serpent sank the majority of his lengthy body back into the river, and used it to make a bridge to the other side.

“Thank you,” Lyra graciously said. The group traversed the serpents body with ease, and the majority waved goodbye.

“Finally,” Twilight exclaimed. “We’re almost to the castle. Hopefully now we can focus on stopping Nightmare Moon.”

“Well yeah, that’s what we’ve been doing this whole time,” Vinyl snorted. “Where have you been?”

“Excuse me?”

“Ah!” Lyra screamed from the head of the group. “Not more heights!”

Curious to see what she meant, Twilight nudged Octavia forward. Her eyes immediately fell upon a chasm with a single, broken rope bridge. There was a thin layer of fog, but Twilight could still somewhat see to the other side.

“Great,” she muttered. “What are we supposed to do now?”

“I could fly over the… oh wait, no. Never mind.” Derpy sheepishly tucked her torn up wing away. “My bad.”

Octavia squinted. “If one of us can get to the other side, they might be able to tie the ropes needed to link the bridge.”

“They'd need to be a unicorn,” Twilight noted. “Magic would be the only way to get the ropes.” She tapped her horn lightly and tried to summon a spell. Nothing. “Well, mine’s still not working. Lyra?” Lyra whimpered. “Okay, Lyra’s out.”

“Guess that means I’m going in!” Vinyl chanted. “Awesome! Told you you’d need my help.”

“You never said-”

“So how am I going to get across?” Vinyl walked over to the edge of the bridge and looked down.

Twilight looked around, hoping for an idea. Eventually, she settled on one. “Lyra, do you think your magic can lift Vinyl across?”

Lyra begrudgingly looked at the distance. “Maybe, but it’ll take everything I’ve got.”

Twilight shifted her gaze to Vinyl. “Are you still okay with this?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Vinyl this is crazy,” Octavia stepped in. “I can’t let you do this.”

“I’m kind of siding with Octavia on this one,” Bon Bon said. “We can find another way to cross.”

Lyra’s face hardened with determination. “No, I can do this. Get ready, Vinyl.” She stepped as close to the ledge as she dared and her horn sparked to life. Vinyl was enveloped in a golden aura.

Several ponies held their breaths as Vinyl floated up and across the chasm. Twilight found herself concerned around the halfway mark when Lyra began showing signs of fatigue. She refused to give out until the job was done. When Vinyl finally made it to the other side, Lyra gave out. Her horn dimmed, and she collapsed against Derpy in an exhausted heap.

Vinyl landed on the dirt with no trouble. "Thanks, Lyra!" she called. Her only response was a muffled sputter that could have meant anything from "you're welcome" to "there's a spider in my pants".

Choosing to focus on the task at hoof, Vinyl looked down to see where the ropes had broken off. When she spotted them, her own magic sparked to life and she began to lift the ropes up.

"Hello, Vinyl Scratch."

Her ears flicked in curiosity at the strange voice, and she turned around. Standing in front of her were three dark ponies. They were each dressed in dark glasses, baggy pants, and shirts that were sporting musical symbols.

"Uhh, S'up. Who are you guys?"

"We are the Shadow Jockeys,". The one in front said. "We're the most elite team of DJ's in all of Equestria, and we want you to join us."

"You want me... To join your DJ team?"

"Yes." The pony in front leaned in. "All you’ve got to do is-"

Stark laughter cut her off. "That has to be the dumbest thing I've ever heard!"

"W-what?"

Vinyl stamped her hoof in her stupor of laughter. "DJ's don't do gigs in teams you moron! Haha, you've got to be the dumbest..." Her sentence trailed off, swallowed by her own laughter.

“I think you're missing the point of my offer.” The pony scowled. “Join us and you could be famous, not like-”

“Sure, joining a bunch of wanna-be DJs will really take me to the next level.” Vinyl cracked up all over again.

"Vinyl, what's the hold up?" Octavia yelled.

"Sorry, Tavi," she called, coming down from her laughing high. "It's just these ponies said the stupidest thing!"

"What ponies?" Vinyl whipped her head back, and saw nothing where the three wanna-be DJs had been.

"Huh?"

"I only saw smoke," Derpy said.

Vinyl rolled her eyes, and returned to levitating the bridge ropes with her magic. When the bridge was finally mended, the rest of the mares crossed.

“Finally,” Twilight said. “What took you so long?”

“Oh chill out, I was just having a good laugh.”

“Well next time, wait until after the world is saved.” Twilight looked ahead at the castle in the distance. “Now come on, we’re almost there.”

“You know,” Vinyl said as they began walking. “Maybe if you laughed a little more, you wouldn’t be so uptight.”

“Excuse me?”

“You are a bit of a downer,” Derpy admitted.

“That’s because the world is in danger!” Twilight argued. “Do you honestly expect me to be a smiles and giggles when the threat of eternal night looms over our heads?”

“So any other day of the week you’re actually fun?”

“Of course I am,” Twilight affirmed. “I do a lot of reading.” Vinyl and Derpy shared a glance. “What?”

“That’s it?”

“Yes,” Twilight said.

There was silence.

“That’s really sad,” Derpy told her.

“What? No it isn’t. I get to be all alone with nothing but my books for hours at a time.” Twilight smiled. “There’s really nothing better.”

“Wow, your life is just terrible.” Twilight’s smile dropped. “Well don’t worry, ‘cause when we’re done I’ll show what having fun really is.” Vinyl clapped Twilight on the back. “You’ll see, it’ll be a riot.”

“I’ll come too.” Lyra trotted up next to her. “Nopony should be as miserable as you are.”

“Miserable? I’m not miserable!”

“I’ll bring the candy!” Bon Bon said.

“I suppose I could take time away from my practicing my cello to come along,” Octavia included.

“Between all of us, we’ll have you laughing and actually enjoying life in no time,” Vinyl exclaimed to a rousing consensus.

“You aren’t listening to me!” Twilight yelled. “I don’t-”

“Don’t worry,” Derpy consoled her. “We won’t call ourselves your friends until you’re ready. Until then, we’ll just be your acquaintances.”

Twilight groaned.

Acquaintanceship is Magic [Part Three]

Princess Celestia hovered just above the ruins of her old castle feeling rather bored. This night was - without a doubt - the longest of her life. Not to say that wasn’t expected, but she had thought her faithful student would have been able to correct the problem by now. Or at the very least, shown up.

Her eyes scanned the forest below her once more. Nothing. She groaned, and for perhaps the twenty-eighth time that night considered the possibility that Twilight had failed.

No, no. She hasn’t failed. Yet. I just need to be patient.

She gazed down towards the ground yet again. A caterpillar inched along the dirt. A lone leaf broke free of it’s branch and slowly made its descent through the air. A crow cawed through the night air.

WHAT THE HECK IS TAKING HER SO LONG?!

Impatience caused Celetia to clench her jaw firmly. She let out a sigh, sucked in air, and practically chewed on her own teeth. It was at that moment that she finally spied a purple figure emerge from the woods right before her castle, along with five others.

A smile planted itself on her face. Finally, and I see she brought the Bearers with her. Good, I knew you could do it Twilight. She took a closer look at the ponies and suddenly recoiled in shock. ...Wait, those ponies… they aren’t… oh no.

Celestia’s teeth, having only seconds of reprieve from being ground into each other, found themselves forced into another tight clench. So tight in fact, that any second they might shatter into tiny pieces, not that Celestia cared. She had a far bigger concern before her.

Twilight if you screwed this up I swear to me...

“So wait… DJ’s don’t perform in teams?”

“No Derpy.” Vinyl facehoofed. “They don’t. That’s why it was funny, you see?”

“Not really…”

“Well, maybe it’s just more of an inside joke.”

“Oh, no wonder I didn’t laugh; we’re outside.”

Twilight wanted to sigh, but at this point it was getting redundant. "Can you move any faster?" she instead asked Octavia.

"Not really. You're kind of heavy." Octavia grunted, attempting to shift some of Twilight's weight off her back.

“Well, reading doesn’t exactly give me the best physical exercise.” Twilight carefully removed her hoof from Octavia’s collarbone, and put her weight on her three good legs. “I’ll just walk from here.”

“Are you sure?” Lyra trotted over. “If Octavia’s tired then I can-”

“No,” Twilight cut her off. “I’ve already more than exceeded the amount of physical contact I expected for today. Besides, it’s not much further.” She hobbled the last few steps to the rotting wooden door of the decaying castle, careful not to let her battered limb touch the ground.

“As long as you’re fine with this.”

“I am.” Twilight pressed her shoulder against the door with all her strength in a pitiful attempt to open it. “A little help, please.”

Five ponies scrambled forward to help, and together they forced open the heavy, metal doors. The hinges creaked with the rust of a thousand years, and subconsciously Twilight worried they would break and fall on top of them. Luckily nothing of the sort happened and they cautiously walked in.

The first thing Twilight noticed was the cobwebs, particularly the one that wrapped itself around her face the second she stepped inside.

"Gah! What the hay?" She sputtered, spitting the sticky strings from her mouth. Twilight brought up her hoof instinctively to wipe her face, and in doing so accidentally put her weight on her bad hoof. With a yelp of pain she fell to the ground.

Lyra was the first to swoop down and helped her up. She found herself lifted back up, her bad hoof sprawled over her fellow unicorn's back. Bon Bon gave a few swipes of her hoof to remove the cobwebs from Twilight's eyes and mane.

“Thanks,” she grumbled. She got two smiles in return.

“So where are these Elements of Harm-pony things?” Vinyl spoke up, appearing next to Twilight.

“Harmony,” she muttered under her breath. “And I have no idea.” Her head darted to the side, her eyes scrutinizing every miniscule detail on the cracked and ancient walls, hoping to garner clues for the location of the Elements. “They could be hidden within the bowels of the castle, or scattered and stuck behind the walls, or guarded by some kind of trap.”

“Or on a giant statue in the middle of the room,” Derpy piped up.

“Well yes, but that would be ridicu-” Twilight froze mid-sentence when she looked at the center of the room. Derpy had been right, as there was a massive stone statue right there. The center was a giant orb of rock, and extending from it were five more stones, each shaped like a jewel. “But… but…”

“Certainly looks like they could be the ancient artifact that we came for,” Octavia said.

“But....”

“Hey, somepony help me get these bad boys down, then we can blast that Nightmare chick into oblivion and be back in time for breakfast.”

“But… I… it…”

“Twilight, are you okay?” Lyra asked from under her. “You look a little upset.”

Her eyelid twitched erratically. “I’m just a little surprised that the most powerful and ancient artifacts in all of Equestria would be practically on display like this.”

“Well, they are in the Everfree Forest if that helps,” Bon Bon justified. She glanced over to Vinyl; the DJ was attempting to climb the massive statue to retrieve one of the Elements.

"Vinyl get down from there!" Octavia demanded, trotting over.

"Well how else am I supposed to get them down?"

"Gee, I don't know, why don't you ask your horn!"

"Oh..." Vinyl looked around a bit before saying. “Okay, I’m coming down then.” Her grip on the stones loosened.

“No wait, let me get clear first!” Octavia’s protest were useless. Vinyl dropped down, colliding with her. Both mares crashed to the floor, causing Twilight to wince.

Derpy was the closest to the pile, and took it upon herself to help the two mares up. Octavia brushed herself off and glared angrily at Vinyl.

“Sorry ‘bout that, Tavi.”

“I hate you sometimes.”

“Hey!” Twilight barked. “Focus! We still need to get Elements!”

Vinyl rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah. I got it.” Her horn sparked to life, and she grabbed the stone orbs one by one.

“Hey,” Derpy called out. A few heads swiveled towards her, and Twilight saw she was looking back at the castle entrance. “The smoke’s back.”

Twilight rolled her eyes and turned her focus back to Vinyl, who was haphazardly flinging the stones to the floor. “Be careful!”

“These things won’t break.” Vinyl waved her off.

“Don’t be so sure.” Twilight felt her blood freeze with shock. Something inky black shot past her head. It began swirling in the center of the Elements, blowing Vinyl back with its sheer force. When the spectacle ended, a tall, dark figure stood before them. Her armor glinted in the moonlight, and her fanged teeth were curled into a nasty smile. Nightmare Moon

“No,” Twilight whispered.

“I told you about the smoke,” Derpy accused the group as a whole. “But nopony listened.”

“Derpy, now isn’t the time to gloat.” Bon Bon’s knees were quaking in fear.

Nightmare Moon cackled. “So, you made it. I’m legitimately impressed a bunch of ponies such as yourself survived long enough.”

“Uh, Smart Mare, what do we do?” Vinyl was cowering behind fear-stricken Octavia.

Twilight glanced from them to Nightmare Moon. In a desperate attempt to do something, she tried igniting her horn, but it only sputtered and fizzed out.

“I… I don’t know!”

“What about the Elements?” Lyra asked. “Didn’t you figure out how to use them?”

Her eyes bulged in remembrance. “Yes! The book said a spark was needed to reveal the sixth Element. All I have to do is…” she trailed off, only just now realizing how vague of an instruction “a spark” really was.

“You mean you don’t even know what to do?” Octavia squeaked, her voice high-pitched with anger and terror.

“I guess I didn’t think this through…”

Nightmare Moon cackled again. “This is just priceless!” With surprising ferocity, she slammed her hoof into the ground. The stone orbs shattered, eliciting six consecutive gasps. “I honestly thought the Bearers would’ve put up a better fight than this.”

“The… Bearers?” Twilight blinked.

“You seem confused.” Nightmare Moon looked her over. “You… are the Bearers of the Elements, are you not? Hasn’t my sister been preparing the six of you for this moment for the entirety of your pathetic lives?”

“I’m really more of an independent studier,” Twilight admitted.

“I deliver mail!” Derpy chipped in, sounding more cheerful than she should be in this situation.

Nightmare Moon appeared considerably more nonplussed now. Slowly she opened her mouth. Then she roared with laughter so loud the entire room shook.

“This…” she chuckled wildly. “This is what Celestia sent to stop me? A bunch of foals that don’t even know who they are, let alone what they’re doing? It’s just too priceless.”

“Wait a minute,” Twilight glanced at the ponies all around her, and the puzzle pieces clicked together easily. “Sweet Celestia, I’m an idiot!”

“I thought you were the smart one,” Vinyl said.

“No, I’m an idiot for not seeing this sooner!” Twilight smiled as Nightmare Moon doubled over in her laughing fit. “Girls, don’t you see? We’re the Elements of Harmony!”

The shattered remains of the stone orbs suddenly lit up with a vibrant light. They levitated into the air, independent of any unicorn magic, and swirled over to the six mares.

“Octavia, who wouldn’t leave anypony behind after the cliff collapsed on us, represents the element of... Loyalty!” Part of the stone pieces encircled Octavia. She opened her mouth to say something in response, but Twilight plowed onward.

“Bon Bon, who gave away her candy to the manticore, represents the element of… Generosity!” More fragments began circling, this time centering on Bon Bon. Despite the concern in her eyes, she looked hopefully at Twilight.

“Lyra, who consoled that blubbering sea serpent with compliments, represents the element of… Kindness!” Fragments descended over Lyra, and began orbiting her. One hit Twilight in the eye, so she backed away, hobbling on her three good legs.

“Vinyl, who when confronted by a group of…” Twilight struggled to think of the right word.

“Posers?” Vinyl offered.

“Yes, thank you. When confronted by a group of posers merely chuckled. She represents the element of… Laughter!” Stones descended over the DJ, who was likely about to make a “this rocks” type of pun before Twilight continued.

“And… um… I guess I represent…” Twilight scrunched her face in thought.

“Honesty?” Octavia suggested.

“Yeah!” Bon Bon agreed. “You’ve been brutally honest with us this whole trip!”

“Like with the trees!”

“Okay, then I represent… Honesty!” The stones lowered over Twilight, dancing through the air around her.

“What about me?” Derpy asked. The group collectively turned to her. Nightmare Moon’s laughter was dying down as she appeared to notice the situation before her.

“Well, there’s still the sixth Element.” Lyra glanced to Twilight. “Any ideas?”

Twilight nodded. “Yes, there’s only one logical thing the last Element can be. M-”

“Muffins!” Derpy jumped excitedly into the air.

“No.” Twilight shook her head slowly. “Not… not even close.”

“Oh. Whoopsie.”

“The last element has to be Magic!” The giant stone in the center of the room rumbled, startling even Nightmare Moon. Out of it rose a singular stone, which flew over to Derpy, burst, and sent fragments to circle around her.

Twilight turned smugly to Nightmare Moon, who was now noticeably concerned. “Together my acquaintances and I represent the Elements of Harmony! And now we’ll use them to defeat you!”

The stone fragments burst with magic, clinging on to each pony in a dazzling display of light.

“No! No! Noooooo!” Nightmare Moon held up her front hooves in defense as the blinding light penetrated the room. Twilight had to shut her eyes for fear of losing her vision. When the light died down, she opened them again.

Nightmare Moon was still standing, her hooves shielding her face. Slowly, she peaked an eye open, and observed the ponies before her. Out of curiosity, Twilight did the same.

Everypony looked the same, except now most of them were bearing golden necklaces around their throats. When she looked closer, Twilight saw that there were Cutie Mark shaped emblems embedded in center of each. Feeling a weight on her own neck, she glanced down and saw her own necklace, purple Cutie Mark and all. When she glanced back up, she saw Derpy. The pegasus pony had no necklace, instead she was now wearing a tiara. Seven jeweled bubbles lined the rim, and at the peak was what could only be a muffin.

Her head swiveled back to the tyrant at the front of the room. Twilight’s jaw unhinged, seeing that she was still standing after such a display.

“Is… is that all?” Nightmare Moon inquired, her voice a mixture of tentative relief and incomprehensibleness.

“I guess.” Twilight frantically looked around. “I kinda thought there would be a beam of pink acquaintanceship energy shot from our Elements to defeat you.”

“Actually it’s supposed to be a rainbow beam,” Nightmare Moon clarified. “But yeah, I thought the same thing.” The seven of them awkwardly looked around, waiting to see if something would happen. Vinyl burped, but that was about it. “Well, seeing as how I’m still free, I suppose I’ll be killing you all now.” Nightmare Moon ignited her horn.

Before Twilight could so much as cringe, a beam of magic slammed into Nightmare Moon and flung her into a wall. Six heads whipped to the side, searching for the origin of the spell.

“Alright, that’s enough out of you.” Landing firmly on the floor with an authoritative glare was Princess Celestia. Twilight’s face brightened at the sight of her mentor; it seemed they might survive the night after all.

Recovering from the blow slowly, Nightmare Moon seethed. “You. You’ve got some nerve trying to get the drop on me like that. Don’t expect another lucky sho-” She was interrupted when another beam of magic struck her squarely in the chest, this time sending her through the stone wall.

“Princess!” Twilight rushed forward to embrace Celestia before remembering proper etiquette and bowing as deep as her injury would allow.

“Twilight.” Celestia’s voice sounded almost cold. Twilight blinked, turning her head up in confusion. Princess Celestia was eyeing the five ponies behind Twilight with noticeable discomfort. When she saw the tiara on Derpy’s head the discomfort shifted to almost anger. “By Starswirl’s beard, you screwed this up even more than I’d thought.”

“W-what?” Twilight stammered, not fully comprehending what she’d just heard.

“Twilight, by now you’ve probably figured out I sent you to Ponyville with a rather specific purpose in mind.”

“Yeah,” she glanced down at the necklace around her throat. “You wanted me to find the Elements of Harmony, right?”

“Not just the Elements. You needed to find the Bearers of Harmony as well.”

“The… Bearers?”

Celestia nodded. “Every generation, six ponies are born as the chosen wielders of the Elements. They are the only ones who can ever hope to use the Elements properly, and these five,” she waved a hoof dismissively to Twilight’s acquaintances, “are not those ponies.”

“But… wait… no!” Twilight scrambled to think of something to say. “I didn’t know anything about the Bearers of Harmony!”

Celestia blinked. “Did you never read about it? I could’ve sworn I left a book in the Ponyville Library that contained very specific information....” Twilight yanked the tome from her saddlebags. “Yes that’s the one.”

“But I never saw anything about the Bearers of Harmony!” Twilight neurotically flipped through the pages of the book. “There just… wasn’t anything.”

“Check the Table of Contents!” Lyra called out in suggestion.

“Or the index!” Octavia added.

“Or maybe read the darn thing instead of randomly flipping through the pages!” Bon Bon yelled.

Twilight bit her lip but offered no response. Flipping dozens of pages at once, she found the Table of Contents and scanned it. “Oh…” she realized, a luminescent blush springing to her cheeks. “Bearers of Harmony. Page two.”

Princess Celestia hung her head solemnly. “You didn’t even read the book.”

“I skimmed it!” Twilight protested. Celestia merely shook her head. “I was under a lot of pressure, okay!”

“Well it shouldn’t have mattered,” Celestia continued. “The instructions I gave you prior to your departure should have easily allowed you to run into the Bearers.” Her head turned to the five behind Twilight. “How did you even meet these ponies?”

“Wait, you knew who the Bearers were?” Twilight’s jaw unhinged. “Why didn’t you just tell me?”

“Had I interfered by giving you anything more than the vaguest of instructions, you would not have been able to form genuine friendships with the Bearers, thus rendering the Elements useless. Though, that’s the least of my concern at this point.” She tightened her lips upon looking at Derpy’s tiara once again. “Honestly, what were you thinking? You gave the Element of Magic to a pegasus for crying out loud!” The Princess of the Sun facehoofed with enough force to decapitate a normal pony.

Derpy glanced at Vinyl. “Should I be offended?”

“I think so,” came Vinyl’s reply. “That sounded tribalist to me.”

Twilight ignored them. “There weren’t any Elements left after I gave myself Honesty. What was I supposed to do?”

“Twilight, your Cutie Mark is magic. Clearly you’re the Element of Magic! Was it really that difficult to understand? Did I need to spoonfeed you the answers?”

The stone wall exploded as a temperamental tyrant blasted her way back in. “I will not tolerate this!” Nightmare Moon screamed. “I am the rightful ruler of Equestria! Goddess of the Moon! I will not be-” The rest of her words were cut off as Celestia formed a bubble around her. Nightmare Moon blinked, and proceeded to pound her hooves against Celestia’s spell to no avail.

“Did you really even need the Elements?” Octavia wondered aloud. Celestia shot her a look. “Well, it just seems like you made Twilight go on a frivolous and deadly quest without proper preparation to find some artifacts to do a job you seem to be doing just fine on your own.”

Celestia sighed. “It’s true that I do not need the Elements to defeat my sister.”

“That’s your sister!” Vinyl suddenly shouted in surprise.

“But I didn’t want her defeated,” the Princess continued, undeterred. “I wanted her reformed. And only the Elements of Harmony have that power.” Her eyes returned to her student. “And I hoped you would have been up to the challenge.”

“...I-I made it this far, didn’t I?” Twilight glanced back at the five ponies that had helped her. “We made it this far. Doesn’t that count for anything?”

“What you did was nearly get yourselves killed, and…” she gestured to Twilight’s neck. “... and do whatever that is to the Elements of Harmony.”

Twilight lowered her head. “I’m sorry. Is… is there any way to fix this?”

“No.” There was silence, save the angry beating noise of hoof-on-magic-bubble from Nightmare Moon. Everypony stared at the Princess, hoping for some explanation. Celestia eventually sighed. “Whatever you did Twilight, it somehow bonded the Elements to these ponies. They can no longer be matched with the Bearers, and they can’t be utilized by these five.” She stared at the ground. “They’re worthless now.”

“I’m sorry,” Twilight whimpered. She felt miserable. Never before had she failed this spectacularly.

Celestia knelt down to be eye level with her. “Do not feel bad, Twilight. It’s… not entirely your fault.”

“It kinda is,” Vinyl interjected. They next thing heard was a slap followed by a yelp of pain.

Celestia draped her wing around Twilight. “Do not feel bad, my student. Accidents happen… granted I would have preferred you messing up your first levitation spell instead of this, but…” Twilight sniffled. “I’m terrible at cheering you up, aren’t I?” Twilight could only nod in response, so Celestia rose. “Sorry.” She glanced back to the trapped overlord. “I should probably get back to Canterlot. Nightmare Moon needs some magical restraints along with a nice, cozy dungeon, and Equestria needs its sun.” Her eyes lingered on Twilight. “I’ll send a chariot to come pick you up in the morning.”

Twilight’s eyes fell, but the gears in her brain whirled with activity. Celestia turned, her magic lifting Nightmare Moon as she prepared to teleport away.

“Wait!” Twilight called out. Celestia tilted her head. “I… I want to stay. I know you think the Elements are worthless now, but maybe there’s a way to fix them. If I could just find a way to… I don’t know… reset them, then I can make this whole screw-up go away.”

“Twilight…”

“Please, Princess. Let me fix my mess.” Twilight attempted the largest puppy-dog eyes she could. It usually worked with her old foalsitter, so she was hoping the same would apply with Celestia.

She heard a defeated sigh. “Okay,” Celestia mumbled.

Twilight’s face brightened. “Really?” Her three good hooves left the ground as she bounced with joy. “Oh, thank you thank you thank you!”

“I expect an update with every breakthrough, Twilight.” Celestia then muttered under her breath. “Assuming there are any.”

Twilight stopped her enthusiastic hops. “Absolutely, Princess.”

“And do make sure you get out a little.”

“Of course. Not all of my research can be done through books this time.” She began pacing. “I’ll need to thoroughly analyze the Elements, and potentially even the Bearers. I’ll need to examine every inch of this room, take soil samples from the nearby grounds to compare with Ponyville and… say, you wouldn’t happen to have a lightning rod, would you?”

Celestia sighed. “That’s not exactly what I meant.”

“You’re right. It’ll be a much more meaningful experience to construct my own.”

A faint smile creased Celestia’s lips. “Goodbye Twilight. And good-bye, everypony else.”

“Good bye, tribalist princess!” Derpy waved enthusiastically. Four other hooves joined hers, and in a flash the Princess was gone.

Twilight turned to face the other five. “Well, I suppose we should be getting home."

“You mean we have to walk all the way back?”

Octavia sighed. “No Vinyl, we’ll just take the hot air balloon that I conveniently brought along but forgot about until this exact moment.”

“Oh, awesome!”

“Sweet Celestia....”

Lyra trotted up to Twilight. “Thanks for lying to the Princess so you could hang out with us a little longer.”

Bon Bon nodded. “Yeah, I didn’t expect that from you of all ponies.”

“I didn’t lie!” Twilight exclaimed. “Element of Honesty, remember?”

“I thought you were Magic.”

“Nope… er… maybe. Look, I’m going to find out how to set this right. I just need some time is all.”

“But you heard the Princess.” Bon Bon pointed to her necklace. “These things are worthless now.”

Twilight shook her head. “I can’t believe that. She may think I’ve screwed everything up, but I know I can fix this.”

“Well, props for stubbornness I guess.” Vinyl lowered her sunglasses back over her eyes. “Now come on, we just sorta saved the world. It’s time to party!”

Twilight facehoofed, accidentally sending her battered limb into her face. After a short cry of pain she said, “can we at least do so at the hospital?”

“Ditto.” Derpy indicated her damaged wing.

“Aww,” Vinyl groaned. “But they have a policy against subwoofers.”

Twilight began hobbling towards the exit, and her acquaintances followed. “Good.”

Author's Note

And thus concludes the Acquaintanceship is Magic arc! I seriously can't believe my lazy butt got this done in time for my FIMfiction-iversary.

So, seeing as how I can't very well leave this story alone with the way this chapter wrapped up, I suppose a second arc is in order. It'll be a while though, seeing as how I'll need to plan it out. Don't expect any updates until around 2015. I'll see ya there... or, then, I suppose.

Sleep is For The Weak

If it was possible for Twilight to get paper cuts on her eyes from reading, it would’ve happened hours ago. Nevertheless, they weren’t holding up so well. The whites of her eyes were bloodshot, and dry from minimal blinking. Her pupils were dilated heavily, attempting to make up for the dim light, and after eighteen straight hours with no breaks they too were sore. The muscles behind her eyes strained as they were dragged the the right once again, their owner absorbing another line of information without care for their well being.

Twilight’s stomach rumbled with hunger in the midst of all this, and distantly she wondered how long it had been since she’d eaten. She tried to ignore it and turned her focus back to the book. Two paragraphs later she heard the rumbling again. Actually, she felt it. Her stomach practically caved it on itself, and at the same time wailed with the need for sustenance.

All right, fine. I’ll get some food. “Spike!” she called out. “Spike!”

“Yeah?” Spike’s voice was distant. He was probably downstairs in library. “What do you need?”

“Can you bring me some lunch?” There was a slight pause.

“Twilight… I already brought you lunch. Six hours ago.”

“What?” Twilight looked off to the left, and saw a daisy sandwich and a glass of orange juice right beside it. “Oh…”

She heard footsteps as Spike made his way upstairs. “Are you okay, Twilight?”

“Yeah… I’m just reading a lot is all.”

“You know, you still haven’t told me what the heck happened while I was asleep.” Spike cleared the last few steps and walked towards Twilight.

“I know, sorry. I’m really busy.” Igniting her horn, she levitated the sandwich over and took a bite. It was cold. Freezing in fact. She finished it in three bites, and proceeded to swallow all of the orange juice in a single gulp before turning back to her book.

“And you still haven’t told me who those ponies were that were with you in the hospital,” Spike reminded her. Twilight unconsciously glanced down at the splint on her leg as he did.

“I know.”

“Annnd, you’ve yet to tell me why you brought all this jewelry back with you.” Spike pointed to the table in the center of the room. Twilight turned her head and saw the five necklaces and one tiara that had become the bane of her existence.

“Yes Spike. I know.” Her voice contained just a hint of irritation, but Spike likely wouldn’t pick up on it. She flipped to the next page in her book and hoped that the subject would be dropped.

He did at least give her the courtesy of waiting a few seconds before responding. “Are… you going to tell me?”

Twilight groaned louder than she meant to. “Yes,” she covered quickly. “But not right now, all right? Like I said, I’m really busy, and there’s a lot on my mind.”

“Okay… Also, there’s a pony here to see you.”

She slowly blinked, the mere action did little to alleviate her eyes unfortunately, and turned. “Can’t you help them find whatever book they need?”

He shook his head. “She’s here to see you. And uh… I don’t really think she’s the type to read.”

“What makes you say–” A immense blast of sound rocketed through the library. Every fiber of Twilight’s body vibrated with the force behind the noise, and if forced her out of her own chair. When it finally let up she was on the ground, stunned.

“Hey, Smart Mare! Get down here already!”

Spike rubbed his ears in moderate pain. “That’s why.”

Twilight recovered, taking great care not to put too much weight on her bad hoof as she did so. It took her five seconds to recognize that voice, and she bolted for the stairs when she did. Hobbling down the steps, she saw a smirking Vinyl Scratch with an entire sound system set up in the dead center of the library.

“Hey, check it out!” Vinyl shouted, flipping a switch on the turntables. Ear-grating electronic music began assaulting Twilight. “I got my amp back!”

“Turn it down!” Twilight screamed over the music. Vinyl didn’t seem to comprehend her, so Twilight motioned with her splinted hoof to lower the volume. At first, Vinyl appeared reluctant, but she eventually softened the music.

“Geeze, I was hoping you wouldn’t want to kill the wubs like Tavi always does.” Vinyl flipped off her shades and walked around the equipment. “Guess that was too much to expect from a bookworm.”

Twilight took a deep breath before answering. “Vinyl… why did you set up possibly the loudest sound system in Equestria in a library?”

“Pssh, quit the flattery. I mean, it’s good, but far from the loudest system out there.”

“My question still stands, why in my library?”

Vinyl’s mouth curled into the kind of grin that would make a thief's skin crawl. “Well, I figured you’re probably itching to celebrate now that you're out of the hospital, so I figured I’d take you clubbing. Though considering how lame you are I decided to bring the club to you, that way you can’t say no.”

Twilight groaned. “Vinyl, I don’t want to go club– Wait, lame?”

“Aww, come on, Smart Mare. I know you’ve got a wild side to you. Don’t you want to let loose, dance around like you’re having a seizure, and maybe meet a few choice stallions while you’re at it?”

“No.”

Vinyl’s eyebrow arched over her shades. “Oh… so you’re into mares then?”

Twilight smacked her good hoof to her face and let it slowly slide below her chin. “Vinyl, I’m not interesting in clubbing, period! I have to keep researching the Elements of Harmony and find a way to fix my mistake.”

“Are you still hung up on the fact that you wrecked up priceless, ancient artifacts that would’ve allowed us to wield unbelievable power and reform Nightmare Moon in a matter of seconds?” Vinyl wrapped her hoof around Twilight’s shoulder. “Dude, that was like twenty-four hours ago. Forget about it already.”

Groaning, Twilight wormed free of Vinyl. “I can’t! Apparently I had some sort of important destiny – which Princess Celestia purposely neglected to tell me about – that I completely and utterly messed up! How am I supposed to fix it if I just ‘forget about it’ literally one day after it happened?”

The corner of Vinyl’s mouth curved upward into a smirk. “Is that a note of bitterness I detect in your voice?” Twilight grumbled. “All right look, so you screwed enough pooches to make a breeder blush. Get over yourself. I know what a pony like you needs, and what you need, my acquaintance, is to dance until you’re dizzy. And we are going to make sure that happens.”

“I really don’t–” she stopped short. “We? Who’s we?”

Instead of answering, Vinyl raised her forehooves into the air and clapped them together twice. Twilight knitted her brow together at this gesture, her question far from answered. Vinyl frowned, and looked over towards the door to the library expectantly. Shifting her gaze there as well, Twilight waited for something to happen.

“Ahem!” Vinyl coughed loudly. “A-he-hem!”

The door creaked open slightly and a gray snout poked through. “Was… was that our cue?”

Vinyl groaned. “Yes, Derpy! Come on, do the thing already!”

Pushing the door open, Derpy along with three other mares Twilight recognized, walked in.

“Sorry, Vinyl… I-I dropped the disco ball and it broke, and Bon Bon couldn’t get a fog machine in time, and it turns out Lyra only thought she had a lava lamp, but she really didn’t.” Lyra and Bon Bon hung their heads, each a little ashamed.

Vinyl groaned, shaking her head. “Tavi, did you at least bring the whipped cream and confetti?”

“No,” Octavia replied sharply. She earned a murderous look from her friend. “Well what did you expect? You told us your idea twenty minutes ago!”

Groaning again, Vinyl turned. “Twilight, I’m sorry about this. We had an epic entrance planned out, with lights and stuff, and Lyra was going to do a somersault… maybe... but now it’s trashed.”

“Sorry,” Derpy mumbled again.

“Heard ya the first time, Derps.”

“Look,” Twilight interjected. “This is… nice and all, but I really need to get back to my research.” She inched towards the stairs.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Vinyl blocked her. “Look, cool entrance or no, – disco ball or no – we’re still going to show you a good time. We can go out to Club Stirrup instead of hanging out in this dusty place.”

Twilight cringed. “I really don’t–”

“But you deserve it, Twilight,” Lyra interrupted.

“After braving the Everfree Forest, spraining your hoof, and fighting Nightmare Moon, you need to take a break.” Bon Bon stepped forward, determinedly. “And we’re prepared to make you take that break.” Derpy firmly nodded.

Twilight turned to Octavia, the most sensible of the ponies, hoping for support. Instead, she got a shrug. “Don’t look at me, Twilight. I agree with them; overworking yourself won’t help anypony.”

Seeing that it was five against one, she sighed. “Spike,” she called up. “I’m going out. Don’t eat all the ice cream while I’m gone.”

There was a brief moment of pause before he responded. “No promises!”

Around her, the five mares cheered in their victory. Twilight’s ears folded down in defeat. Vinyl grabbed her hoof and led her to the door. She begrudgingly allowed this to happen while the rest followed.

Twilight couldn’t believe it, but she actually found herself missing Vinyl’s sound system back at the library. She had discovered that it was rather tame, compared to the ear-pounding noise that currently jarred through every bone in her body; it also provided her with a complimentary headache which was doing wonders for her mood. Being dragged away from her studies had made her irritable. This? It was making her grumpy.

Music currently rattled her body while she sat at the bar. She refused to turn around and subject herself to the constant flashing of lights from the stage as well, preferring to view the faint glow that bounced off of the wall before her.

She must’ve been a rather lugubrious sight; her ears were folded down in a pitiful attempt to block out the monstrous noise, her head was lowered onto her hoof which pulled the side of her face back slightly. She must be the only pony in the dance club who actually wanted to sit alone at the bar rather than fling herself about like an animal, and even then she was finding it rather unpleasant. The bartender noticed her empty glass of apple cider, and moved to refill it.

“No thanks,” she mumbled, moving her splinted hoof over the top of the glass. “I’ve had enough.” He shrugged in response and moved away.

A yawn suddenly bubbled inside Twilight, and she struggled to force it down. In the end, she failed. Her mouth stretched open wide and a powerful yawn crawled out. When it finally ended, Twilight felt an aftershock coming and found herself unable to suppress it as well. She blinked slowly, wondering how she’d become so tired; it wasn’t as if she hadn’t slept recently… but she was certain that she must’ve.

Well, I slept the night before I came to Ponyville, despite staying up late to read, and that was only a day ago… or was it two. Huh... I know I didn’t sleep the next night because of that pink mare’s party and the Summer Sun Celebration… and the morning after I was in the hospital till noon. Afterwards I was researching for… how long?

“Whoohoo!” A recognizable cheer tore through her thoughts, and Twilight turned. Both Derpy and Lyra had just stage dived off of the DJ platform, and were letting the crowd carry them aimlessly around the room. She shuddered at the amount of physical contact that must involve.

“Feeling okay?” Twilight turned to see Octavia right behind her. She pulled up the stool next to her and sat down. “I only ask because you appear to be rather dismal.”

“What, not going to party like everyone else?”

Octavia shook her head. “This style of music and ‘dancing’ aren't really my forte. Usually when Vinyl drags me here I wait by the corner until she’s ready to leave.”

“Why do you come then? Sounds like a waste of time if you ask me.”

“It is, but Vinyl tends to follow to mantra of ‘party till you drop’, and when she drops, it’s up to me to drag her home.”

“Well I don’t have time to wait for that!” Twilight fumed. She knocked her empty cider glass over the edge of the table. It shattered, much to the annoyance of the bartender. “Sorry.”

“I suppose this is a quasi-nightmare for an introvert such as yourself,” Octavia said, bringing back Twilight’s focus to her.

“How’d you know I’m an introvert?”

“Takes one to know one.” Octavia smiled. “I guess you can say I get where you’re coming from. You just prefer being alone rather than in large crowds. It clears your head, and makes you feel a little better.”

“Exactly.” She was cut off by another sudden yawn. If it weren’t for the blaring music, she would’ve sounded like a foghorn. When it passed she ignored Octavia’s look of intrigue and continued, “and I really need to be alone to research the Elements.”

“Don’t talk about your research,” Octavia asserted. “You’re supposed to be taking a break.”

“Yeah, well this break is making me want to break a golf club over my skull.” The music suddenly changed as a low-pitched instrument went silent the blared back at full volume, leading to mass hysteria which Twilight could only describe as a musical seizure. She threw her head between her hooves a tad dramatically. “Gah! Why won’t it end?”

Octavia looked on her with sympathy. “I’ll see if I can gather up everypony and convince them to try something else,” she suggested, patting Twilight on the back. “You just wait here.”

Twenty minutes later, the entire group gathered just outside of the dance club with only muffled musical beeps to accompany them.

“All right, Tavi, this better be good. You’re killing the wubs again.” Vinyl lifted up her shades just to drill Octavia with her red irises. She was fairly angry that her partying had been cut short.

“Sorry Vinyl, but I believe the, er… wubs needed to die. Just this once.”

“Excuse you?” Vinyl looked ready to punch somepony, and Lyra, being the closest, inched out of range.

“Vinyl, we only came here to help Twilight unwind, and so far it hasn’t been working.”

Rolling her eyes at the understatement of the century, Twilight opened her mouth to add something, but found herself cut off.

“What’s more unwinding than dancing to incredibly loud music in a small, confined space with a bunch of sweaty strangers?”

"Lots of things," Twilight interjected. “Aneurysms, using sandpaper for toilet paper, eating scissors…”

Vinyl waved a hoof to dismiss her, barely paying attention. “Can it, Smart Mare. We can try all that stuff later. Right now I want to know what Tavi thinks is better than wubs.”

Octavia clenched her jaw slightly, looking at the ground. “Well, I don’t know about Twilight’s personal preferences, but for me a nice relaxing evening playing my cello always makes me feel–”

“Lame.” Vinyl flipped her shades back down, preparing for an outburst.

Octavia scoffed. “Lame? Vinyl, playing a refined, classical instrument in the privacy of one’s quarters is far more relaxing than that banal trite you call ‘wubs’. Not to mention that my cello is–”

“Totally lame.” This time Vinyl’s comment got a snicker from Lyra, who quickly covered her mouth with her hoof.

Her face scrunching into annoyance, Octavia huffed. “Do you honestly wish to be so childish? Fine. I’m more than willing to debate the superiority of orchestral–”

A low rumbling noise suddenly surfaced from Twilight stomach, interrupting Octavia. With a blush, Twilight sheepishly tried to blend in with the background as the eyes of all her acquaintances turned to her. Clearly, her stomach had not been satiated earlier from the sandwich, and chose now of all times to express it’s consternation.

Vinyl smirked. “See, Tavi, even Smart Mare’s stomach thinks your idea is lame.”

“It does not!” Octavia shouted, clearly becoming fed up with the argument.

Bon Bon scooted around the argument and walked over to Twilight. “You know, if you’re feeling hungry we can always head over to my bakery. I can whip up a snack for you in no time.”

Twilight fought back a yawn and offered Bon Bon a smile. “That would be nice, thanks.”

She shoved her face unceremoniously into a third tray of brownies. Whether it was her immense hunger that drove Twilight to eat so much, or the ambrosial taste of the soft, chocolate treats, she couldn’t say. All she knew that that she had to have more.

Bon Bon gave her a wide-eyed stare as she attacked the baked goods. “Wow…” she said softly.

Twilight glanced up, momentarily torn away from the brown deliciousness before her, and realized just how much of a slob she was being. Sheepishly, she forced her snout out of the brownie tray.

“Sorry.” Crumbs spilled from her overflowing mouth as she spoke.

“Oh, don’t let me interrupt,” Bon Bon insisted. “It’s okay, I’ve seen way worse eaters than you.”

Swallowing, Twilight responded, “Okay, but are you sure you’re fine with giving me all this? I can still pay if you want.”

“Nah, don’t worry about it. I can afford a couple trays of brownies.” Bon Bon began preemptively mixing the batter for a fourth tray

“Can you afford a few quarts of ice cream too?” Bon Bon and Twilight turned their heads in the direction of Vinyl, who was sitting at one of the tables in the confectionary. In her grasp was a full cartoon of cookie dough ice cream, and next to it was a levitating ice cream scoop. There was a brief pause, as if Vinyl was actually expecting a response. Slowly, she levitated the scoop in the tub, extracted a massive amount of ice cream, and inserted it between her lips.

Bon Bon narrowed her eyes. “Yeah… no. You’re going to have to pay.”

“Well you should have told me that before I ate some!” The ice cream scoop dipped back in.

Twilight almost hurled. “Why are you doing that? It’s so unsanitary!”

“Says the mare who is literally shoving her face in a tray of brownies.”

A sheepish blush creeped onto Twilight’s face. “W-well… that’s different!”

“How?”

Twilight inhaled before realizing she didn’t have anything justifiable to say. Her ears lowering, she turned and grumbled into the brownies. She heard Vinyl laugh with victory and noisily dig into the ice cream again.

Octavia took the stool next to Twilights. “Don’t feel bad, I can never win an argument against her either.”

Sighing, Twilight poked at the brownies, her appetite fading. “What, was she captain of the debate team at her high school or something?” She heard Octavia snort back a laugh. “What?”

“S-sorry,” Octavia struggled to say in between giggles. “But the thought of Vinyl doing any sort of organized competition is just hilarious.”

Twilight glanced back at Vinyl, who was too engrossed in her ice cream to pay attention to them. “Oh come on, I’m sure if she applied herself she could–”

“Yeah… no.” Bon Bon put away the unfinished batter mix. “Twilight, I’ve known Vinyl about as long as you have, and I can already tell she’s not exactly the type to apply herself to anything.” Her eyes cut over to the white mare in question. “Except gorging on ice cream.”

“I'm willing to apply myself to that too, come to think of it." Lyra materialized out of the kitchen with a spoon in her magical grasp. She trotted over to Vinyl, who promptly pulled out a chair for her.

Bon Bon groaned. "Great, sure. Just eat it all. Vinyl already doubled dipped the scoop, so it's not like I can sell it anyway."

"Relax, Bonnie, I'll pay for it." Lyra reached her spoon into the carton and pulled out a chunk of ice cream. It was only after she shoved it in her mouth that her eyes bulged out. "Wait, what did you say Vinyl did to this?"

“Oh gosh that’s disgusting.” Twilight felt ready to hurl.

“So, Smart Mare hates germs. Good to know.”

With her nausea taking away what remained of her appetite, Twilight pushed away the rest of the brownies, and seriously considered finding a suitable place to throw up. Her face tinted green as she did so.

“Seriously, what?” Lyra asked, her concern rising after seeing Twilight’s dramatic overreaction. “Guys, what the heck did Vinyl do to the ice cream?”

“Geeze, Twilight, calm down a little,” Octavia said. “Yes it was gross, but it wasn’t that gross.”

“I think I’m done eating either way.”

“Is nopony going to tell me what Vinyl did to the ice cream?” Lyra was getting just a bit frantic, causing Vinyl to laugh.

“I couldn’t find any muffins.” Derpy walked into the room looking crestfallen.

“We’ve got some brownies.” Bon Bon indicated the half-eaten tray that still had Twilight’s face imprinted on it.

Derpy brightened a little. “Okay, those’ll do.” Bon Bon slid the tray over, and Derpy shoved her entire face onto the pan, scarfing down whatever she could. Twilight nearly retched, barely able to hold back the bile that lurched through her throat.

“Derpy! That’s so… my face… oh Celestia!”

Coming up for air, Derpy turned her head inquisitively at Twilight. Her face was coated with chocolate, and Twilight noted a few dark purple strands of her hair among the mess. Bon Bon indicated the mess, and Derpy merely licked her face completely clean, hairs and all.

Twilight turned around and threw up.

“Fantastic,” Bon Bon groaned.

All four of Octavia’s hooves lept from the ground and clung to the stool as she yelped. Lyra shoved her hoof into her mouth in an attempt to stop herself from throwing up. Vinyl burst into laughter.

“Was there a problem?” Derpy asked, nonplussed.

Her throat on fire, and most of her muscles deciding to give into weariness, Twilight moaned. “Ohhh… I don’t feel so good.” She felt her body fall forwards, only to be caught by Octavia before she landed in her own vomit.

“Clearly, the food idea didn’t plan out,” Bon Bon noted.

“I’ll say.” Octavia struggled to get Twilight sitting upright again.

“Sorry…” she mumbled. “I’m just… eyes… paper cuts… Imma nap now.” Her head slouched forward.

“How’d she get this tired?” Octavia asked. “She was better at the club.”

“Ha! Wubs were good for her!”

“Shut it, Vinyl.”

“It must’ve been all the sugar in the brownies,” Bon Bon concluded. “It was probably keeping her awake.”

“And now it’s keeping the floor awake,” Derpy threw in, one eye focusing on the mess, the other on the last remaining brownie.

“Uh… sure.”

“Let’s get her back to her library,” Lyra decided. “She clearly needs to sleep.”

“No!” Twilight suddenly shouted, snapping to attention for all of two seconds. “I gotta keep awake. I need to work on the Elements. Research… jewlery… whipped cream…” Twilight fell back again.

“Oh snap! Somepony catch her before she lands in the–”

Splat!

Twilight blacked out.

Twilight opened her eyes. She was in her bed… or at least, the bed provided by the library. The comforter was pulled over her body, and tucked in. One side of her face felt a little sticky, but she chose not to dwell on it.

Kicking off the comforter, she sat upright. It took her a moment, but she realized how rested she felt. It was like all the burnout from the past few days of stress and studying was just completely swept away.

She stood up, and her ears flicked as she heard some distant talking, likely from one floor down. Hopping off the bed, Twilight decided to investigate.

As she walk towards the voices, they became more distinct and clear. She immediately recognized Spike, followed by a few others.

“... and that’s when Twilight realized just how feisty newts can be when you try an to turn them into an orange.” Twilight cleared the last few steps as Spike wrapped up an old story. He turned, hearing her hoofsteps. “Oh, hey Twilight.”

“Hi, Spike.” Her eyes surveyed the five other mares in the room. “Hey… girls.”

They each nodded or waved a hello.

“I was just catching up with your new friends, Twilight,” Spike said. “They’re all pretty cool.”

“Eh, some of them are,” Vinyl interjected. “But I think for the most part you’re just thinking that I’m cool, and assuming the rest of them ar–oof” Vinyl shut up when Octavia buried a fetlock in her ribs.

“So are you feeling okay, Twilight?” Lyra asked.

“A little bit,” she admitted. “Actually, a lot now that I think about it.”

“That’s a relief. You were asleep for like, two weeks.”

“What?”

Octavia slapped Vinyl. “No she wasn’t. It was closer to ten hours.”

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh thank goodness.”

“You really did give us a scare, though.”

“Yeah, taking a header into your own puke was pretty shocking.”

“I did what?”

“You passed out in your vomit,” Derpy clarified. “We had to carry you home.”

Spike nodded. “It’s true, they brought you in with half your face covered in green gunk and–”

“Wait, you didn’t even clean me off?”

“We did… eventually.” Lyra looked away. “I found some old rags in your kitchen and wiped it off.”

“Thanks… I guess.”

“You really should’ve gotten more sleep, though.” Octavia indicated the Elements of Harmony, strewn about on the table nearby. “These aren't worth sacrificing your health.”

“I guess you’re right,” Twilight admitted. “I did get kinda carried away, but I just wanted to fix my mistake.”

Vinyl walked over and patted her on the back. “Hey, you’re a smart mare, Smart Mare. You’ll find a way to unscrew up someday. I don’t doubt you.”

“Thanks Vinyl.”

Octavia nudged her.

“And… sorry for forcing you into a club. I get it now; it’s not your scene.”

“Hey, don’t worry about it. You just wanted to help.”

Derpy leaped in the air, flaring one of her wings, as the other was tightly wrapped to her body with gauze. “Group hug!”

She immediately wrapped Vinyl and Twilight around her forelegs, followed by Lyra, who managed to get Twilight in the middle. Bon Bon and Octavia trotted over, making up and outer layer of the hug, but still able to ease their heads into the center. Even Spike managed to get a hug in.

At first, Twilight wanted to scream a protest. She pushed the instinct down, however, for the sake of her acquaintances. After a moment, the hug didn’t seem too bad to her. Sure she was pressed up against the bodies of other ponies, with massive amounts of physical contact, but it was tolerable at the least. For a brief moment, she allowed herself to smile.

Then the room exploded into a mass of light.

Everypony suddenly became envious of Vinyl’s shades, as they squinted against the sudden, violent light. Twilight managed to force her eyelids open for a second, and her jaw unhinged. The Elements of Harmony were glowing.

Forcing her way out of the group, Twilight darted to the Elements. Whatever had just caused them to glow seemed to have worn off, because they dimmed exponentially until the light had faded.

“Did you see that?” Twilight exclaimed at such a high pitch that most would consider it a squeal instead of an eureka moment. “They glowed! They glowed!”

“Yeah… that was something,” Octavia said, rubbing her eyes.

“Oh my Celestia, this is a breakthrough! Spike, hurry! Grab my notes and a quill. I need to record every single factor of this room in order to replicate this in the future. We need to determine everything: the temperature, the time of day, number of dust particles in the air, number of dust particles not in the air....”

She trailed on, while her acquaintances all shared a look.

“Should we… do something?” Bon Bon asked.

“Nah… best to just let her work,” Lyra said. “She seems pretty ecstatic.”

“If she doesn’t take a break after a few hours, I’ll blast her with the subwoofers,” Vinyl stated. “That oughta make her stop."

“How quaint.”

“Come on,” Derpy told everypony. “Let’s leave her to her work for now.”

They shuffled to the door as Twilight prattled on. As they began to shut the door, Vinyl piped up with one last thing to say.

“Should we tell her to wash the rest of the puke out of her hair?”

Who Needs Food Anyway?

Twilight groaned when she finally came to. Her eyes lazily opened, and she found her head was resting on her desk. Early morning sunlight shone through the eastern window of the library, landing directly on her face. Groaning with the weariness that comes with waking up, Twilight blinked a little. She moved to lift her face off the wooden table, and found that there was a sheet of paper stuck to her face with what could only be dried drool.

The realization violently jolted Twilight awake, and with a spasmodic burst of magic she flung the paper from her face, chanting “eww, eww, ewww!” while doing so.

When that episode was behind her, Twilight calmed down by taking a deep breath. Curious to see what time it was, she turned her head to the clock, only to find that it was unbearably stiff. She cringed slightly, and brought her good hoof up to rub the sore spot to alleviate the discomfort. Her efforts turned out to be in vain, and her neck remained stiff as a board.

“Geeze, how long did I sleep at my desk?” Twilight wondered aloud. It must’ve been a long time. In order to glean the time, she turned her whole body. The analog clock resting on the wall read that it was just past noon. Twilight was about to turn away when the full realization came to her. “Wait, noon? How can it be noon? When… what… how…?”

“Twilight?”

Swiftly turning around, Twilight found herself staring at Spike. He was poking his head up from the stairs, a slightly concerned look in his eye.

“Yeah?”

“Did you pass out at your desk?”

Twilight sighed. “Yeah.”

Spike trotted up the last few steps, and cautiously approached her. The look he bore on his face matched the amount of concern. “You really shouldn’t stay up all night like that.”

“Well I had to since apparently somepony was too good to help me count every speck of dust in the room!”

“That idea was ridiculous and you know it!”

Twilight sighed, which turned into a yawn halfway through. “Well it doesn’t matter, the information I received will prove invaluable when I use it to fix the Elements.”

Spike rolled his eyes. “Yeah, because dust has so much to do with ancient super weapons of mass harmony.”

“Well, when you put it like that…”

“...it sounds pretty ridiculous, doesn’t it?” Spike raised his eyebrow expectantly.

Twilight was about to retort, but was cut off by her stomach rumbling. “Guess I should probably eat breakfast… er, lunch.”

Spike nodded. “You’ll have to go into town to eat something though, I haven’t had time to stock up on any food for the library’s kitchen.”

“Really? We’ve been here for a couple of days. What have you been doing?”

“Sleeping.” Spike grinned. “It’s been great. You haven’t needed my help in days, so I’ve kinda been having a vacation."

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Well, don’t get used to it, I guess.”

“No worries, Twilight. I’ll go shopping while you’re out getting lunch."

She stood up and limped over to the stairs. “I’ll see you later then.” Before she went down the stairs Twilight froze upon remembering something. “Spike, if you get anything from Princess Celestia, can you leave it on my desk?”

“Uh… yeah, sure. Why–”

“I’m expecting her to send me everything she knows about the Elements of Harmony,” Twilight elaborated. She climbed down the steps. “So if you get anything, anything at all, then just leave it for me, okay?”

“Yeah, sure.”

Twilight finished hobbling down the stairs. While her sprained hoof was certainly feeling better than it had been just a few nights ago, she still wasn’t comfortable placing any kind of weight on it. The splint was at least helping with that, but it was making life awkward in many other ways. Just walking down the steps of her staircase was a hassle; the splint seemed to threaten her with the possibility of slipping with each step. When she finally did make it to the bottom, she breathed a sigh of relief.

Once she made it outside, Twilight looked around. Her stomach grumbled again, redundantly reminding her of her mission to find food. Unfortunately for her, she had no idea where to find a restaurant around town. All the buildings looked the same to her, and the few times she’d ever gone to any of them she’d been led around by her acquaintances in the dark.

Twilight sighed and prepared herself for a lot of limping around aimlessly. That’s when a familiar voice

“Grr, stupid bag!”

She attempted to turn her head to the source of the noise, forgetting her stiffness for a moment, and failed. Rotating her whole body instead, she became face to face with Derpy.

“Hey, Twilight,” she panted, wiping sweat from her brow. She bent down and grabbed onto a brown, overstuffed satchel and gave it a ferocious tug.

“Hi, Derpy.” Out of confusion, Twilight tilted her head – and subsequently cringed, realizing what a mistake that was. “What are you doing?”

“My job. I’m a mailmare, remember?”

Vaguely, Twilight could recall something about mail when they’d first met. “I guess?”

Derpy sighed and let the straps of the mailbag fall to the ground. “I guess I can’t blame you for forgetting. There was that whole eternal night debacle at the time we met.”

Twilight nodded, grateful for the understanding. “So… you’re doing mail stuff now?”

“Trying too. I’ve kinda got myself into a pickle.”

The mention of pickles caused Twilight’s stomach to rumble, reminding her of her mission. “You… uh… you don’t say?” She inched away, anxious to end the conversation and find a restaurant.

“Yeah,” Derpy continues, oblivious to Twilight’s intentions. “I forgot to look at the address before I left to deliver all these scrolls.”

“Wouldn’t the address be on the letters normally?”

“You’d think so, but these scrolls are all addressed to the same pony, and the one that said who they’re for kinda… got left at the post office.” Derpy gave a sheepish grin. “By accident, of course.”

“So? Just go back and get it.”

“I can’t! If my boss finds out I Derped this up, he’ll make me take a leave of absence. He already thinks I can’t do anything because of my wing.”

Twilight tilted her head. “Derped? What’s that about?”

Bright pink flushed onto Derpy’s cheeks. “I-it’s nothing.”

Her eyes narrowed, and she was about to press for further information when her stomach rumbled again. “Well, uh, best of luck with that, then. I better find a place to eat.”

Derpy blinked, happy that the subject had been changed. “You could always stop by Bon Bon’s shop.”

Memories of falling into puke danced across Twilight’s vision. “Uh…”

“Relax, I won’t be there to make you throw up.” Derpy smiled at her playful teasing while reaching down for her mailbag.

“All right then,” Twilight tentatively agreed. She waved goodbye to Derpy and set off for Bon Bon’s confectionary shop.

Bon Bon’s Confections was at a lull, which was odd considering the time of day. Twilight assumed this would be rush hour, given that it was lunchtime. Then she realized that most ponies would prefer to eat in an actual restaurant rather than a sweet shop. Nevertheless, she still went inside, knowing no other places to get food.

The first thing she noticed upon entering was somepony was playing beautiful music. She opened the glass door to find a soft melody whispering through the air. For a moment, her brain was in analytic mode as she deduced the instrument to by a lyre from the sound of tightly wound strings being plucked in conjunction and the way the sound carried through the room. That soon melted away, allowing her to enjoy the way the tune sounded. It was happy and upbeat, but not very fast, almost like the musician was hesitating to play at her fullest. Even so, she couldn’t help but enjoy it

Suddenly realizing that she had more senses than just hearing, Twilight blinked and looked around, hoping to find the source of the music. Sitting at a stool near the counter, a mint green unicorn held a golden lyre, her magic plucking at the strings to elicit the melody. Twilight recognized her immediately.

“Lyra?” Twilight regretted speaking the second the word left her mouth.

The music was cut off abruptly, as Lyra let out an “eep” of surprise. Her lyre was launched into the air as she flinched. She reached out and grappled with it, her forelegs flailing desperately. After a short struggle, Lyra managed to cling to her instrument, and hug it close to her body. She whirled around in her stool, and her eye lit up in recognition.

“Uh… hi Twilight.” Lyra brushed part of her mane from her face. “H-how much of that did you hear?”

“Not a lot,” Twilight admitted. “But I’m sorry that I interrupted! It was just… wow.”

Lyra perked up. “Oh, thanks.” She gestured to an empty stool next to her. “Wanna have a seat?”

“Sure.” Twilight walked forward.

Suddenly, Lyra’s eyes widened. “Oh wait, be careful!”

She froze. “What?”

“We just finished mopping up your puke, so it’s probably a little slippery.”

Twilight looked down at the floor and saw a thin layer of water coating the floorboards. She turned her focus back to Lyra, and mindfully walked towards the stool. “You should really put up a wet floor sign or something.”

“Bon Bon just went to grab one. I figured I’d practice while I had a free moment.” Lyra set her instrument on the counter before her as Twilight sat down. “So what brings you here?”

Twilight’s stomach chose that particular moment to rumble loudly. “That would be the reason for my visit.”

“Well, you know Bon Bon doesn’t really serve anything besides sweets, right?”

Twilight moved her splinted hoof behind her head. “Yeah, but I really don’t know of any other places to eat around town.”

“Well you can’t live off of junk food for the rest of your life. I should know, I tried once.”

Twilight’s eyebrow arched. “Really?”

Lyra giggled. “Yeah, when I was eight. Can you just picture me as a filly, but pudgier than a pig from eating too much pie?”

Twilight found herself able to vividly picture what that would have been like, and broke out laughing. “That’s -- haha -- yeah, that’s pretty funny.”

“Well, you should be fine as long as you don’t end up like me. Though if you want, I can show you a few good places to grab a quick bite around town a little later.” Lyra gave a hopeful smile.

Considering the offer, Twilight remembered her research. “Maybe. If I can set aside some time from my work, at least.”

Lyra rolled her eyes a little. “Geeze, you and your work.” She fiddled with her lyre.

“What’s the matter with my work?” Twilight asked defensively.

“You’re letting it control you. It’s not healthy, Twilight, even less so than only eating sweets.”

“Everypony’s getting so worried about my research!” Twilight fumed, crossing her forelegs. “I’m trying to fix the Elements of Harmony, for pony’s sake. What, do you expect me to just ignore it or something?”

“No, but I do think that--” She was cut off by the sudden kicking in of the door. Both mares whipped their heads over to the front of the shop. Standing in the doorway, was none other than Vinyl Scratch.

“Hey Lyra. Hey Smart Mare.” Vinyl trotted forward. “You guys know if Bon Bon is here? I’m hoping she’s got a cake on hoof or something because I am starv-- oh holy crap!” Vinyl’s hooves slipped out from under her as she touched down on the wet floor. She landed on her side with a thud. “Ow.”

“You all right?” Lyra asked, hopping from her stool and bending over to help Vinyl up.

“I’ve suffered worse,” Vinyl said as she struggled to regain her composure. The fall had knocked off her sunglasses, so with her magic she stuck them back on her face. “You guys should really put up a wet floor sign or something.”

“Working on it.”

“Fantastic. You got any food?”

Lyra rolled her eyes, but smiled. “Bon Bon might have something lying around. We’ll have to ask her when she gets back.”

“Cool.” Vinyl took the stool right beside Twilight. “So what dragged your snout out of the books?”

“Six glowing super weapons in my living room,” Twilight replied.

Vinyl paused, thinking for a moment. “Oh yeah, that did happen.”

“Did you ever figure out why they did that?” Lyra asked, taking the seat on her other side.

“No, and I must’ve run a hundred calculations, too.” Twilight sighed. “I’m still no closer to figuring out how to fix the Elements than I was yesterday.”

“Well, it did happen right after our group hug, do you think that had anything to do with it?”

Twilight paused for a second, considering Lyra’s idea. “No, I highly doubt that.”

Lyra pressed her lips together in disappointment. “Oh, okay.” She returned to fiddling with her lyre.

“So, you still haven’t given up on those Elements of Hernia, yet?”

Twilight groaned, and tried to face Vinyl. Her neck still didn’t want to turn, so she moved her whole body. “Harmony, Vinyl. And no, I haven’t. How could I?”

“Right, right. Magical destiny, ruined your life, blah blah blah. I’ve heard it before, Smart Mare.” Vinyl propped her head onto her hoof. “You want to know what I think?”

“You think?” Twilight asked.

Vinyl snorted. “Cheeky. But seriously, I think I’ve found out what your problem is.”

“The fact that I single-hoofedly ruined the most powerful artifacts in Equestria?”

“Worse!” Vinyl exclaimed, a tad over dramatically. “Smart Mare, you hate fun.”

Twilight paused for a second, considering Vinyl’s idea. “No, I highly doubt that.”

“No, no, I’m serious here. It’s not just that you didn’t like the club last night; I have literally never seen you in a cheery, fun-loving mood.”

“The only times we’ve hung out were during Nightmare Moon’s return, or during an unwanted interruption to my vital research,” Twilight pointed out.

“And now?” Vinyl gave a smug look at Twilight’s not so cheery, fun-loving mood.

“Uh, I’m hungry.”

“A likely excuse,” Vinyl mused. Twilight stomach rumbled noisily. “A very likely excuse.”

Sighing, Twilight looked to Lyra. “Do you know how much longer Bon Bon will be?”

Lyra shrugged. “I have no idea.”

“Great.”

Three pairs of ears suddenly perked up at the sound of the door opening. Each turning, they saw Octavia standing in the doorway.

“Hey, Tavi. Care to join us?”

“Not really,” Octavia replied. “I’ve just been looking for you. Derpy stopped by our apartment with a huge bag of scrolls wondering if they’re for you.”

Vinyl slammed both her hooves on the table and whooped with joy. “Yes! I’m finally getting fan mail!”

“Actually, no you’re not.” Octavia walked in allowing the door to shut behind her. “They weren’t even addressed to you.”

“What? Then why did you even bother to tell me? My hopes were up, Tavi!” Vinyl raised her hoof above her head to display the up-ness of her hopes. “Up!”

Octavia rolled her eyes. “Sorry Vinyl, but I told you because-- Wah!” Her hoof slipped on the wet floorboards below, sending her flailing onto her back. Twilight and Lyra both flinched at the sound of the impact.

“Are you all right?” Twilight asked, trotting over to help Octavia up.

“I’m fine, but somepony should really put up a....”

“...wet floor sign. Yeah, working on it.” Twilight stood Octavia upright.

“Thanks. You know, I didn’t expect to see you out of the library today.”

“I got a little hungry,” Twilight admitted. They carefully stepped over the damp floor towards the stools. “But I’m going right back to it once Bon Bon can get me something to eat.”

“You’re not going to throw up again, are you?”

“As long as Lyra and Vinyl don’t double dip again. Or if Derpy eats another mixture of my hair, saliva, and brownies.”

Vinyl snorted. “You’re almost as prissy as, Tavi.”

Octavia’s eyelids narrowed, and she slapped the back of Vinyl’s head. “So do you honestly plan to spend all your time frivolously researching the Elements of Harmony?”

“Only if Celestia actually sends me the information I need. Perhaps I should have Spike write up another request note in case.... wait, frivolously?”

Octavia cringed, and sucked air through her teeth. “Well… you…”

“We all think you’re wasting your time,” Vinyl interjected, earning another slap to the back of her head.

Twilight glanced from the two mares in front of her to Lyra at her side. All three gave the same look of hesitant agreement. “Great. Just great. You know what girls, I’m not wasting my time, all right? Fixing the Elements is the most important task in all of Equestria right now, and I’m not about to give it up just because of a few naysayers.”

Vinyl smirked. “Ha, neighsayers.” She received a third slap, and Twilight distantly wondered if all this trauma was giving her brain damage.

“You know what? I think I’ll forgo lunch today; I have to get back to my research.”

“Twilight…” Octavia said. “Don’t do this.”

She turned and walked towards the door.

“Twilight, wait!” Lyra suddenly called out.

“No, I-- Ah!” Twilight felt her hooves slip out from under her when her splint caught the slick ground. Her entire body was flung upside down as she crashed on the floor. “Owww.”

Just then, Bon Bon walked in. She drank in the scene before her in a mere second. “Oh,” she said, holding up a plastic, yellow caution sign. “I guess this is a little late.”

Twilight huffily walked away from the confectionary. After the other mares helped her up, she returned to storming off, and she hoped her annoyed tone would mean none of them would follow her.

“Stupid acquaintances,” she grumbled to herself. Why can’t they see I have to fix this? Those stupid Elements have ruined my good standing with Princess Celestia, and uprooted me from my life at Canterlot! How am I supposed to leave this town with any sort of dignity if I never find a way to make everything right again? Twilight considered this for a moment. Well, I guess when I do leave it would mean that I’d never see them again… but what do they care? We’re just acquaintances, and after all, I… I have my research. Her thoughts were interrupted by a series of grunts.

She attempted to whirl her head around, but found that her neck was still too stiff to move. Instead, she moved her whole body, and saw, for the second time today, Derpy dragging along a satchel full of mail.

“Hey Twilight,” Derpy said when she saw her. Dropping the bag, the gray mare wiped the sweat from her brow and took a seat on the ground.

“Hello again, Derpy.” Twilight gave it some thought, and eventually decided to take a seat next to her. “Still having mail troubles?”

“Yep.” Derpy gave her bag a soft kick. “Still having neck troubles?”

Instinctively, Twilight put a hoof next to her sore neck. “How could you tell?”

“It’s kinda obvious, the way you cringe every time you try to turn your head.”

“Oh.”

Neither spoke for a moment. Then, “You want me to fix it for you?”

“Huh?” Twilight gave Derpy a look.

Shrugging, she said, “I was a masseuse's assistant before I was a mailmare. I know a few things that might loosen up your neck.”

“I don’t know…” I probably should just go back to my research now. Though my neck will be a nuisance...

“You don’t trust me, huh?”

“What?” Twilight blinked. “No, I trust you. I just--”

“Cool, then turn around.” Derpy twirled her hoof to encourage Twilight.

“Huh?”

“If you trust me, then turn around and let me fix your neck.”

Twilight realized there was little hope to talk Derpy out of this, and submitted, exposing the back of her neck to her. It took only a second for Derpy’s hooves to begin rubbing.

“So you look a little upset,” Derpy noted. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“No I… oh, that’s the spot.” Derpy pressed down harder, alleviating tension. “But anyway, it’s nothing. I just got a little mad at some of my other acquaintances.”

“Oh, you mean the girls?”

Twilight nodded. “Yeah… they said my research was frivolous, and that I’m wasting my time.”

Derpy rubbed the top of Twilight’s spine. “Seems a little rude; what did you do?”

“I got mad and stormed off.”

“That sounds like a silly thing to do.”

“Silly?” Twilight snapped, not in the mood to be put down anymore.

“Well yeah… I mean… your research is important to you, and they should've respected that, but it just seems like such a minor thing to get so uppity about.”

“I guess…” Twilight exhaled with delight as the stiffness in her neck melted away. “Oh wow… that’s it.” Derpy’s hooves left her neck. Twilight turned around. “Thanks.”

“No problem. So about the girls…”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “What?”

“Maybe you should talk it out with them a little. I’m sure they’ll understand if you just explain everything to them.”

“I’ve tried explaining, but for the most part it seems to go in one ear and out the other.”

“...You could try not yelling.”

She was about to roll her eyes, but thought better of it. “I guess I can give it a chance the next time I see them.”

Derpy smiled brightly. “Hooray! Glad I could help.”

“Yeah, I guess I owe you now.”

“Well, you could help me by finding out where these letters go.” Derpy kicked her mailbag again. “Seriously, who would put the royal seal on nearly two hundred scrolls, but not one single address?”

Twilight’s eyes bulged. “Royal seal?” Derpy nodded. “They must be from Princess Celestia!”

“The tribalist princess?”

Sparking her horn to life, Twilight levitated the first scroll she could out of the bag. Ripping the seal off, her eyes tore through the lines of cursive. She gave a giddy laugh. “They are! Derpy, these are from the Princess! She’s finally sent me some information on the Elements of Harmony.”

“Oh… congratulations.” Derpy shoved the mailbag in front of her. “So all of these are yours?”

“Yes!”

“Good. Take them.” Derpy smiled. “Just uh… be careful. They’re kind of heavy.”

Her horn ignited once again and Twilight levitated each letter out of the bag. “Thanks, Derpy. I’ve got to get back to the library. This new research might just help fix the Elements!” She started to walk away.

“Wait,” Derpy called out, causing her to stop in her tracks. “What about talking to the girls?”

“Oh yeah… I’ll do that later. Bye!” She dashed off.

Derpy shook her head, watching Twilight leave. “Well, at least the mail's taken care of." She retrieved her bag from the ground and trotted off.

The Klutz

Derpy raced through the sleeping town of Ponyville, her hooves pounded the grassy knoll below her in a frantic attempt to propel her towards her destination. Up ahead, she saw a stout, wooden building come into view, and her pace quickened.

“Mornin’, Boss!” She burst through the glass doors of the Ponyville Post Office, panting like a dog. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t realize what time it was when I woke up and now it’s--”

“Seven-thirty,” Post Haste filled in for her. Derpy gave a sheepish smile as her boss sighed. “You can’t keep doing this, Derpy.”

“I know, I’m sorry.” Derpy hung her head. Normally she was punctual when it came to her job, but last night she'd broken her alarm clock due to unforeseen consequences of installing a ceiling fan, and subsequently wasn’t woken up on time.

"It’s just…” Post sighed. “I’m already thinking about benching you for a while. I mean, first you get injured--”

“It was an accident!” Derpy exclaimed. She bit her lip, and shot a look to her wing. Gauze tightly pressed it to her body in a wrap that she wasn’t allowed to remove for another three weeks.

“It’s always an accident, isn’t it?” He shook his head slowly.

A cold sweat formed on the back of Derpy’s neck. Several memories of her other infamous accidents flashed before her eyes, and with them came round after round of Post's disappointed stare. “But I was able to complete all my deliveries yesterday!” Derpy added.

“It took you half the day to deliver a single bag of mail,” Post reminded her. Derpy cringed internally, and he scratched his blue chin in thought. “Look, technically, you were supposed to be working the night shift when you got hurt. If you want, I can give you workers compensation, but you’ll need to take a few days off in order to--”

Her eyes widened. “Wait, no! Boss, give me another chance. I… I don’t even have to deliver any mail today, I’ll take sorting duty.” It hurt to say the words.

They both knew that sorting mail was a job for a fledgling mailmare, not a pony with years of experience like her. Even more substantially, it meant she wouldn't be out in the field where she belonged. The rush of the morning breeze, the feel of well-worn mailboxes, and the smiles she got when delivering a long-awaited package were all about to be traded for the cramp, stuffy back room and about a million paper cuts. Still, it was better than nothing.

Post Haste chewed on the inside of his cheek, considering her offer. "Well..."

It was good enough for Derpy. "Thanks, Boss!" She scampered over to the mail room, and tossed open the door. She was hit with the overwhelming scents of sweat and aging envelopes. The sounds of papers rustling were barely audible through the whir of the air conditioner. Before her sat tables and bins aplenty each overflowing with packages, and papers. In the thick of it all sat the most junior member of the Ponyville Post staff: Blossomforth.

"Good news rookie," Derpy chirped. Blossomforth turned around, a confused glance visible on her face.

"Huh?"

"You're on delivery duty today, now step aside."

Blossomforth moved, but not without protest. "B-but I haven't been trained for--"

Derpy's dismissive wave cut her off. "Just grab a mailbag and go for it, kid. I can handle the sorting today." As she spoke, Derpy confidently leaned against the nearest table. It gave a sharp creak as a warning, before the legs gave out. "Ah!" Derpy fell the the ground, flailing, bringing the table with her. The jolt sent many of the envelopes flying into the air. Many reached the vents near the top of the room and found themselves blown about. In the meantime, the back if Derpy's head whacked open a box, spilling packing peanuts everywhere.

Blossomforth let out an "eep" of surprise and retreated from the mess. Derpy groaned, and tried to sit up. Post Haste rushed in to respond to the commotion, hooves crunching a few styrofoam peanuts as he did. He sighed, observing the scene before him that had transpired in a mere ten seconds.

"Boss, It was an accident, I swe--"

"Derpy, go home. I'm putting you on leave until further notice."

Her ears folded down. " At least let me help clean up."

Post shook his head. "Blossomforth and I can handle it." The rookie mailmare groaned in protest.

"A-all right." Crestfallen, Derpy picked herself up and walked towards the door.

"I can't believe she had to go and Derp this up," she heard Blossomforth say.

"Cut her some slack, Blossom. She's just... clumsy."

Derpy bit her tongue for fear of saying something she'd regret and left the post office.

Twilight diligently scanned over the motley of papers before her. It had taken her most of the night, but she'd finally organized all of the information Princess Celestia sent on the Elements of Harmony, but her compulsive need to arrange the letters into neat, easy to access piles had finally been satiated.

"Okay," she said, her horn sparking to life. The first note floated up to her line of sight. "Now we can begin."

She heard the sound of the library door fly open. Subsequently, a gust of air was pushed her way, and the letters she'd painstakingly organized scattered.

"Oh come on!" Twilight cried. She whirled around to the culprit who opened the door and unthinkingly yelled, "thanks a lot!"

It took her only a second to realize the mare she had snapped at was Derpy.

“O-oh… sorry.” Derpy’s ears folded down. “I didn’t know…”

Twilight sighed. “Forget about it.”

“Are you sure?”

Her horn ignited, clutching as many papers as possible in a soft, purple aura. “Yeah,” she said though her teeth. “It’s fine.”

“I really am sorry, Twilight. I just wanted to check out a few books... seeing as how I have a lot of free time on my hooves now.” Derpy looked to the ground as Twilight stacked the letters into one painfully unorganized pile.

“I said it’s fine, Derpy.” Twilight glanced at her, still standing forlorn in the doorway. “Well, come in I guess.”

“N-no, it’s okay. I don’t want to mess up anything else today.” Derpy turned, preparing to leave the library.

Twilight saw Derpy’s obvious emotional downcast. She looked from her exiting acquaintance to the mountain of paper next to her. Her compulsive nature screamed for her to reorganize everything. Shooting another glance at Derpy, she forced the need down.

“Wait,” she called out. Derpy paused, turning back slightly. “Come in, you look like you could use a talk.”

“Are you sure?”

Twilight nodded. “Spike!” she called out. “Did you remember to prepare a pot of tea this morning?”

“Yes,” he shouted from upstairs. “It should be just about ready.”

“Thank you.” Twilight indicated for Derpy to return. “Would you like some tea?”

She offered a smile. “Yes please.”

They walked to the kitchen and were greeted by the shrill sound of a tea kettle screaming. Levitating the boiling beverage from the stove, Twilight pointed Derpy towards the table.

“Here, let me get the cups at least.” Derpy trotted over to the nearest set of tea cups, and grabbed two in her mouth. In doing so, she knocked at least another three to the ground. Twilight winced as the sound of shattering porcelain filled the room. “Oops,” Derpy said through her full mouth.

Looking at the soulful eyes of Derpy, Twilight sighed. “Don’t worry about it.” Derpy hung her head in a manner that told Twilight she was worrying about it, probably much more than she should. “Come on, let me pour you some tea.”

Setting the cups on the kitchen table, Derpy sat back and allowed Twilight to fill them to the near brim.

“Thanks.” She picked hers up and took a sip.

“So… you want to talk?” Twilight felt bizarre just saying the words. Derpy blinked, likely just as bewildered that her acquaintance had actually said that to her. “Look, I’m no psychologist, but even I can tell something is upsetting you. So talk.”

Derpy sighed. “...I’m a no good, ditzy klutz, all right?”

Twilight blinked. “Oh… is that all?”

“Is that all?” Derpy’s voice squeak with disbelief. “It’s everything, Twilight! My whole life I’ve been clumsy and it’s never done me a lick of good. I just got benched from delivering mail for one, but it’s worse than that. Day in and day out like clockwork I break dishes, bruise and batter ponies by accident, trip over my own four hooves... Most days I can ignore the looks I get, but it’s hard when they start calling you ‘That Ditzy Filly’ behind your back. Not to mention...” She stopped there, choking on her next word.

Twilight awkwardly stared, unsure of what to do. Since moving to Ponyville and being thrusted into interacting with ponies, she found the time in her busy schedule to skim a book on social conventions. This situation was not in that book.

“Uh… look Derpy, I don’t really know what it’s like to go through what you’re dealing with, but I have messed up before.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I mean, the Elements of Harmony…”

Derpy sat up, angry. “Are you really comparing what I’ve been dealing with my entire life to what happened earlier this week?”

Twilight winced. “Kind of… yeah.” Derpy groaned. “I’m sorry… I’m not exactly the best at comforting ponies. In fact I think this might be my first time ever comforting somepony. Perhaps I should make a list of the dos and don’ts so next time I can…” she trailed off seeing an annoyed look from Derpy. “Right, I’ll shut up now.”

“I just don’t know what to do,” Derpy lamented. “I mean, the look on my boss’ face when I Derped up the mail today was just… nothing but pity.”

“There’s that phrase again,” Twilight murmured. Derpy looked up. “This is the second time I’ve heard you mention ‘Derped up’ before. What is it? I’m pretty sure ‘derped’ is not in the dictionary as an official verb, and--”

“It’s my name,” Derpy interrupted. “A while ago some ponies started spreading that around town. Whenever they did something even remotely klutzy, the would go ‘oops, looked like I Derped that up’. It caught on really fast.”

“That’s… awful,” Twilight said. “You can’t just take somepony’s name, make it a verb, and then go around claiming you’ve made a new word! There’s a whole process behind…” she trailed off once again, this time derailed by a sniffled from Derpy. “I’m so sorry, I swear I didn’t mean to--”

“Forget it. Thanks for the tea.” She stood up while pointing to her cup, but her hoof accidentally made contact and spilled her drink all over the table. “Dang it.”

As she started to leave, Twilight rose from her seat. “Derpy, wait.”

“What?” Derpy frowned back at Twilight, daring her to give her a reason to stay.

“What if… what if I could cure your clumsiness?”

Derpy’s body did a complete one-eighty, and her whole demeanor perked up. Her one free wing extended and fluttered joyfully. “Really? You can do that?”

Twilight realized she may have misspoken. “Uh… no.” Derpy deflated. “But, I can try to help you get it under control a little.”

“...How?” Her tone was heavy with skepticism. “I mean, if you can get it to a point where I could go back to work, that would be great, but I just don’t see how.”

“Well,” Twilight stepped past Derpy and into the library. She walked over to the shelf lined with some of the heaviest tomes she had and selected two of them. Trotting back to Derpy, she held them in her magic. “You said you keep tripping over yourself, so maybe it’s a balance problem. So here, I’ll put these on your head, and you’ll walk around a little while trying to keep them from falling off.” She levitated the books over Derpy’s head, who subsequently backed up.

“Uh… how is this supposed to help?”

“For one, it’ll confirm if balance really is your problem, and if it is, this will help improve it.”

Dubiously, Derpy glanced up at the books. “But… what if I mess it up?”

Twilight chuckled. “Derpy, it’s just two books. What could go wrong?”

Bon Bon trotted up to Golden Oaks Library, one determined goal blaring in her mind: get a cookbook. Earlier today she’d received an order for a pastry she’d never heard of before, and -- after getting over the shock of there being such a thing as a pastry she’d never heard of before -- she realized the best thing she could do for this situation was get her hooves on The Pastry Chef’s Ultimate Cookbook, and she also knew from experience that it could be found at Ponyville’s library.

As she approached however, she grew slightly concerned. A quick cursory glance of the library told her something was wrong; specifically the book covered in broken glass that was right below a shattered window.

At first Bon Bon was confused; then she remembered that the library was under new management. Still determined to get the cookbook despite whatever weirdness was going on within the walls of the library Bon Bon cautiously approached the door. When she opened it, the door, she instinctively gasped.

The library was in total disarray.

Nearly all the shelves lining the walls had been emptied, their contents spilled onto the floor in a paper landslide. What little that still clung to the shelves looked more like beached whales than literature. Twilight stood off to the side, pupils mere specks and jaw agape. In the epicenter of whatever disaster had occurred, stood a very sheepish pegasus with a book on her head.

“Oops,” Derpy whispered.

“What happened in here?” Bon Bon asked, gesturing the tornado-aftermath like room.

“I…” Twilight blinked, coming out of her shock. “I was trying to help Derpy with her clumsiness…”

“Oh, that explains it.”

Derpy nodded in return, the book tumbling from her head and bouncing all the way to Bon Bon’s hooves.

“Hey,” she said, leaning down as she recognized the title. “There’s that cookbook.”

“So, you’re no longer a mailmare?” Bon Bon asked, tucking her recently checked out cookbook into her saddlebags.

The three of them currently walked through town. It had been decided that they could all stand to get a little fresh air and distance themselves from the disaster area that was the library. Twilight has left a disgruntled Spike to begin the clean up before limping out the door with her acquaintances. It was a relatively lull time right now, still earlier in the morning. Not many ponies were milling about, so they were free to talk without accidental eavesdroppers or face Twilight’s worse fear: more ponies joining in on the conversation.

“No, I still am,” Derpy clarified. “But I’m being given workers comp, and my boss won’t let me work until I’m better.”

“Oh, so it's like a paid vacation then.”

“I know, isn’t it terrible?”

“Are you crazy?” Bon Bon asked. “I’d be elated to have one of those. Work at the confectionary is killer sometimes. What I wouldn’t give to have one.”

Derpy glanced up and jokingly grinned. “You wanna trade with me?”

“Uh…” Twilight could practically see images of the shop on fire flash across Bon Bon’s eyes. “You know, come to think of it, vacations are overrated anyways.”

“Okay.”

“I am sorry that I couldn’t help you out too much, Derpy,” Twilight said. “I really thought your problems originated from imbalance.”

Derpy shrugged. “It’s okay. Oh, and… sorry about the library.”

Twilight waved her splinted hoof dismissively. “That was more my fault than yours. I had no idea books could ricochet like that.”

There was a brief pause as they continued walking. Nopony was quite sure what to say. Derpy still had an ambience of melancholy about her, and Twilight wasn’t sure how to proceed in their clumsiness correction exercises. Her working idea was a potential discectomy to potentially discern if her accident prone nature was the result of a physical attribute. However, she doubted Derpy would be keen on the idea.

“Why don’t we stop by Vinyl and Octavia’s place and ask them what to do?” Bon Bon suggested.

Twilight blinked. “Uh… what? Why?”

“Think about it,” Bon Bon said. “They both have to perform in front of large crowds without messing up even the smallest thing. Surely they have some sort of grace under pressure type thing that they’ve perfected.”

“Well, Octavia sure, but Vinyl?” Twilight snorted. “Vinyl Scratch and grace don’t exactly sound like they go together.”

Bon Bon held up a hoof in surrender. “Fine, you have a point there. I still think we should ask. What’s the harm?”

Twilight sighed. “Fine.”

“Uh… shouldn’t I get a say in this?” Both of them turned to Derpy.

“Oh yeah.” Twilight tilted her head in Derpy’s direction. “So what do you want to do?”

“Uh… Octavia and Vinyl sound like an okay idea to me…”

Twilight gave an all-knowing smirk, having anticipated that answer. “Well then let’s go.”

It had taken a while to find the home of Octavia and Vinyl. About a minute into their search, the trio realized they had absolutely no idea where the pair lived. It was only after they’d found a small trench dug into the ground -- likely a remnant of Vinyl dragging her amp home after the Summer Sun Celebration debacle had ended -- that they had been led straight to their house.

They now sat in a circle around the fragile looking coffee table that was in their living room. Vinyl sat on the couch next to Bon Bon, using some of her sound equipment as a hoofrest. Octavia opted to bring chairs in from the kitchen for herself and Twilight, while Derpy was directed to the safest and sturdiest piece of furniture in the room: a large upholstered recliner.

“So… you’re a klutz?” Vinyl asked, sinking into her couch. Derpy nodded. “Okay… and how does this concern us?”

“Vinyl, don’t be rude!” Octavia wasn’t close enough to slap her friend, and merely settled for a glare.

“I’m just wondering!” Vinyl protested. “Why even bother coming to us?”

“Bon Bon’s idea,” Twilight muttered. The mare in question smiled at Vinyl.

“Right… well, what do you want us to do about it then?”

“Vinyl!” Octavia appeared to be seriously considering getting up just to slap her.

“Well… uh… we were just wondering if you guys would have a way to supress my clumsiness a little.”

Vinyl tapped her hoof in thought “Maybe you’re just careless ‘cause you’ve never had anything crazy expensive to worry about breaking. Could that be it?”

“I once broke a two thousand bit piano when I lost my first foal tooth. You tell me.”

“Eh, two thousand ain’t all that much.” Vinyl kicked herself up, and strolled around. Her line of sight eventually settled on a tiny vase near the back of the room.

“Vinyl…” Octavia warily warned. Twilight bit the inside of her cheek, fearing where this was heading.

The vase levitated up into the air. “This fun little guy here is at least five thousand bits. I remember ‘cause Tavi was really anal about it when we were packing up to move.”

“Uh… I’m not so sure this is a good idea,” Bon Bon interjected.

“Vinyl, put down that vase this instant!” Octavia demanded.

“Sure thing, Tavi.” Vinyl turned to Derpy. “Catch.”

The vase flew from it’s magical hold, and sailed through the air. Derpy let loose an “eep” of surprise and held up her hooves to protect her body. Octavia cringed, letting loose a few choice words as she did. Before the impact, Twilight’s horn sparked to life and caught the projectile.

She heard a simultaneous sigh of relief and groan of disappointment.

“Thanks a lot, Smart Mare. That could’ve worked!”

“Hmmph. More likely it would have meant you owe me five thousand bits. You’re lucky Twilight was here. Thank you, by the way.”

“No problem,” Twilight replied, setting the vase back in it’s proper place.

“I’m just glad I didn’t take a vase to the face,” Derpy said, wiping her brow in an effort to display her relief. “I guess we should head out before Vinyl throws something else extremely valuable at me.” She stood up, only have her hind hoof catch her tail beneath it. “Ah!” Derpy’s momentum worked against her and she tripped, landing directly on the coffee table. It broke under her weight, giving off a crunch sound.

All four spectators gave matching winces, and Bon Bon swooped down to help Derpy up. She spat out tiny splinters of wood, and gave a sheepish grin. “Oops.”

Octavia slapped her forehead while Vinyl burst out laughing.

"Sorry," Derpy murmured, as she tried to get up. Even with Bon Bon's assistance, her hooves still needed to get a bearing, and ending up breaking what little remained of the coffee table in the first place.

"Don't worry about it, Derpy; the coffee table wasn't important. Are you all right?"

"It's possible that I now have several hundred splinters, but I'll be fine."

"Good to know," Twilight used her magic to brush away bits of the table and give Derpy a clearing to stand on.

Vinyl came down from her laughing fit. "That was pretty awesome, Derpy."

"What... really?" She blinked, confused.

"Totally. Next time I go to a mosh pit I've got to bring you; I can just imagine the possibilities now."

"Thanks?"

Octavia groaned. "You can go to one of your frivolous pursuits of violence later, Vinyl Right now I'd appreciate it if you help me with the remnants of our table."

Vinyl thought about it for a moment. "I'm gonna have to take a raincheck on that one, Tavi."

As her eyes narrowed, Octavia scowled. "Excuse me?"

"I think we'd better go... like, right now," Bon Bon whispered to Twilight. She nodded, and grabbed Derpy. They managed to be out the door before the first shout echoed through the house.

“So… what are you guys coming to me for?” Lyra asked.

Twilight and Bon Bon looked at each other and shrugged. It had been a spur of the moment decision to escape the argument that had erupted between Octavia and Vinyl over their now destroyed coffee table.

They stood outside Lyra’s tiny cottage, Derpy still spitting, insisting that there was a splinter still stuck on her tongue somewhere. Lyra herself looked rather sleepy, likely having to wake up to answer the pounding on her door.

“We’re running low on options,” was the excuse Twilight went with. “Do you have any idea what to do about Derpy’s clumsiness?”

“I’d always assumed it was incurable,” Lyra admitted.

Bon Bon groaned. “That’s quitter’s talk, Lyra. Come on, you must have some idea.”

Lyra gave it some thought, and shrugged. “I really don’t know. Maybe try magic?”

“I don’t know of any spells that would deal with this kind of thing. Unless you want me to keep a permanent magical hold on her in order to prevent her from ever moving again, thus reducing the amount of probable accidents to zero.”

Lyra blinked. “What?”

“I vote no!” Derpy called out.

“I agree, that is a terrible, terrible idea.” Bon Bon kicked the ground. “I guess we have nothing else to try then.”

“Oh…” Derpy sighed. “So I’m stuck on worker’s comp then?”

“I guess so. Sorry Derpy.”

“Hey, for what it’s worth, I think you’re pretty great, clumsiness and all.” Lyra smiled.

“Thanks,” Derpy half-heartedly said.

Bon Bon put a hoof on Derpy’s shoulder. “Hey, want me to whip you up a few muffins?”

“Yeah, that’d be nice.”

“I think I’ve got some mix in my kitchen,” Lyra said, pointing inside. She and Bon Bon trotted in. Derpy followed, but stopped, realizing that Twilight wasn’t following them.

“Is something wrong?”

“No, not really.” Twilight looked away. “I was just thinking about getting back to the library. Spike probably needs my help with the clean up.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to stay for muffins?”

“Yeah,” Twilight started to walk away, but turned back. “Hey, Derpy… I’m sorry we didn’t manage to fix your clumsiness.”

Derpy smiled. “Oh, that’s okay. Plenty have tried, but nopony has ever really succeed. And in all honesty, I’m kind of glad we stopped. I was causing some pretty bad accidents.”

“Yeah, you were.” They shared a short giggle.

“But you know what? I think I am feeling a little better about myself. It kinda helps to know you girls are on my side… and that you don’t get too mad when I do screw up.”

“Well that’s a relief. I’m glad to know I didn’t waste an entire morning of would-be research for nothing.”

“Oh yeah…" she realized, eyes widening. "You know, I really can’t believe you broke away from work just to help.”

Twilight nodded. “Same here. But I saw how upset you were, and… I guess I just wanted to help you out a little.”

Derpy’s smile grew wider. She leapt over and wrapped Twilight in a hug. It was sudden, and definitely violated Twilight’s sense of personal space, but Derpy seemed to realize this and pulled back before too long.

“Thanks,” she said. “I don’t know a lot of ponies who would do that for me.”

“No problem,” Twilight smiled.

“See you around?” Derpy asked as she headed inside Lyra’s house.

“I guess so, sure.” They exchanged a wave, and Derpy shut the door. Twilight walked away, keeping that same smile on her face.

“Spike, I’m home,” she called out as the door behind her.

“Hey, Twilight.” Spike grinned, standing proudly at the forefront of a pristine library.

“Wow,” she said, examining the room. “You did a really good job.”

“Thanks, it was nothing,” Spike said nonchalantly, priding himself on doing so well.

Teasingly, Twilight raised her eyebrow. “Really? So I guess you don’t need a break then?”

Spike laughed. “No, no, I definitely could go for some rest.”

She nodded toward the stair, giving him permission to hit the hay for a while. He bounded to them faster than Twilight could blink, and before too long she heard the bedroom door shutting. Smiling to herself, Twilight trotted over to her research, and was pleasantly surprised to learn that Spike had reorganized all of Princess Celestia’s letters for her.

Smiling to herself, she sat down, her injured hoof glad to be given a chance to rest after so much walking. Her horn ignited and she picked up the first letter in the first pile. Before she began reading it, however, Twilight’s eyes unconsciously darted over to the Elements of Harmony. They returned to the page a moment later, and then Twilight’s entire body went rigid.

Rocketing out of her chair, Twilight dove for the Elements, wanting to be certain that her eyes weren’t playing tricks on her. They weren’t.

A soft glow emitted from the jeweled tiara; and every so often miniscule twinkles could be seen from the top.

There was no denying it.

The Element of Magic was sparkling.

The Lyrist

Twilight could feel every sore blood vessel in her eye right now. They twitched with burning irritation, begging for her to sleep, or blink, or do anything other than continue to stare at the sparkling headpiece before her. She didn’t listen.

Before her sat the Element of Magic, along with its kin; each was hooked up to several wires and metallic clamps, each sending signals to various machines that lined the walls and floor of the library’s basement. Each machine was calibrated to detect even the slightest magical surge, and for the past few days each one had emitted the same, heart-monitor like beep each time the Element of Magic sparkled. It was starting to get to her.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

“Come on!” she shouted at the machine. “Give me something, anything!”

Beep.

“Gah!” Twilight pressed the side of her head onto one of the machines. A second later she was forced to rip it away as a searing heat rippled across her forehead.

It seems my magicspectrometer is overheating, Twilight mused to herself, a hoof placed to her slightly burned temple. But I don’t see how. That could’ve only happened if I’ve been using it for a long time, but it’s only been… She paused, realizing she actually didn’t know how long she’d been down here.

Glancing around for a clock she found that the room was currently devoid of any timekeeping device. Understandable to say the least; before she’d assembled all her equipment down here, the basement had originally been empty. Searching for a different point of reference, Twilight saw six plates, each containing crumbs and stains. Spike had been bringing her meals down here, so she reasoned at least two days had passed.

“Wait… two days?” She said aloud. “Have I really been down here that—”

Beep.

She groaned, her train of thought cut off. “Just shut up!”

Beep.

With her magic, Twilight yanked every cord connecting the machines to their power sources, hoping to silence the annoyance for good. When the plugs fell in a limp heap, she paused. After giving it a moment she decided that the noise had finally ceased, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

“Finally silence.”

Two seconds later the entire basement was shaken by a pounding electronic beat. Twilight fell over with a yelp of surprise, and felt her eardrums recoil in pain. The noise didn’t let up as it continued to rattle every bone in her body as she struggled to stand.

Even though her ears felt like they were bleeding, Twilight could tell the noise was coming from the floor above. She struggled up the stairs as the beats grew louder. She finally managed to kick open the door to the first floor, and with the final barrier gone, the music reached skull-shattering levels.

Wincing in pain, Twilight’s ears folded down and she cracked open one eye. Standing in the center of the library, sound equipment surrounding her and a turntable in front, was Vinyl Scratch, bobbing her head along to the sound.

“Vinyl!” Twilight screamed, doubting her voice could reach across the room. Miraculously, Vinyl tilted her head past one of the amps, flipped her sunglasses up, and smiled.

“Smart Mare! Hey, wassup?”

Her teeth ground together. “Turn it off! Turn it off right this instant!”

Vinyl cocked her head to the side. “Hold on a sec!” she screamed. “I can’t hear you too well. Let me just…” The sound abruptly stopped, leaving Twilight with ringing ears. “There we go. So what did ya want?”

Twilight shook her head, yet the ringing did not go away. “Vinyl, what is wrong with you?”

Her eyebrow rose. “Is that a trick question?”

Scrunching her face in annoyance, Twilight groaned. “No, look just… why? Why were you blasting that ear-grating noise in a library of all places?”

Vinyl clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. “Well, I wanted to make sure they still worked, ‘cause I left them here last time I came over, and with the annual Music-ade coming up I needed—”

“Wait, what?” Twilight narrowed her eyes. “Music… aid? Is that some sort of program that helps musicians improve the quality of their music?” She glanced over the turntables. “Because I feel that in your case that would be something you should have more than annually.”

“Not Music Aid, Smart Mare. Music-ade. Kinda like parade, but mashed with music.”

“Right…”

Vinyl gave a short laugh. “Hey, don’t judge. With the amount of celebrations this town has, all the good names were already taken.”

"So in order to prepare for this... Music-ade, you decided to bombard a library of all places with noise?"

Rolling her eyes, Vinyl sighed. "Point taken, I'm sorry. But I thought it'd be fine, I mean, your dragon-kid-thing didn't seem to mind."

Twilight blinked. "What, do you mean Spike?" She turned her head suddenly, curious as to where he was. Her eyes fell upon a dragon sized hole that had been punched into the wall. “Spike?”

A tiny purple claw slowly extended from inside the hole, and waved. “Hey, Twilight.”

She cringed. “Are you all right, Spike?”

“Yeah?” he weakly offered. “I just… I’m gonna stay in here for a little bit.”

Twilight whirled around. “Are you responsible for that?”

"Little bit,". Vinyl admitted. "I cranked up the base to eleven and the little dude went flying."

Twilight's jaw dropped. "Are you insane?"

Vinyl shrugged. “Maybe, which is good. Insanity is the trademark of a good musician.” She paused. “Not that I’m insulting Octavia, but like, DJ-wise I mean.”

“I don’t care.” Twilight trotted over and pushed at the turntables, causing them to budge slightly. With a grunt, she continued to shove.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Vinyl asked, stepping down.

“Kicking — er — you out!” she said.

Pushing with all of her strength, she got the turntables to move an inch.

Vinyl snickered. “You’re just doing my work for me.”

Groaning, she stopped. “Fine. Kick yourself out… uh, please.”

Chuckling, Vinyl nodded. “Okay sure. So can I expect to see you at the parade? Yours truly has a starting float all to herself.”

She sighed, putting her splinted hoof to her head. “You know what? I’m already sick of Music-ade. You, Octavia, and Lyra can just have a good time without me.”

Vinyl tilted her head. “Lyra? What makes you think she’s going to be there?”

“Well, she’s a musician, isn’t she?”

“She is? Really? I had no idea.”

Twilight sighed as Vinyl positioned herself to push the turntables. “She has a lyre for a Cutie Mark.”

“Is that what that thing is?” Vinyl asking, putting her hooves on her equipment. “I thought it was some sort of upside down gate or something.” With a grunt, she started pushing, and immediately made more progress than Twilight. As the sound system scooted along, Vinyl kept talking. “Anyway, I didn’t see her at the sign up, so I guess she won’t be there.”

Twilight tightened her lips, then frowned. The memory of Lyra’s hypnotic playing came back to her, and she sighed. “That’s a shame, she was really good.”

"So ask her why she's flaking." Vinyl shoved, her turntables scraped the library's floor as they moved through the door.

"Well..." Twilight pondered the idea for a moment. Her machines would need some time to cool down, lest she wanted to risk them exploding, which gave her plenty of time to go talk to Lyra. At the same it wasn't really her business; perhaps Lyra simply didn't want to be in the parade.

Maybe I’ll just stop by and see, she decided. After all, it couldn’t hurt to pop in on an acquaintance.

“Okay, I’ll go—” Twilight realized she was talking to nopony. “Vinyl?” She eyed the tread left in the dirt out her door and figured out the rest. She turned to Spike. “Are you going to be okay?”

“Yeah,” Spike replied, still in the hole. “I’m probably going to take the rest of the day off though.”

“Fair enough. I’m heading into town.” She trotted out the door without listening for Spike’s response.

Bon Bon’s shop was bustling with activity, which was not the norm that Twilight had grown accustomed to. Each table was surrounded by ponies who held a motley of desserts. Chocolate permeated the air to the extent that it was almost difficult to inhale.

Twilight stepped in, glancing around as the seemingly chaotic ritual of rush hour took place before her. She spotted Bon Bon not to far away, at the forefront of a line at the counter. Each move she made was a calculated effort to simultaneously take orders, grab goods from the display shelf, and check on whatever was currently baking.

For a brief moment, Twilight considered that now was probably a bad time to bombard Bon Bon with questions, and given that fact that her stomach felt rather hollow right now, she opted to wait in line and talk to her acquaintance when she ordered something.

Falling in line behind a blue stallion, Twilight began tapping her hoof as the ponies before her shuffled side to side.

Eventually she found herself at the front of the line, conveniently before her stomach digested itself.

“Hello miss— Oh, Twilight, hi.” Bon Bon gave a perky smile, which was a marvel given how frustratingly busy she was at the time. “What can I get you?”

“A raspberry tart and the quickest route to find Lyra.”

Bon Bon’s eyebrow arched up. She moved her hoof into the display case. “Well, the tart will be two bits, but I’m afraid that directions to Lyra aren’t on the menu.”

Twilight blinked. “Yeah… well, no. I didn’t want to buy that part, I meant—”

Bon Bon giggled, pulling a tart free. “I was kidding, Twilight.”

“Oh…” She chewed the inside of her cheek. “Right.”

“Anyway, why do you want to find Lyra?” Bon Bon shoved wrapped the raspberry tart in a napkin, and tapped on a cash register.

“I was just curious about something,” Twilight replied, opting for vagary. She didn’t want to drag Bon Bon into this, mostly because she was hoping to avoid talking with anypony else today aside from Lyra as much as possible. She just wasn’t in the mood.

“Curious about what?” Bon Bon returned, failing to hand the tart over to Twilight. She was holding it hostage for more information.

“Things,” Twilight aptly dodged.

Bon Bon’s eyes narrowed. “Things, huh?”

“Yup.”

She leaned forward, obviously implying that Twilight should elaborate. When her stomach rumbled, she finally conceded.

“Lyra isn’t signed up for Music-ade and I just wanted to know why.”

“Oh, that’s all.” Bon Bon surrendered the pastry. “Twilight, don’t bother her, all right? Lyra’s never participated in Music-ade before and that’s her business not yours.”

It was Twilight’s turn to raise her eyebrow, her curiosity peaking. “What? Why?”

“Her reasons are her reasons. Two bits please.”

Twilight fished out the money, her thirst for answers far from dampened. “Well can you at least tell me where to find her?”

“Twilight you know how you like being left alone during certain… well, all the time?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s Lyra when it comes to stuff like Music-ade, all right?”

“Oh…” Twilight tightened her lips. “Well, I still want to talk to her about it.”

Bon Bon sighed, glancing through Twilight and noting the long line of impatient ponies forming behind her. She couldn’t keep up this conversation for much longer, lest she wanted an angry mob on her hoof, but she could tell that Twilight wouldn’t leave until she had what she wanted.

“She likes to hang out in the park.”

Twilight smiled. “Thanks Bon Bon.” She turned and trotted out.

“You better not whine the next time we try to hang out with you,” she muttered under her breath as the next customer stepped forward.

Ponyville’s park was a surprisingly serene place, contrasting heavily with the near insane denizens of the town. Lofty trees overlooked a grassy knoll, shielding the ground from the sweltering summer sun.

As Twilight trotted through the park, eyes diligently scanning for Lyra, she made a mental note in the back of her mind that this would be a good place to get some light reading done one day. Assuming she’d ever get around to light reading at this rate.

In fact, she hadn’t even gotten around to reading all the letters Celestia had sent her. Here she was, wasting valuable research time just to ask an acquaintance why she wasn’t partaking in a parade that she herself didn’t want to attend.

Twilight stopped moving, realizing she had just brought up some very good points. Why am I doing this?

Granted, Lyra was talented with a lyre and her lack of participation would be a hefty loss for the parade, but why should she care? Music-ade hadn’t wormed its way into her heart since she learned about it an hour ago, and if it hadn’t done the same to Lyra, then why should Twilight care? She was just a pony — well, granted she was a pony who had carried Twilight for miles through the Everfree Forest and stood by her side when they blindly fought Nightmare Moon together — but she was still just a pony to Twilight… right?

The delicate plucking of strings invaded her thoughts. A warm melody permeated the park, and Twilight’s ears flicked in the direction of the sound. Her eyes followed shortly after.

Sitting on a tuffet, coat helping her blend in with the grass, back reclined against a tree, sat Lyra. She cradled her lyre, her magic gently strumming the mellifluous tune.

A smile slunk onto Twilight’s face as she listened, her inner debate put on hold so she could enjoy the music.

Unfortunately, much like the last time she’d been infected by the earworm of Lyra’s music, it was cut short in the midst of her immersion. Lyra opened her eyes for the briefest of seconds, and spotted her audience of one.

“Tw-Twilight?” The melody ended unceremoniously, as Lyra ripped her hooves away, accidentally slapping the chords awkwardly and ending her sweet song on a sour note.

Ripped away from her music coma, Twilight blinked. “Oh, uh… hi Lyra.”

She gave an uncomfortable laugh. “This is like, the second time you’ve snuck up on me when I’m playing… hehe, geeze, privacy much?”

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Twilight’s ears folded down. “I didn’t realize I was intruding.”

“It’s a joke.”

“Ah.”

Lyra nodded to the spot next to her, and Twilight trotted over. She sat down, taking great pains not to put too much weight on her injured hoof. Lyra began fidgeting with her instrument.

“So… what brings you out to the park?”

“I was looking for you, actually. I was hoping we could talk... about Music-ade.”

Lyra froze suddenly, her pupils shrinking and joints stiffening. It lasted only an instant, before she quickly stood. “Well Twilight, as much as I enjoy our little chats I have to go be… anywhere else. Let’s do this again never, bye.” She bolted.

Thinking fast, Twilight ignited her horn, latching onto Lyra’s tail. She jerked to a stop, shooting back an annoyed glance. “Hey, let go!”

In response, Twilight dragged Lyra back to the tree and forced her to sit down before releasing.

“Lyra, what’s up with you today?”

Clenching her jaw, Lyra gave the ground a vicious stare. “Why do you care?”

Twilight sighed. “Lyra, my curiosity is… a bit like an anthill When somepony pokes it, the ants go crazy, pouring out of the hill like lava from an erupting volcano. And everything about you and Music-ade has just been whacking down on that anthill hill as hard as hail on a metal roof during a blizzard. You understand?”

Lyra opened her mouth and paused, eyes narrowed in confusion. “Uh… no. You lost me about three similes back.”

Rolling her eyes, Twilight sighed. “Bottom line, tell me what your problem is… or I’ll have to hit you with another barrage of similes.”

“Oh no, not figurative language!” Lyra smiled, and they shared a soft giggle.

When the laughter died down, the tone shifted as Lyra bit her lip. She pondered her options for a moment, not sure if she really wanted to open up to Twilight.

“Well…” Twilight felt impatience gnawing at her.

“I… I don’t like performing in front of other ponies.” Lyra looked away.

“Oh, you have a social phobia?” Twilight asked.

“Phobia? No. I’m not scared of performing. I just…”

“...just…?”

“Loathe it with a passion,” Lyra finished.

Twilight blinked. “Uh… why?”

Lyra bit her lip. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“Probably not,” Twilight admitted, pushing herself up. Her question had been answered, quenching her curiosity. She had no more desire to press Lyra for more personal information: the Derpy fiasco had taught her that much. “Thanks for talking though.”

She moved to leave, only to find a sudden jerk in her hindquarters. She glanced back to see a golden aura enveloping her hindquarters. With a swift yank from Lyra, Twilight was back on the ground.

“Oh no you don’t. If I couldn’t walk away from this, neither can you.”

Twilight sighed. “Great, now I've opened up a dam and should be prepared for the flood.”

“I thought we agreed no more similes.”

“That was a metaphor.”

“Semantics.”

Twilight grumbled, debating how difficult it would be to run off before Lyra could grab her again. Eventually she decided it would be too hard with her splinted hoof, and resolved to get this over with quickly. “Fine, so talk.”

“Well, it all started when I first got my Cutie Mark.”

Twilight groaned internally.

“You see, I’d always loved playing the lyre, but when it became my special talent, a lot of pressure set in to turn it from a simple hobby into a career.”

Twilight couldn’t really empathize with that kind of plight, but nodded along to feign understanding.

“My first real performance was a high school talent show. I can still remember feeling lighter than air when I stepped on stage.” A smile slipped onto her lips, but was swept away by a new batch of memories.

As Lyra paused her story, Twilight felt curiosity peck at her again. “...and?”

Her head slumped down, cheek pressed against her lyre. “They hated it,” she whispered.

“What?” Twilight’s ears flicked, still reverberating the faint echos of Lyra’s infectious melodies. “There’s no way. Who could say anything bad about your music?”

“Well… they didn’t say it to my face if that makes it more plausible.”

It doesn’t. “Surely it wasn’t all bad.”

Lyra scrunched up her nose and her next words came out as a nasally imitation of other ponies. “‘Gah, that was so boring.’ ‘I practically slept through the whole thing.’ ‘It’s pretty sad when the juggling act was more entertaining than that gar—’” Lyra froze, lip curling at the memory. She looked away, jaw clenching.

Twilight opened her mouth to reply, but she paused. The can of worms she had inadvertently opened was dredging up some bad memories for Lyra; the last thing she needed was an unthought out, unintentionally hurtful comment.

“Well, I guess I kind of know what that feels like,” she finally decided on.

“How so?”

“You’d be surprised how rough it got being Princess Celestia’s personal student. It felt like anypony at her school was just waiting for me to make a mistake so they could pounce in and tell me how much I didn’t deserve such an honor, how the Princess was wasting her time with me. Given the whole Elements of Harmony debacle I can bet they’re—”

“Are you really comparing what I’ve been dealing with my entire life to what happened last week?” Lyra interrupted, recoiling as if Twilight’s breath smelled like raunchy garbage.

Twilight lowered her head, grinding her teeth together. “Yeah… I think I need to stop doing that.”

“Definitely.” Lyra looked at the ground.

“I’m sorry. I guess… this whole, dealing with other pony’s problems thing is kinda new to me. I probably should read up on it before I try it again.”

“I’ll say.” Lyra sighed, fiddling with one of the strings of her lyre.

Twilight eyed it, then Lyra. “Do—”

She was cut off by a loud, pounding blast of music. One she had hoped never to hear again, or at the very least not twice in the same day: Techno

Both she and Lyra threw their hooves over their ears, wincing in tandem. The music sprayed over the park, seeming to come from all directions at once. Around her, the ground seem to shake at the ferocity of the noise, pebbles bouncing up and down to the beat.

“Gah! What the heck?” Lyra screamed, her voice caught in the sound before it could reach Twilight’s ears mere inches away.

Twilight’s eyes scanned the horizon, eventually coming to rest on a house that seemed to vibrate as spasmodically as the music. I don’t even have to guess.

“Vinyl,” she hissed. The word couldn’t even reach her own ears before being drowned out.

“What?” Lyra shouted.

“Come on, let’s see if we can get her to shut up.” Twilight grabbed Lyra and pulled her against the force of the noise towards the building.

“What?”

They fought against the ear-bleedingly loud song — and Twilight used that term in its loosest possible form — until they reached the front door. Twilight gave it a swift knock, before realizing that there was no way anypony inside could possibly hear her. Nevertheless the door actually swung in, having been knocked open by the sheer force of the noise.

Twilight poked her head in, unsure if she should intrude uninvited. Two more seconds of the pulsating noise changed her mind and she walked in, Lyra in tow.

“Hello?” She called out before realizing that it was another fruitless effort. She looked around, her ears trying to pinpoint the origin of the music, which was no easy feat. Lyra, however, tapped her shoulder and then pointed to the ceiling. Twilight nodded, the message coming through.

She focused her energy into finding a staircase, making sure to put in extra effort. If she had to be subjected to Vinyl’s techno music, she might just cause an explosion.

She caught sight of it at the end of a long hall and made a rush for it, only to bump into something in the process. Twilight fell down, taking the thing she had bumped into with her. After getting a mouthful of carpet, Twilight looked up to find that the thing she had bumped into wasn’t a thing at all. It was Octavia.

Wide-eyed with confusion, mane a frazzled mess, but definitely Octavia.

Lyra swooped in to help them both up, her presence only adding to the confusion on Octavia’s face.

“Uh… hi,” Twilight shouted over the music.

Octavia cocked her head, not having heard. It was then that Twilight noticed the noise canceling headphones Octavia was wearing, and she immediately felt a bitter twinge of jealously. Then she noticed that there was a second pair of noise canceling headphones duct taped crudely over the first. Her jealousy grew exponentially.

Before Twilight could even try speaking again Octavia held up her hoof, silently asking for her to wait. She tilted her head towards the stairs.

“VINYL, MUSIC OFF! WE HAVE GUESTS!” The force of her shouting took Twilight aback. She had never expected such a soft voice from somepony so civilized could trample the noise coming from the amps upstairs.

Surprisingly, the blaring techno noise ceased, ending with a sudden record scratch. Noting that the house stopped shaking, Octavia removed her dual headphones in anticipation for a response.

“If it’s the Filly Scouts, tell them I want two boxes of—”

“It’s Lyra and Twilight!”

“...I’m guessing they don’t have any Thin Mints.”

Octavia rolled her eyes. “Get down here.”

“Kay.” Shuffling noises could be heard overhead.

Swiveling around, Octavia faced Twilight and Lyra. “So… why are you here?”

“Yes, I do like apples,” Twilight replied, her ears ringing. Octavia tilted her head in confusion.

Lyra — whose bleeding ears could hear a bit better than Twilight’s — spoke up before Twilight could amend her statement. “We just wanted Vinyl to turn down her… everything.”

Octavia nodded, a shaky smile of agreement on her face. “You just described my day-to-day life.”

Vinyl appeared on the stairs behind her, glasses donned and grin wide. “‘Sup guys?”

“Hello.”

Twilight rubbed her ears, the ringing dampened enough for her to hear again. “Vinyl, what the heck were you doing?”

“Practicing for Music-ade. Duh.” Vinyl grinned. “By the way, how’d it sound?”

“Loud,” Lyra replied.

“Ear-bleedingly so,” Twilight added.

“Awesome.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Not awesome, Vinyl. I think you may have done some serious damage to my cochlea.”

Everypony stared uncomprehendingly.

She sighed. “My ear hurts.”

“Oh, that’s all?” Vinyl shrugged. “I don’t see why you’re complaining then. I mean, Tavi doesn’t… anymore at least.”

“That’s because I learned that whenever I tell you something it just goes in one ear, gets bored, and dies.” She tapped her dual headphones. “And I finally invested in these.”

“Whatever. Hey speaking of Music-ade, you going to be in it Lyra?”

Lyra tightened her hold on her lyre. “I… don’t think so.”

“Bummer.”

“Wait, you won’t be playing?” Octavia asked. Lyra shook her head. “That’s a real shame, the orchestra float could sure use a few more soloists.”

“Definitely not.” Lyra tightened her lips. “Everypony focusing on me, judging me, just waiting for that one slip up so they can—”

“I understand,” Octavia interrupted, allowing Lyra to breath a sigh of relief. “But you should still join, we could use a good lyrist.”

“Then you should probably find a good lyrist,” Lyra mumbled.

Vinyl raised an eyebrow. “I’m sensing a confidence problem here.” Twilight shot her a “gee, you think?” look, which was met with Vinyl holding up her hooves in sarcastic surrender.

Octavia ignored them, focusing instead on Lyra. She was glumly plucking at the strings of her instrument, avoiding eye contact.

“Can you at least audition?” Octavia asked.

“What?” Lyra’s head poked up. “But I didn't even go to sign up; I can't audition.”

“Well, technically you can. You see, I’m managing the orchestra float; if I want to I can put you in. I only ask that you play something for me just so I can get a taste of your capabilities.”

“I dunno…”

“Come on, Lyra.” Twilight pleaded with her eyes, but Lyra refused to look at them.

“Can you just stop trying to push me out of my comfort zone?”

“Psshh. Comfort zones are overrated. I say go for it.” Vinyl brushed her mane from her face, offering a grin.

“Hmm…” Lyra shifted in discomfort. She weighed her options, looking at each of the mares in front of her: Octavia’s comforting smile, Vinyl’s expectant stare, Twilight’s hopeful gaze. “Fine.”

Twilight cheered internally. She’d been hoping to hear Lyra’s music again.

“But… uh… can you guys not be here for it?”

“What?” Twilight asked, stunned.

“Yeah I’m with Smart Mare on this one. What?”

Octavia pressed her lips together. “Lyra, we can’t just ask them to—”

“You too… please.”

Octavia leaned back, eyebrow raised. “You want me to not be here?”

“Yes.”

“During your audition that I’m supposed to witness?”

“...Yes please.”

Twilight bit her lip, realizing just how much Lyra hated performing in front of ponies and resigning to leave.

Octavia wasn’t as sympathetic. “Well I can’t just not hear your audition.”

“We could just chill upstairs,” Vinyl suggested. "She won't see us, and we could still hear her."

“Don’t be stupid, Vi—” Octavia blinked, cutting off her automatic response. “Actually that could work, right Lyra?”

“I guess?”

Twilight smiled. “Let’s try it then!”

They piled towards the narrow staircase, and after a few shoving matches they all made it to the top, sheltered from view. Twilight leaned over the banister a little, not wanting to miss a single note of the performance.

“Okay Lyra, whenever you’re ready.”

She didn’t offer a response.

She didn’t start playing either.

At first Twilight thought Lyra was just taking a brief pause. Then Twilight thought Lyra was just taking a long pause. Then she thought Lyra was taking an overly-dramatic, thespian-style, tension-building pause of doom.

“You don’t think she bailed, do you?” Vinyl whispered, beating Twilight to her next thought.

“Sh!” Octavia said, not even considering the possibility.

Either Lyra heard the remark, or she finally decided the pause was dramatic enough, because a soft, simple earworm of a tune began playing. Its slow start was soon contrasted by a speedy build-up and climactic surge of passion and energy.

Twilight was whisked away by the melody, even more so than any other time she’d heard Lyra play. A dopey grin spread on her face. She looked over to Octavia, trying to size up her reaction, only to be met with a stuck-in-concentration straight face.

The song abruptly ended as Lyra apparently decided she couldn’t play anymore with the knowledge that ponies were present.

Vinyl gave a half-smile when the music ended. “Well, it’s not wubs… but it was nice.”

Twilight bobbed her head, grateful to hear a positive reaction. A few more of those and Lyra’s confidence would undoubtedly soar.

“H-How was that?” Lyra’s cautious voice asked.

Octavia — face emotionless — crossed to the stairs and trotted down, Twilight and Vinyl not far behind.

Lyra’s nervous face appeared before them as they descended. Her eyebrows scrunched together and raised, her lip in her mouth, eyes wide with a mixture of giddiness and fear.

Octavia cleared her throat. “I have good news, and bad news.”

“Uh… okay.”

“The good news is, you’re in.”

“Oh, really?” Happiness slipped into Lyra’s voice, but concern as well. “T-thanks I guess. But, I still don’t know if I want to do it....”

“That would be the bad news,” Octavia said. “I’m not giving you a choice in the matter.”

Lyra’s pupils shrank. “What?”

“There’s no way I’m letting a musician as talented as yourself slip away. In two weeks from now, I expect you to be on that float.”

“But I… you… audition…”

“Whelp, now that that’s settled,” Vinyl clapped Octavia and Lyra on their backs. “I could go for some cookies. Anypony wanna help me track down the Filly Scouts?”

Octavia rolled her eyes. “Anything to keep you away from the turntables for a little while.”

“Cool. Lyra?”

“...lyre...crowd...judgement…”

“Sweet. How about you, Smart Mare?”

“I feel the strong, strong need to say no. By now my machines should have cooled down enough to use again and if not there’s still dozens of Celestia’s letters I need to start reading. I’ll see you girls later.” She turned.

“At Music-ade perhaps?”

Twilight stopped. “Depends… Lyra?”

She momentarily broke out of her panicked trance. “Y-yeah?”

“Are you going to be in it? Of your own free will, I mean.”

Lyra opened her mouth to respond, but instead glanced at Octavia. Her fellow musician offered her a reassuring smile. “Well…”

“I say go for it,” Vinyl interjected. “You got what it takes.”

“I’m still nervous.”

“There’s nothing wrong with taking foal steps if you want,” Twilight assured her. “I mean, I had to learn how to levitate before I could learn to teleport.”

Her words made Lyra exhale a relaxed breath. “Thanks, Twilight. I’m glad you’re my friend.”

Twilight coughed. “Well, technically acquaintance, but you’re welcome.” She waved goodbye and trotted for the door, happy to know she had helped Lyra take the first step towards overcoming her dislike of performing.

She let out a content sigh when she shut the library door behind her. It was barely two o’clock, but the day felt like it was over already. Twilight stretched her neck before setting her sights on the stairs the basement.

As she walked towards them, she passed the Spike sized indentation in the wall, now bereft of its maker. She could say with no uncertainty he was upstairs, asleep. Honestly, she couldn’t blame him; she was feeling the anvil of exhaustion start to weigh down on her. Unlike her number one assistant, she wasn’t allowed to take a break from her work.

Twilight descended the stairs to the basement, only to be greeted by a new annoying sound she thought she wouldn’t have to hear twice today.

Beep. Beep beep. Beep.

“Are you kidding me?” she demanded, nearing the final steps. “And I could’ve sworn I unplugged the—” She froze.

Wait… I did unplug the magicspectrometer. How is it still…

Twilight cleared the last step, and bolted over to the machinery. The plug was still lying discarded on the floor, but the internal motors were whirring away.

“How is that…” Twilight’s eyes shifted, catching a faint green glow.

Lying on the table, hooked up with the wires that she’d left with, was the Element of Kindness, matching the sparkling in tandem with the Element of Magic.

Several emotions slapped Twilight at once. Awe, curiosity, shock; the most prominent however, was anger.

“HOW DID I MISS IT AGAIN?”

Author's Note

It's alive!

Annnnd we're back to this story. Took me freaking long enough, considering the last update was what, February? Yikes. Well, we're back on track, and hopefully this train won't be so derailed again anytime soon. As an apology, here's the schedule of the next few chapters.

The DJ - Vinyl centric chapter
Interlude: Tea Party - Celestia and NMM
The Baker - Bon Bon centric chapter
The Cellist - Octavia centric chapter
And the Adventure Begins... Again - The adventure tag comes back into play.

So now you guys have that to look forward to. See ya then. :twilightsmile:

(P.S. did you find the hidden link?)

The DJ

Twilight walked slowly, barely paying attention to the path before her, the cool breeze nipping at her face, the added weight of her bulging saddlebags, or even the dull throb using her splinted hoof gave her. Her mind was elsewhere, back at the library — where she wished her body could be — trying to find the answers behind why two Elements of Harmony had suddenly lit up like firecrackers.

The gears rapidly spun in her mind, as she tried to go over everything she currently knew about them, which was frustratingly little. In fact, the only new thing she’d been able to glean was that when the Element of Kindness had started glowing, it had released enough energy to activate and fully power her magicspectrometer. That was it.

Every hypothesis she’d constructed just didn’t fit the facts. So far her best guess was that somehow her extended interaction with both Lyra and Derpy had caused their respective, misassigned elements to rekindle. Even so, it was a flimsy guess at best.

Next to her, Spike matched her pace, carrying the checklist for their supply run. With a flick of his wrist he struck ‘quills’ from the list and shifted the paper up a little. “Looks like the next thing we need is—” he squinted, trying to make out Twilight’s hurried scrawl. “—um, hey Twilight what is this?”

Twilight continued to stare off into space, not breaking her stride.

“Twilight!”

“Huh?” Blinking, she came out of her thought-trance. “What is it Spike?”

He lowered the checklist, concern taking over his face. “Are you all right? You’ve been pretty distracted today.”

Twilight lowered her head. “I’m fine.”

Spike rolled up the checklist. “Still worried about the Elements?”

She fought back a yawn. “What else is there to worry about?”

Spike tapped his chin. “Well, there’s your health.” Twilight shot him a glance over her shoulder. “What? You haven’t been sleeping or eating lately. I’m getting really worried about you.”

“Gah, you and everypony else. I said I’m fine, all right? Besides, I slept last night.” A new yawn surfaced, and she failed to prevent it this time.

“For five hours,” Spike pointed out. “After spending Celestia knows how long observing the Elements.”

“Oh shoot, Celestia! I really need to send her an update.” Twilight paused. “And now that you’ve mentioned it, there’s still about a hundred letters I need to get to reading. I’ll be sure to do that the second we get home and— oof!” Twilight rammed face first into a crowd.

Well to be more specific, it was a single pony in a crowd.

And to be even more specific, it was the one pony Twilight really didn’t feel like running into right now: Vinyl Scratch

“Ah, hey what the heck?” Twilight’s bump was enough to send Vinyl forward into some other ponies. After some exchanged grumbles, Vinyl stood back up and turned. “Watch where you’re going you little— oh hey, Smart Mare.” She bobbed her head at Spike. “Dragon Dude.”

Spike waved cautiously, fearing that by just being around Vinyl another shockwave of sound might send him flying. “Hi.”

Twilight backed up to give her room. “Sorry about hitting you.”

Vinyl waved her off. “Nah, it’s cool.”

Twilight glanced between her and the crowd, whose heads she could barely see over. “What’s going on? Why’s everypony clogging up Mane Street?”

“Oh, you gotta check this out, come on.” Vinyl waved her over to an opening between the sea of pony heads. Twilight peaked through and saw a large wagon set up in the middle of the road. Squinting a little, she could see a blue pony standing at the center.

“Okay, what am I looking at?”

“Shh! Just watch.”

Straining her hearing, Twilight was able to listen beyond the murmurs of the crowd and make out what the pony onstage was saying.

“Come on, silly ponies, do none of you have what it takes to match up to The Great and Powerful Trrrrrixie!” She feigned a yawn. “Or at least give her a decent challenge.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Huh?”

Vinyl grinned. “She’s a magician who just blew into town. Been talking pretty big too; said this whole spiel about fighting a constellation or something.”

“Huh?”

She shrugged. “Yeah, I didn’t get it either.”

Twilight turned her attention back to the stage, attributing that off hoof remark as “Vinyl just being Vinyl”. An orange mare hopped onstage, and pointed at Trixie. The crowd had become quiet enough for Twilight to hear their exchange.

“Now listen here, missy,” the orange mare — who seemed more familiar the more Twilight looked at her — sneered at Trixie. “Ya certainly talk a big game, but yer cheap tricks are no match for down home country skills like these!” She whipped out a lasso, spinning it expertly around her body.

“Hey, isn’t that Applejack?” Spike asked, pointing.

Nodding, Twilight found that that was indeed the name she’d had on the tip of her tongue. “Yeah, you’re right.” She frowned slightly, unsure of how to feel about seeing her again. She hadn’t seen any of the Bearers since sending them away from her home several nights ago, come to think of it

“What’s she doing up there?” Spike wondered aloud, cutting into her own thoughts.

Vinyl adjusted her shades. “Trying to one-up Trixie.” Spike glanced at her inquisitively. “You see, her and a couple other loud mouths have been heckling throughout the whole show.”

“Really?” Twilight asked. That’s not the behavior I would expect from a would-be Bearer of an Element. Weird…

“Yeah, but don’t worry. I’m willing to bet serious bits that Trixie’ll put her in her place.” Vinyl grinned, causing Twilight some slight intrigue. She certainly seemed confident in the showpony’s abilities.

Applejack jumped through her lasso hoop a few times, and swung it through the air in a grandiose finish. As her routine ended, she took a slight bow as the audience cheered.

Trixie was unfazed, and her horn sparked to life. Twilight watched as Applejack’s lasso rose into the air, swaying back and forth. It then whipped over, plucking an apple from a nearby tree, while slinking around Applejack’s legs. She was flipped over, her cry of surprise interrupted as the apple was shoved in her mouth.

“Hah!” Vinyl laughed, clapping Twilight on the back. “She sure showed her!”

“Yeah,” Twilight replied, hardly impressed by a basic levitation spell.

As Applejack hobbled offstage in humiliation, a new pony flew up to take her place. Twilight felt a spark of recognition for her as well, but Spike beat her to the punch.

“Hey, I think that’s Rainbow Dash.”

Vinyl leaned over. “Another heckler. Probably gonna get what she deserves too.”

As Rainbow Dash flew into the air, Twilight’s eyebrow rose as she pondered Vinyl’s statement. Her acquaintance seemed to be taking a bizarre delight in this.

In only a few seconds Rainbow Dash was finished, her stunts leaving the audience cheering and a faint rainbow hanging over her head. Vinyl however focused more on Trixie, waiting for her follow-up.

With a smirk, Trixie shot a beam of magic at the rainbow, causing it to swirl violently around Rainbow Dash. It flung her around in a multi-colored tornado before depositing her dizzy-headed on the ground.

Twilight’s eyebrows shot up at the display. “What? How?”

Vinyl smirked. “She sure showed her.”

“Kinda overkill if you ask me,” Spike remarked.

“Psh, overkill is underrated.”

“That’s… not possible.” Twilight gaped. “Rainbows aren’t tangible… how did she—”

“Is there anypony else who dares to challenge The Great and Powerful Trixie?” Trixie smugly looked over the crowd of ponies as a few murmurs rolled through. “Well, since nopony else is foolish enough to try, it appears Trixie’s show has come to an end.” She flung both of her hooves into the air, a motley of fireworks erupting behind her. “You may begin showering her with adoration!”

Cheering erupted from the townspeople as they stomped their hooves in glee. Vinyl followed suit, while Twilight slipped into her thoughts, still stuck on the tangible rainbow.

The applause died down shortly after, and the crowd ambled off. A few ponies brushed past Twilight, but she barely focused on them. She was forced back to reality, however, when Vinyl grabbed her foreleg.

“Hey, let’s go meet her.”

Twilight blinked and glanced towards the stage. Her path of vision was much less cluttered now, and she could make out a fair number of ponies near the front, likely heaping on praise.

She tugged at the hoof locked in Vinyl’s gasp. “I don’t know…”

“Aw, come on, Smart Mare. Don’t you want to meet another unicorn who’s good at magic? You guys might become buddies.”

Twilight squinted at her.

Vinyl rolled her eyes. “Fine, acquaintances. So you wanna meet her?”

“Well, I am curious how she did that trick with the rainbow.”

“Great.” Vinyl yanked her forward, tugging on her splint slightly.

“Hey, wait for me!” Spike called out, giving chase.

Propelled by Vinyl’s enthusiasm, they made it to the stage in a few seconds. Almost all of the ponies had ambled off by then, save two small kids.

“Wow Trixie, that was amazing!” One of them, small blue colt, exclaimed.

“It’s The Great and Powerful Trixie,” the performer retorted.

A mustard colored colt spoke up. “Sorry Miss Great and Powerful. Oh, can you tell us again about the time you vanquished an Ursa Major?”

So that’s what Vinyl was talking about. Twilight thought, realizing the DJ mistook the famous star pattern for an ancient beast over twenty stories tall.

“As much as The Great and Powerful Trixie would love to recount her heroic deeds, she finds herself growing weary of this conversation. Off with you.”

“But—”

“The lady said beat it,” Vinyl quipped.

The two colts flinched at the sudden voice behind them, and slowly turned their heads. When they saw Vinyl behind them, they stumbled into each other, and then ran off.

“Geeze,” Spike muttered. “Those guys seemed annoying.”

Trixie flipped her hair, seemingly happy to be rid of them as well. Her eyebrow raised when she saw the three of them, as if she expected them to have left already. “Yes?”

Vinyl maneuvered her shades over her horn. “Uh, hey.” She cleared her throat. “‘Sup. I’m Vinyl, this is Smart Mare.”

“Twilight,” she quickly amended. “Twilight Sparkle.”

Trixie’s eyelids lowered. “The Great and Powerful Trixie didn’t ask.”

Vinyl chuckled. “You know, you’re not performing anymore, you can drop the act.”

Trixie scoffed. Loudly. “How dare you make such insinuations. The Great and Powerful Trixie’s persona is not an act.”

“Oh, so you’re one of the method acting types who never breaks characters. Cool.”

Trixie growled lowly. “What do you want?”

“I just wanted to tell you that I thought your show was pretty cool. Sorry you got heckled though; I know that ain’t fun.”

Trixie pursed her lips, eyes darting to the ground and back up again. Eventually she flicked her head up and smirked. “Humph, The Great and Powerful Trixie doesn’t worry about such petty trite. It is beneath her.”

“Oh.” Vinyl pressed her lips together, before nudging Twilight forward. “Also, she had a question.”

Trixie shifted her gaze to Twilight, eyebrow rising. Twilight swallowed, hating being put on the spot like this. “I uh… just wanted to know how you managed to transmute refracted light into a solid enough substance to forcibly disorient Rainbow Dash.”

After a pause, Trixie cleared her throat. “What?”

“She’s asking how you did that rainbow-tornado trick,” Spike clarified.

Another pause, this time Trixie ended it by giggling. “Surely you cannot expect Trixie to explain her tricks? She is a magician and a magician never reveals her secrets. Besides—” she looked over Twilight “—your feeble mind could not possibly comprehend it.”

Feeble? Twilight’s stomach boiled. “No, I’m pretty sure I can—”

“Whatever, Trixie doesn’t care.” She wrinkled her nose, as if the mere acting of talking to Twilight was disgusting. Either that, or it was her breath. In fact, given that she couldn’t remember when she last brushed her teeth, it probably was her breath.

Twilight ground her teeth together and prepared a retort, bad breath or not. Unfortunately, she never got a chance to fling it at the mare before her.

“Hey, why don’t we give her some space, sound good Smart Mare?” Vinyl hopped in between them, hoping to defuse the tension.

“I think that’s a great idea,” Spike chimed in. “The further we get from her the better.” Trixie scoffed indignantly.

Twilight wanted to protest, but suddenly remembered all the work she still had waiting for her at home. The full weight of it set in, as exhaustion washed over her. She didn’t have the time, nor the energy to argue with a random showpony.

“Okay, fine.”

“A'ight, cool.” Vinyl slid her shades back over her face and tipped her head toward Trixie. “Later.”

Trixie didn’t offer a response, other than sticking up her nose, rolling her eyes, and turning around with a flourish of her cape.

“That was… actually infuriating,” Twilight said as they walked away.

“Agreed.”

“Aw, come on guys, she wasn’t that bad.” Vinyl trotted ahead slightly. “I mean, I know she was acting pretty stuck up, but I think it was understandable.”

“Understandable?” Spike gave a sharp laugh. “She was a jerk.”

“She was not!” A nasally voice shouted.

Turning, Twilight saw the two colts from earlier, looking angrily at Spike.

The yellow one stepped forward. “You take that back right now. The Great and Powerful Trixie is the most talented unicorn in Equestria!”

Spike rolled his eyes. “You two can’t seriously think she’s all that.”

“Can too! She defeated an Ursa Major all by herself. That proves it!”

“Grr, no it doesn’t.” Spike took a step toward the two colts, and their argument quickly devolved into bickering.

“Yeesh, looks like that could go on for a while,” Vinyl remarked.

“Yeah, and just when I need to be getting home too.” Twilight yawned before she could force down the desire to.

“Sounds like you could use a nap.”

“I’m fine,” Twilight grumbled. She quickly chose a new topic of conversation. “So why were you so tolerant of Trixie? Were you too dense to see her annoying arrogance?”

Vinyl gave a sharp laugh. “No, no, I’m not that dense, Smart Mare.”

Eh… that’s debatable. “Okay, but then why were you not peeved in the slightest? She was being downright rude.”

“Yeah, she was, but it was all just an act, trust me.”

Twilight skeptically raised her eyebrow. “Really?”

“Yeah, really. I mean, you missed most of it, but that heckling was pretty rough.” Vinyl lowered her head, ears folding down. “I don’t blame her for acting like it doesn’t bug her.”

Blinking, Twilight took in the sudden attitude change. In the short — yet arguably too long time — that she’d known Vinyl, this was the first time she looked anything other than bombastically happy. “Uh… is something wrong?”

“I just hate it when ponies hound performers, y’know? It’s a pet peeve of mine.”

Twilight pursed her lips. “Let me guess, past trauma?” she asked sarcastically.

“Trauma? Nah, but I have been bashed a few times.”

Great, don’t tell me I’ll have try and solve your emotional problems too. Derpy and Lyra were enough, thank you very much. Twilight opened her mouth to voice the complaint, only to find Vinyl wasn’t finished talking yet.

She adjusted her shades. “It was rough at first, but you get used to it after a while. You kinda have to. Getting heckled is a lot like using sandpaper as toilet paper. Hurts a lot at first, but eventually you get so numb that you can’t even tell you’re supposed to be in pain.”

Twilight squinted. “Uh…”

Vinyl snorted. “Yeah, that was pretty bad, but you get the idea, right?”

“That I should never ask to borrow toilet paper from you?”

“Ha ha,” she deadpanned. “Look, I can tell Trixie’s a little new to the performing world, but I think she’ll be fine. She just needs to cut down on the whole arrogant and annoying shtick.”

“She’s not the only one,” Twilight muttered under her breath. “But I guess that would make her more tolerable.” Vinyl nodded.

As their conversation stopped short there, Spike’s debate reemerged from the background noise.

“Well, The Great and Powerful Trixie defeated an Ursa Major, so that proves that she’s the best unicorn in Equestria!” The two colts hoof-bumped, celebrating what they thought was a victory.

Spike groaned. “Did you two see her beat an Ursa Major?”

They froze. “Uh, well, no… but…”

“Then there isn’t any proof, is there?” Spike folded his arms, daring the colts to challenge his logic.

Twilight sighed, ready to leave. “Okay, Spike, I think that’s a good place to wrap it up.”

He turned, a grin on his face. “Sure thing, Twilight.”

“Wait!” The blue colt cried out. Twilight groaned. “So you’re saying if you see her defeat an Ursa Major, you’ll believe she’s the best unicorn in all of Equestria?”

Spike shrugged. “I guess, but the odds that I’ll ever see that are—”

“Come on, Snails!” The two colts bolted, leaving Spike to cough on the dust they kicked up.

“Weird kids,” Vinyl commented, watching them become specks on the horizon.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Whatever, let’s just go, Spike.”

“Sounds good to me.” He walked forward, heading for the library.

“Bye, Vinyl.”

“Later, Smart Mare. Be sure to take a nap.” Vinyl sniffed, and winced. “And you might want to try some mouthwash while you’re at it.”

Twilight groaned again, but kept her mouth shut. She trotted after Spike, not looking back.

A stinging mint flavor filled Twilight’s mouth as she ran a toothbrush along her molars. After a few more seconds, she pulled it away, and spat into the sink, rinsed out her toothbrush, and wiped her mouth.

All right, moment of truth. She shot two short breaths at her hoof, and pulled it close before sniffing softly. Wintergreen mint was the only scent she could detect.

“Finally,” she breathed with a soft sigh. Ten brushings well worth it. She rubbed her eyes, as yet another yawn forced its way out of her mouth.

Weariness was pecking away at her conscious, and it had only gotten worse as the day progressed. She’d barely been able to comb through some of Celestia’s letters when she got home with her eyelids constantly drooping into her field of vision. Now, in the late evening, she was finally on the verge of admitting defeat.

As she stepped out of the bathroom, her eyes lazily glanced over to her bed. It beckoned her with its soft sheets and inviting pillows, promising her more comfort than the table she’d used in her previous forays into unconsciousness.

No… have to keep working…

She glanced at the bed once more and the last of her resolve evaporated.

...maybe just five minutes.

Not having enough energy to keep going, Twilight resolved herself to slumber. She swayed slightly as she walked to her bed, eyes half-open. Brushing the covers aside, she climbed in and ensconced herself among the sheets.

Her head touched the pillow.

And then she heard the door downstairs slam open.

“Smart Mare!” A frantic voice called out. “We got a problem here!”

“No…” Twilight pressed her face into the pillow. “Not now.”

She heard the hooffalls pound against the floor as Vinyl clamored up the stairs. The door to her bedroom flew open a second later.

“Smart Mare! Problem! Help! Now!”

Twilight’s ears folded down. “Vinyl, if this is some sort of superfluous, DJ-related trite—”

“It’s not. I swear on the sun and the tribalist princess who controls it that it’s not.”

Shifting under her covers she shot a look at Vinyl. “Then what is it?”

“It’s a freaking constellation bear, that’s what!”

Twilight rocketed up. “An Ursa Major?”

Vinyl nodded, biting her lip. “Yeah… that.”

Forcing the covers off, Twilight leapt out of her bed. “What? But, what is it doing here? Why—”

A deafening roar interrupted her barrage of questions, followed by the crunch of wood. Twilight cringed, imagining the destruction that just took place. Muffled screams shortly followed.

“Yeah, it’s hit the fan out there. I’m kinda hoping there’s something you can do.”

Twilight blinked, jaw falling open. “Me? Why me?”

Vinyl shrugged. “I don’t call you Smart Mare for nothing. I’m kinda hoping you can come up with a plan while I drag you outside.”

“While you what?”

Vinyl hooked her hoof around Twilight’s and yanked. They flew down the stairs, Twilight’s hooves dragging the whole way. When the two of them reached the bottom floor they were greeted by Spike staring out an open door.

As he heard them approach, he turned around. “Twilight, did you see? It’s a—”

“I heard, Spike. Stay inside all right?” Twilight asked as she slid past him.

“What about you?”

She didn’t have time to respond before Vinyl dragged her out the door. Turning her head, Twilight’s pupils shrunk with shock.

Lumbering through Ponyville, its head reaching above even the tallest buildings, was the most massive creature she’d ever seen. It’s fur was a translucent blue and it sported a star pattern on the back half of its body. With another thundering roar, it bared its teeth and crunched half of a building under its monstrous paw.

“So, uh… you got that plan I asked for?”

A lump formed in Twilight’s throat. The gears of her brain whirred as they struggled to move through the exhaustion that still fogged her mind. “Uh… um… er...”

“That’s a horrible plan!” Vinyl cried.

“Be quiet, I’m trying to think!” Twilight’s eyes shot back and forth, hoping something nearby would give her an idea. That’s when a screaming, fleeing Trixie ran right into her line of sight, followed by two familiar colts.

“Tri— er, The Great and Powerful Trixie, wait! Where are you going?”

“Don’t you wanna fight the Ursa Major?”

Vinyl jumped in front of them, forcing Trixie to skid to a stop. “Whoa, whoa, guys what the heck is going on here?”

Trixie sucked in air, winded from running away in panic. “Snips and Snails, or whatever their dumb names are.” She pointed to the colts. “They brought that monster here and put Trixie’s life in jeopardy!”

“We just wanted to see you defeat an Ursa Major like you said you could.”

Trixie whirled around at them. “I… I can’t.”

“Uh, why not?” Vinyl asked, eyebrow arched. “I mean, you beat one before right? And Smart Mare’s brain’s kinda put us on hold, so you’re Ponyville’s only hope right now.” Twilight bit her tongue, too busy thinking to retort.

Sweat formed at the top of Trixie’s forehead. “B-But… why should Trixie risk her life for all of you?”

“Because you’re not a terrible pony?” Vinyl offered. Another building snapped under the Ursa’s grasp.

She ground her teeth. “That’s not what Trixie meant.”

“But you’re the most talented unicorn in Equestria,” Snips pleaded. “How is fighting an Ursa Major risking your life?”

“Because…” Trixie bit her lip, beads of sweat rolling past her cheek.

“Because why?” Vinyl yelled.

“Because I lied, all right?” Everypony froze. For a moment, the only sounds were the Ursa stomping through buildings as if they were papier-mâché.

Vinyl lowered her shades. “What?”

Trixie sighed. “I… I made everything up, okay? I’ve never even seen an Ursa Major until tonight, and it’s… it’s terrifying. I almost threw up when these two idiots brought it to my wagon. And even if I wasn’t scared, there’s no way my magic could defeat it.”

Twilight finally gave up thinking between all the noise. “Why not? You seemed pretty powerful when I met you. You even made rainbows solid for pony’s sake, not even I can do that.”

“It was fake!” Trixie cried. “All of it. My talent is for illusion magic. That and a little telekinesis and I make it seem like anything happened.”

So that’s how— Another ear shattering roar from the Ursa cut off her thoughts. “Gah! Why does it have to be so loud!”

Wait…

Twilight turned to face the group. “Everypony, I think I know of a way to send the Ursa back to its home in the Everfree.”

“Oh thank Celestia!” Trixie cried.

“How?” Vinyl asked.

“Look, under ideal circumstances, I’d just lift the Ursa back to its home, but I’m too exhausted for that level of telekinesis, so we need another way to drive it out.” She looked at Vinyl. “And I know just the sound that would make anything want to leave Ponyville as fast as possible.”

A maniacal grin broke out on the DJ’s face. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

“Unfortunately yes. Vinyl: get me the loudest possible music you have.”

“Heck yeah!” Vinyl hoof pumped the air. After receiving a stern look from Twilight, however, she quickly dropped her hoof and dashed off to her house.

“And Trixie.” Twilight turned to the magician, whose face was buried under her cloak in shame.

“What?” she mumbled.

“I need your help too.”

“What?”

“If you could use your illusions to distract the Ursa and lead him to the edge of town, that would be a massive help.”

“...What?”

Twilight sighed. “Listen Trixie, we have to stop the Ursa without risking the lives of the townsponies. Your illusions can help, so please.”

Trixie glanced from her to the ground. “A-all right… I’ll try.”

Offering her a smile Twilight nodded her thanks. “Good, now hurry!”

Igniting her horn, Trixie whirled around, her cloak fluttering behind her. She gave a hesitant look at the massive beast lumbering through town before kicking up some dirt and charging for it.

“What about us?” Twilight turned to the two colts. They glanced up at her with eager smiles.

“You two have a very important job that I need you to do.”

“Really?” Snails asked.

Twilight leaned forward, and they followed suit. “What I need you to do is really important, okay?” They nodded. “Are you sure you can handle it?” They nodded again. “Good, now it’s really easy. All you have to do is go home!”

They flinched at the extra severity of her voice. Stumbling back, they collided into each other. Quickly recovering, the two of them turned and bolted.

Twilight sighed with relief when they were gone. A new yawn attempted to force its way out, but she beat it down. As much as she wanted to, she couldn’t afford falling asleep now. That would have to wait.

She trotted around, not willing to leave the library’s vicinity in case Vinyl got back early. Several ponies were scrambling around hysterically. Most were shouting, but a few were just cowering in the fetal position, offering occasional whimpers of defeat.

Celestia forbid this town ever has a real emergency. Not that a giant bear was something to sneeze at, but at the same time it was just one creature, and given that Ponyville was so close to The Everfree Forest Twilight had assumed they had some contingency plans for this sort of thing.

“All right everypony!” she shouted, her vocal chords straining. The frenzy before her showed no signs of letting up. She sighed and sucked in another breath. “HEY, EVERYPONY, LISTEN UP!”

That time it worked. Amidst the flying debris of buildings and shrieking townsfolk, her message broke through the thick skulls of a good number of ponies. They jerked to a stop, putting their panic on hold.

As heads slowly swiveled in her direction, Twilight bit the inside of her cheek. “Okay, I’ve already put a plan into motion to drive the Ursa out of Ponyville, but I need all of you to start moving as far away from the edge of town as possible, got it?”

“Who even are you?” A random pony called out.

Twilight frowned. “Somepony who doesn’t want to die, now do what I say or just make it easy for the Ursa and walk right into his mouth.”

That did it. Everypony turned and ran toward Town Hall and the east section of Ponyville. As the flood of ponies ran past her she turned back around to check on the Ursa.

Only to see a giant steak floating in the middle of town.

Twilight blinked and rubbed her eyes. It was still there.

“What?” Maybe I needed to sleep more than I thought.

The Ursa had spotted it too, only it was much less confused than Twilight. It leapt forward, attempting to snap its jaws around the gravity-defying slab of meat, only to find that it levitated out of its grasp.

In the interstice between two buildings, Twilight spotted Trixie, her horn blazing a pink aura.

“That’s right Ursa, follow the steak!” she cried before vanishing behind another building. The steak followed, with the Ursa clamoring after it.

Oh right… illusions.

“Hey, Smart Mare, got the stuff.” Twilight turned, eyes falling upon Vinyl’s rolling turntables.

“Good, good. Are they ready to go?”

“Uh, well no. They kinda need to be plugged in to work, and there aren’t any outlets around.”

Twilight grinned. “Leave that to me, but first we need to catch up to the Ursa.”

“A’ight. Oh, and before I forget, here.” Vinyl tossed Twilight something. She reached out with her magic, catching it before it could whack her in the snout. As she got a better look in the low light, she realized they were the noise cancelling headphones Octavia had the other day.

She smiled. “Thanks Vinyl.”

“No prob. Well, minor prob; I didn’t really ask Tavi for permission to take them, so you may have a bit of explaining to do if she sees you wearing them.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Just push your equipment over to the Ursa.”

“Can do.” Vinyl lit up her own horn, enveloping the back half of her turntables in a blue glow. The wheels squeaked as she pushed forward, aiming for the edge of town. Twilight hurried after her.

As they approached Trixie and the Ursa, Twilight saw that the illusion-steak was on its last legs. It was already shimmering out of existence as Trixie’s magic buckled under the strain of performing the spell.

The Ursa looked rather disheveled as his meal faded from existence. Hungry and angry, it focused on Trixie, growling.

“Uh… heh, nice Ursa Major…” Trixie backed up, ears folding down. “G-good boy.”

Twilight put the headphones on, grabbed the tiny plug hooked up to the turntables, and ignited her horn. She poured every ounce of magic she had into the wiring and it blasted through the circuitry.

“Vinyl, now!” she cried.

Vinyl flipped her sound system on, and all but slammed the needle on the records. Twilight heard absolutely nothing, but her entire body vibrated as the air pulsated from the music. She saw Trixie fall to the ground, holding her ears, and the Ursa roar in agony.

It raised its massive paw, aiming for Vinyl. Twilight amped up the amount of magic she was already pouring into the system, and she felt her bones rattle as the sound increased in volume.

The Ursa shrieked in pain, and dropped its paw. It turned straight for the Everfree and took off running. Trees were brushed aside as it charged through, but Twilight didn’t release her spell until she could no longer see its head.

The instant her magic cut out, her body stopped shaking. She slowly removed the headphones and her ears opened up to the sound of Vinyl whooping and hollering. Suddenly she found the DJ wrapping her hooves around her.

“That was freaking amazing, Twilight!” Vinyl shouted. “Haha, seriously, you’ve gotta start coming to my gigs to help me reach that level again.”

“I’ll uh… I’ll pass,” Twilight said as the hug ended.

Vinyl sighed, but her smile didn’t leave. “Well, you can lead a pony to turn tables, but you can’t make her wub it.” She trotted over to Trixie, who was currently enjoying a faceful of dirt. “Need some help?”

“Trixie would appreciate it.”

“Back to talking in third pony, I see.” Vinyl bent down and lifted Trixie up.

“I— er, Trixie talks however she wants.” She dusted herself off, and looked away. “Thank you for saving Trixie’s life… she guesses.”

Vinyl grinned. “Welcome, but you should really thank Smart Mare over there.”

Trixie turned, nodding her head to Twilight. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Trixie offered a tight-lipped smile. “Trixie should probably go back and check her wagon to see if there were any damages to it.”

“Probably a good idea.” Vinyl waved goodbye as she walked off and then trotted over to Twilight. “See, I told you she had a heart of gold.”

“You never used those specific words to describe her.”

“Semantics.”

Twilight sighed. “Well, at the very least she did help get rid of the Ursa Minor.”

“Ursa Major.”

“No, just Minor. You could tell it was an infant because the star pattern wasn’t fully formed.”

Vinyl snickered. “Whatever, Smart Mare, it doesn’t matter.”

“Well, it matters to me.”

“Okay, okay, sorry. Oh and uh, thanks for saving the town, and junk.” Vinyl kicked the ground. “That was pretty cool and all.”

“You helped too, Vinyl, don’t count yourself out.” Twilight smiled, then yawned. “But now, I have some bad news.”

“What?”

“You’re going to have to carry me home.”

Vinyl pursed her lips in confusion, but didn’t have any time to respond. Twilight’s last vestige of wakefulness gave out, and her legs buckled as she slipped into unconsciousness. Vinyl caught her just before she hit the ground.

“Nice, Smart Mare. Real nice.”

Vinyl trudged through the door of the library, a snoring Twilight Sparkle in her forelegs. The lights were mostly out, save the one lamp in the middle of the room. Sitting in the chair next to it, was Spike, who hopped up when he heard the door open.

His eyes widened when he saw Twilight. “Oh my Celestia, what happened?”

“Chill man, she’s just sleepy is all. Let’s just get her to bed.”

Spike breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness.”

Spike grabbed one of Twilight’s forelegs, and Vinyl hoisted up the other. They slowly carried her up the stairs, her back hooves dragging the entire time.

“So, what exactly happened?” Spike asked.

“It’s a long story, pal. A long story that involves giant flying meat, and dubstep.”

“Huh?”

“Exactly.”

They reached Twilight’s room. Spike opened the door, and held out another claw, silently offering to carry Twilight the rest of the way.

“You sure, dude?” Vinyl asked.

“I’m pretty sure I can carry her all of two feet to her bed. Besides, I’m sure you have somewhere you need to be.”

“Well I did leave my stuff in the middle of town.” Vinyl paused, and then glanced to the door. “Probably should do something about that.”

“Okay, well, goodnight.”

“Night, Dragon Dude.” Vinyl trotted down the stairs.

As she descended, she noticed a bright light coming from the next set of stairs leading over to the basement. It was so bright she had to squint as she cleared the last few steps. Out of blunt curiosity, she looked down to see what was causing the light.

Near the bottom of the stairs, she saw a table that held the Elements of Harmony. Three of them were completely dim, and two more were sparkling. The last one was glowing in a brilliant display of light, which had reached its peak and begun to soften. When its light was far milder, it began sparkling in sync with the other two active Elements.

Vinyl shrugged and turned around. “Whatever.”

Interlude: Tea Party

Celestia slowly descended into the depths of the castle dungeons. Her hooves fell heavily on the stone steps, which were shrouded in inky shadows. Sparse torches lining the wall provided the only visible light, save the aura emanating from Celestia’s horn.

In her magical grasp, she carried three things: a teapot — the contents of which sloshed around inside with each step she took — and two teacups.

As she reached the last step, she saw two guards standing in front of a heavy steel door. They had been slouching slightly, but stood at attention when they saw her coming, their armor rattling at the sudden movement.

She nodded at them, not speaking a word as her magic quickly undid the dozen locks that bolted the heavy door shut. It slid open with a hissing creak and she walked through, letting it shut behind her.

The room she had just entered was small, mostly because it was cut in half by a series of iron bars. The side she had just entered was bare except for a single stool in the center. On the other side there was much more to look at.

Sitting towards the back wall was a dark, lanky figure with an ethereal mane. Chains from all sides of the wall wrapped around its body, most coming to rest on the neck and legs. Its horn held three inhibitor rings, each doubly protected by wards Celestia herself had cast on them. Its wings were bound in a straight jacket, and then sealed in again by steel that wrapped around its entire midsection.

Even with all these precautions, Celestia still felt a little anxious as she took the seat opposite of Nightmare Moon and set the tea set down.

“Hello, Celestia.” Nightmare slowly turned, causing dozens of chains to rattle.

“How did you know it was me?”

Nightmare Moon giggled sinisterly. “The dark forces under my command are far more potent than I’ve lead you to believe. Nothing happens in the entire city of Canterlot without me knowing of it.”

Celestia raised a dubious eyebrow. “Really?”

She scowled. “Yes.”

“Are you sure you didn’t just overhear the guards mention it?”

“Yes, I am entirely sure!” Nightmare shouted.

“Mmmhmm.” Celestia’s horn sparked to life and she started pouring two cups of tea. “So I’m sure those ‘dark forces’ of yours told you why I’m here.”

“Of course they did.” Nightmare glanced around the room for a moment. “But… uh, remind me really quick.”

“I was hoping we could talk over some tea.” She levitated one of the full teacups over, but Nightmare Moon only scoffed.

“Tea? Are you insane? I am the Night! The Night does not drink tea.”

Celestia looked to the ground and sighed. “You always used to love our little tea parties, Luna.”

Nightmare Moon went rigid, her slitted pupils shrinking. She shot forward, snarling, her chains catching her before she hit the edge of her cell. “That is not my name.”

Celestia frowned. “It still is… to me. Don’t you remember? We used to get the servants to make us those little blueberry muffins you liked and I would bring my stuffed bear Mr. Fluffles.”

Nightmare scoffed. “I only remember living in your shadow for eons!”

Celestia’s frown deepened. “We’d only been Princesses for ten years.”

“Semantics.” Nightmare Moon whipped her head indignantly. “Why don’t you tell me why you’re really here; this small talk is like grinding a cheese grater to my ears.”

Great, she’s already delving into figurative language. Celestia cleared her throat. “Well, you’ve been on my mind quite a bit lately.”

“I can’t imagine why.” Nightmare Moon grumbled.

“And when I was raising the moon today I—”

“You were touching my stuff?” The chains rattled as Nightmare Moon lunged at her, the chains jerking her to a stop. “Oh that is just like you! Of course you’d take the moon all for yourself after usurping me!”

She sighed choosing not to dignify that comment. “I realized we had yet to speak about, well… everything.” She levitated one of the teacups into the cell.

“And did it happen to cross you mind that, oh I don’t know, I DON’T WANT TO TALK TO YOU?” Nightmare Moon continued her struggle against the chains, baring her fangs.

Celestia chewed the inside of her cheek, a habit of hers that she had long considered broken but had recently taken up again. “Perhaps this was a mistake.”

“You think?” Nightmare Moon snorted. “Everything you’ve ever done is a mistake, Celestia. Trying to keep a shining star such as myself in your shadow for instance. Or taking in that limp-brained unicorn as your protege.” Celestia’s eyelid twitched as Nightmare laughed. “Though, I suppose her intelligence level matches your own. How else could she have screwed up so badly?”

Breathe Celestia. Just breathe. She shook with constrained anger, her voice struggling to remain level. “Leave Twilight out of this.”

“How can I? She’s the whole reason I’m still here. She was the kingpin of your millenia long scheme to ‘reform’ me, and she failed! Miserably! Oh, the shame you must feel.”

Celestia ground her teeth. “It was not her—” she bit the inside of her cheek, stopping short. “I failed her, not the other way around.”

“You both failed.” Nightmare coyly grinned as she crossed her forelegs, chains rattling.

“Maybe so, but unlike me Twilight might be making progress to fix that. I believe in her, and from her most recent correspondence I know she is on the right path to—”

Nightmare snickered. “Don’t act like you care about her, Celly dear. I saw how disappointed you were. Not like I could blame you either; how she managed to get the wrong Bearers is—” She broke off, devolving into a fit of laughter. “Mother of me, it was absolutely priceless.”

“Shut up.” The words escaped Celestia’s lips far more heated than she meant them to be.

“Oh my, don’t tell me I’ve made you angry.” Nightmare Moon giggled gleefully. Celestia flinched at how utterly Luna it sounded. The laughter faded however, taking the remnant of her sister with it.

Swallowing her anger, Celestia sighed. “Twilight made a mistake, but I do not hate her for it. Just like I don’t hate you for the mistakes you’ve made… Luna.”

Her laughter came to a grinding halt, her eyes boring into Celestia. If looks could kill, the Princess of the Sun would be dead, revived, cloned, and then be forced to watch all of her clones be killed before dying again.

Even so, Celestia didn’t even let her spine shiver with discomfort. She glanced hardly back at her sister — at whatever was left of her sister — undaunted.

“I have made no mistakes,” Nightmare Moon growled lowly.

Celestia’s eyes slowly glanced over the confinements of the room. “Are you sure about that?”

“I have made no mistakes,” she reiterated. She casually picked up the cup, swirling the tea inside as she spoke. “Everything I’ve done has only fueled my burning hatred for you. It has only made me stronger, and more certain than ever that I made the right choice to rebel. And when the time comes that I stand above your beaten, broken body, laughing at the horrors you’ve endured at my hooves, the ashes of your kingdom scattered beneath me, and the divine light of the moon glistening against my armor, you will know that I have made no mistakes.”

Her tirade finished, she took a sip of the tea, only to spit it back out in disgust. “Ack! Bleh! By Starswirl's gnarly beard this tastes awful! Did you make this yourself?”

“Yes,” Celestia admitted, setting her own cup down. “The Royal Tea Procurer had already gone to bed when I decided to visit and I did not wish to wake her, so I made the tea myself. Another one of my mistakes, I guess.”

“Oh Tartarus, there’s an aftertaste.” Nightmare Moon spat, trying in vain to save her taste buds.

A small smile managed to crease Celestia’s face. Some things never change.

“You will rue the day you fed me this wretched tea! I will destroy you!”

The smile faded as reality gave her a solid uppercut. “I doubt it. Twilight is on her way to fixing the Elements… somehow. She’ll save you, Luna, just wait and see.”

“I WILL BRING ABOUT ETERNAL NIGHT!”

Celestia sighed again as she stood from her chair. Nightmare Moon was delving back into another spiteful rant; there would be no talking with her after that.

“THE MOON SHALL REIGN SUPREME. ALL THE PEASANTS SHALL BOW DOWN TO ME AND ME ALONE!”

She’s really far gone, Celestia remarked as she collected the tea supplies and made her way to the exit. Twilight, whatever you’re doing, please do it quickly.

She shut the cell door, cutting off Nightmare Moon’s manic cackling.

The Baker

Twilight pushed open the doors to Bon Bon’s sweet shop and was delighted to find that it wasn’t nearly as crowded as it had been the last time she had visited. In fact, the shoulder-to-shoulder sandwiching of her last visit was the exact opposite of today’s crowd, or rather, lack thereof.

Blinking in mild confusion, Twilight briefly wondered if Bon Bon was closed for the day. The lights were on, the display case bursting with goods, but absolutely nopony was inside. No line stood between Twilight and the counter, no seats were filled, and even Bon Bon herself was missing.

Her stomach moaned, not caring at all for the mystery before her and instead demanding nourishment. Twilight patted it gently, then winced as she realized she’d put too much weight on her splinted hoof.

Gah, I can’t wait till I can take this stupid thing off, she thought in passing, her attention more towards figuring out what was going on.

“Hello?” she softly asked the empty room. Twilight frowned when there was no answer. She took a few steps in, letting the door shut behind her. “Bon Bon?”

Still nothing.

“Hmm.” Twilight walked up to the counter and looked over. Bon Bon wasn’t anywhere on the other side, but she did notice an open door near the back. Her ears perked up as a soft stirring noise hit them, originating from behind the door. “Bon Bon, are you there?”

After waiting a few seconds, Twilight sighed. Great, I guess I’ll just wait for her.

That plan didn’t last long, as Twilight’s stomach rumbled, reminding her of her mission: lunch.

Deciding that she needed to find her acquaintance as soon as possible, Twilight looked for a way to get over the counter. She spotted a gap with only a tiny door obstructing her way in. She would have scoffed at the measly challenge if offered, but her eyes fell upon the two painted words marking the door: EMPLOYEES ONLY.

Darn it. Twilight huffed, now bound by her personal honor code to follow the rules and not cross the counter.

Her stomach however, did not have those restrictions and was confused why she wasn’t spending every waking second trying to fill it with food, so it did the only thing it could do in this situation: moan like a beached whale.

It only took twenty seconds of continuous rumbling before Twilight was annoyed.

“Bon Bon, seriously, come out already!”

The repetitive stirring noise only persisted. In fact, it seemed to be growing louder, as if Bon Bon was intentionally trying to drown out all other noise.

Twilight huffed again, irritated. She glanced back over at the sign, then towards the door in the back.

“Bon Bon?” she tried one last time. Nothing.

Twilight approached the interstice in the counter, her moral code cracking slightly from the hunger. She sighed. So much for the sanctity of signs.

Brushing through, Twilight felt a twinge of guilt, but it was battered away by the empty feeling in her stomach. She walked to the open door, and peaked through.

Inside was a maelstrom of baked disaster. Twilight’s jaw hit the floor as she took it all in, the cake batter-stained walls and ceiling, the eggshells scattered across the floor, and the unhealthy coating of flour that made the room almost too white to look at.

In her moment of shocked short-circuitry, Twilight saw Bon Bon standing in the back of the room. At least, she thought it was Bon Bon. Through the batter and flour coating nearly every inch of her, it was hard to tell.

She was bent over a mixing bowl, her fetlocks whipping back and forth as she tore a whisk through some batter. Splotches of the mix flew out of the bowl, landing on her coat and the floor below.

Shaking her head, Twilight recovered and took a step in. “Bon Bon?”

The whisk scraped against the sides of the mixing bowl, its owner not even turning around.

Twilight exhaled slowly. This is getting ridiculous.

She trotted over to Bon Bon, leaving hoofprints in the flour below. As she came side-to-side with her acquaintance, her horn sparked to life. She gave Bon Bon a brief moment of pause, hoping she would notice her. Wayward batter ended up hitting her in the face.

Groaning internally, Twilight wrapped the whisk and bowl in a purple aura, and yanked them from Bon Bon’s grasp.

“What? Wait!” Bon Bon reached up to reach her baking equipment, but they danced out of range. Forced back to reality, Bon Bon caught sight of Twilight a few inches away, and flinched.

“Good morning, Bon Bon,” Twilight said, keeping her voice level.

“Uh… morning?” Bon Bon’s mouth hung open, and her pupils shrunk. “It’s… morning?”

“Yes.” Twilight narrowed her eyes. Was she up all night? Doing what? A quick glance around the room gave her the answer.

“I… guess I didn’t go to sleep. To busy, I guess.” Bon Bon chuckled slightly. “It’s weird, I thought that was your thing.”

“Me too.” Twilight pressed her lips together in thought.

“Well I can tell at least one of us had a good night sleep,” Bon Bon remarked, glancing over Twilight.

“How’d you know?”

She giggled. “There are only three layers of bags under your eyes instead of four.”

“Ha ha.” Twilight didn’t break eye contact. “What were you baking, Bon Bon?”

“Hm?” She tried playing innocent, but half of her lip was already in her mouth. Dead giveaway.

“Was it something important? Like, a really big order?”

“No, it’s—” she turned to the counter, and blinked when her baking supplies wasn’t there. She glanced up and back to Twilight. “Can you stop holding my stuff hostage?”

“Oh, right… sorry.” Twilight set the bowl and whisk down before flicking her horn off.

Satisfied, Bon Bon folded her ears down and turned back to the counter. “Anyways it’s… no, it’s just stupid.”

Twilight’s eyes darted to the left, the hole in her stomach growing. She wasn’t desperate enough to lick the cake batter from the walls, but the fact that she considered it an option was disconcerting. “Okay… well, if that’s out of the way—”

“It’s just,” Bon Bon cut her off. Twilight groaned internally, but watched as Bon Bon retrieved a book from the counter that had been camouflaged under a layer of flour. “I found a recipe for a really complicated cake in this book I borrowed from the library, and I’ve kind of fixated on trying to bake it.”

A… cake? That’s it? She almost spat the words out, but caught them when she realized how insensitive it probably would sound. “Uh, that’s… nice?”

“Not really,” Bon Bon mumbled glumly, tossing the book off to the side. Before Twilight could even raise her eyebrow, a smile whipped onto Bon Bon’s face. “So, what brings you to my bakery?”

Twilight pressed her lips together, but decided to let the subject drop, for now. “Breakfast,” she answered, smiling slightly. “Spike refused to let me get to work until I had something to eat.”

“Well let’s take care of that then, shall we?” She nodded her head toward the door, causing some batter clinging to her hair to fall onto the floor.

Twilight glanced over Bon Bon. Her coat looked ghostly pale from all of the flour, and her hair looked peppered with snow. The splotches of batter didn’t really help the matter either. Twilight giggled at the sight. “You sure you don’t want to get cleaned up really quick?”

“Hm?” Bon Bon looked down, just now taking notice of the mess she was. Her eyes drifted, observing the room around her as well, her pupils dilating. “Huh… I guess this got a tiny bit out of hoof.”

“Yeah. I’ll just wait outside for you to get cleaned up.” Bon Bon nodded, and Twilight backed out, rounding the corner of the door. She exited from behind the counter, the not-so-distant sound of a faucet turning on following her. As she took a seat on a nearby stool, she heard water begin splashing.

Twilight surveyed the room, noticing it was still bare of customers. “Hey,” she called back. “Where is everypony?”

“Probably starting to rebuild after the whole Ursa attack,” Bon Bon answered over the sound of running water. “I heard it happening before I started baking last night; it sounded pretty bad.”

“That makes sense.” Twilight recalled the havoc it had left in its wake. Thankfully it could have been much worse, but even so a good four or five houses were completely demolished, and a few others were damaged. “You know, even with everypony else gone, I kinda expected Lyra to be here.” I was hoping to hear her play a little, at least.

Bon Bon shut the faucet and wandered into view. She wasn’t… clean, but she was about as presentable as she could get after a few seconds with a sink. “Oh, Lyra? Octavia’s probably dragged her to Music-ade practice… again.”

Twilight’s ears flicked. So, they’re really doing it then. “Oh, that’s nice.”

“Not for Lyra. Poor filly’s more nervous than I’ve ever seen her, even with weeks to go. But it will be good for her to perform a little. Thanks for getting her to open up some.”

“No problem. Maybe I’ll stop by wherever they’re practicing and listen in while I eat.” She looked over the display case, hoof tapping her chin as she decided what to get. “Two raspberry tarts, please.”

“Sure thing.” Bon Bon grabbed a napkin and reached into the case.

“So, uh, what was that cake you were trying to make?” Twilight asked.

“It’s called the Marzipan Mascarpone Meringue Madness,” Bon Bon said, wrapping the napkin around the tarts. “The book said it was one of the most complicated recipes ever, and that only a master baker could ever hope to complete it.” Her jaw clenched visibly. “But I’ll prove it wrong.”

Knitting her eyebrows together, Twilight cocked her head to the side. “What?”

With a blink, Bon Bon’s demeanor changed again. A smile wiggled onto her face and she held out the tarts. “Nothing. Four bits please.”

Twilight narrowed her eyes. Right… Four bits fell on the counter and she scooped up the tarts with her magic. “Well, thanks.”

“No problem. Oh, and I think Lyra and Octavia are practicing at Town Hall today, if you still wanted to listen in.”

“Thanks again.” With a smile Twilight moved to leave.

“Wish her good luck for me,” Bon Bon asked.

“Will do,” Twilight shot back. Trotting toward the door she paused and glanced back, just in time to see the swish of Bon Bon’s tail as it disappeared behind into her kitchen, shutting the door behind her..

“Hm…” Twilight felt like she should go back and make sure Bon Bon wouldn’t get too carried away again. She almost did, too. Unfortunately, the combination of her rumbling stomach and her own need to work outweighed her concern. She pushed the door back open and walked out.

One of Twilight’s raspberry tarts did not survive her journey to Town Hall. A persistent need to eat had been its downfall, but luckily her self-control had left her with one to nibble away at while she listened.

Town Hall looked really dull without any of the decorations from the Summer Sun Celebration, all of the bright, colorful streamers and ribbons had long been replaced by old, brown walls. Her observation brought back a slew of memories from the previous week, none of which she particularly wanted to recall.

In the center of the main room, several ponies had gathered with stringed instruments of varying sizes. The ponies toting said instruments were slowly getting comfortable in their seats, which arched around the room.

Twilight all but hugged the wall, trying to be as little of an interruption as possible. Her eyes diligently scanned for the few faces she would recognize: Octavia and Lyra.

Octavia was easy to spot, actually. She was one of the few ponies standing against an instrument larger than themselves. Towards the end of one of the seating rows, Twilight saw her fiddling with the knobs atop her instrument. For a moment, their eyes met and Octavia nodded a hello to her, which Twilight didn’t hesitate to return.

Lyra was another matter entirely. After a few minutes, and several bites of raspberry tart, Twilight caught sight of her in the middle row surrounded by chatting ponies. Her head was lowered, her pupils shrunk and her lyre pressed firmly against her body.

She’s not looking too good, Twilight noted. The anxiety of playing in front of so many was likely already getting to her.

Eventually, Octavia broke away from her cello and addressed the group. “All right, everypony, listen up.” Silence descended upon the group and even Lyra looked up. “I hope you all are ready; we have quite a number of songs to perfect today. We’ll start with The Ballad of the Three Tribes, so everypony get ready and follow my lead.”

A ripple went through the orchestra as ponies adjusted themselves. Most sat up in their seats, instruments at the ready. Even Lyra managed to bring her lyre into playing position.

There was a pause and Octavia raised her bow. It gently slid across the strings of her cello, producing a deep, low note. The rest of the orchestra gradually joined in, the song gaining depth and spirit with each addition.

Twilight smiled as the music washed over her, nibbling away at what remained of her breakfast. Her eyes drifted over to Lyra, curious how she was handling everything. A faint frown formed on her face when Twilight realized Lyra had yet to lift a hoof to play so much as a single note.

She just sat with her ears folded down, a tight-lipped frown on her face, unable to muster up the courage to play.

The song died down, and another came and went. Still Lyra refused to even move. Twilight grew a little impatient, having polished off the last of her tart a while back.

As the song ended, the fading echoes still reverberating through the room, Octavia set her bow down, glancing at Lyra.

“All right, everypony, let’s take a short break for now.”

A collective sigh of relief came from the ponies of the orchestra and they quickly took advantage of the time. Instruments were set to rest in their cases while their owners got up and stretched. Most walked about, forming tight circles to talk in, or beelining for the bathroom. Lyra stayed put.

As if reading each other’s minds, Octavia and Twilight walked over to her. Lyra looked up, taking notice of their approach.

“Everything all right, Lyra?” Octavia inquired.

“What? No, everything’s fine. Dandy. Hunky-dory.” Lyra forced out a smile. “Peachy, even.”

Octavia pursed her lips; no amount of synonyms was going to convince her that Lyra was doing okay. “You, uh, do know that you missed a lot of your cues, right?”

The smile dropped. “Yeah…”

Twilight frowned slightly. “Still too afraid to play in public?”

“I’m not afraid!” Lyra snapped. “I just… I could do without so many ponies being here is all.”

Octavia sighed, but gave Lyra a well-meaning nudge. “Well, at least you had a little progress today.”

Twilight cocked her head. Not playing anything is… progress?

Lyra gave a short laugh. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

“Interesting...” Twilight mumbled under her breath. “Oh, and Lyra, Bon Bon wanted me to wish you good luck.”

A smile etched it's way onto her lips. “Oh, thanks. Kinda surprised she didn’t want to say it to me in person though.”

“She’s just busy baking. I’m sure she’d be here if that wasn’t the case,” Twilight assured her.

“Must be a huge order.”

“Nah, she’s just been spending all her time on this one cake.” Twilight waved off the thought. “Anyway, about your ly—”

“Bon Bon’s doing what?” Lyra shot up, grabbing Twilight’s shoulders.

“Uh… she’s just baking a cake. She even spent the whole night working on it. Why?”

Lyra’s pupils shrunk. “Oh no, not again!” She grabbed her lyre and pushed her way past Twilight. “Octavia, I’m sorry, but I have to go!”

“Wait, what?” Octavia shot Twilight a glance, who responded with a confused shrug of her shoulders. Unsatisfied, Octavia took off after her. “Lyra, wait!”

Twilight groaned internally, forcing her legs into a gallop. Whatever was going on, she knew it was going to be a hinderance to her research. Keeping that in the front of her mind, she followed after Octavia anyway, fueled by curiosity alone.

They managed to catch up to Lyra, who was practically flying through the streets of Ponyville. Her jaw was clenched with determination, and a hard, worried look was in her eye.

“Lyra, wait a second,” Octavia demanded.

“I can’t. Bon Bon, she…” Lyra faced the road in front of them, narrowing her eyes.

Twilight groaned internally with frustration. Lyra was starting to gain distance from them and given her lack of any physical exercise Twilight knew she wouldn’t be able to catch up. In fact, the already burning feeling spreading through her splinted hoof suggested she wouldn’t even be able to keep running for much longer.

Racking her brain for ideas, Twilight suddenly felt a light bulb go off in her head.

Well, I was looking for an opportunity to test this out.

Her horn sparked to life. Within seconds it flooded with magical energy, shining brightly even against the light of the sun. Her features scrunched together as she concentrated, but at the very last second Twilight cracked open a single eye to determine the spot where she’d land. A grassy patch against the horizon appeared to be the safest distance.

She shut her eye, and every neuron in her brain fired at once. Her magic exploded from her horn and the spell was cast.

An instant later, she was standing still, despite being in mid-run earlier. Her horn ached from the strain of the spell, but every muscle in her body felt relief. Opening her eyes, she saw that she was standing in the very spot she had selected a moment ago. Joy zapped through her.

I did it! I successfully teleported!

Then Lyra crashed into her.

The force of the impact knocked the breath out of Twilight, but that was the least of her worries. She and Lyra toppled to the ground, rolling over in a somersault of pain a few times before flopping onto the grass in a battered heap.

Twilight groaned as she felt Lyra suddenly disentangle and get back up. Luckily Octavia caught up and blocked her path before she could take off running.

“Will you slow down for just a second!” Octavia demanded.

“I can’t, Bon Bon... she has to be stopped.”

“What are you talking about?” Twilight groaned, grass rubbing against her cheek.

Lyra bit her lip, her good nature getting the better of her as she reached down to help Twilight up. “Look, I don’t have time to stand around and explain it all to you two, I have to stop Bon Bon.”

“From what? Baking?”

“Yes!” Lyra cried, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Octavia and Twilight shared a look.

“I’m serious! You guys just don’t understand.”

“Then tell us,” Twilight said.

“But—”

“We can walk and talk, Lyra,” Octavia assured her. “Just tell us what’s going on.”

Lyra’s eyes darted between the two. Eventually, she bowed her head in defeat, knowing her options were limited.

They made an opening for her to walk through while they stuck to her sides. Lyra swallowed and paused. She seemed reluctant to talk about the issue, likely because it was personal.

“It’s kind of a long story. When Bon Bon first got her Cutie Mark, it was sort of a bittersweet moment. She loved baking sweets and making candy, but at the same time her family was really poor. They couldn’t afford to send her to a culinary school, and she was too young at the time to become somepony’s apprentice.”

“So, what did she do?” Octavia asked.

“She taught herself. Everything she can do now was through hours of trial and error. She tore through borrowed textbooks, saved every bit she could to buy supplies, and basically turned her room into a cooking studio.”

Twilight lips hummed with the flavor of the raspberry tart. “That’s… incredible. She got that good without any formal schooling?”

“She’s remarkable,” Octavia remarked.

Lyra smiled fondly. “Yeah, she did. But… no matter how much I tell her that, she never believes it. No matter what anypony tells her she won’t believe it. In her eyes she’s not as good as somepony who got a formal education on the stuff. She… she feels she has to prove herself, so whenever she comes across a recipe that she’s never heard of…”

“She throws herself into trying to make it,” Twilight realized, thinking back to what Bon Bon said.

“The book said it was one of the most complicated recipes ever, and that only a master baker could ever hope to complete it, but I’ll prove it wrong.”

Lyra nodded as Octavia eyes grew wide. “Bon Bon goes crazy trying to get the recipe right, even secluding herself in the kitchen for days. She doesn’t eat, she doesn’t sleep, she just… loses herself by trying too hard.” Lyra shot Twilight a glance. “She’s kinda like you, but with more cake.”

Twilight couldn’t help but lower her eyelids at that remark. Surely she wasn’t that crazy.

Right?

“So that’s why you were so frantic to stop her,” Octavia said.

Lyra nodded. “Now can we pick up the pace?”

Octavia frowned. “I don’t know. If Bon Bon really is like Twilight in this regard, we may need some assistance.”

Oh come on! Twilight fumed internally. Am I really that bad?

Lyra huffed. “Octavia, we have to hurry! We can’t waste time trying to get some other ponies to help. Besides, it’s not like somepony who can help us is just going to interrupt me mid-sen—”

“And that’s when the Ursa started rampaging through the town, and let me tell you Derpy, that thing was like twenty stories tall.”

The three of them whipped their heads in direction of the voice, only to catch an eyeful of an electric blue mane. Vinyl, Trixie and Derpy were standing off to the side and judging by the big gestures Vinyl was making, they seemed to be recounting the events of last night.

“Wow!” Derpy grinned excitedly, flapping her one good wing. She turned to Trixie. “Is that true?”

With a proud nod, she cleared her throat. “The Great and Powerful Trixie can indeed confirm this to be true. And if it weren’t for her quick thinking and heroism, the beast would have delivered much more damage to Ponyville.”

“Wow… I can’t believe I slept through all of that. I miss the coolest stuff.”

“You can’t be serious,” Lyra grumbled to herself.

“I’m with Lyra on this one,” Twilight said.

“Vinyl, Derpy,” Octavia called out as she walked over, getting their heads to turn.

“‘Sup Tavi?”

“Hey girls!”

“I’m afraid there isn’t much time to socialize,” Octavia told them. “We need your assistance.”

As Lyra trotted up to explain the situation, Trixie saw Twilight and walked towards her.

“What are you still doing in town?” Twilight asked her.

Trixie tossed her head back, whipping her hair with it. “Is it wrong for Trixie to want to bask in the glory of her fans for a little while?”

Twilight lowered her eyelids.

“My cart was broken in the Ursa attack,” Trixie admitted with a sigh.

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“It’s no big deal. All the Ursa’s stomping just made the axles pop out of the wheels; it’s an easy fix.” Trixie puffed her chest out and stood tall. “So, erhem, The Great and Powerful Trixie shall take her time in Ponyville, and if she happens to be heralded as a savior it is no skin off her bones.”

Twilight smiled and shook her head slightly. “Well, I guess that shouldn’t be a problem.”

Trixie turned back to the group, eyebrow raised. “She is curious though, what is with this gathering of your plebeian friends?”

“Friends? Oh, no, we’re just acquaintances.”

“Could’ve fooled Trixie.”

“Whatever. And we’re just here because another one of my acquaintances needs some help.” Twilight looked away, letting her attention focus back to the other girls.

Lyra was just finishing retelling Bon Bon’s story. “So, will you help us?”

Vinyl nodded. “Yeah, sure.”

“Absolutely.”

“Great, but we have to go now. We’ve already wasted too much time just standing around.”

“Why didn’t you walk and talk then?” Derpy asked.

Lyra groaned. “Let’s just hurry, okay?”

Twilight waved goodbye to Trixie as they headed off. Lyra took the lead, turning their once brisk walk into a canter. Twilight fell behind quickly, not wanting to put any more strain on her injury. Luckily they were near enough to Bon Bon’s shop that she didn’t get left in the dust.

When they arrived, Lyra threw open the door, greeted by the stark emptiness inside.

“Bon Bon?” Lyra called out, head swiveling around.

“She’s in the back,” Twilight told her when she caught up.

Lyra nodded and trotted over, hopping the counter. Everypony else followed, though the only one opting to hop the counter like Lyra was Vinyl.

The door to the kitchen was still closed and as Lyra approached it she wrapped the doorknob in a golden aura and turned. It didn’t budge.

“She locked it,” Lyra grimly noted. She beat her hooves against the door. “Bon Bon, are you in there?”

After a beat they heard a muffled noise from inside. “Hey Lyra, I’m a little busy right now. Can you come back later?”

Lyra’s lip tightened and she pounded on the door some more. “Bon Bon, get out here!”

“Can’t Lyra. Like I said, busy busy busy!” Through the door they could hear the beating of the whisk against the bowl. “I still have at least three layers to go.”

Lyra bit her lip this time. “Bon Bon I’m serious, get out here right now!” She grabbed the door knob with her hooves and turned, only to get the frustrating click of locked tumblers.

“This is going nowhere fast,” Vinyl remarked.

Octavia nodded. “We need a way to get her out.”

Derpy tapped her chin. “Bon Bon, your shop’s on fire!” she suddenly shouted.

“That’s nice, Lyra,” was her hasty reply.

Vinyl snickered while Derpy blinked in confusion. “Uh…”

“Yeah, that won’t work, trust me,” Lyra told them. “We have to get her away from the kitchen, otherwise she’ll just shrug off whatever we say.”

“Really?” Vinyl asked. She turned to the door. “Bon Bon, a bunch of Saddle Arabian swimsuit models are here to make out with you!”

“I said I’m busy, Lyra.”

Vinyl snickered. “Hey Bon Bon, there’s a bugbear attacking Ponyville.”

“Sorry Lyra, baking up a storm in here.”

“Hey Bon Bon—”

“Stop that!” Lyra cut her off. “This is serious.”

“Sorry.”

Lyra banged on the door again, her magic ripping at the lock. “We have to — er — find a way in!”

Octavia pursed her lips in thought. “Could one of you pick the lock with your magic?”

Twilight frowned. “I don’t even think I could do it. It requires too much precision on small objects that aren’t visible.”

“We could just blast it down right?” Vinyl offered, her horn igniting. “Or rip it off its hinges.”

“Let’s save property damage for a last resort,” Lyra recommended. “I want Bonnie out of there, but I don’t want to wreck her shop in the process.”

Vinyl rolled her eyes, horn dimming. “Ergh, fine. But unless you can teleport I don’t see you getting in there otherwise.”

Lyra’s eyes widened and she turned to Twilight. “I can’t teleport, but you can!”

Twilight’s eyes widened. “Me?”

Octavia’s face brightened. “That’s right, you were able to teleport when we were chasing Lyra!”

“Well, yeah, it’s a spell I’ve been studying for a few months before coming to Ponyville, but aside from today I haven’t practiced it a lot. Earlier was just a ‘heat of the moment’ kind of thing.” Twilight bit her lip.

“Come on, Twilight, please?” Lyra shot the widest eyes she could her way. “We really need your help.”

A groan nearly escaped her lips. Twilight mentally backpedalled and chose a more suitable response. “I… guess I could try.”

“Thank you.” Lyra gave her a sudden squeeze around the neck before backing up to give her space. Everypony else followed suit.

Twilight took a deep breath as she began building up magic in her horn. Much like her last attempt, she had to pour a good chunk of her power to kickstart the spell, but like most magic it would get easier with time. Unlike her last attempt, however, she had more time to chose where she’d end up. Since she couldn’t see where she was going, she didn’t want to run the risk of teleporting into Bon Bon. Celestia knew that room was already messy enough without that to deal with.

Taking a deep breath, she decided to just put herself as close to the door as possible, doubting Bon Bon would be anywhere near it. Her features compressed as she cast the spell, feeling her brain light up like a firecracker. An instant later she was on the other side of the door.

A sigh escaped her, and her knees wobbled. Teleporting alone took a good deal of energy, and to use it twice in one day wasn’t exactly doing her any favors.

As she steadied herself, she looked around. Bon Bon was in nearly the same position she’d been when Twilight had last been here, though her surroundings had changed. On the counter near the oven, a fresh layer of cake sat on a cooling rack, with three buttresses sticking into the air, likely to support the next layer. There were a few more cakes, but they were broken and stained as they rested in the trashcan. Aside from the ever present flour and batter stains, some whipped cream and icing had joined them.

Twilight surveyed the partially formed cake on the counter. That must be her newest attempt at the Marzipan Mascarpone… thing.

“Twilight, did you get in?” Lyra’s voice called to her.

She turned back to the door. “Yeah, I’m in.”

“Can you unlock from where you are?”

Twilight looked down and saw a slot in the door knob. “No, it needs a key.”

“Dang it.” Twilight could almost hear Lyra’s frown. “Well, just do your best to talk to her, okay? Maybe you can convince her to stop.”

Twilight bit her lip. “I… I’ll do my best.”

“Thanks.”

“We got total confidence in you, Smart Mare,” Vinyl called out. “But… on a completely unrelated note, if you happen to find that key don’t hesitate to unlock the door, okay?”

Twilight groaned. Thanks for the pep talk, Vinyl.

She chose not to dignify the “completely unrelated note” with a response, and turned back to Bon Bon. The mare was pouring some batter in a pan while she simultaneously flicked the oven door open.

Twilight took a deep breath of preparation before trotting over. As Bon Bon gently slid the unbaked concoction into her oven Twilight tapped her shoulder.

Bon Bon went stiff.

“Uh… hi,” Twilight said slowly.

Bon Bon flipped the oven door closed and turned around, her face neutral. “Hey, Twilight. I really don’t have time to chat at the moment. If you want more raspberry tarts then just take them and leave the money on the counter, okay?”

“What?” Twilight blinked. “No, Bon Bon, you’ve gotta stop baking for a moment."

“Can’t.” Bon Bon was on the move, returning to a flour-coated counter with a mixing bowl resting on top. “I have about twenty-six minutes before the next layer is ready, and I need to have another one prepped to go in the oven when it comes out.”

Twilight moved with her. “Bon Bon, you can’t stay fixated on this one recipe.”

“Fixated?” She giggled. “Oh, that’s cute, Twilight. I’m not fixated on the Marzipan Mascarpone Meringue Madness.” She cracked an egg against the mixing bowl and spilled the yolk inside, her tone sharpening. “I’m just focusing one hundred and ten percent of my attention, time, and resources into perfecting it.”

Her eyelids lowered. “That is fixating, Bon Bon. Actually, that might be obsessing.”

“So?” Another egg split open over the bowl. “It’s no different than what you’re doing with the Elements.”

“No, it is different!” Twilight stamped her hoof, fed up with her acquaintances not respecting her work. “What I’m doing is actually important—”

They both froze. Twilight bit her tongue, realizing how awful that sounded. Bon Bon put down the eggshells she was holding.

“I’m sorry,” Twilight began. “That’s not what I mea—”

She froze again as a sniffle escaped Bon Bon. It was ragged and soft, but definitely a sniffle.

Twilight was taken aback, having braced herself for rage, not dismay. “Bon Bon…”

“You don’t understand, Twilight.” Bon Bon’s voice was strangled as she suppressed further sniffling. “This is important, to me.”

Twilight winced. “Again, I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking when I said… Look, Lyra told me about what it was like for you growing up and I know it must’ve been hard, but—”

“Yeah, it was hard.” Bon Bon turned around, tears welling up in her eyes. “Do you have any idea how hard though? I couldn’t find work when I first started out; nopony wanted to hire me because I was self-taught. I had to build my own shop from the ground up and fight tooth and nail to earn my customers' respect.” Her eyes darted over to her trashcan, which overflowed with her past failed attempts. “And if I can’t even make one stupid cake right… then what was the point of everything I went through? I’m just a failure.”

She pushed her mixing bowl away, falling to the floor in defeat.

Twilight was speechless. Even with all the experience she’d accrued lately that involved dealing with her acquaintances problems, she had no idea what to say to make Bon Bon feel better. She mentally flipped through a rolodex of things to say in her mind, but none of them seemed appropriate.

Eventually a sob escaped Bon Bon and Twilight knew she had to say something. Taking a seat next to her on the flour-covered floor, she took a deep breath.

“I… I know it’s not easy, Bon Bon. Putting so much time and effort into something and not thinking you’re getting anywhere is… almost heartbreaking. But you are getting somewhere.”

Bon Bon glanced up, prodding Twilight to continue.

“I had no idea you were self-taught until Lyra told me, and if she hadn’t then I never would have guessed. Your pastries rival ones that I’ve eaten in Canterlot and what’s more you did it all by yourself. You’re not a failure, Bon Bon, you’re amazing. You don’t need to be able to bake a Marzipan Mascarpone Meringue Madness to prove it, okay?”

Bon Bon sniffled again, but it was much softer this time. The dam that had been holding back her tears had yet to burst, luckily. “You… you really think so?”

“I know so. Besides, it’s not healthy to obsess over something this much.” Twilight blinked. “It’s… huh…”

Bon Bon rubbed her eye, her next intake of breath failing to send sobs throughout her body. “T-thanks Twilight. Nopony’s ever really said something like that to me before, besides Lyra.”

“Yeah? Well, you’re welcome.” Twilight pushed herself up and offered a hoof to Bon Bon, who gratefully took it. “What do you say we let the other girls in, huh? They’ve been pretty worried about you.”

She nodded. “Sure…” Trotting over to a nearby drawer, Bon Bon removed a key from inside and proceeded to shove it in the door. After a brief turn, it flew open as four ponies toppled through. Bon Bon narrowly avoided getting crushed as Lyra, Vinyl, Derpy, and Octavia formed a pile on the floor.

As they groaned and disentangled themselves, Bon Bon tilted her head. “Uh…”

Derpy gave a sheepish grin. “We were listening in the whole time.”

“You weren’t supposed to tell her that,” Vinyl grumbled.

“Sorry.”

Lyra made it off the floor first, a good deal of flour and cake batter clinging to her coat. “Are you… going to be all right?”

Bon Bon offered her a smile. “Yeah. Sorry for losing my marbles for a while.”

“I’m just glad you didn’t threaten anypony with a frying pan this time around.”

Twilight furrowed her brows. “You did that?”

An embarrassed tint of red grew on Bon Bon’s face. “Kinda…”

“A frying pan though?” Vinyl narrowed her eyes with confusion.

“Hey, they’re dangerous weapons in the right hooves,” Bon Bon defensively replied.

“Whatever.”

Lyra and Bon Bon shared an eyeroll.

“So what are you going to do now?” Derpy asked.

Bon Bon raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

Derpy shrugged. “Well it’s just that… you kinda have half a cake already. Are you just going to stop making it or something?”

“Derpy.” Lyra’s tone was a stern warning not to continue.

Bon Bon chewed the inside of her cheek. Her eyes darted back over to the half-formed cake. The oven hummed slightly as it cooked the next layer.

“Well, I suppose I have to make one last attempt to finish it then.”

“Bon Bon.” Lyra’s tone had increased in intensity.

A smile flashed on her face. “But… I’d like it if your girls stuck around to help.” There was a pause. “What do you say, want to give it a go with me?”

Another pause.

“Whelp,” Vinyl clapped her hooves together. “I’m in.”

Derpy nodded. “I could go for some cake.”

Lyra frowned. “I don’t know. Bonnie, I’m worried you might get sucked back into this.”

“All the more reason for you to stick around then, Lyra.” Bon Bon nudged her friend. “You’ll just have to keep me out of trouble.”

“I still don’t know.”

Octavia gave a sly grin. “Well, we could always go back to orchestra practice if you want.”

Lyra’s eye bulged and she rushed over to the mixing bowl, grabbing the whisk. “Hey, what are we standing around for? We’ve got a cake to bake!”

Bon Bon turned to Twilight, asking a silent question.

“Uh… I don’t know.” Twilight retreated toward the door. “I mean, I still have a lot of research to do and—” She was interrupted by the disappointed look looming over Bon Bon’s face. A quick glance around and she saw four identical looks. Suddenly, she recalled her own words from earlier.

It’s not healthy to obsess over something this much.

“Actually,” she amended, catching everypony’s attention. “I suppose it couldn’t hurt to stay for a while.”

“Really?” Bon Bon’s smile returned in full force.

“Yeah, who knows? It could even be fun.”

“Well then what are we waiting for?” Bon Bon grabbed her hoof and pulled her toward the emerging chaos of everypony getting started. “We’ve got work to do.”

An hour later Twilight, Lyra, and Vinyl were executing a three-way levitation spell on the final layer of the Marzipan Mascarpone Meringue Madness.

“All right, a little to the left,” Bon Bon told them.

“My left or Twilight’s left?” Lyra asked as the cake descended.

“No, my left,” Vinyl clarified, dragging it to her right. Twilight was barely able to keep her third in sync, and nearly split the layer in half by accident. She began tugging slightly in her direction to try and rectify the problem.

“Careful!” Octavia reprimanded as she ducked. Her teeth squeezed too hard on the tube of icing she was holding, sending a line of glaze into Derpy’s face.

“Hey!” Derpy fell back, the chopped fruit she was holding sailed through the air. “Oh…”

Bon Bon flailed her hooves. “There! Set it down now!”

Vinyl dropped her portion immediately, causing Lyra and Twilight to feel the resulting flop. They both brought their ends down slower, just as a series of sliced strawberries and peaches fell on top of it. Derpy breathed a sigh of relief that the flung fruit hadn't caused a fire or broken a window and Bon Bon finished the last of the icing with a flourish.

Everypony took a collective step back to admire their work.

Actually… admire was too strong a word.

Twilight winced slightly as she saw the sight before her. The cake was by far one of the worst she’d ever seen. It was stacked limply and titled on its side. Globs of icing sporadically placed around each of the three layers couldn’t even cover most of the cracks in the baked part. The fruit at the top was scattered and random, though surprisingly the most pleasant part to look at. It was a good reflection of the baking talent of five of its six chefs.

“Well Bon Bon,” Lyra said, her worried tone implying she’d reached the same conclusion as Twilight. “Uh… what do you think?”

“Girls…” Bon Bon smiled, looking over all of them and then back to the cake. “It’s perfect.”

“But it sucks,” Vinyl aptly observed. A glob of icing rolled off the side and hit the counter top.

Bon Bon giggled. “Yeah… but, we all worked on it together, and that’s what makes this cake special. Way more special than it would have been if I’d just made it myself. That’s why it’s perfect.” She nudged Twilight. “And thanks by the way for sticking around. It meant a lot.”

Twilight sighed with content as everypony around her smiled. She allowed herself a rare moment of relaxation. All of her stress melted away and she simply took the opportunity to not care about all her troubles for a while. Heck, another one of the Elements of Harmony may have just sparked to life and she couldn’t care less.

“So,” Vinyl pondered. “Are we going to have to eat this thing or... what?”

The Cellist

Her bow ran along the strings of the cello, eliciting a low melody that rumbled in harmony with the ones that surrounded her.

Octavia’s ears flicked as she honed in on the sounds around her. As the head of Music-ade’s orchestra float, she had to make sure that the ponies surrounding her would be ready. They were down to just twelve days to prepare before they needed to be on one of the headlining floats.

The music around her would seem fine to an untrained ear, but Octavia was too much of a perfectionist to let that slide. Just from a few seconds of listening she could tell that half of the violinists were a note behind, while the other half had somehow gotten the brilliant idea to play an F flat as opposed to an F sharp. Most of the other instruments were doing fine, they just lacked a certain luster that would catapult them from ‘good enough’ to ‘excellent’.

And as for the lyrist…

Octavia couldn’t contain a sigh.

Lyra had made some progress to be honest. After three pep talks from Octavia — the most recent of which being quite the doozy — Lyra had finally summoned enough courage to begin playing… every fourth note.

Each time the poor mare plucked at the strings of her lyre, she visibly flinched. Her eyes darted around in a frenzy as the fear of somepony watching and judging her took hold. When the realization came that everypony around her was way too immersed in their own music to pay attention to her, she calmed down. It was then that she noticed how far behind she’d fallen, causing her to hurriedly hit the next note and fall into the same trap. It was like a dog chasing its own tail, only much sadder to watch.

Her eyes darted over to the purple figure across the room. Twilight Sparkle — who’d begun doing some of her work in Town Hall lately as a means of relaxing to peaceful music in the midst of stressing over the Elements — was watching Lyra as well, and cringing ever so slightly at the sight before her.

Octavia frowned inwardly as the song drew to a close. The violas hummed the final note, sending it reverberating through the practice hall. Everypony relaxed at once, the beast of their daily rehearsal nearly slain.

As the noise of collective shuffling kicked in, Octavia stood up and cleared her throat. Sighs rippled through the group and were met with Octavia’s barely contained eyeroll. For a group of classical music enthusiasts, they could be too immature at times for her taste.

“All right everypony, I have a few notes.”

The ripple became a wave. Everypony knew that ‘a few’ was the understatement of the century.

Octavia cleared her throat. “I don’t even know where to begin. Treble Clef, are your ears working?”

A skinny brown stallion blinked in recognition of his name. “Um… yes?”

“Then I assume you heard the last note I gave you and the other basses.”

He bowed his head. “Yes…”

“Do I need to repeat it then?”

“...No…”

“Good, then get on it. All the others are following your lead, and you’ve been leading them off a cliff lately.”

“Sorry.”

“Next up, violas.” Octavia’s ears flicked at their collective groan. “You need to come in a lot faster next time. Remember it’s three rests not four.” She turned to the violins. “I don’t even know where to begin with you all. Half of you pay attention to the sheet music, but not the rhythm, and the others pay attention to the rhythm and not the sheet music. Noteworthy.”

The blue stallion in the middle of the violin section rolled his eyes. “Yeah?”

“You’re not putting in enough passion into the music.”

He groaned. “Not this again—”

“You all could, for that matter.” Octavia drew her attention back to encompass the whole of the orchestra. “We really do need that extra push if we want to look good at Music-ade.”

“I get the feeling that’s all she cares about at this point,” Noteworthy grumbled to a pony next to him, seemingly unaware that Octavia wasn’t deaf.

"And I assume this means you don't care about making a good impression with your music, Noteworthy."

His pupils shrunk as he adopted the deer-in-the-headlights face that students had when their teacher called on them.

"Well, no, I do. It's just that..."

"That what?" Octavia arched her eyebrow with demand.

"Well I kinda want to have some fun. I mean, this is a parade we’re practicing for, right?"

Octavia paused. “You mean this isn’t fun?”

Noteworthy fired off an are-you-even-kidding look. Octavia frowned, but turned to face the rest of the musicians. “A-are none of you having fun?”

Several heads swiveled away from her at once. Either Octavia had just become a cockatrice, or none of them could meet her eyes from the discomfort of not wanting to answer. Her chest tightened slightly, knowing which of those possibilities was true.

“I… see.” Octavia blinked. “Um… dismissed, you’re all free to go.”

She saw the relief flood into all of their faces and her chest tightened more. Everypony delicately shoved their instruments into their cases and brushed past her towards Town Hall’s exit. Octavia kept her face mute and refused to speak to them, offering only simple nods of goodbye. Had she done any more her emotions might have betrayed her.

Lyra was among the last to leave, stopping in front of Octavia and offering a light, yet somewhat forced, smile. Over the past few practices she lingered just long enough to have Octavia deliver a new pep talk or give her advice on how to deal with her crippling stage fright.

Though Octavia wasn’t feeling like doing either of those things at the moment.

“Nicely done, Lyra.” She swallowed, thankful her tone didn’t betray her. “You made some real progress today.”

“Thanks, but I know it wasn’t much.” Lyra shrugged and plucked at the strings of her lyre.

“Every little bit helps.”

Lyra’s smile became a lot less forced and she moved for the door. “Bye Octavia. See you tomorrow.”

“Wait.”

Lyra paused. “What’s up?”

Octavia folded her mouth into a thin line. “Are you… having fun at rehearsals?”

A laugh escaped her. “Are you kidding? Octavia, this is like torture for me.”

“No that’s not what I mean. Barring your stage fright—”

“Performance anxiety,” Lyra corrected, preferring to dance around the words.

“—is rehearsal fun? Am I making it fun to be at?”

Lyra’s smile dropped in favor of pressed-together lips. “Well… Octavia you’re a great pony and all, but you kind of make rehearsal feel like a Royal Guard boot camp or something.”

“I see…” She faced the floor, chewing the inside of her cheek.

“Sorry,” Lyra quickly covered. “I didn’t mean to offend you or anything—”

Octavia waved her hoof dismissively, covering well. “Oh no, don’t worry about it. Have a good day.”

Lyra paused, her mouth opening slightly. She looked like she wanted to say something, but the words never came. Waving goodbye, she trotted out of the building.

Across the room, Twilight watched the exchange with a cocked head. With her magic she pushed the dozens of letters before her into a cluttered stack and shoved them into her saddlebags.

Octavia made her way to her cello and Twilight met her halfway.

“Hey.”

Octavia pushed the corners of her mouth up. “Hello, Twilight.”

Twilight’s eyes darted to the right then back to her. “You all sounded pretty good.”

“You don’t think I was being too hard on them, do you?”

“I think you were fine, why?”

Octavia shuffled her hooves insecurely.

Twilight picked up on it. “You’re not bothered by what Noteworthy said, are you?”

She curled her lip, sucking in a breath. “I wasn’t expecting it. I didn’t think anypony was having any problems with how I was running the orchestra.”

“You’re doing fine,” Twilight assured her. “I mean, Lyra’s even starting to play, that has to be a good sign.”

Octavia didn’t respond.

It was Twilight’s turn to shuffle awkwardly. “Look, I need to go. I think I’m about to hit a real breakthrough with the information Princess Celestia gave me.”

“Yeah… that’s fine.”

Twilight nodded her goodbye and trotted to the door, leaving Octavia to her thoughts.

She looked over the empty rows of chairs as she crossed the remaining distance to her cello case. Lifting her bow, she turned it over in her hoof a few times, her mouth slipping into a frown.

“Not fun…” she mumbled to herself

Twilight ensconced herself at her desk, her magic placing several unopened scrolls before her. It had taken her far too long to get around to reading everything that Princess Celestia had sent her. Between the Elements sparking to life — the most recent of which had sent her into another frenzied state that she’d only barely calmed down from — and her acquaintances' personal problems, she just hadn’t had the time.

Now was different. Her cursory glance over them yesterday at Town Hall told her that the knowledge contained in the parchment before her was an untapped gold mine of information. It would be an injustice to let them go unread any longer.

She’d poured over them for the remainder of the day, soaking up anything she could. At least half still remained unopened and those were the ones scattered before her now.

As her magic unrolled the first scroll, her thoughts briefly wandered to Octavia. She’d been out of sorts after the rehearsal. The Octavia Twilight had come to know was calm, mindful of her outward appearance, and very respectable. The Octavia the other day seemed so... unbalanced. She may as well have be tip-hoofing over a tightrope.

Could something have...

No, no, no. Twilight shook her head. I cannot allow myself to be distracted. This is too important.

Her eyes honed in on the words before her and she chased away all other thoughts in her brain as she began to read.

Twilight,

Among all the rest of the information regarding the Elements of Harmony, I believe this may be the most valuable in your quest.

The paper rustled as Twilight squealed to herself. After forcing a few deep breaths, she calmed down and looked back down.

The origins of the Elements are very unclear. How they came about and what they really are are shrouded in undocumented history that predates even me. However, I do know where they came from. Within the Everfree Forest lies The Tree of Harmony, an entity comprised of pure crystals where my sister and I first discovered the Elements. Never before had I seen the Elements shine as brightly as they did when they were once connected to the Tree, which means—

“Uh, Twilight?” Spike’s voice invaded her thoughts, snapping her attention away from the scroll.

“Spike!” She swiveled around, fixing her assistant with an annoyed glare. “I told you I didn’t want to be disturbed.”

He cringed inwardly. “I know, it’s just—”

“Twilight!” A green blur brushed past him.

“—one of your friends is here.”

“Twilight!” The blur reiterated, slowing down enough to take a more familiar form.

“Lyra?” Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Uh… what is it?”

Lyra opened her mouth, but a ragged gasp escaped her. She held up a hoof in pause as she struggled to catch her breath from an apparently frantic run. “It’s… Octavia…” she finally wheezed out.

Curiosity tugged at Twilight and she turned her body away from the scrolls. “What’s wrong?”

“She didn’t show up for rehearsal today.”

“Is that normal?” Spike asked as he walked further into the room.

“No, she’s never not shown up before! Heck, she’s so uptight about being on time that she gets to practice early. Everypony is really worried about her.”

Twilight frowned. “I’m sure it’s not that bad. She might just have a cold and couldn’t come or something.”

Lyra bit her lip. “I don’t think so. She would’ve sent a note, or told somepony, or at least have Vinyl stop by and let us know. This is just so unlike her.”

Tapping her chin, Twilight glanced from Spike to Lyra. “So… why are you telling me?”

A shrug wiggled its way out of Lyra. “I don’t know. You just seem to be solving a lot of problems lately so I thought…”

Twilight sighed inwardly.

At the same moment, another pony burst through the door, her electric blue mane flying as she raced in. “Smart Mare, we’ve got a serious problem!”

She creased her lips together. “Let me guess, is it Octavia related?”

Vinyl blinked. “Uh… yeah, actually. How did you know?”

“I just assumed, since she failed to show up for rehearsal.”

Vinyl nodded. “Okay, but believe it or not, that’s not the strangest thing she’s done today.”

Twilight and Lyra cocked their heads in sync, not sure if they believed her.

“I’m being serious you guys… you really should see it for yourselves.” Vinyl angled herself toward the door, waving a hoof at them.

Taking the hint Lyra, Twilight and a curious Spike trotted to catch up as Vinyl walked out. They made it all they way down the stairs and out the door of the library without speaking, Vinyl picking up steam all the way.

“So are you going to tell us was this incredibly strange thing is?” Twilight asked, quickening her pace to match Vinyl’s. Her ears flicked as she heard the distant sound of music.

“It’s… geeze I can’t even explain it. It’s just so… Un-Octavia.”

“You’re making it sound really bad,” Lyra picked up, her tone laced with worry.

“Yeah, well good. You should be preparing yourselves for what you're about to see.”

“Or, you know, you could just tell us. ‘Cause that’s a thing,” Spike quipped.

When Vinyl just kept walking, all three of them sighed. Twilight looked ahead to where they were going, noticing several balloons floating above the town’s buildings. The music she’d heard before had grown louder as well.

“We’re almost there.” Vinyl stopped next to one of the buildings and peered around. “Oh crap, it’s gotten worse.”

“Okay, I’m sick of being kept in the dark.” Twilight trotted forward, Lyra and Spike at her heels. “Seriously what is Octavia doing that’s so ba—” Her eyes fell upon the sight before her and she froze mid-syllable.

Before her, the entire street had been transformed into a party.

Tables adorned with neon bright table cloths lined the sides, displaying cakes, pies, and candy aplenty. Streamers lined the space between the streetlights, contending for attention with the clumps of balloons scattered around.

A motley of party games were spread around, ranging from apple bobbing to pin the tail on the pony.

Several ponies had already gathered around, swiveling their heads left and right lost in their own confusion. Twilight vaguely recognized them as members of the Music-ade orchestra float. If she concentrated she might've been able to put names to a few faces.

Her attention wasn't on them at all, though. Instead she was focused on Octavia.

Octavia...

Twilight wasn’t even sure the pony she was looking at was Octavia.

She was darting from the tables and games, a mouth-numbing smile blazoned across her face as she exchanged pleasantries with whomever she popped up next to. Atop her head was a pink polka-dot party hat, and her bowtie hung loosely at her neck. Anypony she happened upon found their eyes bulging out with surprise as the usual quiet and reserved Octavia struck up an energetic chit-chat.

“What’s even…” Lyra rubbed her eyes to be sure the sight before her wasn’t a mirage. “I’m so confused.”

“I know right? I mean Octavia’s hosting a party! And not one of those pole-up-your-plot parties where everypony puts clothing on and stuff just to act stuffy, but an actual party.” Vinyl shuddered. “Something’s not right in the universe.”

At that moment, Octavia glanced over at them, and her uncomfortably wide grin only grew.

“Hi girls!” With frightening perkiness, Octavia closed the gap between them in seconds.

“Heeeeeey, Octavia,” Vinyl forced out. She whipped around to Lyra and Twilight. “Okay, here’s the plan. I’ll check Octavia for any alien brain-warping parasites while you guys go see if there’s something freaky in the punch or if somepony caused a rift in the fabric of time. Got it?”

Lyra pinched her lip in confusion while Twilight simply rolled her eyes. As for Octavia, she let loose a single snort of laughter, followed by a giggle.

Octavia actually snort-giggled.

That alone was enough to throw off the three mares, but what came next was even more disarming.

“Oh Vinyl,” Octavia said as her giggles fainted. “You’re such a kidder.”

“Sweet Celestia she laughed at something I said!” Vinyl dug her hooves into her mane. “The brain parasites have taken over!”

Twilight tried to keep a more rational mind than her acquaintance. “Um… hi Octavia… what’s all this?”

“A party, Twilight. What else could it be?”

“Well, yeah, but why?” Twilight looked around at the spectacle before her that must have taken hours to plan, not to mention set-up. “How?”

Octavia’s smile somehow widened. “Well, the how is thanks to that pony over there.” She turned and pointed to an obnoxiously pink mare scarfing down cupcakes a few tables away. “She offered to help set everything up.”

“Oh hey, it’s Pinkie Pie!” Spike realized.

“Pinkie Pie?” Memories flooded back to Twilight. A headache, a sleepless night, a wild party. “Oh… Pinkie Pie.”

“I’m going to go say hello.” Spike ran forward, waving.

“Don’t wander off!” Twilight called after him before turning back to Octavia. “Okay so that’s the how, but what about the why behind this party?”

“I’m pretty curious about that too,” Lyra mentioned. “Care to explain?”

“Yeah, tell us what you’ve done to the real Octavia, brain parasites!” Vinyl demanded. Twilight facehoofed.

To everypony’s surprise, Octavia kept her smile. “I’m just throwing a party for everypony at the orchestra float. I figured it was high time we all had some fun.”

Fun?

Lyra stepped forward. “That’s… really nice of you Octavia, but don’t you think we should be preparing for Music-ade? I mean, the Ursa attack pushed it back another week and all, but we really do need the practice.” She looked to the dirt, ears folding down. “Especially me.”

“Oh cheer up!” Octavia gently patted Lyra’s cheek. “This is a party for pony’s sake. Look, we even have a bouncy castle!” She pointed, directing everypony’s eyes to the left.

Standing at an impressive twenty-five feet was a red, blue and yellow castle, bursting to its inflatable brim with air. Twilight creased her lips in a line, surprised she had missed this when they’d arrived.

“Your bribe is tempting, brain parasites.” Vinyl eyed the bouncy castle again. “Very tempting. But I’m not going to rest until you let my friend go.”

Octavia snort-giggled again. “Oh Vinyl, the laughs never end with you.”

“This is seriously weird,” Lyra whispered to Twilight, who could only offer a nod in response.

“Well girls, please feel free to join in. Twilight, Vinyl, I know you two aren’t on to the orchestra float, but please feel free to have fun as well. Everypony’s welcome to.”

“Um… sure, okay.”

“All right, parasites, I’ll play along… for now.”

Twilight sighed. “Vinyl, give it a rest.”

“Kay.”

Octavia gave another cheek-splitting grin. “I need to get going. Have to keep mingling to make sure everypony is having a fun time. Bye girls.” She pulled out a noisemaker, giving it a sharp blow. As the childish noise hit their ears, Octavia darted off.

They each blinked, uncertain about what had just happened.

“Do you think she’s doing all right?” Lyra asked.

“No, of course not! Why do you think I brought you here?” Vinyl demanded.

“Look, I think we can all see something is up with Octavia, but what exactly do you think we can do about it, Vinyl?” Twilight asked.

She replied with a noncommittal shrug. “I dunno, you just seem to be solving all the problems lately and I thought…”

Twilight groaned. “Okay look, why don’t we go around and talk to the ponies here. Maybe one of them knows what’s going on.”

“Right, good idea Smart Mare.” Vinyl inched away. “I’ll go check out those suspicious characters over by the bouncy castle.” She turned, her voice dropping to a low tone as an edgy seriousness took hold of her. “It might take a while, though.”

Before Twilight could open her mouth and say how asinine that sounded, Vinyl was gleefully bounding off. She joined up with Spike, who had just finished waving goodbye to Pinkie as he made his own way to the bouncy castle.

Hmm… maybe Pinkie…

“Well, I’m going to talk with the other orchestra members. Maybe they know something.” Lyra walked off in the opposite direction.

At least somepony will be productive. Twilight turned, expecting to see Pinkie several yards back. Instead she was inches away from her face.

“Ah!” Twilight nearly jumped out of her coat.

“Hiya Twilight!” Pinkie exclaimed, with grin that rivaled Octavia’s.

Twilight took a deep breath to steady her near-heart attack. “You… remember me?”

Pinkie Pie snorted. “Remember you? How could I forget the first pony to let me throw a party in a library?”

Twilight lowered her eyebrows. “Yeah, I let you all right.” She shook her head, not wanting to get off topic. “Look, Pinkie, Octavia told me you helped her with all this and I—”

“Oh yeah, I did!” Pinkie interrupted. “I was walking along minding my own business — well not walking, I hardly do that. It was more like bouncing along — when Octavia came out of the blue and asked me for help to throw a biiiiiiiig party for everyone in the orchestra float and I said ‘okie dokie lokie’ which is something I say a lot and then Octavia got a huge smile on her face because I guess she really likes making ponies happy, but I did think it was odd that she wanted to throw a party with me since she rarely comes to the ones I throw, but I was so happy she was happy that I didn’t really—mmph!”

Twilight’s magic shoved a cupcake in Pinkie’s mouth, mercifully silencing her.

Celestia this one can talk, Twilight thought, sighing in relief.

“Mmmm!” Pinkie happily chewed. “Sho like I wacsh shayin’—”

“I’m good!” Twilight intervened. “Seriously, you don’t need to tell me everything. I just wanted to know if you knew why Octavia was acting so.... strangely.”

Pinkie swallowed. “Ooooooh, okay. Hm…” She tapped her chin. “Honestly, I don’t know. She was just really pushy to throw a party. She kept wanting everything to be fun, fun, fun!” Pinkie paused. “I don’t know the why.”

“You mean you didn’t ask?”

“Heh, no. Since when do I need a reason to throw a party?” Pinkie reached her hoof back to the table behind her and grabbed another cupcake. “The answer is never, by the way.”

“Yeah, I got that,” Twilight said through her teeth. “Thanks anyway.”

“No problem. I’m going to head over to Pin the Tail on the Pony, wanna join?”

She shook her head. “No, I still need to figure out why Octavia’s acting so weird.”

“Oh, okay.” Pinkie was about to bounce off, but stopped herself. “You know, you’re a really good friend for being so concerned about her.”

“I’m not her friend,” Twilight grumbled. “We’re just acquaintances.”

Pinkie giggled. “Aww, don’t keep telling yourself that, Twilight. You might actually start to believe it.” She waved before dashing off, leaving Twilight with little to do but blink in confusion.

...What did she mean by that? Twilight pressed her lips together in pause, standing still for a while as she tried to ponder the party fanatic’s words.

“Twilight?”

Her ears flicked to attention as she was pulled from her thoughts. Turning around her eyes found Derpy and Bon Bon’s staring back at her.

“What are you doing here?” Derpy asked.

“I—”

“Not that you can’t be at parties or anything,” Derpy blurted out. “I just… you don’t normally…” She folded both her wings over her face. “Sorry.”

“No, it’s fine, Derpy. I’m here because of Octavia and…” She paused to take in the sight before her. “Derpy, your wing!”

She poked her head out between the feathers. “What about it?”

“It’s… better. I thought it was going to need more time to heal.”

Derpy shuffled her wings back into position. “I thought so too, but I stopped by the hospital earlier today and Nurse Redheart said they were good to go.” She gave them a flutter. “Hopefully this means I can go back to work tomorrow too!”

“You know, if Derpy’s wing is better, then your hoof might be healed too, Twilight,” Bon Bon suggested.

Twilight took a moment to look down at her splinted hoof. She’d been walking on it all day without a problem, so maybe it was time to see if it was ready. She filed that in the back of her mind for later, knowing there was something more important that needed her attention first.

“Hey, you guys wouldn’t happen to know why Octavia is acting so bizarre lately, would you?”

Derpy and Bon Bon shared a look.

“Not really, no.”

“It’s not opposite day, so I can’t think of any reason why.” Derpy shrugged.

Twilight frowned. “Well, thanks anyway.”

“Why don’t you just ask her if you’re so curious?” Derpy suggested.

“I…” Twilight paused. As stupid as it made her feel, she’d failed to think of such a simple idea. “Yeah, I guess I could try that.”

Bon Bon nudged her head to the right. “I think I saw her on the bouncy castle.”

“There’s a bouncy castle?” Derpy asked nervously. Her wings shuffled awkwardly.

“Is that a problem?” Twilight gave her a look.

“Uh… well, bouncy castles and I don’t have a very… charmed history.”

Twilight tilted her head “...And?”

“And let’s just hope this one is fire proof,” Derpy muttered.

Bon Bon put a hoof around her. “Aw, don’t worry, I’m sure it won’t be that bad.”

“You don’t even have to go if you don’t want to. I can find Octavia on my own.”

Derpy thought about it for a moment. “No… I’m never going to get less clumsy if I just avoid everything. Besides, if I can get through some bouncing, then work will be a breeze!”

“All right, come on then.” Twilight turned, setting her sights on the illustrious bouncy castle across the street.

They had to push their way through a mob of ponies, some of whom were enjoying the party and some who were still lost on the fact that Octavia was their host. After bumping and shoving more times then they cared to apologize for, the three of them found themselves at the front of the castle.

The base of the castle constantly pulsed from the jumps of the ponies inside, never getting a moment of respite.

Twilight pulled the flap aside, peering inside. A flurry of colors caught her vision. At least a dozen ponies — and a dragon — were in the midst jumping up and down, goofy smiles plastered on their faces. In the center of it as a gray blur that could only be Octavia.

“Come on girls,” Twilight said, taking the first step. The instant that her hoof hit the slick surface, a vibration rippled through the castle. A wobble shot through Twilight and before she could blink she was face down on the floor, body bobbing with each jump. “Great.”

“Hey Smart Mare, you decide to join me?” Vinyl appeared before her, bouncing away. “I knew even you couldn’t resist the urge to bounce.”

“Grr, not now Vinyl.”

Vinyl looked her over and nodded. “Yeah, okay. I can see you’re still getting in the rhythm of it. See ya later!” And like that she was gone, to which Twilight could only groan.

Derpy flew in above her, dropping from the air already prepared to bounce up again. Her first foray back into the air looked unsteady, but a few more leaps and she was laughing with delight. Bon Bon wiggled in past Twilight, who still couldn’t get her bearings.

“Doing okay?” Bon Bon asked in mid-jump.

“No!” Twilight shouted, flailing like a fish out of water.

Bon Bon raised an eyebrow as she rose into the air. “Have you never been on in a bouncy house before?”

“I… no,” Twilight realized. “I haven’t.”

“Well…” Bon Bon sprang upwards. “The key is to just keep bouncing.”

“Easier said than done.” In spite of that, Twilight gave it a try. Once her four hooves made contact with the floor, she felt them sink in slightly. The very next instant she propelled herself upward in the highest jump of her life. Her legs flailed in the air hair flew back as she plummeted toward the Earth, only to fly right back up.

“Whoa!” she cried. “This… this is great!” She bounced higher, eye level with the edge of the castle.

“Hi Twilight, good to see you in here,” Octavia bounced next to her.

Twilight suddenly realized that she’d forgotten the whole reason she’d come to the bouncy castle, if only for a brief moment. “Octavia!” she blurted out.

“Haha, yes?”

“Can we talk?”

“Sure!” Octavia bounced in place.

“Uh… outside please?”

A smile plastered itself on Octavia’s face. “Sure thing, race you there!” She launched forward, headed straight for the exit.

“Wait!” Twilight fell down and bounced back up. At the same time another gray mare fell into her field of vision.

“Hey, Twilight! Guess what, no fires so far!” Derpy grinned.

“That’s nice,” Down. Up. “But how do you stop bouncing?”

Derpy shrugged. “I dunno. I usually stop by crashing into stuff.”

Twilight lowered her eyelids. Well, I’m not doing that. As she fell back down to the floor, her horn sparked to life. Lifting off the springy surface one last time she charged up enough power to cast a teleportation spell. At the height of her jump she fired it off, and opened her eyes outside the bouncy castle.

And well above the ground.

“Ahh!” Twilight plummeted, cursing herself for an inept teleport and then cursing bouncy castles everywhere just to spite them before she hit the ground.

Luckily for her she was only a few feet in the air. Any higher and she wouldn’t have been able to land safely. The force of the impact reverberated through her hooves, sending a small sliver of pain down her one injured leg.

“Nice one, Twilight,” Octavia said as she trotted up to her. “But I’ve already claimed victory.”

Twilight’s heart rate steadied before she answered. “I don’t care about that Octavia, I just need to talk to you.”

“Of course, talk away.” Her creepily wide grin returned.

“Why are you doing this?”

There was a crack in Octavia’s facade as the corner of her mouth twitched. “What do you mean? I just wanted everypony to have a fun time.” She tossed some confetti in the air. “You know, because I’m fun!”

Twilight kept a neutral face as the flakes of colored paper fell in her hair. “Octavia.”

For a moment the only sounds were the joyous laughs from inside the bouncy castle and the background noise of the party participants chatting and enjoying themselves.

Octavia looked away.

“Come on, what’s going on with you? You’re not acting like yourself at all. And what’s with putting so much emphasis on being fun?” Twilight paused, the puzzle pieces clicking together. “Wait… is this about what Noteworthy said the other day?”

Octavia sighed. “It… might have something to do with that.”

“I don’t understand, how could what one pony thinks affect you that much?”

“It wasn’t just what Noteworthy said, it was all of them.” Octavia looked to the ground. “They all think I’m not fun, that I’m just in some permanent state of uppityness or something. A-and I don’t want that. I want everypony in the orchestra float to have a good time, Noteworthy, Lyra… all of them.”

“I see…” Twilight pinched her lips together, thinking. “Well, Octavia, for what it’s worth, I think you’re fun.”

She looked up. “Really?”

“Of course.” Twilight smiled. “I mean, my way of fun’s probably not the traditional kind, but that’s okay. If there’s anything that I’ve learned from you girls, it’s that everypony has fun in different ways and if the ponies in the orchestra think you aren’t fun, then that’s their loss.” She nudged Octavia. “Okay?”

The corners of her mouth tugged up. “I agree with you Twilight… it’s just…”

“Just what?” Twilight moved in.

“...No, it’s stupid.”

Twilight snorted. “I’ve heard some of the stuff that Vinyl says; whatever you’re holding in isn’t going to top that.”

Her joke got a small laugh. Brief, but it was there; it was something.

Octavia frowned. “I was hoping that after Music-ade some, if not all of the the performers might want to form a permanent orchestra here in town… you know, to play concerts and show the rest of Equestria that Ponyville is more than the backwater village they all think it is. But… that’ll never happen if everypony hates working with me.”

“And you thought throwing a party would make you seem more fun so they would want that too?”

“Yeah… I know it’s stupid.”

“No it’s not.”

Octavia looked up and blinked.

Twilight offered a smile. “You just want to realize your dream; I can respect that.” She glanced around at the chaos of enjoyment that was going on around them. “But maybe you shouldn’t compromise who you are in order to get there.”

“Yeah…” She reached up and yanked the party hat from her head, tossing it to the ground. “Thanks for talking to me… I don’t know what I was thinking.”

They stood in silence for a moment before a blue pony passed in front of them, a wad of cotton candy in tow. Twilight recognized him about the same time he saw them: Noteworthy.

“Hey, Octavia!” he said, swallowing a mouthful of pink fluff. “This party is awesome! I think half of Ponyville showed up for it.”

“Oh… thank you, Noteworthy, that’s great,” Octavia replied, having finally dropped the overly-creepy perkiness act. She paused for a moment, thinking. “Hey, listen, I was thinking that since so many ponies were here we should all get our instruments and give them a taste of what they can expect at Music-ade, what do you say?”

“Are you kidding, that sounds awesome! I’ll start spreading the word!”

Octavia blinked. The fact that he took her suggestion caught her completely off guard and her jaw dropped slightly.

Noteworthy cocked his head. “Uh, Octavia are you okay?”

“Y-Yeah. That sounds good, just let me go get my instrument.”

He smiled. “Cool. We can probably set up right outside Town Hall, come on.”

Noteworthy trotted forward, but Octavia hung back slightly and flashed a smile to Twilight. She responded with a polite nod, encouraging her to go on.

Looks like they’ll all be able to have some fun after all.

As Octavia trotted away, Spike slid out of the flap of the bouncy castle, sweating like a pig.

“Hehe, wow Twilight your friends sure do know how to have a good time.”

“They’re not my… er, forget it.”

Spike stretched out his arms. “So, I take it you’re ready to go home?”

She tapped her hoof. “Actually, let’s stick around for a little while.”

“Really?” Spike furrowed his brow. “But, don’t you have some Element related thing to do?”

“I think I can hold off on that just long enough to hear a few songs.” She glanced at her hoof. “Besides, I’ll need to stop by the hospital before we go home.”

“Well, in that case I think I’ll just scooch over to the buffet table.” Spike made a beeline for the assortment of cakes and pies a few tables down before Twilight could warn him not to spoil his dinner.

She sighed, but it was more on the relieved side than anything else. Glancing up at the sky, Twilight was surprised to see Celestia’s sun wasn’t even at its apex. Looking back down she found herself pondering Spike’s earlier comment.

As it turned out, she did have something Element related to be doing. Before Lyra had interrupted her, she’d been reading about something that may be the answer to her problem.

“The Tree of Harmony…” she whispered softly to herself.

Halfway across town at the in the basement of Golden Oaks Library, a bright light erupted. As quickly as it came, it was extinguished, leaving only a lingering twinkle on the purple treble clef that had given birth to the magnificent light. The twinkling joined the rhythm of four other jewels lying on the same table.

Resting in the center of the five twinkling gems was a single necklace. A magenta six-pointed star that represented the Element of Honesty.

It remained stoically dim and lifeless.

Interlude: Correspondence

Princess Celestia dabbed her quill in a nearby inkwell before running it along the paper before her. With a flourish she finished putting her signature on the latest tax reform bill and her magic levitated the papers into her ‘done’ pile.

She leaned back in her chair, feeling the warmth of her fireplace wash over her. There were still several other bills awaiting her approval on her desk, but she didn’t have the drive to look at them anymore. Her heart wasn’t in it.

She had retired to her quarters early than usual today; the sun wasn’t even set to go down for another two hours. Day Court just wasn’t where she wanted to be right now. The petty squabbles of nobles all competing to see who had the brownest nose seemed trivial at best right now. Now that… she was here.

Celestia sighed and a cold shiver slunk down her spine.

After her visit with Lu— Nightmare Moon a few nights ago, her hope that she could be saved had been whittled down. A lifetime of resentment and a millennium of dark isolation had warped the pony that used to be her sister beyond all recognition.

There was still the Elements of Harmony, but that was still more delusion than faint chance of success. She hadn’t even heard anything from Twilight since sending her all the information she had on the Elements and even with all that knowledge there was no guarantee she would find any of it helpful. The odds had to be something like one to one million. Or one billion. Or—

A puff of smoke raced across her field of vision, interrupting her thoughts. Celestia blinked as the smoke gathered together above her desk and in a flash became a rolled up scroll, which promptly fell in front of her.

Twilight...

Not missing a beat, Celestia scooped up the scroll with her magic and unraveled it.

Dear Princess Celestia,

I feel as though I’ve made some headway with reforming the Elements of Harmony. Over the past several days five of the Elements have shown signs of life; this may indicate their magic is not unusable as previously thought.

Furthermore, after inspecting the information you sent me, I have reason to believe that the Tree of Harmony may assist in expediting the process of fixing the Elements. If they really are showing signs of reforming, then the Tree, as their creator, may be able to bond them to the five ponies that I… mistakenly assumed were the correct Bearers.

If my calculations are correct, then I should be able to find the Tree of Harmony in the Everfree and should mount an expedition there.

I felt it prudent to notify you about this matter in case there was anything else you needed to add before I go.

Your Faithful Student,

Twilight Sparkle.

Celestia set the letter down and took a deep breath.

The Tree… does she truly mean to find it? It was a rhetorical question, of course. Twilight had never once lied in her letters and it wasn't likely that she was starting now. It won’t be easy though… she’ll need help.

A few ideas immediately popped into her mind, though she knew immediately who would work best with Twilight… even if they wouldn’t work too well with each other.

And my sister… If Twilight was going to use the Tree of Harmony to hopefully revive the Elements, then they would have to be used immediately on Nightmare Moon. Her mere presence in Equestra posed a massive threat… and that wasn’t just from the formidable power she held. That much concentrated dark magic threatened to throw everything out of control. It had to be removed as soon as possible. In fact, they were lucky he wasn’t already free.

She wiped her desk clear save her quill, her inkwell and a blank sheet of paper. Dipping the tip of her quill ever so lightly in the ink, she pressed it against the paper and wrote.

Twilight,

If you truly believe the Tree of Harmony is the best way to restore the Elements, then I think it is the right path to take. However, your search will be very difficult. When I first set out to find the Tree, it took me many months, even with help. I would tell you the exact location, however over the centuries I’ve observed that the Tree of Harmony is not as stationary as I had once thought.

It moves, frequently and randomly and over time even I have lost track of where it is. Sometimes it pops up in a convenient and easy to access location, but more likely it will be hidden in the depths of the Everfree. This is why I’m insisting on a few extra measures, some of which may not be to your liking…

Celestia scribbled away, fully detailing her intentions. She knew Twilight would be… dissatisfied with her idea, but time was of the essence and they couldn’t afford to waste it. Her decision was final, for better or worse.

When she finished, she rolled the paper up and added the royal seal. With a flick of her magic it was gone, sent straight to Spike. Only one more thing remained for her to do.

Walking to the door of her private quarters, she tapped on it briefly. It slid open, revealing the two guards on the outside.

“Yes, Your Highness?” one guard asked. “Did you need something?”

“I do. I need you to find two ponies and tell them to meet with me immediately.”

The guard blinked, surprised at such an unusual occurrence. “Of course… uh, who are they?”

“The Captain of the Royal Guard—” Celestia narrowed her eyes. “—and my niece.”

Author's Note

Just some build up for the upcoming adventure side of the arc.

The Adventure Begins... Again

Twilight had been pacing anxiously back and forth for nearly thirty minutes. As a result, a line of grass around her was pressed firmly against the ground and wouldn’t be getting up anytime soon.

The butterflies in her stomach fluttered ferociously and the sudden urge to throw up struck her. She beat it back, but still failed to quell her nervousness. After all, how could she? She was about to embark on a deadly quest into the Everfree Forest that involved the Elements.

Well, okay, it wasn’t her first time, but this was different. Her brother and former foalsitter/princess were going to accompany her. Not to mention… Twilight gulped, unwilling to even finish the thought.

Instead, she glanced at the train station behind her, as if the mere act of looking would ease her nerves.

It didn’t. In fact, it made them worse.

Turning, Twilight felt her near-bursting saddlebags flop against her sides. She’d packed them in a flurry after receiving her mentor’s latest letter, taking anything and everything that she might even remotely need. This included Spike, who — in Twilight’s haste — found himself nearly shoved into the sack with the Elements of Harmony. Luckily he’d managed to slap some sense into her before she’d latched her bags shut.

As Twilight paced, she pondered whether Spike should come at all. Even though she had nearly packed him, Twilight still had reservations about bringing him on this journey. Undoubtedly he could be helpful — and he really wanted to help — but he was too young, too vulnerable and much too inexperienced for something as dangerous as this quest.

Right now he was gone, claiming to need to get something before they left, but Twilight was seriously considering sending him home the minute he got back.

She ceased pacing and tapped her freshly unsplinted hoof against the ground. No matter what she decided, she had to figure it out soon before he return—

“Hey, Twilight!”

Too late.

Twilight turned. “Hi Sp—” she stopped short, jaw going slack. Spike stood before her waving and behind him five familiar mares were offering her smiles. It took her all of five seconds to think of a proper greeting. “Uh…”

“Good to see you too, Smart Mare.” Vinyl grinned.

“Uh…”

Derpy giggled. “Surprised we’re here, huh?”

“Uh…”

Octavia cleared her throat. “Twilight, as… riveting as this conversation is, perhaps you should close your mouth before any bugs fly into it.”

Twilight shook her head to come out of her confused daze. “What are you girls doing here?”

“Spike got us all together,” Lyra told her. “He said something about you going off on another deadly quest into the Everfree Forest that had to deal with the Elements of Harmony and well, here we are.”

Twilight groaned internally. “Let me guess, you’re here to stop me because you don’t think I should be wasting my time on the Elements and can’t seem to respect my decisions on the matter, right?”

The five girls blinked in harmony, then burst out giggling. Twilight raised an eyebrow at this, only to notice the packed saddlebags that each mare wore. “Wait… you want to come with me?”

Lyra was the first to come down from the laughing high. “Of course we’re coming with you, Twilight. I mean, we are friends.”

The word jammed scissors into her ears. Twilight had to fight back a wince with a noncommittal shrug, hoping it would appease her acquaintances.

“And besides, if it weren’t for us you would’ve died like, five times over in the Everfree,” Vinyl added. “You kinda need us, Smart Mare.”

Twilight ground her teeth, putting aside her surprise that Vinyl had said something logical for once. She glanced down at Spike, who looked quite pleased with himself. Of course he had no idea the headache he’d just brought upon Twilight and how could he? Even so, he was about to find out.

“Girls, could you excuse Spike and me for a moment?”

“Uh, sure?”

“Okay.”

“No problem.”

“Go right ahead.”

“A’ight.”

Twilight forced out a toothy grin. “Thank you. Spike?” She nudged her head off to the side and the two of them stepped out of the girl’s hearing range. Once they were in the clear Twilight dropped the smile. “Spike, why did you bring them here?”

He blinked in confusion and shot a quick glance back at the five ponies. “What are you talking about? I thought you wanted them to come with you.”

That was a slap across the face. “Wha— no! What gave you that idea?”

Spike shrugged. “Well when you were shoving me into your saddlebags you kept mumbling to yourself about making sure you didn’t forget the Elements of Harmony and aren’t these guys kinda the Elements?”

“The Elements are here,” Twilight patted her left saddlebag, earning a clink from the contents inside. “Those ponies technically are the Bearers of Harmony… and technically they’re not even that!”

“Oh. Uh… sorry.” Spike lowered his head, disappointed in himself way more than he should be.

Twilight sighed. “Don’t worry about it; I can just tell them all to leave. In fact, I guess the very least I owe them is a final goodbye.”

“Final goodbye?” Spike asked, worry slipping into his tone. “What do you mean by that?”

“I mean we’re probably never going to see them again,” Twilight clarified. “If everything goes according to plan, the Elements will work, Nightmare Moon will be healed, or dispelled, or… whatever, and we’ll get to go home to Canterlot. Those five aren’t part of the plan. They were never part of the plan.”

“But… they’re your friends… right?”

Twilight took a deep breath and walked past him, leaving the question unanswered. She headed for the girls, stopping a foot or so away, and cleared her throat. “Everypony I’m afraid there’s been a slight miscommunication: I won’t be needing you to accompany me on this journey.”

Five pairs of brows furrowed and their owners exchanged confused glances with each other.

“Why not?” Derpy asked.

Twilight sighed internally. Celestia forbid they just leave and make it easy on me. “Because…” She caught herself. Because I don’t want you around.

Twilight took a deep breath, using the time to think of a different excuse. Sure she didn’t want these five tagging along — especially considering the last adventure they’d been on — but she also didn’t want to hurt their feelings. She’d have to let them down with tact and grace.

Or just use the strategy that worked last time.

“...Because don’t you all have something else to do?” Twilight finished. This same question managed to drive away the original Bearers and she hoped for the same effect here. Unfortunately, there wasn’t even a pause before all five started shaking their heads. “But… Derpy, aren’t you supposed to go back to work?”

“I’m still technically on leave, so my boss won’t mind.”

Twilight scrunched her brow. “Uh… Bon Bon, don’t you have to look after your shop?”

She shrugged. “Business has been good enough that I can afford to close up for a few days.”

Twilight bit her lip. “Vinyl, what about you? Any conflicts of interest?”

“Just an interest in conflict. Come on, Smart Mare, you know I’m down for this.”

Right, how could I think she had any responsibilities to take care of.

In desperation, Twilight turned to the last two mares. “Octavia, Lyra, surely you two can’t afford to skip orchestra rehearsal.”

Octavia smiled. “I appreciate the concern, Twilight, but you need not worry. I gave everypony the day off and made some arrangements with Noteworthy in case we’re gone longer than that. Besides,” she nudged the green mare next to her. “I can use the time for some one-on-one practice with Lyra.”

Lyra gave a cautious, yet hopeful, smile of her own. “As long as we don’t fall off another cliff then I’m good to go.”

Twilight held her scrunched-brow-bit-lip pose long enough for her acquaintances to think she was constipated. Plan A had crumbled before her, so it was up to tact and grace to try and salvage this trip.

Deep breath. “Look, girls—”

She didn’t get any further than that. A high-pitched squeal of train wheels braking against the rail shattered their conversation and commanded Twilight’s attention.

Her head whipped around followed by a gasp. “They’re here!”

Vinyl cocked her head to the side. “Who’s here?”

Derpy pinched her lip and shrugged. “They are… apparently.”

With narrowed eyes Vinyl looked at Twilight. “Have you been making other friends behind our backs or something?”

Excitement coursed through Twilight, enough that she didn’t even feel the need to correct Vinyl. She bounded up the steps of the train station, Spike on her heels. After a few looks of confusion, her acquaintances followed.

Twilight reached the terminal just as the doors on the train car squeaked open. Normally ponies would be pouring in and out, even in a town the size of Ponyville, yet there was a stark emptiness around them. This was because the train was a private transit sent by Celestia herself and there were only a few passengers on board.

The first thing out the train car was a suit of armor. Actually, it was more of a pile of armor plates that had been stacked on top of each other in a desperate attempt to hide the pony who wore it. This was likely an attempt to make a big reveal. It didn’t work, because just before his helmet was removed to reveal his shaggy blue mane Twilight knew who he was.

“Shining!” She bounded forward as he finished taking off the helmet and nearly tackled him into a hug.

“Twily!” he exclaimed, giving a surprised laugh and returning the hug. “Geeze, the way you’re acting you’d think we haven’t seen each other in months.”

“Ugh, it’s felt like months,” Twilight said.

“It’s only been a couple of weeks,” Spike corrected.

“Hey Spike.” Shining exchanged nods with the small dragon, the brotherly version of a hug-hello.

“Hey Smart Mare, you didn’t say anything about a stallion friend.”

Twilight suddenly dropped her vice-like hug on her brother. “What are…” she glanced between her brother and her acquaintances. “Oh! No, no, no! Girls, this is my brother, Shining Armor.”

“Brother?” Bon Bon raised an eyebrow, glancing from the blue-ish white to the lavender-ish purple. “I don’t really see the family resemblance.”

Shining laughed. “Yeah, we get that a lot. Anyway, it’s nice to meet you all. You know, Twilight didn’t tell me she was bringing a few friends.”

Twilight’s jaw clenched at the last word.

“She must not be that good at telling ponies things then. After all, she didn’t even mention to us she had an older brother.” Octavia fixed Twilight with a glance. “You’d think that would come up, given all the conversations we had.”

“Really?” Shining playfully rubbed Twilight’s mane in a light noogie, much to her chagrin, given the current audience. “Well then I guess introductions are in order. I’m Shining Armor, Captain of the Royal Guard.”

Vinyl pulled her shades up above her face. “Name’s Vinyl, but feel free to call me: anytime.”

Shining blinked. “Uh… what?”

Twilight nearly smacked herself. And then nearly smacked Vinyl. And then nearly smacked Vinyl again.

Geeze, thirty seconds in and she’s already hitting on my brother.

“I’m Octavia.” Octavia mercifully stepped in, saving the moment. “It's a pleasure to meet you.”

“My name’s Lyra.”

“Bon Bon.”

“And I’m Derpy!”

Shining gave a warm smile. “It’s nice to meet all of you.”

“And it is very nice to meet you.” Vinyl’s voice was deeper than usual and the way her red irises drilled Shining had an almost… hungry feel to it. Twilight’s spine shivered at the thought.

Shining Armor, however, took the wise decision to ignore it completely. “Well... it’s good that introductions are out of the way. Now we can—”

“Aren’t you forgetting someone?”

Heads turned back to the train car, Shining Armor’s the most reluctant of the bunch. Stepping into view was pink mare with a tri-colored — if not a little messy — mane and regalia befitting a princess. Her mere presence caused six gasps among the ponies watching.

Twilight gasped with happiness. Seeing Cadance, her old foalsitter, was a welcomed inclusion along with her brother, given the five unwelcomed mares she currently had to deal with.

Said unwelcomed mares, however, gasped with surprise. While Twilight saw an old friend, they couldn’t see past the horn, wings, and crown that Cadance wore.

“Y-Your Majesty!” Octavia stumbled out, bowing immediately. Four more faces joined hers on the floor a moment later.

Cadance blushed at the fanfare. “Oh please, there’s no need for that. I haven’t… I don’t…” She hastily ran her hoof through her mane in an effort to save face. “I just woke up.”

“You sure she’s a princess?” Vinyl asked Octavia, their heads rising up from the ground.

“Cadance!” Twilight squealed with happiness. She ran forward as a smile broke out on Cadance’s face.

“Twilight!”

They hopped in front of each other, beginning a dance.

“Sunshine, sunshine,

ladybugs awake!

Clap your hooves

and do a little shake!”

They ended the chant, their rear ends wiggling in the air. Shining and Spike barely paid the ritual any mind, having witnessed it plenty of times before. Twilight’s acquaintances, on the other hoof, had their shock levels set to ‘gaping mouth’.

Recovering quickly, Vinyl leaned over to Octavia and whispered, “Definitely not a princess.”

Octavia could only nod.

“You’re a good dancer, Twilight,” Derpy offered.

Twilight’s face dipped into a deep red. In her enthusiasm, she had completely forgotten her acquaintances were here. Judging from their reactions — everything from Vinyl’s smirk to Lyra’s giggles to Bon Bon’s surprised eyebrow raise — she wasn’t going to live this down anytime soon.

Thankfully her brother noticed and was able to divert the subject of conversation. “Nice of you to finally join us, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza.”

Cadance’s blush dropped in favor of a more aggravated look. “Well, I would have been out sooner if somepony had thought to wake me from my nap.”

Shining narrowed his eyes. “Sorry, but I just like you better that way. You make less noise.”

“What?” Cadance fixed him with a hard glare.

Twilight’s pupils shrunk and darted back and forth between the two. What was going on? Shining and Cadance had both been happy a second ago and now...

“Ooh, tension!” Vinyl grinned. “This is getting interesting.”

“Vinyl just… no.” Octavia shook her head.

Twilight ignored them, walking in between the stare down. “Uh, Shining, Cadance… is everything okay?”

They blinked, snapping out of their silent stare-down.

“Uh… yeah, everything’s fine, Twily.” Shining relaxed a little.

“Sorry about that. My guard and I were just… differing in our opinions.” Cadance brushed down a few more rebellious hair strands and offered Twilight a smile.

“Right,” Twilight dubiously replied. Something was definitely wrong between the two of them. “You guys know you can tell me if something’s wrong. Are you having second thoughts about going with me?”

Shining and Cadance shared a looked and just from their posture Twilight knew they were having a silent conversation. It was something that had always seemed to happen a lot between them, especially when Twilight was younger. It had always made her feel a little left out then and now was no exception.

“Everything’s fine, Twilight. Trust me.” Cadance’s eyes darted back to the train car. “I wouldn’t back out of this. Auntie Celestia asked me to come along and given the circumstances there was no way I was going to refuse.”

“And you know I’ll always be here for you.” Shining rustled her mane. “Now come on, we got work to do.”

“Yeah,” Derpy chipped in. “We better start walking if we want to make it to the Everfree at a reasonable time. Wouldn’t want to blindly stumble around it at night again.”

“Oh we’re not walking,” Twilight told her.

“Huh?”

Twilight pointed behind her. “We’ll be using the train.”

“There are train tracks in the Everfree Forest?” Vinyl blinked in surprise.

“No, of course not.” Twilight groaned. “Look, I did a little research on the Everfree Forest this time around and I think I’ve plotted out the best route for us to take.” Her horn sparked to life and she sent her magic digging through her saddlebags, eventually pulling out a map of Equestria. She flung it onto the floor and everypony quickly gathered round.

“Okay, look.” Twilight pressed her hoof over a blotch that represented Everfree. “Right here, there’s a dip in the forest. If we entered from there, we’d be able to get deeper quickly and safely, while also providing ourselves with an easy escape route if things get too dangerous. So we’ll take the train here.” She moved her hoof up, hovering over a dot that represented a town. “To Dodge Junction. Then in the morning we can head out, giving ourselves plenty of daylight to work with.”

“Good going, Twily.” Shining grinned with pride. “I see that big brain of yours hasn’t been slouching lately.”

“It sounds like a pretty solid plan,” Bon Bon agreed with a nod. “I’m sold.”

“Thank you.” Twilight smiled, allowing herself to feel just a little bit of pride.

“I say we get going.” Cadance backed away from the quasi-huddle. “We shouldn’t waste time.”

The rest of them dispersed, shuffling toward the train car. Twilight stayed back to roll up her map and return it to her saddlebags.

As she was doing so, Spike approached her. “So, I take it through all the plural pronouns you were using that you’ve changed your mind about bringing the girls.”

“What?” Twilight froze. Her eyes darted over to the five extras ambling over to the train.

No no no no no no no NO NO!

It was too late to stop them, however. Shining and Cadance had already accepted them as members of the party. To force them away now wouldn’t look good. Not to mention she didn’t have a way to do so without coming off as condescendingly mean.

She sighed. “Looks like they’re staying.”

“Awesome.” Spike bounded forward, not wanting to be left behind either.

“Hey, Twilight, you coming or what?” Lyra called back.

Twilight turned just in time to see the mint-green unicorn be the first to step into the train car. However, the second Lyra turned her head back to the train, her entire face paled and she backpedalled, a scream blaring out from her mouth.

“Um… Princess Celestia?”

Her ears flicked at the voice of her assistant, Inkwell. She turned to the mahogany mare and regretted it immediately.

Inkwell’s forelegs were crossed, her head bowed slightly with her eyes turned upward. It was her Princess-I-think-you’ve-made-a-horrible-mistake-but-I’m-too-scared-to-say-anything-because-you-might-fire-me pose.

“Yes, Inkwell?” Celestia asked, attempting to inject a little mirth in her tone to put her assistant at ease.

“I… are you sure you made the right choice about the Everfree expedition?” Inkwell’s voice was still the epitome of meekness.

“Regarding Cadance and Shining Armor? I can’t say for sure.” She shuffled around the paperwork in her magical grip. “Ever since that little falling out of theirs they haven’t been able to stay in the same room for more than five minutes. But Cadance was so happy for a chance to get out of the castle, and Captain Armor was really grateful to spend some time with his sister, so hopefully they’ll put aside their disagreement for now.”

She dabbed her quill in ink and scribbled her signature on a new infrastructure bill. “Then again, I’m not sure if either of them told Twilight yet, so it may become an issue later on. Hopefully not, but I can’t be too sure, no?”

Inkwell rubbed her fetlock nervously. “Uh… I was actually more worried about your decision for them to bring along… her.”

“You mean Nightmare Moon?”

Inkwell nodded.

“I can see why that would give you some concern.” Celestia let the papers lower so she could properly talk. “It wasn’t an easy choice to make, but in the end, it all came down to time.”

“Time, Princess?” Inkwell’s brow scrunched together.

“Yes.” Celestia turned her head to the window. Her eyes came to rest on the stone gardens just outside of the palace. “I’m afraid we don’t have much of it.”

Lyra was breathing heavily into a paper bag. She had finally, mercifully, stopped screaming a few minutes ago in favor of hyperventilation. As the brown paper crumpled, Bon Bon patted Lyra’s back soothingly. Despite this, she didn’t show any signs of slowing down.

To be honest, Twilight couldn’t really blame her. It must have been quite a shock to walk into the train car and see manifested darkness chained down onto a chair and giving her an annoyed look.

In fact, Nightmare Moon was still giving her an annoyed look, just from several seats away. She would probably be spouting off complaints or death threats as well, but she was currently wearing a muzzle. Judging from the daggers Nightmare was staring, it only served to enrage her further, but Cadance had explained it was the only way she was able to make it through the trip without flinging herself out of the train.

“Just breathe, Lyra,” Bon Bon said. “It’s all right.” The bag inflated and collapsed again.

“So.” Vinyl looked at Twilight. “Just going to throw this out there, but did you plan on telling us about the seven-foot tall demonic alicorn we’d be riding with, or was it supposed to be a surprise?”

I hadn’t planned on telling you, because I hadn’t planned on you all even showing up!

Twilight took a deep breath. “I didn’t get the chance… sorry.”

Vinyl shrugged. “Well, don’t beat yourself up over traumatizing Lyra, a’ight?”

“Okay.” Twilight did, in fact, feel bad about it. Nearly giving Lyra a heart attack was never something she had wanted to do and just watching her breathe the same breath over and over in an attempt to calm down only served to make a guilty feeling bubble up in her stomach.

The door to their car opened and Shining stepped through. “Just talked to the conductor. We’ll be heading out soon.”

“I’m not so sure Lyra is ready for movement,” Bon Bon replied. She gingerly patted her friends back.

Derpy weakly smiled. “Well, worst case scenario she already has a barf bag.”

“Charming.” Twilight sighed.

The sharp whistle of the train engine broke everypony’s train of thought. With a rhythmic chug-chug-chug, the wheels turned and they all lurched forward.

Lyra’s breathing became less frantic, so the group around her gradually dispersed. Bon Bon stuck by Lyra until she was sure the hyperventilation phase was over. Shining and Cadance distanced themselves from each other as much as possible, marking their territory on opposite sides of the train. Octavia took a seat by the window, mumbling something about wishing she’d brought her cello along.

Twilight plopped down on a chair with a huff. It was astounding how fast her plans had fallen apart. These mares were almost omnipresent; no matter where she went she could never get any peace and q—

“‘Sup Smart Mare.” Vinyl dropped into the seat next to her.

Unable to contain a sigh, Twilight looked away. “What do you want, Vinyl?”

“Uh… to sit down?” Vinyl rolled her eyes. “Come on, Smart Mare, loosen up a bit, we’re adventuring!”

“I’m perfectly loose, thank you very much.”

Vinyl snorted. “Come on, Smart Mare, you’re wound up so tight your springs are gonna snap at any moment.”

“Who’s springs are gonna snap?” Derpy poked her head over from the seat behind them.

“Smart Mare,” Vinyl answered.

“Oh yeah.” Derpy playfully smacked her head to assert the ‘duh’-ness of the situation. “I shoulda known. It’s a wonder her springs haven’t snapped already.”

“Yup.”

“Stop talking about me like I’m not here!” Twilight huffed.

“Oh, sorry.” Derpy looked Twilight in the eye. “It’s a wonder your springs haven’t snapped already.”

“That’s not what I meant!” Twilight rolled around. She locked her gaze firmly out the window, watching the landscape roll by in a green-brown-blue blur. Unfortunately her ears didn’t work the same way.

“So are you sure you don’t want to relax a little?” Vinyl asked, sounding a smidgen more sincere this time around.

“Yeah, you really should try it.”

It was Twilight’s turn to roll her eyes. Unfortunately, she was still facing the window, which took a bite out of the effectiveness of the gesture. She turned around and gave her acquaintances another eyeroll point blank. “Have you ever tried to relax before? It’s a paradox.”

“Well, pair of socks or no, you should give it a shot.”

“You know, that place we’re going, Dodge Junction, I’ve been there before.” Derpy tapped her chin in thought. “They have this really amazing cherry field and the owner lets ponies walk through it for free. It’s a great place for taking a little breather. Especially if you just had to fly four heavy packages around for hours.” She took a long sigh.

“Oh sure, let’s just waste time walking through a cherry field. Great idea.” Twilight fired off another point blank eye roll, the sarcasm dripping from her voice. “And maybe if we ask very politely, the owner would let us waste even more time and help her harvest the cherries.”

Vinyl raised an eyebrow, well aware of the mocking tone. “Sounds good to me, how about you, Derpy?”

“I’d like that.”

“Wait, that’s not what I—”

“Hey!” Vinyl called out. Every head in the train car turned her way. “Anypony else want to hit up the cherry fields with us at Dodge?”

Twilight quickly stood up. “If we had time, that is!” She glanced at Vinyl. “Because we don’t.”

“Wasn’t the plan to spend the night at Dodge Junction, Twilight?” Cadance drew everypony’s attention. “I see no reason why you can’t spend a little time with your friends before we all go to sleep if you want.”

“I’m in.” Bon Bon nodded.

“Sounds like fun,” Octavia added.

Lyra wheezed.

Twilight forced a smile. Wow, thanks Cadance. That’s just… great.

In the back of the car, Nightmare Moon groaned. Sitting back down, Twilight found herself agreeing with the dark alicorn. It was going to be a long, long, long adventure.

Welcome to Dodge

Three hours: that’s how long it took to get from Ponyville to Dodge Junction by train.

It felt like three centuries.

It wasn’t the overly-repetitive clack-clack-clack of the train that made the ride so unbearable. Nor was it Nightmare Moon’s constant grumbling from behind her muzzle. No, it was the disease that all five of her acquaintances shared which Twilight had dubbed Never Shut Up Syndrome.

“So how did you meet Princess Mi Amore Cadenza?”

“And what was up with that dance?”

“Is it all right if we call her Cadance like she asked and not her full title? Because I don’t want to be thrown in jail for not showing a Princess proper respect.”

“Are you sure Nightmare Moon isn’t going to break free and murder us all in our sleep?”

“Does she have to wear that muzzle?”

“Do you think we could have our own dance to say hi?”

Twilight had no choice but to curb the symptoms of Never Shut Up Syndrome with twenty cc’s of Curt Responses.

“She was my foalsitter, that’s personal, yes, of course she won’t, yes and heck no.”

But that proved to be a fruitless effort. Every time she brushed off a question, three more popped up. It was the hydra of small talk and not even Shining and Cadance were spared.

Though, for them the questions were no problem. In fact, they both somehow managed to keep a smile and cheerful tone as they held a conversation with the mares.

Eventually, Twilight had all she could take. She excused herself under the guise of finding a bathroom and hunkered down one train car over, hoping to ride out the journey in peace.

She curled up on the floor, rested her head on the wall of the train and groaned to herself.

“Why… why did they have to come?”

Rhetorical question, of course. With how she’d been practically joined at the hip with those five mares it was little wonder that they had found a way to tag along on this too.

Twilight leaned against the wall, silently bemoaning her misfortune. She remained that way until there was a tap on the door.

Glancing up, she saw her brother’s face in the window. “Uh… come in.”

Shining nodded, popping open the door and walking inside. He quickly shut it and slumped onto the floor next to Twilight.

“So why are you hanging back here?” he asked. “All your friends are in there having a good time.”

“They’re not my friends!” Twilight snapped.

Shining furrowed his brows. “Is something wrong?”

“Yes.”

“...You wanna tell me what it is?”

Twilight turned her head and mumbled, “Everything.”

“Everything?”

She whirled around, anger bubbling into her tone. “Yes, everything! All the things! It’s all wrong.” She sighed. “I just wanted this trip to be you, me, Cadance and Spike. You know, so everything could be like the good old days when we got to spend time together… Nightmare Moon notwithstanding.”

Shining shifted, his armor rustling at the motion. He stared straight ahead. “Yeah well, I think the good old days are over for good.”

“...Are you talking about you and Cadance?” He nodded. “Yeah, what was up with all that? You two were practically at each other’s throats.”

He sighed. “It’s… complicated. I really don’t feel like getting into it right now.”

“Oh… okay.” Twilight filed her curiosity on the subject in the back of her mind. It was far from satisfied, but she knew she wasn’t going to get anything new out of her brother for the time being.

“So what about you and your ‘not-friends’?” Shining asked, switching topics. “Why didn’t you want them along?”

“It’s… complicated.”

Shining raised an eyebrow. “Uh-huh.”

“It is!” Twilight groaned. “Look, they’re nice mares and all, but I don’t want them around. Not on something as important as this. Because the last time they were with me in the Everfree…” She trailed off, giving her saddlebag a squeeze. The soft clank of the Elements inside filled in the blank for Shining.

“I get it, you blame them for how the Elements turned out.”

“No… Yes… A little…” Twilight rubbed her temple. “I know they didn’t mean to do any harm; they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I was the one who screwed up, but… part of me just wants to pin it all on them.” Her flopped her head down. “I just keep thinking that if they stick around, everything will go wrong again. Then Princess Celestia will never forgive me. Her sister will stay that monster forever and she’ll always hate me for it.”

“Whoa, hey now.” Shining wrapped a comforting hoof around her. “Princess Celestia doesn’t hate you. I talked to her, like, yesterday. She’s more worried about you than anything else.”

“Really?”

“Really really.” Shining offered her an uplifting smile. “Look, don’t be too hard on yourself, Twily. Or your ‘not-friends’ for that matter. You made a mistake, but it’s not the end of the world. And hey, we’re well on our way to fixing everything anyways.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” She forced the corners of her mouth upward. “Thanks for being my impromptu therapist.”

“That’s what big brothers are for,” Shining said, pushing himself up. “Ready to re-join everypony?”

Twilight opened her mouth, but before she could utter a single syllable a piercing whistle assaulted her ears. The screech of the wheels as the brakes slammed on them was soon to follow. She winced. “What the…?”

Shining Armor grinned. “It looks like we’re here.”

Standing, Twilight looked out the window. The outside world was crawling by as the train slowed. Brownish-yellow sand with the occasional splotch of green cacti rolled passed her field of vision. Yup, it was a desert.

As the train finally lumbered to a stop, Twilight turned. “Well, I guess we’d better find an inn.”

She made a break for the door, only to be stopped by an outstretched hoof. “Whoa there, Twily. I’ll handle the inn. Why don’t you go with your ‘not-friends’ to that cherry orchard they mentioned?”

“What?” She backed up. “Shining, you know I don’t want to go with them. Vinyl was just being… Vinyl, when she said that.”

“Well Vinyl being Vinyl had a good idea. You really should relax a little; it’s not a good idea to go into the forest stressed out and nervous.”

Twilight sighed. “Fine. Okay. I’ll make an attempt to relax.”

Shining smiled. “Thanks Twily.” He lowered his hoof and nudged the door open. They walked back into the other train car just as everypony else was getting up from their seats.

“Everypony ready?” Cadance asked.

All the heads in the train car nodded, save Nightmare Moon, who grunted in displeasure. Derpy looked over at her and frowned. “Does she really have to wear that thing?”

“Trust me, it’s for the best,” Cadance assured her.

“But it just seems so… mean.”

“Well to be fair, Derpy,” Bon Bon interjected. “This is the mare who tried to plunge Equestria into eternal night and kill all of us. I think a little meanness is justified.”

Derpy frowned, but everypony was too busy moving to the exit to notice. Before Cadance could take the first step out onto the ground, Vinyl rushed forward and blocked her path.

Blinking, Cadance looked at her with confusion. “Uh… what are you doing?”

Vinyl grinned. “This is a desert town, right? That means any second now we should see some tumbleweed, just like in those classic movies.”

Twilight groaned. “Vinyl, that’s stupid. The odds that a tumbleweed will just happen by the train are—”

“Shhh! You’re gonna miss it, Smart Mare.” Vinyl paused, glancing out into the dusty terrain. “Right… NOW!”

Nothing.

Spike peered through her legs to get a better view. “I don’t see anything.”

“My timing was just off.” Vinyl pointed into the desert. “Now!”

Still nothing.

“Can we get off yet?” Octavia asked, sounding about half as annoyed as Twilight felt.

Vinyl sighed. “Yeah, I guess.” She jumped down, kicking up a thin cloud of dust.

“I guess you shouldn’t have based your knowledge of the desert off of movies cliches,” Lyra said, hopping down after her.

“Fair point. But it still is a bit of a bummer—”

Tap-tap-tap

A tumbleweed bounced right in front of them and Vinyl stopped talking just to watch it pass by.

“Too little too late, pal!” she called after it as the wind blew it away.

“Well now that… whatever-that-was is done, let’s go.” Twilight brushed passed Vinyl and turned to the right, a cluster of brick and wood buildings coming into view.

“Sounds like someone’s eager to get to the cherry farm,” Lyra noted as everypony else piled off of the train.

“Eager’s not the word I would use,” Twilight muttered under her breath.

“Nor would I.”

Twilight’s blood ran cold as she recognized the voice. Cold, sinister, raspy… she would never forget that voice. She whirled around, just in time to watch Nightmare Moon hobble off the train car.

“Nightmare!” Shining’s horn burst alight, instantly encasing her in a bubble field. Twilight blinked at the speed he was able to react. Her acquaintances had barely begun to leap with surprise and he was already in attack mode.

Cadance was no slouch either. She aimed her own horn at Nightmare, already charging an attack. “How did you get your muzzle off?”

Nightmare giggled with fervent giddiness. The sound sent a chill scampering down Twilight’s spine and she instinctively took a few steps back.

“Hey! Answer the question.” Shining compressed the bubble around her. “Are any of your other restraints gone?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Nightmare grinned. “I honestly don’t know why you’re mad at me. Your little girlfriend over there is the one who couldn’t keep a muzzle on me.”

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Shining grumbled. “In fact, I barely tolerate her.”

Cadance’s face burned with indignation. “Hey, shut your mouth before I turn this thing on you!” She raised her glowing horn threateningly.

Nightmare flashed her teeth. “You know, while you’re obliterating him, do you think you’d have time to do the same to these pesky rings on my horn?” She pointed to the three gold inhibitors on her horn. “They’re even more of a bother than you two.”

“Look, Princess Cadenza is known to do some stupid stuff—”

“Oh that is it!”

“Wait!” Derpy leapt between them.

Their argument interrupted, Shining and Cadance blinked in confusion.

“Um… yes, Derpy?” Cadance quierried.

Derpy shot a glance between the nightmarish abomination and her friends. She took a deep breath. “I was the one who took Nightmare Moon’s muzzle off.”

“What?” Shining and Cadance simultaneously recoiled. Their shock was so great that Shining’s bubble spell faltered and popped. Nightmare Moon casually glanced around at her newfound freedom for a moment before viciously shuffling off in an escape attempt. The chains around her legs clattered noisily as she did.

“Derpy, why in Equestria would you do that?” Shining asked, his horn sparking to life. A new bubble shield nonchalantly enveloped Nightmare Moon.

“Dang it!” She beat her head against the bubble, frustration growing.

Derpy looked at the newly encased Nightmare and sighed. “I’m sorry, it’s just… it’s so mean to keep a muzzle on her. I understand why she needs all the other stuff, but why do you have to not let her talk?”

“Uh, Derpy, you do realize this is Nightmare Moon we’re talking about, right?” Octavia reminded her. “This… monster tried to blot out the sun twice. You really think she deserves the freedom of speech?”

“But—”

“She’s right, Derpy.” Cadance stepped forward. “Besides, you weren’t on the trip down here. You still have no idea how downright annoying she can be.” Both she and Shining shivered at the memory.

“Aw cut her some slack.” Lyra trotted up next to Derpy. “She was just trying to be nice. I don’t see the harm in letting her speak freely.”

“RELEASE ME FROM THIS PINK PRISON OR I SHALL RAIN DOWN A FORCE OF A MILLENNIUM OF ANGST UPON YOU!”

Twilight’s bones rattled at Nightmare’s scream. She clamped her hooves over her ears, her acquaintances following suit.

“Would you be quiet!” Shining shouted at her. “And my magic is a light magenta, not pink.”

Nightmare Moon snorted derisively, but mercifully switched to muttering curses.

Vinyl was the first to uncover her ears. She turned to Shining and draped a hoof over his neck. “Aw, relax big guy. You know, I happen to think pink is a very manly color.”

“Uh…” Shining’s mouth forgot how to close and he looked like he didn’t know whether to blush or push Vinyl away. Instead of doing either, he just stared stupidly while the mare around him suggestively bounced her eyebrows.

“Hooves to yourself, Vinyl.” Octavia grabbed a mouthful of electric blue mane and tugged her friend away.

“Ah, Tavi geeze!”

Shining mouthed a “thank you” to Octavia while Cadance rolled her eyes and looked away. “Derpy, at least give me the muzzle back. I have a feeling we’ll need it.”

Derpy dug her hooves from her ears. “I don’t know if I should…”

Twilight shook her head, ears still ringing. “I suggest you give it to her, Derpy. Do you really want another shout like that one?”

Her pupils shrunk. “Okay, okay, I’ll give it back.” She turned, pointing. “I left it on my seat on the tra—” She froze, along with Shining and Cadance.

The train that had been idling by them a few moments ago was gone. Twilight glanced further along the track and saw it to be a mere speck in the horizon. She realized it must’ve started up while they were talking and Nightmare Moon’s outburst covered up it’s departure.

“Great,” Cadance groaned. “Just great.”

“Sorry,” Derpy whispered, looking like she might shrink down to the size of a mouse at any second.

Cadance sighed. “Don’t beat yourself up over it; worse things have happened. I just can’t think of any right now.”

Derpy didn’t respond, electing to stare shamefully at the ground instead. Lyra put a hoof around her. “It’s all right, Derpy. We know you had good intentions.”

“Thanks.” The corners of Derpy’s mouth tugged upward, but they dropped back down under the weight of her guilt.

Twilight cleared her throat, sensing a change of subject would help. “Hey, why don’t we go find that inn? I’m sure we could all use a rest after that train ride.”

Vinyl raised her eyebrows. “Trying to skip out on the cherry fields, Smart Mare?”

She groaned internally. I’d really hoped they’d have forgotten about that.

“Right! The cherry fields.” Derpy’s voice had regained some of its usual bounce. “Twilight, you can’t miss that.”

“I have to admit, the way you’ve been talking it up has made me a little excited to see it.” Octavia turned to her. “You wouldn’t want to miss out, right Twilight?”

“Uh…” She felt a hoof pat her back.

“Go on, Twily,” Shining told her. “You really should spend a little time with them.” He winked, a nod to their earlier conversation.

Twilight’s ears folded down in defeat. “Okay, fine. Let’s go look at the stupid cherry trees.”

“Awesome!” Vinyl hook her foreleg around her neck. “Smart Mare, I guarantee you probably won’t regret this.”

“...Yay?”

Twilight probably wasn’t going to regret this.

It felt really weird admitting that, especially considering how adamant she’d been against going to the cherry orchard, but at the same time it was true.

Derpy’s description hadn’t done it justice. The fields were an oasis, a total escape from the gritty desert. Rows of supple trees dotted acre after acre and the ground was laden with dew, making each step refreshing. And the cherries! By Celestia! Twilight didn’t know they had so many colors. Red and yellow were a given, obviously, but as she delved deeper into the orchard she found a rainbow of colors, each like dazzling gems nestled in the trees. Clearly this orchard had been cross-breeding and cultivating like wildfire to get results like these and Twilight’s mouth watered at just the thought of what the cherries might taste like.

“This is pretty awesome,” Spike said from her back.

“Not too shabby, eh Smart Mare?” Vinyl nudged her side.

“Yeah… I guess so.” Twilight allowed a smile to brighten her face.

“Really?” Derpy nudged her from the other side. Twilight nodded, eliciting a grin from the pegasus. “Well that’s a relief. I was worried you’d hate this place after Vinyl all but forced you into coming.”

Vinyl snickered lightly. “To be honest, I wouldn’t have been surprised if she came here by choice and hated it.”

Twilight furrowed her brow. “I… well… come on, I can like things.”

“Could’ve fooled me.” Twilight whipped her head around to see Bon Bon, who in turned shrugged. “Well it's true. You never seem all that interested in… anything really. Anything save the Elements of course.”

“That… that’s not true.”

“Of course it isn’t,” Spike jumped her her defense. “Twilight likes all kinds of things: reading, science, learning about new magical spells…” Twilight smiled at his attempt to defend her.

“Are any of the things she likes actually cool?” Vinyl grumbled off to the side. This was returned with a jab to the ribs from Octavia.

“Vinyl!” she hissed.

“Ah! Sorry, geeze.”

Twilight’s smile faltered and Lyra stepped in. “How about we just go back to enjoying the cherry grove, huh? That’s sounds like a good idea to me.”

“Sure.” Twilight turned suddenly and began walking. She felt Spike grip her mane to prevent from flying off at the sudden motion. “It’s not like I wanted to talk to any of you anyway.”

“Wait, Twilight!”

It was no good. She was already ambling off deeper into the orchard, not hearing any hooffalls of pursuit.

“Has anypony ever told you that pink is an awful color on you?”

Shining’s jaw clenched at the remark and shot back a glare.

Nightmare pressed her face against the edge of the translucent bubble, her grin still threatening despite being bathed in the light magenta of Shining’s shield. He turned his head, focusing on the path ahead instead of giving her the satisfaction of responding.

Cadance, however, had no such intention. “Will you just be quiet already?”

Nightmare’s slitted eyes barely glanced over, as if it was a chore to look at her. “And it looks even worse on you.”

Cadance’s eyebrow twitched. “Hey, I’m a natural pink!”

The dark alicorn brought her face away from the bubble and scoffed. “Your point?” She glanced between the two. “In fact, I bet that’s the reason your little coltfriend over there despises you so much.”

“Grr…” Cadance bared her teeth, her features compressing into an angry snarl.

Shining felt a cold sweat form on the back of his neck. He hadn’t seen that look on her since… well, since the day he told her it was over. However, Nightmare didn’t have enough sense to be scared yet.

“Oh, it seems I hit a nerve.” Nightmare Moon clapped, which was not an easy feat given her chains. “Am I right, Captain?”

“Do not answer her.” Cadance glared daggers at him.

Shining’s sweat doubled. “Uh… let’s just get to the inn.” He levitated the bubble carrying Nightmare Moon further away. While it was more of a strain on his magic, it was less of a strain on his ears and therefore definitely worth it.

“Fine,” Cadance grumbled.

With that they receded back into silence, despite the occasional muffled taunt from Nightmare Moon. In fact, it was a little too silent now that Shining thought about it. While Dodge wasn’t exactly a Canterlot level town, he’d expected there to be some activity. As he looked around at the shut doors, barren streets and lack of movement, he found himself surprised that they hadn’t encountered anymore tumbleweeds.

Cadance had noticed as well. “Where is everypony?”

“No idea. It feels like a ghost town here.”

“There are ghosts here?” Nightmare Moon pressed her face against the bubble again. “Perhaps I can convince them to ally with me!”

Shining and Cadance both rolled their eyes. In all actuality, Nightmare's presence was probably what caused the ponies to hole up in their homes. Shining found he couldn't blame them as he saw the inn come into view.

Thank Celestia. His pace unconsciously quickened. The sooner they checked in the better. Or rather, the sooner Twilight and her ‘not’ friends returned, the better. Shining really disliked being alone with a delusional lunatic.

Oh, and Nightmare Moon too.

“Are you sure you don’t want to go back and talk to them?”

“Yes, Spike. I’m sure.” Twilight huffed, unable to be calmed down by even the serenity of the cherry groves. Her hooffalls were heavy as she trotted deeper into the orchard. It had only been a couple of minutes since she had separated herself from the other girls and her frustration wasn't even close to subsiding.

“Really?” Spike’s tone was somber but hopeful, like he felt he could draw out the answer he wanted from her if he tried hard enough. “I mean, you’d probably feel a lot better if you did.”

“I’m fine, Spike.” Twilight stopped walking and sighed. “I just… I hate it when they get like that.”

“Like what?” She felt Spike slide off her back.

Turning to face him, Twilight sighed again. “When they act like everything’s no big deal. Like all of my problems are insignificant. Here I am, trying to find a way to fix my mistake and reset the Elements of Harmony and they’re more worried about whether or not I like a stupid cherry orchard!”

Spike bit his lip. “I’m sure they didn’t mean it like that.”

“Well it’s certainly what it felt like.” Twilight sat down in a frustrated heap. “Why can’t they understand how important this is to me?”

"I... don't know, Twilight." Spike sat down next to her.

Twilight sighed for a third time. “It’s worse when we’re all together. They always gang up on me and try to make me feel bad just because I want to fix the Elements of Harmony.”

“They didn’t strike me as the type to do that when I met them,” Spike said.

“Well they are.” Twilight huffed then frowned. “I just wish they would stop."

"Stop ganging up on you, or stop hanging around you in general?"

"Either... both... I don't know."

They sat in silence for a moment, until the sound of flapping wings drew their attention. Landing a mere few yards away, a morose gray pegasus could barely meet their eyes.

"Derpy?"

"Sorry for eavesdropping, it's just I—" She stopped short. "We split up to try and find you after you ran off and when I finally saw you here you I heard what got you so upset and... I'm sorry." Twilight was surprised to see water lining Derpy's eyes.

She stood up and immediately Derpy ran over and tackled her into a hug.

"Wha—"

"We never wanted to make you feel like we weren't on your side, Twilight. And I'm so sorry we did." She sniffled as she tightly held her.

Twilight was at a loss for words. Her acquaintance's display of emotion was almost foreign to her. Nopony had ever cared this much about upsetting her before and now that somepony actually did she didn’t quite know what to do.

Slowly, awkwardly, she put her forelegs around Derpy and returned the hug. "It's okay."

"No, it's not." Derpy pulled back to look her in the eye. "Twilight, we're your friends. We care about you and we care about fixing the Elements because it's important to you. It’s just… when you get so fixated on them, we worry about you. You have this habit of getting obsessed with the Elements, and every time you do, we're worried you'll get sucked in and never come back out. We just want to make sure that doesn't happen.”

Twilight took a deep breath. “I… wow. Derpy, I really don’t know what to say.”

“Just say you don’t hate us.” Derpy’s mismatched eyes had dilated to begging levels. “Please.”

Shooting a glance from Spike to Derpy, Twilight found it a little difficult to speak. “I… Of course I don’t hate you girls, Derpy. I’ve never hated any of you…”

A bright smile managed to find its way on Derpy’s face. “That’s a relief to hear.” She pulled away from Twilight and brushed the water from her eyes. “Sorry for going a little emotionally overboard. I was just real worried, ya know?”

“I… guess.” Twilight was just glad their awkward hug had ended. “You sure you’re okay.”

Derpy smiled. “Yeah, I’m fine. How about you?”

“I’m… better.”

“That’s good to hear. I’m sorry about before… again.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Well, I’m glad we got that all cleared up,” Spike interjected. “Do you think we can meet up with everypony else now? Shining and Cadance probably found the inn by now and could probably use a break from being alone with Nightmare Moon… and each other.”

Derpy nodded. “Yeah, it shouldn’t be too hard to find everypony. We only split up a little while ago.” She turned and spread out her wings. “Come on.”

After a few flaps she was in the air, flying off in presumably the direction of the closest mare. Twilight and Spike kept the same pace from the ground. The cherry trees rolled past her vision as she watched Derpy, her mind mulling over what had just happened.

“Well, I guess that answers your question from before,” Spike said, a smile on his face.

“Yeah.” Twilight bit her lip as she watched Derpy flutter before her. The way she’d cried over Twilight’s well being… The way all her acquaintances went off trying to find her… It was kind of sweet. Maybe they weren’t so bad after all.

Maybe she should even give them a chance.

A Night With Nightmare

“I still kinda feel bad.”

Twilight groaned and rolled her eyes. Lyra had been insisting for the past twenty minutes that she was sorry. Everypony else had stopped after their first apology, but Lyra had been more… persistent. At this point she was going to have to apologize to Twilight for annoying her with her constant apologies. And, knowing this mare, they’d quickly be trapped in an endless loop of saying “I’m sorry” and “it’s fine”, which she definitely looked forward too.

“I know Lyra, but really, it’s okay. I know you meant well and I’m not mad at you.”

“You sure?”

“Positive.” Please be done, please be done, please be done.

Lyra smiled. “Okay then.”

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. “All right, now that that’s taken care of can we please focus on getting to the inn?”

Vinyl bounced into view. “Sure thing, Smart Mare, just point us in the right direction.”

She froze. “Uh…”

Her acquaintances all turned to look at her. Octavia was the first to show concern. “Don’t tell me you don’t know where this inn is.”

“Shining and Cadance were supposed to find it! I never learned where it is in town.” Twilight’s head darted from the edge of the cherry fields to the dusty buildings of Dodge. They all looked so similar. How was she supposed to know which one was the inn?

“It’s no big deal,” Bon Bon interjected. “Why don’t we just ask the pony who owns the orchard?”

Twilight blinked, thinking back to the cream-colored mare who’d ushered them into the farm when they’d arrived. “Yeah, she’ll probably have some idea.”

Turning, she faced the upscale estate that rested in the center of the cherry grove. “Come on, girls.”

She started trotting, the hoofsteps of the mares’ behind her following. Derpy spread her wings and flew ahead. Twilight, not wanting to be outdone, unconsciously quickened her pace.

When they arrived, they saw the owner of the orchards—it was safe to assume her name had “Cherry” somewhere in it, but Twilight wasn’t going to risk getting it wrong—frantically ordering her workers about. Her elaborate mane style was frazzled, sending red locks in every direction.

“Hurry up and get those cherries loaded into the carts!” she snapped at a few of her workers. They scrambled to several rows of cherry baskets and hoisted them onto one of a fleet of chariots. “Faster! We gotta get the heck outta Dodge!”

Twilight exchanged a few glances with her acquaintances. Based on the shrugs and raised eyebrows she got, none of them knew what all the fuss was about. She cleared her throat. “Uh… ma’am?”

“Eep!” She leapt back, close to cowering. Twilight flinched at the sudden reaction.

The owner turned to them and breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, it’s just y’all.”

“What was that about?” Vinyl asked.

“You mean you haven’t heard?” Six heads shook in sync. “Some sort of demonic alicorn has shown up in town! Anypony worth their salt is packing up and leaving.”

Twilight blinked. “Oh, you mean Nightmare Moon.”

“It’s the Nightmare Moon?” The owner seemed to shrink before her. “Boys, work double time! We needed to leave yesterday!”

“Yes, ma’am!”

Twilight watched as the workers quickened their already back-breaking pace. She hadn’t considered that the citizens of Dodge would react this way when she decided they’d stop here. A pang of guilt hit her now that she knew the trouble she was causing them.

“Uh, Miss…”

“Jubilee. Cherry Jubilee.”

“Miss Jubilee, you don’t need to panic like this. I can assure you that Nightmare is not going to be wreaking havoc on Dodge Junction anytime soon.”

“Forgive me if I don’t believe you.” She looked up into the sky, nervously biting her hoof. “I feel like any minute the moon is going to rise up to block out the sun.”

“Uh, that might be because it’s almost night time,” Vinyl piped up.

Twilight rolled her eyes at the remark. “Miss Jubilee, I promise you Nightmare Moon isn’t going to bring about the end of all existence while we’re in town.”

Cherry raised her eyebrow. “And how can you guarantee something like that?”

She opened her mouth to respond, but then realized that it might not be the best idea to tell the panicking cherry farmer that she was the reason Nightmare Moon was here in the first place. “Uh…”

Vinyl stepped forward, slinging her foreleg around Twilight’s neck. “She can guarantee it because she just so happens to be the most powerful unicorn in Equestria.”

Cherry Jubilee’s other eyebrow shot up. “Really?”

“Really really.” Vinyl grinned and tightened her hold on Twilight. “You know she took down an Ursa Major?”

“Uh… it was a Ursa Minor actually…” Twilight mumbled.

“And she’s the personal protege of Princess Celestia!” Derpy threw in.

“...Actually I don’t know if I’m still considered that after—”

Bon Bon stepped forward. “She’s even braved the Everfree and returned without a scratch.”

“Wha— I sprained my hoof! What are you talking about?”

Luckily for Twilight, Cherry Jubilee was more wrapped up in the tales her acquaintances were weaving rather than the truths she was spewing.

“Oh my, I hadn’t realized I was in the presence of such a hero.” Cherry finally turned to focus on Twilight again, her face wearing a reverent gaze. “Well, if you are who these ponies say you are, then I trust you.”

Twilight opened her mouth to set the record straight, but was interrupted by a nudge from Spike. Meeting his eyes, she got the message: Let’s just figure out where the inn is, okay?

She sighed, deciding that she’d complain about being called a hero later. “Ms. Jubilee, speaking of Nightmare Moon, where did you say she was spotted?”

“Just over by the local hostel.” She turned and pointed into town. “Go down main street and take a left by the saloon. Can’t miss it… or her.”

“Thank you.”

Vinyl released Twilight and they started moving again. Lyra turned around to wave good-bye, but unfortunately for her Cherry Jubilee was flinging herself back into her work, now ordering her confused farm hoofs to unpack everything.

“Did you really have to lie to her?” Twilight asked.

“Sorry, Element o’ Honesty. Guess I should’ve figured it’d be a big deal for you.” Vinyl shrugged. “Oh well, no harm done.” Twilight grunted.

“We did at least learn where the inn is,” Bon Bon threw in as they crossed from the farmland to the town. The rustic buildings cut into Twilight’s peripheral view and she turned her head to catch a glimpse of a nearby street sign.

“Yeah, I guess that’s true.” Twilight nudged her head to the left. “Come on, it’s this way.”

They all turned, kicking up a small cloud of dust in the process. Spike was unfortunate enough to be caught on the receiving end of said cloud and let loose a fire-laced cough. Not wanting him to accidentally burn down Dodge, Twilight cast a quick levitation spell, putting him on her back.

“Thanks,” he said.

“No problem.”

The saloon that Cherry Jubilee had mentioned came up on their left. As they turned left, Vinyl came up on Twilight’s side. Just from the smile of feigned innocence she wore, Twilight could tell something was up. “What?”

Vinyl cleared her throat. “Oh, nothing. I just had a question about your brother…”

A groan leapt to the top of her throat and she didn’t bother to try and suppress it. “Yeah?”

Vinyl chuckled. “Love the enthusiasm, Smart Mare. But on a serious note, is he… you know, single?”

Twilight opened her mouth before she even had an answer ready. She really wanted to shoot down Vinyl’s hopes. Not in a mean way of course, but in a ew-please-don’t-mess-with-my-brother kind of way. Sadly, Twilight quickly came to the conclusion that she couldn’t do that. “I… don’t know,” she finally said. “He might be.”

“So I’ve got a chance is what you’re saying.” Vinyl grinned with set determination.

“Uh, a small chance. Microscopic, even.”

“That’s all I need.” Vinyl trotted forward as the inn came into view, a grin plastered on her face.

Even though he was on her back, Twilight could feel Spike roll his eyes. “Sheesh.”

“You said it,” she grumbled to the dusty ground.

“Don’t worry about it.” Twilight looked up to see Octavia sporting a knowing look. “She sometimes takes a liking to a colt, but rarely do her little crushes last more than a few days.”

“Really?” She lifted her head up. Any information about Vinyl dropping her desire for Twilight’s brother was relevant information.

“So you’re saying we should just stay out of her way until then?” Spike asked.

“Yes. Trying to tell her no is like trying to put out a fire with oil; you’ll make the opposite of progress.”

“Actually there are some chemicals that when added to oil could…” Twilight trailed off. Octavia’s partially raised eyebrow was enough to tell her that refuting her similes was unwelcomed. “So just don’t get in her way, you say?”

Octavia nodded. “Stay her friend long enough and you’ll pick up on all her habits.”

“Friend… yeah…” Twilight turned her attention back to walking.

The sun was setting as they approached the inn and Twilight paused to take in the sight before her. Not the inn itself, it wasn’t much to look at. In front of it, however, were Shining, Cadance and Nightmare Moon The reason she had to pause to take it in?

They weren’t bickering.

This was quite a shock. Not just Shining and Cadance—Twilight was willing to believe they’d give each other the silent treatment—but Nightmare Moon? The pony who loved hearing her own voice almost as much as she loved staging coups to overthrow Celestia was quietly glaring them down as they approached. Not even grumbling, just… quiet.

What happened?

“Twilight!” Shining and Cadance broke the silence simultaneously. As they paused to share a glance of annoyance with each other, Twilight took stock of their tones. Relief, exasperation and the tiniest bit of forebodance were all present. Yep, something bad had definitely happened.

Vinyl, a pace or two ahead of her, strolled right up. “Hey hot stuff, miss me any?”

Shining blinked. “Uh… the normal amount, I guess.”

“How normal?” Vinyl asked coquettishly, leaning in. Shining gave an uncomfortable smile.

“Down girl,” Lyra interjected when the rest of them caught up. “Give him room to breathe.”

Vinyl sighed, but mercifully backed away from Twilight’s brother. “Fine.”

“Did you enjoy the cherry fields?” Cadance asked through clenched teeth. It was a little too obvious that she was trying to ignore Vinyl’s… Vinyl-ness.

“Yeah it was… nice. Is everything okay?”

“Hardly.” Nightmare Moon’s raspy voice hit her ears. “The whelp who owns this hovel was of no use whatsoever. His stammering was incomprehensible and he had the gall to demand I sleep outside.” She shot a glance at Cadance. “You should have him executed.”

“Absolutely not!” Cadance shot her a look of appallment, which Nightmare scoffed off.

Spike glanced from them to Shining. “So, if Nightmare’s gonna sleep outside, then what’re we doing?”

“We’ve got a room,” Shining replied. He levitated a few sets of keys into view. “But there’s a catch.”

“You mean besides you?” Vinyl gave him a wink.

Twilight saw her brother fight back the urge to shiver. “Like I was saying,” he continued. “We’ll need to keep an eye on her at night.”

“So… sleeping shifts?” Bon Bon pieced together.

“Exactly.” Shining glanced at the demonic alicorn to his left. “We’ll divide up into three groups of two and one group of three, that way everypony will only have to stay up for two hours apiece.”

Lyra frowned. “Wait, so that means you and Cadance won’t stay up all night? Not that I don’t want you guys to sleep or anything, but what if Nightmare tries to escape while both of you are out?”

“Well, she shouldn’t.” Shining shot her a look, which Nightmare responded to with a wry grin. “But if she tries, she won’t be getting too far. I’m a light sleeper, so just yell to wake me up and I’ll bubble her.”

Nightmare rolled her eyes. “Ah yes, your oh-so-adorable pink prison. I look forward to that.”

“Light magenta,” Shining corrected, annoyance slipping into his tone. “Anyway, we should decide the groups now with the few minutes of daylight we still have.”

“Cool. In that case…” Vinyl waltzed over the Shining and hooked her foreleg around his. “I call dibs on you.”

“Uh, I, er—Spike!” Shining glanced to the small dragon residing on Twilight’s back. “Sorry, I was going to partner up with him, actually.”

“Well,” Spike slid off Twilight’s back, sporting a sly smile. “You did say we need a group of three.”

“...Dude, not cool.”

Spike shrugged as he walked over to them. He gave Octavia a brief nod. “Sorry, Shining, but I’ve heard it’s best not to get in her way.”

“Darn right.” Vinyl grinned as her hold tightened.

Shining groaned softly.

Cadance was doing her best to look away. She walked up to Twilight with her back to Shining Armor. “Care to partner up with me?”

Twilight smiled. “Sure.” Spending a few hours with Cadance sounded like a great idea. They had a lot to catch up on, including the reason for the fallout between her and Shining.

All I need is a little time to pick her brain.

“Hey Lyra.” Twilight turned her head when she heard Octavia’s voice. “Do you want to watch over Nightmare Moon together? It’ll give us time to practice.”

Lyra gulped and her leg unconsciously drifted to her saddlebags, which likely held her instrument. “Uh, I guess so.”

“Great!”

“I guess that leaves the two of us,” Bon Bon said, turning to Derpy.

Derpy tapped her chin. “Hmm… you brought the muffins, right?” Bon Bon grinned and tapped her own saddlebags. Derpy hoof pumped the air. “Yes!”

“All right, then it’s—” Shining tried to step forward only to jut to a stop. He turned to Vinyl. “Can you give me my leg back now?” She uncoiled her foreleg from his body. “It’s settled.”

Nightmare Moon sighed, her body radiating sarcasm. “Hoo-ray.”

Shining stripped off the outer layers of his armor twenty minutes later. The heat had been killing him since they’d arrived at Dodge, but with the night rolling in and the temperature dropping he saw the perfect opportunity to cool down.

He shot a glance at Nightmare Moon, who was watching the moon rise with a disapproving glare. “She’s not even doing it right,” she snarled.

“What are you going on about?” Shining asked as he dropped his helmet on the ground. “It’s in the sky, isn’t it?”

She scoffed. “You talk as if moving the celestial bodies is like politics.”

Shining rolled his eyes and turned away, just in time to see Spike and Vinyl return with some chopped firewood.

“The innkeeper was pretty cooperative,” Vinyl said as her blue magic snapped off and dropped the logs in front of them.

“You threatened to sick Nightmare Moon on him if he didn’t have any firewood.” Spike tossed his supply onto the pile.

“Oh come on, it was a joke!”

“Do not speak of me as if I am some common pet!” Nightmare scowled.

“You sure about that?” Vinyl looked her over. “I mean, you’re sleeping outside and you’ve got a collar on…”

Nightmare Moon tugged at the metal chain around her throat and emitted a low growl. Even with all the restraints on her, Shining couldn’t help but back away to feel safe.

“Maybe you shouldn’t antagonize her,” he suggested.

“Psh.” Vinyl shrugged. “Not much she can do about it.”

“That doesn’t make it a good idea.”

She merely rolled her eyes, but thankfully didn’t provoke Nightmare anymore. Vinyl did, however, pull her shades off. “Geeze, it’s getting dark.”

Spike put a claw to his chest. “Allow me to fix that.” Taking a deep breath he spat a green blaze onto the wood pile. It caught instantly and a campfire burst into existence.

“Dude, nice.” Vinyl held up her hoof and Spike proudly bumped his fist against it.

“It’s what I do.”

“So, now we can get this watch duty started.” Vinyl plopped down on the ground and looked at Shining. “What do we do?”

He tilted his head at Nightmare Moon. “We watch her.”

“For two hours?”

“Yup.”

“Ugh.” She flopped on her back. “But that’s so boring! I thought we’d be like, chasing her down, toying with her as we let her think she has the tiniest chance of escape before Zwoop! You stick her with another bubble.”

“That does sound kinda fun,” Spike admitted.

“Well we’re not doing that.” Shining took a seat in front of the fire, keeping Nightmare Moon in his peripheral view. “The point is to watch her, not almost let her escape for fun.”

“You know what would be even more fun though?” Nightmare grinned wickedly. “Letting me escape.”

“Yeah, not happening. I’m not an idiot.”

“Really?”

This time it was Shining’s turn to growl lowly.

“Whelp.” Vinyl sat up. “If we're not going to toy with her how about we just talk a little. Suggestive joking aside, I really would like to get to know you.”

He bit his lip. “Uh yeah, before that can I ask you to knock off the all the… playing around? I’m trying be professional here and that’s not easy when you act like I’m nothing but eye candy.”

Vinyl tossed her head back and snickered. “I don’t think so. It’s kinda fun to watch you squirm sometimes.”

Shining groaned.

“Just live with it,” Spike suggested. “Seriously, it’s not going to stop either way.”

“Fine. So, what did you want to talk about then, Vinyl?”

“Hmm…” Looking down, she tapped her chin in thought. “Actually, there is a question that’s been poking my curiosity.”

“Okay, shoot.”

She pointed at him. “You and Cadenza… were you two an item?”

Shining took a long, slow sigh. So somepony finally figured it out. “Yes. How’d you know?”

Vinyl smirked. “The way you two act around each other, there’s definitely some ‘lovers scorned’ crap going on. What happened?”

“Yeah, I’ve kinda been wondering that too,” Spike chimed in. Both he and Vinyl leaned in, eager to hear some juicy details.

“How about we talk about anything else,” Shining suggested.

“How about we talk about freeing the Night!” Nightmare Moon interjected.

“How about we talk about anything else,” Shining repeated.

“You’re really not going to tell us, huh?” Vinyl pouted a bit.

“Nope.”

“Aww, but how am I supposed to know what not to do when I’m dating you?”

Shining flinched. “I— you jus— don’t— gah!” He smacked his hoof to his face as both Vinyl and Spike broke out into a chuckle.

“Sorry to get you so flustered.” Vinyl wiped away tears of laughter. “But seriously, you aren’t dating Cadenza now, I’m guessing?”

“No.” He’d recovered from his stammering fit.

“Great.” Her face turned sultry. “‘Cuz I’m not dating anypony either.”

Oh boy. He took a deep breath; there was no point in leading her on. “Look, Vinyl, you’re cute, but you’re really not my type.”

Vinyl pinched her lips together. “Is it because I look like a smaller, female-ier version of you?”

“What? No!” Though now that she’s mentioned it… “That’s not it. I just prefer the more mature type is all.”

“Ah.” Vinyl thumped a hoof against her chest and reacted as though she’d been shot. “Ooh! The one thing I can never be.” She overdramatically outstretched her hoof toward Shining. “It appears our love was not meant to last.” With a fake dying groan, Vinyl flopped on the ground. Spike snorted while Shining rolled his eyes.

“Please tell me she is dead,” Nightmare Moon said. Shining shook his head.

“Sorry to disappoint.” Vinyl pulled herself back up. “Though, now that you’ve spoken again, how about we discuss your problems.”

“I have no problems.”

“You mean, besides the inferiority complex?”

“What?”

A chill ran down Shining Armor’s spine at that brutality behind the word. “Uh, Vinyl maybe you should drop it—”

“No,” Nightmare commanded. “No, I want to hear about this… inferiority complex that I supposedly have.” Spike scooted further away, despite being on the opposite side of the campfire.

“Nothing ‘supposedly’ about it.” Vinyl snickered. “I mean, everypony knows your legend. You got a little huffy because the moon was smaller than the sun, or something.”

Nightmare snorted derisively. “Foolish mortal. I rebelled because no pony appreciated the majesty of my moon.”

Vinyl rolled her eyes. “Sounds like you lived in a time before nightclubs were invented.”

Nightmare Moon blinked. “What are… night clubs?”

Vinyl nearly did a double-take. And then nearly did a quadruple-take. “Wait, they seriously didn’t have nightclubs a thousand years ago?”

Nightmare finally sat down, her chains rattling at the sudden motion. She bored into Vinyl with her slitted eyes. “Explain, peasant. What are these clubs of the night? A weapon of some sort?”

“Not even.” Vinyl snickered. “They're like, these places ponies go to have fun and listen to awesome music.”

“And these ponies… they do this at night?” Vinyl nodded. “Willingly?”

“Of course, willingly. Heck, night time is party time nowadays.”

“Really?” Nightmare looked at the ground. “Imagine that…” For a moment, it looked to Shining like she was about to smile. Not even an evil smile either, but an actual, genuine smile. But instead, she snorted derisively. “Took those peons long enough to appreciate my work.”

A quip about how it was technically Celestia’s work now jumped to the tip of Shining’s tongue, but he decided against voicing it.

Nightmare glanced up at Vinyl again. “Tell me more about these… nightclubs.”

Vinyl grinned. “Get comfy, it’s going to be a long two hours.”

Thud.

Twilight’s text on the Elements of Harmony kicked up some dirt as she dropped it on the ground. With a purple flick her magic pushed the cover open, revealing the Table of Contents. She’d already read this book twice over, but it never hurt to be prepared.

Princess Cadance sat beside her, politely looking over her shoulder in honest curiosity. Her knowledge of the Elements paled in comparison to Twilight’s and considering they were the whole reason for this quest it was probably for the best that she was willing to learn about them.

Across from them was Nightmare Moon. Her black coat and ethereal mane were bathed in the golden glow of the campfire. She watched the two of them study, but whether it was with malice or curiosity of her own was hard to tell. With a face like Nightmare’s, nothing was certain.

Twilight kept her mouth shut about it, though, and Cadance didn’t call attention to it either. They sat in silence, save the crackling of the fire and the occasional flip of the pages.

Then: “Have either of you ever been to a night club?”

Both their heads bobbed up from the book at the same time, but it was Cadance who spoke first. “What?”

“Have either of you ever been to a night club? I thought it was a rather simple question, but if the two of you really require me to dumb it down…”

“I understand the question, just… what?”

Twilight was with Cadence on the matter. The question seemed to come out of nowhere.

“I’m just asking,” Nightmare responded.

“I have.” Twilight finally spoke up.

With a rattle of chains all of Nightmare’s attention was on Twilight. “How was it?”

For a moment, Twilight allowed herself to drift back to the time when her acquaintances had dragged her to a rave. The bright, violent lights, the pounding music, the musky stench of sweaty ponies. She shuddered at the memory. “You would love it there.”

Nightmare smiled, her sharpened teeth flashing. “This is good news. I will have to visit one soon.”

Twilight closed her book, doubting she’d be able to research anymore now that the ice was officially broken. “You mean after your reformation.”

“Pfft.” Nightmare turned her head to the side. “You cannot reform pure evil.”

“No, but we can reform you.”

Nightmare Moon hissed angrily at her, clearly not appreciating the sass.

Twilight slid the book back inside her saddlebags and looked to Cadance. She had yet to say a word and had taken to staring off into space. Most likely she hadn’t even been following the conversation.

“Cadance?”

The word slapped her back to reality. “Huh? Yes?”

“Are you doing all right?”

She blinked and offered a weak smile. “Yeah. I was just thinking about… things.”

Nightmare scoffed. “You can think?”

Cadance’s features compressed into an annoyed glare. “Would you just be quiet?”

With a grin, Nightmare chuckled. “Muzzle me.”

Cadance glared at her. “Anyway, did you want something Twilight?”

“Uh… yeah, actually.” Now was as good a time as any to ask. “I was actually kind of curious about something.”

Cadance cocked her head to the side. “Okay, shoot.”

Twilight paused, unsure of how to phrase her question. “What exactly… happened between you and my brother.”

As if the magic switch had been flipped, Cadance’s mood soured. She turned away, frowning. “How about we talk about anything else.”

“The last one already tried that,” Nightmare commented.

Cadance gave her a look but said nothing. Twilight sighed. “Look, I really don’t know what happened, but whatever it was it’s got you two at each other’s throats. We’re about to all go into the Everfree Forest together, so if there’s a problem we should solve it before it becomes a hazard when we’re all already in mortal danger, Okay?”

Biting her lip, Cadance turned to face her. “I understand, it’s just…”

“Just what?”

She sniffled. “I really screwed up, Twilight.”

That caught her off guard. Twilight blinked uncomprehendingly. “...What happened?”

“It’s a long story… I don’t… I can’t…”

“Just condense it,” Twilight pressed. She had to know what was going on.

Cadance looked like she wanted to protest, even getting as far as shaking her head, but she paused. “I… I guess you do deserve to know what happened.”

Twilight fought down the urge to smile. Relentless curiosity had once again come through for her. “Okay, start from the beginning.”

Her mouth curled into a frown. “Well… Shining and I used to date.”

Twilight had to pause as her brain short-circuited. It was just the first detail of the story and already she was being sucker-punched. Repeatedly. “W-When did this happen?”

Cadance managed a brief smile, as if she was recalling fonder, sweeter memories. Her mouth quickly lapsed back to a frown, however. “That’s a story of its own. But like I was saying, we used to date and… we were pretty happy too. He used to sneak off work a little early to see me and… gosh I must’ve put off dozens of meetings to spend time with him.”

Her frown deepened. “But we weren’t the perfect couple. We had… fights. Not even that, really, just arguments about small things: where to eat, what to do, and all that. But you know me, I hate when couples argue, even if I was a part of it. Especially if I was a part of it. So I just…” Cadance trailed off, waving her hoof as the wheels turned in her head to find the best way to describe her actions. Eventually she just gave up and lit her horn, producing a small red heart just past the tip.

Twilight’s eyes widened; she understood immediately. “You… You used your magic on him?”

Cadance’s signature power, the only high-level spell she’d ever bothered to master since becoming an alicorn, was not something to be taken lightly. As a filly, Twilight had dubbed it the “love reset” after seeing it displayed many times, but really all it did was alter the dopamine and serotonin levels of ponies. The perfect weapon to take to the battlefield if one had a personal war on lover’s quarrels.

Sniffling again, Cadance wiped her eyes and the spell dissipated. “I… I always used this spell to help ponies resolve their problems and realize their true feelings for each other. I didn’t think it would be wrong to use it for my own relationship, but… all it did was kick all our problems down the road.

“They just became this… overwhelming shadow that always loomed over us. Pretty soon anything and everything sent us into another argument until…” She put her face in her hooves. “Until my spell wasn’t enough.”

Twilight moved closer as Cadance dissolved into sobs. “We got into a huge fight. I don’t even know what started it but everything just blew up. I tried my spell but… it didn’t work. I was frustrated, he was angry and it just failed. When he saw the spell though it didn’t take him long to put two and two together. He accused me of trying to brainwash him and then… he just ended it.” Cadance sobbed. “That was two months ago. We hadn’t spoken to each other all that time until Auntie Celestia asked us to help you.”

Tears ran down her face and Twilight put a hoof on her shoulder to comfort her.

For a little while, it was quiet. Then…

“BWHUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” Nightmare Moon cackled, fell back, became ensnared in her own chains, and cackled some more.

Twilight shot her a dirty look, but it was an exercise in futility. Nightmare had no concern for sparing Cadance’s feelings.

“That is the funniest thing I’ve heard in over a thousand years!” She howled in between laughs. “The fake-alicorn of love—haha—can’t even keep a coltfriend! Ahahaha!”

“Don’t listen to her,” Twilight said.

Cadance winced at the assault on their eardrums. “That’s going to be a little hard.”

Twilight nodded and waited a little bit, hoping Nightmare would eventually calm down.

She didn’t.

Sighing, Twilight continued. “Look, Cadance, I know you had good intentions.”

“Did I?” She pulled away from Twilight’s attempts to comfort her. “I could have… should have tried to talk out our problems, but I took the easy way out and now…” She nearly choked on the words. “...Shining hates me.”

“Hey, come on, Shining doesn’t hate you.” Twilight moved back into comforting range. “He doesn’t hate anypony.” She shot a brief glance at the still laughing Nightmare Moon. “Almost anypony.”

“Are you sure?” Cadance peeked out from under her hooves.

“Positive. Once we’ve fixed the Elements, I promise I’ll sit you both down and work this out. I’m great at solving problems now, just ask the girls.”

Cadance didn’t even try to muster up a smile, but there was a spark in her eyes that looked rather hope-like. “Thank you, Twilight.” She chuckled, which ended up becoming a sniffle halfway through. “You know, it’s kinda funny. I took care of you for years and now here you are taking care of me.”

“Yeah, times certainly have changed.” Sensing that she really needed one, Twilight gave Cadance a hug. “Don’t worry, everything will work out in the end.”

“You sure?”

“Positive.” Her hoof unconsciously drifted to her saddlebags and pressed against them, eliciting a clink from its contents. “Everything will be just fine.”

I hope.

Lyra was tuning her lyre when a yawn ambushed her. Her jaw was pushed down while her eyes slammed shut; it lasted only five seconds, but it was a pretty good indicator of her current state.

Having your sleep interrupted was never a fun thing. Having your sleep interrupted and then being expected to watch over the evilest creature in Equestria right after was even worse.

“We should’ve taken the first shift,” Lyra mumbled. Octavia nodded her agreement, fighting back yawns of her own.

They’d only been up for five minutes, so hopefully their exhaustion would abate just enough so that they wouldn’t be miserable, but not so much that they wouldn’t be able to get a nap in once their shift ended.

But, even in their current state Octavia wasn’t letting Lyra off the hook. She delicately plucked the string of her lyre, ear flicked up to make sure it was the right note. As a gentle twung rang out, Lyra smiled.

Perfect.

Unfortunately this was a bad thing. Now that her instrument was fully tuned, Octavia would expect her to… actually play something!

“All right,” Octavia said, smiling. Blast her ear for music, she knew Lyra was ready the moment she let go of the string. “Let’s start with the first song of the set then.”

“Uh…” Lyra glanced over to the side. Right across the dimming firelight was the glowing face of Nightmare Moon. She hadn’t said anything to them yet and had merely been staring off into space with a wide smile on her face, as if she’d heard something hilarious a while ago and couldn’t stop thinking about it. Somehow it was more terrifying than anything else she had ever done. “You mean you want me to play now?”

She could barely hit a note when she was surrounded by ponies she considered friends and now Octavia was asking her to play an entire song in front of the most spiteful pony to ever exist.

“Yes,” Octavia said with a nod.

And she was being so casual about it!

Anxiety boiled in the pit of Lyra’s stomach. Sweat droplets rolled down her brow and her hooves felt clammy. She couldn’t do this, there was no way.

“Lyra?” Octavia knew the signs of one of her panic attacks very well by this point. She put a hoof on her shoulder. “Just breathe, okay?”

“Kay…” Her voice was shaky, but she managed to suck in air.

At this point, Nightmare Moon had snapped out of her happy-trance and observed the new situation. “Is she going to pass out?”

“No,” Octavia snapped. “She’s going to play her lyre.”

“Urgh. I would prefer it greatly if she lost consciousness.”

Lyra clenched her teeth. This was a bad, bad idea. “Octavia, maybe I should—”

“Don’t give up so easily, Lyra.” Octavia looked her in the eye. “Look, if you can play a song for a heinous mistress of darkness, then you’ll be able to play in Music-ade without a problem.”

“You… you really think so?”

“Yeah, sure, play a song.” Nightmare grumbled. “And when my ears start bleeding you better find a doctor.”

Lyra frowned, tightening her hold on her lyre.

Octavia didn’t give up though. “Don’t worry, Lyra, I believe in you.”

“I believe you’ll fail,” Nightmare added.

Lyra gritted her teeth. The stress of having to play for an audience was bad enough, but at this point Nightmare Moon was just being evil.

Er… eviler, I guess I should say.

“Hey, Lyra.”

She turned to Octavia. “Yeah?”

“Prove her wrong.” There was no sarcasm in her voice.

Lyra looked back at Nightmare Moon. A smirk was waiting for her. Lyra ground her teeth together, but less out of anxiety and more from determination.

“Okay.”

Raising her lyre and igniting her horn, Lyra took a deep breath. She closed her eyes, waited until her surroundings got as quiet as they could and then she started to play.

She choose a soft, slow melody. While there wasn’t any real reason behind her choice, Lyra did hope that it would put Nightmare Moon to sleep, if only to shut her up.

With each pluck of the strings, she could feel her inner anxiety grow. Even with only two ponies watching—one of whom she counted as a friend—it was hard to keep going. Not helping was the possibility that Nightmare might begin jeering at any moment.

Despite this, she pressed on. Her magic plucked the strings of her lyre in rapid succession now, anxious to be done. She realized she couldn’t remember the last time she breathed, but that wasn’t really a primary concern at this point.

When her song was completed she opened her eyes and finally took a breath. Octavia was beaming.

Nightmare was… not looking bored, at least.

“That was wonderful, Lyra!” Octavia gave her a hug, nearly knocking away her instrument in the process. Lyra groaned at the sudden pressure that suddenly squeezed her lungs. “I’m so proud of you.”

“Hmmph. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, it was adequate.” Nightmare tossed her head to the side. Unconsciously, Lyra’s lips tightened.

“You hear that?” Octavia released her. “The evilest creature in existence couldn’t bring herself to hate your music.”

“Heh, I guess you’re right.” Lyra allowed herself to smile. Maybe, just maybe, she’d be ready to play

Ha! Yeah, right. We’ve got a better chance of Twilight accepting our friendship than me conquering my fears.

Even so, it was nice to at least make some progress. Lyra took a little comfort in that fact.

“So, can we hear another?” Octavia asked.

“Haha… no.”

Bon Bon was freezing, alone with Nightmare Moon, and unable to decide which was worse.

Probably the latter.

“Do you have any idea how powerful I could make you if you just freed me now?” Nightmare’s eyes drilled into Bon Bon. “The answer is not at all. But if you do then maybe I won’t kill you after my hostile takeover of Equestria.”

Definitely the latter.

Her teeth chattered as she rubbed her hooves together. The dwindling flames in front of her were offering little warmth and she found herself praying that Derpy would return with the extra firewood soon.

“Stop ignoring me,” Nightmare demanded.

“No,” Bon Bon curtly replied.

Nightmare snorted. “And the pink one thinks I’m childish.”

Bon Bon clenched her teeth, torn between wanting to respond and wanting to punch Nightmare in her face. She didn’t get the chance to do either, however, as Derpy returned at that moment with firewood in her grasp.

“I’m baaaack!” she sang.

“Thank Celestia.”

Nightmare scowled at the remark.

Bon Bon ignored her and stood up to lend Derpy a hoof. She’d only brought a couple of logs with her, but each were cumbersome enough to give her hoofs trouble. After taking a few, Bon Bon tossed them onto the campfire. The flames greedily hopped onto the new kindling and burned brighter and warmer than before.

Sighing in content, Bon Bon took a seat. Derpy followed suit, setting aside the few remaining logs in case of emergency.

“So, any good conversation while I was away?” Derpy asked.

“No,” Bon Bon and Nightmare Moon chorused.

“Oh.” Derpy poked at the dirt a little as silence descended upon them. “Oh! Bon Bon, the muffins!”

The sudden burst of enthusiasm forced a smile onto Bon Bon’s face. “I got ‘em right here, Derpy.” She reached into her saddlebags and withdrew a bin. The contents shuffled around inside as Bon Bon pried the lid off, revealing a dozen muffins.

Derpy’s face lit up in anticipation. “Yes!” She hoof pumped the air.

“Now, they’re a little cold, but—” She didn’t get to finish the sentence. Derpy ripped a muffin free of its confinements and shoved it in her mouth.

“Hmmm…” She all but melted as the treat hit her tastebuds. “So good.”

Bon Bon blushed. “Aww come on, they aren’t that good.”

Derpy shook her head. “You don’t give yourself enough credit.” She looked over to Nightmare Moon, who was watching with a raised eyebrow. “You want one?”

Nightmare scoffed. “No.” She turned away, but her eyes betrayed her. They darted back to the muffins almost immediately. “Unless, of course, you have… blueberry?”

Bon Bon looked down at the tin of muffins, even though she didn’t need confirmation. The specks of blue were plainly visible in the rekindled firelight.

“Yep,” Derpy answered. “Do ya want one?”

“...Maybe.”

Before Bon Bon could even interject with her opinion, Derpy scooped up a new muffin and tossed it over to Nightmare Moon. She fumbled to catch it, sending the clink of her chains through the night air. Eventually her hoof steadied and she stared at the treat.

Tentatively, Nightmare Moon took a bite. Bon Bon’s lip found its way in her mouth. The last thing her self-esteem needed was to be bombarded by a tirade from evil incarnate.

Nightmare eventually swallowed. She stared at the muffin for a moment before looking back up at the two mares. “Which one of you is responsible for this again?”

“Uh… me?” Bon Bon hated how timid her voice sounded.

Nightmare fixed her with a stare that made her want to shrink into nothingness. “When I take over Equestria and enslave all of ponykind, you shall be the Royal Head Chef.” She took another bite of her muffin, this time making sure to savor the flavor.

“T-Thanks?” Bon Bon would have been flattered by the offer if it wasn’t a total impossibility. How delusional is Nightmare Moon?

As Nightmare continued to chew on her muffin, Bon Bon turned to Derpy and lowered her voice. “Hey, can I ask you a question real quick?”

“Sure.” Derpy swallowed the rest of her food. “What’s up?”

“Why did you really take off Nightmare Moon’s muzzle?”

Blinking, Derpy’s eyes darted to the left. “I… don’t know what you mean.”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh come on. ‘It’s just so mean to keep a muzzle on her’? I didn’t buy that for a minute. Seriously, what’s up?”

Derpy sighed. “Okay, fine. The truth is I… I want to befriend her.”

“You what?” Bon Bon squeaked at a pitch she was sure only dogs could hear.

“I know it sounds silly—”

“Silly? No, no, no, that’s far too weak of a word. Ridiculous is more like it. Or crazy. Insane even.”

Derpy’s ears flopped down. “I know, but… look, when we reform Nightmare Moon she’s going to be stuck in a world that’s terrified of her. I just don’t want her to be so lonely. I figured why not try and befriend her now, so she knows where to start when she’s not so… nightmare-ish.”

Bon Bon sucked in air through her teeth. She wanted to believe Derpy’s idea could work, but… “Do you honestly think you can become friends with her.”

“Maybe, maybe not, but it couldn’t hurt to try, right?”

“You, gray one.” Both their attention turned to Nightmare Moon. Her lips were decorated with crumbs and an empty muffin wrapper could be seen at her hooves. “Provide me with another, immediately!”

Derpy smiled. “Sure thing.” Her hoof went to the tin, but Bon Bon blocked it. Confused, Derpy looked up. “Uh…”

“If you’re going to make an attempt to be friendly, then so is she,” Bon Bon said. She looked at Nightmare Moon. “What’s the magic word?”

Nightmare glared at her.

“It’s 'please'.” Bon Bon held up a blueberry muffin to tantalize her into compliance. “You are capable of saying please, right?”

“I can spit out the word without choking, if that’s what you mean.”

The muffin swayed back and forth. “Well, go on then.”

Nightmare’s expression of distaste tightened. She stood up suddenly, rattling her chains. With short, sharp steps she stalked up to her. Bon Bon felt unease grip her as Nightmare approached. Eventually, she towered over Bon Bon.

Bending down, Nightmare glared right into her face, her reptilian eyes chilling her to the bone. With bared teeth, she hissed out, “Please, may I have another muffin?”

Bon Bon’s heart pounded and she realized she wasn’t breathing. Letting out a nervous laugh she forced a smile. “There, was that so hard?” She offered up the muffin, only to have it swiped from her grasp.

“You have guts.” Nightmare sunk her fangs into the muffin. “You’ll make an excellent Head Chef.”

Bon Bon swallowed.

Nightmare didn’t bother walking back over to her previous seat, opting instead to plant her butt next to Bon Bon. After putting a few inches between them, she caught Derpy smile.

“Thanks for trying,” she said.

“No problem,” Bon Bon lied.

They each took a muffin of their own, perfectly comfortable with spending the rest of their shift in delicious silence.

Change

Twilight yawned, cracked her neck and stretched. The covers wrapped around her body were inviting her to sleep a little longer, bombarding her with warmth from all sides. She resisted the urge to fall back asleep as she kicked the blankets away. It was time to get to work.

“Mornin’ Twily.”

She turned to her brother, who was standing on the other side of the room. Already he was putting on his armor in preparation.

“Morning, Shining.” She smiled and turned to the rest of the beds in the room. Nopony else was awake yet, but they were about to be. Trotting over to the nearest sleeper, Vinyl, Twilight cleared her throat. “Time to get up.”

All she got in response was a groan. Vinyl shifted under her covers to face away.

Twilight narrowed her eyes, unamused. “Vinyl, wake up.”

“Err.” Vinyl rolled back over and cracked one eye open. “What time is it?”

“Crack of dawn,” Shining answered, sliding his helmet over his shaggy mane.

“Blargh. Can we sleep a little longer? ‘Cause I’m more of a crack of noon girl, to be honest.”

“Vinyl.” Twilight was not in the mood to deal with this right now.

“I’m gettin’ up.” Vinyl wiggled free of her bed. “Keep your horn on, Smart Mare.”

“Thank you.” Twilight looked to the rest of the room. Her bickering with Vinyl had knocked everypony else into consciousness and they were already being far more compliant. Spike, Lyra and Octavia were almost in standing position, and Cadance had sat up.

“Good morning, Princess,” Shining said with cold professionalism.

Twilight could see Cadance’s face fall a little. “Same to you, Captain.”

Silence fell between them as she got out of bed. Twilight felt her jaw clench at their interactions. Ever since Cadance’s revelation last night, she’d been fighting the urge to slap a little sense into her brother and make him talk things out. She could understand his contempt now, but she was getting sick of it.

“So, we should probably go check on Bon Bon and Derpy, right?” Lyra asked.

“Oh, yeah.” Twilight had forgotten they were still on guard duty. They should be fine though, so long as Derpy had kept to her promise of not removing any more of Nightmare’s restraints.

Everypony gathered their belongings and made their way out of the room. Shining split off from the group to check out of the hotel while everypony else went around back.

Unconsciously, Twilight prepared for the worst. She knew neither Derpy or Bon Bon were incompetent and she highly doubted Nightmare Moon could escape her bonds anyway, but nevertheless she felt worried. Mentally she readied herself for the worst case scenario.

She rounded the corner of the inn, only to stop short. Nightmare Moon was still there, luckily, but she was also… dozing.

Not just any type of dozing. Her head was resting in Derpy’s lap as she snored comfortably.

Twilight felt her jaw hit the ground. She looked from Derpy, who was casually chewing a blueberry muffin as if the embodiment of all evil wasn’t currently using her as a pillow, to Bon Bon, who was stamping out the remnants of the campfire.

The sound of hoofsteps behind her followed by their abrupt stop let Twilight know that everypony else had caught up to her and had each just stopped in shock at the sight before them.

While Twilight was still blinking in surprise, Cadance managed to regain enough composure to eloquently communicate everyone’s feelings. “Uh…”

They both turned at the sound, but Derpy merely smiled. “Hey girls!”

Twilight grappled to find her voice. “I… You… What are you doing?”

Derpy cocked her head in legitimate confusion for a moment. Her eyes lit up with understanding when she saw the direction they were all looking in. “Oh, you mean her?” She indicated Nightmare.

“Yes!”

“She kinda pigged out on muffins and needed a nap.”

Nightmare ear flicked up and down while she shifted in Derpy's lap. “World domination…zzzz…is finally mine...zzz…”

“Aw, she’s having a dream.”

Octavia stepped forward. “Derpy, no offense, but are you completely insane?”

“Oh, leave her alone,” Bon Bon chimed in. “She’s not doing any harm.”

“You mean, besides the fact that she gave away our breakfast to Nightmare Moon?” Vinyl stared at the empty muffin bin by the dying fire.

Bon Bon pinched her lips together and withdrew a brand new box of treats from her saddlebags.

“Nevermind, I’m good.”

“I’m not!” Twilight growled. “Derpy, how can you be so nonchalant about this?”

“Oh, come on, Twilight. She’s harmless right now.”

Nightmare’s leg twitched. “Zzz…death to my enemies...zzz…”

“See? Harmless.”

“Right…”

More hoofsteps clopped against the ground behind them. “Hey, we’re good to go— Uh…”

Twilight turned, seeing her brother wearing a shocked expression.

“Don’t worry, you aren’t seeing things,” Vinyl assured him.

Shining looked like he didn’t know what to say. His jaw remained unhinged for a few moments longer as he absorbed the sight before him.

Cadance cleared her throat. “Maybe it would be best to wake her up. We need to get moving soon.”

Lyra warily glanced down. “A-Are you sure about that? I thought the old saying was ‘don’t poke a sleeping bear’.”

“I’ve got it.” Bon Bon said. She brought her muffin box over, letting it rest just underneath Nightmare Moon’s nose. Popping the lid open, Bon Bon let the scent of muffins waft upwards.

Nightmare’s face twitched at the scent. Her eyes fluttered open a second later. Her slitted pupils glanced around at everyone and curiosity registered on her face as she likely wondered why everypony was looking at her. As she glanced over at the owner of the lap her head was resting in, realization slapped her across the face.

“Gah!” Jerking upwards, Nightmare flailed as best she could away from Derpy. Her chains clanged together as she flopped on the ground. When her spasm ended, she looked back up at everypony. “You saw nothing!” she hissed.

Twilight scrunched her face in annoyance. “Sure, whatever. Let’s just get to the Tree of Harmony so we can reform you.”

Nightmare grunted.

“Well, before we do that.” Bon Bon fully removed the lid, exposing a dozen cinnamon muffins to everypony. “How about some breakfast?”

Twilight’s stomach grumbled at the sight and as everypony gathered around to eat, she didn’t raise any objections.

Not even fifteen minutes later, Twilight was walking to the Everfree Forest, stomach full and content.

“Bon Bon, you’ve outdone yourself.”

Beside her, a cream-colored face became distinctly redder. “Oh come on, they aren’t that good.”

“Liar,” Lyra called out, a few paces behind her.

“It sure beats the stuff they serve the guards.” Shining grinned and looked over to Bon Bon. “Where’d you learn to cook like that?”

Bon Bon looked to the ground, shuffling her hooves as they continued on. “Oh, you know… places…”

Shining tilted his head, but didn’t press the issue.

“Well, if you ever want a job in Canterlot, just come talk to me,” Cadance said. “I’d give you a spot in the Royal Bakery in a heartbeat.”

“T-Thank you.”

“Hey, you better not be trying to steal away my new Head Chef,” Nightmare snarled.

Cadance bit her lip. “Uh…”

Twilight coughed, forcing attention to herself. “Let’s focus on getting to the Tree of Harmony.”

Up ahead, the Everfree Forest loomed on the horizon. The gritty dirt of the desert below them slowly gave way to black grass that crunched under their hooves. Twilight stopped short of the shady trees at the edge of the forest and allowed everypony to cluster behind her.

Cadance was trying not to make direct eye contact with the forest, likely the result of nerves. Twilight couldn’t blame her; nopony enjoyed their first time in the forest. One rung up on the anxiety scale was Spike, who had a cold sweat forming on his brow. He offered Twilight a nervous smile and a puffed out chest when he noticed she was looking at him, but dropped it the moment her eyes moved on.

Shining was on the other end of the spectrum. Clad in armor and jaw set, he looked determined, ready, even impatient.

Her acquaintances ran the gamut of emotions in between. Vinyl had an cocky grin blazoned on her face, Lyra was chewing on her bottom lip, Bon Bon shuffled her hooves in uncertainty, Octavia pressed her lips together and Derpy merely smiled with hope.

Twilight also looked over to Nightmare Moon, trying to gauge her feelings. She was… grinning. Mischievously.

That doesn’t bode well.

She filed that away in her mind, not needing another worry to dwell on.

“So, Smart Mare, what’s the plan?”

“Plan?” All eyes were on her.

“Well, you do have one, right?” Octavia asked. “You don’t actually expect us to walk around the Everfree Forest blindly hoping we find the tree, right?’

Twilight snorted. “Of course not. That’s Plan B.” Everypony stared at her awkwardly. Coughing, Twilight amended the statement. “That was a joke.”

“You can make those?” Vinyl asked, eyes widening.

“Yes,” Twilight growled, a little annoyed that none of them could believe she had anything remotely resembling a sense of humor.

“Huh, you learn something new everyday.”

“Anyway,” Twilight grumbled. “I do have a plan.” With her magic, Twilight opened one of the pockets of her saddlebags and removed a small tome. Opening it and flipping through the pages, she turned it around to face the group. “This book has a comprehensive list of some of the most advanced tracking spells ever devised.”

Skeptically, Cadance raised her brow. “A tracking spell? No offense, Twilight, but I think if the Tree of Harmony could be tracked then my aunt would’ve found a way to do that by now.”

Nightmare snorted. “I feel you’re putting too much faith in the intelligence of the pony who came up with the first plan to ‘reform’ me.”

Twilight bit back a retort to defend her mentor, not wanting to stoop to Nightmare’s level. “Princess Celestia did say in her notes that tracking spells would be ineffective. It took her years to find the Tree of Harmony the first time when she used them.”

“Whoa, years?” Bon Bon shook her head. “I can’t be away from my shop that long, Twilight.”

“Yeah, and we’ll miss Music-ade,” Vinyl threw in.

Lyra’s eyes darted to the left. “Bummer.”

“Hold on, let me finish.” Twilight lowered the spell book. “Look, the reason the tracking spells took so long for her was because each time they always showed the tree to be in a different location, before and after she found it.”

“So… it moves?” Shining asked.

“That’s what Princess Celestia thought too, but… I’m not so sure.” This tilted a few heads. “Look, when I was combing through the Princess’s notes, she mentioned something about how the Tree’s roots spread all over Equestria. I think maybe this means the Tree’s magic might spread along those roots and obscure any spell trying to pinpoint its location.”

“So… wait, you’re just going to do something you know won’t work?” Lyra asked.

“And I thought my sister was stupid,” Nightmare muttered.

Twilight lowered her eyelids. “Let me finish, please.”

Nightmare rolled her eyes. “Very well, continue making a fool out of yourself.”

Clearing her throat, Twilight looked back towards the more reasonable members of the group. “As I was saying, a regular tracking spell won’t get us to where we want to go, so I plan to do something a little… irregular.”

“Blow up the Everfree?” Vinyl asked.

“Wha— No!”

“Burn down the Everfree?” Derpy suggested.

“No!”

“Aid me in my plan to eclipse the sun, usurp Celestia and rule Equestria with an iron hoof?” Nightmare tossed out.

“Shut up!” Twilight ground her teeth together. That last thing she needed was her concentration in shambles.

“You okay, Twilight?” Spike asked.

“Dandy,” she muttered, her jaw practically sewn shut. She breathed deeply, attempting to dispel her anger. “All right, look. My plan is actually very simple. I’m going to combine the basic principles of these spells to create a new one that can pinpoint the Tree’s location.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Shining shook his head. “Combine spells? Twily, you do realize you just used the definition of complex to describe the word simple, right?”

“Yeah,” Cadance admitted. “I may not be that good at magic theory, but even I know that what you’re suggesting is—”

“—is crazy, I know.” Twilight turned the spell book around to face her. “But I was studying the theories behind it before the Summer Sun Celebration debacle, and I think I can apply them here.”

“Without practice?” Shining looked wary.

“Oh no, I practiced. The new scorch marks in the library can attest to that.”

“You made those?” Spike asked. He wiped his brow, sighing with relief. “Thank goodness. I thought I’d started breathing fire in my sleep or something.”

“Wait, scorch marks?” Octavia furrowed her brows. “Twilight, just how dangerous is this idea?”

Twilight looked up from the book for a moment and tapped her chin. “Um… somewhat?”

“How about on a scale of one to Ursa Minor?” Vinyl asked.

“...eleven.”

Vinyl nodded thoughtfully. “Well, we’re screwed.”

“Hey, I think I’ve figured it out!” Twilight snapped. She turned to the other girls. “You all trust me, right?”

They all shifted awkwardly, refusing to meet her gaze.

“If I say yes can I still back away for safety when you cast the spell?” Derpy asked.

Twilight sighed, but couldn’t really blame them. She wasn’t really putting her best hoof forward when it came to assuaging their fears. “I was going to suggest that anyway.” Looking towards the forest, Twilight tucked away the spell tome away in her saddlebags. “And since that’s the case, stand back everypony.”

She didn’t look back, but she could practically hear some of them trample over each other to put some distance between themselves and the potential explosion. Taking a deep breath and channeling energy to her horn, Twilight prepared herself.

Step one was undoubtedly the easiest: find the Harmony magic. Equestria was brimming with it, while the Everfree lacked substantially. In almost an instant Twilight could sense an island of respite in the ocean of chaos before her.

Step two, on the other hoof, was undoubtedly the hardest: pinpoint the Tree. The spell Twilight was currently casting could only sense magic. What she needed now was a tracer that could find exactly what she was sensing and that’s where the second spell came in. Calmly, slowly, carefully, Twilight started casting again. The veins on her forehead strained into view as she struggled to form the new spell while keeping the old one running.

The air around her sparked with volatile magic. Everypony behind her watched with a combination of bated breath and premature flinches. For a brief moment the spell felt like it might go haywire, like it had in all of her previous tries. Gritting her teeth, Twilight refused to give an inch.

I am not going to fail! Not this time!

With a burst of energy the spell went active. Twilight eyes squeezed shut, but the light from her magic made it hard to tell the difference. Everything became engulfed in a painful brightness. Faintly, Twilight heard everypony grunt in pain.

Thankfully, the light only lasted a brief second, but in that second Twilight’s heart nearly stopped for fear of blowing herself up. Again.

She was able to breathe a sigh of relief when that didn’t happen, though. The light quickly faded away, the air humming as the magic fizzled away.

Twilight stumbled backwards as her horn flickered off. She was lightheaded and more than a little drained. Her hair whizzed in front of her face and she was vaguely aware of the sensation of falling. A moment later she jerked to a stop.

Looking up, she saw her brother’s concerned face and realized he must’ve caught her. As sensation came flooding back, she confirmed this by what felt like a hoof propped against her back. She slowly stood back up.

“You feeling all right, Twily?” he asked.

Twilight nodded. “Y-yeah. I just… feel a bit winded. That took a lot to pull off.”

“Did you even pull it off?” Vinyl asked as everypony else crowded around her with concern. Nightmare Moon was the only one to hold off on this activity, electing instead to roll her eyes and continue existing in the same state of constant dissatisfaction.

“There weren’t any explosions, so that’s a good sign,” Lyra realized.

The strength slowly returned to her muscles and Twilight managed to return to a standing position. As she did, her eyes glanced over the dark expanse of the Everfree. Information bloomed in her head the second she did: a series of directions that could only lead to one place.

A smile broke out on her face. “Oh yeah, it worked.”

“Sweet!” Vinyl hoof pumped. “That much closer to having a new nightclub buddy.”

“Do not delude thyself” Nightmare furiously declared. “I said I shall go on a nighttime excursion to one of these new-fangled clubs with you as my guide. I refute your claim of buddy-ism! I refute!”

Derpy giggled and nudged Twilight. “She almost sounds a bit like you when you denied our friendship.”

Twilight furrowed her brows. “Uh… yeah…”

Cadance looked between their group and the forest. “Are we ready to go in, then?”

“I think so.” Twilight turned to her acquaintances. “Are you girls ready for this? There’s still time to back out if you don’t want to—”

“Forget it, Smart Mare. We’re sticking to you like a bad pop song to the top of the charts.” Vinyl flipped her shades over her face and grinned.

“Like icing on dessert muffins,” Derpy added.

“Like uh…” Lyra pinched her lips together. “Well, I can’t think of a simile right now, but I’m with you too.”

Octavia nodded. “I wouldn’t let you go in there without me.”

“I’m sticking around too.” Bon Bon slid a frying pan out of her saddlebags and twirled it around in her hoof. “We can handle anything the Everfree can throw at us.”

For a brief moment, everypony froze to drink in Bon Bon’s choice of weapon. Lyra snorted and playfully shoved her friend. “You did not bring that!”

“I told you, this thing is a deadly weapon in the right hooves.” Bon Bon returned the frying pan to its snug place in her pocket.

“Well, the Royal Guard doesn’t exactly classify kitchenware as lethal…” Shining grinned. “But I like the enthusiasm.” His smile dropped as he glanced over to Cadance and nudged his head in the direction. “Princess.”

“Right.” Cadance glumly nodded. The two of them flanked Nightmare Moon on both sides, ready to defend her if necessary and prevent her from escaping when necessary.

Spike hopped up on Twilight’s back and she smiled at him. “You just focus on staying safe, all right?”

“Twilight, come on, you’re talking to a guy who breathes fire.” He puffed out his chest. “I’m here to keep you safe.”

She couldn’t hold back a few light giggles. “You just might.”

“Well come on then.” Lyra waved them all towards the forest and began walking towards it. “Unless you guys really are scar— AHH!” Lyra leapt backwards as a nearby bush emitted an almost insect-like screech. Nightmare snorted to herself.

Twilight trotted forward, followed by everypony else. Already she was preparing herself to engage whatever creature was lurking at the edge of the forest. For a moment, the bush rustled.

Lyra retreated as Twilight sparked her horn to life. Her magic wasn’t very potent after her combination spell, but she was certain she could handle whatever lurked in such a small bit of shrubbery. Behind her, she heard Spike take in a deep breath, likely ready to give her back up in the form of a belched inferno.

The bush stirred again. Twilight narrowed her eyes, but before she could blast it, a ferret poked its head out from the tiny leaves. Twilight blinked and moved her head back as the rodent sniffed the air around them before leaping out of the bush and scurrying off into the woods.

“Huh…” Twilight turned to Lyra. “You okay?”

“Uh… yeah.” Lyra’s face was the appropriate amount of red for somepony who’d just been startled by a ferret. “I really need to stop being the first to walk into scary situations.”

“It was really more of a minor startle this time,” Vinyl correct. “But yeah.”

“I could’ve sworn it was a cicada or something by the way it sounded,” Lyra said as she watched the ferret vanish beneath some underbrush.

“It did kind of sound like one,” Twilight admitted. “But don’t worry, bugs will be the least of our problems in the Everfree.”

“We finally ready to get started for real?” Shining asked from the back of the group.

Twilight nodded and took the lead this time. Her mental map guided her as she started them down the path to the Everfree.

As the last of them crossed the forest’s threshold, the bush rustled again. The only one to notice, Nightmare Moon, merely spat in its general direction out of spite for, well, everything.

When they were a good distance away, a sharp blue pair of glowing eyes poked out, watching them wander into the forest. For a moment, the owner of the eyes paused, taking in the sights, sounds and tastes of these new interlopers. A wicked grin formed on its face and it sunk back into the bushes.

This would be an interesting thing to report.

Exotic Creatures of the Everfree

It was near midday, but if Twilight didn’t know any better she would guess that it was midnight. The thickness of the trees above her strangled any sunlight that came through, leaving the bottom of the forest hopelessly dark even with the sun at its apex.

Seeing wasn’t a problem at least, not with five horns between them that all doubled as flashlights. A mini rainbow of colored light cut through the dark expanse, waving back and forth in asynchrony as the heads of their owners looked around the forest.

Twilight kept moving at a brisk pace. The latent dangers of the forest made her anxious and stiff, so she took to following her mental map as quickly as possible.

There was always a clamor behind her as her acquaintances struggled to keep up. Even further behind them was the occasional bickering between Shining, Cadance and Nightmare Moon, though who was saying what was impossible to decipher at her distance. She would occasionally call back when she was about to make a sudden change in direction, but that was about the only communication throughout the entire group for a while.

At least until her acquaintances decided to talk to her.

It was a gradual process, so Twilight didn’t even know she was being sucked into a conversation until it was too late. Octavia quickened her pace to pull up alongside her, stayed quiet for a moment to let her presence sink in and then spoke. “Do you know what’s going to happen when we find the Tree of Harmony?”

Twilight blinked and turned to her suddenly, shining her light directly in Octavia’s face by accident.

“Ah!” Octavia winced and held up a hoof to block to influx of light. Twilight switched back to looking at the path ahead, the glow of her horn following.

“Sorry.”

“No worries.” Through her peripherals Twilight saw Octavia blink and rub her eyes a few times until it appeared her vision had rectified itself. “But my question still stands, do you have any idea? Because last time—”

“Yeah, I know, I screwed up.” Twilight’s ears folded down. “You don’t have to remind me.”

“That wasn’t my intent.” Octavia put a hoof on her shoulder. “But we didn’t really know what we were doing last time, thanks to Princess Celestia’s intentional miscommunications. I just want to make sure that isn’t happening again.”

“It’s not,” Twilight assured her. “I’ve pored over hours worth of notes that Princess Celestia has sent me. She’s not keeping me in the dark this time.”

“Well that’s a relief.” Twilight turned to see Bon Bon on the other side of her. “At least we know what we’re getting into this time around.”

“Sheesh, was it really that bad the first time?” Spike asked

“We were pretty much blind the whole time.” Now Twilight turned her head up and saw Derpy hovering just a few inches above her. “Both figuratively and literally.”

“It really could have gone better,” Twilight admitted. And it would have if not for me.

“Well, there’s no point in thinking about what might have been,” Octavia said. “Especially not when we can be doing something about it in the present.”

Twilight smiled and nodded. “Yeah, you’re right.” That was one of the things she liked about Octavia: her calm logic. It would definitely be something she’d miss about the mare once this was all over.

...She would miss a lot actually. Not just from Octavia, but all of her acquaintances. Derpy’s goofy optimism, Lyra’s beautiful music, Bon Bon’s amazing pastries, even Vinyl with her unbounded energy had grown on her a little bit.

But at the same time, she was eager to get this done. She wanted to have her old life back; that had been the purpose of all her work after all.

Well, and to reform Nightmare Moon.

But now, on the precipice of finding the Tree and fixing everything, Twilight was… not really having second thoughts, but she wasn’t entirely comfortable with her first thoughts.

Who knows, maybe she’d be willing to exchange letters with these girls after she returned to Canterlot. They could be pen pals… or pen acquaintances.

“So Derpy,” Bon Bon asked. “How’s it going with Nightmare?”

“Pretty good… I think.” Derpy hovered down and landed on the other side of Bon Bon. “I wouldn’t quite say we’re besties yet, but I think we’re close.”

“We’re not!” Nightmare called out defiantly.

“She’s still getting used to the idea,” Derpy explained.

“Sure…” Twilight felt a twinge of sympathy for Nightmare for having to put up with constant friendship attempts, but it fizzled away quickly.

“Hey, Smart Mare, any idea how far we are from the thingy?” Vinyl called out behind her.

“Tree of Harmony,” she corrected, glancing back. “And we still have a ways to go.”

“Great...”

“Hey, you wanted to come,” Twilight pointed out. “Don’t start complaining because it isn’t what you were expecting.”

“Then can I complain that we haven’t eaten lunch yet?”

Bon Bon groaned. “Vinyl, we just had breakfast half an hour ago, how are you still hungry?”

In response, Vinyl’s stomach growled. “I just am, I guess.”

Twilight looked back to the path ahead. With her mental map she knew they were far from their destination. “Well, we can stop when we hit the halfway point. Until then, no complaining.”

Vinyl’s stomach rumbled again.

“That goes for you too,” Twilight snapped at it.

“Can I complain?” Nightmare Moon piped up.

“No!”

She grunted and rolled her eyes. “Well, I’m still gonna.”

Twilight refused to dignify her with another response. Instead, she started walking again, everypony gradually increasing their pace to follow her.

With no visible sun, it was impossible to tell for how long this went on, but Twilight was certain it was hours. Since hiking through a forest was not a very mentally strenuous activity, it gave her time to think.

The biggest thing on her mind was the Elements, but that was no surprise. Those six trinkets had occupied more of her gray matter in the past few weeks than months of studying under Princess Celestia. She was still uncertain about a lot of things surrounding them. Namely, what would happen once they’d got to the Tree. Despite her reassurances to everypony, the details around ‘resetting the Elements of Harmony’ were still a little fuzzy. She had no idea what would happen when they got to the Tree. Heck, she wasn’t even sure all of the Elements would react the same way to it.

Especially considering the Element of Honesty had yet to rekindle even in the slightest.

...Why was her Element the only one to not show signs of life?

She hadn’t really given it thought before, but the realization stared her in the face now. All of her acquaintances’ Elements were still sparkling, but hers was as inert as the day she got it.

Twilight glanced back at the five ponies stumbling around behind her. Had something they’d done activated their Elements? And if so, was it something she could do, too?

“Whoa! Uh, Twilight?”

She snapped back to reality at the sound of Spike’s voice. “Yes, what is i—” Her words cut off there as her head swiveled back around. While her mind had wandered, she’d still been walking and was a mere step away from plunging into a swamp. “Oh.”

“What’s the hold up?”

Twilight turned to Vinyl, as well as the other ponies giving her confused looks. To answer, she merely shined her light over a greater expanse of the swamp, enlightening them.

“Oh, that’s the hold up.”

Shining stepped forward to scrutinize the murky pond before them. “It looks like it might go pretty deep. I don’t think we can walk through it.”

“Thank goodness.” Derpy wiped her brow with a sigh of relief.

“Uh… you can fly. You know that right?” Octavia pointed.

“Duh.” Derpy lifted off the ground, hovering slightly in the air. “But with my luck I’d probably fly right into it.”

“Are you serious?” Lyra asked. “Derpy, I haven’t seen you crash into anything since last week! You even survived a bouncy house for Celestia’s sake.”

“Well, yeah, but that doesn’t prove anything.”

Twilight coughed, directing attention back to herself before their train of thought got even more derailed. “As nice as that all is, we still need to find a way to cross this swamp. The Tree is somewhere on the other side.”

“Can we go around?” Spike suggested.

Shining pointed his light along the edge of the swamp. The edge of the swamp careened deep into the dark expanse on both sides. “That might take us a while. It’d be faster if we can think of a way to cross it."

Princess Cadance tapped her hoof against the ground in thought. “That shouldn’t be a problem, between all of us we could just use levitation to get everypony across.”

They heard a small squeak. At first Twilight thought it was an animal of some kind, but when she saw Lyra shying away from eye contact she knew where it came from.

“Uh, do you think we could find a way to cross that doesn’t involve heights?”

Cadance pressed her lips together. “Are… heights a problem?”

Lyra nodded.

“Even if it’s just a few feet?”

Lyra nodded again, much firmer this time. “I like to keep my hooves on the ground, thank you very much.”

Vinyl poked her head past Twilight and took a look at the swamp for herself. “You know, it looks like there are a bunch of rocks. Maybe we could hop across.”

“That’s—” Twilight cut off her automatic reaction and gave the idea some legitimate thought. “That… might work actually.”

“What rocks are you talking about?” Shining asked, looking out into the swamp. “I can’t see any.”

“Over there.” Vinyl shined her light out a little further, calling to attention a particularly large mound of rocks. They were so tightly packed together that they almost seemed to form an island.

As Vinyl’s beam of light landed on the rocky expanse, it shook slightly. Twilight tilted her head in confusion, but didn’t have any time to express her concern. As the shaking increased, a pair of rocks in the front of the pile split apart, revealing a glowing yellow orb.

“Those aren’t rocks!” Shining realized.

Twilight’s eyes widened as the pile rose out of the swamp, revealing four thick legs and a long, powerful tail. Her brushing up on the Everfree’s flora and fauna allowed her to easily identify the beast: A cragodile.

She backed away slowly, biting her lip and folding down her ears as the creature trained its sickly yellow eyes on them. Its jaw slid open, followed by a low grunt that rose to a deafening roar.

“Everypony move!” Shining yelled.

The cragodile rushed forward, snapping its maw. Twilight dove to the right, Spike tightly gripping her mane. Everypony behind her retreated and scattered. Vinyl, on the other hoof, was acting like her hooves were glued to the ground. Her mouth was agape and her eyes were wide with fear. She quivered, but failed to get out of the way.

The rocky behemoth was almost on top of her when Shining ran in and tackled her to the side. They missed the cragodile’s body by inches and landed just in front of Twilight, Vinyl clinging to Shining’s foreleg.

“So when I say ‘everypony move’ what do you hear?” He asked her.

Vinyl opened her mouth to respond, but only a weak whine managed to push its way out. It was like her brain had shut off and all she could do was stare at Shining with her face reddening by the second.

They didn’t have any time to reflect on Vinyl’s lack of reflexes, though, because the cragodile realized nothing but dirt had made it into its mouth and it turned around, looking for them.

Twilight held her breath and remained motionless. She racked her brain again, trying to recall whatever information she’d read on the creature before them.

Poor eyesight. No sense of smell. Acute hearing.

“Everypony stay silent,” she whispered to Vinyl, Spike and Shining. They nodded.

The cragodile whirled around again, trying to find them, when a sudden, loud clinking noise commanded its attention. Its head whirled around, facing Nightmare Moon, whose chains were ensnared in a tree’s roots.

“Fantastic,” Nightmare grumbled, but her sarcastic quip was lost under the snarling of the monster before her.

Twilight’s eyes widened as the cragodile stalked toward her. As much as she really, really hated Nightmare, she couldn’t idly stand by as a cragodile tore into her. She was kind of the whole reason they were doing this in the first place.

Unfortunately she was too far away to do anything. Nightmare tugged on her chains, desperately trying to free herself with the cragodile drawing closer. Her eyes shrunk in fear.

“Hey!” A rock bounced off the cragodile’s hide. It snapped its head in the direction of the thrower: Derpy.

Twilight’s eyes widened even further, but she was unable to stop her from whatever asinine plan she had.

“Why don’t you try eating somepony who’ll give you less indigestion, like me!” She lobbed another rock at it, this time making contact with its eye.

The cragodile roared in anger and shifted from Nightmare to her. It started charging and Twilight saw Derpy’s bravado wither away.

She didn’t think this through, Twilight realized. Before she really thought of anything either, she stood up and yelled. “Hey, over here you big, stupid croc!”

It worked. The cragodile paused and looked over in her direction, giving Derpy just enough time to fly away.

Out of the corner of her eye, Twilight could see her other acquaintances jitter in understanding.

As the cragodile started toward Twilight, Lyra ran forward. “Come and get some! We got three ponies here just ripe for eating!”

The cragodile turned its head again focusing on the mares as Bon Bon and Octavia started making noise of their own. Before it could even take a step towards them another rock hit its head from above.

“No, up here!” Derpy interrupted.

The cragodile snapped up, but Derpy danced out of its range.

“How about you go back to eating me,” Nightmare groaned. “Be doing me a favor, honestly.”

“No, how about me,” Shining said, lighting his horn. “Come on, ugly!”

Twilight yelped and fell back as the cragodile lunged for them, but her brother’s training as a guard kicked it before they could all be snapped up. His horn exploded in a blinding flash of light, throwing up a barrier between them.

With a thud, the cragodile slammed into the shield. It grunted in agitation now that a barrier was between it and its meal. Rearing back, it inspected the pink—light magenta—bubble for a moment before clamping its jaws on the shield and squeezing.

Shining gritted his teeth and struggled against the force pressing on his magic. For a few seconds it was fine, but cracks formed shortly after.

Twilight’s heart pounded in her throat as it looked like her brother’s shield was about to give way. She flipped through her library of spells, hoping to find one strong enough to repel the beast in front of her, but none seemed powerful enough.

Shining grunted as he pushed harder, trying to keep his barrier in tact. “Cadance, now!”

Blinking, Twilight looked over and saw a massive blue light from a spell Cadance had undoubtedly been charging since she’d dodged the attack. At Shining’s cue, she let if fly.

A powerful beam of magical energy slammed into the cragodile not even half a second later, ripping it from its grip on the shield and sending it spiralling into the swamp. Murky water splashed upward and Shining kept the shield stable until after it finished raining down.

When the bubble dropped, Twilight finally stood back up. She turned to Spike, who’d been knocked off her. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” He sat up, rubbing the back of his head. “I’m fine.”

“Don’t get too comfortable; it’s not over yet,” Shining Armor said, standing up to face the monster. It rolled over, coming to its feet and shaking its head to free itself from discombobulation.

Cadance swooped down beside Shining Armor, igniting her horn as she landed and tucked away her wings. Both of them tensed a little as the cragodile trained its sights on them, but held their ground.

“Ready?” he asked, his own horn sparking to life.

“Ready,” Cadance said, a determined glare in her eyes.

The cragodile roared, charging forward. For a beast its size, it sure could run. In just a few seconds, it covered half the distance to them. Shining gritted his teeth, waiting until it was almost on top of them.

“Now!”

Twin beams of magical energy erupted from their horns, slamming into the cragodile. The combined power of their blasts knocked it back with enough force to clear the swamp completely.

Twilight winced as she heard the sudden, thundering noise of trees being knocked down as the cragodile tumbled into them. The dust settled a moment later and after waiting a bit it became clear that the cragodile was out cold. Shining and Cadance dimmed their horns, finally relaxing.

“Okay, now it’s over.” Shining’s voice was strained. His breaths were deep and ragged and sweat was forming on his forehead.

Twilight glanced to Cadance, who was showing similar signs of exertion. She didn’t blame them; they’d just used a lot of energy to knock out that cragodile.

“That was amazing!” Twilight’s acquaintances swarmed them.

“You guys are incredible,” Bon Bon praised. Nightmare Moon grunted and rolled her eyes.

“That was quite the battlefield chemistry you two displayed,” Octavia noted.

Cadance smiled towards Shining at the statement, who in turn looked away, refusing to make eye contact. Twilight tightened her lips, but didn’t press the issue.

“Hey, Vinyl?” Shining asked.

“Yeah?”

“Can I have my leg back now?”

Everypony took a second to realize that Vinyl was still latched onto Shining’s foreleg. Vinyl seemed to realize it as well, as her face went pink for the two seconds it took to rip herself free.

“Uh, sorry ‘bout that,” she mumbled. “And thanks… for saving my life and stuff.”

“Welcome.” He turned his head to look at the unconscious cragodile. “We should put some distance between us and that thing.”

Twilight glanced between him and Cadance again, taking their exertion into account. “Okay, but then we should stop so you two can rest up a bit.”

Shining grinned, a ragged breath escaping his lips before he spoke. “Oh come on, Twily, we can power through.”

Twilight shook her head. “No arguing, we’re taking a break once we get to safety.”

He rolled his eyes, still smiling. “Okay.”

“Anypony want to give me a hoof?” Nightmare grumbled, rattling the chains that were still locked onto the tree roots.

“I gotcha.” Derpy fluttered toward her and landed just in front of her. With a tug and a grunt she began fiddling with chains. “So are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Nightmare refused to make eye contact.

“Are you sure? Because you looked kinda scared and—”

“I am scared of nothing,” Nightmare said coldly. “But…” Her lips twitched as she tried to force out the words. Twilight couldn’t be sure but it looked like she was trying to say—

“Thank you.”

Everypony paused with shock upon hearing the words. Derpy merely smiled and pulled the restraints free. “You’re welcome. I’m glad you’re all right.”

Nightmare blinked, as if she couldn’t genuinely believe that somepony cared about her wellbeing. “I’m glad I’m alive too.”

Derpy leaned in. “Aaannnd?”

“And nothing.” Nightmare attempted to brush past, but her restraints turned it into an awkward waddle.

“Well then, let’s move,” Twilight said, indicated deeper into the forest. “We’ll just have to go around the swamp.”

“Uh, we can get lunch next time we stop, right?” Vinyl asked.

“Yeah, sure.”

Vinyl hoof-pumped. “Awesome.”

Four hundred feet east and five hundred feet below, a changeling scout was approaching a throne shrouded in darkness. He nodded as he passed the guards at the entrance, paused when he’d reached a respectable distance and knelt.

“Speak.” A voice demanded from behind its veil of shadows. The cold tone reverberated around the room, sending a tingle running down the scout’s carapace.

“My Queen,” he breathed. “I’ve detected several ponies entering the forest and one of them is practically radiating love.”

Several teeth became visible as the figure in the shadows curled her mouth in a dastardly smile. “Yes, I know. I can taste it from here.” She stood up from the throne, becoming a more recognizable figure in the darkness. “Fate has smiled upon us today.”

“What are your orders, My Queen?” One of the guards asked

“Orders?” Queen Chrysalis stepped out from the shadows, her piercing green eyes settling on them all. “Why that’s simple. Clearly we have some guests in our humble home.” Her grin split as she gave off a heinous cackle.

The other changelings in the room remained silent until she quieted down. When she did, Chrysalis looked them over and smiled again.

“Let’s be sure to give them a warm welcome.”

Two is Better Than One

“This is it?” Nightmare grunted as she surveyed the food in front of them.

“Yes,” Twilight snapped, feeling the need to groan.

Strewn about before them was what little food they had left. A few wrapped sandwiches that Shining had brought and the half dozen remaining cinnamon muffins that Bon Bon had baked.

Twilight wanted to deny it, but she was a little disappointed as well. Of all the things she had prepared for, a food shortage wasn’t one of them.

“Sorry,” Bon Bon said as if reading her thoughts. “Had I known we’d be gone for more than a day, I would’ve baked more.”

“And I would’ve brought more had I known all of you girls would be joining us.” Shining poked the nearest sandwich. “But we’ll just have to be careful with what we eat and exercise a little restraint.”

“Hm.” Vinyl tapped her hoof. “Restraint is more Tavi’s thing than mine.”

Octavia sighed. “Sadly, that’s true, but if restraint now means we get dinner later then I’ll make you restrain yourself, Vinyl.”

Twilight surveyed the food again, running up some quick calculations in her head. “If we each take a quarter of a sandwich and a third of a muffin then there will be plenty left over for tonight, assuming we’re out here that long.”

Cadance nodded and picked up the food with her magic. It only took a few seconds for her to dice the food into relatively even portions and start to pass it out to everypony. As the food made it to each destination, the receiving pony offered a smile and a "thank you". That is, until Cadance got to the last one.

Nightmare grumbled and let her food fall into her waiting hoof. Her eyes looked disdainfully at the tiny amount of muffin in her grasp, as if she’d been offered a mere crumb. “This is unsatisfactory.”

“So is being stuck in the Everfree with you,” came Twilight’s retort.

Nightmare Moon responded with the sum total of all her maturity and stuck her tongue out at Twilight. Before the gesture could be returned with something equally childish, Derpy stepped in between them.

“Okay, enough.” She turned to Nightmare, extending her partial muffin as a peace offering. “Here.”

Nightmare dubiously looked from the muffin to the mare. “Is it poisoned?”

“No!” Derpy cried, offended.

Nightmare tilted her head. “Really? Because I can’t think of any other reason you would offer me this.”

“I didn’t poison it!” Derpy insisted. “How could I? I wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

“Yeah, try telling that to the cragodile whose eye you almost put out,” Vinyl called, injecting herself into the conversation

Derpy nodded her head, unable to argue. “Okay, but it wasn’t a fly.”

“I’m not a fly either,” Nightmare pointed out.

“For Celestia’s sake just eat the muffin,” Twilight groaned.

Nightmare scoffed. “If it’s for my back-stabbing sister’s sake, then I will not. Even if it is one of those delicious… fluffy… mouth-watering…” She shook her head, clearing her throat. “Upon further consideration I’ve decided to accept your potentially deadly offering.”

Derpy frowned. “But I didn’t—”

“Just give it to her,” Twilight suggested. The sooner Nightmare Moon was done being petty about eating a muffin, the better. Derpy didn’t argue and turned over her treat. Nightmare inspected it a bit, as if she could judge its poison content solely on looks, then decided to throw caution to the wind and popped it in her mouth.

Everypony else settled into their own meals after that, though it really didn’t last long with the tiny portions. Twilight didn’t bother trying to make hers last and merely put all of her sandwich in her mouth, taking a seat next to her saddlebags.

“So, should we expect any more inanimate objects to come to life or was that pile of rocks it?” Lyra asked.

“It wasn’t a pile of rocks, it was a cragodile,” Twilight explained after she finished eating. She quickly ran through a list of Everfree creatures. “And no, I don’t think so.”

Vinyl swallowed her sandwich. “You sure? Cause last time those trees came to life.”

“Pretty sure that one was me,” Nightmare Moon said through her mouthful of muffin.

“Oh yeah, that’s right, I remember now. Makes sense; they were pretty pathetic.”

“What?” Nightmare’s eyes were livid as they drilled into Vinyl.

“I thought I asked you to stop messing with her,” Shining said before more insults could be flung.

“Fine,” Vinyl groaned playfully. She scooted closer to Shining and nuzzled her head into his neck. “I’ll stop, Pretty Boy.” The gesture surprised him enough to make his face a little pink.

Twilight was surprised too. She knew Vinyl found her brother… attractive. As weird as that was for her, she had been perfectly willing to follow Octavia’s advice and let her interest wither away. However, she’d noticed that Vinyl had actually become more attached to Shining, especially after he saved her life.

And judging from the uncomfortable look on Shining’s face she could tell he wasn’t all that overjoyed at this development.

And judging from the frown on Cadance’s face as she looked away from the two, neither was she.

Octavia cleared her throat. “Well, considering we don’t have another run in with a monster, present company excluded—” Nightmare smiled mockingly. “—when do you think we’ll be at the Tree, Twilight?”

Twilight swallowed her sandwich. “Hopefully in the next few hours.” She shot a glance back toward Shining and Cadance. “You guys still need some time to rest?”

They both nodded. “If you don’t mind,” Cadance said. “Sorry if we’re holding everypony back.”

“Don’t be. You’ve already been a pretty big help so far.”

Cadance smiled. “That’s a relief. I’d hate to mess up my first real royal job.”

Twilight blinked in surprise. “I’m sorry, what?”

Now Cadance blinked, surprised by her slip. “Oh uh… well you see I…” She looked to Shining, hoping he would lend a hoof in explaining. He merely shrugged, mouth still full, and gave her a you-said-it-not-me kind of look. Cadance sighed. “Okay… I guess you all should know. Auntie Celestia… hasn’t really let me do anything as a Princess.”

“What do you mean by that?” Bon Bon asked.

“Well… outside of overseeing the Rainbow Falls Trader’s Exchange once and managing a few petty complaints from citizens, I’ve haven’t been allowed to do any royal jobs.”

“That’s it?” Twilight asked. Surely Princess Celestia had allowed her to do more than that. Just based on the workload she’d seen the Princess of the Sun take on she had assumed Cadance would be up to her neck in politics and paperwork, or at least diplomatic work. But nothing?

Cadance nodded. “I… I think maybe she just thought I couldn’t handle it all or something.”

“Uh, has she even met you?” Lyra asked. “Seriously, the way you fought that cragodile was amazing!” Twilight and the rest nodded their agreement.

“Heh, thanks.” Cadance smiled slightly, though it didn’t last. “I just wish she would let me help her out a little more. And I really hope I don’t mess this up.” She looked to Twilight. “No offense, I know this is your mission and all, but I really want to get a chance to prove myself to her.”

“Of course you will,” Twilight assured her. “I’m sure the Princess will be amaz—” She stopped short, ears flicking.

Shining tilted his head. “Uh, Twily? Everything okay?”

“I thought I heard something,” she whispered. Everypony snapped to attention, but Twilight held a hoof to her mouth, silencing them before they could speak. They all waited with bated breath, listening for any irregularities. It stayed deathly quiet for a moment, almost convincing Twilight that she’d heard wrong. Then…

Rustle rustle.

Twilight’s head snapped around, just in time to catch the fading motion of leaves in a bush not to far from her.

“That’s definitely a something,” Vinyl aptly observed.

Narrowing her eyes, Twilight stood up. “I’ll go check it out.”

“Need some help?” Shining asked, likely looking for an escape route from Vinyl’s snuggling.

The bush rustled again, knocking a few leaves down onto the ground. The disturbance didn’t look all that big, in fact it was probably just another ferret. “I think I have it, you just focus on resting up.”

Twilight lit up her horn in preparation and parted the leaves of the bush. Nothing

Pinching her lips together, Twilight peered in for a better look. As she did, the leaves of the bush directly behind hers began rustling. Arching her eyebrow, Twilight turned back to the group. “Hang on a second, I want to check this out really quick.”

“Need help?” Lyra asked.

Twilight shook her head. “I’ll be fine.”

“Be careful,” she heard Octavia say.

She nodded and stepped into the bushes. The rustling sound didn’t fade as she approached closer. Cautiously stepping forward, Twilight prodded the bush with her magic. She held her breath as the rustling stopped, but for a moment, nothing happened.

Curiosity reaching its peak, Twilight parted the leaves with her magic, but only found empty forest on the other side.

Huh… Twilight bit her lip, pondering the odd occurrence.

“Hey, Smart Mare, everything okay in there?”

She turned to the sound of Vinyl’s voice. “Yeah, it looks like it was nothing after all. I’m coming back out.”

Turning the rest of her body, Twilight made for the first bush. With a flick of magic, she spared herself most of the leaves and branches, but a few crafty ones slipped through her grasp. They gave her a few light, yet irritating, whacks to the face as she left, leaving a couple of leaves in her mouth.

“Gah.” Twilight came out of the bush spitting. When she was certain no more leaves were hanging around in her mouth she looked up, only to be greeted by eight sets of wide eyes.

Everypony was looking at her oddly, or rather, in her general direction oddly. Their attention seemed divided between her and something right next to her. With a raised eyebrow, Twilight turned her head.

And then nearly passed out.

Standing right next to her, covered in leaves of her own, was an identical her. Twilight did a double-take, watching her double take the same initiative.

Is that a… mirror?

“Wha—” Twilight cut herself off. Her duplicate mimicked her right down to the voice. Twilight swallowed and turned back to her friends, the copy to her left doing the same. “Guys, what’s going on?”

The group looked just as confused as she felt. Vinyl was the first to break the silence, leaning off of Shining’s body to do so. “Geeze Twilight, you know, I can forgive you not mentioning that you have a hot brother, but not mentioning that you have a twin? Come on now.”

“She doesn’t have a twin,” Shining stood up, followed quickly by Cadance and everypony else, save Nightmare Moon, who actually looked a little bored right now.

Twilight looked back to Twilight, narrowing her eyes. “Who are you?” she asked the double, earning the same response back. She looked from it to her acquaintances.

“Uh… who’s the real Twilight?” Bon Bon asked.

“I am!” Twilight said.

“No you aren’t, you faker!” The other accused. “I am!”

Twilight narrowed her eyes and lit up her horn, ready to attack her double. Unfortunately, it looked ready to do the same. Twilight paused, not sure of the magic capabilities of the… thing in front of her. If it had her skill in magic along with her appearance and voice, then the last thing she wanted was to get in a magic duel with it.

“Enough.” A pi—light magenta barrier appeared between them. Shining Armor’s face was creased in a frown. “Both of you calm down; we’ll figure this out.”

“Uh, to be honest, this is a little confusing,” Lyra admitted. “Does anypony know how we can tell them apart?”

Octavia looked them both over. “Same mane, same voice, even the same Cutie Mark… It’s clear we can’t go by appearances alone.”

“Oh, I have an idea!” Derpy looked at them both. “Whoever’sthefakeTwilightraiseyourhoof!” she yelled suddenly.

Twilight blinked, and left her hoof down. Her duplicate looked equally confused, but didn’t raise her hoof either.

Derpy frowned. “Oh come on guys, it doesn’t work if you aren’t honest.”

“Stop being stupid!” Nightmare yelled.

“I, uh… think your plan was doomed from the start, Derpy,” Octavia explained.

“So how are we going to determine who is Smart Mare and who’s the Fake Mare?” Vinyl asked. “And follow up question, can we beat up the fake one?”

Shining clenched his jaw and tapped his foot. Cadance looked from him to Spike. “Well, we’ve known Twilight the longest, if anybody can tell her apart from the fake one, it’ll be us.”

Spike smiled. “Yeah, let’s see who’s the most Twilight of the Twilights!”

“Sounds good to me,” Shining said, letting the barrier between the two drop. “What about you two?”

“Absolutely.” Twilight was about to breath a sigh of relief, but stopped and wondered just how effective that might be. If her duplicate copied her memories along with her appearance, she could be in for a difficult time trying to prove herself.

She looked over to herself, noting the confident grin on it that she usually wore when she knew she was right.

“I actually have a better idea,” Fake-light replied.

Shining raised his eyebrow. He looked to Cadance and Spike, who shrugged in response. “Okay, what?”

Fake-light smiled wickedly and turned to her, horn sparking to life. Twilight only had a second to be surprised before a burst of magic energy slammed into her.

“Ah!” Pain exploded in Twilight’s chest as the blast forced her back. She landed on her back, several feet away, hearing her doppelganger cackle maniacally.

“Twilight!” Her acquaintances all rushed over to her, now certain she was the real one. Octavia and Bon Bon reached her first and started helping her up.

Shining and Cadance stood between her and Fake-light, horns blazing.

“All right, you… thing.” Shining narrowed his eyes. “Start talking. What are you? What do you want?”

“Oh, you want to know who I am?” A swirl of green magic enveloped Fake-light. Everypony shielded their eyes from the glow. A moment later it died down, revealing Fake-light in an entirely new form

Shining’s eyes widened. “Holy…”

“...crap,” Cadance finished.

Twilight felt every hair on her head stand up at once. She felt Octavia go stiff next to her, with Bon Bon not far behind. Standing before them, clad in armor, fang teeth curled in a smile, was Nightmare Moon.

“I’m your worst nightmare,” it said, voice perfectly matching the demonic alicorn’s.

Shining shot a glance to the right at the Nightmare still stuck in her restraints. “So does this mean you’re behind this?”

Nightmare rolled her eyes. “Oh sure, just because something bad happens in the Everfree Forest, that immediately means it’s my fault!”

“To be fair, that’s how it worked last time,” Vinyl pointed out.

As Nightmare Moon glared a few daggers in Vinyl’s direction, the other Nightmare Moon grinned wickedly. “I take it you're not so eager to fight now, are you?”

Shining tensed up while Cadance clenched her jaw. Their horns were still flaring, but Twilight could tell neither wanted to go up against Nightmare Moon… assuming this creature had copied Nightmare’s strength.

Come to think of it, the pain she felt from being blasted back had already faded. If that thing had been as strong as her, then that shouldn’t be right. Twilight knew she had more magical power than that. So that meant…

“Guys, it’s bluffing!” she shouted. Shining and Cadance looked back at her, confusion dotting their faces. “It’s only as strong as an average unicorn.”

“Obviously,” the real Nightmare grunted. “If she really was me, then you’d all be dead by now.”

“Is that right?” Shining turned back to the creature. “Well then.”

For the first time since it appeared, the copier showed hints of nervousness. It was subtle, but Twilight noticed the slight furrowing of its brows.

“I think you were pretty accurate before; you are the worst Nightmare,” Nightmare Moon told it.

“And that is a really low bar to break,” Vinyl threw in, earning herself another angry glare.

Shining and Cadance moved towards the creature and it took a step back.

“Well then.” the fake Nightmare took another step back. “It would seem I’m no longer welcome here.”

“You were never welcome,” Cadance deadpanned.

The fake Nightmare spread her sharpened teeth in a wide grin. “In that case…”

A blinding green light overtook them again. Twilight slammed her eyes shut, grunting in pain and surprise, with everypony else not far behind. Just like last time, the light died down a moment later, revealing the creature’s next form: a cross-eyed gray pegasus.

“Hey, it stole my face!” Derpy cried.

Fake Derpy took to the air and gave them a mocking wave. “See ya.” With that, it took off into the forest.

Shining glanced back at Twilight. “I have no idea what that thing is or what it wants, but I don’t like it. You want to go after it?”

Twilight looked in the direction of the disappearing copycat and then to the path towards the Tree of Harmony on the opposite end of the forest. If they went after that… thing, there’s no telling how long it would take. At the same time, the existence of such a sinister creature, coupled with unknown motives, left a bad feeling in her stomach. She didn’t want it popping up again further down to road just to be a hinderance. Besides, with her mental map they couldn’t get lost.

She nodded. “Yeah, let’s go.”

“Face-snatcher is gonna get it,” Derpy agreed. “Nopony hurts our friend and gets away with it.” The rest of Twilight’s acquaintances nodded their assent. She smiled, grateful enough for their compassion that she didn’t even feel the need to correct them.

“Right, let me just grab the Elements and we can—”

“Way ahead of you, Twilight.” Spike held up her saddlebags right in front of her. In her peripherals Twilight saw that Lyra had already grabbed the rest with her magic and was passing them out to everypony.

“Thanks, Spike.” She wrapped her lavender aura around the pack and strapped it on. “All right, let’s go.”

They took off running, Twilight levitating Spike onto her back so he wouldn’t have to try and keep up. The only one who didn’t seem so eager, however, was Nightmare Moon. Cadance paused as they were running and shot her a glare.

“Aren’t you going to come too?”

Nightmare held up her chained legs. “Maybe if somepony were to cut me free so I could—”

She didn’t get to finish the thought as Cadance groaned and surrounded the demonic alicorn with her blue aura. The second she took off running again, Nightmare Moon found herself dragged along, chains still intact.

Nightmare grunted in annoyance as she whipped forward. “Well it was worth a shot.”

Cadance quickly caught up to everypony else as they chased after the creature. Twilight could barely see it zipping through the Everfree. She was able to watch as it deftly dodged all the low hanging branches, as if it had flown this path a hundred times before.

“I don’t get it,” Derpy said as she struggled to avoid the branches herself. Eventually she realized how far behind she was falling and landed to switch to a gallop. “If it wanted to get away, why not just fly up and out of the trees?”

“I don’t know,” Twilight admitted. “But if we want to find out we’re going to have to catch it.” ...But it is kind of weird. Not to mention it could probably disappear into the forest easily if it wanted to, but instead it’s staying just in view.

They kept hoofing it over the next several minutes, Twilight mulling over the creature’s confusing behavior the whole time. Was it just playing with them? Or was it purposely luring them away from the Tree of Harmony?

She shot a quick glance back, looking past her acquaintances, towards the direction her brain was telling her the Tree was. They were going pretty far off the path, but at the same time it wasn’t like they couldn’t get back on it.

Curious, Twilight shot another glance over to Nightmare Moon, who had her hooves crossed as she floated nearby Cadance. Could she actually be behind this somehow? They were getting distracted from the goal of reforming her… but then again, how?

Twilight filed the thought in the back of her head and focused her attention back to the shape shifting creature as it… slowed down?

She blinked in confusion, watching as the creature in front of them become closer and closer as it slowed its flight. Twilight looked slightly further ahead, noticing that the dense foliage was rapidly giving way to a clearing.

Shining also took notice of the fact that the gap between them was closing and lit up his horn. He fired off two bolts of magic, each missing the creature as it swooped behind some tree branches.

“Better save it for the clearing,” Twilight suggested before he could get off a third. He nodded his agreement, knowing it wouldn’t be a long wait.

They spilled out into the opening a few short moments later. Twilight, who wasn’t built for exercise and had never tried to remake herself as such, found herself gasping for breath as they all slowed down.

She caught the shape shifter out of the corner of her eye slow it’s flying to a crawl before coming to a complete stop and landing in the middle of the field.

It turned around, offering them all one of Derpy’s trademark goofy grins. “Congrats! You managed to keep up. Unfortunately, the prize isn’t what you’d—”

“Stop stealing my face!” Derpy interjected.

The creature blinked, annoyed at the interruption. “Fine.” With another flash of light, it changed shape again, this time into Octavia. “Now then—”

“Well, that doesn’t give you the right to borrow my image,” Octavia said with a huff.

The creature pressed its lips together in aggravation. It begrudgingly transformed again, this time reverting to its Twilight Sparkle form. “May I continue?”

“Sure,” Twilight decided.

“Thank you.” Fake-light cleared its throat. “As I was saying, it’s unfortunate for you that your prize isn’t exactly what you were hoping for.”

“I didn’t even know there was a prize,” Derpy admitted.

“Nevertheless, you’re going to get it anyway.” Fake-light grinned.

Cadance narrowed her eyes. “Would you stop being cryptic and start making sense?”

“Certainly.” Fake-light clapped its hooves.

Twilight raised her eyebrow, not convinced that the crypticness had ended. The shape shifter smiled, looking quite pleased with itself. Concerned, Twilight tried following its gaze and looked back towards the forest.

She immediately wished she hadn’t.

Looking back into the dark expanse of the forest, Twilight saw several sets of glowing blue eyes appear. Glancing all around, she noticed more of those same eyes appear all around them, surrounding the clearing.

Twilight’s eyes widened as it dawned on her what was happening. “Ambush!”

Fake-light laughed at her realization, bursting into another flash of green light. This time, as the light died it hadn’t taken the form of any of them, but rather something Twilight had never seen before.

It was… vaguely equine in stature, but at the same time it seemed to resemble insects more so. It had the diaphanous wings of a bug, a carapace made of chitin and the same eyes as the things in the forest.

She felt Cadance stiffen next to her. “Do you know what that thing is?” Twilight asked her.

“No,” Cadance admitted. “But it’s giving me a pretty bad feeling.”

The sets of eyes in the forest started moving forward. As they came into view, Twilight saw that they were the same species as the thing in front of her. They drew closer and Twilight felt Spike grip her mane.

“Just stay close to me,” she whispered to him.

“Don’t have to tell me twice.”

“It looks like we’re going to have to fight our way out of this,” Shining told everypony. Five horns lit up simultaneously as the creatures slowly stalked towards them. Twilight’s eyes darted around, her guard heightened.

Nightmare grunted. “Now how am I supposed to defend myself?” She indicated her nullified horn and restraints.

Shining rolled his eyes. “I don’t know, why don’t you complain in their general direction? I bet it’ll send them running.”

Nightmare glared at him, but before she could fire off a retort, Derpy slinked beside her. “Don’t worry; I’ve got your back.”

Grunting, Nightmare looked at the creatures closing in. “I feel safer already.”

“So are we just waiting for these things to completely swarm us or something?” Vinyl asked. “Because I feel like we should’ve attacked a long time ago.”

Shining narrowed his eyes. “Just a little closer.”

The creatures were almost within spitting distance. Twilight tensed up, wanting to fire off a few bursts of magic, but she held back, trusting that her brother had a plan.

Just as the bug ponies were about to pounce, he suddenly threw up a shield. The entire group found themselves surrounded in a bubble of magic. The creatures slammed into it and bounced harmlessly off, hissing with displeasure.

“Nice!” Vinyl grinned.

“Don’t celebrate just yet.” Shining grunted, his horn glowing even brighter. The magical shield pushed outward, sweeping up the shape shifters before they could recover. He pushed his magic out as far as he could before popping the bubble, sending the creatures flying. “Now!”

Twilight didn’t need anymore encouragement beyond that. She charged up her horn and let a beam of magic fly, making contact with the first shape shifter she saw. It flew back, but three more got up to replace it.

To her left, Shining and Cadance were firing off one attack after another, but faced a similar problem as Twilight. The creatures had an overwhelming numbers advantage and slowly boxed them in.

Lyra and Vinyl each fired off beams of their own, but had much less impact on the battle. Each of their attacks only served to stagger the shape shifters they hit, instead of flinging them back or wounding them. Luckily, Bon Bon and Octavia were able to take full advantage of the brief seconds their opponents were disabled and landed quite a few kicks, turning the tide in their favor.

Derpy hovered near Nightmare Moon. While most of the creatures that got close were shot away by Cadance, a fair amount managed to trickle through. One such trickler managed to leap onto Nightmare’s back.

“Urgh!” Nightmare recoiled and attempted to fling the creature off. When it held fast, Derpy flew up and socked it in the jaw.

“You okay?” she asked.

Nightmare frowned and looked away. “I’m fine.” Derpy smiled sweetly and kicked away another bug pony.

From there, the tide of battle quickly shifted.

Twilight fired off several more shots, but the creatures started dodging and closing in. She bit her lip and backed up. The shape shifters were almost on top of her when a sudden burst of fire shot from her back, forcing the creatures to withdraw. Twilight looked behind her to Spike, who gave her a thumbs up.

“Ah!”

Twilight’s eyes widened and she looked past Spike to her acquaintances. Bon Bon was pinned down by one of the creatures, while Vinyl grappled with another. Lyra and Octavia were fighting their way towards them, but were being overwhelmed.

“Girls!” Twilight rushed towards them, horn ablaze. She grabbed the bug pony atop Bon Bon and threw it into the air. It snapped out its wings and started flying a second later, only to be hit in the face by Spike’s fire. She blasted the other bug pony for good measure before helping Bon Bon to stand up. “Are you okay?”

She nodded. “Yeah… fine…”

“That’s—” Twilight never got to finish her sentence. A group of the bug ponies rushed her from behind. She felt Spike get knocked from her back as she fell to the ground. She saw Bon Bon immediately go to help, only to be brought down again by more of the swarm.

Twilight struggled in vain to wriggle free of their grasp, but without being able to aim her horn at them it was a useless effort.

“Twilight!”

She looked over to see her brother rushing forward only to be overtaken by a dozen of the shape shifters at once. Twilight grimaced as he went down, noticing that Cadance and her acquaintances weren’t far behind.

She continued struggling though, even as another changeling came and stood over her. It smiled, fangs bared in delight. It leaned in and whispered to her, “now, it begins.”

“Wha—” Twilight didn’t get out any more than that before the bug pony brought its hoof down on her head, forcing her into the dark abyss of unconsciousness.

Princess Celestia walked through the palace gardens, her steps casual but her eyes darting around intently. So far nothing appeared out of place, but one could never be too careful. Besides, they had yet to get to the point of concern.

Beside her, Inkwell trotted to keep up with her pace. She fumbled with several papers in her hoof, trying in vain to keep them all organized.

“...and there have been growing complaints about the drought in Fillydelphia, but the weather workers are still on strike and refuse to do anything about it.”

“Okay, tell them I’ll mediate a discussion between the mayor and the head of the union and see if we can’t work out a raise in their wages.” Celestia took a sharp left, heading for the plethora of stone statues that dotted the open field. “Is there anything else on the agenda today?”

“Uh, well…” Inkwell shuffled the papers around. “That was only the second item for the day.”

“Ah… right.” Celestia ground her teeth. It didn’t really matter to her what Inkwell had in her papers, it all seemed trivial right now.

“Now then, there’ve been some concerns coming in from Cloudsdale about…”

And just like that, Celestia zoned out again. Her attention turned back to the statues around them. Many had been commissioned from local stonesmiths to depict key points in pony history. All except one, in fact.

She saw it approach on the horizon. The back half of a once powerful god of chaos. Celestia chewed her lip anxiously as they approached.

There really is no reason to worry, Celestia assured herself. Discord has been sealed away for a millennium. It would take more than a slight imbalance in the world’s harmony to set him free... Even if said slight imbalance would kill us all if given the chance.

“Princess, please wait up!”

Celestia blinked and looked back to see Inkwell running up to her. She must’ve been walking faster than she thought. “Sorry about that.” Forcing herself to a slower pace, Celestia allowed Inkwell to continue walking next to her. They were almost at Discord’s statue anyway, she’d be able to quickly check it and head back inside before too long.

Inkwell huffed. “Honestly, I don’t know what’s got you so distracted today.”

“That’s because it’s best if you don’t know,” Celestia replied simply.

There was a pause as the information sank into Inkwell. “I-is something bad about to happen?”

Celestia took her next few steps in silence. “I don’t… believe so.”

Inkwell’s pupils shrunk. “Mother of you, something bad is about to happen!”

“No, that’s not what I—” Celestia sighed. “I don’t think anything bad is about to happen.” The reached the front of Discord’s statue and her eyes focused on it. “I just feel that—Oh no.”

“I knew it,” Inkwell whimpered. Her eyes folded down. “What is it? Did Nightmare Moon escape again? Is Equestria being invaded? What?”

Celestia couldn’t respond. Her mouth was currently frozen in an ‘O’ shape as she stared down at the tiny cracks forming on Discord’s statue. Inkwell followed the princess’ line of sight, noticing the problem.

“Oh… one of the statues seems to be falling apart.” She wiped the sweat from her brow. “Phew, from the way you were acting I could’ve sworn there was actually a problem. Don’t worry, Your Majesty, I’ll be sure to let the groundskeepers know and—”

Celestia ignited her horn, enveloping the statue in her aura. She gritted her teeth, pouring as much harmony magic as she could into keeping Discord’s prison from breaking. “Inkwell,” she grunted.

Her assistant backed up, having no clue what was happening. “Uh… yes, Princess?”

“I need you to write a letter to Twilight Sparkle for me.”

“Um… sure, Princess.” Inkwell began digging through her supplies for a fresh sheet of paper.

Celestia furrowed her brows. “I just hope she’s found the Tree by now. If not, we're all doomed.”

Snared

Twilight groaned as she forced her eyelids open. The world around her was fuzzy and blurred. Blinking didn’t do anything to help matters and only seemed to make her vision more obscured. Not to mention everything was abysmally dim, which didn’t help matters. Putting a hoof to her temple and rubbing, Twilight sat up.

“Ah, good. It seems the last of my honored guests has finally woken up.”

Twilight’s ears flicked as a scaly voice hit her ears. She blinked, trying to pinpoint the source of the odd sound.

“Twilight!” A green blob appeared in her sights and Twilight felt a pair of hooves lift her into a standing position.

“Lyra?” Twilight mumbled. Shapes finally began to form for her as her vision regained its clarity. However, she still had to rely on voices to know who was talking.

The Lyra blob wiped what appeared to be her brow. “Oh thank Celestia, you’re okay!”

“She’s awake?” Spike’s voice.

“Looks like it.” Shining’s.

“That’s a relief. Twilight, can you hear us?” That one was Cadance’s.

Finally, Twilight’s vision managed to rectify itself. Everypony was crowded around her, worried looks being the standard among them. The one outlier was Nightmare Moon, who just looked grumpy. Whether if that was because Twilight was still alive or for something else, she had no idea.

“I can hear you,” Twilight murmured. She was about to say more, but felt a sharp pain explode in the back of her head. Wincing, Twilight rubbed her temple, recalling the blow it had taken before she was knocked out. “Ergh, what happened?”

“Well, there's bad news, worse news, horrible news, and a little good news,” Vinyl told her. “Which do ya want first?”

Twilight blinked slowly, the ache in her skull too great to craft an appropriate response. “Bad,” she grunted out, going with the option that matched her mood.

“Kay, well in that case… they beat us.” Vinyl forced a smile, as if it would make the news easier to swallow. “Pretty badly, actually.”

Twilight looked to Shining Armor, hoping he would say otherwise. In doing so, she noticed that he’d been stripped of his armor, and that his usual white coat was adorned with purple bruises. He nodded glumly.

Twilight cringed. She remembered chasing down the mysterious shape shifter, only to be ambushed by a swarm of them. She clenched her teeth, angry with herself for falling for their trap. She clenched her jaw and looked up to her brother. “Okay… what’s the worse news?”

“They nullified our magic,” Shining said simply.

Twilight blinked, now taking note of Shining’s horn, which seemed to be covered with some sort of green gel. Upon further inspection, Cadance, Lyra and Vinyl all had the same gel coating their horns. The only one who seemed exempt from this was Nightmare Moon, probably due to the fact that she already had three inhibitor rings in place.

Not wanting to believe that her magic was gone, Twilight immediately tried to cast a spell. Big mistake.

The pain already stabbing her head burst into a migraine as she backpedalled. It was like a hundred explosions all at once and she cut off her magic a second later. “Ah!”

“Told ya.”

Twilight cringed and rubbed her head harder. The pain was slow to fade. “So what’s the good news?”

“We’re all still alive!” Derpy exclaimed.

“That…” Twilight brought her hoof down. “Yeah, that is good news.”

“I take it I’m the horrible news then?”

Twilight blinked, hearing the same scaly voice again. She turned around to face it, her pupils becoming pinpricks when she saw the creature responsible for it.

It looked like an overgrown version of the bug ponies from before: carapace, insect-like wings, holed legs. However, it towered over the others at a height that was comparable to Celestia. That wasn’t the only difference either; while the other bug ponies were bald, this one had a long, sickly green mane and tail, giving it an almost feminine appearance. Not only that, but its eyes actually had pupils, an irregularity, as far as Twilight could tell, among the shapeshifters.

It was clear that the one they were looking at was special compared to the rest. Out of the corner of her eye, Twilight saw that the shape shifters all around the room were bowing in reverence toward her. Clearly the creature before her was some sort of ruler to them. The head bug pony.

Twilight bit her lip, stood up straighter and looked the creature in the eye. “I guess you are.”

“You’re good at guessing, then, Smart Mare.” Vinyl clapped her on the back.

The head bug pony stepped toward them. All around her the shape shifters reared up, ready to attack any of them if they dared to try anything. Fortunately, Twilight could tell that nopony was feeling very daring.

“Now then, Smart Mare, was it?” it asked.

Twilight blinked. “Uh, actually my name is—”

“I’m sure you’re dying to know where you are.” A menacing grin appeared on its face.

Even through her persisting headache, her tracking spell pinged in the back of her mind. “Twenty miles east and five hundred feet below the Tree of Harmony,” she muttered unconsciously.

The head bug pony raised its eyebrow, face squinching into confusion. “What?”

“Uh… nothing…”

The creature before her narrowed its eyes in annoyance. “Right. Well, you fortunate souls were lucky enough to stumble upon the lair of Chrysalis, Queen of the changelings!” She cackled in delight.

The head bug pony—or, Chrysalis as she probably preferred—continued her laughing, while Twilight took inventory of what she’d just learned. One, they were underground. Two, the bug ponies weren’t actually bug ponies but instead changelings. Three, Twilight had no idea what a changeling was.

“Well, we didn’t really stumble here,” Vinyl interrupted Chrysalis’ laughing fit. The Queen halted her chuckles to fix Vinyl with an icy glare. “You kinda ambushed us and then brought us here against our will.”

“And I wouldn’t exactly call this ‘lucky’,” Octavia threw in.

Nightmare Moon gave her a glance over. “And you don’t look like royalty to me.”

Chrysalis’ eyelid twitched. “Well you did, this is, and I am. Now shut up, all of you!”

“What exactly do you want from us?” Cadance asked in blatant defiance of the order.

Instead of getting angry, Chrysalis turned up the corners of her mouth in a wicked grin, displaying her fangs for all to see. She strode over to Cadance, keeping the smirk all the while. “How appropriate that you’re the one to ask.”

Cadance tilted her head back. “Uh…”

Shining stepped in between the two, face set in a hard look. “Back. Off.”

Chrysalis threw her head back and cackled. “Oh, this is cute. What are you, her little coltfriend?”

“I’m her guard,” Shining replied simply.

Chrysalis raised her eyebrow. “Really, just a guard? Because by the way she… eh, nevermind.” In the blink of an eye, Chrysalis’ long, crooked horn ignited. A split second was all it took to envelope Shining in a green aura and fling him off to the side. He slammed into the nearest wall with a thud and a grunt.

Everypony around Twilight gasped while she ground her teeth together. She took a step forward, not quite sure what she was going to do to Chrysalis, just that it would be painful and satisfying. Before she could even get close, however, two of the changelings surrounding them blocked her path. Judging from their bared teeth and angry looks, they wouldn’t take kindly to any more movement.

While her anger didn’t dissipate, Twilight’s logic took over and told her the best course of action would be to stop. She looked over at her brother again, noting that he was getting back up and relief flooded her.

“Shining!” Cadance lurched toward him, but found herself wrapped tightly in Chrysalis’ magic.

“Oh please, Princess,” Chrysalis hissed, turning Cadance back to face her. “Focus on what’s really important here, why don’t you?”

Cadance swallowed as she was held close. Chrysalis’ eyes flicked up and down, examining her captive. Drops of sweat rolled down Cadance’s forehead as Chrysalis stretched her grin further.

“So, since you asked so nicely before, I’ll tell you, but do forgive me if I’m not nearly as polite.” She turned to the group. “I take it none of you are very familiar with changelings, right, Smart Mare?”

“No…” Twilight admitted. “And my name isn’t—”

“Well, allow me to enlighten you.” Chrysalis indicated the mass of changelings surrounding them. “Our species doesn’t eat food like you ponies. Our diet is much more…” Her eyes sliced towards Cadance. “...emotional.”

Blinks and glances of confusion were shared among Twilight acquaintances.

“So you guys just eat ice cream, then?” Vinyl asked.

Chrysalis blinked, eye brow arching in confusion. “What?”

“Well that’s what Tavi eats whenever she gets really emotional, so I just thought—”

“Vinyl!” Octavia whacked her on the back of the head.

“Ah! Geeze, sorry.”

Chrysalis narrowed her eyes, but let the moment pass without further comment. “Uh… anyways, we changelings don’t eat ice cream, or any solid foods for that matter. Our diet consists solely of love.”

Cadance’s eyes widened and Chrysalis laughed. “Yes, now the puzzle pieces click together.”

“So you attacked us… just to get to me?” she asked, guilt wrapping her tone.

“But of course. A love like yours is not one I’d ever let slip through my grasp. At first I considered an elaborate ruse to pull the wool over all your eyes, gain your trust only to eventually use it against you to bring about your downfall.” She twirled her hoof dismissively. “But then I realized that I was hungry now, so I sent my changelings on a simple capture and retrieve mission. All in all I feel it was much more effective.”

Cadance gulped. “I… guess so?”

Twilight was intrigued, but at the same time flooded with concern. While a species adapting to feed off of emotions was fascinating, it was overshadowed by the fact that Cadance was the literal embodiment of love. Her existence was the equivalent of an all-you-can-eat buffet… and that probably meant that the rest of them were expendable.

As Chrysalis licked her lips at Cadance, the gears in Twilight’s head started spinning doubletime. Shining was down, their magic was gone, Cadance was trapped, and they were all surrounded. Okay, no big deal, I’ve gotten out of worse situations… maybe. If by ‘worse situations’ she meant facing Nightmare Moon and by ‘gotten out of’ she meant getting saved by Princess Celestia, then yes, she had.

She was breathing heavily, but avoided letting that distract her. Just think, Twilight. There has to be a way out of this. Maybe I can… um… uh…

“Twilight, are you okay?” Spike tugged at her leg, snapping her out of the thought-trance she’d thrown herself into.

“Not really,” she shakily responded.

“Don’t worry, we’ll—Urgh!” Spike put his claws to his lips, cheeks bulging.

“Spike?” Twilight knew that pose.

“Is he okay?” Bon Bon asked.

Before Twilight could respond, Spike let loose a belch. A sliver of fire spewed out, rolled up and with a pop of magic deposited a scroll bearing the royal seal on the ground. The whole display managed to earn an eyebrow raise from Queen Chrysalis.

“What is that?” she asked, pointing to the paper.

Twilight cringed. Of all the times to send a letter, why now, Princess?

It was probably important, that’s why. Twilight dove forward, not wanting the Princess’ message to fall into the hooves of the changeling queen before her.

“Nothing!” she cried, much too shrilly. She cleared her throat, trying again, “nothing.”

Chrysalis regarded her for a moment, turning up her head in curiosity. She stretched out her hoof. “Give it to me.”

Twilight shook her head defiantly. Curling her lip in displeasure, Chrysalis’ magic flashed. The aura around Cadance constricted, all but crushing her.

“Ah!” Cadance cried.

Twilight winced, clutching the letter closer to her body. Chrysalis extended her hoof all the way now, her demand clear. The urgency of the situation pressed down on Twilight. Either she could give up whatever it was that the Princess had just sent her, or she could allow Cadance to be tortured further and then lose the letter.

She swallowed, her choice made. Bringing her hooves away from her chest, she revealed the parchment Spike had just belched up. Chrysalis’ magic immediately swiped it away, but she still held Cadance in place as she looked it over.

“So this is some sort of note,” she murmured, eyes falling upon the royal seal.

Twilight pressed her lips together, not wanting to respond.

Chrysalis looked up at her. “And it appeared when your lizard... burped?”

“Dragon,” Spike coughed into his fist.

Chrysalis looked from the letter to them. “And this sort of thing is… normal for you?”

“Uh… yeah, I guess so,” Twilight admitted.

Shooting the letter one last glance, Chrysalis merely shrugged. “Well then I doubt this one is of any importance.”

With her magic, Chrysalis ignited the parchment and dropped it to the ground. Twilight yelped as she watched Celestia’s note be devoured by flames, forever taking away whatever the Princess had been trying to tell her.

“Now that that’s out of the way—” Chrysalis turned to a few of the nearest changelings. “—You three, take this one down to the main hall and restrain her. We shall begin the feast as soon as I wrap things up here.”

Three identical “Yes, my Queen”s followed her order. The changelings gathered around Cadance just as Chrysalis snapped her magic off. Cadance fell to the ground, thrashing about and screaming. The changelings struggled to keep her in line, but slowly pushed her toward the tunnel Chrysalis had indicated.

Twilight felt tension rise up in her body. It wasn’t just her either; all of her acquaintances were fuming, but knew they were unable to do anything.

Shining stood up on the other side of the room, glaring angrily at Chrysalis. As Cadance continued struggling against the changelings who were forcing her toward an exit—a tunnel that seemed to lead deeper underground—he moved toward them.

“You're not done with me yet!” he yelled at the changelings.

Chrysalis scoffed, barely glancing at him as she wrapped him in a veil of her magic, freezing Shining in mid-air “As I told you before, ‘eh, nevermind’.”

The magic around Shining slammed him into the ground, sending up chunks of dirt. “Urgh!”

Twilight gasped, relaxing only when she saw her brother twitch a little. Changelings surrounded him, preventing him from getting up to save Cadance, who was disappearing down the tunnel.

It took quite a lot to get Twilight to snap, but watching her brother get beaten, Cadance being taken away, and the lives of Spike and all her acquaintances threatened just about did it for her.

“Enough!” She charged forward, thinking through her plan about as well as Shining had.

Chrysalis narrowed her eyes and with a spark of magic threw Twilight back. Derpy and Lyra caught her, but her saddlebags were knocked free, spilling their glittering contents all over the floor. They were eye-catching enough for the changeling queen, who curiously walked forward.

Twilight groaned as she recovered, but she quickly caught sight of Chrysalis taking hold of the Elements in her magic. She held her breath as the changeling queen inspected them.

“My, my, my, what are these?” she asked.

“N-nothing,” Twilight said, her stomach tightening. She felt Lyra grip her foreleg a little and honestly couldn’t blame her. In her mind, she was practically screaming. No no no no no no no NO NO NO NO NO NO!

Chrysalis bobbed the Elements of Harmony up and down playfully, smiling at them. “Well, they’re rather pretty for a bunch of nothings, aren’t they?” She brought the Element of Magic up, setting the tiara on her head. “Hmm, not a bad fit either.”

“It looks better on me,” Derpy grumbled. Twilight couldn’t argue that.

“Well, thank you for the jewelry, Smart Mare.” Chrysalis started hooking a few of the Elements onto her neck. “I don’t normally get dressed up for a meal, but I suppose the occasion calls for it.”

Twilight wanted to hit her head against the wall in frustration. Things had gone from bad to horrible in just a few short minutes.

“Now then.” Chrysalis looked to them. “The question becomes what to do with all of you.”

“You should probably kill them all, just to be thorough,” Nightmare suggested. “But not the one who makes the muffins. Or the spiky-haired one, I need her to show me the clubs of night. …And I suppose I could find a use for the pegasus. And perhaps the lyre-player as well…”

Chrysalis grunted. She glared down Nightmare Moon with disdain riddling her face. “I’m not exactly here to do your bidding, you know.”

Nightmare rolled her eyes. “Well you would be, if you had any sense.”

“Shut up, shut up, shut up!” Twilight hissed at her. Their situation was bad enough already. Dumping gasoline on the fire wouldn’t exactly help.

“Yes, listen to Smart Mare and hold your tongue,” Chrysalis declared. She walked over to them, surveying each with great care. When she reached Twilight, she paused and stared at her with a more focused intensity than the rest. Eventually she smirked, satisfied. “Take them to the dungeon. They may not compare to the pink one, but they each have a fair amount of love in them.”

Nightmare Moon scoffed. “I have no love in me.”

Chrysalis raised her eyebrow and walked a little closer to her, putting a hoof on the dark alicorn’s chest. “You can’t lie about your feelings to someone who can feel them. It may be buried deep in your heart, but even you have love in you.”

Nightmare scowled.

“My Queen,” one of the changelings near Shining called out. She turned her head. “What about this one?”

“Him too,” she said, stepping away from Nightmare Moon. “Bring them all to the dungeon and make sure they’re guarded. If they give you any trouble, don’t hesitate to use force.”

They all saluted her and Chrysalis walked out of the room, the Elements of Harmony jingling against each other as they bounced loosely on her neck and forelegs.

“You won’t get away with this!” Twilight called out to her as the changelings started pushing them towards a new tunnel.

Chrysalis looked back, giving her a sideways grin. “Good to know. Enjoy being prisoners.” With a final cackle, she left. Leaving Twilight to grind her teeth together with worry. She looked to her acquaintances, each bearing open mouths of shock and sending worried glances her way.

“It’s okay, I can figure a way out of this,” she told them in an attempt to be reassuring. …I hope.

A Cozy Little Cell

Twilight walked at a stiff pace, changelings flanking her on both sides. Just ahead of her were Vinyl, who shuffled along slightly faster and Derpy even ahead of her. Giving a quick glance over her shoulder, she saw Lyra, Bon Bon, Spike and Octavia respectively, with Nightmare Moon bringing up the rear. She currently couldn’t see Shining, but when she concentrated she heard the faint dragging sound of hooves against rock.

He’s still knocked out.

She bit her lip and turned her head back. An opening had appeared in the tunnel not too far down, likely meaning they were approaching the end of their trek.

With each step, a whirlwind of ideas blew its way through Twilight’s head. They needed a way to escape, save Cadance, and get the Elements back. Not to mention contact Celestia. Whatever she had put in the letter must have been important for her to send it during their mission. Chrysalis burning it just to spite her left them completely in the dark about it, but she couldn’t imagine it was anything good.

She racked her brain, trying to think of any escape attempt that might work. Unfortunately, most of the plans she thought of relied on using her magic, which was not an option.

They reached the end of the tunnel moments later and the changelings stopped. The one at the front pushed Derpy into the exit, eliciting a yelp from her. Vinyl flinched as she was grabbed and yanked forward half a second later.

“Uh, hang on a sec,” she asked. Surprisingly enough, the changeling paused. It shot her a glare, demanding that she get on with it. “So, like, one of you guys bit me on the back of the neck, and I just want to make sure you don’t operate on vampony rules or anything.”

The changeling rolled its eyes and tossed her through the exit after Derpy. The two surrounding Twilight poked her forward, giving her a choice between a peaceful or violent entry. She pressed her lips together and walked forward.

Crossing the entryway, Twilight got her first glimpse inside. It was a dead end; just a large, empty room with dirt walls and a rocky ceiling. The way they came in was the only way out.

The only hope of escape.

Derpy was already helping Vinyl up, so Twilight trotted away from the opening and towards them. With her peripheral view she saw Lyra wasn’t far behind her.

One by one, the rest of the group trickled in: Bon Bon, Spike, Octavia. When it was Nightmare’s turn, she was forced to duck to fit her head under the roof of the entrance. After the last of her ethereal tail was in, Twilight saw her brother.

Two changelings were holding him by each foreleg. His head hung limply between his shoulders, eyes shut. They chucked him in, his body hitting the ground with a thud.

“Shining!” Twilight quickly ran over to him.

“H-He’s going to be okay… right?” Spike asked.

Twilight’s eyes darted over her unconscious brother until she saw the steady rise and fall of his chest. She breathed a sigh of relief. “He’ll be fine.” Spike furrowed his brow with uncertainty. “Are you all right?”

“I…” Spike swallowed what looked to be a fairly sizable lump in his throat. “I’m a little scared, honestly.”

Poor Spike, he wouldn’t be in this mess at all if it weren’t for me. She patted his back, offering a hopeful smile. “Don’t worry, everything’s going to be okay.”

“...Yeah,” Spike perked up a little bit. “I trust you, Twilight.”

Keeping the smile up as long as she could, Twilight gave him a quick squeeze before her gaze shifted to the changelings that had led them here. With their job done, most had left. Only three remained, two on the outside and one that stepped inside to keep a close eye on them.

Twilight turned back to her acquaintances. “Is everypony all right?”

Derpy offered a hopeful smile. “None of us suffered permanent damage… I think.”

“How about you?” Octavia asked. “You took a pretty nasty hit to the head.”

Instinctively, Twilight put a hoof to her temple, hoping not to find a bump or a cut of some kind. Before she could even open her mouth to respond, Octavia was already talking again.

“Here, let me see.” She moved close to Twilight and put a hoof on her head, pulling her in even closer. “Okay,” she suddenly whispered. “Any plan to escape?”

Twilight blinked with surprise at the sudden topic switch, but then she remembered they were being watched. Octavia clearly knew this would be one of their few moments to speak freely. Crafty.

“None yet,” she admitted. Followed by a hasty, “but I’m sure I’ll have something soon.”

Octavia smiled. “Take your time.” She leaned back and spoke a little louder for the sake of the changeling at the door. “Looks like you’re all fine then.”

“Thanks.” Twilight poked at the ground as Octavia gave her some space. She had no idea if she could even come up with an escape plan, but she knew she had to try. Redoubling her efforts, Twilight began examining the room they were in, looking for weak points in the walls and anything of the like that might help them out.

Derpy looked over to Nightmare Moon, who had claimed a corner all to herself. Her intense staredown of said corner didn’t allow her to see the gray pegasus’ approach and she only noticed when she spoke up. “Are you doing all right?”

“I’m fine,” Nightmare grumbled inwardly. She narrowed her eyes, looking to the floor and then back to Derpy. “Why did you try to save me?”

Pausing to think, Derpy tapped the ground a little. “Oh, you mean during the ambush?”

Nightmare nodded.

“Well, duh. You needed help. I couldn’t let them get you.”

“And yet they got me anyway.” Nightmare pointed out.

Derpy frowned. Twilight wasn’t exactly sure what she’d been hoping for from the demonic alicorn, but that certainly wasn’t it. “Well, yeah… But I tried, didn’t I?”

Nightmare snorted and looked away. “I guess, but that doesn’t really matter now, does it?”

“B-But I—”

“Just leave me alone. I don’t care about you, all right? I’ve never cared about you, or your stupid friends, or your frivolous attempts to reform me, and I especially don’t still care for my treacherous sister, no matter what that overgrown gnat says!”

Derpy’s jaw hung open, lower lip quivering. Twilight was snapped out of her thinking coma by the shouting and managed to raise an eyebrow. Nightmare was breathing heavily, her features compressed into a scowl.

“S-sorry…” Derpy murmured. She took a few steps back to give her some privacy. Nightmare shuffled awkwardly into a sitting position—cursing her restraints all the while—and kept her back facing the group. Either she was really invested in the riveting entertainment brought about by that corner of the room, or she simply preferred its company over everypony else's.

“Don’t let her get to you, Derpy,” Bon Bon suggested with a reassuring pat on the back. “I’m sure she’s grateful… In her own way.”

“Probably… maybe…” Derpy nodded.

“She better be,” Vinyl threw in, clapping the pegasus on the back. “You were insane! I think I even saw you give an uppercut to one of those things. Man, I bet its face still hurts.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Twilight saw the changeling guard at the door rub its jaw a little and wince.

Octavia giggled. “And here I thought you ‘wouldn’t hurt a fly’.”

Derpy gasped in mock offense. “But changelings aren’t flies! Uh… Maybe?”

“They do look a lot like bugs,” Spike mused.

Vinyl tilted her head and shot a glance to the changeling at the door. “You guys aren’t flies slash related to flies, are you?”

“Uh…” The guard blinked. Twice. “No.”

Lyra grinned. “Well it looks like you’re in the clear then, Derpy.”

They all burst into a fit of laughter and even Twilight found herself smiling a little. It was nice to think that even in this situation, the girls could keep their spirits up. Now if only she could make sure their spirits stayed up by finding a way out.

So far no ideas had come to her, but that didn’t mean nothing would come to her. Looking around again, Twilight brainstormed.

With the guard there we won’t be able to do much without raising the alarm and we won’t be able to get rid of it...him? We won’t be able to get rid of him without alerting the other two. We’d need a synchronized and well executed attack just to get all three of them, but how are we supposed to plan that when they’re watching?

She bit her lip, wishing they still had magic. It would make everything so much easier. Her eyes darted to her brother’s unconscious body, which Spike was propping up against the wall to make him a little more comfortable. If only he was awake; Shining would know what to do.

...I feel so useless.

Her attention turned back to the girls as their nervous giggles died down. They were stuck here because of her, weren’t they? Sure, they’d wanted to come along, but she should have sent them away like she meant to. Spike too, he was just a kid after all. Not even to mention Cadance… None of them should have had to deal with this.

She took a seat as a sudden, a guilty feeling bubbling up inside her.

“You know what’s funnier though?” Vinyl turned to her. “Queen What’sherface actually thought your name was—...Smart Mare?”

She looked up, noticing that all of them were looking at her. “Huh?”

She was met with scattered blinks and concerned frowns. Even Spike looked worried. Bon Bon was the first of them to say something. “A-are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” she said, ignoring the slight crack in her voice.

“Are you sure? Because it looks like you’re crying,” Lyra told her.

“Don’t be silly.” Twilight instinctively wiped her eyes. “I’m not…” She paused, bringing her hoof down only to see fresh tears dotting her lavender fur. “...crying.”

She tightened her lips. Of course, why not? Everything else had been going wrong today, so why not this, too?

“Sorry,” she murmured, dragging her hoof across her face again. “I just… I was supposed to be able to fix everything.”

“Twilight…” Spike whispered. Watching the pony who raised him break down in the worst possible situation probably wasn’t good for raising his spirits, but she couldn’t help it.

“I’m sorry,” she said again. “I’m so sorry I got you all in this mess.”

“I-it’s all right,” Lyra tried to console her.

“No it isn’t!” Twilight practically yelled. She felt a hot tear leaking down her face but did nothing to halt its progress. “I was so sure that I could fix the Elements of Harmony! So sure that I could make everything right with the Princess, so sure that I could get my old life back… but the truth is I’m worthless. I don’t even know why some of the Elements were showing signs of life, I don’t know what I was supposed to do when we found the Tree of Harmony… I’m not even sure now that it was the Tree we were walking towards at this point.”

Her acquaintances shot each other worried looks that ran the gamut of ‘what do you say to that?’ to ‘how are we going to make her feel better?’. Both were questions without easy answers.

Unable to even make eye contact with them anymore, Twilight buried her face in her hooves. A moment later she felt two scaly limbs wrap her midsection into a hug. She wanted to thank Spike for his comfort, but really it was the equivalent to throwing a life preserver to someone lost at sea: a nice gesture, but not really going to help overall.

A few more tears escaped her eyes and she sniffled into her hooves before she felt someone sit down next to her. She peeked out from her hooves just as Bon Bon put a hoof on her shoulder.

“I… I don’t really know what I can say to cheer you up,” she admitted, looking her in the eye. “But… I know what it’s like to feel worthless. I’ve felt how you’re feeling now… but it’s thanks to you that I don’t feel that way anymore, you know?”

“I guess.” Twilight sniffled. “But why shouldn’t I feel worthless if I’m always going to fail?”

“Well...” Lyra took a seat in front of her. “...I know how terrified you are of failing. I feel like I’m going to fail everytime I try to play in front of ponies, but you… you showed me that I don’t need to be so scared anymore of failure. I’ve kinda risen above it thanks to you.”

“But I’m not just terrified of failing, I did fail.”

“Boy, do I know how that feels,” Derpy said, plopping down on the other side of her. “Like when I tried to improve my balance and wrecked up your whole library, remember that?”

Twilight nodded. Even to this day she still had no idea how that one book could ricochet that many times.

The corners of Derpy’s mouth poked upward at the memory. “Well, one thing I’ve learned through all my constant screw ups, is that it’s important to be around ponies who are willing to forgive your mistakes and I think I speak for all of us when I say nopony blames you, Twi.”

Twilight’s lips quivered from frown to half-smile. It did make her feel a little better to hear the girls tell her all of this, but… “What about Princess Celestia? I’ve failed her twice now, and—”

“Twilight,” Octavia’s voice was as steady as a rock as she took a seat before her. “I’ve tried attempting to please everypony before and—bouncy castle aside—it was dreadful. But thanks to you I learned that most ponies already liked me for me. I’m sure the same is true for you and the Princess; there’s no way she could hate you for trying your best.”

Looking to the ground, Twilight sighed a little. Could that be true? Could all—or at least most—of the pressure she’d been placing on herself these past few weeks been self-inflicted? But even if Princess Celestia wasn’t disappointed in her, what good would that do her now? They were all still trapped and she couldn’t think of a way out. Her frown slowly regained ground on her face, the ever-encroaching self-doubt still making itself known.

“Hey.” Twilight looked up to see Vinyl standing right in front her. She’d removed her sunglasses, placing them behind her horn so she could make meaningful eye contact with her. “You ever wonder why I always call you Smart Mare?”

Twilight blinked, not having expected that question. “I… always just assumed it was an annoying nickname you stuck me with for fun.”

Vinyl nodded her head side to side. “Yeah, that’s how it kinda started out. But after I got to know you more, I realized how amazing you were.”

“Amazing?” Vinyl thought she was… amazing?

“Heck yeah.” Vinyl grinned. “You’re so talented with magic and dedicated to your work and driven... geeze, I was jealous of you for a while there.”

“You were jealous of me?” The words rolled off of Twilight’s tongue, but she couldn’t quite believe them.

“I sure was.” Vinyl joined them all on the ground. “And so whenever I saw you doubting yourself because of a bunch of stupid pieces of jewelry, I would think to myself ‘I’ve got to remind this mare of just how smart she is’.” Vinyl smiled. “I know it’s not the most inspired nickname ever, but I just want you to know that you’re one smart mare, Smart Mare.” She patted Twilight’s shoulder. “And right now I want you to know, that I know we’re going to make it out of this, you hear me?”

Twilight couldn’t help it; more tears trickled down her face.

“Aw come on, don’t cry anymore, Twilight.” Derpy joined Spike in hugging her and was followed by the rest of the girls as well.

As each subsequent hug enveloped her, Twilight’s smile widened. By the end, she doubted she had to tell them that her tears were no longer ones of regret.

She still couldn’t seem to stop sniffling, though. Being smothered by their embraces was nice, but didn’t exactly do wonders for helping her breathe deeply. However, Twilight found that she didn’t mind. In fact, she hardly noticed.

She was way more wrapped up in what had just happened. The girls, all of them, really felt that way about her. Even in their current predicament, they were more worried about her than they were about getting out.

Although it was awkward and clumsy, Twilight brought her hooves up and did her best to wrap them around the girls to bring their group hug full circle. She couldn’t even begin to describe what she was feeling right now, the warmth spreading through her chest, the smile that she couldn’t fight back even if she tried, the assurance that no matter what, somepony would be there for her…

She may not be able to describe it, but she knew exactly what it was. Friendship. Twilight let her head rest on the top of the hug pile. Her already wide grin just kept getting bigger. So this is what it feels like.

Twilight’s smile suddenly faltered before receding slightly. And all I’ve wanted to do since day one was push it away. Push them away…

Twilight clenched her jaw, not willing to let herself slip back to self-pity. Instead, she squeezed everypony a little harder, building up her resolve. She would find a way to escape, for them.

“Hmm, tasty.”

Twilight stiffened at the voice of their guard. She turned her head, noting that the girls and Spike also looked up from the hug and towards the changeling at the door.

He regarded them for a moment, blinked, looked behind himself and then turned back to them. “Uh… what?”

“Where you… feeding off of us?” Octavia asked, trace of amounts of disgust and horror in her voice.

“A little bit.” The guard shrugged, knowing there was nothing they could do in retaliation.

Vinyl sighed. “Whelp, that just about kills the mood then.” She disentangled herself from the hug and flipped her shades back over her eyes. “Thanks for that.” The changeling rolled his eyes, every bit as offended as that action suggested.

With Vinyl’s absence paving the way, everypony else dispersed. Twilight supposed she should be grateful for the isolation needed for uninterrupted thought, but she honestly missed the feeling of having all her acquaintances—no, her friends—hugging her. Hopefully they’d get the chance to have another one soon.

The last to leave the embrace was Spike, who politely let go once he felt Twilight’s grasp leave. He looked up at her, hopeful. “You going to be okay?”

She smiled at him. “I will now. Thanks.”

He blinked. “For what… the hug?”

Twilight giggled softly. “For bringing them along.”

“Oh.” A smirk appeared on his face. “Heh, yeah, you’re welcome.”

She playfully rubbed his head. “What would I do without you, huh?”

“I wouldn’t even want to think about it.” Spike laughed a little and then backed up. “Okay, I’ll give you some time to think now.”

“Thanks.”

Spike shuffled off as best he could, knowing from past experiences that Twilight thought best in isolation. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much for him to do in their little hovel of a prison. He eventually wound up taking a seat by Lyra and Bon Bon.

With renewed determination, Twilight started pacing about. She took a fresher look at her surroundings, looking for anything she might have missed previously.

Don’t worry Cadance, we’ll be coming for you soon.

Cadance was very, very worried.

And not without a good reason. All of her limbs were pinned to the wall with the same green sludge that coated her horn. No matter how hard she struggled, she couldn’t bring her hooves up

Moving wouldn’t really help her though. Without magic, she’d be easy pickings for the dozen or so changelings that stood guard around her. The hunger in their eyes told her that they would not be willing to let her just walk out, even if she could.

Her nervousness for their coming feeding was only matched by her nervousness for everypony else. She had no idea what had happened to them after she’d been taken away. Were they alive? Had they managed to escape? She hoped so.

Her attention went back to the creatures before her. “S-so, can we… talk about this?” she asked.

The nearest changeling looked back at his comrades with a can-you-believe-this-one kind of look on its face. “Why bother? There’s not exactly anything you can offer us that’s better than… well, you.”

“Please?” Cadance asked. No response outside of narrowed eyes and frowns. “Pretty please?”

“Gah, I hate it when they start begging,” a changeling towards the back groaned. “It really takes away from the love, you know?” Murmurs of assent rippled through the group.

“Actually, I kind of like it,” a different changeling piped up. The rest of the guards turned to him with inquiring looks. “Well, it does build up the old appetite a bit.”

“I guess so, but my appetite doesn’t need to be built up anymore. I’ve been salivating ever since I heard about this pony.”

Gross. Cadance winced inwardly.

Yet another changeling spoke up. “That’s only because you rarely get to eat good love. You’re always feeding off of lust or attraction, hoping that they’ll suffice for the real thing just because they’re easier to get. Of course you’re going to be left with a hollow feeling if that’s all you have.”

“Well isn’t that just what love really is when you get right down to it?” The other changeling retorted. “Just attraction and lust mashed together.”

“Nah, man,” the changeling in the back grabbed their attention. “Real love’s got something that those other things just doesn’t have. There’s some kind of spark there; something you can’t force, but something you gotta work towards to get and to keep. That’s what makes it so special.”

Cadance blinked. I know they’re talking about food, but… I feel like I should be writing this down. That was some good advice.

All the changelings nodded their agreement with the one in the back. They all froze with a soft humming reverberated from the tunnel in the far corner of the room. All of them scrambled back into their action-ready guard poses just in time for Queen Chrysalis to stroll into the chamber.

Her humming picked up, giving her a light, carefree feel as she sauntered past the changelings. As she took her time, Cadance noticed the Elements of Harmony strewn about before her. The tiara sat snuggly on her head, while only one of the necklaces was wrapped around her throat. The other four, more sparkly ones, were divided evenly between her forelegs, making her look a little ridiculous. Though, voicing that opinion was probably not the best idea right now.

“Sorry for keeping you all waiting,” Chrysalis said smoothly as she stopped right in front of Cadance. “I trust you’ve been keeping my honored guest entertained.”

Cadance rolled her eyes. She didn’t know why Chrysalis bothered with the feigned politeness. Did she get a kick out of it or something?

“So, Princess, have you started begging yet?”

Cadance clenched her teeth, and briefly saw one changeling nudge another. “See, even Her Majesty enjoys it when they beg.”

Chrysalis grinned. “I hope you’re ready.”

“F-for?”

A scary glint flashed across Chrysalis’ face. “The extraction process.”

Cadance was scared to ask, but as it turned out, she didn’t need to. Chrysalis was all too happy to continue. “You see, they way we take love is a relatively painless process… usually.”

“Usually?” Cadance didn’t like where this was going.

“Yes… usually. You see, Cady—can I call you Cady?”

“Absolutely not.”

“You see, Cadance, I’ve noticed how your love is closely tied to your magic. In fact, you could say that they are one and the same. That, unfortunately for you, means this is going to be far from pleasant.”

Cadance glanced down at her restraints. “Gee, and I was having so much fun already.”

“Ohoho, sarcasm. How adorable.” Chrysalis leaned in and gave Cadance a friendly pat on the cheek. “I have a feeling I won’t be seeing much more of that soon.” She stepped back, preparing herself.

Sardonic quip aside, Cadance knew she was in big trouble. Despite her lack of knowledge on the subject of magic in general, she was aware that losing all of her magic would take a serious toll on her body. The specifics eluded her—curse her teenage self for not paying more attention whenever Twilight rambled on about her homework—but she knew it wasn’t going to be good.

“Wait!” she called out. Chrysalis paused right as she was about to cast her spell.

“Yes?” she grunted, clearly vexed about being interrupted. Unless Cadance could think of a good way to stall, she was done for.

“I… I want to know what you did with my friends.”

Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “They’re a few levels below us in a cell. Why?”

“I want you to release them,” Cadance said firmly, putting as much authority in her voice as she could muster.

Chrysalis blinked. And then blinked again.

And then proceeded to erupt with laughter.

Cadance frowned as the Changeling Queen all but doubled over before her and her fellow bugs followed suit. She hadn’t sounded that ridiculous, right?

“You’ve—ahaha—gotta be kidding me!” Chrysalis wiped a tear from her eye. “Do you honestly think you’re in any position to be making demands right now, Princess?”

“Listen, if what you’ve said about me is true, then you don’t need them. Please, just let them all go free; they were doing something really important before your ambush and they need to get back to it.” Cadance knew her pleading would fall on deaf ears, but still had to try. She’d been the one to draw the changelings to them; this was the least she could do.

“How about no,” Chrysalis retorted. She rolled her head on her shoulders. “Now, if you’re done being pathetic, I would like to… huh?”

Chrysalis stopped her speaking, eyes looking down. Curious, Cadance followed the Queen’s line of sight down to her neck, only to be blasted by light. She shut her eyes, retinas already burning. The brilliance of the light faded as quickly as it came. Once it finally did, Cadance cracked open an eyelid, wishing that she could rub her eyes.

Chrysalis seemed to have the same thought, furiously rubbing her eyes and grunting in pain. When she finally pulled away her hooves, she looked down and the two of them experienced shared levels of surprise.

The Element of Honesty was sparkling.

“Well that was… strange,” Chrysalis murmured. “Is that as common as the letter-burping lizard?”

Cadance couldn’t reply. Her mouth hung agape as she realized what she was looking at. All six Elements sparkled in rhythm. They all pulsed once before the sparkling then switched to a dim glow. The air hummed with raw magical energy.

“T-The Elements…” Cadance couldn’t be sure, but it felt like some great change had just occurred in them. Could they be… working again?

Chrysalis narrowed her eyes. “I’ll have to look into this later. Perhaps that Smart Mare has an inkling about what just happened. For now, though...” In an instant, she ignited her horn in a sickly green aura and fired a beam at her.

And Cadance screamed.

Light a Fire

Nothing.

Twilight had absolutely nothing.

She paced the cell, gnawing at her lip. No matter how many times she thought it through, none of her escape plans really held any water. The biggest problem was the changelings at the door. If they weren’t watching them, or even if there were less of them, it would be so much easier to plan, to talk out loud, to do anything.

She looked to her brother, who was still propped up against the wall, eyes shut. It would have been a lot easier if he was awake too.

Twilight sighed and looked to the girls. Bon Bon was leaning against the wall, tapping her hoof to the ground, Lyra and Octavia were sitting, Derpy was lying down and shooting occasional glances at Nightmare Moon, who was still pouting in the corner and Vinyl was… rummaging through her saddlebags.

Saddlebags!

Twilight looked to the pouches strapped around her torso. They were still there and—minus the Elements of Harmony—it felt like everything was still inside of them. A spark of hope hit her and she clung to the thought that maybe something in one of her friends bags might be able to help. Then she blinked in confusion.

The changelings had left their saddlebags untouched? That didn’t seem right. She looked up to the one standing at the door.

“We already searched them when you all were unconscious,” he said.

Twilight’s eyes widened. Had he read her mind or something? “Wha—”

“You were staring at your saddlebags and looked confused,” he answered. “I’m not an idiot.”

Closing her mouth and pressing her lips together, Twilight sighed inwardly. “Okay, but why did you leave them with us?”

“We didn’t find anything that could be used as a weapon, so Her Majesty said you could keep them. At the very least you can enjoy the last of your worldly possessions before you’re turned into a dry husk of lovelessness.” He snickered. “Never let it be said that we aren’t hospitable.”

Twilight gulped. That was probably happening to Cadance right now and she wasn’t able to do anything about it.

Instead of dwelling on that, she slung her saddlebags free and dug inside. There wasn’t much in them without the Elements of Harmony, but she looked anyway on the faint hope that her past self had put something in there that would help them escape. Canteen, Elements reference guide, binoculars, compass, bug spray… well… no, not the bug spray. If anything that would only offend the changelings.

Twilight sighed and dropped the bag on the ground. Honestly, what had she been hoping for? That she’d somehow foreseen being captured by changelings and trapped underground back when she’d been packing for the trip? Yeah right.

She paced around the cell for a while longer, unable to make eye contact with anypony and eventually took a seat.

Okay… don’t lose hope yet. We might still have a way out. Twilight chewed the inside of her cheek and decided to go over her top ideas so far and see if anything new could be found.

Digging our way out… no, too obvious, too time consuming, and no guarantee that we’d even dig a way to Cadance or the surface before getting caught.

Taking out the guards… requires all of us to be on the same page, but we can’t get on the same page without talking it out and they would hear that… so that’s out.

Maybe just making a run for it? There’s no way all of us would get out. Shining’s hurt, Nightmare’s chained up, and Spike’s not very fast… that’s out too.

Twilight groaned and looked to the ground. Escape seemed less and less probable with each passing second.

“You know, there is still a way we can get out of here.”

Blinking, Twilight snapped out of her thoughts to realize she’d taken a seat right next to Nightmare Moon. The demonic alicorn was giving her a sideways glance of opportunity, but had laced it with ulterior motives. Twilight thought she knew what she meant, but decided to play along in the hopes that Nightmare actually had a good idea. “What are you talking about?”

Nightmare shifted her gaze from the corner to Twilight. “I can help you escape, but first you have to do something for me.”

It was obvious what she meant. Twilight glanced up at the three inhibitor rings on Nightmare’s horn.

“No!” she declared suddenly, causing Nightmare to flinch. “I’m not releasing you.”

Nightmare Moon snarled in disappointment and stood so that she would tower over her. “Think for once in your life, Twilight,” she hissed. “You’re stuck here. There’s no way you can escape without my raw magical power. If you want your ‘friends’ to be safe, you’ll release me!”

Twilight opened her mouth to respond, but paused. In a way, Nightmare was right. She hadn’t thought of any good escape plans and at this rate she might never. But at the same time, they couldn’t put so much trust into a pony who had said on multiple occasions how she wanted them dead, among other things.

But did she really have a choice?

Twilight looked over to the rest of the cell. Their little talk had garnered the attention of everypony, even the guard who was tensing to act if she so much as reached for one of the rings.

Her friends, on the other hoof, just looked concerned. Between the furrowed brows and unsure frowns, Twilight could see one question reverberating through all of them: Was she really going to do it?

Pressing her lips into a thin line, Twilight shook her head. “No.” Even if it meant they might get free, it was just too risky.

Nightmare scowled. “You’re an idiot.”

Derpy took a step forward. “I’m sorry, Nightmare. I want to believe you want to help us, but you have to understand that you’re asking for a lot and—”

“Oh just shut up!” Nightmare exploded. “I don’t want to hear any more of the baseless drivel that stumbles out of your mouth. You’re nothing! Absolutely nothing! Do you hear me?”

Derpy’s mouth fell open. Her ears folded down and water lined the rims of her eyes. “I…”

“Unless you plan on accepting my offer, leave me alone.” Nightmare turned around to face the corner again and Derpy retreated a few steps.

Twilight ground her teeth together. “You know, she was just trying to be friendly; you don’t have to be so rude.”

Nightmare scoffed. “You’re one to talk.”

“What?”

Nightmare rolled her eyes in annoyance. “Oh please, I’ve seen the way you act around them. The train, the hotel, all throughout the forest. You’ve been just as annoyed with all of them as I am, haven’t you? The only difference between us is that I actually have the guts to say what I’m thinking.” She narrowed her eyes. “And you have the nerve to try and scold me. I am the rightful Princess of Equestri—”

“Just shut up.” Twilight stalked away, heading for Derpy.

“Hey, don’t ignore me when I’m monologuing!” The sounds of a stamping hoof and rattling chains dominated the cell, but were happily ignored.

Twilight reached her pegasus friend and patted her back, ignoring Nightmare Moon. “You okay?”

Derpy looked up and wiped her eyes. “I’m fine. I know she didn’t… well, she might’ve meant it, but she’s just mad right now. I’m sure she just needs time to cool off.”

“Sure.” Twilight tried to smile, but she didn’t really believe it. Nothing short of a magical rainbow blast from the Elements of Harmony would cause Nightmare Moon to ‘cool off’.

Derpy’s trying so hard though. She really wants to befriend Nightmare. It’s kind of… kind of like how she was with me. Twilight blinked at that realization. Although before it hadn’t really occurred to her, now it did. She’d been a lot like Nightmare, minus the intent of ruling Equestria with eternal night. They were both really resistant to friendship, Twilight only changing now that she had accepted it.

It was actually kind of scary to think about. How close had she been to treating everypony as bad as Nightmare? How close was Nightmare to accepting friendship like her?

Twilight glanced back over to the angsty alicorn. ...Should I be making more of an effort like Derpy’s? she pondered. Then she shook her head; that was a question for another time. Right now, escape should be her focus.

Octavia sighed now that Nightmare’s outburst was over. “Well, since we’re still going to be here for a while, do you want to practice some, Lyra?”

Frowning, Lyra’s hooves jittered. “A-are you sure? I mean, I can play in front of a c-crowd now—kinda. I don’t know if…”

Octavia smiled and placed a hoof on her shoulder.“You know what, you’re right. You’ve made a lot of progress and I’m really proud of you.”

“Oh.” Lyra smiled. “Thanks Octavia—”

“But you’re coming in a little weak on the chorus,” she finished with a sheepish smile.

“...Really?” Lyra lowered her eyelids in annoyance.

“Yeah… sorry, but you know me.” Octavia kept her awkward smile in hopes that it would be enough to appease her.

“Come on, Lyra, play for us a bit,” Bon Bon encouraged. She nudged her friend with her shoulder. “What’s the harm?”

“Oh… all right.” Lyra took a seat and shrugged off her saddlebags, drawing out her golden instrument. She plucked the first string with her hoof, awkwardly. “Just give me a moment; I’m out of practice using my hooves on this thing.”

“Thank you, Lyra.” Octavia smiled.

Twilight smiled too. It’d be nice to hear Lyra play; if anything it might help take away some of her stress. Celestia knows she could use less of that.

“Urrgh.”

An exhausted groan tore her attention from everything else. Her gaze shifted to Shining Armor, who was shaking his head and prying his eyes open.

“He’s waking up!” Spike called out.

“Shining!” Twilight ran to him and pinned him with a hug. “I’m so glad you’re okay!”

“Whoa… good to see you’re okay too, Twily.” Shining brought up a shaky hoof to return the hug. “Uh… watch the bruises, would ya?”

“Oh!” Twilight loosened her hold and blinked back her tears. She was just so happy that he was awake; it was a light of hope in an otherwise bleak situation.

“Good to see you bright eyed and bushy tailed, Pretty Boy,” Vinyl said as she walked up to them. “How’re you feeling?”

“Not… great,” Shining admitted. “What happened while I was out?”

Twilight opened her mouth to explain, but Vinyl beat her to it. “Well… there’s bad news, worse news, horrible news, and a little good news. Which do you want to hear first?”

Shining paused for a moment to contemplate his surroundings and all the possibilities. “Let me guess, we’re in changeling jail, they took Cadance, and they plan on harvesting all of our love.”

Vinyl gave him a half-smile. “You’re even better at guessing than Smart Mare. You nailed everything but the good news.”

“That’s just because I couldn’t think of any,” Shining replied.

“I’m pretty sure the good news is that you finally woke up.” Twilight released her brother from the hug to give him some space. He started to get up onto his hooves again.

“Ding ding ding, we have a winner.” Vinyl clapped Twilight on the back. “And Smart Mare reclaims her throne.”

“Yeah, well, fat lot of good news I am.” Shining grunted and kicked the floor. “I couldn’t even keep you guys safe.”

“Hey, don’t beat yourself up over it,” Spike told him. “You did your best to save us. And even without magic you kept trying to help Cadance.”

The corners of his mouth tried to rise, but the gravity of the situation held them down. “Thanks, but trying doesn’t really count for much.”

Twilight pressed her lips together at the memory of Shining’s attempts. He’d been almost desperate to save Cadance of all ponies. “But you still tried. For her.” Twilight looked at him.

As thick as her brother’s skull tended to be, the message got through rather quickly. “Yeah, I did.”

“But I thought—”

“That I hated her?” Shining took a long, slow sigh. “Look, I don’t know how much she’s told you—”

“Everything,” Twilight filled in.

“Nothing,” Vinyl interjected.

“Also nothing,” Spike added.

Shining sucked on his teeth for an instant before slipping into another sigh. “All right, look: I’m still very mad about what happened, but I’m her guard and that means personal feelings come second to making sure that she’s safe.” He looked to the ground. “And I wasn’t even able to do that.”

Twilight could empathize with him and put a hoof on his shoulder. “Look, it’s okay. We’ll find a way out of here before too long and then we’ll save Cadance.”

Their changeling guard snorted derisively. Twilight pretended not to hear him.

“And when we do, I’m going to make sure the two of you can talk it all out, okay?”

Shining looked up, but he didn’t seem too convinced. “I don’t exactly want to talk to her about what happened, Twilight.”

“Well you’re going to,” Twilight huffed. “Look, I know what happened between you two was… less than ideal. But Cadance had her reasons—albeit very poor ones that don’t justify her actions—but she still had reasons. The two of you need to talk about what happened.”

“Twilight…”

“I’m not asking you to marry her,” Twilight interjected. “I’m not even asking you to get back together with her—” Vinyl hoof pumped silently. “—But can you at least try to understand her reasoning? She did what she did because she was desperate not to lose you. I think that should be taken into consideration.”

Shining groaned, but didn’t respond immediately. Instead he furrowed his brow in thought and gave it some consideration.

“I think,” he finally said. “That we should focus on getting out of here first.”

Twilight half-frowned. He was dodging the issue. He brought up a fair point, but he was still dodging.

“Okay.” She eyed the changeling standing at the entrance. He was doing his best to divide his attention to every member of the room, so he could only focus on them for a few moments at a time. If they talked quietly, they might be able to work out a plan. “We have to find a way out of here as soon as possible. By now Chrysalis is probably already extracting as much love from Cadance as possible.”

Shining nodded, but his face creased in a frown. Twilight figured that he’d probably been trying to figure out ways for them to escape since waking up and had probably already run the gamut of what she’d been thinking about earlier. Hopefully if they put their heads together they could get something.

The soft plucking of lyre strings filled the cell suddenly. Twilight’s ears flicked at the sound and she turned her head slightly. Her peripherals gave her a glimpse to confirm her guess that Lyra had started playing. Despite the situation they found themselves in, Twilight couldn’t help but smile a little at the infectious melody.

She felt a nudge in her side, jutting her from her listening. Slightly annoyed, she turned to the offender, Vinyl, and narrowed her eyes. “What?”

Vinyl merely pointed to the door, a small smirk on her face.

Curious, Twilight turned. As her vision focused back around, she noticed the changeling standing guard was slowly swaying his head to Lyra’s tune. Looking even beyond him, the two guards standing outside their cell poked their heads inside, trying to deduce the source of the music.

Twilight’s eyebrow rose at this discovery. Interesting.

Throughout the rest of Lyra’s tune, the changelings grew slightly more complacent. The two outside wandered in for a better listening experience. Granted, they stayed close to the entrance, but it was still a massive shift from the usual. For once, all three guards were visible.

Not only that, but they weren’t as on guard as guards tended to be. Twilight knew from Shining that Celestia’s soldiers were always standing at attention and tense as if they expected action every second of their lives. The changelings here were letting their shoulders slump and their bodies relax as they got lost in Lyra’s melody.

Twilight looked to her brother and could see a glint in his eyes as he realized the exact same thing as her: a possible way out.

Before she could even kickstart her brain back into action, the song ended. The changelings, now deprived of the ear-phoria of Lyra’s music, began slipping back into focus.

Twilight clenched her jaw; that couldn’t happen. She turned to Lyra. “Hey, can you play something else real quick?”

Lyra blinked. “Uh… I guess?” She glanced at Octavia, looking for a go-ahead.

In response, she tapped her hoof to the ground. “I don’t know. I have a few notes I could give you and—”

“Please let her play,” one of the changelings spoke up. It was echoed by the other two and they all leaned in, hoping.

Octavia raised her eyebrow and looked to Twilight, who nodded. Understanding passed between them and then to Lyra as well as she saw the look in their eyes.

“Well, I am a pony pleaser… er, changeling pleaser?” Octavia shook her head. “Just play something, Lyra.”

“Any requests?” Lyra asked the room.

“A love song!” One of the changelings called out, before anypony else could get a word in.

Lyra blinked at the suddenness, but shifted to pinching her lips together in minor annoyance. “Of course. Should’ve seen that coming.” She hoisted her lyre back into position and her hooves began their dance along the strings once more.

Twilight did her best to ignore the whimsical tune that flowed from the instrument and turned her focus to the guards. Between the three of them they had a dopey grin, blatant salivation and half-closed eyelids. She grinned.

At the same moment, a hoof was placed on her shoulder. She barely beat back the urge to flinch and half turned to see her brother right between her and Vinyl.

“Let’s sneak around and take them down from behind,” he whispered as softly as possible.

“Got it,” Vinyl said, while Twilight didn’t risk speaking and opted to nod instead.

With that confirmation, Shining withdrew and started to slink around to outflank the changelings. He attempted to be as nonchalant as possible as he worked his way over to the one furthest away. Vinyl followed after, moving to the middle of the group and Twilight took the one on her end.

Everypony around the room did their best to act like they weren’t noticing it. Bon Bon had taken a profound interest in the ceiling, Derpy was looking at either the ground, or Nightmare, or both, and Octavia was intently focused on the strings of the lyre. None of them could resist a glance or two back towards the makeshift ‘strike team’, however. Luckily the changelings were too lost in the music to notice.

Twilight and Vinyl looked over to Shining for the cue to go. Lyra’s playing seemed to increase in volume as tension rose. Shining’s blue eyes narrowed as he positioned himself behind his changeling. He paused, then nodded.

What happened next was lightning quick. Shining drove his fetlock into the back of his changeling, causing it to cry out and flail to the ground. Lyra’s music came to an abrupt end now that the violence started, and she tensed up all over. Vinyl tackled her changeling a split second later, knocking them both to the ground.

Twilight’s changeling had enough time to react to the first two attacks and turn to face her before she brought up a hoof and whacked it across the face. It stumbled, but didn’t go down. As it shook itself to its senses it glared back at her.

Cringing, Twilight took a step back. She wasn’t exactly a strong fighter without her magic, but she had hoped that that would have done something.

“Big mistake,” it hissed at her. She saw its legs tense, ready to pounce.

“Hiiya!” Octavia sprang forward with a right hook, making contact with the changeling’s jaw. After a thunderous snap, it fell to the ground.

Twilight grinned. “Thank you.”

Octavia returned the smile. “Not a problem.”

“Is anyone’s changeling still conscious?” Shining asked.

Twilight turned to him and saw his changeling sprawled across the floor in a heap. She winced slightly for it, but couldn’t find any pity. Instead she turned to her own and saw it lying on the ground. “Not ours.”

“Right here,” Vinyl replied from the ground.

They glanced down to the floor of the cell and saw Vinyl struggling to pin down a writhing changeling. Everytime he tried to wiggle a limb free, Vinyl clamped down on it.

“Allow me,” Shining said, stepping forward.

Vinyl blinked in curiosity, and reluctantly eased up on her captive. He tried to flee instantly, kicking Vinyl off and trying to make a run for the door. Shining easily countered, knocking him to the ground. Before the changeling could get back up he grabbed his foreleg and held it to his back, pinning him to the ground.

“Okay buddy,” Shining pushed his foreleg further against his back, eliciting a yelp from the creature. “You’re going to help us out.”

“As if I’d ever—Ah!” He winced as Shining drove his foreleg against his back.

“Let me finish,” Shining calmly told him. He got no objections. “Good. Now, I want you to tell us just two itty bitty pieces of information. Just tell us where Princess Cadance is, and how to remove this gunk from our horns. That doesn’t sound too hard to answer, does it?”

The changeling jerked violently, but Shining held firm. He pressed against the held foreleg, making the changeling hiss in pain.

“This isn’t going to get us anywhere,” Twilight said. “There’s no way he’ll just tell us what we want to know.”

“You got that right,” the changeling spat.

“Not even for another love song?” Lyra asked, holding up her lyre tantalizingly.

He grunted. “I will not fall for your tricks a second time, siren.”

“...I’m a pony.”

Derpy reached into Bon Bon’s saddle bags and withdrew a familiar treat. “How about for a muffin?”

The changeling narrowed his eyes.

“Oh… right, you eat love… my bad.” Derpy sheepishly tucked the muffin away.

“Well, I do bake everything with lots of love,” Bon Bon said. “Does that count?”

“No,” the changeling bluntly replied.

“Ah.”

Twilight sighed. They were going nowhere fast and wasting valuable time because of this changeling. She had half a mind to let her brother give his method a try again. Before she could suggest that, however she heard the clatter of chains.

Turning her head, she saw Nightmare Moon standing up and stalk her way over from the corner. The scowl on her face was evident as she approached. Everypony backed away, giving her a straight shot to the changeling, who was still helplessly pinned down.

Nightmare Moon leaned forward, her face becoming the dominating force in the changeling’s field of vision. Twilight could practically feel the nervousness radiating off of him, which she completely understood. Nightmare Moon could be pretty intimidating even with her restraints.

“Now you listen to me, gnat.” Nightmare voice was twisted with menace. “Do you know who I am?”

The changeling slowly shook his head.

Nightmare grinned evilly, showing off an impressive set of sharpened teeth. “I am a millennia-old goddess with enough power in my left hoof to lay waste to civilizations. I have spent countless hours alone on the moon, that isolation only twisting my blackened heart more than you could possibly imagine. I am heinous. I am darkness. I am the story that parents tell their foals to scare them into behaving.” She leaned in further. “And if you don’t tell these idiots how to get out of here, then there will be a new scary bedtime story about the changeling whose entrails could be found everywhere from Canterlot to the Badlands. Do I make myself clear?”

“C-Crystal.” The changeling was shaking. Even Shining looked a little paler and the threat wasn’t even directed at him. Twilight herself felt goosebumps, but she ignored them.

“Such a submissive race,” Nightmare mused as she leaned backwards. “I may have to make servants out of them. Could be handy for espionage.”

“Plot world domination later, Nightmare,” Twilight waved her hoof dismissively at the demonic alicorn. “We need to focus on questioning him.”

“All right,” Shining said as Nightmare took a step back. “So, where is Cadance and how can we get this stuff off our horns?”

“The alicorn was taken to the dining chamber. It’s only about two levels above us.” The changeling squirmed, likely feeling bad about his betrayal, but was egged on by fear. “A-as for your horns, the goo bound to them is much softer than you think. I’m told it has a keen resemblance to candle wax.”

“Candle wax?” Shining and Twilight chorused.

“Yes!” the changeling hastily nodded. “Even a soft flame would be able to melt it free.” He grinned. “If you had any that is.”

Spike stepped forward, coughing into his claw. “Ahem.”

Twilight, along with everypony else, turned to him, grinning. The changeling stared at them all, brow furrowed.

“I don’t get it, why are you all staring at the lizard?”

“Because I’m not a lizard,” Spike said proudly. “I’m a dragon!”

The changeling blinked. “...And?”

Spike rolled his eyes and blew a soft, green flame from his mouth. It dissipated quickly, but the implication was clear.

“Oh…” the changeling stared at the ground in defeat. It lasted only for a moment, before he lifted his head up in triumph and gave a laugh. “You’ll still never escape. The Queen only gets more powerful with each drop of love she eats. By now she’s probably already drained your pink friend of everything she has. There will be no stopping her now.”

“That’s enough out of you.” Shining brought his hoof down hard on the changeling's head. With a thud, his muscles relaxed and he slipped to unconsciousness. Shining stood up and dusted himself off.

“This could be bad,” Twilight murmured. She didn’t know the Queen of the Changelings could draw power from love. It was a game changer, even if they did get their magic back. They might as well be out of the frying pan and into the fire. “Girls…”

Bon Bon grinned. “Don’t worry, Twilight, we’re ready for this.”

Vinyl clapped her on the back. “Yeah, what are friends for if not for fighting bug monsters together?” Everypony else nodded in agreement.

Twilight smiled. It was good to have friends.

Nightmare made a gagging sound. “Oh, just hurry it up already. This rocky prison is starting to remind me of the moon, and trust me you don’t want me thinking about my time there.”

“Not a problem,” Spike said. He looked at the unicorns in the room. “Ready?” Lyra and Shining nodded.

“Whenever you are, Spike,” Twilight said.

Vinyl touched the base of her horn nervously. “Just don’t roast the goods, you know? I kinda really need this horn for DJing.”

“Don’t worry,” Spike assured her. “I’m pretty good at controlled burning.”

Twilight smiled teasingly. “I don’t even want to know how you know that.”

They all shared a brief laugh, enjoying the calm before the storm. Then Spike took a breath in preparation. Shining leaned in first, silently agreeing to be the test dummy. Once his horn was in place, he nodded.

“Do it.”

Time to Fight

Flames tickled Twilight’s horn as the green wax coating it slowly crawled off, drip by drip. She held her breath, determined not to freak out about the fire that was so close to her head.

It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Spike or anything. After all, he’d managed to free everypony else’s horns with no damage, but at the same time she couldn’t help but worry for the safety of arguably her most important body part. To his credit though, he was keeping the flame relatively small and manageable, even if that did mean slowing down the process.

Eventually Spike’s fire receded, letting the rest of the goo drip from Twilight’s horn harmlessly. She breathed a sigh of relief and tried to call upon her magic. To her delight, her horn sparked to life with a familiar glow.

“Thanks, Spike,” she said, standing all the way up. It was a relief to be able to call upon her power again.

Vinyl gave him a pat on the back. “Ya did good, Dragon Dude.”

Lyra smiled at him, rubbing her still slightly-warm horn. “Thanks a bunch.”

“Aw, you’re welcome.” Spike took a bow, basking in the praise.

Shining glanced to the exit, clenching his jaw. “Okay, we shouldn’t waste any more time.”

Twilight nodded. She had no idea how Cadance was holding up, but she knew she had to get her out of Queen Chrysalis’ grasp. Except…

“Do you have any idea how we can beat her?” Twilight asked. Shining turned to her with a questioning gaze. “It’s just… she already seemed pretty strong and that changeling told us she only gets more powerful when she feeds off love.”

Shining frowned slightly at that fact, but quickly reversed it for a hopeful smile. “Don’t worry too much about that. We’ve got the element of surprise after all.”

“Yeah, but she’s got the Element of Magic. And Honesty. And Kindness. And Laugther. And—”

“We get it, Vinyl,” Shining and Twilight simultaneously cut her off.

“Sheesh, sorry.” Vinyl raised her hooves in mock surrender, acknowledging her joke’s poor timing.

“Okay, everypony follow me and keep your voices down,” Shining told them as he stepped forward and pressed his body against the wall. “We don’t know how many of them could be waiting for us on the other end of the tunnel.”

“Oh, before we get going.” Twilight lit up her horn, digging around through her saddlebags. She withdrew a sheet of paper and a fresh quill. Spike blinked in surprise as the items floated his way. “Spike, I need you to send the Princess a letter. I don’t know if she can offer us reinforcements or not, but she needs to know what’s going on.”

Spike nodded. “Do you want me to ask about that other message, too?”

Twilight’s memory briefly flashed to the burning scroll from earlier. “Yes, please.”

“You’ll have to write it on the go,” Shining told him.

“Uh… I’m not too good at running and writing.” Just as Spike was finishing his sentence, he was wrapped in a lavender glow. Twilight lifted him up and onto her back, giving him a small smile.

Shining was already moving, so Twilight started after him. As she made her way into the tunnel, she heard the scratchy noise of writing fill her ears. She quickened her pace to match her brother’s near trot and shot a glance back to look at her friends.

Lyra was right at her heels, with Vinyl, Octavia, and Bon Bon right behind her. Derpy was bringing up the rear, forced to gently tug Nightmare Moon into the tunnel’s entrance.

Twilight frowned. She knew Nightmare would slow them down—or alert the nearest changeling of their escape, just to mess with her—but there really wasn’t much of a choice for them at this point. Her head swiveled back around to the front to focus on her uphill climb.

They were approaching the exit of the tunnel. Twilight remembered that just outside was the massive chamber they’d woken up in. She started digging through her memory for the precise tunnel that the changelings had carried Cadance away to.

Shining stopped when they reached the top, risked a glance out and then threw his body against wall. “Changelings,” he whispered.

Twilight followed his lead and pressed her body against the wall. A few thumps behind her let her know her friends did too. “How many?” she mouthed, not daring to talk.

Shining pressed his lips together, clearly not eager to open them again. Instead, he tapped his hoof twice onto the ground.

Just two then. Twilight narrowed her eyes. They could handle two, but that wasn’t the problem. The problem was making sure that they didn’t attract any other changelings, or let one of the two slip away for that matter.

“Psst, Twilight. Watch your head.”

Twilight blinked at the sound of Spike’s voice, but what he was about to do suddenly clicked in her head and she lowered it. A moment later, green flames danced above her head, turning his letter into smoke. It wafted away, flying out the tunnel exit and far into the main chamber.

“Hey, what was that?”

Twilight cringed. The changelings had seen it!

Two black bugs walked into her field of view and she breathed a sigh of relief that their heads were turned the other way, craned to watch the disappearing smoke.

Actually... Twilight smiled as she looked over to the confused changelings. That might’ve been just the distraction we needed.

She nudged Shining, who nodded in reply. He’d noticed the same thing.

Cautiously, he stalked out of tunnel and Twilight followed. With her magic, she took Spike from her back and set him on the ground behind the tunnel wall. She held up a hoof to her friends, silently asking them to wait as she crept forward.

“So… that was weird, right?” The first changeling asked his buddy.

“Yeah.” The second changeling scratched his chin as the last of the smoke dissipated. “Did someone light a fire or something?”

“Doubt it. I think maybe it was a smoke signal.”

“That would require a fire, genius.”

The first changeling turned and playfully punched his friend’s shoulder with a laugh. “Yeah, well you—” He froze, eyes widening as he caught sight of Shining and Twilight. “What the—!”

Shining fired up his horn, snapping a magenta shield around the two of them. All sound was cut off, leaving the two helplessly shouting in the bubble. One of them began pounding his hooves against the wall of magic, to no avail.

“What should we do with them?” Twilight asked. She made eye contact with one, earning what looked to be a hiss.

Shining eyed the tunnel they’d come from before looking back at the changelings. “Well to be honest, these guys look pretty overworked. They could probably use a nice, long nap.”

Twilight smiled. “Sounds good to me.”

Shining’s horn flared slightly, and two slits opened up in the bubble, each barely bigger than a golf ball. The cries from the changelings inside assaulted their ears and Twilight winced, hoping there weren’t any more nearby to hear them.

With a sharp burst of magic, Shining Armor fired two beams through the holes and directly at the screaming changelings. They struck and the changelings froze in place. Their mouths were stuck open in silent screams, but their legs could no longer balance properly and they fell to the ground like rigid planks of wood.

Twilight blinked in surprise as Shining allowed the shield to fade away. “What kind of spell was that?” she asked, inspecting the frozen changelings.

“It’s a paralysis spell,” Shining replied, approaching them as well. “It’s standard for all guards to learn, not to mention pretty handy for stopping ponies—and changelings—in their tracks.”

“Interesting.” Despite the situation, Twilight couldn’t stop her brain from latching on to this new spell.

It must be a variation of a typical magical blast. Perhaps it utilizes an electromagnetic pulse to overload the neurons in the brain? Or maybe it targets the muscles directly, that’s probably less harmful to the subject. But what about—

“Twilight.”

She blinked, torn from her thoughts. She turned to see her brother already dragging the two changelings back to the tunnel. Her eyes widened as she realized she had left herself out in the open. Twilight scurried back to cover.

The girls were looking at the changelings nervously as Shining dropped them down.

“What do we do with them?” Lyra asked.

“Well, they’ll be out of it for a while, but we should probably make sure they won’t be a problem when they come to.” Shining’s brow creased in thought.

“I have some shackles you could use.” Nightmare Moon held up her chained forehooves with a wry smile.

Shining glared at her, narrowing his eyes. “No.”

“Yeah, no,” Twilight agreed

Derpy offered Nightmare a consolatory smile. “It was a nice try.”

Nightmare grunted, setting her hooves down. “I hate all of you.”

“Love you too, Nightie.” Vinyl grinned, earning a raspberry in her direction.

“Back to the task at hoof.” Shining nudged the two changelings. “Any bright ideas?”

“Actually.” Vinyl looked from them to Shining. “I might. You said they’re out cold, right?”

He nodded and Vinyl got a wide grin. “In that case…” Her horn sparked to life, enveloping the changelings in a blue aura. She gave them a gentle nudge and sent them sliding down the tunnel. Twilight watched as gravity did its work in bringing them down to the holding cell.

“Out of sight, out of mind.” Vinyl held her head high with pride.

Shining shrugged. “Well, as long as they don’t wake up…”

“Or hit their heads on the way down,” Derpy said, stretching her neck out to see the two black figures better as they slid out of view.

“I’m sure they’ll be fine, Derpy.” Lyra patted her back.

“All right, let’s get a move on. Cadance is only one more level above us.” Twilight looked to the myriad of tunnels in the chamber ahead of them, focusing on the one in the far corner. She was fairly certain that’s where Cadance had been dragged off to. Hopefully there were no other twists or turns, otherwise they’d get lost pretty quickly.

Shining poked his head around the corner once more before motioning them forward. Everypony moved out, the only noise being the clinking of Nightmare’s chains.

As they moved toward the tunnel, Twilight felt a nudge in her side. She looked over to the source and saw her brother.

“By the way,” he said while never taking his eyes off the tunnel. “It was a short electrical charge to the base of the spine.”

She blinked in confusion before remembering his spell from before. Then confusion struck her again. “How’d you know I was curious?”

Shining looked at her and smiled. “Because you’re you.”

“Ah.” Twilight snorted. “That makes sense.” Shining nodded and trotted forward to take the lead, while Twilight continued her pace and stayed in the center. For a brief moment, she glanced at the ground and muttered, “A short charge to the spine… I’ll have to remember that one.”

When they reached the tunnel, Twilight had to crane her neck up to see the end. The slope was far steeper than the last one and at the very peak flashes of green light leaked through.

“Why does it have to be so steep?” Bon Bon asked with a huff.

“Probably because all the changelings have wings,” Twilight noted. “It’s less of a burden to them than to us.”

“Not for me!” Derpy spread her wings. She took a moment to roll her neck on her shoulders and stretched out, likely because it had been quite a while since she’d last flown. When she’d decided her muscles were at optimal stretchiness she took off, flapping her wings and gaining altitude.

“Just be sure to stay close to cover,” Shining advised, not wanting to come between a pegasus and flying.

“Will do, Chief.” Derpy gave a salute and hovered close by, hugging the wall.

As for the rest of them, the trek uphill began. It wasn’t bad starting off, at least that’s what Twilight told herself. She didn’t actually want to believe that she might be out of shape, but the burning in her calves followed by shortness of breath begged to differ.

She glanced up enviously at Derpy. Why can’t I have wings too?

A scream of agony, though faint, cut through the air. Twilight’s entire body stiffened, along with Shining’s and her friends. Their pause didn’t last any longer than a moment though, as Twilight returned to climbing up the tunnel with renewed determination. Lament my inability to fly later, save Cadance now.

She made it through the rest of the incline without complaint, though her calves would undoubtedly make up for lost time tomorrow. Looking back, Twilight realized that she’d ended up leaving everypony else in the dust in her haste.

Shining was the next one up, with Spike riding on his back, likely having transferred there after the slope had become too much for him. Derpy gingerly hovered up after him, and Vinyl, Octavia, Lyra, and Bon Bon followed.

Twilight waited a bit, but didn’t see Nightmare Moon appear. She tilted her head over the edge and saw the dark alicorn struggling to climb the back half of the hill, her chains not allowing her to take a big enough step up. Nightmare kept trying though, muttering to herself about how she planned to make slopes illegal when she became ruler of Equestria.

Derpy landed next to Twilight, taking note of the situation. “I’ll go help her out.”

Twilight nodded and Derpy spread her wings again to reach Nightmare. Twilight turned her focus back around to the flashing lights from the other room, just in time to be utterly horrified.

Chrysalis stood in the center of the room, flanked on all sides by changelings. Her eyes were glowing a sickly green comparable to her horn. Bound to the back wall was Cadance, slumped to one side while fighting to stay awake. Her mane was a tousled mess, her eyes bloodshot in contrast to Chrysalis and she shook pitifully.

Just then Chrysalis’ magic flared and tendrils of magic were ripped from Cadance. Her whole body seized and another scream escaped her mouth.

Twilight tensed and was about to take a step forward, but a hoof on her shoulder stopped her. She glanced back to Shining, whose expression told her to wait. Twilight ground her teeth together, reluctantly agreeing.

“I’ll create a distraction,” Shining whispered. Everypony had to strain to hear over Cadance’s screams. “You guys free her once I get Chrysalis out of the room.”

“Be careful,” Twilight told him.

“Yeah,” Vinyl seconded. “We can’t have our first date if you get captured by changelings again.”

Shining hesitated, not sure how to react to that. Eventually he just shook his head. “Well now I’m weighing my options.”

Twilight shoved him lightly. “I’m serious. Be. Careful.”

“Don’t worry, Twilight,” Spike said, patting the top of Shining’s head. “I’ll take good care of him.”

Twilight’s stomach lurched. “Are you sure you want to go too?"

“Aw, I can handle it, Twilight.” Spike waved his hand dismissively. “I’ve survived this long after all.”

“Heh… yeah…” Only because you haven’t actively been looking for danger. Twilight sighed. She very well could order Spike to hang back, but now really wasn’t the time to get into an argument like that. Besides, his fire could be very helpful for Shining’s efforts of not dying.

Just then, the flashing lights around the corner stopped and Cadance’s cries of agony ended with a violent gasp for air.

Shining Armor took a deep breath. “Here we go.”

Spike barely had time to grab hold of Shining’s mane before the two of them rocketed forward. Twilight risked poking her head around the corner to see.

Galloping forward, Shining charged up his horn and fired off as many beams as he could. The running threw off his aim, but he still managed to strike three unsuspecting changelings before the group as a whole took notice.

Chrysalis turned to the intruder, recognition sparking in her eyes, followed by hatred. “You!”

Cadance weakly held up her head. “S-Shining…?”

Shining grinned, halted his run, and fired a bolt of magic directly at Chrysalis. As it sailed through the air, Chrysalis returned his smile with a wry one of her own. Her horn sparked to life and Shining’s attack stopped dead.

Before he had any time to react, Chrysalis wrapped him in a magical hold. Her green aura tightened around his body, eliciting a sharp cry from him.

Chrysalis glared heinously. “So you’ve managed to escape, eh? And then you stupidly ran right into my grasp again. I can’t decide which was the worse choice to be honest.”

“Probably the latter,” Shining admitted. “But it wasn’t as stupid as you think.”

Chrysalis raised her eyebrow, opening her mouth to retort. Before she could get a word out, Shining’s own horn flared. He released a burst of magic so powerful that Twilight felt her bones rattle.

Chrysalis’ hold was shattered, but only barely. Shining had used a lot of energy just to break it and as he fell to the ground he showed clear signs of exertion.

“You’ll have to do better than that if you want this prisoner back,” he taunted through sweaty brow. He whirled around and darted to a random tunnel, obviously hoping Chrysalis would follow.

Except she didn’t take the bait.

With her fangs barely covering a hiss, Chrysalis pointed out a group of changelings. “You, after him!”

They pounced into action, aiming to tackle Shining when all of a sudden Spike poked his head out. With a deep breath, fire spewed from his mouth, forcing the changelings to either cower in fear or become barbeque. They chose the former.

Shining seized this opportunity to dart into the tunnel, narrowly avoiding a beam from Chrysalis’ horn that tore through the cave wall.

“After him!” She shrieked in anger. The Queen firmly planted herself in front of Cadance, taking it upon herself to guard their meal ticket.

Dang it. Twilight sucked in air through clenched teeth. They’d been banking on Shining luring her away from Cadance so they could save her, but even the best plans didn’t survive first contact and theirs was far from the best. He couldn't turn back now, though, so it was up to them

“The rest of you, go check on the others,” Chrysalis snapped at the remaining changelings. “If he’s out, they probably are, too.”

“Yes, My Queen.” The rest of the changelings scurried into a group, heading right for their tunnel.

Double dang it. Twilight motioned with her hoof, telling her friends to press up against the wall as best they could. The changelings were almost on top of them, so their only option was to fight.

The first changeling ran into the tunnel, passing Twilight, Vinyl, and Lyra before stopping. In fact, he was moving so fast that he probably only noticed them because of Derpy trying to push Nightmare Moon up the last few steps.

It stopped dead, turned, and tried to open its mouth. That was when Twilight charged up her horn and fired at it, giving it a sharp shock to the spine.

She watched as it twitched and went still. For a moment its balance held before gravity seemed to realize that this shouldn’t continue to happen and dragged it down. Twilight allowed herself a soft smile, grateful that her first try at that spell had been a successful one.

And then she was punched in the face.

An entire squad of royal guard ponies were surrounding one stone statue in the middle on the Canterlot gardens. They all had their spears drawn and pointed and had been holding this pose for quite some time. Possibly hours. None were exactly sure why they had been called, but they knew it must’ve been important as the orders had come straight from the Princess herself.

The Princess who was just shooting a beam at a cracked stone statue for… reasons.

Celestia had neglected to tell her guard the exact nature of their presence here; namely that it was they were the last line of defense to stopping a raving lunatic chaos god from escaping. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust them, it was more along the lines that she was too terrified to speak anymore for fear of her concentration slipping.

The veins in her forehead were undoubtedly pronounced at this point, even more so than the sweat running down her face. She strained to keep her magic going, but knew she couldn’t keep it up for much longer. The cracks were already spreading too far and the chaos they contained was leaking out, fighting her for control.

The crack running up the chest of the statue split deeper and she grunted. Her magic was doing its best to stop him from escaping, but at this point she was doing little more than slowing him down and at great cost to her own energy. It was inevitable at this point. In truth, it always had been, but she’d hoped that the Elements would have been restored long before his escape.

And now Equestria was about to become the plaything of a madman. Again.

“Princess?” The familiar voice of her advisor tore her away from her impending doom. Celestia didn’t risk looking back to see, but she heard her advisor all the same.

“Excuse me, pardon me, coming through. Uh… please watch that spear, if you don’t mind.”

She’s pushing through everypony, Celestia realized. Trying to get to her for some unknown reason.

“Princess!” Inkwell finally appeared in the bottom corner of her vision. Celestia looked to her, silently asking what she wanted. In response, Inkwell held up a small, rolled up scroll. “A… A letter just came for you.”

The tendons in Celestia’s neck tensed. “Inkwell, I know you’re only trying to do your job, but I’m in the middle of something very important right now. I cannot spare time for—”

“But it arrived by smoke,” Inkwell said, cutting her off before she could order her away.

“Smoke?” Twilight. “...All right, you may continue.”

Inkwell offered a little smile. “Thank you, Princess.” She unfurled the scroll, the statue gaining a few more cracks in the meantime.

Celestia winced at this fact, but was still patient in waiting for Inkwell to clear her throat. “Dear Princess, so… funny story: we lost the Elements.”

“WHAT?” Celestia jerked, nearly losing her control over her spell.

Inkwell flinched, but kept reading. “We’ve also been kidnapped by these freaky bug-pony things called changelings that dragged us underneath the Everfree. They also kinda destroyed your last letter to us before we could read it. We’re trying to escape now, but the situation is reeeeaaaally bad. If you could send help we would really appreciate it. Thank you. Sincerely, Spike.” Inkwell looked up from the paper. “Uh… Princess?”

Celestia was doing her best not to freak out, but twitching eyelids and clenched teeth only went so far. She took a deep, shaky breath that absolutely didn’t blazon how panicked she was to everypony around her.

The crack on the statue snaked further up, this time making its way to the neck of the creature. Celestia bit her lip. Her best guess was that they had an hour before it was all over. There was no time to send a rescue party for Twilight.

“Inkwell…”

Her assistant looked at her with a worried frown. “Yes, Your Majesty?”

Celestia closed her eyes, knowing it was over. “We’re screwed.”

Chaos

Twilight recoiled, cursing herself for forgetting the other changelings. Her jaw stung from the impact as she stumbled, bracing herself against the wall. She pried one of her eyes open, just in time to see the changeling wind up for another hit.

Only to be socked in the face by Vinyl.

“You all right, Smart Mare?” she called back, the changeling before her thumping to the ground.

Twilight rubbed her tender jaw and winced. “I’ll liv— Vinyl watch out!”

Three more changelings had already rounded the corner. Without even a second of delay, they pounced at Vinyl, who had just enough reaction time to let out an ‘eep’ of surprise.

Twilight’s reflexes ended up being a little more useful. Her horn sparked back to life and she managed to fire off a single paralyzing shot. It struck the nearest changeling, stopping him mid-leap.

Unfortunately, neither Twilight or Vinyl had the reflexes to take out the other two. Fortunately, they weren’t the only unicorns of the group.

Twin golden beams rocketed forward and slammed into the changelings. They weren’t powerful enough to knock them out, but they did send them spiraling into the wall.

As those two recovered, Twilight shot a look back. Lyra’s wide eyes were bathed in the light of her horn’s glow and she looked completely surprised at herself.

“Nice job,” Twilight told her. Lyra managed a nervous smile. “Hope you got a few more in you.”

“S-sure.”

Before turning back around, Twilight glanced just beyond Lyra to see Derpy struggling to lift Nightmare Moon up the last leg of the incline. A nice gesture, but ultimately pointless if the changelings broke through their line of defense.

“Derpy, we could use your help,” Twilight called out.

Derpy’s ears flicked and she whipped her head around to see the changelings. “Oh, right!”

She spread her wings and leapt over, letting go of Nightmare Moon in the process. Nightmare’s eyes bulged as her support left her and she struggled to get a footing on the slope with her chains impeding her movement. It wasn’t long before she tumbled back down, screaming out a few choice words the whole time.

In any other circumstance, Twilight probably would’ve laughed.

Instead, she whipped her head around to face the changelings Lyra had held back. Vinyl had taken the initiative to wrestle one to the ground, but the other was getting ready to pounce on her.

Twilight zapped him with a paralysis spell before he had time to do it. She would’ve also cast it on the other one, but its scrap with Vinyl was causing both of them to roll across the floor and she didn’t want to risk hitting her friend.

Instead she turned her attention to the next wave of enemies. At this point the changelings knew charging in was probably a bad idea and the next few opted instead to stay back and start shooting.

Twilight had previously hoped that the horns on their heads were mere decorations, but the volley of green magical blasts headed her way punched a few holes in that theory. To make sure that was the only thing to get holes, she threw up a barrier in the middle of the tunnel just as the first attack whizzed by her face.

The rest harmlessly clattered against her shield, but Twilight knew it wouldn’t last for long. The weak-in-the-knees-out-of-breath feeling that was slowly gripping her meant her magic would need a break soon. At first she was confused, but then realized that the paralysis spell she’d been using was taking a lot more energy out of her than she first thought. If she’d had the time she probably could’ve trained herself to use it more efficiently, but she didn’t have the time.

I’ll just save it for a last resort now. Twilight thought. Standard magical beams would probably do the job just fine anyway.

“Grragh!”

Twilight whipped her head down to see Vinyl still wrestling with her changeling. Derpy was right over top of them, her forelegs wrapped around the midsection of the overgrown bug as she tried to pry it off.

“Just. Get. Off. Already!” Vinyl yelled, punctuating each word with a punch.

As its face took a beating, Twilight could see its grip starting to wane. That, coupled with Derpy’s pull, was enough to rip the two apart.

And send the changeling flying face first into the ceiling. He fell to the ground a second later, out cold.

“Ooh.” Derpy winced.

Vinyl got back on her hooves and dusted herself off. “Thanks, Derpy. What gave you the idea to throw him into the ceiling?”

“I-It was an accident.”

Vinyl grinned. “I’ll take it.”

“How long do we have before your shield gives in?” Octavia asked.

Twilight looked back to her magical barrier to inspect it. Her stomach flopped when she noticed that the unrelenting barrage of attacks was already chipping away at it. The cracks sprouting on the outer layer were thin and tiny, but it wouldn’t be long before that changed.

She bit her lip. “A couple of minutes.”

“Give or take?” Vinyl asked.

One of the cracks split further along the shield, causing Twilight’s heart to skip a beat. “Take. Definitely take.”

“We better think of something quickly, then,” Bon Bon said with a frown.

Twilight’s brain whipped up a storm of thought in an instant. Much like she had back in the cell, she quickly ran through their surroundings and possible plans of attack. The only difference between this and the cell was that she had far less time to work with.

Oh goodie, pressure.

Twilight blinked, shook her head, and reprimanded herself. Now wasn’t the time for wasting brain power on sarcastic quips nopony would hear; now was the time for planning.

“Okay, if we wait for a period of time when their attacks lessen, we can—”

“Like right now?” Derpy asked.

The rest of Twilight’s plan caught in the back of her throat with that interruption. Her vision whipped to her shield and her jaw hit the floor. All the changelings had suddenly stopped firing, giving them a brief respite as they turned their attention back around.

“Huh, that was easy.” Vinyl turned to her. “I like this plan already, Smart Mare. What’s next?”

Queen Chrysalis stepped into view and started barking orders at her underlings. Her magic briefly flashed and the unconscious changelings on their side of the barrier suddenly popped out of existence only to reappear near her. A few changelings quickly dragged away their fallen comrades while Chrysalis’ shouting grew in volume.

Twilight strained to hear through the muffling of her barrier, but she wasn’t left guessing for long. The changelings clamored to duck or get away as their Queen’s horn began glowing.

Twilight’s eyes widened. “RUN!”

Vinyl raised her eyebrow in confusion. “Run? How’s that gonna help us beat ‘em?”

Not having the time to explain—and not wanting to risk losing any of them—Twilight’s horn ignited and she grabbed all of her friends and jumped down the slope, hauling them with her.

It was a good thing she did too, because half a second later a magical blast ate through her shield, tore through the tunnel and narrowly grazed the tops of their heads.

Twilight could feel the heat from the blast on her face as she tumbled down the slope. Her hold on her friends cut out and they were soon tumbling with her in a heap of yelps and groans.

As they skidded to a stop down at the bottom, Twilight glanced up to the see the green beam still tearing through the walls of the cave all the way on the other side of the room. A few seconds later it dissipated, leaving a gaping hole.

Her heart thumped wildly in her chest as her eyes widened. Even a millisecond later and they would’ve been vaporized.

With that power, Chrysalis could easily rival Celestia! Twilight realized, her stomach flopping in anxiety. How are we supposed to beat her?

“Hmmph. It’s about time somepony came down here.”

Twilight blinked and shifted her sight down to Nightmare Moon. The self-proclaimed ruler of the night was lying on her side enjoying a face full of dirt. She probably would’ve stood back up by now if it weren’t for her restraints preventing her from getting a good grip on anything.

“Are you going to help me up or not, peasant?” Nightmare demanded.

Twilight didn’t respond. Her eyes were instead honing in on Nightmare’s restraints. One particular restraint to be precise: the magic inhibitors.

She gulped. Was freeing Nightmare their only hope at this point? She didn’t see a way to stand up to Chrysalis’ power otherwise. Twilight turned to her friends.

“Nice save back there, Twilight!” Derpy exclaimed as she stood back up. A chorus of agreement joined her.

“Thanks,” Twilight said, standing herself up. “But we aren’t out of the woods yet.”

“You got that right.”

A chill ran down Twilight’s spine. She, along with her friends, turned back to the blast zone to see Chrysalis. Her insect wings were beating rapidly to keep her hovering in the air and a scowl dominated her face.

“Didn’t your parents ever teach you it’s rude to interrupt someone’s dinner?” she seethed.

“Didn’t yours ever teach you it’s rude to kidnap somepony?” Octavia returned.

Chrysalis scoffed. “Of course not. They taught me it was illegal.” She shook her head. “Honestly, what parent tries to dissuade their hatchlings from kidnapping simply because it is rude?”

“My parents did,” Vinyl tossed out.

Chrysalis pressed her lips together in a thin line. “I will never understand ponies.”

She hovered lower before touching down on the ground in front of the group. Nightmare turned her face to be able to see what was happening only to roll her eyes when she saw the Changeling Queen. Twilight had a much less laissez-faire attitude about the situation, however, as her heart was pounding with terror.

Forcing back the desire to run away, she clenched her jaw and lit up her horn. With the amount of magic she had left, Twilight estimated that she’d be able to get off at least one more shot of her new paralysis spell.

Hopefully one would be enough.

Sparking her horn to life, Twilight took a deep breath and got ready. She blinked and suddenly found herself staring at the ceiling. Wind whipped past her, flinging her hair in all directions as the world violently spun.

Not until she hit a wall and the sensations stopped did she realize Chrysalis had picked her up and flung her back with magic.

Twilight would have retaliated, but the sudden pain explosion in her everywhere had other plans. “AH!”

“Twilight!” Her friends turned to look at her, each sporting matching faces of shock.

Twilight sucked in air through her teeth and limply slumped to the ground. Everything, everything, hurt right now. She didn’t even think she could stand up until it all subsided.

Through it all, she still tried to process what had just happened. Chrysalis had been so fast. Twilight hadn’t even seen her horn glow before the attack happened. How was she supposed to keep up with that?

Chrysalis let a snarky grin creep on her face. “This is the end for you.”

“Wow, what an original line,” Nightmare Moon quipped from the ground. “How many brain cells did you have to rub together to think of that one?”

Her grin morphing into a scowl, Chrysalis stepped over to Nightmare and put a hoof on her head. “You know, I have the distinct memory of you telling me that I don’t give off the impression of royalty.” She started pressing down on Nightmare’s skull, eliciting a yelp of pain. “Well how about now, huh? I think that crushing the skulls of my enemies looks pretty freaking regal!”

Nightmare grunted as her face was pushed further into the dirt. Twilight winced, though it was mostly from her own pain.

“Let her go!”

Derpy flew forward, suddenly tackling Chrysalis. It certainly helped that the she was an expert at crashing into things, but the sheer difference in size between the two meant Chrysalis only had to step back to counter the pegasus ramming into her chest. Still, that step back freed Nightmare.

“Get off of me!” Chrysalis demanded.

“No!” Derpy shouted, wriggling around in an attempt to fling Chrysalis to the ground.

“Insolent piece of garbage!” With a flick of magic, Chrysalis whipped Derpy into the ground. She bounced off, tumbling into the wall not far from Twilight.

“Derpy?” Twilight stumbled over to her friend to make sure she was okay.

For a moment it appeared that she was unconscious, or worse, but then her hind leg twitched, she coughed, and her eyes opened back up.

“Derpy?” Twilight asked again, less frantic but still worried.

“Don’t forget to… muffins a hat…” Derpy mumbled.

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. She was dazed, but alive.

Looking up, Twilight’s gaze met Nightmare’s. The dark alicorn’s eyes were wide with concern and she shifted her line of sight back and forth between Twilight and Derpy.

Before Twilight could dwell on what that meant, Chrysalis interrupted. “Now that that unpleasantness is out of the way, is there anypony else who wants to challenge me? Or can I finally get on with recapturing you all?”

A blue beam of magic sliced through the air directly at her. With a groan, Chrysalis deflected it into a wall.

The source of the beam, Vinyl, grunted with determination. She was quickly joined by Lyra, Bon Bon and Octavia as they all stood their ground against the queen of the changelings.

Chrysalis groaned. “You know, I’m starting to think that you ponies aren’t even worth the trouble.”

“You’re freaking right we aren’t!” Vinyl shouted.

Chrysalis frowned. “No, that’s not a good thing you moron. It means I want to k—”

She didn't get the opportunity to finish. Vinyl and Lyra both unleashed a flurry of magical blasts. Neither had much power behind their attacks, but power wasn’t their goal.

In tandem with the magic, Bon Bon and Octavia rushed forward, each belting out a war cry. Or rather, the closest a baker and a cellist could get to a war cry.

Twilight smiled at their impromptu strategy. It just might work…

Except for the fact that Chrysalis easily overpowered them.

In a flash, she sent out a wave of magic, dissolving each attack that sailed toward her and knocking Vinyl and Lyra down. Her telekinesis hooked on to Octavia and Bon Bon right after, whirling them around and throwing them halfway across the room before the shock could even register on their faces.

As those two faced mouthfuls of dirt, Chrysalis turned back to the unicorns. Her horn fired off a single blast wide enough to encompass both of them. Vinyl and Lyra barely had enough time to get out of the way, but the thunderous explosion that resulted from the blast striking the ground tossed them both through the air.

Twilight’s jaw clenched at the sight of everypony being so casually assaulted. She stood back up, her horn alight with rage.

In that moment, protecting the Elements that Chrysalis wore didn’t matter to Twilight. The only thing that mattered was keeping her friends safe.

“Chrysalis!” she yelled.

As the queen turned around, Twilight unleashed a furious attack. It was by far the biggest beam she’d ever conjured, double the height and width of its target. It sailed through the air at a lightning quick rate and met its target in just a second.

Twilight could feel the sudden jut of the impact, but what she hadn’t expected to feel was resistance.

Through the overwhelming lavender light, Twilight could see the faintest hint of Chrysalis' green magic. And it was getting brighter.

Then she felt her attack jerk.

Chrysalis roared furiously as she pushed back against Twilight’s attack. Her whole body glowed with power as she halted the beam.

Twilight ground her teeth together, unable to do anything else. Her last drop of magic had been poured into this attack; it was all they had left.

But unfortunately it wasn’t enough.

Chrysalis pushed once more and redirected the blast skyward. It tore through the ceiling of the cave and kept going after it burst through to the surface. Once it was gone, light from outside poured in, forcing Twilight to squint. She breathed heavily, raspily, as the strain of the blast descended upon her. Around her, everypony else just remained silent.

Then Chrysalis started laughing.

It was soft at first, before erupting with victorious glee. She cackled as if she had just conquered all of Equestria, her face fused with pure delight.

Twilight slumped her back against the wall, exhausted and in awe that her attack had failed. Just how powerful had Cadance’s love made Chrysalis?

Legs wobbling, Twilight felt tears well up. She’d failed everypony… again. Her friends, Shining, Cadance, Spike… all of them were doomed now.

Her gaze shifted to everypony. Nightmare was furious; if looks could kill then changelings would be extinct.

Nopony else really came close to matching Nightmare’s rage. Vinyl and Lyra were huddled back against the corner they’d been thrown into, both with grim looks of uselessness. Octavia wasn’t faring much better. Only Bon Bon was moving, as she crawled toward the saddlebags that had been flung from her body.

Chrysalis finally calmed down, her laughter fading to giggles and then eventually nothing but a smug grin.

“That was a noble effort, Smart Mare, but ultimately pointless. It seems you won’t even be a challenge now that I have all of this power. Though I suppose I should rub a little salt on the wound and show you just how little of a chance you stood.”

Chrysalis’ horn sparked to life and enveloped her whole body in her sickly aura. She levitated off the ground, shining brightly as she called upon her full power.

The air hummed as energy rushed through it, and Twilight found she could practically taste Chrysalis magic power.

This is it, Twilight realized, heart racing. We’re all going to die.

Electricity sparked around the changeling queen and she laughed as all the hope was slapped from Twilight’s face.

“You see now, you foal? This is the true power of Chrysalis.” She cackled again. “At this point, I have surpassed the limitations of mere mortals. I am invincible!”

CLANG!

Celestia fought back a wave of exhaustion. Sweat dripped down her face as her knees wobbled. Each breath of hers was ragged and raspy, but even so she still poured as much magic as she could into her spell, desperately trying to hold Discord’s prison intact.

Unfortunately, it was proving to be a futile effort. The cracks had already snaked along the body of the statue, going as far down as his feet and as far up as his chin. It wouldn’t be long now before the stone broke or her magic gave out; whichever came first.

She’d made the decision to have all her guards evacuate a few minutes ago. In all honesty, there was little any of them could do against a spirit of chaos and it would be best if they remained at a safer distance. She would’ve had the whole city evacuate, but there wasn’t anywhere they could go that he wouldn't find them. Instead she’d declared a state of emergency and had her assistant strongly recommend to everypony to stay indoors.

Now the last of her strength was quickly fading away. She doubted she would even have enough energy to lower the sun tonight, assuming she even got the chance.

Another crack split the statue in front of her, wresting away a few more precious seconds before the seal broke. Celestia gasped as her magic fluxed and twisted, trying to dissipate. Only sheer willpower kept her spell from snapping. Right now she needed to focus all of her attention into—

A powerful magic rippled into existence. Celestia gaped, fearing the worst, only to find that Discord had yet to break free. The immense power, whoever it was coming from, was emanating much further away, possibly from the Everfree Forest.

Blinking, Celestia realized in horror that her attention had been torn away from her spell. It had only been a brief second, but it was all he needed.

The statue rumbled before her and Celestia retracted her spell in defeat. The rock finished breaking down the middle before shattering entirely.

As gravel and dust flooded Celestia’s vision, the figure that used to be a statue began stretching.

“Ohoho boy!” Discord grunted as the dust cleared to reveal his discombobulated form. He placed one of his hands to his neck and rubbed it, sighing. “One thousand years gives you such a crick in the neck.”

“Discord!” Celestia yelled.

“Celly!” Discord joyfully called out, as if he was being re-united with a childhood friend. He paused and frowned at her. “Oof, you aged terribly.”

Celestia narrowed her eyes, but didn’t stoop to his level. She didn’t need to fling around petty insults and she certainly didn’t need to point out that she looked exactly the same as she did one thousand years ago.

“You shouldn’t have returned,” she said instead.

Discord made a big show of rolling his eyes. It was so big, in fact, that one of his pupils kept going, spinning faster and faster as the other focused on her. “Oh please, what are you going to do? Turn me to stone again?”

“Maybe.”

“Hah! You and what Elements?” He asked. “Last I heard those little trinkets were broken beyond repair.” To emphasize his point, he grabbed his arm and snapped it in two. Celestia tried not to cringe at the bone jutting out, while Discord seemed wholly unconcerned.

Before she could think of a reply, he popped his arm back into place. “Well, since you can’t really stop me in your current state, I believe I’ll just—oh!” Discord’s whole body wobbled like flicked gelatin.

What is he doing? Celestia thought.

“Hmm, now that’s a little concerning,” Discord mused, stroking his beard. “Celly, I’m afraid we’ll have to play catch up some other time. Right now I want to take care of whomever it is causing all that magical ruckus. Can’t have any potential challengers for when I take over Equestria. You understand, right?”

Summoning up her remaining strength, Celestia lit up her horn and blocked his path. “I’m not letting you leave here—”

“—Until I tell you my secret to looking so young?” Discord sighed. “Well normally I wouldn’t, but seeing as how you desperately need it…”

“Don’t play games with me, Discord!” Celestia yelled.

“Oh, don’t worry, Celly. You’ve already twisted my arm enough.” He extended his arm, twirling it into a few loops before letting it swing back to normal length. “Now, the secret to staying as ravishingly handsome as myself is simple: a millennia-long full body rock cast. Here, let me help you get started.”

Celestia’s eyes widened as she saw Discord about to snap his fingers. She immediately poured her dwindling magic supply into a counter spell, shutting her eyes as their bright magic collided.

She opened her eyes back up a second later only to drop her jaw in horror. Her counterspell had barely done any good, as everything below her neck was now completely encased in stone.

Discord snorted in amusement at her dismay, but otherwise seemed annoyed. “Hmm, seems I’m not quite back to full strength yet.” He shrugged. “No matter, I’ll recover momentarily. Until then, I’m afraid we must part ways, Celly. We can finish your spa day some other time.”

“Discord!” Celestia furiously yelled, struggling to move her lower body.

He gave her a mock salute. “Toodle-lou”

With a flash, Discord was gone, leaving Celestia to her fate as one of the garden’s newest and most sentient statues.

CLANG!

The sudden noise made Twilight wince.

Following it came a moment of silence. Nopony moved for those brief few seconds, each wondering what had happened. Chrysalis’ eyes crossed before she fell to the ground in a heap, her magic dimming in an instant. Standing over her unconscious figure was Bon Bon.

With a frying pan in her grasp.

Based on the fresh, Chrysalis-head sized dent in it, it was not hard to deduce what had happened.

“Bonnie!” Lyra broke the silent disbelief in the room by running up to her friend and tackling her with a hug.

Twilight helped Derpy stand up so they could join everypony else as they gathered around the unconscious Queen.

“Did you seriously… With a frying pan?” Octavia struggled to comprehend.

“Hehe, yup!” Bon Bon joyfully replied. “I told you guys it’s a dangerous weapon.”

“Well yeah… but we thought you were joking!” Twilight exclaimed. A dangerous weapon was one thing, but knocking out the Queen of the Changelings in one hit? Disbelief didn’t quite cover how Twilight felt about it.

Bon Bon waved her hoof dismissively. “Don’t be silly, I wouldn’t joke about that. Laughter is Vinyl’s Element after all.”

“So I guess this means you gave her a generous beating, then?” Vinyl asked, earning some giggles.

Speaking of the Elements… Twilight’s gaze fell to Chrysalis and her jaw dropped. The Elements were slapped haphazardly on her body, some around her neck, a few around her forelegs, and one on her head.

However, Chrysalis’ poor fashion choices were not the cause of her jaw-droppage. It was instead the Elements themselves. They weren’t sparkling anymore; instead they were… glowing.

Even hers.

“What the…” Twilight didn’t know what to say, or even how to feel. Shocked? Awed? Confused?

Angry that she’d missed yet another Element activation?

“Hey, Twilight, your Element is glowing!” Derpy said.

“I, uh… I’ve noticed, Derpy.” Twilight chest tightened as her emotions began to settle. Did this mean they were fixed? Was everything okay now?

“Nice, does this mean we don’t need to go to the Tree anymore?” Vinyl asked.

“I don’t know,” Twilight admitted. “But it certainly means something.” She tried to ignite her magic, but earned only a full throb in her head to remind herself she was tapped. “Uh, could one of you…” She gestured to Chrysalis.

Lyra nodded and her horn sparked to life. In an effort not to accidentally awaken the maniac who wore them, she carefully pried the Elements free from Chrysalis’ body and set them down.

Twilight gave them a skeptical look over, just to be on the safe side. Her eyes hadn’t been lying to her, however, as it was clear that even the Element of Honesty was faintly glowing.

“What does this mean?” Octavia asked. “Are they… working?”

“Maybe?” Was the only answer Twilight could offer.

“If you all are done gawking at those stupid trinkets, I would like to get out of the dirt!”

Six heads swiveled to face a seething Nightmare Moon.

“Oh my gosh! Sorry!” Derpy darted over to her and started to lift her up. When Nightmare was able to stand up fully, Derpy switched to brushing away the dirt on her sides. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Nightmare grunted. She curled her lip in disdain and looked away. “Thanks for dropping me.”

Derpy’s ears folded down. “S-sorry. I didn’t mean to, I—”

“Whatever.” Nightmare grunted and tapped her hoof into the dirt. “And… thanks for protecting me. I guess…”

Derpy beamed, perking up immediately. “Really? Well, you’re welcome.”

Twilight smiled at the exchange. She doubted Nightmare would bother thanking anypony else other than Derpy. In fact, she was surprised even Derpy could manage to get a thanks out of her. Who knew, maybe it was a sign that Nightmare’s icy heart was starting to thaw.

Even if it is, that doesn’t matter. If the Elements really are fixed then we’ll be able to reform her soon enough. Her smile grew at the thought of this long journey finally coming to a close.

“So, Elements are looking good, Chrysalis was introduced to a frying pan and Twilight made us an exit,” Vinyl said, gesturing to the hole Twilight’s magic had punched into the ceiling. “Looks like things are finally going our way, huh?”

“Sure does,” Twilight replied. “But we should probably check on Cadance before we get out of here.”

“What about her?” Bon Bon asked, pointing with her frying pan down to Chrysalis.

Twilight pressed her lips together. What should they do with her? They couldn’t leave her be after everything she’d done, but at the same time they didn’t really have a plan for her.

“Wanna just leave Bon Bon here and have her whack her again whenever she wakes up?” Vinyl jokingly suggested.

“Uh, no.” Came Bon Bon’s curt reply. “I have to get back to my shop eventually.”

“Hmmm…” Derpy tapped the ground in thought. “Would the Elements work on her?”

“Maybe,” a voice suddenly said. "But it's not like you'll get the chance."

Everypony froze at the sudden intrusion. “Uh, Smart Mare, did your voice just get a whole lot deeper and sinister-ier?” Vinyl asked.

She shook her head. “Of course not.” Looking around the room, Twilight tried to pinpoint the source of the voice. “Who’s there?”

“Oh, sorry.” A bright flash of light dominated the room for a split second. As it faded, Twilight got her first look at the creature behind the voice.

And it was terrifying.

He—It looked like an amalgam of all kinds of creatures. Each part of its long, winding body seemed to encompass a new type of animal part; from its lion paw to its bat wing, dragon leg to goat antler. It was like an asymmetrical modern art sculpture. Completely alien.

And yet, somehow familiar to her in the same way. As if she’d seen this unique design before.

The creature laughed at the shocked looks that everypony donned at the sight of it.

“W-Who are you?” Twilight asked, trying to fight back the shakiness in her voice.

“You mean you don’t know?” The creature tsked with disappointment. “Twilight, don’t you recognize me at all? You’ve spent so many days studying in the palace garden that I thought my likeness would be burned onto your retinas.”

Twilight tried not to flinch as fire erupted on the creature's eyes for a brief second. As they burned out, he grinned, not the least bit harmed.

“What’s he talking about, Twilight?” Octavia asked.

“Yeah, do you know this… thing?” Bon Bon shuddered.

“Hey, this ‘thing’ has ears you know!” The creature wiggled his indignantly. “He also has a name, five hearts, and an appendix in his elbow.”

Twilight narrowed her eyes, trying to pinpoint where she’d seen him before. It was on the tip of her tongue but…

“Oh, I can see the gears in your brain turning so hard they might break.” He grinned.

Twilight felt something fall from her ear and land to the ground with a clink. She turned, surprised to see a few tiny, metal gears had just fallen from her head. Whipping her head back to the creature, she blinked in confusion. Had he done that somehow?

“Too late,” he laughed. “Since you don’t seem to be getting it anytime soon, how about a hint? I was a statue at the palace.”

Twilight’s eyes widened as the puzzle pieces suddenly clicked together. That’s why he looked so familiar! I remember now, I always saw a crazy looking statue in the garden whenever I went there! I meant to ask the Princess about it so many times but always forgot!

“Hey, that wasn’t a hint, that was the answer,” Derpy said.

With a roll of his eyes, the creature sighed. “Yes, yes, and the sky is purple and water is dry. No need to tell us things we already know, Googly Eyes.”

“Uh, what?” Lyra asked.

“Googly Eyes?” Derpy blinked, half offended and half confused.

“So what exactly are you?” Twilight asked, plowing ahead. “What do you want?”

“Ah, more questions. My third least favorite thing in existence.” The creature sighed. “Well, since you’re clearly dying to know I guess I’ll tell you. My name is Discord. And I’m here because I was expecting to find a powerful magic user. Instead, I found—” He looked down at the Elements on the floor. “—my second least favorite thing in existence.”

Twilight felt her heart thump wildly in her chest. He was here for the Elements of Harmony? “Well you can’t have—”

Discord snapped his fingers and all six of the Elements vanished.

“—them…” ...Dang it.

“There we go,” Discord clapped his hands together with delight. “Sorry, but I just couldn’t have those things ruining all of my plans… again.”

“Hey, give those back!” Bon Bon yelled.

Discord snorted. “Or what? You’ll whack me over the head with that frying pan?”

“Dude, I wouldn’t test her if I were you,” Vinyl warned.

“W-What did you do with them?” Twilight demanded.

Discord shrugged. “Oh, I just made sure that they won’t be bothering me as I spread chaos throughout the world. You know how it is.”

Twilight opened her mouth to respond, but no words came. She just couldn’t believe it. All that work and now the Elements of Harmony were… gone.

The rattling of chains interrupted her thoughts and she looked up to see Nightmare Moon stepping forward.

“Discord, you worthless wretch, you will not interfere with my revenge plans, you hear me?”

Discord narrowed his eyes for a moment, before his whole demeanor brightened. “Luna, is that you?”

“My name is Nightmare Moon,” she growled, clenching her jaw.

For a moment, Discord was completely silent. And then he burst out laughing.

“HAHAHA, Oh this is marvelous! Simply marvelous! AHAHA!” He wiped a tear from his eye. “You’re going through puberty, aren’t you?”

Nightmare recoiled as if she’d been slapped. “What?”

“Oh come now,” Discord sighed as his laughter died down. “The new look, the angst, the revenge. You’re so clearly a teenager! This is gold, Lulu, simply gold!”

“He’s kinda right,” Vinyl told her, earning a fierce glare.

“I will not stand here and be made a mockery of by you!” Nightmare roared, stomping the ground.

“Then sit down.” With a snap, a massive pillow appeared beneath Nightmare Moon and Discord pushed her onto it. “So what’s with all the chains, Lulu? They part of your new look?”

“No,” Nightmare grumbled. “They’ve been keeping me in these, because they fear my power.”

Discord snorted. “Sure, okay.”

“I mean it,” Nightmare said. She likely would’ve crossed her hooves at that point if she could’ve. “And you’re lucky I’m in these, otherwise you’d be long dead, demon. You, and my sister.”

Discord raised his eyebrow. “Oh, you have a bone to pick with your big sis, do you?”

“I have unfinished business with that traitor, yes.” Nightmare narrowed her eyes. “Why do you care?”

Discord grinned. “Well, I happened to have left Celly back in Canterlot half encased in stone, if you must know.”

Twilight’s eyes widened. “You WHAT?”

Discord held up his finger, demanding her silence. “If you’d like to finish her off for me, I’d gladly release you from these restraints.”

That caught Nightmare Moon’s attention. “What?”

“What?” Twilight reiterated.

“What?” Derpy echoed.

“Oh yes, getting rid of chains is fairly easy for me,” Discord replied. “And inhibitor rings? Ha! Don’t make me laugh.”

Nightmare snorted. “Unless they’re made of stone. Then I’d bet it would take you a thousand years or so to get me out.”

Discord’s smile dropped. “As I was saying, would you like to be free? All you have to do is kill your sister.”

Nightmare pinched her lips together, starting to give serious thought to his offer. Twilight’s heart pulsated as she realized how dangerous this was getting.

“Nightmare, don’t do it!” Everypony’s attention turned to Derpy, who ran forward to the alicorn. “Please, don’t! You aren’t a bad pony deep down, I know it. You don’t have to—”

“Oh, be quiet!” Discord stretched his arm out, latching onto Derpy and tossing her across the room.

“Derpy!” Twilight called out. Luckily, her friend managed to open her wings and start flying just before crashing into a wall.

Nightmare looked back to the pegasus and then turned to Discord. “You’ll really free me?”

Discord grinned. “Oh, definitely.”

She grunted. “Then fine. I was going to kill Celestia anyway.”

“Nightmare…” Derpy called out.

“Wonderful!” With a flick of his wrist, Discord turned all the restraints on Nightmare Moon into snakes. The dark alicorn flinched as the slithering creatures fell from her body and onto the pillow, but was quick to recover.

She stood back up and stretched out her wings. Then, she lit up her horn, grinning wickedly.

“Dude…” Vinyl whispered.

Lyra shrunk back, followed quickly by Octavia. Bon Bon gripped her frying pan but didn’t look too sure of herself. Twilight wobbled a bit and swallowed.

Nightmare Moon was free.

Twilight could feel her raw magical power radiating from her horn. It was up there with Chrysalis’ and she could tell Nightmare was itching to use some of it. To make matters worse she already had a target in mind.

“You know, once I finish off my sister, I’ll be coming for you, Discord,” Nightmare said, voice dripping with confidence.

“I know,” Discord replied with a smile. “And I look forward to it.”

Nightmare scowled at him before turning to Twilight and her friends. “As for you six…" A flicker of... something passed through her eyes. "I’ll deal with you after him.”

Twilight bit her lip as Nightmare spread her wings and took off, aiming for the hole in the ceiling.

“Nightmare!” Derpy called as she flew back, but was too late to stop the dark alicorn from leaving them behind. She paused as that last of Nightmare Moon’s ethereal tail vanished out of the hole and then she slowly sunk to the ground in defeat.

Twilight wanted to comfort her friend, but she had a far more pressing concern. She turned back to Discord, who looked far too giddy for someone who’d just released an unspeakable evil on the land. “What’s got you so happy?”

He took a deep breath and sighed. “Oh, nothing much. I just love it when chaos is on the rise.” He rose a few feet off the ground, not even bothering to use his wings. “Speaking of, I best be going. There’s still quite a lot of chaos for me to create.”

“What, you’re not going to try and finish us off?” Vinyl asked, earning herself a fetlock in the ribs from Octavia.

Discord laughed whimsically. “No, no. It’s clear Nightmare wants you all to herself, so assuming she does defeat me, I’ll let her have all of you.” He went to snap his fingers, but paused. “Oh, and you might want to watch out for those snakes.”

Twilight looked down to Nightmare’s former restraints as they slithered off the pillow and onto the floor. She took a step back and winced. “What, do they breathe fire or something?”

“Breathe fire? Oh ho ho ho, no. No, don’t be silly, Twilight. They don’t breathe fire.” Discord smiled and shook his head. “No, they breathe other snakes.”

“What?”

Before Twilight could even ponder the bizarreness behind that, one of the snakes opened its mouth and dozens of smaller snakes began pouring out and darting across the ground.

Discord laughed as the horror struck Twilight full force. “Well, I must be going now. Ta-ta.”

And with that he disappeared in a blinding flash of light.

The Worst Kind of Snakes

Shining Armor enclosed his last pursuer in a light magenta bubble. The changeling hit the side of his shield before it could slow down and hissed angrily. He turned to the dragon on his back, grinning. “Just like the rest?”

Spike nodded. “Just like the rest.”

Pounding on the wall of the shield, the changeling screamed a few choice words at them, but they were too muffled to decipher. With a flick of his magic, Shining launched the bubble into the air. The changeling lurched up with a look of surprise plastered on its face. Just as the shield was about to hit the ceiling, Shining cut off the magic holding it together. Freed from his prison, the changeling had all of half a second to celebrate before its head slammed into the ceiling, knocking it unconscious.

As it fell, Shining reached out with his magic and grabbed it by the tail. He turned to the tunnel behind him, a long, downward slope that had a dozen other knocked out changelings at its base. He tossed the last one down, watching it roll into a gentle collision with the rest.

“Done and done.” Spike clapped his claws together. “Nice job, Shining.”

“Thanks.” He flashed his adoptive brother a grin and turned back to the tunnel they’d come from.

“Time to go get Cadance then, right?”

Shining nodded. “I just hope Twilight and her friends are doing okay. I really thought I could’ve led Chrysalis away…”

Spike gave him a pat on the top of his head. “Don’t worry about Twilight. She’s got this.”

“You sure?” Shining started walking, the big brother in him unable to not worry about his little sister.

“Totally sure.” Spike grabbed a clawful of Shining’s mane as they ascended one of the tunnels. “Twilight’s prepared like crazy for this trip. There’s no way she’s going to let an overgrown gnat get the better of her.”

He offered a half-smile. Knowing Twilight’s knack for over preparation, Spike may just be right. Besides, Twilight had come a long way from the tiny filly he kept seeing her as; it was time to stop worrying so much about her.

And as Captain of the Royal Guard, he had a job to do.

Picking up the pace, Shining cleared the top of the tunnel and broke into a trot. He could feel Spike bouncing along his back and clinging tightly to his hair, but he didn’t slow down now that they were on a more level path.

Although they’d been battling changelings on their way out here, Shining had taken careful consideration to mark each turn with a well aimed magical bolt to the sides of the walls. Now the burn marks he’d left were like neon signs directing him where to go.

Left, right, right, left, up… Shining narrowed his eyes as he saw the opening to the chamber. His horn sparked to life, prepared to face another horde of changelings when he arrived.

Except there weren’t any.

Shining and Spike entered the chamber to find a knocked out princess and a giant, gaping hole in the wall. Shining’s horn fizzled out, reflecting the twinge of disappointment he felt at the lack of violence to be had.

Turning his attention instead to Cadance, Shining trotted over to her. Her legs were pinned to the wall in the same gunk that had encased their horns, her hair was a frazzled mess and her usually vibrant coat was paled.

Her head was slumped to the side and her eyes shut. The only indication that she wasn’t a corpse was the steady, but weak rise and fall of her chest as she breathed.

“Spike, get her down from there,” Shining said.

“Roger that.” Spike hopped off of Shining’s back and went to Cadance. He inspected her bonds for a moment before breathing a gentle flame onto her encased leg. The waxy substance slowly began to melt just moments later.

Content knowing Cadance would soon be free, Shining’s guard instincts kicked in and he looked around the room. Even though no changelings were nearby, he couldn’t help it.

“S-Shining…?”

Shining Armor turned back around after hearing his name slip out in such a fragile voice. Cadance’s eyes were partially opened; they looked glassy.

“Shining…” Cadance whispered again.

“I’m here,” he told her. “Don’t worry, you’ll be free soon.”

Tears welled up in Cadance’s eyes and trailed down her cheeks. Before Shining could even blink, she was sniffling uncontrollably and shaking.

“I ruined everything,” Cadance cried.

Spike stopped breathing fire for a moment and looked up. “Cadance?”

She kept sniffling and Shining wasn’t even sure how to react. “Er… c-come on now, it’s going to be all right. We’ll get you out and—”

“It’s not all right!” Cadance yelled, her voice hoarse. “Don’t you get it? It’s my fault! The changelings, they attacked us because they wanted me! They caught us because I couldn’t keep anypony safe! I stood there and watched as you tried to take on Chrysalis alone and now she has all of my magic on top of hers!” She wept, sobs coming out ragged and choked. “A-Auntie was right not to trust me with anything important. She knew I’d only screw it up.”

Shining clenched his jaw and looked down to Spike, who had an expression on his face that basically screamed ‘say something, you idiot!’. Unfortunately, Shining didn’t know what it was that he should say to that. Not helping was the fact that while Cadance had been apparently dealing with her insecurities, all Shining had done was antagonize her every time he opened his mouth.

...Yeah, he’d been a jerk.

Not that he wasn’t kind of justified in his jerkiness, but stlll...

Cadance coughed out another sob, hanging her head low. Shining sighed, not knowing what to say.

“Spike, hurry up and get her out of that, will ya?”

He blinked. “O-Oh, right! Sorry.” He went back to breathing fire on Cadance.

Shining shifted his gaze back to his sobbing ex. The words he needed to say still weren’t coming, but he had to give her something.

“Are you planning on giving up?”

Cadance blinked back a few tears as she looked up at him. “What else is there to do? Chrysalis is insanely powerful right now, and I’m…”

Shining paused for a moment, searching for something to say. “I know it seems hopeless, but we can’t stop trying because of that. So what if you’ve screwed up? Everypony does at some point or another. It doesn’t define who you are, not unless you give up.”

Cadance remained silent for a moment, before sighing. “But what can we even do?”

“I don’t know, but we’ll figure it out, okay?”

Cadance looked to the ground, considering the alternative, before glancing back up at him. “O...Okay.”

“Good.” Shining glanced down and saw that her hindlegs were slipping free of the waxy goo that encased them. Spike stopped his controlled burn and switched to her forelegs.

Okay, Cadance is almost free. Once Spike finishes up, then we can go catch up to Twilight and her friends.

...I hope they’re all right.

It was an uneasy feeling, not knowing if his little sister was safe or not. His training as a Royal Guard had prepared him for what to do in a lot of possible scenarios, and even some impossible ones—honestly, when was he ever going to come face to face with a magic sucking demon from Tartarus? Surprisingly though, ‘getting caught by shape-shifting bug monsters and trapped underground while possibly losing your sibling’ wasn’t one of them.

He’d have to update the training regimen when he got back.

“Any sign of them?” Spike asked as he switched over to Cadance’s final leg.

Shining blinked, coming out of his thoughts. He didn’t know if Spike meant Twilight and her friends, or the changelings. Giving the room a quick glance over he shook his head. “No. But I have an idea where they might be.” His gaze settle on the gaping hole in the wall. He didn’t know what had made it, but whatever it was it would probably lead them to Twilight.

“Okay, we’re good.”

Shining turned around to see Cadance slip free of the last of her prison. Too weak to move, she slumped forward and fell to the ground. She was caught before contact, thanks to his magic.

Cadance made a few cursory attempts to move her legs, but it became clear pretty quickly that she was in no condition to move. Lifting her head, Cadance struggled to focus on Shining. “Uh… could you…?”

He clenched his jaw at the thought, but didn’t have many options. “Yeah, sure.” Shining levitated her up and set her down gently on his back. She weakly gripped his neck, letting him know to take it slow or risk knocking her off.

As her body nestled against his, Shining was forced to think about on a hundred memories similar to this. But they were memories he’d sooner forget than relive.

“Let’s go.”

“Shouldn’t I free her horn, too?” Spike asked.

Shining glanced back to Cadance. Her eyes were already shut and her breathing had slowed, a clear indication that she was already out cold. “She’s out of magic at the moment, so let’s not waste anymore time and let her get some rest. Besides,” he turned to the hole. “We need to focus on Chrysalis.”

For whatever reason, the snakes were focusing on Chrysalis.

Maybe it was just their instincts kicking in, giving them a desire to eat bugs, or maybe Twilight was just lucky. Either way, she scrambled to move away before they changed their minds.

“Nope nope nope nope nope nope nope!” Lyra stumbled back as fast as she could, shrieking in terror at the slithering monstrosities. Twilight couldn’t really blame her for that; she was halfway to doing the same.

“Okay, I can’t decide if this is cool or terrifying.” Vinyl pried one of the snakes off of her forelegs and tossed it to the side. “I’m leaning towards terrifying, though.”

Octavia neared Twilight as she backed away. They watched them slither around, the ones not swarming Chrysalis drifting aimlessly.

“Y-you don’t think the baby snakes also—” Octavia didn’t get to finish her sentence before one of the second generation snakes opened its maw and spewed out another pit’s worth. “—Nevermind!”

Twilight sucked in air through her teeth, wishing she hadn’t spent the last of her magic already. A few well placed blasts would make this problem easy to deal with. But now that all the snakes could multiply, seemingly endlessly, she knew it wouldn’t be long before the problem couldn’t be contained.

She looked to the one snake free spot in the room: the air. Derpy hung there, covering her mouth with worry as Twilight found herself, yet again, envious of those wings. Though, she’d settle for a ledge or something right now. Snake-breathing snakes were the epitome of Tartarus spawn, but she was willing to bet that they sucked at climbing.

Her eyes raced across the room, looking for any ledge-like havens. The best she could find was the hole Chrysalis had punched into the room. Turning back to her friends, she raised her voice to match the screaming. “Girls, over there!”

Bon Bon took a break from frantically swinging her frying pan to look up. “Good idea!”

She switched to offense, her frying pan rocketing snakes out of the way left and right as she cut a path through. Lyra followed close behind, wincing as the snakes were easily able to recuperate their losses.

Twilight’s eyes widened as each of the new snakes that popped out merely opened their mouths and vomited out more. They were multiplying at an exponential rate; pretty soon they’d be swimming in scales.

She felt Octavia grab her hoof and pull. “Come on!”

They lurched forward, Twilight stumbling to match Octavia’s pace as they ran on top of a thin layer of snakes. A few tried to worm their cold, scaly bodies up her legs, but she screamed and flailed, launching them away.

As they neared the tunnel, Vinyl, Lyra, and Bon Bon joined them. Twilight didn’t see Derpy, but expected her to be somewhere in the snake-free air.

Twilight looked up and saw something that made her breathe a sigh of relief. Chrysalis’ blast earlier had carved out a section of the wall, giving them a nice little cliff to stand on.

Kicking away the last of the clingers, Twilight hurried up the tunnel and climbed onto the ledge. Her friends all joined her a second later, each struggling to find space to stand on, but safe and bite free.

She turned around to see them, just to be on the safe side. Lyra, Octavia, Vinyl Bon Bon…

Where was Derpy?

Twilight instinctively looked up, expecting to see flapping gray wings, but was met with an unexpected emptiness. With a blink of concern, she looked out over to the sea of snakes and gasped.

Derpy was hovering over the center of snake heap, struggling to lift something out of their hold. Something black. With holes.

She’s not… “Derpy, what are you doing?”

“What does it looking like I’m doing?” Derpy yelled. “I’m trying to save her!”

“Derpy, she kidnapped us, don’t risk your neck trying to help her!” Vinyl called out.

“But she doesn’t deserve to die!” Derpy’s muscles strained as she tried to lift Chrysalis away from the snakes. “Come on! We can’t leave her here!”

“Derpy, don’t…” Twilight sighed. She was right; if they left Chrysalis here, they would be no better than her. Probably worse, in fact. Not to mention Derpy probably wouldn’t let up on the issue and might get hurt in the process. “All right, Derpy, we’ll help you.”

“What?” Octavia asked.

Twilight looked to Lyra and Vinyl. “You two still have magic left, right?” They nodded slowly. “Well don’t just stand there, help her out.”

Lyra’s jaw slid open. “T-Twilight, are you sure?”

She nodded. “Just hurry up and do it before I try to myself and pass out.”

Vinyl and Lyra shared a look, one adamantly a no and the other a tentative yes, respectively. For a moment it seemed like the two were locked in a silent debate and Twilight waited for their answer through the sounds of Derpy’s grunts and the snakes hissing.

“Okay, fine. We’ll help her.” Vinyl finally groaned. Both her and Lyra stepped forward, horns alight.

Twilight looked back out the the scaly ocean. After a minute of just Derpy’s continued struggle, she worried that maybe her friends had lied. Then the blue and gold glow of their magics began shining through the snakes and two more of Chrysalis’ legs became visible.

Snakes rained down as her body made its way into the air. Twilight could see the strain on Lyra and Vinyl's faces, but the kept lifting regardless.

Between the three of them, they managed to haul the unconscious queen free of the knee-deep snake pit.

Derpy grunted as she flapped furiously, not letting go until she was certain all of Chrysalis was safely in the tunnel, even after Vinyl and Lyra casually dropped her face first into the dirt.

Twilight inspected Chrysalis, who looked worse for wear. The snakes had not been merciful to her as her legs, body, and face had severe bite marks on them. As much as she didn’t care for Chrysalis, Twilight at least hoped the snakes weren’t venomous. Well… maybe it was more like she hoped their venom wasn’t deadly.

“So what now?” Bon Bon asked.

“Now…” Twilight pressed her lips together.

The snakes kept multiplying at an ever quickening rate; already they looked neck-deep. If this continued, the tunnel wouldn’t be safe for much longer.

“Twilight?”

Her ears flicked. Whirling around, she saw her brother and Spike trotting down the tunnel from the other side and on his back: Cadance.

She breathed a sigh of relief. One less thing to worry about… I guess. “Shining, Spike, you’re okay!”

Vinyl flashed a grin. “Hey, Hot Stuff.”

Shining skidded to a stop, his brow furrowing. “Uh…”

At first, Twilight was worried Vinyl was making things awkward for him at the worst possible time, but when she followed his line of sight she noticed he was looking at Chrysalis and the snakes instead.

“What the heck happened here?” Spike asked.

“A lot that we really don’t have time to explain,” Twilight said. “Shining, please tell me you still have magic left.”

“‘Course I do, but what—”

Twilight pointed to the snakes. “Bubble them! NOW!”

Shining flinched at the urgency in her voice and his horn snapped to life. Not even a second passed before a shield appeared over the throng of snakes, sealing them in a space barely five feet above the ground. Twilight gritted her teeth as she looked them over. Given their rate of exponential growth, she estimated that they had two, maybe three minutes before Shining’s shield became full.

“Anypony want to tell me what’s going on?” he asked. “Seriously, why are there snakes?”

“It’s a…” Twilight chewed the inside of her cheek. “I don’t even know how to describe it, honestly.”

“You should just tell it like it is, Smart Mare,” Vinyl said. “We’ve got bad news, worse news, horrible news and a little good news.”

“Bad news?” Shining asked.

“An ancient demon-thing broke free and made a bunch of snake-breathing snakes,” Lyra told him.

He nodded. “Worse news?”

“He freed Nightmare Moon,” Octavia said.

Shining winced. “Uh… the horrible news?”

Derpy’s face contorted into a wince-smile. “He also made the Elements disappear.”

Shining took a deep breath. “Oooh…”

Spike looked around his legs and over at Chrysalis. “I’m guessing she’s the good news?”

“Yeah.” Bon Bon spun her frying pan proudly. “We got her.”

“Yikes…” Shining said, apparently choosing to focus on the bad, worse, or horrible news over the little bit of good. “So… what’s the plan?”

“Working on it,” Twilight said in a tone she was sure Shining could translate into ‘I’ve got nothing, please help!’. “But first, how’s Cadance?”

Shining shifted to give them all a front row view of her. Twilight couldn’t help but wince at the sight she saw. Cadance looked… just a little bit better than completely awful. Given what she’d been through, Twilight could understand that, but it didn’t stop her jaw from unhinging a little.

Shining nodded, the way his lips were pressed together told her that their reaction was about what he expected. “She’s exhausted, but alive.”

“No thanks to this one.” Vinyl gave Chrysalis a light kick.

The Changeling Queen shifted and started groaning.

Everypony flinched as the Changeling Queen stirred. Vinyl practically leapt back, throwing her hooves in the air. “Uh… my bad.”

Twilight cringed as Chrysalis shook and her eyes fluttered open. They were glassy as she started to focus, but already her body shifted as she tried to sit up.

“I got this.” Bon Bon stepped in front of them, frying pan raised. Confusion and then fear flashed across the queen’s face, and then the frying pan flew at her.

“WAIT!”

Bon Bon’s hoof halted, the pan inches from Chrysalis’ face, and she turned to the source of the shout: Derpy. “Are you serious right now?”

“Sorry, but I just thought…” Derpy bit her. “Maybe she could help us?”

“You want to befriend her, don’t you?” Octavia asked bluntly.

“S-She could help!” Derpy protested.

“Yeah, no offense, Derpy, but the last super powerful villain you wanted to make nice with is currently on her way to kill Celestia,” Vinyl said. Twilight winced. “You don’t exactly have a perfect track record when it comes to this.”

“Well we need somepony to take care of the snakes,” she argued.

“Snakes? What?” Chrysalis tried to sit up further and groaned. After giving her head a thorough rubbing that probably relieved nothing, she looked up at them. “By the hive, what did you ponies do to me?”

“We frying panned you.” Bon Bon twirled hers threateningly. “And we’ll do it again too.” She reared back, ready to strike again.

During the exchange, Twilight glanced back over to the snakes. Already they were pressing against Shining’s shield, giving them even less time that she’d hoped for. His magic stretched to keep them held, but before long it would pop, and probably send snakes flying in all directions.

“Wait,” she called out.

Bon Bon lowered her hoof. “What, you’re not seriously thinking about it, are you?”

“Derpy has a point,” Twilight said, earning a smile from the mare. “Somepony’s got to take care of those snakes.”

“Again with the snakes. What are you all even talking about?” Chrysalis asked. All at once, they pointed off to Snake Ocean. Chrysalis’ jaw slammed against the floor. “What did you ponies do to my hive?”

“It wasn’t us,” came Vinyl’s indignant reply. “It was the demon statue guy who did it.”

Chrysalis narrowed her eyes. “I don’t believe you.”

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t,” Twilight interjected. “You see it, right? And yes, those snakes are spitting out more snakes. If you don’t do something about it, your whole hive will be overrun in a matter of hours, you understand?” And probably Equestria in a matter of days.

Chrysalis furrowed her brow, but only for a second. She scoffed a Twilight and turned her head. “I don’t see why I should bother helping you out though.”

“Because if it weren’t for Derpy, you’d be buried alive right now,” Twilight said, pointing to the gray mare in question.

Derpy gave an innocent smile and wave. Chrysalis regarded her for a moment before hissing angrily and starting to stand.

Bon Bon raised her frying pan. A flash of worry scurried across Chrysalis’ face, but was soon overpowered by anger and her horn burst alight.

“Enough.” Shining stepped between the two, careful not to jostle Cadance. He turned to Chrysalis with a stern look and a strained tone. “Look, after essentially screwing us over, you kind of owe us one. Besides, you’ll be picking up snakes one way or another because my shield is about to break, got it?”

Chrysalis rolled her eyes and stood up so she could tower over Shining. She bit back a cringe, noticing for the first time the bite marks sprinkled over her legs. Her eyes darted to the snake pit, pressing against his shield, before they shot back to glaring him down. “Got. It.”

“You’re actually going to help?” Lyra squeaked out, surprised.

“You’re not exactly giving me a choice.” Chrysalis stalked away to the base of the tunnel.

Octavia turned to Twilight. “Are you sure we can trust her?” Twilight shrugged. “Oh, well that’s reassuring.”

“I think we can, at least for this,” Derpy said.

“No offense, Derpy, but you trust everypony.” Vinyl grunted. “As for me, I think that overgrown gnat can go—”

“I can hear you!” Chrysalis yelled, forcing Vinyl to swallow her next few words. “And no, I’m not going to betray you idiots. The amount of magic it will take to clean up your mess won’t exactly leave me with enough to kill you and take care of my swarm.” She tapped her chin. “Well, maybe I could afford to seriously maim a few of you.”

“Shield’s coming down, guys!” Shining warned.

Twilight braced herself as the exponentially growing snake population exploded out of the shield. The noise in the room went from silent, to a loud pop, to a flurry of hissing. Twilight’s ears folded down at the sudden ferocity and she closed her eyes to avoid seeing the horror of the snake tsunami.

When she wasn’t buried alive in an instant, she felt okay enough to take a peek.

Chrysalis had taken the tidal wave at full force, firing off a burst of magic that vaporized any airborne snake. Their numbers were quickly replenished by the ones on the ground, however, and Chrysalis snarled.

Her horn released a devastating blast of magic, cutting right to the ground and slicing across the room. Twilight shuddered, thankful she had not been on the receiving end of that attack.

The snakes, uncomprehending and uncaring, just slithered about and spat out more of themselves. Chrysalis kept up her onslaught, turning as many of them to ash as possible.

“Dang…” Vinyl whistled lowly.

Chrysalis turned her head, glaring at them. “What are you morons still doing here? Leave already!”

“Where exactly are we supposed to go?” Shining fired back.

Twilight eyed the hole she’d punched into the roof a few minutes ago. “Up there!”

Necks craned in the direction she was looking at. Spike furrowed his brow. “How did that get there?”

“I made it.” Twilight turned to Shining. “Do you have enough power to make another shield?”

“Of course.”

Twilight looked to her friends and then up to the hole. Her eyes narrowed as she judged the size of it, which wasn’t easy with the charred snake bits flying across her vision. Chrysalis’ shouts of exertion weren’t exactly helping either.

“Everypony get close,” she said. Her order was met with confused glances, but a hurried motioning was all it took for them to reluctantly crowd around. “Okay Shining, can you make a shield right beneath us?”

With a nod and a flash of his horn, the deed was done. Twilight almost didn’t noticed the shift from standing on dirt to standing on a pink—er… light magenta—magical disk.

“Great,” she eyed the hole once more about to open her mouth when she was beaten to the punch.

“I see where you’re going with this.” Shining’s horn blinked a little and the shield lifted off the ground. Twilight saw her friends each flinch reflexively as they were torn away from the ground. Well, all except Derpy, who kept her gaze focused on Chrysalis as they ascended.

“Good luck!” she called down.

“Don’t come back!” Chrysalis yelled up, blasting more snakes.

“Looks like you did make a new friend, Derpy,” Vinyl said.

“Kinda…” She mumbled back.

Chrysalis’ work was almost done, but Twilight could tell she was expending a lot of energy to vaporize each newly formed snake. She hoped Chrysalis would have enough energy to get them all; she did not want any of them slithering around Equestria.

“Eeep!”

Twilight’s ears folded down as a high-pitched squeak slammed into them. She looked over to the offender, only to see Lyra clinging to Bon Bon, eyes shut and body shaking.

“Uh, what’s up with her?” Spike asked.

Bon Bon gave a slightly uncomfortable smile as Lyra tightened her grip. “She has a… thing, about heights.

“Don’t say that word,” Lyra whimpered.

“Hang on, we’re almost there,” Shining said.

Twilight looked up to see her hole rapidly approaching. Soon they’d be out of this nightmare. Then all they’d have to deal with was... Nightmare.

And Discord.

Oh geeze.

Now that the immediate danger of the snakes was under control, the gravity of the situation began to weigh on Twilight. An insane chaos spirit was on the loose, the Elements were gone, and Nightmare was planning on… killing Celestia.

At this point, did it really even matter if they were free?

“Here we are.” Shining’s voice propelled her out of her thoughts. She looked around to see they had officially left the cave. The shield set them down on a grassy knoll in what appeared to be the Everfree, before dissipating and letting them finally touch the surface again.

“Oh thank Celestia!” Lyra leapt off of Bon Bon and hugged the ground.

“Great job, Shining,” Octavia said.

He smiled. “Not a problem.”

“Well, that’s my coltfriend for you.” Vinyl grinned.

He froze. “Wait, what?”

Twilight chewed the inside of her cheek. They didn’t have time for this banter! They had to… to… do something. She just didn’t know what they could do.

Lyra rolled over on the ground, giving off a sigh of content that caught in the back of her throat. “U-Uh, guys… why is the sky purple?”

Twilight blinked and looked up. Sure enough, the usual blue sky now had a new purple coloring to it.

“Uh… that’s unusual,” Octavia observed.

Shining furrowed his brow. “What in the heck…?”

“Didn’t that Discord guy say something about the sky being purple?” Derpy mentioned.

Twilight’s eyes widened. “You don’t think…”

“So the guy who can make snake-breathing snakes can also turn the sky purple.” Lyra sat up, biting her lip. “I… I don’t like where this is heading.”

“If he can do all that, is there even a limit to his power?” Twilight asked.

A silence descended over everypony, no one in particular wanted to have to answer that.

“We need to get the Elements of Harmony back,” Shining said. “Like, now.”

A soft groan came from the mare on his back. Twilight frowned. “I think you should get Cadance to a hospital first. She needs to be able to rest after what happened.”

Shining looked back to the pink heap of exhaustion. From the way his lip curled Twilight could tell he was torn between keeping her safe and finding a way to keep Equestria safe. Not an easy choice, but she knew they wouldn’t be able to properly find the Elements or battle either of the two supervillains currently running around if they had to keep looking out for her.

“Okay,” he finally said with a sigh. “I’ll head back to the nearest town.”

“That would probably be Ponyville then,” Vinyl told him.

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Uh, how do you know that?”

Vinyl pointed behind her. “I’ve got a pretty good landmark.”

Turning, Twilight did a double-take as she saw the abandoned castle that they’d originally found the Elements in. “What the—”

“I guess Chrysalis’ hive extended all over the forest,” Octavia reasoned. “And we were dragged back almost to the start of all of this.”

Derpy looked around and pointed off to the east. “Okay, so if you go that way, you should be in Ponyville within the hour.”

Shining glanced in that direction. “You sure?”

“Positive,” Derpy said. “Even if you overshoot it, you’ll run into this weird tree-hut thingy with a zebra in it. If you talk to her, she’ll rhyme you back to Ponyville in no time.”

Shining knitted his brows together. “O-Okay.”

He started moving and Twilight glanced down to Spike. “Uh, do you think you can go with him?”

Spike looked up at her, blinking in confusion. “Oh, uh… okay, sure.”

Twilight smiled as he bounded after Shining. He’d probably be much safer back in Ponyville than he ever would be with her right now. It was one thing she wouldn’t have to worry about at least.

“Bye girls,” Shining called back, earning a few waves in his direction. “When you find the Elements, see if you can meet up with us in Ponyville, we’ll figure out what to do from there.”

“Okay.” Twilight figured that was as good a plan as any right now.

“See ya, Hot Stuff.” Vinyl waved with a sultry wink. Shining whipped around and hurried into the deadly forest.

She turned back to her friends. Now that it was just them, she honestly didn’t know what to do. They didn’t have even the slightest clue about what Discord had done with the Elements of Harmony, but they all knew they needed them if they wanted a hope of defeating both him and Nightmare Moon.

“So what’s the plan, Smart Mare?”

Twilight blinked. “Uh…” Each of her friends’ expectant eyes met hers and slowly but surely they all came to the same conclusion.

“You don’t know what to do?” Octavia asked.

“I… don’t?” Twilight hoped the questioning inflection would entice her friends to help her think, opposed to sending them into a panicked spiral.

Octavia fired off a worried look and it seemed like panicked spiral might be a winner. Then…

“What about that tree?” Bon Bon asked.

“W-what?”

“The Tree of Harmony,” Bon Bon clarified. “That’s still a thing, right? Maybe it can help?”

Lyra nodded in agreement. “Yeah, didn’t you have some sort of tracking spell cast on it? Did that like, wear off or something?”

And just like that, the tick in Twilight’s brain was back. Like the feeling of a song getting stuck in your head again, after working so hard to shake it two days ago.

She’d been so caught up in their capture and subsequent escape that she hadn’t even noticed the gentle nudge in the back of her head with directions to the Tree!

“Just a hundred and thirteen meters…” Her head jerked to attention and she stared off in the direction of the castle. “In that direction…”

Vinyl cocked an eyebrow. “Uh, Smart Mare?”

Twilight forgot to answer. She brushed aside her exhaustion and started running.

“Whoa, Twilight?”

“Where are you going?”

She barely registered turning her head around. “This way, girls!”

There was a pause—likely because her friends needed time to shoot confused glances at each other and shrug—before the sound of running picked up behind her.

Twilight narrowed her eyes as she darted out of the knoll and into the thick woods. Now that she was paying attention to that tick again, it was driving her mad, forcing her to keep going with an insatiable itch.

Left up ahead, go straight for thirty meters, then…. Down?

Her sprint slowed to a jog and then a walk as the itch in her brain practically screamed that she was on top of the Tree. Twilight looked around, poking her head through the foliage and gasping. She looked back, seeing her friends catching up to her, and the castle not much further.

“Geeze, Twilight,” Derpy said, landing next to her. “You sure can run when you want to.”

“Mind telling us what’s going on?” Octavia asked, taking a few deep breaths.

“You have to see for yourselves,” Twilight told her. She brushed some branches to the side, letting her friends poke their heads through and take a look.

“Holy crap!”

“Is that…?”

“No way.”

Twilight stepped forward, drinking in the sight for a second time. A swift decline of a cliff, leading to a small cave. Standing proudly in the center was a massive, crystal tree.

“The Tree of Harmony,” Twilight said, confirming what they were all thinking. Confirming what the itch in her head was screaming at her. “That’s really it girls.” She smiled. “And it might just be the key to finding the Elements again.”

Magic Touch

“I thought it’d be cooler looking.” Vinyl’s voice cut through the collective silence of awe. Not to say anything respectful, interesting, or even the slightest bit intelligent. Just… that.

Twilight narrowed her eyes at her friend before turning back to the Tree of Harmony. It rose a solid twenty feet out of the ground, sparkling in the mid afternoon sunlight. The crystal trunk and branches bore several elaborate markings, and the whole thing dominated the tiny cave that it called home.

“Cooler?” Twilight asked. “Really?”

Vinyl shrugged. “Yeah. It just doesn’t strike me as anything other than a typical mythical artifact birthplace.”

Octavia gave her a sideways glance, halfway between concern and annoyance. “And how many ‘typical mythical artifact birthplaces’ have you seen?”

“You’d be surprised.”

“Okay, Vinyl trying to be funny aside.” Bon Bon shot Twilight a glance. “You said this thing is the key to re-finding the Elements?”

Vinyl blinked. “What do you mean trying to be funny?”

“Yeah, I did.” Twilight took a few steps toward the Tree, craning her neck back to observe as much of it from the base as she could. “According to everything I’ve ever read about the Tree of Harmony, it has an immensely strong magical connection to the Elements of Harmony. I was thinking maybe, just maybe, I could use its connection to the Elements as a springboard for my tracking spell to pinpoint their locations.” Her shoulders slumped. “I-If I still had any magic left that is.”

“So we have a half-plan that we can’t even try?” Lyra managed a nervous smile. “T-That’s great to know.”

“Sorry.” Twilight lowered her head. “I know it’s not the best idea, but we’re low on options. If we could find a way to make this work, then maybe we could get the Elements back and stop Discord and Nightmare.”

“So we just have to wait for your magic to come back?” Octavia asked.

“Doesn’t that take a long time?” Bon Bon asked.

Twilight winced. She wasn’t wrong; her magic took hours to come back, and usually it was a good night’s rest that did it for her. Considering it was an effort to stand without falling over right now, she doubted even that would do it.

For a moment, she really regretted letting Shining go, but she remembered he didn’t even know the tracking spell in the first place, and wouldn’t be much help because of it.

“Cool, so we’re just waiting for the world to end then.” Vinyl pressed her lips together. “I’m gonna at least take a nap, then.”

“Really, Vinyl?” Octavia watched as the DJ walked around, looking for a decent spot to lie down.

“Yeah, really.” Vinyl’s sight turned to the Tree of Harmony and she drew close. “I’m tired! We’ve trudged through the Everfree, fought changelings, got knocked out, fought changelings again, met a demon-chaos-thingy weirdo, and escaped snake-breathing snakes. Call me crazy, but I think a nap is justified.”

“With the world about to be plunged into eternal chaos and eternal night?” Twilight asked.

“Come on, Smart Mare, there’s not exactly much we can do about that now. Besides, I thought you learned by now that staying awake forever was a bad thing.”

Twilight opened her mouth to retort, but she made the grave error of thinking she had something witty to reply with. Begrudgingly, she closed her lips as Vinyl perused the Tree’s periphery for the best sleeping spot.

“How would that even work?” Lyra asked. “Eternal chaos and eternal night? I’d think that a night that lasted forever would be pretty chaotic already.”

“It was the first time,” Bon Bon answered. She tapped her chin. “But then again, we were in the Everfree for most of that, so…”

Twilight sighed. This conversation was getting them far off track. Though, it wasn’t like there was much track left for them to get off of. Until her magic came back they were stuck doing nothing while not one, but two maniacal super villains treated Equestria like their personal playground. They were just waiting for the world to end.

It was then that she noticed Derpy had been particularly quiet throughout the discussion. She glanced over to her friend and was surprised to find that she wasn’t even paying attention to them all. Derpy was instead gazing off into the purple sky, her brows crossed in a pensive look and her lower lip in the process of being chewed to bits.

“Derpy?” Twilight asked.

Just like that, the concentration snapped away. “Huh? What?” Derpy blinked, falling back to reality and crash landing in the process. It took her a few seconds to come back in full and she stared at Twilight. “Did you need something?”

“Just wondering what you were doing.” Twilight met her eyes… or rather, one of them. “You all right?”

“Mmhmm, I’m fine. I was just…” Derpy looked away, to the ground. “Thinking about something.”

Twilight furrowed her brow. “Anything you want to share?”

Derpy frowned and shook her head.

“Here we go.” Twilight turned her head back around to see Vinyl lowering herself onto the ground, nestling onto a spot right by the Tree. “See you girls in about an hour… or longer.” Her eyes lowered and she reclined against the Tree.

Suddenly, her entire body jerked and Vinyl leapt forward. “Holy mother of Celestia!”

“Vinyl?” Twilight reflexively flinched as her friend landed face first in front of her. “Are you okay?”

“Dandy,” she muttered into the dirt.

Everypony quickly surrounded her, Octavia being the first to help her up. “What happened to you?”

“Don’t know.” Vinyl rubbed her head. “My back just touched the Tree and it was like a million amps fired on me all at once.” She stared at the Tree of Harmony, unease dominating her face. “I think it hates me. Can trees hate?”

“I want to say no,” Bon Bon replied. “But then again I can only speak for the regular kind. Super-ancient, Element-creating trees… maybe?”

“Great. It hates me.” Vinyl closed her eyes, frowned and groaned. “Geeze, now I don’t even feel sleepy. Freaking thing robbed me of my nap!”

Octavia rolled her eyes. “Please, you could fall asleep after drinking a gallon of coffee.”

“Well it feels like I just drank two gallons of coffee then!” Vinyl huffed, stamping the ground to vent her frustration. “I’m telling you, I’m not tired anymore.”

“So what, the Tree of Harmony just zapped you with energy?”

Despite the disbelief dripping from Octavia’s voice, the sentence gave Twilight pause. If Vinyl wasn’t lying—which, why would she if she could be napping?—then had the Tree of Harmony somehow affected her when she touched it?

The Tree was supposed to embody Harmony magic in its purest form, according to pretty much all of her research. And from what her tracer spell told her it must have a lot of magic, since it could spread its roots all over Equestria. Maybe the Tree was willing to share?

Curiosity was killing all of Twilight’s cats with this one. She turned back to the ancient super-weapon birthplace with one thought on her mind: I gotta touch that.

Under normal circumstances, she’d grab some equipment, hook it up to the Tree, and proceed to spend several days observing it. This would be intermingled with things like hypotheses and experiments, as well as research in an attempt to find past examples of this phenomenon.

But these were not normal circumstances, so Twilight was already walking over to the massive crystal structure.

“Uh, Twilight?” She heard Bon Bon’s concerned voice, but didn’t really acknowledge it.

Her eyes were locked onto the Tree as she drew closer. She focused, trying to sense the magic energy within it that she now knew should be pulsating out from all directions. If it could send Vinyl flying with just a touch, there had to be enough in there to revitalize her power.

“You think Smart Mare’s lost it?” Vinyl asked.

“Vinyl!” Octavia huffed.

Twilight still wasn’t paying attention. She raised her hoof, ready to touch the crystal trunk of the Tree. So close…

“Whoa!” A green blur slapped her hoof away. Twilight blinked in surprise, looking over at Lyra.

“What was that for?”

Lyra frowned. “Are you crazy? You can’t just touch something like this! Just look at what happened to Vinyl.”

Twilight nodded. “Yeah, and I was hoping it could do the same to me. You know I need my magic back if we want to find the Elements.”

“And what makes you think the Tree won’t disintegrate you or something? Maybe Vinyl was just lucky!” Upon saying this, Lyra noted how close she was to the Tree and took a step back.

“I am pretty lucky,” Vinyl chimed in.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Girls, the Tree is supposed to be the embodiment of Harmony magic, it disintegrating me just won’t happen”

“But you don’t know what will happen,” Octavia pointed out.

That got Twilight to bite her lip. “Well, no, but I have to try something! Discord turned the sky purple for pony’s sake. Who knows what else he could be doing right now? Not to mention Nightmare Moon is about to…” Her words stopped there, leaving the last bit unfinished.

Is about to kill Princess Celestia.

She shook her head, pushing that thought from her mind. “I have to try this, otherwise we won’t get the Elements in time to stop either of them. Please, just let me try.”

Her friends exchanged looks between them, save Derpy who was back to staring off into space. Twilight knew her idea was risky, but she needed her friends to trust her on this one.

Eventually, Lyra sighed. “All right. But please don’t disintegrate. I’ve been through a lot of stuff today, and I don’t want to add sweeping up my friend’s ashes to that list.”

“Don’t worry, you won’t.” Probably. Most likely.

With the rest of her friends nodding in agreement and offering supportive, if not worried, smiles, she turned to face the Tree again.

Confident there would be no interruptions, Twilight raised her hoof once more. The polished surface of the Tree showed her reflection inching ever so closer. The moment before contact, she hesitated as all the doubts and concerns her friends expressed flooded the forefront of her mind once again. Shrugging it off, she touched the Tree of Harmony.

The first thing she noticed was that Vinyl’s description didn’t do it justice.

Pure magic coursed through her veins in an explosion akin to lightning. It felt like all of her neurons were firing at once, a reflection of the intensity of the energy entering her body. It was at this point, that Twilight’s senses started malfunctioning. She tasted metal, saw nothing but white and heard a shrill ringing noise.

All of this happened within the first second of touching the Tree of Harmony, because that was all the time it took for Twilight’s reflexes to kick in.

She ripped her hoof from the Tree, falling back and landing on her rear. As her vision faded back to reality, she rubbed her head and groaned. “Oh, Celestia…”

“Twilight?” Bon Bon was suddenly by her side, followed by the rest of her friends.

“Great, the Tree hates you too, huh?” Vinyl asked.

The feeling of the overwhelming flood of magic was fading, so Twilight put her hoof back down and tried to stand. She wobbled at first, but found her footing before too long. It was… weird, but she felt like her exhaustion had been completely wiped away. If the world hadn’t been in the middle of ending, she might’ve been up for a marathon.

“Are you okay?” Octavia asked her.

“Did… Did it work?” Lyra looked her over, trying to see if she could tell whether or not Twilight’s magic was back. That, or she was checking to make sure touching the Tree hadn’t resulted in any horrific mutations.

Not feeling particularly mutated, Twilight tried to call upon her magic.

POP!

Twilight almost flew backwards as her horn erupted to life. Her magic pulsed out of her in a way she hadn’t expected.

Reinvigorated, she looked up to face her friends, meeting their surprised faces with a grin.

“It worked, I take it,” Bon Bon noted.

Twilight gave a confident nod. “Yup.”

“Man, it’s too bad we had Cadance leave. One touch of the Tree and she would’ve been back in business,” Vinyl said.

Twilight winced, realizing Vinyl was right. It was too late to get her back though; Shining and Spike were undoubtedly hoofing it back to town at this point. But that was all right, she’d be fine back in Ponyville where she could rest.

“So you can cast the tracer spell now?” Octavia asked.

“Yes,” Twilight said, confidence filling her voice.

She focused on her magic, preparing to cast the spell. Her jaw clenched reflexively as her concentration hardened.

She reached out to the Tree of Harmony, hoping that its connection to the Elements would help her track them down. It probably would; it had been nice so far.

The raw magical energy of the Tree was easy for Twilight to detect. However, she shrugged it away and started searching for something else, piggybacking off of the energy of the Tree to find samples just like it. What she got was a plexus that seemed to span almost endlessly.

Confused, Twilight realized that it was instead the roots she was seeing. With a grunt she willed the Tree to show her the Elements instead.

The roots slowly faded to the background, and six new signals blinked into existence. They were faint, but present nonetheless, and what they represented was clear. Twilight grinned.

She focused harder on these six new signals, but that was no easy task. Few, if any, were even remotely close to each other. They were divided across the series of roots from the Tree, spread across all of Equestria. Her grin shifted to a grimace.

How were they supposed to get all of the Elements like this? If she led everypony around on a scavenger hunt across Equestria, Nightmare Moon and Discord would be left to their own devices for days. Who knows what could happen? At best they had a few hours before the situation was irreversibly dire.

So she wouldn’t be able to get back all of the Elements herself, but then the only other option would be to… split up.

Cracking an eyelid open while maintaining as much composure as possible, Twilight glanced back to her friends. A few weeks ago, she would have no qualms with that idea. She’d be ecstatic, actually. But now… now she couldn’t see that happening. She needed those mares by her side. She needed her friends. They kept her grounded, sane, on edge, and even creative. Without them she never would have made it this far.

And yet, now they wouldn’t be able to go much further together…

Twilight sighed. Splitting up was their best option, their best chance, to make this work. If they didn’t, everypony in Equestia, Princess Celestia, Cadance, Shining, Spike… they’d all be doomed.

“Girls,” Twilight said, her decision made. “I need your help for this.”

“Uh… what do you need?” Lyra asked.

“Get in close.”

“Aww, Smart Mare wants another hug,” Vinyl gushed.

“No, I—” She stopped short, realizing that this could be their last chance for one. “Yeah, okay.”

“Bring it in, everypony!” Lyra was the first to wrap Twilight in a hug, almost knocking her over in the process.

As Twilight struggled to keep her balance and maintain her concentration, Vinyl came in and practically tackled her from the other side. Octavia was next, far more gentle than the two before, followed by Bon Bon, and finally Derpy lowered herself from above until she was practically roosting on her back.

Twilight smiled; feeling the warmth of the group hug spread all over her. In the back of her mind, she silently wished that they could stay like this for a long, long time.

But in the front of her mind, she was already casting the spell. She took one of the signals and matched one to each of her friends. She had no idea if the right Elements were given to the right ponies, but it didn’t really matter if they were. They could always just exchange when they met up again.

Plus… she kind of had a feeling the Tree of Harmony would make sure they were the right ones. Clearly it trusted her friends with the Elements now, so she would trust that it knew what it was doing.

With a blink, the spell was over. To anypony that might have been watching, it would have seemed very anti-climactic. One bright flash of light, and it was done.

Her friends broke the hug immediately, each feeling the effects of having their brains slightly tampered with. Twilight could feel it too; the tugging sensation was back, telling her just where to go to find her Element.

“Oh stars, my head!” Vinyl gripped her scalp, glasses slipping off to reveal her widening, red eyes. “Make it stop!”

“Vinyl, calm down,” Twilight said. Surely it wasn’t that bad.

“Um, Twilight, what did you do to us?” Octavia asked, rubbing her temple.

“I gave each of you the coordinates for one of the Elements,” she explained, looking over their confused faces.

“Oookay…” Bon Bon tightened her lips and shook her head. “Well, forgive me if I opt out of future group hugs if this is the end result. Celestia, if feels like there’s an angry bee in my head.”

“You could’ve at least warned us,” Lyra complained.

“Sorry.” Twilight grimaced, realizing that suddenly being hit with the tracer spell probably wasn’t the best feeling in the world. “But at least now you all should know where your Elements are.”

Lyra blinked, turned around, and stared off into the distance. “Uh… yeah. Got it.”

“I… yeah, I can feel it too.” Octavia was looking into the opposite direction.

Twilight nodded, almost turning her own head to face the direction of her Element. The tugging of the spell was not easily ignored. “I know it’s not ideal, but we need to split up in order to find all the Elements in time. Can you girls handle it?”

Vinyl grinned wildly. “What’s the matter, don’t trust us, Smart Mare?”

She smiled softly. “No, I trust you.”

“Great!” Vinyl flung her foreleg around Lyra, knocking her out of her staring-trance. “By the way, it kinda looks like we’re going in the same direction.”

“We are?” Lyra asked.

“Oh boy. I don’t envy you, Lyra.” Octavia giggled slightly as Vinyl shot her a look.

Bon Bon massaged the side of her head, likely trying to alleviate the stress of the tugging sensation. She stared off into the distance for a moment, before nudging Octavia. “I think ours are in the same direction too.”

“Great,” Twilight said. “Buddy up if you can, but we can’t afford to stand around anymore. We have to get the Elements as soon as possible.”

Vinyl raised her hoof. “Question: what if we have to do something illegal to get our Element?”

Octavia promptly smacked her. “Vinyl! What kind of question is that?”

“...How illegal?” Twilight prodded.

“Don’t tell me you’re entertaining the thought!” Octavia gasped.

With a shrug, Vinyl replied, “breaking and entering, or that kind of stuff. Just planning ahead in case my Element landed in like, a billionaire’s summer home or something.”

“Well… hopefully it won’t come to that.” Twilight said, shivering at the thought of what Vinyl might do in such a mansion if she had the chance. “But I’m sure Princess Celestia would pardon us if we end up saving the world.”

“Fair enough.”

“This is ridiculous.” Octavia shook her head and flicked her tail. “Come on, Bon Bon, we need to go.”

“Sure thing.” The two of them started off.

Vinyl pushed Lyra into motion. “Same to us. We’ve got a potential mansion to break into.”

“Uh…” Lyra shot Twilight a look that was somewhere between ‘Help me’ and ‘Oh dear Celestia, help me! HELP ME!’

It was probably the latter.

As her friends started off to recover their Elements, Twilight closed her eyes for a moment, letting go of her focus so the tug in her head could direct her. Once she had a good feel for where to go, she opened her eyes again and got all of two steps in.

“Twilight, wait!”

She froze, turning her head to see Derpy landing next to her. Twilight was surprised; Derpy had been so silent lately that she’d almost forgotten she was still here. “Um… yes?”

Derpy bit her lip and shuffled her hooves. Twilight could tell immediately that something was on the gray mare’s mind. Or at least, she thought so. She wasn’t the best at reading ponies.

“What is it, Derpy?” she pressed, needing an answer soon.

“Well… I-I...” Derpy fumbled over her words.

Twilight frowned. They did not have time for this. “Listen, we both really need to—”

“I want to go after Nightmare!”

“...”

Derpy furrowed her brows. “Um… Twilight?”

“No.” She shook her head firmly. “No no no no—”

“But—”

Twilight held up her hoof. “You didn’t let me finish.” Derpy slowly closed her jaw, clenching it tightly as she waited. “...No.”

“But Twilight, she’s about to make the biggest mistake of her life!” Derpy stamped her hoof in the ground. “I know you don’t really like her, or trust her, or anything, but please… I know she isn’t as bad as she makes herself out to be. She’s just hurt, Twilight. She’s broken and she’s pushed everypony away because she feels hated and alone.” Tears actually began welling up in Derpy’s crossed eyes. “I know what it’s like to feel so alone, like no pony is there for you. But I know if she just had a friend... if she just believed I’m her friend, then…”

Derpy sniffled. “Please… she’s been alone for so long, but she’s really not a bad pony deep down. But if she goes through with this then she might never be whole again. She’ll never have a friend or anypony who can help her… We have to stop her, Twilight. We just have to.”

Hot tears streamed down Derpy’s face. “You know, in all the time I’ve known her, she’s been rude. She’s been downright mean. But you know, she’s never made fun of me… for this.” Derpy indicated her eyes. Their crossed, forever goofy expression made her an easy target for teasing. The phrase ‘derped up’ came to Twilight’s mind: a prime example of just that. But in truth, she couldn’t remember anything Nightmare might’ve done to make fun of Derpy for her eyes.

“That’s why I have to believe, that deep down, maybe she cares too much to hit me where it hurts. Maybe… maybe she sees me as a friend. Maybe she could see all of us as friends, if we just helped her this one time.”

As Derpy’s speech finished, she wiped the tears from her cheeks. Her sniffles were now stifled as she tried to appear more determined than emotional. She looked at Twilight, mismatched eyes only conveying one thing: please.

Twilight would be lying if she said she wasn’t moved, at least a little. But certainly not enough. Logic told her that they wouldn’t be about to pull friendship out of the black void that was Nightmare’s heart. Somepony who was so casual about killing her own sister… could even the Elements fix that?

“Derpy, it’s a mistake. Look, I’m worried about Celestia, but I have to believe that she can hold her own until we find the Elements of Harmony. They’re our only hope right now, so that’s what we need to focus on.” Twilight chewed her cheek as Derpy deflated. “I know you feel like you’ve built a bond with her, maybe you have for all I know, but she’s got a thousand years of hatred inside of her. Do you really think you can wash that away with a little love and tolerance?”

Derpy folded her ears down. “You know, I… I thought you finally understood friendship.”

Twilight flinched.

Derpy turned around and spread her wings, ready for a take off. Twilight tensed up, prepared to… well, she wasn’t sure what she was going to do if Derpy tried her foolish plan.

Derpy crouched down, ready to leap off. Before she did, however, she glanced at Twilight again. “She could have killed us back there, when Discord freed her. Easily. But instead she let us go. I know it sounds crazy, but you can’t tell me there isn’t somepony in there worth saving. If I have to do it myself… I will.”

Twilight’s muscles locked up at that. Derpy took to the air, her eyes dead set on Canterlot.

“Wait!”

She screeched to a halt and looked back at Twilight. The outburst had undoubtedly surprised her, but not as much as it had Twilight. Derpy hovered for a moment and lowered herself down a few feet. “Yeah?”

Twilight sighed, unable to believe that she was about to say this. “All right, okay... I’ll come with you.”

A grin wide enough to split Derpy’s head in two erupted across her face. “Really?”

“Yes, really,” Twilight grumbled out. Then she wheezed as a bone-crushing hug suddenly ambushed her. “Oh, stars…”

“Thank you so much, Twilight!”

“Oh, don’t thank me,” Twilight coughed out. “If Nightmare ends up killing me, I’m going to come back and haunt you till the end of time.”

“I don’t doubt it.” Derpy said, releasing her. “Now let’s go!”

Talk About It

Shining stomped across an already well beaten path, sweat dripping down his face. He could feel Cadance slowly slipping from his back as he moved and had to stop, grab her, and readjust. Exhaling loudly, he wiped his forehead and started moving again.

Spike glanced up from beside him, knitting his brow with worry. “You need a break?”

He chewed the inside of his cheek. Since splitting off from his sister and her friends, they’d been following the vague path given to them as dutifully as possible. It wasn’t ideal, considering he was bruised and battered from his fight with Chrysalis hours earlier. (And as far as anypony was concerned, it was a fight. She definitely didn’t ragdoll him without breaking a sweat. At least, that’s what the unit would be hearing when he returned.)

Now, those wounds were starting to take their toll. Especially since the adrenaline was wearing off. And carrying Cadance on his back this whole way wasn’t helping.

“Yeah, I could use a break,” he admitted, not slowing his pace. “But we need to get to Ponyville first.”

“Come on, stopping for a second won’t kill us,” Spike argued.

“It will if we stop in front of another cragodile,” he retorted.

Spike was quiet for a moment, long enough for Shining to think he’d won the argument, before saying, “you’re no good to her if you pass out too.”

Shining opened his mouth to refute that logic, but all he could muster was a defeated sigh. Their pace slowed as they came across a pair of sit-worthy rocks. Spike was quick to hop up on one, but Shining went about it at a more sedate pace. He slowly leaned back, letting Cadance slip off of him just a tad. Her body carefully slid off him until she was lying safely in the grass.

“Whoa!”

Shining glanced up and saw Spike sinking into the rock. His eyes widened with brief panic, but Spike stopped slipping deeper, chasing away a fear of suffocation.

“What happened?” He asked.

“I don’t know. This rock just feels weird. Like a bean bag chair.”

“Really?” Shining glanced to the other rock, tempted to see if it had the same problem as the first. Well, he was planning to sit anyway…

Cautiously, he lowered himself onto the rock and found himself sinking the moment he touched it.

“Huh…” Shining shifted and adjusted, the rock matching his form each time. “You’re right.”

“You think Discord did this?”

“Probably.” Shining mumbled, giving it some thought. It certainly wasn’t as chaotic as turning the sky purple, but bean-bag-chair rocks wasn’t out of the realm of possibility for an ancient spirit with near limitless power. The only question was what other sweeping changes had he made to Equestria? Just thinking about it made Shining feel… tired.

And that was when exhaustion truly hit him. Up till now, Shining had been skirting by on adrenaline and willpower. Now he just had willpower.

The aches from being tossed around by Chrysalis returned, along with a slew of new problems. He was breathing heavy from their journey so far; his lungs were on fire. Not to mention his legs were sore from all the walking they’d been doing.

But all of those ailments paled in comparison to his anxiety. He hoped that defeating Chrysalis—or at least, making an agreement to not ‘kill and/or frying pan’ each other—would’ve meant the end of the dangers on this quest. Now the sky was purple thanks to an ancient demon, or something, and Nightmare Moon was free.

He shivered. Just thinking about it all made him feel worse. Shining couldn’t even take solace in the fact that it couldn’t get any worse; he had back in the changeling hive and that had turned out wonderfully.

“Think we’re getting close to Ponyville?” Spike asked, cutting into his thoughts.

“Maybe. We haven’t run into a tree-hut yet, so we haven’t missed our mark.” Shining chewed at the inside of his cheek. “I guess unless we see it we should just keep following the path.”

Spike nodded. “Sounds good to me. The less underbrush we walk through, the better.”

Shining raised his eyebrow. “You got a problem with plants?”

“My face is a lot lower to the ground than yours,” Spike explained. “And some of these leaves are pointy.”

“Yeesh.” Shining shivered at the implications. “Yeah, let’s stick to the path as long as we can.”

“Thanks.”

They both stopped talking for a moment to finish catching their breath. Their ragged gasps were among the few sounds that filled the forest, with cicada calls and distant timber wolf howls being their only competitors.

Shining couldn’t deny that the break was well worth it. Even though the air in the Everfree was more hot and heavy, it gave his lungs a much deserved break to recuperate before they got back to the hard work of the trek.

Soft whimpering suddenly joined the sounds of the forest and Shining looked down to see Cadance shifting, eyes squeezing shut as her body curled into a bundle of fright and exhaustion. He sighed.

Spike glanced from her to him. “Hey, you know, with all the commotion I never really got to ask. What happened to you two?”

He blinked while the question was processed, before shifting into a frown. “I’d rather not talk about it.”

“...That bad, huh?” Spike asked. Shining nodded slowly. “Okay.”

With that topic thoroughly exhausted, their wellspring of conversation suddenly ran dry. Shining shifted in his seat a little, before looking up at the purple sky. His stomach tightened at the sight, but he didn’t exactly feel like talking about that, so he kept his mouth shut. It would be better to sit in silence anyway while they recovered. Talking would only—

“Errr…” Next to him, Cadance’s body twitched.

Spike hopped off his rock and was by her side in an instant. He put a claw to her shoulder as she lifted her head up, eyes weakly fluttering open. “You okay, Princess?”

“S-Spike?” Cadance blinked a few times before clarity returned to her eyes. “Where are we?”

“Out of the hive,” Shining told her. “Go ahead and go back to sleep. We’ll get you to safety soon.”

Her expression darkened. “No. No, I’m all right enough to be awake.” She tried lifting her head, but it fell back onto the grass. To compensate, her eyes darted around. “W-Where’s Twilight? And her friends?”

Spike gave an uncomfortable laugh. Just one. “We had to split off from them a little bit ago. A lot’s happened.”

Worry overtook Cadance’s features. “A lot? Like what?”

Shining stood, the indent he left in the rock staying behind as proof he’d sat there. “We can talk all about it once we’re out of the Everfree and at a safe place. If you’re really okay then we should get going.”

Cadance frowned. “Don’t do this to me, Shining. I don’t like being kept in the dark; especially about something like this.”

He snorted, that one comment sending his eyes rolling. “Sorry. Considering how much you love not telling ponies things, I didn’t think this would be a problem.”

Her face fell as he said it, and his jaw clenched. He shouldn’t be doing that; his job was to worry about her safety, not bash her for their old relationship. It was just… he couldn’t help it. The words rolled so easily off his tongue. Insults jumped to the forefront of his mind.

Shining couldn’t help it. He was mad.

Maybe it was all the emotions Cadance had been forcing him to keep down that had been springing free lately, or maybe Shining just wasn’t forgiving enough to look past the screwed up things she did to him. It was probably a mix of both. Either way, despite trying to make himself feel bad about it, he couldn’t seem to be.

Though kicking his superior while she was down wasn’t exactly the best career move now that he thought about it.

“Uh…” Spike glanced from one to the other. “Look, it’s not really my place to say, but it feels like you guys have some stuff you need to talk about.”

“We did talk about it,” Shining grumbled.

“We shouted about it,” Cadance corrected. She tried in vain to stand, her legs quivering from the effort.

“We don’t have time for this.” Shining’s horn sparked to life and he picked up Cadance, setting her on his back before resuming his walk. Spike rushed to catch up and they were back to the same methodical trek from earlier.

And so they walked in silence.

And walked.

And walked.

And walked...

“Seems like we have plenty of time,” Cadance hoarsely whispered.

Shining pressed his lips together, not wanting to respond. Was it too much to ask for her to go back to being unconscious?

He just hoped they got out of the Everfree soon. Unfortunately, the mass of trees, shrubs, and insects seemed never ending.

“Shining, please…” Cadance’s voice sounded a little more desperate now.

She was pleading, but he still didn’t want to talk.

“I already said to drop it for now,” he grumbled.

“We’ve been dropping it since the moment it first came up!” she fired back. “I’m sick of us being at each other's throats! If there really is something bad happening right now, then we should be working together to stop it. But to do that… we have to stop fighting first.”

Spike’s eyes darted back and forth between them; he looked ready to say something, but was holding back for probably a good number of reasons.

Shining wanted to sigh. “You’re not exactly in any position to help right now, Cadance. Like I said, let’s get you somewhere safe where you can recover first.”

Although he couldn’t see her, Shining imagined Cadance was clamping her mouth shut right about now. That was a pretty hard argument for her to fight, seeing as how she couldn’t even stand on her own, let alone go toe to toe with Nightmare Moon, or Discord.

They walked in silence for a little while longer. Cold, indifferent silence.

Just from a sideways glance, Shining could tell Spike was uncomfortable. Whether that was from still being in the Everfree Forest, or from Shining and Cadance’s talk, he couldn’t tell.

“H-Hey, that looks like the tree-hut Derpy mentioned!” he suddenly called out. Shining glanced up.

“What?” Cadance asked. Shining felt her head shift so she could see.

Before them was a large, almost deformed looking tree. It bulged at the base in an unnatural way, implying that somepony had shaped it like that. If that wasn’t enough to convince Shining that Spike was right, the door and windows carved into the trunk were a sure sign that this was what they’d been keeping an eye out for.

“I’ll go on in and ask for directions,” Spike suddenly said, bounding forward. “If there’s, uh… anything you guys need to talk about that you wanted to be alone for, now would be the time to do it.”

Shining clenched his jaw as he watched Spike scamper toward the hut. So he thinks he’s the reason I’m not talking?

It hadn’t been his intent to make Spike think that, but then again, what else was the kid supposed to think with the way things had been going?

Regardless, Spike had excused himself from the awkwardness, disappearing into the hut shortly after the appearance of a smiling zebra.

And that left Shining all alone with Cadance.

Great.

In fairness, with the changeling goop still on her horn, she wouldn’t be casting any love magic on him anytime soon. That didn’t necessarily mean he wanted to be alone with her. He’d been avoiding that ever since their break up. Even on the train ride to Ponyville they had had a bound Nightmare Moon for company.

“Shining… I’m sorry…” Cadance whispered.

The words caught him off guard. His ears flicked, and he almost turned his head back to look at her.

So far, in all their bickering and fighting, Shining didn’t think he had heard an apology yet.

But even so… “That doesn’t mean anything.”

He felt Cadance stiffen. “B-But I—”

“I don’t want to hear it.” Shining’s voice was cold. “You don’t get to just manipulate me like that and act like a simple apology is all you need to fix things.”

“But I am sorry,” Cadance whispered. “You don’t know how much sleep I lost over what happened. How much I’ve cried. How long I spent thinking of ways to fix what happened...”

“And how exactly am I supposed to believe you?” He asked.

“W-What?”

Shining lit up his horn, lifting Cadance off his back and setting her down so he could be face to face with her. “For all I know, you’re just manipulating me again, just with words, not magic. How do you expect me to believe what you’re saying is anything other than a ploy to get me to forgive and forget, huh?”

“That’s not…” Cadance blinked back tears. “No. Shining, I’m being sincere. I know I wronged you. I just… I want to say I’m sorry. I want you to know I’m sorry.”

“Sorry because you did it, or sorry because you got caught?”

Cadance opened her mouth, but said nothing. Her jaw quivered with the realization that she may not know the answer to that question, and that terrified her.

“That’s what I thought.” Shining exhaled deeply; he hadn’t even realized he’d been holding his breath. But now, he’d said what he’d really wanted to say for a long time. And it felt good.

Sure, it wasn’t the kind of talking that Cadance had probably been hoping to get out of him, but it was all she was going to get for now.

Just then the door to the hut opened, the creak it made drawing their attention.

“Hey guys,” Spike said, poking his head out. “She says she wants to see you.”

There were a lot of things that were awful about Celestia’s current situation. Being encased in stone was definitely at the top of the list, but that wasn’t where it ended.

The purple sky was certainly cause for concern. When it had first happened Celestia felt her stomach churn with anxiety, knowing that Discord was announcing his return to Equestria in a big way.

And he hadn’t stopped there. About half an hour ago her castle… well, there wasn’t any good way to describe it. Her castle was now floppy. The towers must’ve been turned to rubber or something, because they had curved in on themselves as the tips now pointed to the ground. Perhaps the weirdest part though was that they now fluttered in the breeze like flags.

Discord had been keeping busy since. Screams echoed from the city below her, a lump forming in her throat the louder they became. She wished she could turn her head to see, or better yet, not be encased so she could help.

Igniting her horn, Celestia felt her breath shorten. That alone should have been a sign to tell her to stop, but instead she steadied herself and tried casting a spell. Her horn fizzled and popped before her magic crackled out of existence. She sighed.

She had to help, but wasn’t able to so much as walk right now. Celestia sighed, knowing it would be a long wait for her magic to recover. All she could do now was hope for a miracle.

“Well well well.” Four hooves clacked as they landed on the ground behind her. The accompanying voice was sinister. Cold. If Celestia’s spine wasn’t trapped in stone, a shiver would’ve run down it.

“Luna,” Celestia addressed her sister calmly, but inside she was panicking. Her eyes flicked to the side, catching a tall, dark figure strutting past her peripherals. In all honesty, it shouldn’t surprise her that Nightmare Moon had gotten free. Once Discord was on the loose it was only a matter of time until something happened to allow Nightmare to break out.

“Dear sister,” Nightmare said, her voice dripping with hatred. “What have you gotten yourself into?”

Celestia pressed her lips into a thin line as Nightmare Moon stopped right in front of her. “How did you get free?”

Nightmare snickered. “How did you get trapped?”

“...Discord,” she begrudgingly admitted. Realization slapped her across the face. “Wait, you mean…?”

“Indeed.” Nightmare smirked. “Our roles are reversed, thanks to the same spirit of chaos. Oh, isn’t the irony delicious?”

Celestia narrowed her eyes. “I don’t think that’s irony. Irony is when—”

Nightmare slapped her across the face harder than any realization. “Shut up! The last thing I want during my moment of triumph is you correcting me!”

Cheek stinging, Celestia forced down a wince. “Luna, I—”

Her head whipped to the other side as her sister’s hoof struck her again. “Nightmare Moon!” she seethed. “How long will it take before you finally acknowledge my name?”

Now both halves of Celestia’s face hurt, but she was determined not to show her pain. “You’ve always been Luna to me. You’ll always be Luna, little sister.”

A snarl curled its way onto Nightmare Moon’s face. “Why didn’t Discord turn your mouth to stone too?”

“Probably because he’s not on your side,” Celestia retorted. “Don’t tell me you trust him after what he did the last time he got loose.”

“Do you think I’m an idiot?” Nightmare’s reptilian eyes flicked upward as she thought about that question before settling on Celestia again. “Don’t answer that. The point is, I know Discord’s a threat, but I will deal with him later. Right now, there are more pressing matters.” Her horn ignited, its chilling blue aura rippling with anger. “Like finishing you off.”

Celestia swallowed. This isn’t good. Surely she doesn’t think she alone can stand up to Discord. It took both of us and the Elements of Harmony to defeat him last time.

Then again, with a thousand year grudge weighing over Nightmare, reasoning like that wasn’t the first thing on her mind. With Nightmare’s unrestrained powers, Celestia would be helpless against her right now. Weak and immobile, there was only one thing she could do.

Talk.

“Luna, please, listen to me.” Nightmare’s horn lowered, the glowing point resting right between Celestia’s eyes. “This isn’t a good idea. You won’t be able to defeat Discord without help and he knows it. Why do you think he wants you to kill me? He could finish me at his leisure, but tricking you into doing it will just give him some sick sense of satisfaction! Do you really want that?”

“Oh, here we go with the lecturing again!” Nightmare lifted her horn away from Celestia’s face, replacing it with a scowl. “You know, I am sick and tired of hearing you ramble on as if that solves every problem! It doesn’t! In case you haven’t noticed, your little talks didn’t exactly work. How did they go again? ‘Luna, you shouldn’t feel bad that ponies sleep during your night. It doesn’t matter how hard you work or how much you try, everypony’s supposed to ignore you’.”

Celestia flinched. “I never said that.”

“You might as well have,” Nightmare snapped. “I was barely more than a footnote when historians wrote down your heroic tale of defeating Discord. I got to sit by and watch as you grabbed up as much power as you wanted. And whenever I made suggestions, you were oh so quick to shoot them down, weren’t you?”

“You wanted to extend the night by hours, Luna,” Celestia reminded her. “We’d just defeated Discord, it wasn’t the time to be experimenting with the day and night cycle. Our subjects needed consistency and order. They needed us to bring back what they lost under Discord’s rule.”

“And you wanted to make sure that they had plenty of hours in the day to praise your name,” Nightmare hissed back. “Don’t think I didn’t notice when The First Church of Our Lord and Savior Princess Celestia was founded!”

“Please don’t remind me of that cult,” Celestia muttered, disdain seeping into her voice as those memories returned. “It took decades to convince them I wasn’t a god.”

“Decades of worship and unconditional adoration? How awful,” Nightmare spat. “Don’t even try to trick me into thinking you didn’t want it. When I finally returned from a millennium of exile, I walked in on a celebration honouring you and found that barely anypony even remembered my name! Is it too much to ask that I get one holiday among all of yours?”

Celestia blinked upon recalling a mental note she’d made a while ago. “Actually, I’ve been meaning to tell you something…”

“Enough.” Her horn sparked back to life. “I’m through talking. I came here for one thing and one thing alone.”

Before Celestia could react, a blast of magic struck her. The stone shell around her shattered under the pressure, sending her flying back, but free.

She landed on her back, head partially buried in one of the many hedges that dotted the statue gardens. Her chest stung from the blow, but she’d been shielded from a worse fate. Sitting up, she saw Nightmare Moon stalking towards her.

“Fight me!” Nightmare called out, grinning wickedly.

“No!” Celestia shook her head, beginning to stand. “Luna, we shouldn’t—”

Another magical burst whizzed towards her. Celestia dove to the side, rolling free as the blast burned through the hedge and decimated the statues beyond. Through the sounds of crumbling rocks and crackling, burnt leaves, Celestia heard snickering.

“What’s the matter, sister? Not so confident without your pupil watching?”

A beam whipped toward her head. She ducked and her mane caught the side of the blow. As Celestia rolled out of Nightmare’s line of fire, she got a glimpse of her singed hair and winced. Too close.

“What are you waiting for?” Nightmare demanded, horn raised. “You think I’m going to believe that you can’t attack back?”

Celestia took a deep breath, attempting to summon what little magic she still had right now. Her horn glowed to life, but flickered worse than faulty wiring. Any attack she could muster right now would have the explosive power of pillows.

Attacking was off the table for her. She tried her second best, and unfurled her wings. They came out slow and stiff; their time pinned under a sheet of stone left them cramped and achy. Getting off the ground would be a miracle.

So neither fight nor flight was an option right now.

“Luna, please!” Celestia tried again. “You don’t want to do this!”

“Shut up!” A flurry of blasts flew towards Celestia.

She twisted in an attempt to dodge, but there were too many. Two struck her, one in the shoulder, the other in her foreleg. She stumbled back, biting her tongue to keep from screaming in pain.

“You don’t know what I want! You never bothered to find out! To ask!” Nightmare shouted.

Celestia inhaled shakily from the pain, looking around the gardens as she took that in. Unfortunately, she didn’t have a lot of time before a new bolt of magic struck her square in the chest.

Pain exploded across her body as she was ripped from the ground and flung backwards. Celestia’s body tore through a hedge before slamming against another statue.

Groaning, Celestia struggled in vain to regain her breath. Nightmare Moon flew towards her, landing only a couple of steps away with a smug grin on her face.

With some effort, Celestia sat back up. “I… I know what you want.”

Nightmare paused, raising an eyebrow and stopping her approach. She didn’t say anything; she waited.

Celestia swallowed. “You want a better sister.”

Nightmare narrowed her eyes, but remained silent. Celestia stumbled to her feet, ready to continue. “You want a sister who would’ve been there for you when you needed her. Who would’ve noticed what you were going through. Who would’ve talked to you so you didn’t have to bottle up your emotions until they all came rushing out. I… I’m so sorry, Luna.” Tears lined Celestia’s eyes. “I was awful to you. I should’ve been better, and I have nopony to blame but myself. Not you, or Twilight, or anypony. All of this is my fault. I’m sorry.”

Nightmare stayed silent for a while, but eventually her eyes narrowed. She curled her lip in anger. “Too little, too late.”

Her horn ignited again, giving Celestia no time to prepare for the next attack. She shut her eyes and hoped for a miracle.

It's a Start

Vinyl returned to civilization spitting.

It was a tad bit unceremonious, considering how long she had been away, but when you walk straight into a spider web after making it through a mile of the Everfree Forest unscathed, it can’t be helped.

“Gah! Pffbt!” Vinyl wiped her face, cursing the very second she’d taken her sunglasses off.

“Oh my gosh!” The concern in Lyra’s voice was palpable.

“Aw, don’t worry about me.” Vinyl wiped away the last of the webs clinging to her cheek. “I’m fine.”

“T-That’s not what I’m worried about,” Lyra shakily said.

Vinyl looked up, and followed Lyra’s gaze to see what had her in so much open-mouthed shock. “Then what— oh…”

Her jaw dropped down to match Lyra’s. And it was easy to see why.

Ponyville was a mess. Houses were floating randomly around, some tilted, some upside down, but most all of them in mid-air. Right alongside the new sky front property were pink clouds that zipped around diagonally across the sky as a dark brown liquid dripped out of them in clumps.

On the ground—the swirly, neon colored and checkerboarded ground—trees scuttled around, using their roots as flappy tentacles.

Vinyl rubbed her eyes. Nope, all still there.

And now she noticed the sun, which appeared to be having a blast by doing loop de loops in the sky. Vinyl grasped her shades and let them rest back on her face. They provided a familiar comfort amidst all this…

“Chaos.” Lyra took the words right out of her brain.

“Holy crap. You don’t think that Discord guy did… all of this, do you?” Vinyl asked.

Lyra managed to close her jaw and give her a slightly dead-pan look. “No, I’m sure there’s some other chaos god that’s behind it.”

Viny narrowed her eyes. “You’ve been spending too much time with Tavi, you know that?”

With a shake of her head, Lyra looked over the town before her attention turned east. Her eyes chased the horizon where the purple sky met checkered grounds, and Vinyl followed.

They both knew what the other was thinking, mostly because they were thinking about the only hope ponykind had.

The Elements.

And that freaking tracking spell.

Vinyl wasn’t going to lie, she knew she could be annoying. However, no matter how badly she’d pestered Twilight over the past few weeks, she knew it could not have been anywhere near as bad as the constant, radiating tingle her brain was enduring right now.

It was an agonizingly constant pull that wouldn’t leave her alone, even if she tried distracting herself with other thoughts. A pretty good incentive to get finding her Element over with, at least.

“Mine’s still pretty far away,” Lyra said.

“Same.” Vinyl didn’t hesitate to leap back into walking. “Let’s see if the train’s working.”

“What?” Lyra rushed to catch up to her, appearing in her peripherals just a nanosecond later. “Are you being serious?”

“Uh, yeah.” Vinyl narrowed her eyes in confusion, not that Lyra could tell. “Why?”

“Equestria looks like… this!” She waved her hoof to the whole of what used to be Ponyville. “And you think the trains are still working?”

Viny shrugged. “Worth a shot. Unless you’ve got a better way of getting us to the Elements.”

Lyra opened her mouth, hoof raised, and froze. Vinyl could see the gears of her mind whirring in protest as they tried to think of any other idea, only to grind to a halt upon realizing their failure.

“Train it is, then.” Vinyl couldn’t resist a smirk.

A sigh chased after her as Lyra lost her will to retaliate against Vinyl’s logic. She pulled up alongside her and matched her pace as they made their way towards the screwed up version of Ponyville before them.

Silence, aside from sparse, distant screams of horror, accompanied their walk. Not wanting the mood to be brought down any further, Vinyl started to hum a little tune to herself. It was simple enough, and a bit of an earworm despite being something she just came up with off the top of her head. What could she say, she was a musical genius after all.

Her genius did not go unnoticed, either. The infectious melody she’d constructed was picked up by the musically-inclined Lyra and pretty soon they were both humming along like goofballs while the world was ending around them.

Too bad it couldn’t last.

“Get down!” Lyra suddenly pounced onto Vinyl, knocking both of them into a golden-leafed bush.

“Ah!” Vinyl winced as the leaves and branches scraped against her. It poked way worse than a normal bush would, too. She was just grateful she had her shades on. “What the heck, Lyra?”

A mint hoof clasped over her mouth. “Shh!”

Lyra was frantic as she pressed them both deeper into the bush, keeping her eyes set on the outside as her ears folded down. Vinyl just raised her eyebrows in confusion, but followed Lyra’s line of sight.

Up above them, just a blip in the purple sky, was a long brown figure seemingly doing a backstroke as it floated across the sky.

“Mmhmrd?” Vinyl asked through the hoof in her mouth.

Lyra nodded through a newly formed grimace. The chaos spirit loomed in her line of sight, causing her to sweat. “Yeah…”

Vinyl swatted away Lyra’s hoof. “What’s he doing here?” she whispered.

“I don’t know!” Lyra hissed, the fear wrapped into her voice enough to give Vinyl shivers. “But how are we supposed to get to the train station now?”

Vinyl tried to look around for ideas, but the leaves of the bush blocked her every which way when she turned. Groaning softly, Vinyl almost resigned herself to just cowering in the bush with Lyra until Discord left. Then from the corner of her eye she noticed one of the trees from earlier darting by, its bark cracking loudly at the unnatural movements it made.

“I have an idea.”

“What— Hey!” Lyra squirmed, nearly popping out of the bush as Vinyl wiggled around beside her. “What are you doing?”

“Just a sec.” Vinyl planted her hooves on the ground and pushed up, snapping the roots of the bush from from the ground. “There we go. Insta-camouflage.”

Lyra struggled in her side of the bush, managing to stand after wrestling noisily with the leaves. “What, we’re just going to walk to the train station like this?”

“I was thinking we run,” Vinyl replied.

Lyra bit her lip and glanced up towards Discord again. He was still lazily floating above them, maybe high enough to completely miss the fact that one bush had suddenly grown legs. Then again… maybe not.

“Okay, let’s run.”

Vinyl kicked into a full on gallop, snapping Lyra back and giving her a nasty case of leafy whiplash before she could process the need to keep up.

They each winced at the loud, metallic sounding rustling of the golden leaves surrounding them, but pressed on regardless. It certainly helped that the ground was mostly empty, devoid of both houses and the ponies who lived in them.

And now that Vinyl thought about it, it was kind of odd that she didn’t see any townsponies.

“Where is everypony?” She asked.

“Hiding, if they’re smart,” she whispered back.

Vinyl nodded. “Yeah, I would be too.”

“Really?” Lyra snickered. “You would be hiding?”

“I’m hiding now,” Vinyl said as they continued to run out in the open.

“You know what I mean,” Lyra fired back. “You didn’t sit by when the Ursa attacked, why would you with this?”

“‘Cause with the Ursa I had Smart Mare to back me up.”

Lyra frowned. “And now you only have me, huh?”

Vinyl slowed, shooting a glance her way. “Hey now, don’t sell yourself short like that.”

Lyra dropped to a slow trot and Vinyl struggled to match her pace before she barreled right out of the bush. “Oh come on, it’s true. I’m not half as good at magic as Twilight is. And besides I… I’m scared of like, everything.”

“No you aren’t.”

“Heights, The Everfree, Ursas, changelings, Nightmare Moon, Discord…” she laughed softly. “I’m even scared of doing the one thing my Cutie Mark tells me I’m good at. I’m nothing but a chicken...”

That actually got Vinyl to shut up for longer than two seconds. Lyra had never referred to her stage fright as an actual phobia before, she had always hid behind calling it ‘anxiety’.

Having Lyra open up like this to her was a level of trust Vinyl didn’t think she had with her fellow unicorn.

“Well… hey, everypony’s afraid of something,” Vinyl told her. Oh yeah, bust out those cliches. I’m sure Lyra hasn’t heard that about a hundred times already.

“I know,” Lyra huffed, confirming that theory. “But that doesn’t make me less afraid of any of those things.”

“I don’t think you give yourself enough credit,” Vinyl fired back. “I mean, look at all the stuff you’ve done. You’ve been into the Everfree Forest twice, fought Chrysalis, and played your harp-thingy for changelings. I mean, seriously. What kind of chicken does all that?”

“I guess you’re right…” Lyra sounded very convinced. Like, as convinced as an ant saying ‘everything’s fine’ as it watched a hoof come down to squish it. About that much.

The train station had appeared before them now, thankfully being one of the few buildings in town to not be floating. However, Vinyl didn’t care about that right now. She was more focused on her friend. Slowing down, she dragged them both to a complete stop, earning Lyra’s full attention. Biting her lip, Vinyl sighed. “Hey, you want to know something?”

“What?”

“I’m freaking terrified to play Music-ade.”

“What?!”

Vinyl winced as Lyra apparently forgot they were trying to be stealthy. She shook her head to dispel the ringing in her ears, and was momentarily impressed in Lyra’s ability to do that to her of all ponies.

“Yeah, I am,” Vinyl frowned. It felt weird to admit it out loud for once. “I mean, I have to do an entire float by myself. You at least have a whole orchestra to fall back on if you screw up, but me? If I make a mistake then everypony’s going to know it.” She laughed uncomfortably. “I know I don’t really act like it, but yeah. That’s got me a little shaken up.”

Lyra looked genuinely surprised, but that wasn’t surprising. Nopony really would’ve guessed how nervous Vinyl could be even if they knew her. “Wow…” she mumbled.

“Yeah…” Vinyl awkwardly looked away. She hadn’t really expected hiding in a bush to lead to a heart to heart like this. Ready to just act like it never happened, Vinyl was about to start walking again when she felt a nudge on her shoulder.

“Thanks for telling me, Vinyl.” Lyra smiled.

Vinyl returned the sentiment. “Heh… no prob.”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll knock it out of the park at Music-ade.”

Vinyl couldn’t hold back a brief laugh. “Thanks. I know you will too. Now come on, we got some Elements to find.”

Lyra actually brightened a little. “Okay, yeah. Let’s do it.”

Trotting in tandem, they made their way into the train station. Their bushy camo scraped the sides of the door as they pushed their way inside. Vinyl eyed the inside, noting the ransacked, panicky look of the place.

Decorative ferns had been knocked over while tickets and dropped suitcases littered the tiled floor, likely left behind from ponies fleeing in terror. Looking past all of that, Vinyl finally caught a glimpse of the train tracks. They were waving about in midair, like ripples in a disturbed river.

But luckily the train was there, bobbing along with the displaced rails. It was wearing a giant fish costume, but it was still definitely a train.

She pulled the bush over to the ticket booth, Lyra following with a hesitant, “uh…”.

Behind the glass window, there was an attendant scrambling about in a flurry. He seemed to be throwing as many of his possessions as he could into his saddlebags, mumbling incoherently to himself. It was clear his intent was to pack up and get the heck out before anything worse happened to Ponyville. Keeping that in mind, Vinyl decided not to waste too much of his time.

“Excuse me,” she cleared her throat.

The attendant turned around, eyes widening as he noticed the golden bush that trudged up to his booth. Vinyl poked her head out from the leaves, causing the poor guy to flinch.

“Hey, so is the train still running or what?”

They were back in Dodge.

Bon Bon only had to breathe in the scent of ripened cherries to know that much. Even though there was also a distinctly peppermint smell too.

The tree trunks of the cherry orchard had all been replaced with giant candy canes, though the cherries themselves had been left unharmed and dangling from the tips of the cane.

“That’s… not exactly natural,” Octavia whispered.

Bon Bon could only nod. Nod, and shudder at what other chaos might be plaguing Equestria. She doubted all of it was as harmless as this.

...Unless of course the candy canes also ate ponies or something. That was much less harmless.

“Do you feel where your Element is?” Octavia asked.

“Uh…” Bon Bon followed the pull of her brain as the path to her Element pushed out and careened off to the right. She pointed. “That way.”

Looking back to Octavia, she saw her friend gazing off to the left. “Oh…”

They were going to have to split up. It was the only way to track down both Elements in a reasonable amount of time, after all.

But in a world of purple skies and candy cane trees, Bon Bon was terrified to go it alone. Though, it wasn’t like going with Octavia would be much different.

She winced, realizing how bad that sounded. She didn’t mean that to discredit her friend in any way, it was just that a baker on her own in the desert was barely different than a baker and a cellist on their own in the desert.

“So… what do we do?” Octavia turned to her, voice cracking. She wasn’t exactly keen on splitting up either.

Bon Bon pressed her lips together. She looked around, absorbing every detail of the red and white striped forest before her. Her eyes glazed over a small set of buildings in the distance, before doubling back and focusing in on it.

“Let’s go further into town,” she suggested. “We both have a little bit to go before we have to split, right?”

Octavia paused for a moment to furrow her brow. As her face crinkled into serious thought, she shifted on her heels. “I guess so.”

“Come on. Who knows, maybe somepony in Dodge can help us out.” Bon Bon started trotting forward, stopping only to poke at one of the candy canes to see if it would come to life and try to eat them. It didn’t.

Octavia followed her, eventually pulling up at her side and matching her pace. As they trotted through the grove, the odd mix of peppermint and cherries assaulted Bon Bon’s nose, which wrinkled in discomfort.

As they weaved in between candy trunks, Bon Bon eyed the town ahead to look for anything chaotic. It wasn’t like there was much she could do about any of Discord’s handiwork if she did see some of it, but knowing about it would at least make her feel like she was prepared.

Because she was definitely not prepared. Like, at all.

Her frying pan aside, she had nothing that could stand up to the wrath of a chaos demon. In fact, she probably had nothing that could stand up to the wrath of the desert. She hadn’t really packed any water or anything, an absence she would feel when tracking down her Element. Aside from a vague direction and vaguer distance, she didn’t have much for the journey she was about to undertake.

“Nervous?” Octavia’s voice brought Bon Bon back to reality. She shook her head and turned to her friend, only to be greeted by a worried look. It was then that Bon Bon noticed the cold sweat breaking out on her… everywhere.

“Fine,” she squeaked out. Coughing, she tried again. “I’m fine. You?”

Octavia held back a frown. “I could be doing worse.”

But you could be doing better, is what Bon Bon got out of that.

Biting her lip, Bon Bon looked up at the sky. Pink clouds darted across the purple expanse at very uncloud-like speeds, leaving very unrain-like drops of brown liquid in their wake. A few splashed down in front of Bon Bon, and she flinched.

“Is it bad that I really don’t want to know what that stuff is?” She asked Octavia.

The far-braver-than-her cellist bent down slightly at the puddle and sniffed. “Chocolate milk.”

Bon Bon breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh thank goodness.”

Octavia watched the clouds zip away, before her attention fell to the dark stains they left behind on the candy cane trees and beyond. “Maybe we should split up now. I don’t want to waste anymore time; I’m worried everything we’ve seen so far has just been a warm-up act.”

Bon Bon swallowed, sending a shake down her neck that spread to her entire body. When her tremor passed she found the nerve to speak up. “A-Already?”

“It’s probably for the best, right?” Octavia asked. “Why, is something the matter? I mean, besides the obvious… everything.”

There wasn’t much of a point to lying, so Bon Bon didn’t. With a hefty pause to delay the inevitable, she said, “I don’t want to be alone for this.”

“Oh.” Octavia was silent for a moment.

Ears dropping, Bon Bon winced, knowing she’d only made this more difficult. “Sorry, I—”

“No, no, don’t be sorry,” Octavia told her. She forced back an awkward laugh. “I mean, do you know how nervous I am to go it alone?”

“A little?”

“A lot.” Octavia breathed as the weight left her chest. “Like, a lot a lot.”

“Really?” Bon Bon must’ve sounded as incredulous as she felt, because Octavia’s brow rose.

“Yes really. Bon Bon, just a few weeks ago the biggest worry on my mind was making sure my orchestra could play Music-ade. Now the fate of Equestria depends on me tracking down an Element of Harmony in a chaos infested desert.” Octavia didn’t force down her next laugh. “I’m terrified.”

Bon Bon had to take a moment to process. “Huh…”

“I’m honestly surprised you’re scared.”

Bon Bon had to take several moments to process that. “What?”

Octavia’s ears flopped down as she floundered. “Well, I just figured… I mean, you beat Chrysalis, after all.”

“I hit her with a frying pan! That’s how I handle all bugs!” She put a hoof to her chest to calm down. It worked, slightly. “I mean, I bake cake for a living! You’re the pony who never seems to flinch in the face of danger!”

Octavia blinked. “I guess we both kind of looked up to each other, huh?”

Bon Bon lowered her hoof. “Y-Yeah… kind of.”

There was a beat where nothing happened outside of awkward ground poking.

Finally, Bon Bon cleared her throat. “I still don’t want to go alone.”

Octavia frowned and nodded. Then her ears perked back up. “Wait, doesn’t Cherry Jubilee live nearby?”

Bon Bon’s brain clicked with understanding. “With a wagon pulled by a bunch of fast-looking stallions? Yeah, she does.”

With a clap, Octavia nodded. “I do believe we can stick together, after all.”

Twilight’s grip on Derpy’s neck tightened. Wind blasted her face, whipping her mane back in a frenzy of hair spasms. She opened her mouth to politely suggest they slow down, but only ended up screaming at the top of her lungs.

“What? I didn’t quite catch that!” Derpy cried back.

Twilight screamed again.

“Oh, okay.” Derpy turned back to the purple expanse ahead.

She swooped forward, cutting across the sky as her speed doubled. Canterlot was just ahead, zooming towards them. Even at their speed, Twilight could make out the finer details of the city. And that included all the chaos.

It was safe to say Canterlot had seen better days. Buildings had sprouted pink and hairy legs and were walking around. Every so often their front doors would open up only for fire to spew out.

Not even the castle had been spared. It looked deflated, like if it was an inflatable with a leak. It was just… floppy. Twilight winced at the sight.

“This doesn’t look good. We need to find Princess Celestia fast,” Twilight said

“And Nightmare,” Derpy added.

Twilight couldn’t hold back a frown. “Yeah... You, do have a plan to stop her, right?”

“With the magic of friendship of course!” Derpy’s optimism was sweet enough to give candymakers diabetes. But optimism probably wouldn’t be enough.

Biting her lower lip, Twilight tried to think about the best way to break that news to her. “Are you sure that’s going to cut it?”

Derpy nodded. “She’s not evil Twilight, she’s my friend. You’ll see. Deep down, she’s just a big ole softy.”

Twilight held back a groan. Somehow that just didn’t seem likely to her. But she was confident between her magic and Celestia’s they would be able to subdue Nightmare without too much trouble.

“Do you at least see where Princess Celestia and Nightmare are?” she asked, hoping their flight was coming to a close.

Derpy opened her mouth only to rudely be cut off by an explosion. The palace garden suddenly erupted with magic and stone fragments.

“There!” Twilight pointed as several dark blue blasts whizzed into view.

“I see it!” Derpy swooped, changing direction for a collision course with the garden. Her wings angled themselves and they started diving.

“Waitwaitwaitwaitwait!” Twilight winced as wind pummeled her face. Her stomach flopped faster than her racing heart. She squeezed Derpy’s neck in panic.

“Too tight!” Derpy hacked.

“Too fast!” Twilight screamed.

They zoomed toward the castle, each choking up in their own way. Twilight could barely think as they sped towards the gardens, but fear somehow managed to dominate her brain anyway.

The closer they got the clearer things became. The gardens looked like a warzone, hedges holed and burning, statues decimated, and in the middle of it all were two alicorns.

Terror shorting out her ability to talk, Twilight just pointed fervently at her teacher.

“Hang on!” Derpy rocketed forward.

Twilight’s head whipped back, but she kept her eyes on the battle before her. Princess Celestia was lying on the ground, battered and bruised. That really caught Twilight off guard. Celestia had easily dispatched Nightmare last time. What was going on?

She didn’t have time to figure that out, because in the very next instant Nightmare Moon lowered her horn, aiming right for Celestia’s head.

Twilight’s eyes widened. “Oh no…”

Derpy’s wings flapped double time. “Nightmare, stop! Don’t do it!”

They were so close now that Twilight could see Nightmare’s ears flick at the sound of Derpy’s voice. She turned her head just in time to see the two of them blast past her.

Derpy hardly had the room to slow down, but must’ve felt obligated to at this point because she dug her hooves into the ground and started skidding. Twilight lurched forward and flew over her head. Her dive was thankfully cushioned by a nearby hedge just as the nearby squealing sounds of hooves against concrete stopped.

Twilight opened her eyes to be greeted by an upside down view of two shocked alicorn faces.

“D-Derpy?” Nightmare Moon gaped.

“Twilight?” Celestia’s eyes widened.

“What are you doing here?” They chimed in tandem.

Twilight didn’t bother with a weak smile. She just waved. “Hey.”

Gravity suddenly seemed to realized there was a problem and began pulling at her once more. Her body slid free of the leaves, giving her very little time to flail into a decent falling position.

“Owowowow.” Derpy hopped in place for a moment, her hooves looking a little red from the landing. When she realized half of the question was directed at her she looked up. “Nightmare, you’ve got to stop this, please!”

“You’re not serious, are you?” Nightmare squinted. “I should vaporize you on the spot for interrupting my moment of triumph.”

“Trying to kill your sister is not a triumph!” Derpy shouted. Twilight’s eyes widened at the suddenness of it. Nightmare actually flinched. Briefly.

Using that time to her advantage, Twilight scrambled to her feet and raced over to Princess Celestia. She only needed a second to take in how exhausted she looked. Her usual composure that bled confidence, her regal stature, all of it compromised by how beaten down she was.

Turning, Twilight threw up a magical shield around them before Nightmare could do anything else.

In response, she just lowered her brow. “Really?”

“You won’t touch her,” Twilight growled. “I won’t let you get the chance.”

“Twilight…” Celestia whispered.

Nightmare Moon chuckled lowly. “To think I actually thought you had potential. Is this what you want? To throw away your life to protect her?”

“Twilight, run. You have to get out of here!” Celestia pleaded.

“You know, Sparkle, as much as it makes me want to vomit, I actually see a little bit of myself in you.”

Twilight squinted. “W-What?”

“Scorned by the same pony, prone to isolation,” Nightmare looked away for a moment. “Though in your case, intentional.”

“Don’t even compare us! We are nothing alike!” Twilight yelled. “I spent my time trying to fix the Elements for the good of Equestria. You want to plunge the world into eternal night!”

Nightmare tsked. “Oh don’t try to act all high and mighty about it. You were repairing the Elements to fix your standing with her, not because you cared for the good of Equestria. Am I right?”

Twilight pressed her lips together in a thin line. Thinking back on it, she couldn’t deny her motivations were a little selfish. But that didn’t make her a bad pony, right?

“I thought so. You’re just a spell away from where I’m standing, Twilight. Don’t lie to yourself.”

That’s not true. “You’re wrong!”

“Am I?” Her sinister voice sent a shiver down Twilight’s spine.

And then Nightmare ripped through her bubble with one swift slash of her horn.

Twilight’s eyes widened as she watched her shield dissipate. Tiny fragments fluttered before her like popped balloon bits. Her jaw met the ground.

“Remember how she treated you back at the Everfree?” Nightmare hissed. “How dismissive she was of you? I was there, I could hear the contempt in her voice, Twilight. Don’t waste your time defending her. Step aside now, and I will consider being merciful.”

Twilight swallowed, her legs shaking. The dark figure of Nightmare loomed over her, letting her know in more ways than one just how outclassed she was. If she stood her ground, there wouldn’t be a fight; it would be a slaughter.

“Twilight, it’s okay. You don’t need to protect me,” Celestia told her. She struggled her hooves, limbs wobbly.

“No!” Twilight lit up her horn, digging in her heels. “I won’t let her do this! She can’t do this!”

“Oh, how touching.” Nightmare Moon smirked. “Are you going to hug, too?”

Twilight gritted her teeth, and let her horn glow brighter. She was ready to put the full force of her magic behind her next spell, hoping it would be enough to counter whatever Nightmare was planning on.

Dark horn raised and blazing, Nightmare struck an intimidating pose over her. Just feeling the magic radiating off of her let Twilight know she stood no chance, but she still refused to back down.

“No hug then?” Nightmare grinned. “How about the sweet embrace of death instead.” Her horn flared, ready to attack.

“Stop!”

Twilight did a double take as Derpy planted herself in-between them. Determination and grit dominated her face as she looked up at evil incarnate.

Nightmare actually paused. “Derpy, get out of my way.”

“No!” Derpy spread her wings, hooves outstretched to block Nightmare as much as her tiny body could. “You can’t do this Nightmare.”

“I’m fairly certain I can.”

Derpy narrowed her eyes. “Then you’ll have to kill me too, because I’m not moving.”

Twilight blinked. “Derpy…”

Nightmare narrowed her eyes. But, to Twilight’s surprise, she didn’t blow them all away right away. Instead, a dark blue aura wrapped around Derpy and lifted her into the air.

“Hey!” She thrashed around, but couldn’t escape as Nightmare lightly tossed her over to the side.

“Now then, where were we?” Nightmare turned back to Twilight and Celestia. “Ah yes, your timely demises.” She lowered her horn.

Twilight winced as her horn flared. Celestia’s wing suddenly jumped in front of her view, and she felt her teacher wrap her forelegs around her as a last minute sheild.

“I said no!”

Twilight could barely see it through Celestia’s feathers, but Derpy flew back in and pushed Nightmare’s head away just as a bolt of magic launched out of it. The beam flew past them, barely grazing Celestia’s coat before racing off to the horizon.

Celestia lowered her wing in shock, giving Twilight a good look at the astonishment on Nightmare’s face.

She glanced down at a narrow-eyed Derpy. “What are you doing?”

Derpy just frowned at her. “Nightmare, I’m not letting you go through with this.”

“You cannot be serious right now.” Nightmare looked at Twilight. “Is she serious?”

Twilight just nodded.

“Freaking fantastic.”

Derpy stamped her hoof against the ground. “Nightmare, if you go through with this then I will never, ever be able to forgive you and that’s a promise.”

Nightmare Moon bared her fangs. “Oh, don’t even. I have been working for this day for a thousand years! I mastered dark magic spells the likes of which would turn your mortal mind to mush. I have lived through a thousand years of isolation. Do you honestly think losing your friendship would matter to me?”

“Yes, I do.” Derpy said plainly.

They dropped into a chilling silence. Twilight felt goose bumps as she looked between the two, waiting for somepony to say something.

Finally, Nightmare narrowed her eyes. “Then you don’t know me.”

“I know you better than you think!” Derpy fired back. “I know you’re not a bad pony deep down. You’re just angry and hurt. But you don’t have to take out that anger on the ponies around you! I want to be your friend; I want to help you. Don’t push me away.”

“I’ve already been pushed away,” Nightmare said lowly. She looked out to Canterlot and the land beyond. “By my country. By my subjects.” Her head swiveled back, eyes drilling Celestia. “By my sister. I’m not the one pushing here, Derpy. I’m grabbing at what I can so it will never leave me again. I’m taking what is rightfully mine!”

“That won’t fix you,” Derpy whispered. Nightmare actually finched. “You’ll just be lonely forever. You’ll be empty forever. Please Nightmare… I don’t want that to happen to you.”

More silence. Less chilling and more pensive this time, however.

A house walked by the gardens in the meantime.

Twilight finally cleared her throat. “Listen, Nightmare, I know you’re mad at Princess Celestia but right now Equestria is facing a bigger problem than your emotional-ego trip.”

“I promise you nothing in this world is bigger than that,” Nightmare growled.

“Regardless,” Twilight snapped. “You know Equestria’s in danger. And you know Discord is a threat you can’t handle on your own.”

“Says you!” Nightmare growled.

“Says logic!” Twilight fired back. “He is way too powerful for any of us to defeat alone. Just look at the sky! Look at those houses!”

“Humph.” Nightmare rolled her eyes, looking at neither. “Anypony could do that.”

Twilight frowned, but detect a hint of hesitation behind Nightmare’s bravado.

“Luna,” Celestia interjected. “We could only beat him with the Elements last time.”

Nightmare bared her fangs. “You shut up before I finish the job I started!” Celestia snapped her jaw shut.

“That’s enough!” Twilight puffed up her chest, adding a whole twenty percent more to her intimidation factor. “You have to help us stop Discord. The only way we stand a chance against him is together.”

“Nothing about that doesn’t make me want to vomit.” Nightmare Moon narrowed her eyes. “I really can’t fathom how you think I’ll actually help you.”

Twilight bit her lip. She was running out of convincing arguments, and Nightmare still undoubtedly wanted to kill them.

“Would you do it for me?” Derpy asked. “Would you do it because we’re friends?”

Nightmare blinked in response. Though Twilight couldn't see Derpy’s face, she was willing to bet that the evilest mare in existence was on the receiving end of one heck of a puppy-dog face. But even if Derpy could make her criss-crossed eyes the size of dinner saucers, that wouldn’t work.

“Could I get more blueberry muffins?” Nightmare asked.

...Wait, did that just work?

Derpy smiled. “Sure, I know Bon Bon would be happy to make some. We can eat them later today while you and Princess Celestia talk out your differences.”

Nightmare looked ready to kill again. “Don’t ruin muffins for me.”

“Wait, you mean you’re actually going to help us?” Celestia asked. From the sound of her voice it felt like she might pass out from sheer disbelief. That, or she was becoming just the slightest bit hopeful that Nightmare could be saved.

“No, ‘Sister of the Millennium’, I’m going to help myself.” She pointed to Twilight. “It’s like this idiot said, I can use you all as meat shields to make beating Discord easier.”

“Well, I didn’t put it like that,” Twilight mumbled.

“You I still very much plan to kill,” Nightmare growled at Celestia.

Announcing her intentions of sororicide didn’t really seem to faze the Princess that much anymore. She just frowned as she looked out to Equestria. “I just don’t know how we can stop Discord. Even with all of us combined, I fear we don’t stand a chance.”

“Oh, well then we better get the Elements back together,” Derpy said.

Celestia’s eyes widened as she swerved around to look at Derpy. “Wait, you mean the Elements of Harmony were restored?”

Derpy nodded simply. “Yup, Twilight did it.”

Princess Celestia couldn’t widen her eyes any further. She turned to Twilight as her shock morphed into pride. “Heh… of course she did.” She gave Twilight a smile of adoration. “If anypony could do the impossible, it’s you.”

Twilight’s heart swelled at the words. It had been weeks since she heard praise from Princess Celestia and although it was a little painful to admit, it was still a drug she was addicted to.

“So where are the Elements?” Celestia asked. She looked around briefly, as if they would suddenly spawn into existence right in front of her. “Did you leave them with Shining and Cadance?”

“Uhh…” Twilight didn’t have a good answer to that, and she really didn’t want to go into withdrawal.

“I think mine’s over there.” Derpy pointed off to the horizon.

Feeling the sudden tug in her mind, Twilight couldn’t resist turning opposite of Derpy.

“Wait, you mean the Elements have been scattered?” Fear crept into Celestia’s voice.

Derpy nodded simply. “Yup, Discord did it.”

Celestia’s ears folded down. “Oh my.”

“Hmmph, it seems even when your student succeeds, she still screws up,” Nightmare gloated.

“Don’t worry!” Twilight quickly jumped into Celestia’s line of sight. “I’ve cast a tracking spell on them. Right now all of my friends are out hunting down their Elements.”

“Your… friends?” Twilight feared Celestia had received one too many surprises today.

“We should probably find ours too,” Derpy said. “I’m sure everypony else is nearly done by now.”

“Right.” Twilight looked back to Princess Celestia, taking in how exhausted the Princess looked. In her state, hunting down the Elements or fighting Discord was out of the question. Unless… “Princess, do you think you could fly to the Everfree Forest like this?”

Celestia extended her wings and gave them a light flap. “I’m sure I can find the strength to, why?”

Twilight just smiled. “I think we need to make a pit stop is all.”

“A what?”

“Oh yeah! The Tree!” Derpy exclaimed excitedly.

Celestia blinked. “You mean the Tree of Harmony?”

“Yes, we found it!” Twilight told her. “And it really looks like you could stand to touch it right now.”

“...What?”

“I’ll explain everything on the way,” Twilight assured her. “Derpy are you ready to fly?”

“Sure thing!” Derpy wiped the sweat from her brow and spread her wings. Though she was trying to hide it, Twilight could tell she was breathing heavily. She wasn’t entirely sure Derpy could make it all the way back to the Forest either.

Suddenly, Derpy was wrapped in a dark blue aura and lifted into the air. Before she could even react she found herself lowered onto Nightmare Moon’s back.

“What?” Derpy blinked in surprise.

“You’re tired,” Nightmare said simply. “You won’t make it if you have to fly all the way back to the Everfree while carrying that fat flank.”

“HEY!” Twilight growled.

“Aww thanks Nightmare. Also, I’m pretty sure Twilight’s an average weight for her body size.”

Nightmare snorted, dignifying neither response.

“Uh, but what about me?” Twilight asked.

“I’m not letting two ponies on my back,” Nightmare retorted lowly. “You’re lucky I deigned to hold one of you.”

“Hmm,” Derpy tapped her chin. “What if I carried Twilight while you carry me?”

“No.”

Twilight frowned, but changed that quickly when Celestia bent down.

“You can ride with me, Twilight,” Princess Celestia said. “I’m certain I can make it to the Everfree with you as well.”

Twilight smiled. She climbed onto her back as Celestia unfurled her wings. “Thank you, Princess.”

“I should be thanking you,” Celestia said. “Thanks to you, we have a chance.”