Optional Chapter 1: Rarity's story (not to be confused with Brain's story!)

For a moment everything was covered in a thick cloud of magical smoke. Then all she could see was stars. Finally, as the fog started to clear, she found herself in an alley somewhere. This definitely wasn't the Crystal Castle, and it certainly wasn't anywhere in Unicornia.

Where was she and how did she get here? Where did Brights Brightly and Whistle Wishes go? And the princess book? And the wand? She started asking herself, getting ever more frantic.

"Excuse me madam, but there's no loitering allowed at this location." Said a large winged hornless unicorn dressed in some kind of armor, interrupting her panic attack. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave!" He said, stamping his foot, and muttering something to himself about vagabonds.

"Of course sir, sorry about that!" She said, stumbling out in a haze. Did that odd winged hornless unicorn not recognize her? And where was Rarity?

"Oh no! Rarity!" She screamed to herself in fright, suddenly realizing where she was and what happened. "I have to find her!"

********

Some time earlier.

********

"And then they lived happily ever after!" Cheerilee said, tucking in the little pink unicorn that had recently come under her supervision and mentoring, closing the door quietly on her way out.

It had been only a few days since this year's Crystal Rainbow Princess had been chosen to begin her training, under her watchful care -- and Cheerilee was already at already at work mentoring the young pink unicorn for the job. Sadly, much work had to be completed for this year's Princess Rainbow Ceremony, in the spring. It was good that she was so much easier to convince to go to bed then she normally was: Cheerilee had a whole night's worth of work ahead of her.

Normally, by this point, they would, already, have the ribbons and banners ready; but things were put in a kerfuffle last year, when the flower's didn't get pollinated at a reasonable time -- for some reason (maybe the pollinators got districted with some silly promenade or something?) This meant, of course, that she couldn't start on this year's Princess Rainbow Ceremony when she normally would. And, of course, this meant she had to re-plan almost everything.

"Better get a cup of tea! This is going to be a long night." She said to herself, quietly, as she sat down at her desk, a pencil and paper handy. "So because the flower's didn't grow on time, then that means that the wreaths didn't get made; and that means that banners and ribbon's got thrown off by three months. That means that..." She said, trailing off as she turned her focus to her work.

The planning went on well into the night. Sometime around midnight, though, the purple unicorn -- and the most senior among the four unicorns that brought the rainbow every year -- decided that she needed another cup of tea.

"Ok, just a couple of minutes for the tea to steep, and then back to the planning." She yawned. "Hopefully I can get this done in time to get a little sleep." She said, right as a blinding light could be seen in the sky to the north, and a booming crash.

"Wow! That was interesting!" she said to herself, with astonishment. "That definitely doesn't happen every night." She said, grabbing her tea and returning to her room.

She threw herself into the job she had done for most of her life, preparing for the First Rainbow of the season and the Princess Rainbow Ceremony. However, shortly after returning to her work, a loud shriek could be heard booming throughout the castle: "Not without you!"

"That sounded like Rarity!" Cheerilee said, with some concern. "I'll probably regret this, but I should check on her." She said, trotting off to the little foal's room.

She hovered close to the door for a minute trying to determine if it was safe to enter before deciding to open the door carefully, in case the young foal was still asleep. The young foal was, indeed awake and sitting up on the side of her bed, sobbing uncontrollably -- hiccupping between sobs.

"You ok, Rarity?" She asked the young foal, with concern. "I heard you screaming, and I wanted to see if you were ok."

"Oh Cheerilee, I had the most horrible nightmare! It started as such a nice dream about super fun rubber balls, and then things went really, really, bad." She said, hiccupping.

"Here! Let me come closer, and you can tell me all about it." She said, sitting down next to the young filly, on the side of the bed.

"Oh Cheerilee! I failed you!" She said, between sobs. "I let you and Unicornia down! I could've saved you both! But I failed!"

"There! There!" The older unicorn said, putting her front leg around the filly. "Tell me what happened."

"I don't know if I want to!" She said, looking away, her eyes full of terror. "You'll probably hate me!"

This didn't sound like the normally cheerful filly at all. Where was all the talk about just having fun? Where was her eternal laughter?

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, Rarity. I just thought that it might make it easier on you if you let it out. Are you worried about being this year's Crystal Rainbow Princess?"

"No! Well maybe! yes?" She said, uncertain of how to unload her feelings. "I don't know!" She said, her eyes full of anxiety.

"Well! Why don't you start by telling me what you dreamed?" The purple unicorn said, with her best smile.

"Ok, well basically I was dreaming about super-fun rubber balls! And then all of a sudden, it was different." She said, her eyes puffy from crying, but it looked like she was starting to feel better. "But then it was like I was here, in Unicornia. And there was two other people, whose names I can't remember, and you." She said, starting to cry again. "And we were all happy, and then everything started to go wrong. First everything started to vanish." She said, her voice getting ever more hysterical.

"And then everything was gone! First whomever it was took away Lily, and then Brights Brightly, and finally Whistle Wishes and Unicornia and everything!"

"Who took them away?" Cheerilee asked, hugging the young unicorn closely. "Wow! whatever it is she dreamed about really got her worked up."

"I don't know!" Rarity squealed quietly. "I can't remember! I don't want to remember!" She screamed.

Cheerilee just held the filly still for a second. Maybe she should go?

After a few minutes, though. Rarity began to talk again. "It was the darkness! But there was someone in it! And it was whistling and laughing!" Rarity said, sobbing. "Laughing at us!" She said, shaking violently. "And then it was going to take me! And the others! And you too!" She said, starting to sob again, hiccupping a little.

"Who is she talking about? The other unicorns?" Cheerilee thought to herself. "And why is she convinced that the others and I are going away?"

"But I used the wand to teleport away; but you demanded to stay behind! You said it would be safer if you stayed behind!" Rarity said, looking up into Cheerilee's eyes. " I should have forced you to come with us! I failed you! I let you down! And whoever it was took you too!" She exclaimed, starting another round of hiccupping and sobbing -- this time into her mentor's chest. "And I tried to stop it, I tried to fight it to bring you back, but I failed!!! I failed you!!! And now you're going away! Never to be seen again! POOF!!! "

"There, there!" She said, in her most motherly voice, hugging the sobbing filly tight. "It'll be ok! I promise you, it's just a nightmare! You're fine! See!" She said, gently putting a hoof to her chest. "And I'm still here aren't I?"

"Yeah, I suppose." She said, starting to calm down.

"And I promise you: you haven't failed me! And I'm not going anywhere! And we'll be together, at least as long as you remain Crystal Rainbow Princess!" Cheerilee said, trying to comfort the hysterical filly.

"You promise? Cheerilee?" She asked. "But aren't you still angry about me failing you? And letting you down?"

"I promise! And look: you haven't failed me. I'm still here, and so is Brights Brightly, and Whistle Wishes!" She said, with a smile. "And everyone else is fine to!" Cheerilee said with a smile, one more time. "Now you feel better?"

"Sure, but could you sleep in here with me tonight?" Rarity asked, looking anxious.

"Sure, I'll grab my sleeping bag, and some pillows. And I'll join you in here." Cheerilee said, trying to comfort the little filly. "I guess I won't finish that work tonight..." She thought, frowning on the inside. "Just means more work for tomorrow." She contemplated to herself, with a sigh.

********

Today.

********

A clamor could be heard outside the castle as a seemingly endless rain of strange bug ponies descended upon the unsuspecting unicorn city. At first the unicorns tried to introduce themselves only to be greeted with violence -- one unsuspecting green unicorn with a smiling cloud symbol got bucked in the gut as she tried to introduce herself. Quickly panic ensued as unicorns scattered far and wide -- fruitlessly trying to escape the inevitable.

Meanwhile at the top of the hill.

"Rarity! Rarity! Where are you!" Cheerilee called out in desperation. "We have to get out of here now!" She shouted, upturning pots, and throwing over tables. Oh where had that unicorn run off to? And at the worst possible moment.

"Brights Brightly!? Whistle Wishes!? Where are you! We need to find Rarity and get out of here now!" She screamed, swallowing her panic at the last second.

"It's no use!" Said Brights Brightly! "They're everywhere! What do we do Cheerilee?"

"I don't know..." Cheerilee said, swallowing more panic. "Whistle Wishes, we have to find Rarity and get the wand. It's out only hope!" She said, before realizing something to her horror. "THE WAND!!!!"

"No! No! No! This can't be good!" Why was she so sure that that silly filly was going to try to touch the wand? No! She was certain that silly filly was going to try and use the wand! "She's not ready to touch the wand! She doesn't even know the Princess Twirl yet!" Cheerilee said, in panic, hearing Lily Lightly screaming just outside the castle.

"Brights Brightly! Block the door, at least for a few minutes!" Cheerilee said, desperately, knowing that Brights Brightly wouldn't be able to hold the door closed for long. "We need all the time we can get!" She said, galloping as fast as her legs would carry her, hoping to get to the wand and the Crystal Dome, before it was too late. Hoping all the way that she was wrong.

"No! No! No! She's still too young, and with all those nightmares she's been having she might try to do something dangerous! And it'll all be my fault!"

Sure enough, coming under the dome she could see her young student opening the box where they kept the magic wand. "No Rarity! Don't touch that!" She said, in horror.

"I'm sorry Cheerilee, I have to!" The filly unicorn said, with resolve. "I can't lose you again!" The young unicorn continued, her face unflinching. "I'm not going to let anyone down again! Not you! Not Brights Brightly! Not Whistle Wishes or Lily Lightly or anyone!"

"Um guys... they're coming!" Shouted Whistle Wishes as she tried to keep the doors shut with her body. But It wasn't long before the doors started to budge, causing Cheerilee to join her blue unicorn friend in holding the doors shut with their own weight.

Rarity began to wave the wand, not once, nor twice, nor even thrice.

"Rarity! What are you doing!? That's not how you do the Princess Twirl!"

"I'm not doing the Princess Twirl Cheerilee" Said Rarity, with a frown. Looking straight into her mentor's eyes. "I'm going to teleport everyone this time!" She said, steeling her resolve.

"What are you talking about Rarity? You've never used the wand before. You don't know how dangerous it is!" Cheerilee said, her face saying no as loudly as it could, as the young unicorn started to shake in pain -- still desperately holding onto the wand.

Instantly Cheerilee, who had been watching this scene in horror, began to lunge forward to stop her young mentee, letting go of the door.

"Cheerilee! The door!" Shouted Whistle Wishes as the door flew open, sending Whistle Wishes flying into the floor.

"Bravo! That is some tasty despair, and desperation, out of you." Captain Raphanus said, with a smile. "I should probably have forced my way in earlier. But..." He said, with a sadistic smile. "Too bad I'm not permitted to feed!" He said to all three unicorns in the room. "Grab the two by the door, I'll grab that pathetic filly." He said, turning to his soldiers.

"Cheerilee!" Said the young unicorn with a frown, and a dazed expression, forcing herself to continue moving despite the excruciating pain she was feeling. "I'll save you!" She shouted, her eyes springing back to life.

All Cheerilee could do was scream in terror as these horrible predators grabbed her and started to drag her away.

"Take them all to the base camp!" Captain Raphanus commanded. " Vladímir will decide their fates. And nopony is to feed unless given an order by Vladímir himself!"

The changeling captain looked at the small filly, the only free unicorn in the room, and started to laugh. She looked so pathetic, desperately holding onto a child's toy in her mutant little paw -- desperately trying to help her worthless friends against the inevitable. "Oh what are you going to do with that worthless toy? Cause me to laugh to death?" Said the changeling captain as the filly tossed the wand up into the air with everything she had, crumpling onto the ground, unconscious -- or worse.

"Oh wow! She's going to impress us with her 'wand throwing skills' boys!" Captain Raphanus said, howling with laughter -- just before unicorns (and all other kinds of G3 pony, for that matter) started to disappear into puffs of smoke right before his eyes.

********

"Well another day, another bit." Cheerilee said to herself, with a sigh. She could just sense that today was going to be one of those days. Most days were good for her, and she really did like her job. But every once in a while...

"Here Ms. Cheerilee! Let me help you with that bag." Said a exuberant young white unicorn. "Wow it's heavy!" She said, dropping the bag on the ground with a crash.

"Well.. there goes today's science lesson." Cheerilee said to herself with a sigh. The young unicorn just stood there with a 'sorry puppy dog expression'. "It's ok Sweetie Belle, I can take care of this." Cheerilee said, feeling defeated. She didn't want to upset the filly, after all, she just didn't want to change her lesson plans for the afternoon.

"Let me help you with that!" Said an tomboyish, young pegasus, ripping her saddle bag off. "Wow!" The young unicorn said, taking a quick peek at the contents of the bag. "The homework answers are in here! Score!"

"Scootaloo, please stay away from those!" Cheerilee chastised. Those answers were for her eyes only, and she was pretty sure that the young pegasus didn't do her homework today.

"Sorry 'bout breaking yer plant thing-a-ma-bob! Maybe I can use this potion I got from Zecora to!" The earth pony of the trio said, mulling through her saddle bag.

"Girls! Girls! GIRLS!!!!" Cheerilee said, and eventually shouted, trying to get their attention.

"Yes, Ms. Cheerillee?" Asked all three young ponies said, suddenly materializing before her, all doing the puppy dog eyes.

"Girls, I appreciate your help! I really do! But I've got everything well under hoof." She said, breathing a little, to calm down. These were her precious little flowers, and she was going to make them grow! "What brings you girls up at this hour? I didn't expect you to arrive until just after class started?"

"Well I wanted to Ms. Cheerilee, but Rarity said that this was the perfect opportunity for us to be..."

"Oh No! Here it comes!" Thought Cheerilee, trying to hold her ears as tight to her head as she could.

"CUTIE MARK CRUSADER: TEACHER'S PETS!!!!!!!!!!! YAYYY!!!!!!!" Shouted all three girls in unison, at the top of their lungs.

"Well great!!" Said Cheerilee, a fake, but quite convincing smile plastered to her face. "Why don't you come with me, and help me set up for today's lesson?"

"Sure thing Ms. Cheerilee!" Said all three crusader's in unison.

"I've got dibs on her bags!" Shouted one girl

"I've got dibs on the bugs!" Shouted another

"I've got dibs on..."

"Girls! Girls!! GIRLS!!!!" She shouted, all three girls turning their attention to her again. "We'll all work on it together."

"Why don't you help me with this," Cheerilee said, pointing to one thing. "And you help me with that." She said pointing to another. "We're almost at the school house anyways." She said, approaching the old red school house -- hoping that no more havoc would be wrought. "Ok, now stand back while I open the door, and!"

"Girls!" she shouted, being suddenly sent spinning in circles by the three exuberant youngsters.

After a few seconds, she regained her composure (or at least she thought she did).

"Well lookie here!" She said to herself with a smile. "Somepony is eager!" She said, seeing a tiny pink unicorn, laying on the floor near the chalk board, with the most beautiful rainbow mane, and tail (and with a giant mutant muzzle.) Her horn was still not fully grown in, meaning that she couldn't be more than six -- most likely she was five or less.

"Wake up little one! I'm glad you could come in early, but it's not good to sleep out here! " She said with a smile. The little one wasn't waking up. "Where are your parents?"

"Are you ok?" She asked, her face showing concern, as the dear didn't respond. "Oh dear... She's barely breathing." Cheerilee remarked, checking the filly's breathing, which was labored at best.

"Girls! GIRLS!!!!" Cheerilee shouted, looking for the tiny bullets that had mowed her down earlier. "Now where are those Crusaders when I need them?"

The little one started to stir, just a hair. Barely looking up, she glanced for a second at the teacher's Cutie Mark. "Ch.... Cheerilee?"

"Oh thank Celestia she's still alive." Cheerilee thought to herself, glad for small miracles. "Girls where are you?" She shouted, hoping the three overeager fillies would materialize again. "I think now would be the perfect time for you to earn your Cutie Marks as: Cutie Mark Crusader Ambulance drivers!" She said, hoping to get their attention, wherever they were.

"I'm sorry Cheerilee, but I had to use the wand." The filly said, looking distraught. "I couldn't lose you again!" She said, her eyes starting to close again.

"How does she know my name, or is she talking to somepony else?" Cheerilee thought, trying to avoid looking like she was going to panic -- she was a teacher after all, and panic might send the little filly further into shock. "It's ok dear. I forgive you." She said to the little one, in a comforting voice. "Now why don't you stay awake, and we can talk about stuff! Maybe I can teach you something?" She said, hoping to prevent the filly from passing out. "Where were those blasted crusaders?" She asked herself again, in the privacy of her own mind.

Suddenly a sound could be heard behind her of a wooden scooter, and a small red cart being dragged through the school doors, knocking them off their hinges, and practically out of the wall. "Sorry about that Cheerilee!!!" All three crusaders said, blushing slightly.

"That's ok girls." She said, once again swallowing the urge to face hoof. "Their recklessness may be just what this little filly needs." Cheerilee thought to herself, looking at the small filly.

"Did somepony say the needed CUTIE MARK CRUSADER AMBULENCE DRIVERS!!!" The crusaders asked with huge smiles.

"Sure! Girls, please get this little one to the hospital as quickly as you can!" Cheerilee said, begging the one thing, of the crusaders, that made the least sense. "Faust have mercy on all of us..." She thought to herself. "What horror have I unleashed on you Ponyville!?" She thought to herself, her face filled with terror.

"You coming with... with us Cheerilee?" Asked the little one, barely awake.

"Yes." She said, staring in the child's baby blue eyes. Was there a two highlights in there? And was one of the highlights a yellow star? Weird... "I'll be along in a second." Cheerilee said, mustering her most convincing smile. "I just have to get somepony to stand in for me." The filly's eyes started to glaze over in horror, like she had just said something that spoke straight into the filly's nightmares. "I promise! You'll see!" She said, looking the filly straight in the eye, and speaking with all the conviction she could muster. She had no idea why the filly was so horrified of her saying she would catch up. However, she had no more time to press the issue any further.

"She's in bad shape!" Said Scootaloo, quoting a movie she had seen somewhere. "We have to move NOW!" She said, taking off like a rocket, ripping the doors completely out of the wall. "Sorry about that Cheerilee!" The three crusaders said, as they flew off, at high speeds, into the distance (With Sweetie Belle making ambulance sounds along the way to the hospital.)

Now she had to face hoof... But the face hoof didn't last long, looking down she saw something odd. "And what did she have here?" She asked. "Some kind of toy wand? Maybe the little one dropped it." She speculated out loud. "I'll hold onto it for you, for safe keeping!" She said to herself, as if speaking to the little one that just flew out the room -- carried in a cart by three hyperactive fillies.

********

"Ok girls." Said a very agitated doctor, with a stethoscope for a Cutie Mark, as they sat in his office. "What did you do to her? Hit her with that cart? Fall on her while being Cutie Mark Crusader paratroopers?" He said, waving his front hooves around, jazz-hands style."Maybe you tried out another potion? I heard about that whole Cutie Pox incident!" He said, accusatively, looking at Apple Bloom directly.

"We didn't do nutting! Honest!" Said Apple Bloom, looking uneasy. "We found her this way, and when Ms. Cheerilee comes in, she can go and vouch for us!"

"Well we'll find out, because I guess that must be her now!" Said the doctor, giving the girls the stink eye once again. "And where is that blasted new doctor anyway?"

"He's in the Everfree overseeing the transportation of a patient." Said a nurse, with a heart Cutie Mark.

"Why does he need to be there for that?" The doctor snarled.

"'Because they'll get it wrong, and I'll have to pick up the pieces!' He said, I think." Replied the nurse, dripping with sarcasm.

In the room, a small intercom started to ring. The doctor walked over, in a huff, and picked it up. "Doctor Stethoscope, a Ms. Cheerilee is here." The nurse on the other end said clinically.

"Excellent!" He said, with an accusatory smile. "Bring her in, maybe she can fill us in on what these three hooligans did!"

"Hooligans!?" Shouted Scootaloo, her back arched, her fur standing on end, just itching for a fight. "Say that again! I dare you!"

"Hooligans!?" Whined Sweetie Belle, starting to cry. "We're not hooligans!" She said, balling like a young foal.

"HOOLIGANS!!!! When mah sister hears that!" Apple Bloom said, with a scowl. "You'll be sorry!" She Exclaimed, belligerently, sure her sister would eventually show up to defend her -- and then the doctor should watch out!

********

Cheerilee staggered out into the strange stone streets, looking for something familiar -- anything familiar -- but nothing seemed to make any sense. Why did all the ponies look so different, and why didn't anyone recognize her?

"Excuse me. Hello there--" She said, speaking to a young unicorn, and her foal.

"Don't look Diamond Eyes!" The mother responded, putting her hoof over her foal's eyes. "It's some kind of deranged crazy pony!" She said, with disdain (don't blame her, Cheerilee must have looked really odd with her oversized horn and muzzle.)

"Why will no one talk to me?" She asked herself, swallowing the desire to start crying. As the senior of the four unicorns that brought the rainbows each season, she'd have sworn someone would recognize her. And where did Brights Brightly and Whistle Wishes go? Did those horrible bug ponies take them away? She had to find everyone fast. She had to hurry and...

"Oooffff..." She said, bumping into a pair of unicorns. "Oh I'm terribly sorry." She said, blushing through her purple coat. "I'm looking for someone. And I wasn't paying enough attention to where I was going."

The pair just looked at her, with an expression that screamed both agitation, and condescension.

"Anyway, have you seen her? She's this year's Crystal Rainbow Princess." Cheerilee asked, as politely as she could.

"And we care why?" The female of the pair finally spoke. "You bumped into us, and nearly caused my husband to rend his shoulder. You are lucky we don't take you in on charges!"

"Did she say this year's princess?" The stallion asked to the mare accompanying him, both laughing at the absurdity of the statement, with a haughty demeanor.

"Yes, she's a small pink unicorn no more than five years old, and she has rainbow hair." Cheerilee said, desperate for help.

"Pink? Princess? She must be thinking of Cadance, dear, and she's obviously deranged!" The male of the pair said, his voice starting to crack again. "The Princess certainly doesn't have 'rainbow' anything!" He said, laughing harder than before. "And she's certainly older than five!"

"Yes, this year's Crystal Princess: Princess Rarity." Cheerilee said, finishing her request.

"Princess Rarity!" Said the female, breaking out into laughter. "This mare is clearly on the bottle." She said, holding onto her husband 'lest she fall over with laughter'.

"Well, ms--" Started the male, swallowing chuckles.

"Cheerilee, sir." Cheerilee responded, now frowning. Why did these ponies make light of the Crystal Rainbow Princess? Didn't they know if she wasn't found then there would be no rainbows this season? (And all the color would disappear from the world -- ok only in G3 world.)

"Yes, quite. Ms. Cheerilee, you need to have an audience to talk with the princess. Bumpkin..." The male responded, swallowing another laughing fit. "You can't approach a princess without one!"

Had they found little Rarity already? But why would she, Rarity's mentor need to jump through hoops to see her? Cheerilee simply stood there baffled.

"Yes, and to get one of those by knowing the princess." Responded the female.

"No... That can't be right. I was just at the Crystal Castle, and Rarity cast a spell, and I need to find her." Cheerilee said, about to break down.

"Obviously inbred." Said the male, snickering to his female counterpart. "Just look at that muzzle of hers!"

"And that horn!" She said, laughing raucously, as the two of them headed off. "Come on Jet Set, we simply must be going, we have real, non imaginary things to do and ponies to find!"

********

"Any luck doctor?" Asked Doctor Stethoscope, of his colleague, who was busy browsing through every medical book at his disposal. "Apparently the teacher confirms their story. They had nothing to do with the filly's sickness." He continued, while he waited for the other doctors to arrive.

After a couple of minutes, half the floor's faculty came streaming in. Half the doctors having run every test they could think of on the strange pink filly who's condition continued to worsen.

"Huh... I was sure... Oh well! Let's run over the tests we've run." One of doctor Stethoscope's colleagues said, bringing out a board covered in writing.

"It couldn't be hypothermia, her temperature is too high for that, but might start dropping soon, if we don't figure this out." Replied Doctor X-ray, nervously adjusting his glasses.

"She's not malnourished, though we're waiting on blood tests to finish to see if she has a vitamin deficiency." Said a nurse, brining in some paperwork requested by the Doctor Medicine Stamp.

"Did our scans find any foreign bodies in her system?" Asked Doctor Health chart, to the nurse who was still in the room.

"No! Doctor. And it looks like her enlarged muzzle is genetic, and not due to swelling. We think it's a non serious genetic disease, probably a family trait." The nurse responded, with a frown.

"Doctor Pathology Report. Did any of the symptoms match any disease we have on record?"

"Nope partner." Said a doctor with a cowboy hat. "And none in the blood work either." The doctor responded, looking down.

"Ok! Her condition is quickly worsening, we need a reason, and we need one fast! Ponyville General prides itself in not losing patients! And I intend to do everything in my power to keep it that way!" Said a frowning doctor Horse. "So I need you all to buck up, and help me think!" He said, with a smile, trying to encourage the other doctors in the room.

"Have you checked her magic levels?" Asked, a doctor as he slowly entered the room, his hooves clopping the whole way.

"Look Doctor, I'm sure you fancy yourself the smartest doctor in the history of medicine! But I'm sure that we won't find anything by checking her magic levels! For one thing: if she had no magic she wouldn't be able to render a Cutie Mark and she's, by far, the youngest pony I've ever seen to have one." Said a scowling Doctor Stethoscope, convinced the newcomer was a fraud.

"Oh so you must have already run the test then?" Asked the surly old doctor, convinced that an important test was being skipped.

"No we haven't! But if she had too little magic we'd know by simply looking at her, and if she had too much, she'd be running a fever, or she would be experiencing horrific headaches." Doctor Stethoscope replied, matter-of-factly.

"Run! The! Tests!" The old doctor responded, commandingly.

"It's not safe for the patient! She's not in good shape, and getting worse by the second." Doctor Stethoscope replied, reminding his 'colleague' of the obvious. "She might not be able to take the loss of blood." Replied Doctor Stethoscope.

"Ok! Well I'll be tending other patients then, the new one should be arriving now and I want to make sure those blockheads don't botch the delivery." He replied, with a haute voice. "You can tell me what those results say." He said shaking his head -- with names like Doctor X-Ray, Pathology Report, and Stethoscope, he could tell they were winners.

"Fine! Nurse, run the test for doctor superiority over there! I almost hope he's wrong for a change, if it wasn't for that fact that it's the only lead we have!" Said Doctor Stethoscope, with a sigh.

********

"Aunty, I don't see why you had to go to the Crystal Empire personally." Blueblood whined. "We could've been caught... OR WORSE!!!" He continued stating, in an exasperated tone. "Who knows what those rapscallions would've done!" Blueblood said, with an eye twitch. "And I'm too important to -- "

"Look Blueblood, I suppose you are right." Celestia said, with a hidden sigh. "But in this matter I needed to take liberty: I almost lost my little ponies twice to those monsters, and I won't do so again." Celestia replied, looking solemn.

"Yes, and your student too." Blueblood said, deadpan. "Couldn't you've sent Kibitz, or Twilight instead?" He chastised, his ego showing. "Shining Armor! He would certainly be able to handle this!" He said, before remembering the obvious (well that wedding was... um.... just a bore anyway!) "That's right he's taking care of your niece." Blueblood said to himself, blushing slightly. "Well maybe Flash... Whatever his name is!" Blueblood said, his confidence never shaken.

"Yes, Blueblood, I could have." Celestia admitted. "But I felt it better to do it myself, to keep my little ponies' spirits up!" She said, with a smile.

"Then why did you have to bring me along? How would Canterlot survive without my guidance?"

Celestia rolled her eyes (and rolled them a second time for good effect.)

"We're arriving in Canterlot now, your majesty." Interrupted one of the two pegasus guards, who was guiding the chariot. "You have a meeting in a half hour with your royal scheduling advisor, and then another with your minister of defense." He said, reminding the princess of her afternoon's schedule.

"Thank you, my good sir." Celestia said, looking out the chariot. Which elicited a silent, but approving whiny from the guard.

"Celestia, you need to learn to stay here where it's safe! Just look at all that rabble out there." Blueblood said, with a wave of his hoof. "They need our loving guidance! I mean, for one, look at that purple unicorn." Blueblood said, pointing specifically at an odd looking pony below, standing in the middle of an island -- ponies avoiding her on all sides. "Poor, inbred, pathetic soul. Her and her giant muzzle! How does she eat? And her enormous horn! How would she live if we didn't take care of her?" He said, blissfully unaware of the odd look on his "aunt's" face.

"Did you say purple unicorn? Giant Muzzle?" Celestia asked, her face growing ever more pale by the second. "Triple pink flower Cutie Mark?"

"Yes, that would be the poor soul." Blueblood briefly acknowledged, unaware of what his "aunt" just finished saying, before continuing on his preplanned rant. "You see Celestia, we care for all these lesser ponies. And it involves not getting ourselves in danger."

"Guards, I thought I saw something down there, could you circle and take us lower?" Celestia asked her guards, politely -- looking over the side of the chariot intently.

"Yes, your majesty. But would Kibitz approve?" One of the guards asked, as afraid of the Princess' brusque advisor as the Princess herself.

"He'll be fine, I just thought I saw something." She said, with a smile. "I hope you don't mind, but I really would like you to take it lower." She said, smiling again.

"Yes, your majesty." The guards responded, dutifully.

"What, in the hay are you doing?" Blueblood complained, in abject terror. "We have important meetings!" Blueblood asked, once again exasperated.

"It couldn't be!" Celestia said, under her breath. "Guards, I wish to land right here!"

"Are you sure, your majesty?" The guards asked, inquisitively. They knew better then to doubt their majesty though.

"Yes, I certainly am, good sirs." Celestia replied, with a reassuring smile.

"What are you doing aunty?" Blueblood asked, as if his aunt had finally lost her marbles. "This is highly unorthodox!" Blueblood said, with an expression of horror on his face.

"Yes it is!" Celestia said, under her breath, motioning down with her hoof.

********

"So Doctor Stethoscope: what was the results of the test?" The old doctor said, returning from Minty's room -- smiling a sarcastic smile as he asked. He quickly noticed the immediate wince on his rival's face.

"0.000 milli-swirls of magic" (That's approximately -163.92 Platinas in Old Equuish Measurements, for those of you that aren't hip! Or 0.000 Jewels for you scientific types!)

"Say again? I think my ears aren't working!" Doctor Stable asked, leaning in forward -- pretending to be deaf.

"She has no magic... None..." The doctor said, hanging his head apologetically. "You were right, Doctor Stable! And I was wrong! I should have run the magic test earlier." Doctor Stethoscope, said with a defeated sigh.

"Wait... She actually has no magic, I thought for sure it was..." He said trailing off. "Stupid!" Doctor Stable said, chastising himself. "That complicates things greatly!"

Doctor Stethoscope, quirked his eyebrow, was this the first time that 'wise' old Doctor Stable was openly wrong? He wondered what Doctor Stable could have thought it was, but there was no time for that. "And it's the only thing that makes sense." The doctor replied. "So where did all her magic go? And how do we get it back?" The doctor asked, the wheels in his head already turning on the problem.

"The answer is easy: we need a donor, and now!" Doctor Stable replied, looking both belligerent and recalcitrant all at the same time. "And we need to prey to Celestia, Luna, and Faust (and probably Megan, Danny, and Molly too!) that whatever caused her to lose her magic doesn't happen again!"

Running over to the intercom, Doctor Stethoscope jammed down the button. "Nurse, see if you can get that teacher back in here! We need to know if she saw anything else." He said, hoping beyond all hope, that the mulberry earth pony Cheerilee could shed some light on this enigma.

"Meanwhile, we need to find a compatible donor, and fast!" Doctor Stethoscope continued. "And not knowing her family, and magic type, is not going to help!" (You see magic compatibility is usually determined by magic samples or, baring those, family history and magic type.)

********

Cheerilee looked up to see a chariot approaching with two unicorns in it: one winged, and one not winged. "Do I dare bother them? Most of the people I've been meeting today don't seem to care about the princess at all..." She asked herself, in her mind. After a few seconds to build her resolve, she decided to approach the strange unicorns before her.

"Excuse me!" She said, approaching the chariot — despite her better judgment — trying to avoid expressing the desperation she was beginning to feel. "I seem to have lost--"

"somepony close to you?" Celestia asked, interrupting the pink unicorn's mentor -- who was now desperately swallowing a deluge of tears -- with a glowing smile. "I think I might be able to help you with that!" She said, with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes (which seemed to be aimed directly at Blueblood.)

"Aunty, you can't seriously be thinking about letting his riffraff in this chariot? She looks inbred, and deranged!" Blueblood said, backing as far away from the strange purple unicorn as he could, while still remaining in the chariot. "She'll attack us in our sleep!" Blueblood continued, intentionally speaking as loudly as he could.

"Blueblood!" Celestia chastised him, with a hurt shame in her eyes. "Is this how an heir of Princess Platina reacts when he sees one of his little pony's in need?" Celestia said, sighing to herself. All she could do was ask herself where she went wrong. It hurt her that she had failed to uphold the promise she made to Clover regarding Platina's family all those years ago. "Now Ms...." Celestia started, looking at Rarity's mentor, her smile returning.

"Cheerilee" Cheerilee said, her face softening a little.

"Cheerilee, please step in here." Celestia said, motioning with her hoof. "And I'll have somepony drop by to assist you finding them!" Celestia said, this time motioning with a wing.

"Oh thank you!" Cheerilee said, her voice filled with relief. "I knew someone in this strange city cared about the Crystal Princess!"

"Crystal Princess?" Blueblood said, once more with disdain -- getting a well hidden, but obviously agitated look from his 'aunt.' "What kind of nonsense is she spouting now!" Said an exasperated Blueblood to himself. "Don't blame me if we both end up at the wrong end of a cupcake party!" He said, pretending it was under his breath.

********

"So Rainbow Dash! How's it going." Said Twilight, with a smile. "I thought I'd bring you some high fashion magazines that Rarity let me borrow!" She looked down through the stack; one of the magazines, which Rarity fought tooth and nail to keep -- saying that it was the most important, and one she needed imminently "for important fashion research" -- had the headline: "dressing to impress: win the stallion of your dreams!"

Twilight resisted the urge to face hoof, these magazines almost seemed designed more to melt a mare's mind, then grow it -- nevertheless, she was a strong believer in reading. And Rainbow did really seem to enjoy Rarity's fashion magazines.

"Oh thank you, darling! These magazines look dashing!" Rainbow said, with a smile that was both extremely exuberant and extremely polite, at the same time. Before her smile started quickly fading.

"Is something wrong Rainbow?" Twilight asked, she knew besides rainbows, and riding them, fashion was like her third favorite thing -- and she wasn't expecting her joy to wear off so quickly.

"I'm sorry, darling! I really am!" Rainbow said, apologetically. "But for some reason I swore I recognized a young... unicorn filly." She said, after some thought, remembering something from her past. "And she looked like she was in trouble and I'm deathly concerned." Rainbow said, her eyes imploring Twilight for help. "I don't know why, darling, but I'm certain that little filly get's in more than everyone's share of trouble!" She said, her eyes glowing neon green, and her body shaking violently. Another magic burst came shooting out from her body, which was absorbed by the inhibiter around her neck and the custom bed she was now confined to.

"Rarity!" Rainbow said, remembering something a pony she swore she never saw before. "She is a darling friend; whom I met when she accidentally warped herself away from Unicornia -- which I've never heard of before -- with magic." Rainbow Dash said to herself, confused -- when would she stop getting these migraines? And why whenever she had one did it always result in her remembering something she shouldn't, first the Zecoras, now this Rarity unicorn.

"Strange, I thought you never met a unicorn, before yesterday?" Twilight asked, confused, referring to her meeting, the other day, with Twilight's Rarity and her sister.

"Neither did I." Rainbow said, with a sigh. "And yet, darling, I remember the whole adventure vividly: from her entering the sweet shop; to chasing her in that cart; to her splashing me with mud; to camping out in the woods; to losing my colors; to the First Rainbow of the Season. It's all very confusing, darling! It's like I'm reliving events that I never lived in the first place!"

"Well hopefully the doctors can figure something out." Twilight reassured the dashing earth pony. "They think maybe these memory issues of yours are, somehow, related to the magic bursts you've been having." Twilight said, with the most convincing smile she could muster. "In the meantime, I'll talk to the doctors about the filly, and see what I can find out for you."

"Yes! Please darling! That would be quite dashing!" Rainbow said, looking relieved. Asking herself, why was she so concerned about this filly in particular.

********

"Hello!" Shouted a young unicorn, as she tapped, lightly at first, on one of the guest room doors, then forcefully. "Celestia sent me to see how you were doing!" She shouted, not sure if she was being heard.

She contemplated shouting as loudly as she could, before remembering her instructions. "Remember, Begonia, this pony is special to me, and she lost somepony close to her: so try to be as kind as you can." Celestia had told her. The senior princess out of four, though didn't stop there. "Get to know her! Find out what she's been up to! Ask her how she's feeling, and why she's so upset! Find out how she got to Canterlot! And do let me know what you find out, I've been very concerned!" Begonia sighed, the princess gave her an important assignment -- it wasn't without perks, however. "With the exception of the delegation for the Griffon Empire, which leaves tonight. This will be your only assignment." This, of course meant that the assignment was extra important.

"I hope she hurries up!" Begonia thought to herself, looking at the position of the sun outside. "I have to tend to that delegation from the Griffon Empire as well!" She thought, calming herself with a sigh.

After a few minutes of tapping her hood on the ground, she decided to knock again. "Are you ok in there, Ms. Cheerilee?"

After a few seconds, the door opened, and before her was a very odd looking purple unicorn, with an oversized horn (not abnormal for Canterlot mind you, but everywhere else in Equestria), an enormous muzzle (ok that was definitely odd anywhere), and triple flower Cutie Mark. Her green eyes were puffy, and it looked from the doorway like her pillow was soaked. It appeared that the carpet had been moved out of alignment, probably from frequent pacing. And was this strange unicorn walking around, effortlessly reared up onto her hind legs?

"I apologize, if I got you at the wrong time, Ms. Cheerilee! But Celestia wanted me to be sure you were prepared for your formal audience with her!" She said, with the biggest smile she could muster. "You've been given the very last audience of the day, and then Celestia wishes you to join her and her sister for dinner." She said, with her best smile, all while wondering what Celestia saw in this pony -- she knew better then to ask the princess, though. "This is, of course, a great honor! And I was instructed to make sure you looked your best."

"Certainly." Cheerilee said, formally. "Will you come in?" She said, gesturing in with her left hoof; her right hoof distorted around the doorknob, allowing it to grip. Her wrist, and hoof eventually wrapping around the rest of the knob -- like a viper.

Begonia looked down for a second; she could tell this pony was upset, and Celestia did instruct her to attempt to cheer the pony up if necessary. "So Celestia tells me you lost some pony close to you. How are you holding up?"

"Actually I'm supposed to be mentoring her in how to be the rainbow princess. Some mentor I turned out to be!" Cheerilee said, looking down morosely. "I should've never left that wand where she could find it. Now Lord knows where she is! And it's all my fault! I've let her down!" Cheerilee said, on the verge of breaking down into tears.

Begonia looked around, this mare is obviously upset, but what should she say to her? Maybe she could try putting things in perspective. "Did you do everything you could?"

"Well yes, but-" Cheerilee responded, still feeling despondent.

"Then I'm sure she'll understand!" Begonia said, with a smile. "And I'm certain Celestia right now is thinking of ways to help you find her!"

"Oh thank you!" Cheerilee said, smiling largely for a second, hugging the nervous unicorn hardily. "I've just been beside myself with worry. What if she's hurt? What if she never forgives me? What if those monsters that attacked my village took her away? Or worse!" Cheerilee said, her mood starting to fail again.

"Wait... Monsters attacked your village?" Begonia said, surprised by what she heard. "Best not to worry the mare further!" She thought to herself. "Well! Try not to worry about it. Let's get you dressed for your audience with the princess. She said, trying to distract Rarity's mentor onto other matters.

********

"Well Ms. Sparkle. I'd love to tell you more about Ms. Rainbow Heart. But patient privacy rules clearly state." Doctor Stethoscope said, as if quoting directly from the rulebook. "That only friends and family can enter." He continued, with a frown. "And I won't break patient confidentially even for a princess." He reiterated, this time with authority.

"But what if I can help?" Twilight asked, undeterred -- normally, she was a stickler for the rules, but when it came to her friends, Celestia herself be darned.

"Hello again, princess!" Said a haute Doctor Stable, as he entered the room. "You can't help, unless you can find a suitable magic donor for her." He said, raising tone for a few words, so as to be clearly heard by his colleague. "As you can see, she's running a little empty!" He said, opening the door. "And her condition is not good."

Doctor Stethoscope, swallowed a horrified gasp. "Why haven't you been fired, and stripped of your medical license yet?"

Doctor Stable, just smirked. "Because maybe, unlike you, I'm irreplaceable!" He said to his fuming colleague. "Now maybe, theoretically, 'The Princess' over here could use those 'magical' princess powers and get as many unicorns as she can together! And we can find out if anyone in this no-horse town is compatible with this foal."

Doctor Stethoscope, swallowed another horrified gasp. "You can't just give out information like that, this is for patient safety and!"

"Quiet, Stethoscope. Some rules have to be broken, sometimes, in order to save a patient's life." Doctor Stable responded, in a harsh voice.

"Or maybe, what you are doing is not so much saving lives, as being reckless!" Stethoscope replied, feeling his colleague had become a little too comfortable.

"Well maybe I can just transfer some of my magic to her?" Twilight asked. "It worked when Luna, Celestia, and Cadance transferred their magic to me for safe keeping!"

"Well, maybe you and the princesses can just trade magic around like candy to each other, using your 'magical' princess powers! 'oh hey, I'm running low on magic! No Problem: here's a giga-swirl to tide you over until next week!' But the rest of us have limits!" Said a sarcastic Doctor Stable, feeling self righteous in the superiority of his intellect.

"But Tirek, absorbed everypony's magic just fine?" Twilight countered, trying to keep clinical.

"Yes! But are you insinuating that this little, innocent harmless pink ball of fur is a DARK LORD?" Doctor Stable countered. "No! We will do this my way!"

"Sorry, no offense your majesty!" Doctor Stethoscope countered, clinically. "But what ~~the jerk~~ my colleague is trying to say is: given an amount of magic smaller than their own inherent magic, any kind of magic can be converted and absorbed. However, if a too much incompatible magic were to be given a patient." Doctor Stethoscope said, looking down at the little Pink unicorn, and gulping. "There could be... complications."

********

Begonia tried to calm the nervous Cheerilee, by engaging the strange mare in small talk; while she picked an appropriate dress. She would also, of course, need to talk about the finer points of etiquette. "So any luck finding your special somepony?" She asked, hoping to kick things off.

Cheerilee froze for a second. "What is she talking about?" She thought to herself. "Oh! You mean a boyfriend!" She said, the light turning on for a second. "Oh No! There are so very few eligible bachelors to begin with, and my work is far too important to take any time off from!" Cheerilee said, with a smile. It's not that she hadn't dated a stallion before, it had just been a very, very, long time.

"Ahh yes! you remind me of somepony with that whole 'I can't meet ponies, I've got too much to do!' Thing you have going on!"

"Who would that be?" Cheerilee asked, curious to know if Begonia was talking about herself.

"Princess Celestia." Begonia replied. "Oh yes! She says it's because she represents her little ponies -- and is, as such, married to the nation! But I think, the truth is, that she worries that, if she takes too much time off, then everything will go to Tartarus around here! I think she hasn't taken a vacation within my grandmother's lifetime! And I think to this day, she still sneaks out for hair and beauty appointments!"

"Yes, that does sound familiar." Cheerilee said, with a chuckle.

"This one will work well for you, I think!" Begonia said, with a huge smile. "I think it might even have some of the eligible stallions taking an interest in you!" She said, smirking to herself at the thought. "I might even get one for myself." She thought to herself, smiling all the way.

"So tell me more? How'd you and little... Rarity get split up?" She said, forgetting the little filly's name for just a second. "And how did you find your way to Canterlot." She said, pulling a light blue dress with pink trim from some of the ones they had on hoof, and a light blue tiara with a emerald inset. "Now let me get some measurements on you, to make sure it fits well!"

"What is there to say?" Cheerilee said, staring down at the ground. "Rarity's been having nightmares since that explosion on Christmas Eve!" She looked away, feeling it was all her fault.

"Ok... That must have been the same day as Harthswarming eve..." Begonia thought to herself. Why did the mare keep saying strange words like "everyone" and "person" instead of "everypony", and "pony"? And why did she keep getting the names of the holiday's wrong?

"And it's the same horrible one! Apparently, Brights Brightly, Whistle Wishes, and Lily Lightly, along with Unicornia disappear into the darkness." She said, looking down. "And then, even I disappear into the darkness." She said, sighing. "And the dear is convinced, every time she has that dream, that she let me down." Cheerilee said, speaking with some grief. She apparently felt as much guilt as the filly did. "So when our village got attacked by bug ponies today." She said, looking away.

"Changelings... But why there? And why not the Crystal empire?" Begonia asked herself. "Wouldn't that make more sense?"

"She used the magic wand. I don't know how she even knew about it. I haven't even shown it to her yet! And I certainly didn't teach her the teleportation spell she used." Cheerilee said frantically, starting to cry. "I should have never let her touch it! Now Lord knows what's happening to her! And what's worse! What's even worse! Is that she probably thinks she let me down again! When it was really I that let her down!"

"There! There! You can't live in the past! And if you did everything you could!" Begonia replied, jotting down some final measurements to send to the royal dress maker -- this would have to be a rush job.

"And what if I didn't do everything I could have! What if I could have done more!" Cheerilee shouted, sobbing. "She could be gone and it would be all my fault!"

********

"I bet you all want to know why I’ve asked Twilight to gather you all here?" Asked a surly Doctor Stable to a room packed with unicorns (apparently Twilight can pack a room if she wants to!)

"Yes, I was wondering that, please! Thank you!" Asked Rarity, as politely as she could. "I have very important dresses to finish, and I would rather be at the boutique, unless I have a good reason to do otherwise, of course!"

"Well, we have a very sick filly in there, clinging onto life, and we need a magic donor, or else…" Said Doctor Stable, trailing off.

"Don’t you have systems for that, dearie?" Rarity asked, wincing a little bit at the poor filly's plight. "I mean, can’t you find a donor in your systems?" She asked curiously.

"We would! If she had… say… MAGIC!!! Or records." Doctor Stable replied, sarcastically to the fashionable white unicorn, causing her to pull back a hair. "And to make things worse, a lack of magic means taking a magic sample is just plain out."

Rarity sighed. She had important business to attend to, but felt that she should help if she could. "Oh, very well. But only because of the circumstances." Rarity said, with a sighing again. "Shall we get this over with?"

"So basically, because of the odd circumstances: instead of normal, reasonable, medicine, we’ll be using an old ooga-booga test that they used before modern medicine came into vogue." Doctor Stable replied, belligerently, feeling this was probably the worst test possible -- that being said, they were running out of options, and time was of the essence. "We will be teaching each one of you a spell, which you will cast in the presence of the filly. If done right, we will see an effect ranging from nothing to an arc of magic between your horns. The bigger the effect, the stronger the compatibility of your magical energies." Doctor Stable said.

"We are looking for 90% compatibility or more; however, even if, we decide that, you don’t match, you may be asked to remain, if you have come close enough. Otherwise we will be sending you home."

"Ok. First: Lyra Heartstrings." Doctor Stethoscope said, motioning to a green unicorn with a harp cutie mark. "Please step into the next room." He said, opening the door, and motioning the green unicorn through.

"Excuse me, Doctor Stable." Twilight said, approaching the old doctor. "After Lyra, could I take the next turn? I have important business to attend to and --"

"Actually Twilight." Doctor Stable said, in an unusually polite tone. "Doctor Stethoscope and I were talking, and we feel that it would be best if we didn’t use you."

"And why not?" Twilight asked, befuddled.

"Between the strange diseases you’ve suffered in the past, such the magical shedding at the wedding -- oh and that whole Dragon Flu incident." He said matter-of-factly. "And the fact that you have very high level of magic, even before your ascension… Well…" He said, before his sarcastic smile started to return. "We, basically, think that since your magic is a whole lot stronger now, that, if we attempt to use it then, your magic will blow her horn clear off!"

Of course, Twilight left in a huff, muttering something about "taking this all the way to Celestia's desk!"

********

Begonia entered the audience chamber as quietly as she could -- making sure to close the large door as quietly as she could. It appeared that Celestia was correct in telling her that her audience with the delegation from the Griffon Empire would be brief.

She could see Celestia holding her "I’m important face", while Luna was angrily arguing with the crown prince (in the Royal Canterlot Voice). Complaining, something, about a lack of respect.

Begonia had expected this important diplomatic summit to last a while. And that she would have to wait until Celestia noticed her and could politely excuse herself. Instead she found herself coming in only to be passed by the Griffons angrily removing themselves — swearing something about repercussions.

"Kibitz! I think we should take a couple of minutes to cool down after this delightful exchange!" Celestia said, winking at the unicorn, now standing as far away from the stage as she could. "I know Luna certainly could!" She said, winking at her sister in the most noticeable way possible.

"Tis Lies!" Her sister shouted, snorting. "WE SHALL SMITE THESE GRIFFON SWINE WITH OUR JUST WORDS, AND..." She shouted (in all caps), pulling out a giant... "BATTLE HAMMER!"

"Yes, I see what you mean, your majesty. We shall take a few minutes break, and then reconvene." Kibitz said, sighing (he knew full well Celestia had other plans in mind, but he wasn't about to bug her about them. Besides, everypony knew that when Luna broke into Old Equiish, it was time to take a break!) "But be aware! We have only a short while, there are quite a few things still left on your schedule before nightfall!"

Celestia nodded at her advisor, before turning to Begonia. "Walk with me." Celestia said, to the awaiting Begonia.

"Of course, your majesty." Begonia replied, following Celestia back through the large doors and into the hall.

"So tell me, my dear Begonia! How's she holding up?" Celestia asked, with a frown, looking out one of the ornate windows that filled the castle's hallways.

"About as well as can be expected." Begonia replied, taking a peek out the window, herself. "Apparently Cheerilee's village -- I think she called it 'Unicornia' -- was attacked by changelings, and her young mentee used powerful magic to teleport everypony to safety. " Begonia said, matter-of-factly.

"Interesting... I wonder what Queen Chrysalis is up to." Celestia said, under her breath. "I certainly thought she would be attacking the Crystal Empire. And how could Cheerilee even show up? And what reason would Chrysalis have to attack Cheerilee and Unicornia in the first place?" Celestia said, continuing to talk to herself under her breath.

"You ok, your majesty?" Begonia asked, with a concerned demeanor. "You normally reserve my services for ponies you have suspicions of. Are you concerned that this isn't your friend?" Begonia asked, trying to swallow her suspicions.

Celestia looked around, and over both her shoulders. "No, my dear Begonia. I believe this is the real Cheerilee!" She said, her voice dropping just a little to ensure an inside tone.

"Then my apologies, you majesty." Begonia apologized, formally. "Do you mind if I speak out of turn again?" She asked, hesitantly -- but couldn't resist asking the question.

Celestia waved her hoof. "Go ahead, I don't mind!"

"Has your friend betrayed Equestria?" She asked the princess, desperately trying to figure out why Celestia had assigned her to the purple unicorn.

"I wish, that it had been her that had betrayed me..." Celestia said to herself, under her breath. "No Begonia, she's been nothing if not loyal!" She replied.

"Then why are you so concerned then, your majesty?" Begonia asked, completely baffled.

"Oh Begonia, maybe I'm just concerned because I know the pain of losing somepony close to me?" Celestia asked, innocently (demonstrating why she was the poker champ of Canterlot 400 years running.)

"I suppose, your majesty." Begonia replied. "But I'm not sure I believe you." She said, with fervor. "Certainly, wouldn't Sweet Heart be a much better choice?" She asked, with hesitation, fearing how the princess might respond. "This Cutie Mark, stands not just for empathy, but also discernment. And hers is certainly exclusively empathy!" She said, wondering why she was picked for a simple 'pick-me-up' mission when a much more qualified pony was available.

"And maybe, I think you'd be the perfect pony?" Celestia said to Begonia, as if trying to reassure somepony.

Begonia only looked back, as if she was being lied too, but eventually relented. Maybe she had something special only Celestia could see.

"And you would be concerned too if you knew what I knew." Celestia said to herself, under her breath. Looking back solemnly. "I suspect a certain Draconequus has been violating his parole!"

********

"Ok Lyra! That’s good enough." Doctor Stethoscope said, with exasperation. "Lyra Heartstrings: 0%" He wrote on a piece of paper (underlining a couple of times.)

"Hey Doc, you forgot to put a ten in front of that zero!" Lyra said, with an enthusiastic smile.

"No actually, he means zero!" Said Doctor Stable chiming in. "You may leave." He said, loudly motioning the unicorn away.

"Next up: Dinky Doo. Please step forward." Said, Doctor Stethoscope, motioning the small violet unicorn child into the room.

"Woo hoo!" yelled the child’s mother, from outside the window. "That’s my girl!" She said, crashing into the outside wall.

"Please keep it down!" Scolded Doctor Stable. "This is a hospital! Not a sideshow!" He shouted through the window next to the indented wall.

Dinky looked at the little filly, and then back at Doctor Stethoscope, with a puzzled expression.

"You looking at her muzzle?" The doctor asked, as softly as he could.

She nodded back.

"Don’t worry, she’ll be fine. We’ll figure out what happened to her when she recovers." Stethoscope replied. "I know she looks different, but she would be in a very bad shape without your help." He said, looking into Dinky's eyes with his most convincing smile. "Now I have a super simple spell for you to try!" He said, hoping she'd be able to cast this spell. "Just visualize a wire traveling between your two horns — that both of your horns are touching."

After a few seconds a very thin arc flowed between the two horns, then fizzed.

"Good, let’s go back to your mother." The doctor responded in an enthusiastic voice. This might be a good start after all!

She nodded.

"So?" Asked Doctor Stable.

"87%, but she might be a little young for a magic transfer." Replied a concerned Doctor Stethoscope, to his colleague quietly.

"We’ll chalk her up as a maybe." Said Doctor Stable replied, taking notes on a notepad.

"Next up: Rarity!" Doctor Stethoscope said, beckoning to the fidgety fashion designer -- who was starting to lose her patience after waiting so long.

"Very well." She said, rapidly regaining her composure, as she entered the room with Doctor Stethoscope. "I suppose if Sweetie has to do this, then so should I!" Rarity said to herself, reminding herself of the chore.

"Did you see mommy! They chalked me up as a maybe!" Dinky said to her mother, bouncing enthusiastically.

"My little muffin is a little Star Swirl!" She pronounced, racing her to her daughter to hug, and running into a wall instead.

After a few minutes, Rarity returned, looking exasperated. But quickly regained her composure, when she returned to the room.

"And how does the prima donna stack up?" Asked Doctor Stable, with a smirk -- probably hoping that she either scored very well or very, very, poorly.

"Rarity Unicorn: 85%" Doctor Stethoscope relied, to his colleague. "Not as good a fit as the Doo filly, but definitely old enough for a magic transfer."

"Ok. Chalk her up as a maybe." Doctor Stable replied, his smirk growing by the second.

"But, darlings, I have urgent work to finish! And I’m certainly not above 90%. And, as much as I want to help the dear, I really need to get back!" Rarity said, on the verge of panic. "I have an urgent order that needs to be in Vanhoover by tomorrow afternoon!"

"You aren’t going anywhere, except for the maybe line! Stand over there!!" Shouted Doctor Stable chastised, suddenly losing his smirk and getting very, very, serious.

Rarity looked at Doctor Stethoscope, with an apprehensive expression. Her face begging him to let her go.

"Sorry about that, Ms. Unicorn." Doctor Stethoscope frowned. "But considering the circumstances, and my colleague’s temperament." He said, now playing good cop. "I’m concerned about what ~~the grinch~~ my colleague will do if you leave. " He said, with an apologetic smile.

"Uggg… Quite!" Rarity whined, wishing for her fainting couch.

********

"So, how are you holding up, my little pony?" Celestia asked, with a concerned smile, sitting across a long rectangular table from a quietly sobbing purple unicorn. "You must feel dreadful." She said, pouring a cup of tea for the two of them, and levitating one of the cups over to the senior member of the rainbow quartet -- who's eyes promptly turned into saucers.

"How did you do that?" The purple unicorn asked with shock.

"Do what? Celestia asked, with a soft smile.

"How did you cast magic without a wand?" She asked, in shock.

The ageless alicorn smiled, cryptically. "Oh! That's just one of my special talent's!"

Luna quirked an eyebrow. "But sister? Why dost that not tell her that all unicorns can cast magic as such?" She said, her eyes speaking with profound skepticism.

The princess of the day returned by giving a firm glare, her eyes motioning at her neighbor across the table.

Her sister returned a quizzical expression, herself pointing with her eyes.

Finally Celestia gave her an expression that might as well be her eyes shooting daggers. Finally giving a firm expression that almost screamed 'later'. "Oh Luna!" She said, chuckling softly. Her face, once again softening turned to her guest. "As I was saying. You must be deafly worried about poor Rarity."

Cheerilee paused for a second, her head buzzing with questions. How did the princess already know Rarity's name? Did Begonia tell her, or did she just know about this year's Rainbow Princess? And how did she cast magic? Did she just do that using her horn? No she couldn't have -- she must have had a wand, right? In any case, she decided to answer the princess' question. "I'm holding up the best I can. I just feel like such a failure." Cheerilee said, starting to cry. "And what's worse is that it seems like no one around here seems to know much, or care about this year's Crystal Rainbow Princess." She said, choking on all the tears she was swallowing.

"I for one, think you are doing fine." Said the princess with a reassuring smile. "And I apologize for my little ponies, sometimes they can be thoughtless." The Princess said, sipping her tea -- which was held in her magic -- her face darkening slightly (probably thinking about her "nephew".) "They just don't understand how special young Rarity is!" She said, looking off into the distance.

"And what' s worse, is that everyone acts as if I'm crazy." Cheerilee continued, staring down into the teacup she was holding, by its handle, in her distorted hoof.

"They also sometimes react poorly, if they see somepony different." She said, swallowing a sigh. "I received a letter a couple years back regarding a zebra, that was causing quite a ruckus in Ponyville." Celestia said, wistfully, remembering the letter that Twilight had sent the day she met Zecora.

"That's odd, because everyone back in Unicornia looks like this." Cheerilee said, with a perplexed expression. "Do you get these kinds of reactions? I've never seen a winged unicorn before. Maybe you could give me advise?"

"Well, my little pony, I'm kind of an exception." The princess said, blushing. "They instinctively see me differently, like I should be their leader. Among other things..." She said, muttering quietly to herself on the last part. "But don't worry, dear Cheerilee, I am already doing everything in my power to find young Rarity." She reassured the young pink unicorn's mentor.

"Have I told her Rarity's name yet?" Cheerilee asked herself, again; after a few seconds shaking her head to clear her thoughts. "I'm just glad I found someone else that knows about this year's Pink Unicorn Princess. It's a real shame, since she's been Pink Unicorn Princess since the fall equinox -- and then there was the whole induction ceremony. And to top it off, everyone had to vote on her. How could no one know all of a sudden? Have they all forgotten? Or do they all just not care?"

Celestia looked at the perplexed purple unicorn for a second; and, as if trying to change the conversation, asked a question. "So tell me, besides young Rarity are there any other ponies you are mentoring?"

"No, Rarity is the only one this year." Cheerilee responded, her face softening. "I mentor a new blue unicorn every five years, and a new yellow unicorn every three years -- I've had to mentor all three at least once."

"So, Cheerilee, how long do you serve for?" Celestia asked.

"A purple unicorn is chosen for life, and is mentored by the senior of the blue and yellow unicorns." Cheerilee responded. "Someone needs to mentor the others, thus the purple is considered the second most important unicorn of the four, with only the pink unicorn being more important."

"So how long have you been serving?" Celestia asked.

"About thirteen years, give or take. I believe Whistle Wishes is the third blue unicorn I've trained, and Brights Brightly is the fifth yellow unicorn I've trained."

"And do you mind, if I ask what your cutie mark stands for?" Celestia asked.

"My emblem? I think it stands for my love of flowers, but it's hard to say! I've had it all my life!"

"That is intriguing." Celestia said, not as surprised as her sister, who was sitting right next to her. "So tell me, how did you like the dress that Begonia and I chose for you?"

"I truly liked it, princess. But how did you know I liked Emeralds?" Cheerilee asked, politely, wondering how this princess, whom she never met, was so well acquainted with her.

"Oh... You look like somepony who would like emeralds." Celestia said, with a smile, with a twinkle in her eye (once again! This is how she stayed the queen of poker, despite being only the princess of Equestria!)

********

"Ok!" Doctor Horse spoke up. "Where are we at?" He asked the collection of doctors, once again assembled in the room.

"Nowhere!" Replied Doctor Stable. "We have three or four maybes and a ton of no-gos. And we are basically out of time."

"Well... What do we have then?" Asked Doctor Horse, attempting to hide his concern.

"Well..." Said Doctor Stable, his sarcastic voice blaring again. "Lyra Heartstrings: birds egg. Dinky Doo: 87% -- maybe. Rarity Unicorn (who was still sulking in the maybe line): 85% -- maybe. The rest of the Unicorn family: 72% -- mother, 60% -- father, and 77% -- younger sister." He said, starting to hold the list of unicorns in a demeaning manner. "Do you want me to continue?"

"Look doctor, we've got a life on the line -- and we can't accept no for an answer. What else do we have?" Begged Doctor Stethoscope.

"Ok! You asked for it. Amethyst Star: 82% -- maybe. Minuette: 74%, Royal Pin: 25%. Oh and here's two young colts and a filly. Snips: 33%, Snails: 67%, Diamond Mint: 10%. Do you still want to continue? There's no compatible pony in this whole Celestia forsaken town!" He said, throwing up his hooves in disgust, before proceeding to trot out the door.

"He's a jerk, but I don't believe I've seen that reaction before." Said Doctor Stethoscope to the doctor beside him. "Do you think that the old jerk has a heart in there somewhere?"

"Maybe. Let me think for a second, maybe I can figure something else out. I mean we have a couple of valid maybes -- maybe I can find a way to use one of the two of them? Why don't you try to find Doctor Stable."

********

"Blow her horn off!" Twilight pouted to herself returning to the library. "Maybe I can show him some magic that would blow his off! And where does he get off talking about a princess of Equestria this way? Celestia's personal student! And the Princess of Friendship no less!" She fumed to herself, opening the door causing it to hit the side of the tree.

"Spike I'm back!" She shouted angrily, slamming the door behind her. "And I'd like to write a letter to Princess Celestia!" She shouted angrily, looking around. Where did that dragon go?

"Oh Twilight, glad to have you back!" Spike responded. "The princess sent like five letters while you were out, and..." Spike continued, trailing off as he looked at Twilight's face. "Let me guess, bad day?" He said, with a smirk, as his sister/adopted mother snorted out of her nose. "Remember what the Princess says Twilight: 'nightmares are born from bad feelings.' So even though you look hilarious, I should say don't be angry and blabbity blabbity blah!" He said, waving his claws around, wildly.

"Fair enough." Twilight said fighting to regain her composure. "But do you believe it! we have a sick filly, who is dangerously low on magic and doctor smartier-than-thou has decided that I, a princess of Equestria, should just go home! 'Too much magic!' He said. 'Blow her horn off' He said!" She said, in a sarcastic mocking tone. "I'll figure out some way to fix this and shove it right in doctor 'superiorities' face!"

"Sorry to hear that!" Spike said, trying to comfort his surrogate mother/sister. "Can't you guys just use your rainbow powers like you did after that Tirek incident earlier this year?" He asked, an idea occurring to him.

"No!" She said, shaking her head violently. "That's very powerful magic, and I don't know how it'll react." Twilight said, waving her hooves. "It really could blow her horn off!"

"Didn't you restore all that magic that Tirek stole using it though?" Spike asked, not convinced.

"Yes, but that was spread over all of Equestria! Not one pony." Twilight said, with panic apparent on her face. "And number two, we aren't returning stolen magic here! We are trying to give her body's magic reserves a boost!" Twilight corrected her number one assistant.

"Sounds the same to me!" Spike said, crossing his arms.

"Well! You would be wrong! Didn't you read the book I got for you four birthdays ago on advanced spell craft, and magical mysteries?" Twilight asked, once again baffled.

"Um... No!" Spike said, with a smirk. "Should I have? I prefer lighter reading for my bedtime stories!" He said, sarcastically. "Not giant monster textbooks! I mean who wrote that thing? Starswirl the long winded? (Somewhere Starswirl the long winded rolls in his grave!)" The baby dragon said, holding a claw against the side of his mouth, and pointing with the other, sarcastically.

After a few breaths, and a couple of trips to the fire extinguisher. Twilight decided that it would be better to read Celestia's letters. "So Spike, show me those letters!"

"Kay! Here you go!" He said, handing her a stack of letters, all sealed with Celestia's seal, but none of them were using official paper.

"Must be a personal request." Twilight said to herself, confused. Normally the princess used official paper. "Let's take a look here." She said, as she began to scan the letters.

The first couple of letters read easily enough. "Ok, apparently the Changelings and 'my mother' didn't attack the Crystal Empire, but rather a small village to the west of the Crystal Empire." She said before stopping. She looked up from the letter, looking quite puzzled. "But the only village west of the Crystal Empire is Vanhoover, and that's a fair amount to the south also." She said, unfurling one of her maps on an flat surface. "Also why not the Crystal Empire?" She said, desperately trying to get into Chrysalis' head.

She continued reading the next couple. "Apparently they don't know what happened to the denizens, but some apparently escaped, including an old friend of Princess Celestia's." Once again she stood there dumfounded. Another friend, and apparently one close enough to write a letter about; but why hadn't she ever heard of this friend?

She started on the final letter. "Apparently she was looking after a very young filly, but the filly got lost in the attack, and Celestia was hoping I had seen her." Twilight said, scanning down to the description. "She's a filly, no more than five, with a pink coat, blue eyes, a rainbow mane and tail, and a... Heart and rainbow Cutie Mark..." Twilight said, remembering something.

"Spike! Take a note!" She shouted to the young dragon, who dutifully took out a quill and scroll

********

"So, you taking a couple of minutes?" Asked Stethoscope of his colleague, sitting outside the hospital, on a bench taking a drink of something very powerful.

"Go away! can't you see I'm done for the day!" Stable replied, powering up a very powerful pain killer spell. "So I'm leaving things for 'the doctors', while I treat my pain."

"That leg injury never healed properly did it?" Asked Stethoscope, trying to make small talk.

"Some never do!" Replied Stable. "Especially when they aren't treated in a timely manner" He said, nursing old grudges. "But didn't I tell you to buzz off!?"

"I suppose you did, but I think if I'm quiet I can sit here a few minutes." Stethoscope said, hoping that time would get the old grouch to open up.

"No you can't! Read my lips bumpkin: 'GO AWAY'! You think: 'Oh I'll talk to the doctor and make him feel better, then he'll be all lovey dovey happy fun-times -- just like everyone else in this Celestia forsaken town!' Well It doesn't work that way!" Stable snapped back. "It never does!" He said, hanging his head in shame.

Stethoscope simply shrugged and sat down a few paces further away. And just waited. After a few minutes, a soft sobbing could be heard.

"So doctor, you want to --" Stethoscope said, hoping he could get his colleague to talk.

"No! Now GO AWAY! And let me drink away my failure in peace!" Stable said, actually starting to sob.

"Doctor!" Stethoscope chastised. "We all lose patients! Heck, you've lost at least a few!"

"Yeah, but never like this. Normally they are dead on arrival or we never figure out what happened in the first place. I've never had a patient where I've found the root of the problem, and they wound up dead!" He sighed. "And worse yet! It's as much my failure as it is anyponyelse's! Normally I'm the smart one surrounded by nincompoops!" He lamented.

"Well there's a first for everything. And she's not dead yet!" Stethoscope responded. "Why don't you come in, and we'll use some more unorthodox and reckless medicine -- maybe we'll save a life yet!" He said, hoping his colleague would buck up, and get back on the horse (so to speak.)

"Very well." The other doctor replied, spilling his beverage into the bushes -- before walking back into his job.

********

"You can't just barge in here!" Shouted Nurse Redheart to the angry alicorn, who insisted on seeing the doctor, rain or shine -- her ear twitching slightly.

After a couple of minutes, an old doctor returned from outside, his hoofs clopping loudly. "You need something princess?" He asked, with a chuckle, which was responded to by an angry glare, and a snort, from Twilight.

She stood there for a minute, looking exceedingly agitated, but then her features suddenly dropped when she looked at the doctor's face. Finally she opened her mouth. "Could I please take that test! She needs help! I can feel it!" The princess said, with a sigh. "Please let me try! I can tell you're desperate, and I couldn't live with myself, if I didn't try!"

The doctor sighed, and tuned to his nurse."Don't worry, I'll let her in this time." He said, his signature smirk returning. "Sometimes rules have to be bent or broken." He said to Nurse Redheart, with a reassuring smile.

"Very well doctor. But you are aware how unorthodox this is." Replied the nurse. "I mean visiting hours are over, and --" She said, before the doctor put a hoof to her face.

"I'm aware." The old doctor said, waving a hoof at the nurse. The doctor turned to Twilight and smiled his most genuine smile. "Ok Princess, let's see what you can do! But remember! We are only going to test you! Don't try anything stupid!"

Twilight just nodded, and smiled. "Rainbow Dash, let me see if I can help out your little friend." She said to herself, quietly.

After a few minutes the old doctor slowly opened the door, only to see his some of his colleagues already in the room. "Ok! Give me a recap, what is the patient's state?"

"Not good. Doctor Horse has taken a few of the other doctors to scour not just the hospital's library, but the general library as well -- looking for anything they can find. Meanwhile, little Rainbow Heart's condition continues to deteriorate! Her temperature is starting to fail, as is her respiration, and heart rate. She has only a half hour or so at most." Doctor Stable replied, lowering his head a little. "If only we had more time!" He lamented.

Twilight looked at the little filly, slowly failing, and frowned. For a second, it seemed like she was standing there hashing something out with herself, muttering slightly. Finally, she put her hooves together (her eyes going slightly wonky). She had decided! "Please, let me run the test!" Twilight said, holding Celestia's smile. "I think I can pass it." She continued, powering up her horn. "Celestia, please let this work!" She thought to herself.

"Ok, but I want you to take it easy princess, you probably have more magic in that horn then all of the unicorns in this room combined." Doctor Stable said, casting a suspicious eye. "And remember her condition is very fragile!"

Twilight nodded, with a smile. Appearing, at first, to be casting the detection spell.

"Ok, step back! We'll see how compatible this princess really is." Doctor Stable said, worried about what rainbow-friendship alicorn magic would do.

Her horn, which had previously been glowing slightly, started to glow more and more visibly, and then started to spark at the end.

"What in Tartarus name is she doing!" Shouted Doctor Stable, starting to panic. "There is no way she's casting the magic compatibility spell!"

Slowly the sparks grew in size and shape, and a small ball of light began to appear at the tip of the princess' horn as her eyes started to glow a blinding white.

"What in Celestia's name is she doing!" Shouted Doctor Stethoscope. "Orderlies!" He shouted, scrambling to get the orderlies in there as fast as he could.

The ball of light separated itself from the princess' horn, and began to float in the air for a few seconds, before colliding with the filly's small undeveloped horn.

"WHAT IN TARTARUS NAME POSSESSED YOU!!! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!!!" Shouted Doctor Stethoscope, visibly shaking and seething. "DID YOU THINK FOR A SECOND WHAT THIS MIGHT HAVE DONE TO THIS ADORABLE FILLY! YOU MIGHT HAVE JUST --"

"What my colleague means to say is: you dunderhead! You knucklehead! You meathead! You oaf! What were you thinking? Did I give you permission to start throwing around your alicorn magic?" Doctor Stable joined in. "I would have let you cast that spell, but only once I was sure it would be safe. She was clinging to life before. She couldn't handle a massive bolt of Celestia knows what magic!"

"Nurse Redheart!" Doctor Stable said, pressing the intercom button. "Princess know-it-all decided to do something stupid! I need the other doctors in here stat!"

"I don't think that will be necessary doctor!" Twilight said, smiling ear to ear, as something in the bed below began to stir.

"Oh wow! I can see stars! That was unicorn fun! Let's do that again!" Shouted the hyper active filly, her Cutie Mark, glowing an almost neon color. After a few seconds, the young unicorn started falling back to sleep.

"Nurse, could you check on her stats! I need to walk princess magic-pants out of here!" Doctor Stable scowled. "Check her magic levels while you are at it."

"Very well doctor." Nurse Redheart responded.

"Let me join you as well." Doctor Stethoscope said.

********

Grabbing the princess by the shoulder, Doctor Stethoscope dragged her outside -- till both of them were a few feet from the hospital. Then without a second thought, the doctor opened up.

"Ok! What was that about!? What possessed you to do use magic we didn't condone! And a magic transfer no less!" Doctor Stethoscope ranted, before grunted belligerently. "Didn't I tell you that we weren't going to transfer magic to her without our permission. Do you know what could have happened to her?" He stated, sternly. "Give me one reason why I shouldn't call the police on you right now!"

Twilight blushed, and hung her head. "I'm sorry. I had originally come in to yell at doctor 'superiority', but the moment I entered the room, I could feel palatable despair and helplessness; and I just had to do something! Anything!" She said, looking very sorry.

"Look Twilight." Doctor Stethoscope said, with a sigh. "I understand what you getting at. But we, as doctors, have to be extremely careful with our patients. And I know Doctor Stable's methods are usually unsound and ridiculous! But there are risks that even he won't take!" He said, trying to see if the princess understood. "And even if it works like you want it too, there's no telling that the same trick will work again, or even if it would be a good idea. She may even have complications that we don't understand."

Twilight just looked away, she wasn't sure what possessed her, but she just felt that she had to act.

The nurse started to walk out into the courtyard. "Doctor! I think you need to see this! And bring the princess with you! She needs to see this as well!"

"Ok! See Twilight! There may be complications!" Doctor Stethoscope said, repressing a desire to growl.

********

Rarity looked on with abject terror! What were those horrible bugs? And why were they hurting everyone? She wouldn't lose them again! No! Not like last time! "I won't let you down this time! I'll save everyone this time, Cheerilee! Not just me, but you, Lily Lightly, Brights Brightly, and Whistle Wishes! I'll save everybody!" Rarity thought to herself.

She waved the wand once, twice, thrice. No this would only teleport her! She needed to save everyone!

"Rarity! What are you doing!? That's not how you do the Princess Twirl!" Cheerilee called out with abject horror.

She waved it a fourth time, a fifth time, a sixth time! She started to see stars. But she had to keep going. If she threw the wand now it would teleport the monsters too!

"I'm not doing the Princess Twirl Cheerilee" She said, with a frown. "I'm going to teleport everyone this time!"

"What are you talking about Rarity? You've never used the wand before. You don't know how dangerous it is!" Cheerilee said, weeping as she talked.

"I'm sorry Cheerilee!" She thought to herself. "I have to do this!" Seven! She hurt everywhere. Eight! She could barely move. Nine! Everything started going black. She just hurt all over, and just struggled with all her might to hold onto the wand. All she had to do was throw the wand! But why was everything so dark, why did she hurt so much?

Cheerilee lunged forward in desperation, losing hold of the door.

"Cheerilee! The door!" Shouted Whistle Wishes, in panic, as the door was forced open.

"Bravo! That is some tasty despair, and desperation, out of you." Captain Raphanus said, with a smile. "Too bad I'm not permitted to feed! Grab the two by the door, I'll grab that pathetic filly. Vladímir will decide what to do with them!" He said, grinning sadistically.

"Cheerilee!" Rarity shouted, gathering all her available strength. "I'll save you!" She tossed the wand with all her might to activate the spell. Then everything went to black.

All of a sudden she could hear someone talking to her. Who was it? She sounded older, even then Cheerilee?

"Wake up little one! I'm glad you could come in early, but it's not good to sleep out here!... Are you ok?"

Who was talking to her? She was just so tired and weak. All she could do was look up at their symbol. it was three flowers, that was Cheerilee's symbol! But it looked different for some reason.

"Ch.... Cheerilee?" She asked, barely able to talk.

Was this Cheerilee? Why did she look different? And why was her symbol different. Was she still mad at her for borrowing the wand?

"I'm sorry Cheerilee!" She lamented, feeling really sorry for disobeying her mentor. "But I had to use the wand, I couldn't lose you again!" She said, her eyes starting to close again. She was just so very, very, tired.

"It's ok dear. I forgive you." Cheerilee said, or was it even Cheerilee? "Now why don't you stay awake, and we can talk about stuff!" Not Cheerilee said. "Maybe I can teach you something?" She would love to learn something! If only she wasn't so very tired!

"Girls, please get this little one to the hospital as quickly as you can!" Cheerilee said.

"You coming with... with us Cheerilee?" She asked, barely awake. She just wanted to sleep so bad.

"Yes." Cheerilee said."I'll be along in a second. I just have to get somepony to stand in for me." It was just like Cheerilee in her dreams.

She knew that she wasn't going to come with her! She had failed, Cheerilee was going away again, and there was nothing she could do!

"I promise! You'll see!" Cheerilee said, with conviction.

"Please don't lie to me Cheerilee! Please!" She said, her eyes closing again. Everything went to black again.

She her horn kept tingling and itching. Like when you shuffle your hooves over a carpet and then touch a metal doorknob.

She could see a light in the distance, and then suddenly it felt like the sun touched her horn. And it was like she finished drinking a giant glass of hot cocoa! And her symbol felt like it was hot as an oven.

And all of a sudden the light was gone, and there was stars instead -- Super, extra, fun stars!

"Oh wow! I can see stars! That was unicorn fun! Let's do that again!" She shouted, at the funny stars, before she started to get tired again. She would just sleep for a moment...

"Excellent!" Said a male voice. "Her condition seems to be stabilizing!" Talking to somepony.

"She seems to be waking up." Said a female voice.

"Cheerilee?" She thought to herself. "Is that you?"

She started to open her eyes, and the stars started to clear. Behold her was what appeared to be a purple unicorn.

It was Cheerilee! It had to be! "Cheerilee?" She asked. "Is that you! I'm so sorry for using the wand! I didn't mean to use it! It was just that everyone was in trouble! And I couldn't lose you or Lily Lightly or Whistle Wishes or Brights Brightly ever again! Never again!" She said shaking her head.

"Wand?" Cheerilee asked. Except, as the stars finally cleared away, it wasn't Cheerilee, but a winged purple unicorn. Why was her muzzle so small? And why didn't her hoof have a heart on it? "Could you explain please?" Not Cheerilee asked.

"Oh! I'm sorry! I thought you were my mentor Cheerilee! You see I lost her when the funny bug ponies attacked Unicornia! Except they weren't funny bug ponies! And I got lost and!" She said, stopping for a second. "My name is Rarity! What is yours?"

"Why this is Princess Twilight Sparkle, and my name is Doctor Stethoscope. So Rarity is your name, correct?"

"Yeah! That's my name!" She said, smiling ear to ear. Oh she could tell today was going to be extra fun! If only she wasn't so dang tired.

"Well! Miss Rarity, you gave us a really big scare there!" Doctor Stethoscope chastised her. "You have to be careful when casting magic, especially magic you don't understand. Using too much magic at once is very dangerous! Especially at your age!" He said, looking into her eyes, in some kind of parenting mode. "You have to be careful to only cast spells that you are up to and to never cast too many spells at one time. Especially at your age!" Stethoscope said, ever ready to lecture ponies in the proper way to live healthfully.

"It's not my fault! I wanted to save everyone from scary mean bug ponies!" Rarity responded, crossing her hooves in an unnatural manner.

"Fair enough, but why don't you tell Twilight and I what happened, and I'll see if I can locate your guardian, or this Cheerilee." Stethoscope said to the small pink unicorn. "Cheerilee, Isn't that the name of the teacher?" Stethoscope said to himself, under his breath, in confusion.

********

The next morning

********

"Rarity! Come back here with that tray table!" The nurse said, the horror apparent in her voice! "The doctor doesn't want you out of bed for a couple more days!" She shouted chasing after the precocious child skating away on a table meant to bring her breakfast.

The filly skated down the hall, cheering gleefully. As a couple of orderlies joined the nurse in the chase. "Rarity! This is incredibly unsafe! Your condition is still very unstable and Doctor Horse would have our necks if you hurt yourself again!"

The filly just cheered, as she started to fly down a flight of stairs -- riding along on top of a cart. After a couple of flights, the filly separated from the cart, and started going a different direction then the cart.

However the filly's flight didn't last long before she, and the cart both were grabbed by a spell activated from one of the doctor's horns.

"Come here young filly!" A grumpy voice rasped. "You're lucky I'm in a decent mood today." The doctor said, carrying the young filly in his magic, as his hooves slowly clopped along the tiles.

"Ahhhhh!!!" The filly said (blissfully unaware of what was grabbing her -- but instead painfully aware that her joyride had suddenly ended), sounding disappointed for a few precious seconds, before starting to giggle riotously. "Sometimes I get the giggles!!"

The doctor just rolled his eyes. There was a reason he usually worked with late adolescents and adults.

"Young filly!" Said Nurse Redheart in her sternest voice. "What do you have to say for yourself! You could've hurt yourself bad!"

"That was unicorn fun! Let's do it again!" Rarity said, giggling wildly.

"I say let's not do that again!" Scolded the doctor.

"Doctor." Nurse Redheart said, her expression puzzled. "I thought this was your day off, what brings you in bright and early?"

"Well apparently the 'princess of friendship' located this young filly's guardian/'mentor', and I was hoping she could shed some answers on the filly's condition." Doctor Stable said, with an ominous expression on his face.

Nurse Redheart just shook her head. "Do you still want me to get the teacher as well?" She asked, being unable to find the teacher later the previous day.

"Maybe later. For now I want to find out if I need to be calling FPS on this 'mentor'? Or if little Rarity over there decided to take another joyride -- mayhap a magical one." The doctor said to the nurse quietly, scowling all the way. "I'm also hoping she can help us figure out if the filly has a history of illness that would explain her condition yesterday."

"Umm.... Doctor... A Cheerilee is here to see you!" One of the nurses said over the intercom.

"Great! Bring her in! I'm in half a mind to call FPS to meet her here!" He said, to the nurse, his temper showing.

"And somepony else... too..." The nurse said, her voice sounding shaky.

"Look if it's 'princess' Twilight Sparkle, tell he she's done enough damage for two days! And that she should come back tomorrow!" Doctor Stable said, snorting slightly.

"No! I think you should show her in... She wants to see little Rarity..." The nurse said, getting quiet.

"Mare!" He shouted at his nurse, angrily. "You can tell the 'princess' that she's not needed here! And that she should go away!" He said, stamping with his good legs.

"Oh, I understand completely." Said a serene voice over the intercom. "But would you mind a different princess visiting your patients?"

The doctor suddenly lost all color in his face and muzzle. "Sh.... Show her in..." He said, shaking violently. "Show them both in..."

********

"Heya girls." Apple Bloom said, with an enthusiastic smile. "You figured out yet how we're gunna get our Cutie Marks?" She asked the other two members of the crusaders, who had just joined her.

"Not yet!" Sweetie Belle Squeaked. "But I've come up with a few excellent ideas we can try after Twilight Time." She said, holding a piece of paper, with the words 'top secret' written in large red letters.

"Let me see!" Scootaloo said, with eagerness, snatching the piece of paper out of Sweetie's mouth.

"Hey! Those were supposed to be a surprise!" Sweetie squealed, looking angrily at her friend.

Scootaloo, looked through the list, and then frowned. "Maybe they should have stayed that way. These ideas are pretty bad." Scootaloo said, dropping the piece of paper.

"Well I thought they were pretty good!" Sweetie said, pouting. "What do you think Apple Bloom." She said, grabbing the paper, and giving it to her other friend.

"Well..." Apple Bloom stated, looking through the list with a frown. "They're... interesting." She said, lying through her teeth (hey only Applejack represents honesty!)

Sweetie Belle just sighed, feeling deflated.

"Common girls, buck up!" Apple Bloom said. "Maybe Twilight'll teach us something useful for Twilight time that will finally earn us our Cutie Marks." She said, opening the door. They had been doing Twilight time for a while, and had learned lots of cool things, but nothing that would help their cutie marks appear.

Only, instead of Twilight standing there to greet them, as she normally did. She was rushing around babbling something about a "wand" to herself.

"So... Um... Twilight. Do ya mind us showing up for Twilight time?" Apple Bloom asked, as politely as she could; noticing the princess flying by at high speeds.

"Um. Sure thing. I'm just looking for some books on something. You girls have a seat. I'll be right with you." Twilight said, galloping around at top speed. "I just remembered a book I was recently reading; which pertained to something that came up in a conversation." Twilight said, pulling books off the shelves, seemingly at random.

All three young fillies let out their loudest sighs -- this wasn't going to be much of a Twilight Time at this rate.

Sweetie just sat there for a second. There had to be some way she could prevent this Twilight time from being a bust, but how? Wait, did Twilight leave a book on her table? Maybe it was a book of magic!? Maybe they could earn their Cutie Marks as CUTIE MARK CRUSADER MAGIC WIELDERS YAY!!!!

The book looked very brittle. She recalled that Twilight told her that some books had to be opened with magic. Too bad she wasn't very good at magic yet. She hoped that she had enough skill to lift a book though.

The book hit the floor thunk, and promptly opened somewhere in the middle. In the middle stood odd creatures. They had yellow-pink coats? Or were they just bald? And was their coat different and furrier on their body then on their heads? No wait! Those were cloths (she knew from living at the Boutique most of the time.) Too bad she couldn't read the words, these strange bipeds looked really fascinating.

"What, in the hey are you looking at over there, so intently?" Scootaloo asked, looking over at her friend, curious of what the white unicorn was looking at with such intent.

"I didn't break the book!!! It was already broken to begin with!" Sweetie said, panting in panic, and stepping between Scootaloo and the book.

"Relax Sweetie, it's me!" Scootaloo said. "What are you looking at anyway?" She asked, sliding the unicorn out of the way, and staring down.

"It's these funny creatures in this book." The little white unicorn said, with a chuckle. "I mean why are they all reared up like this? And why are their front legs bent that way? Wouldn't they fall down and break their knees?" She asked, thinking about all the times she tried to stand on only her back legs for any length of time.

Scootaloo shrugged. "Maybe they're mutants like those three new ponies that showed up a few days ago?" She asked, looking over to her friend, who had joined her in looking at the picture of the bipedal creatures.

"Maybe, but why are they all wearing clothes?" Sweetie asked innocently (it's not that ponies didn't dress up, it's just they didn't dress up quiet to the level these bipeds did.) "Are they all fashion forward like my sister?" Sweetie asked, thoughtfully, tilting her head and holding her hoof in a thinking position.

"girls!" Twilight scolded. "Please step away from that book. It's extremely old and brittle, and shouldn't really be touched without magic." She said, gently pushing the two crusaders away from the book with her magic.

When released, the three girls just stepped away a pace or two.

Sweetie knew that this would probably start a rant, or get her in trouble; but she couldn't push the question out of her mind. "Twilight?" Sweetie asked. "What are those strange creatures in your book? And how are the reared up like that ? And why is everypony clothed like that?"

Twilight stood there frozen for a minute to smirks of glee from the young girls, who hoped they might have, inadvertently, just dodged a bullet. "Well, come over here, I always like to broaden young ponies horizons through learning." Twilight said, with a smile. "And I can see why you were curious Sweetie, this book is fascinating!"

"You girls see: the book calls these creatures 'minotaur-apes'; and they were , up till my trips beyond the mirror, believed to be a myth." Twilight said, activating rant mode. "I've come to learn that these creatures are called 'humans', but these two creatures:" She said, pointing at the two creatures with pointed ears, and another two smaller creatures with pony like ears (in about the same position), a large nose, and a large beard. "I have no better name for. Some of the legends I read, when I visited the other world for the second time, called these creatures 'Elves' and these ones 'Gnomes', but I can't be certain, my knowledge of their language is sketchy at best."

"So Twilight, what is this book anyways?" Apple Bloom asked, approaching the book and pointing straight down. She, like the other crusaders, was fascinated in these strange creatures -- they looked like the monsters granny used to show in some of the old story books she used to read the filly.

"Wow! Excellent question." Twilight said, with a smile. "You girls are learning fast!" She said, with a squee. "What you see before you is one the tales of Starswirl the long horned!" She said, with a growing smile.

"You mean that old unicorn you are so gaga over?" Scootaloo asked, unimpressed. "The one with the bells?" She asked, swallowing a chuckle.

"No! That's Starswirl the Bearded." Twilight said, with agitation. "This is his distant ancestor." Twilight responded (I mean isn't it obvious to anypony with eyes that these are different ponies!)

"So how old is this book anyways?" Apple Bloom asked, her curiosity continuing to be peaked. "I mean, I don't think I've seen a book like this before! And don't we have like archive magic or somethin for books like these?"

"It's actually a 117th reprint from the end of the second age of an earlier book from the beginning of the second age, and represents the oldest known surviving book in all of Equestria." Twilight responded. "It's so old the protection spells on it are almost entirely shot. So I would appreciate it if you touched the book with caution!" Twilight cautioned, hoping to keep the crusaders from their normal mischief. "I found it last week in one of the hidden libraries in the old castle." She said, remembering the hidden archive they found during renovations. "And I don't know if there is another." She sighed, knowing that this was the only half-way salvageable book in that part of the archive.

"Can I read the rest of the series?" Sweetie asked innocently, hoping to hear more information -- maybe something cutie mark related.

"Sorry girls. The rest of the series has been lost to time -- though I'm hoping the other books might be in the old castle somewhere as well." Twilight responded, with a sigh -- she could only hope. "Such a shame, this is the fifth of fourteen books in the set that chronicles Starswirl's adventures (the long horned, not the bearded) among the pegasus tribes. This chapter deals with an exchange between the pegasi and the decaying fragments of an older human kingdom spanning back into the first age -- most likely destroyed during the series of catastrophes that ended the first age, and brought an end to the first unified pony kingdom."

"So if these here 'hew-mans' were so important then why'd they all go and disappear?" Apple Bloom asked, curiously. "I mean and why'd we have no records of them?

"Nopony knows." Twilight responded. "They only appear in legends from the second age; and up until Sunset Shimmer made her little trip through the mirror, we didn't even know what they looked like." Twilight responded. "And truth be told, we thought they were just myths. However , this book seems to suggest that they once had a civilization, here in Equestria, at some point." Twilight said, thoughtfully. "As for why they disappeared? We don't know. Maybe Discord removed all traces of them during his short reign?"

"So where'd they come from?" Apple Bloom asked. "Did they come from the mirror like Sunset Shimmer? Or they get here some other way?"

"Actually no, they couldn't have." Twilight responded matter-of-factly. "That mirror wasn't created for another couple of thousand years at the point this book was written, let alone the original."

At this point Scootaloo's fascination had begun to be engulfed by her short attention span, and she wanted to see if they had any information, or pictures, of the legendary deity of the pegasus tribes. "So they got any pictures of Danny The Joy Bringer in here?" Scootaloo asked, trying to grab the book from Twilight's magic. "I've been hoping Ms. Gold Heart will take me to Cloudsdale to see the old tribal shrine! But she says there's no money for that! Sad thing too, 'cause it's said that the first time a pegasus touches his wings they will get their biggest desire -- and I know what mine is!" She said, imagining herself finally flying, with Rainbow by her side.

"Scootaloo! Don't touch that!" Twilight shrieked as the top of her lungs in horror. As the pegasus started fumbling pages of the old book with her hooves -- causing a page to not just separate from the book, but also to split in half depth wise (such is the jinx of the crusaders.)"

Twilight first started crying uncontrollably, then started to smoke, and finally almost caught flame. However, after a short period of hyper ventilating, she waving her hooves: She was ok. But she had to fix the book now or it would be too late! And she just had to hope that her book restoration magic was strong enough (yes! There are some problems even the Alicorn Element of Magic can't fix.)

Twilight fixed her stance, and activated her most powerful restoration spell. After a few seconds it appeared nothing was happening, and Twilight began to give up. However, her continued efforts weren't in vain as both of the two halves of the single page, magically, pasted themselves in the book. This caused Twilight to smile! This was going to happen! She was going to fix an ancient book! But, sadly, her hopes began to be dashed as the two halves of the page didn't fuse back together.

"I'm going to need to use full power for this." Twilight said to herself, not giving up. She powered up her magic as close to her limits as she could, and promptly blinded everyone in the room with a burst of pure magic. However, the page's fragments still didn't fuse back together. Instead pictures and writing began to appear on the two pieces. The halves of the page were, in reality, two pages that had been fused together for some reason.

"A'm blind!" Apple Bloom screeched in horror, fumbling wildly, before the darkness and stars finally started to clear away (she was glad, of course, 'cause glasses are fer nerds!)

"Sorry about that girls." Twilight said, sheepishly. "I guess I got a little eager there." She said, looking at the book. Strange: she didn't notice the two pages glued together before? Was something done to the book magically at some point? Or was this an error in the printing?

"Hey it's the hyoo-mens again!" Sweetie Belle Squeaked. "But what are they holding in their hoof-thingies, they look kinda like toy wands!" She said, pointing to odd objects, held in the pink creatures misshapen hooves.

The tall human was holding a very long thin wand with an orb at the top of the wand, that was so tall they had to hold it with both hooves. And the creature appeared to be beckoning an object to move with jet black magic.

The tall human with the pointy ears was holding it's barrel with one hoof, and a small wand with the other. The wand was glowing a familiar color blue, and it looked like some kind of spell was being performed off page.

The short human with the pony ears, big nose, and a large beard was holding a simple wooden stick, and was casting some kind of spell, which caused leaves to swirl into a cyclone.

"Interesting, these wands don't appear to be toys though." Twilight said to herself, sitting down to think for a second. "I wonder..." She thought. "Maybe that wand Rarity mentioned had something to do with her condition!"

Twilight started to read the words on the new pages for a second, fascinated with her theories, before realizing.... "Oh... I'm sorry girls. It's Twilight Time, and I want to know what you've learned this week!" She said, beckoning Scootaloo forward.

********

"Why is everyone looking at me like that?" Cheerilee asked, passing a couple of nurses, who bowed low to the ground before her passing. "Did I do something wrong? Everyone's been giving me odd glances since I stepped into the hospital."

"Actually Cheer... My little pony... It's me who's getting the odd glances. Ponies instinctively treat me as royalty, and add to that the fact that I rarely appear here in person; and well!" Celestia said, with a blush. "And all the guards don't help!" She said, with a laugh, motioning discretely for the dozen guards following her to back up another pace or two.

"That must be really hard. "Cheerilee said, with reservation. "I can't imagine if everyone acted this way towards little rarity." She continued, a tear starting to flow. "It must be really hard! I can't imagine how lonely it must be! Little Rarity would be crushed!" Cheerilee said, swallowing tears once again, she really took an extra shine towards this particular pink unicorn, and worried for her like a daughter.

"You know Cheer... My little pony, it's not good to swallow tears or hide your feelings. Especially when you are worried! A student of mine once told me that no matter how dark things get your friends are always there for you!" Celestia said, smiling. "Do you have any friends that can help you?"

"Well there's Brights Brightly, and Whistle Wishes." She said, with a sorrowful sign. "I wish I knew where they were."

"I'm certain we shall find them." Celestia said, her voice changing slightly. "Ahh! here we are, room 312. Doctor Stable said he would meet us here." She said, talking as she normally would.

"So... Um.... Princess... What brings you here?" Doctor Stable said, fighting every fiber of his being telling him to bow and scrape. "Don't you have business back in Canterlot?" He said, with a restrained frown (holding himself aloft by sure will power.)

"Yes, I suppose. But, I find it useful to visit my little ponies every once in a while." Celestia lied. "Besides, Cheerilee here was in trouble! Could I as a princess stand by and do nothing?" Celestia said, with a twinkle in her eye.

"Uh huh..." Doctor Stable said, not believing a word he was being told, but being afraid to say so. "So how do you plan to help anyway?"

"I'm here to vouch for her. I believe a certain doctor was going to call FPS." She said, using her divine intuition, and some of the things the doctor had screamed over the intercom. "And I'm here to tell him that won't be necessary!" She said, with a mischievous smile.

The old doctor gulped -- busted like Benjamin Bunny.

"Besides, I thought I'd mention to the same doctor that it isn't good to openly disrespect a princess without good reason." She said, smirking openly, twisting the knife slightly.

"Fine!" The doctor said, his hooves clopping against the floor. "Here you go." He said, opening the door. "Here's the little pink..." His face dropped, as if screaming only one thing: 'not again'. "Empty room! Orderlies! She ran off again."

"Oh dear!" Cheerilee said, her ears dropping, her heart filling with fear. "Sh... She..." Cheerilee stuttered, falling down to her knees. "I can't believe that she would --"

Celestia frowned for only a second, before cracking a smile. "Don't worry my little pony. I've got this one." The alicorn said, displaying her most reassuring smile. Her horn started to light up. "I'll be right back." She said, disappearing into a bubble of magic for just a second -- before returning with a little pink unicorn clenched in her muzzle by her neck.

"AHHH!!!!!" The little pink unicorn whined. "It wasn't my fault! It was boring in here and --" She said, stopped with she saw Cheerilee.

Celestia simply gave a motherly smile, and a nod. "Cheerilee, do you --?" She started, before being interrupted with the blur of a purple unicorn throwing herself around her mentee.

"Oh Rarity! I was so worried about you!" The purple unicorn said, propelling her front legs around the little pink unicorn, in a monstrous hug. "Please don't use the wand without my permission again! I thought for a second that you had--" She said, sobbing uncontrollably.

"I'm sorry Cheerilee!" Rarity responded, crying herself. "But I had to do something! I thought I was going to lose you again! And you were in trouble and--" She said, barely able to get out the words before Cheerilee interrupted her with a gentle touch of her hoof to the filly's muzzle.

"I know. And thank you for that. But please let me know first! You had me worried sick!" Cheerilee replied, her eyes starting to dry.

"I'm sorry to interrupt this wonderful moment." The old doctor said sarcastically. "But I have important questions that I need answered!" He said, stamping his good hooves against the ground. "And there will be no touching moments until they are!" He stopped for a second, before motioning out of the room. "Would you too be so kind as to join me in my office?" He said, opening the door. "Thank you!"

********

"Ok Sweetie, your magic is coming along nicely! You actually have a potential in there, you just need some instruction." Twilight said, thinking maybe she was wrong about Sweetie's talent being singing -- oh well, she could bring some more advanced magic books next week, and maybe some music books while she was at it. "I'm impressed with how all three of you are progressing!"

"Thanks Twilight! My parents were worried my magic would never grow in!" Sweetie responded, as Scootaloo winced a little. "But I'm glad it did! Now that I have it, I can't imagine what life would be like without it." She said, beaming. Scootaloo winced again, this time more visibly.

"So... Um... Twilight..." Scootaloo said, tapping Twilight with her muzzle -- desperately keeping her cool. "I'm learning a lot about basic mechanics, and how to repair stuff... But I was, kind of, wondering if we could, maybe, do some flight training? Maybe see if we can do something about getting my wings in order?" Scootaloo responded. "You know so I can... um... Join the Wonderbolts or something?" She lied slightly.

Twilight sighed silently; every time she thought the child had figured out she was judged by who she was instead of what she could do, the questions kept coming back. "Didn't Rainbow talk to you about this?" Twilight asked. "That, you know, 'you're cool just the way you are!'?"

"Yeah I know." Scootaloo sighed. "But it just doesn't seem fair." She said, looking down. "I'll never truly be like Rainbow Dash if I can't get these wings started."

Twilight thought to herself, she wasn't sure how best to respond. She really had hoped that Rainbow and Scootaloo had the filly's insecurities beat by now. Maybe she needed to remind Rainbow Dash to be spending more time with her 'honorary sister'. "Didn't Ms. Goldheart look into this for you Scootaloo?" She asked, returning a reassuring muzzle.

Scootaloo shook her head. "These no money in the budget. She does what she can, but she's really just hoping -- as much as I am -- that they will grow in on their someday." She said, her voice beginning to fill with anger and desperation. "And I'm sure that I should be able to fly! I can just sense it with ever fiber of my being!" She said, desperately holding back her tears. "But nopony will let me try! Instead they just tell me that I'm 'cool just the way I am'! Why doesn't anyone care? Why won't they even try!? Why can't I want more? Why can't I aim higher!" She ranted, finally unable to stop until the world understood how she felt. "Why do I have to be happy with less!" She said, the waterworks breaking. "I understand I don't need to fly! That I'm cool without it! But please I want to be sure I can't fly before I give up on my dreams!" She said, stomping her hooves. Apparently she must have talked with Ms. Goldheart about the issue again.

Twilight frowned, maybe the child was right. "Tell you what! Let's start spending some of our Twilight time on your flying problems, would that make you feel better?"

Scootaloo just nodded. "I would like that very much!" She said, the tears still slightly falling.

"As would I!" Said a smiling mulberry earth pony, as she entered the room. "I apologize for interrupting your Twilight Time!" She said, with a smile. "But I almost forgot to bring in your homework! I also need to drop by the hospital and drop this off." She said, smiling gracefully, holding the wand she had picked up yesterday. "The doctor told me little Rarity was feeling slightly better, and I wanted to get this back to her." Cheerily said, handing a few papers to each crusader.

Twilight's eyes grow as large as saucers for a second. She recognized the style of that toy wand. "Ms. Cheerilee, could I see that toy wand for a second?" Twilight said, apologetically.

"Sure thing!" Cheerilee replied, handing the wand to Twilight, curious as to why the princess of friendship was interested in a child's play thing.

Twilight simply held the wand in her mouth, and began to wave it. The wand glowed a light raspberry color, as the large statue in the center of the library began to move around.

Sweetie looked on in surprise, noticing Twilight's horn didn't light up -- even a little. "How'd you use telekinesis like that without using your horn?"

"I think I have a theory, but I need you to help me Ms. Cheerilee." Twilight said, motioning for the mulberry teacher. "Could you please hold this toy wand in your mouth?"

"Sure." Cheerilee said, grabbing the pink wand in her mouth. Why did Twilight need her to hold the toy want in her mouth? What was she up to?

"Ok now point the wand at that statue." Twilight said, motioning at the statue. "Now imagine it moving, and wave the wand towards the pedestal."

"Mmmcay." Cheerilee said, sounding confused. However, she decided to do what the princess requested and closed her eyes, imagining the statue moving; before waving the wand in the direction she wanted the statue to go. Almost immediately the wand and statue both began to be engulfed in a green aura. The statue moved, at the command of the wand sitting itself back on the pedestal.

All three crusaders sat there with their mouths gaping wide open. Looking at each other. This was an untapped cutie mark opportunity. They knew exactly what they needed to do. "You thinking what a'm thinking girls?" Apple Bloom said quietly to the others, her and scootaloo both having mischievous expressions on their faces (and Sweetie Belle having a clueless one.)

"Go back home and do our homework?" Sweetie squeaked, innocently. "I mean we have all this new homework, and --"

"Nah! I'm thinking we pay this Rarity a visit!" Apple Bloom said.

"You mean my sister!" Sweetie said, with an innocent squee. "We can make it a homework party together, and have a Cutie Mark Crusader sleep over and --"

Scootaloo put a hoof on her muzzle. "Or maybe we can borrow that wand and be--"

"Girls! Whatever it is you are plotting stop it now!" Twilight chastised. "I won't have any plotting in Twilight Time! Unless, of course, it's plotting to learn!"

"OHHHH!!!!!" The girls whined. They were so close to planning their next crusade too!

"Well girls!" Cheerilee said, with a large smile. "Be good, while I head off to the hospital!"

"How about I join you this time Cheerilee!" Twilight said, starting to follow the mulberry teacher out the door. "I want to check on the young filly as a favor to a friend anyway!" She said, with a smile.

Cheerilee just nodded, her face filled with confusion. "Certainly, your majesty." She said hesitantly.

********

"So Cheerilee, tell me, how did you lose little rarity?" The doctor asked, looking suspiciously at her, practically trying to stare into her soul. "Inquiring minds need to know!" He said, sitting comfortably at his desk (his chair suspiciously higher than the two other chairs in the room, causing him to appear to tower over whomever was sitting in the other chairs.)

Cheerilee, pulled back slightly. "We were attacked by nasty bug ponies, and so Rarity used the magic wand to teleport everyone away." Cheerilee said, looking away sadly.

The doctor stomped as hard as he could against the desk with his hooves. "You expect me to believe that that small pink fuzz ball somehow managed to not just cast magic, but to do so without the use of her horn?" He fumed. "Unicorns simply can't cast magic before adolescence: period! They don't have enough magic!"

Cheerilee stood there puzzled. Has this doctor never heard of a magic wand before? And why would age matter?

"Doctor!" A nurse said over the intercom. "Princess Twilight Sparkle, and a Ms. Cheerilee are here to see you sir."

"Tell her to -- " The doctor started, before looking at Celestia, who seemed to be giving him some very strong queues without so much as changing her facial features. "Come up here and join us." He said, blushing a dark red. "So where were we?" The doctor said, pretending to think for a second. "Ahh yes! You still want to tell me that somehow a three to five year old unicorn cast a powerful teleportation spell without the use of her horn? And somehow used up every last milli-swirl of her magic in the process?"

"It's the truth sir!" Cheerilee responded, looking devastated. "I foolishly left the wand where she could get it, and when Unicornia was attacked by mean bug ponies, she used it to teleport everyone to safety. But what's this about using all her magic?"

The doctor face-hoofed, maybe the problem here wasn't neglect -- but stupidity. "So let me guess? That cutie mark of yours stands for gardening? And you've never needed magic to perform your special talent?"

Cheerilee stood there befuddled for a second. What does he mean by 'special talent'? And what's he talking about when he's referring to a 'Cutie Mark'? "Oh! You mean my symbol. But why do you think it means anything? I've always had it!"

"Does it have something to do... I don't know!? WITH YOUR SPECIAL TALENT! THE THING YOU WERE BORN TO DO!" The doctor responded. "You know the thing that you did! That made the 'symbol' appear!!!"

Cheerilee simply shook her head. "I don't know what you mean. I was chosen to mentee the other three unicorns because I was the only purple unicorn in Unicornia with a particular skill in mentoring and process. My favorite thing to do is bring the first rainbow of the season."

Celestia smiled, for some reason, as the doctor face hoofed -- she was hopeless.

There was a knock on the door. "Nurse Kind Heart said we should meet you in your office." Said a voice on the other end of the door. "Do you mind if we come in?"

"Oh please come in Twilight!" Celestia volunteered. As the doctor, wisely, kept quiet this time.

Twilight opened the door slowly at first, then quickly when she saw her old teacher. "Celestia, what brings you here today?" She asked. "Don't you have important business to attend to?"

"Oh nothing too important!" Celestia lied. "And I'm sure Kibitz wouldn't mind, since I'm just helping one of my little ponies in need." Celestia said with a smile and a twinkle (oh and she lied, he minded a lot!) "Besides, I need to get out among my ponies every once in a while." She reiterated for the third time today. "So what brings you here, my faithful... oops... my fellow princess of Equestria?"

"Well Cheerilee here." Twilight said, pointing to the mulberry earth pony, not the purple unicorn. "Came to return little Rarity's wand." She said, with a reassuring smile to the mulberry Cheerilee.

The earth pony Cheerilee bowed low to the princess Celestia, and stayed that way for minutes -- practically frozen in the bowing position.

"Don't worry, my little pony!" Celestia said, putting a hoof to the earth pony Cheerilee's muzzle, beckoning her to rise. "You see, Cheerilee here and I are glad that you take such good care of your students!" Celestia said, pointing at the unicorn Cheerilee. "And even those that aren't your students!" Celestia said, turning her head to the tiny pink unicorn's door, before giving a reassuring smile to the earth pony.

"So you must be Cheerilee!" The mulberry earth pony said to the purple unicorn of the same name. "Rarity was terrified to death, thinking that she had lost you. And I almost didn't have the heart to send her ahead to the hospital while I made arrangements for a substitute." She said, with a frown. "It was like, you leaving her was something out of a nightmare. Course I can't imagine how terrified I would be if I got separated from my family at that age."

"Well thank you for helping her!" The purple unicorn Cheerilee said, with a blush. "I was really worried that something happened to her!" She said, with a smile. "Course I'm actually her mentor, not her mother." She said, blushing again. "Thank you though. Sometimes I worry that I'm starting to get old! I'm already in my twenties, and all!"

"You're very welcome! There's a reason I took up teaching!" The mulberry teacher said, with a smile. "I just can't stand to see a small filly, or colt hurt or alone! And I can't imagine doing anything other than teaching!"

"So the filly did have a toy wand." The doctor said, sarcastically, looking at the wand, sticking out of the teacher's bag. "Now I need to know how you have neglec--" He started before being interrupted with the daggers Celestia was throwing from her eyes. "urr... How she lost her magic."

"I think I can answer that." Twilight said, with a beaming smile. "This wand is extremely unique!" She said, making a motion with her hoof.

Celestia looked on, her face openly showing concern. "Please explain, Princess Twilight. It looks like a regular filly's toy to me."

Twilight shook her head. "It isn't." She said, thinking for a second. "Maybe, It would be best to explain it this way!" Twilight said, motioning for the mulberry Cheerilee. "Cheerilee, please pick up the wand like you did back at the library." She said, motioning at the wand.

"Certainly." The school teacher responded, hesitantly, picking up the pink wand with the golden star tip in her mouth.

The other Cheerilee stood there puzzled, why didn't she pick it up in her hoof? Why did she use her mouth?

"Ok Cheerilee, now let's try a more difficult spell!" Twilight said, motioning in a circle. "Wave the wand in a circle three times, and imagine yourself moving from here to the other side of the room. Then toss the wand up. But make sure to only toss it up lightly!"

"Ok." Cheerilee said nervously, as she began to wave the wand. The wand was covered in a green aura, and upon throwing the wand in the air, the teacher and wand disappeared in a puff of smoke, only to reappear on the other side of the room.

The sensible old doctor almost fainted where he stood."H...H....How did you do that?" He stuttered. "Is this some kind of trick?"

"Yes, how indeed?" Celestia said, smirking widely. "Please tell the dear doctor Twilight! Though he probably knows the answer already." She said, winking discreetly at the doctor.

"Well, last month I found an old book in your and Luna's old castle." Twilight said, before getting a nod of understanding from the senior princess. "The book was from the end of the second age, but appears to be a reprinting of a book from the beginning of the second age, or possibly even in the interregnum between the first and second ages."

"And what does that have to do with the cost of tea in --" The old doctor said sternly, before being interrupted by a smiling glance from Celestia.

"Ehem!" Twilight continued. "As I was saying: the book contains descriptions of creatures, that have not been seen or heard from since the middle of the second age, if not the end of the first. And have, up until my trip to that other world to stop Sunset Shimmer, been heard of only in legend. However, until I discovered this ancient artwork." She said, opening the book. "We didn't even have correct descriptions!" She said, pointing at the page. "You should recognize these creatures by their fairy tale name: 'minotaur-apes'!"

"Wow! That's fascinating!" Said the mulberry teacher with a smile. "But what do these creatures have to do with the wand?" She asked, tilting her head.

"I'm glad you asked this question." Twilight said. "These creatures, in the other world, were called 'humans'. Technically that may not be the correct name! However, I will use the term anyway, as it describes them well." She said, before motioning to the rest of the page. "The other two tribes on the page are not, in fact, 'humans'. They are instead two entirely different tribes; basically they are to humans what unicorns and pegasi are to earth ponies."

She stopped for a minute, to see how far she had lost the other ponies in the room.

"In any case. I'm calling the other two kinds of humans: 'Elves' and 'Gnomes'." Twilight said. "As that was the names I found of similar mythological creatures, while reading the other world's fairy tales." She said, taking a breath, before continuing. Pointing to the regular bipedal 'minotaur-ape'. "Now, unlike unicorns: these creatures have no means to direct and channel magic. And unlike ponies, these creatures have no magic of their own at all! And no ability to channel the magic of the earth, or the arcane."

"Fascinating!" The doctor said, sarcastically. "But then what does this have to do with little Rarity losing her magic. And how much more of my precious time do you intend to waste?!"

"I'm almost done." Twilight said, with a smile, before continuing. "So a couple of student's I'm training managed to discover a missing page chronicling their magic and how they used to channel it, back when they still roamed old Equestria." She said, with a smile.

"Basically normal human magic, as I've dubbed it, must gifted by a higher source; sparing a very precious minority of a very precious minority capable of pulling it from the earth itself. This is why their wands are long like this. It allows them to draw more of their magic source." She said, stopping to think of an example, before continuing. "Kind of like a lightning rod."

Next Twilight gestured to the smallest of the three sets of humans (or 'minotaur-apes' as the book called them.) "Gnomes, as I call them, have a close connection to the earth, and can easily channel its energies. So their wands are designed to pull the magic of the planet itself. So, basically, a Gnomish wand is a human wand, except that instead of drawing higher magic, it is drawn from the planet."

Celestia smiled. "When you say, 'higher magic', do you mean arcane magic my fellow princess?" Celestia said, playing the teacher for a second.

Twilight nodded. "It's the closest translation I could find. Apparently they use a magic source different from arcane magic, and even the magic of the planet and the weather. I tried to decipher the meaning, but I couldn't figure out exactly what the book meant, at this time!" She said, frowning for a second.

"But here's the applicable part." She said, pointing to the humans with the pointy ears. "The elves, as I have dubbed them, have magic and can, unlike gnomes and humans, draw from arcane sources -- just like a unicorn. But they have no means to control or channel it." Twilight said, with a smile.

"So what you are telling me is that the child has an ancient wand from the ooga-booga age! And it allows her to manipulate the fairy dust that --" The doctor started before his voice suddenly lost all volume (as if a mute button was hit somewhere.) To silent laughter from the senior of the two princesses in the room.

"But anyway!" Twilight said, in exasperation. "Unlike Humans or Gnomes: their wands aren't about drawing in from a magic source, but rather drawing and channeling their own, innate, magic."

The purple unicorn looked on in horror. "That's terrible! So every time someone uses that wand some of their magic is absorbed, till they have none?"

Twilight put her hoof to the purple unicorn's face reassuringly. "No! Like any unicorn, she'll slowly recover her magic, it's no different than her using her horn to cast a spell. The difference is that the wand can, unlike a unicorn's own horn, draw out all of her magic. But only if she's over using it."

The unicorn puzzled for a second, before the gravity of what had been said fully took over; use her horn? She could use her horn? The purple unicorn looked down sadly. "So it's my own fault. I almost k--" She started, weeping silently.

"Don't think that!" Twilight said, with a frown. "Think of it as her trying to protect you at all costs." Twilight said, putting a hoof around the weeping purple unicorn. "She's just trying to help you! It's just that she lacks sound judgment. And you didn't mean for it to happen, it was just bad luck."

"Ok!" The purple unicorn said, sighing.

"Maybe it would be best if you took Rarity's mentor to the guest quarters, Ms. Cheerilee!" Celestia said to the earth pony. "I think she needs to rest. " Celestia said with a smile. "I guess the mystery is solved, you can go back to work doctor." She said, waving at the doctor dismissively.

"Fine!" The doctor said, his voice restored. "I guess that's that then!" He said, brushing himself off with his hoof.

"Twilight I have to go back to Canterlot, but let me discuss something with you for a minute." Celestia said, looking around to make sure everypony had left or was leaving.

"Sure!" Twilight said, waiting for the doctor to leave the room. "Now what did you need?"

"Twilight! I want you to start visiting not just that other Rainbow Dash, but also young Rarity, I sense something special about her, and not just because we are old friends."

"Wait!" Twilight said, a light coming on. "What do you mean old friend? She's only five."

"You'll understand, in time, Twilight." Celestia said, with a mysterious smile. "But for now I need you to trust me that I sense something special about her separate from that."

"Sure! I'll visit her and Cheerilee (the purple one not the mulberry one) tomorrow when I visit Rainbow Dash." Twilight said, ever ready to please.

"Excellent." Celestia said, with a smile. "I know I could count on you Twilight! Guards, we should be on our way!" She said, with a smile, gesturing to the guards. "I'm sure Kibitz will kill me for breaking my schedule." As she started to leave with her entourage.

"Excellent!" A nurse said, as the princess passed. "Apparently, soon enough, I'll get a chance to get rid of not just Lady Rainbow, and Princess Larva; but also Lady Rainbow's spawn and the traitor princess, Amaryllis, too -- if I should even call her that." She chuckled to herself, sadistically.

********

"So girls, how you think we're going ta' earn our Cutie Marks today?" Apple Bloom asked, looking down at their ever growing list of cutie mark attempts.

"Well I thought we could try being Cutie Mark Crusader Ballet Dancers?" Sweetie Belle said, making a wild guess.

"Dancing sound cool!" Apple Bloom said. "We could try that!" She said, with a smile -- imitating a dance pose.

"Yeah, dancing sounds very cool!" Scootaloo said with a smile, shortly before her face went dark and serious. "But ballet sounds stupid!" Scootaloo chided, avoiding any thought in her head that said otherwise. "What else do we have? And no Discord this time! He was no help at all last time!"

"Well what if we went and checked on that new filly?" Sweetie Belle asked. "Rarity said, that she heard from that other Rainbow Dash, when she went to the hospital to retrieve ~~her guide to landing the perfect stallion~~ her research materials, that they have a small filly in the hospital, no more than five, that already has her Cutie Mark."

"Wow! Maybe She knows some secret to getting her cutie mark we don't! " Scootaloo replied, with exuberance. "Maybe we should ask her how she did it! But no cutie mark story please! I have heard enough of those sappy stories to last me a lifetime!"

"Plus." Sweetie said thoughtfully. "Isn't she the one with the wand that Twilight and Ms. Cheerilee were talking about yesterday afternoon?" Apple Bloom asked. "Maybe we could borrow her wand and become."

"CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS: PRESTIDIGITATORS YAY!!!!" The girls screamed (once again in all caps), taking up odd poses.

"Let's do it!" Scootaloo said. "But first we need a way into the hospital!" She mused, thoughtfully chewing on a pencil. After a few seconds, she spoke again. "And I think I know just the way! Come with me!" She said, looking at some equipment from their failed attempt to be 'Cutie Mark Crusader's Mountain Climbers' (yay!!!)

********

"So maybe we could do something nice and safe -- like use the front door?" Sweetie squeaked, nervously. She was pretty sure the orderlies wouldn't like the three of them coming in a third story window.

"Nah!" Scootaloo said. "You know they won't let just any pony visit this other Rarity!" Scootaloo remarked. "After all two Rarity's is too many, if you ask me! And besides." Scootaloo said, blushing slightly. "I, kind of, wanted another chance for my Cutie Mark in parkour!"

"Didn't we try that already? And didn't you crash into the bathroom while spike was in the bath?" Sweetie Belle asked, nervously. "Didn't Twilight say our parents' had to pay full price for that window?" She said, cocking her head for a second, she knew she was forgetting something. After a couple of seconds she remembered. "And didn't we get banned from the library and Twilight Time for a month?"

"Yeah!" Scootaloo said, blushing again. "But I'm certain I'll get it right this time! And even if I don't it'll be awesome!" She exuberantly proclaimed. "I hope Rainbow Dash is watching!" Scootaloo thought to herself, with a huge smile.

"Ok Girls! It's agreed!" Apple Bloom chimed in. "Scootaloo gets another chance at parkour, and we all get another attempt for our Cutie Marks as:"

"CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS: SUPER SPIES!!!" All three fillies shouted, at full volume.

"Ok, so what's the plan girls?" Apple Bloom asked, quietly, looking around to make sure nopony was looking.

"Well! You see this saddle pack?" Scootaloo said motioning to the bag attached to her flank. "I have like a ton of feet (Celestia's foot, not King Richard's!) of rope in here! I'm going to run up this wall, get in through (or maybe crash through) an open third story window, and then drop this rope down and we can all climb up!"

"OR maybe we could go in the front door?" Sweetie said innocently, looking at the front door, and motioning explicitly.

"Nah I'm with Scootaloo!" Apple Bloom groused. "Applejack never lets me do nuttin!" She continued, pouting (just a little.) "And a'm sick and tired of it! I say we do somethin' awsome! Somethin' that'll get us our cutie marks!"

"She's putting the safety helmets on your head again isn't she?" Scootaloo asked. Her sister had been having anxiety problems, probably related to letting her go or something -- and had taken it upon herself to keep her sister safe from life. And Apple Bloom kind of resented it (especially when her sister had given her a dulled spoon to prevent her from poking herself with it. And to this day, she doesn't know where, and how, her sister bought that many safety helmets!)

"Yeah!!!" Apple Bloom shouted. "And it's drive'in me crazy! It's probably from that there magic burst situation with that phony Rainbow Dash!"

"Yeah I hated that one! She's all like 'I'm an earth pony!' and 'I'm into fashion darlings!'" Scootaloo said, pouting as she started to back up a few paces to get a sprinting start. "She like some Rarity impersonating Rainbow Dash wannabe! Makes the real Rainbow Dash look bad!" Scootaloo said, with a pouty face as she began to gallop at top speed towards the building. "I don't like it one bit!"

"Wow! I think she's actually going to do it!" Sweetie squeaked with excitement. "I thought she was going to mess up for sure!" Sweetie said, hearing a muffled "HEY!!!" from somewhere around the second floor.

"Ah didn't think so either!" Apple Bloom said as the pegasus was somehow now jumping from narrow window cell to narrow window cell on the third floor. "But you think she's gunna be able ta --?"

A loud crashing sound could be heard all the way from the ground below, but strangely no alarm went off.

A dazed Scootaloo called from the third floor. "Told you I could do it! Now if only I could fly then I'd definitely be Wonderbolt material! Isn't that right Apple Bloom!" She said, pointing at a tree. "Was Rainbow Dash looking?" She asked, with an exuberant smile that could be seen three floors down.

Both fillies just shook their heads. After a few seconds, Apple Bloom gulped loudly, and opened her mouth. "Ok! Ah suppose we should be'a climbin' now." She said, looking around nervously, before asking herself a question. "I wonder why we ain't being swarmed with orderlies by now?"

********

The changeling's wispy peppery black mane waved for a second before falling flat against her body. "Don't be afraid!" She said with a smile, to the cowering nurse. "I've been ordered not to feed, and that includes your youth and magic." She said, her black eyes staring into the nurse's soul. It did her good to see the look of pure terror burned into the nurse's face. "Good thing you don't see my true form, only what I want you to see of me!" The changeling said, laughing that her mind magic allowed her to use her true form and still look like another pony.

The nurse shook, looking like she was trying, and failing to form words.

"Such a shame, I was hoping to cut a few years off my life -- maybe increase my magic some more! What's also a shame is that I'm supposed to let you go unharmed when my mission completes!" She said, to the fainted nurse. "Apparently my master wants all of Equestria to know what happens to those who betray the hive!" She said, with glee, as a loud crash resounded from somewhere.

"I suppose somepony will have to see what that's all about! 'Nurse Kind Heart thinks it came from--'" She said, looking at a room listing. "Rainbow Dash's room. And look, Princess Twilight Sparkle is visiting today." She continued, laughing wickedly.

"Oh don't worry!" The changeling hissed to the fainted nurse bound in the corner. "I want you to remember everything just as it is! See my master isn't the only one that likes to leave somepony behind to witness their brilliance!" She said, grinning wistfully. "Consider this my calling card! I always leave somepony as a witness to my acts! So all know of what happens to those who cause trouble for the hive!" She said, licking her lips. "Somepony is nearby, and apparently they are filled with all kinds of tasty terror!" She said, soaking in the ambient emotion.

There was a gasp heard somewhere, and some light talking.

"Apparently we have interlopers!" She said, scanning around the room, with her eyes. What she didn't notice was three small fillies slipping between her legs. "Ah ha!" She said, pulling a box away from the corner only to find an empty rope hanging out the window. "Apparently they got away!" She said, with a shrug. "I hope they hurry back! I'm looking forward to an audience!" She said, with a toothy grin.

"Well off with me! They probably won't arrive in time anyway!" She said, with a sigh, closing the door behind her. "Guessing fillies by the smell of it! Don't foals these days know not to meddle in an adult's business!"

********

"That was a close one!" Sweetie Belle whined. "We have to warn Twilight!" She said, with conviction. "She's in danger! And we have to do something!"

"What I don't get is why the changlings are back. Didn't Twilight already kick Chrysalis' sorry--" Scootaloo said, before being rudly interrupted by Sweetie again.

"And why are they after Princess Twilight?" Sweetie asked, with a puzzled expression. "And wouldn't there be easier places to get her, if they wanted?" She said thinking for a second. "Maybe they actually want somepony else?" She said, hesitating on every word.

"Maybe! Doesn't matter though, because we're going to go out there, and show that phony who's boss! Scootaloo style!" Scootaloo said, with buzz of her wings, and a huge smile. "You like it? It's an ode to Rainbow style! Rainbow Dash will be so happy when she hears it!" She said, buzzing again.

However her exuberance was short lived, as Apple Bloom finally spoke up. "We have to hurry! We might not have much time! So we have to warn Twilight quickly: so here's the plan girls!" Apple Bloom said, thinking for a second, and drawing on a piece of paper she found somewhere. "Ah'll go warn Twilight! Sweetie, you go and find an orderly or a cop! Scootaloo, find a doctor, or somepony else on this here floor that can help!"

Scootaloo scoffed. "Maybe I should warn Twilight, and you find a doctor or nurse!" She said, with a scowl.

"Fine! Ah'll go find somepony!" Apple Bloom said with a sigh. "But remember we hafta hurry! Ah don't know how long we have till this here assassin completes her job!"

All three crusaders nodded. "CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS: CRIME STOPPERS ARE A GO!" They said in unison, running off in three different directions.

********

As Sweetie Belle ran down to the first floor, she noticed one of the orderlies. He was standing there with a dazed expression -- babbling incoherently.

"Oh Bright Eyes! You came back to me! I knew you would come back!" He said, crying, and nuzzling empty space. "The guard said you didn't make it! But I knew you would return!" He said, weeping to a pony that wasn't there.

"Excuse me sir!" Sweetie said to the stallion. "We have a situation." She said, biting at his leg, only to elicit absolutely no response.

After a few seconds the stallion spoke, still staring ahead at nothing. "Sorry little filly, but I'm off duty!" Said the stallion, still wearing a uniform. "And my wife is here to see me! Please bother somepony else: the two of us want some alone time!" He said, with an amorous expression.

"Who's he talking about?" Sweetie asked, with a perplexed expression. "Maybe I can find another orderly that can help?"

She started to run down the hall at full speed. Maybe somepony will take notice and chastise her and she could explain everything? After a few seconds though, she managed to find another orderly, but the result was still pretty undesirable. "Excuse me sir!" She said, trying to get his attention.

"I've finally achieved it! I'm rich! Rich!! RICH!!!! I'm as rich as Filthy Rich!" The orderly said, celebrating seemingly nothing, staring blankly ahead. "I can quit this job, and spend more time with the wife and foals!" He said, making it rain with invisible money.

"But sir! We've got a problem and!" She said, the more she tried to get his attention the more distant he seemed to become. "I was hoping you could -- " She said, only stopping when she realized that he wasn't listening in the slightest. "This isn't good! i hope Scootaloo and Apple Bloom are doing better!"

********

"Sick!" Apple Bloom said passing another room.

"Sick!" She said, passing another.

This was getting aggravating! The nurses were all missing, as were all the doctors. "Where did everypony go?" Apple Bloom asked herself. Wasn't the hospital normally buzzing with activity at this hour?

She'd tried practically every room on the floor; finally, huffing and puffing ,she opened the door to a room with a small pink unicorn, and an older purple unicorn.

"Are you ok little girl?" The older purple unicorn asked. "Is something the matter?" The unicorn asked with concern. "Are you looking for someone?"

"Yes, ms. --" Apple Bloom started, before being interrupted with the answer to her unspoken question.

"Call me Cheerilee, just Cheerilee." The older unicorn said with a smile. "What's going on?"

"Hello Cheerilee." Apple Bloom said, still gasping for air slightly. "A bad person got on the floor, somehow, and she's planning to hurt Twilight, and the others. And ah'm looking for somepony that can help, but everyone is either sick or missing!"

"Oh dear!" Cheerilee said, with concern. "Why don't you tell me where this is! And I can take a look, and see if I can help!" She said, pulling a long rod out of her saddle pack.

Apple Bloom looked for a second. "Ain't that one of the wands that Twilight showed us in Twilight Time?" Apple Bloom asked, in surprise.

"Yes, but I got it when I took over a long time ago as the purple unicorn member of the Rainbow Quartet." Cheerilee said, with a smile. "Now Rarity, please stay here for a minute where it's safe! I'll be back in just a minute!"

"No!!!" The child screamed, shaking her head violently. "The last time this happened I lost you: you told me to go on ahead, and the you never caught back up! I left you behind, and I lost you! And I won't do it again!"

"Rarity." Cheerilee chastized, in a calm voice. "That was your dream. That won't happen in real life! Trust me!" She said, with a smile, her face full of resolution. "I'll be fine! Honest!"

Rarity's eyes just screamed 'Don't leave me! Please!' As she sat there, practically begging for her mentor to stay.

Cheerilee just frowned, her eyes filled with resolve. "Tell me where this is. Meanwhie, you keep looking for help!"

Apple Bloom shook her head "c'aint I help too?" She asked. "A'h gotta stop them! Maybe it's how I'll get mah Cutie Mark! 'Sides it twouldn't be right to let some old meanie pick on Twilight!"

"I'm sorry!" Cheerilee said, shaking her head. "But neither of you can come! It would be better if I did this alone! I'm sure your parents would never forgive me if you got hurt!" She said to Apple Bloom, who simply frowned, sadly (Cheerilee didn't know what happened to Bloom's parents.) "And there are plenty of purple unicorns that can be trained, but only one you!" She said to Rarity, frowning vehemently as she galloped off. In this distance she could hear both filly's whining. "I wish Brights Brightly, and Whistle Wishes were here!" Cheerilee said, silently to herself. "They would be a big help right about now!" She thought with a sigh.

********

"How are you feeling today Rainbow?" Twilight asked, as she walked in the room. "You getting stir crazy?" Twilight asked, with a sincere smile. "I brought some more books on fashion that you can borrow! Maybe this one on..." Twilight said, surpressing a gak. "On Canterlots..." Twlight rolled her eyes. "Latest fashion trends!"

"Why thank you darling! Some more fashion books would be so dashing! And as for your other question, I am getting a little stir crazy, sadly. The doctor keeps the distance I can move from my bed to a minimum, darling. And they won't let me do anything without this, unrainbowy, thing around my neck, darling!" Rainbow replied. "At least Minty is looking a lot better. Apparently the darling doctor is hoping to remove her casts, and send the three of us home after they figure out what's wrong with me, darling."

"Well at least Pinkie could come to visit." Twilight said, pointing to the straight haired Pinkie, with a smile. "And me too." She said, eagerly.

"Yeah! It's been kind of lonely without you." The other pink party pony said. "The good news is the cakes have been kind enough to lend me a room while I wait for you two to recover. And that other Pinkie has been working hard to keep my spirits up." Pinkie said, with a frown. After a short while, she turned it into a smile. "I'm glad to hear that you and Minty are doing better. Ponyville's been boring without Minty and Rainbow spicing things up." Pinkie said, her smile dropping slightly, and her countenance becoming serious. "I've even been trying to convince that other Pinkie to let me hold a friendship ball! Everyone will have such pinkie keen fun! But she says that balls are no fun at all." She said frowning. "Something about a gala! But I think nothing is more fun than a friendly ball!"

As she was saying that, there was a knocking on the door. "Oh my!" Pinkie said, with a bewildered expression. "I wonder who that could be?"

"Come in!" Twilight exclaimed, as Nurse Kind Heart entered the room, holding a bottle of pills.

"Hello dearies!" Nurse Kind Heart said, with a compassionate smile. "And Twilight too!" The nurse continued. "How fortunate! I'm so glad you're visiting! It saves me having to track you down!" She said, her smile changing slightly.

"What's the matter?" Twilight said with apprehension. "What do you need to track me down for?" She asked, with puzzlement.

"Oh nothing much dearies. It's just that Doctor Horse and I think that Rainbow Dash's condition may have been caused by some kind of rare illness in her fairy cords -- and we feel that we should give all of you something to try and rid you of it -- just in case it's contagious!" The nurse said, heading over to the mint green pony's bed.

"One for you first, then one for Rainbow! Then finally Twilight and Pinkie." The nurse said, with a pleasant smile.

"Actually nurse, could I get a second opinion?" Twilight asked, her face turning suspicious. "I've read a lot of books on magic, and magical diseases -- I've even had one or two! But I've never heard of a disease that can affect the fairy cords before! And I worry that the doctor made a hasty diagnosis." Twilight said, with a frown.

"Oh! Of course dearie, but the longer we wait the worse her condition becomes. And you might already have it to! And I'm sure the princess wouldn't appreciate it if we let you get sick!" She said, as she began to reach out with the pill.

Twilight blocked her hoof, with magic. "I really want a second opinion first! Minty's condition is not great, and I trust Doctor Horse; but I really would feel better getting a second opinion!" Twilight was face hoofing on the inside; why was she second guessing two trained medical professionals?

"Very well dearies. I'll get the doctor! But I think that maybe --" The nurse said.

"Twilight! That nurse is a fake!" Screamed Scootaloo, running into the room, arching her back in a belligerent position.

Twilight responded immediately by putting up a magical shield.

"It would be better if you slept!" The nurse continued, her eyes glowing a strange light, just a split second after Twilight put up a magical barrier around herself.

"Scootaloo! RUN! Get out of here!" Twilight screeched in horror, blasting the filly with a teleport spell designed to warp her to a random position elsewhere on the floor.

"Oh well! That's wasn't necessary!" Snarled the nurse, speaking with an old mare's voice. "I would have let that filly go, once I got rid of you and the other three traitors!" She said with a smirk, being engulfed in green magic.

"Traitor?" Twilight asked, with confusion. "What did you do to the other two!" Twilight said, on the verge of using the Royal Canterlot Voice.

"They're just sleeping for a minute! You should be as well!" The changeling hissed, displeased that her first spell had failed. "But I guess an alicorn princess can resist most magic assuming they are prepared for it. Maybe a different tact?" She hissed, preparing her next move.

"There will be no different tact!" Twilight snarled. "You won't try anything!" Twilight shrieked powering up a spell.

"Too bad you won't use your magic on regular ponies! Just ask Longhorn!" She said, with a smirk. "After all, I'm 'not magical', and you might hurt me!" She said, with a grin.

"Oh watch me!" Twilight said, powering up her horn. "Let me put an end to this and then I'll find out what Queen Chrysalis wants with these three!" She said, shooting off a powerful spell.

The Changeling laughed maliciously. "Got you!" She said, as she lifted an orb out of her saddlebag. Suddenly, both her eyes, and the orb, started to glow an odd color.

********

The next thing Twilight knew, she was in bed. Spike was standing guard over her, his face full of tears, and he looked tired from constant fretting.

"Good morning Spike! What bring you up so early?" Twilight asked with a smile. "You don't normally get up until later on!"

Spike simply frowned, and looked away, scuffing his foot. "No you're up late!" He responded back, his face filled with anger. "You've been asleep for three months Twilight!"

"Was I gone that long?" She asked herself, confused . Why would she be asleep for three months? Suddenly the answer became obvious/ "That assassin's magic! How are that other Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash doing? And their friend Minty?" Twilight asked, fearing the worst. "Did the assassin get them like she wanted to?"

Her number one assistant was more than willing to oblige. "She cost some kind of sleeping spell on you. If you'd been a regular unicorn you would have been asleep for 75 years!" He said, frowning deeply. "Lucky you!" He said, sarcastically, waving his claws around. "The princess of friendship is awake! And only after three months!"

"You're dodging my question!" Twilight said, accusingly. "Where are they?"

"Gone Twilight! And our Pinkie too!" He said, covering his mouth as soon as he said the second sentence.

"Gone?" Twilight asked. She paused a few seconds, fearing the answer to her next question; but it had to be asked. "What do you mean gone? Did they go home already?"

"No Twi!" Spike said, his voice raising. "Gone!!" He scuffed his foot, and snorted fire from his nose. "Forever!" He said, looking away in disgust. "Pinkie blamed herself for the loss of Pinkie and her friends -- apparently something to do with her fallout with her parents! Nopony even knew she was devastated until it was too late!" He said, looking out the window. "I think the cakes are still looking for her replacement!"

Twilight frowned. "Where'd she move to? Maybe I can bring her back!"

Spike just shook his head. "Good luck! Hope you have a Ouija Board!"

Twilight couldn't believe what she was hearing. This simply couldn't be accurate, you can't defuse laughter this easily! Pinkie's spirit couldn't be snuffed out that easily! But it all seemed so real!

"Rarity?" Twilight asked. "How's she holding up?"

Spike frowned and shook his head. "She and Scootaloo returned and tried to save everyone! They managed to save you!" He said, looking away again, and starting to walk away. "But at an extremly high price!" He said, his face growing ever more agitated. "At least they can keep the pinkie's company!"

Twilight frowned, this all didn't make sense. "What about Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom?" Twilight asked, hoping someone fared better.

"It's funny! It's not till somepony is gone that you realize what you really lost!" Spike said, walking away with tears in his eyes, hugging a stuffed Sweetie Belle that Rarity had given him before she left town. "Our Rarity couldn't take it and left town. Everyone else started to leave one by one afterwards."

"You didn't answer my question! What about Apple Bloom!" Twilight asked. This all has to be a bad dream! It couldn't be real!

"Remember! ' If you'd been a regular unicorn you would have been asleep for 75 years!' That's Apple Bloom right there! At least she won't have to find out about her friend's fates!" Spike said, trying to push past Twilight.

What about Applejack?" Twilight asked, cutting in front of the dragon as he tried to leave the bedroom door. "She has to tend to Sweet Apple Acres! She has to still be in town! And if her sister's asleep, then she can't move!" She said, with a laugh at her own impeccable logic, as if she just got a one up on fate.

"She's still in town Twi, but she probably doesn't want to speak to you!" Spike said, with a huff. "Celestia knows: now that you are awake I don't either!" He said, pushing her aside with every ounce of draconic strength he had. "Consider this my resignation!" He snarled, grabbing a sack of things he had set beside the door.

Twilight was crushed. Why was everyone acting this way! It just broke her heart. Did nopony care about the elements anymore? Did nopony care about their friendship?

********

The princess stood there babbling incoherently about her friends, while the other three ponies slept quietly wherever the stood or sat.

"Well, too bad I'm not allowed to feed, or take anything. There's a lot of youth and magic in this room, and some very beautiful emotions." The changeling shrugged. "Oh well , Mandragora!" She said to herself. "Time to finish the hive's business. I'll get what I want soon enough!" She said, with a smirk, planning her next move.

"I had originally been instructed to use Belladonna's witching potion, but apparently I'll have to do what I prefer to do: take what I want, by force!" She said, licking her lips with glee. "Too bad I can't use my orb!" She said, looking at her orb longingly.

Using some of her magic, she created a blade of pure magic. "Perfect for dealing with princesses!" She smirked, sadistically. "Now who should I start with?" She said, looking at the four ponies in the room, with a sadistic smile. She raised the object, eager for the outcome.

"How about you leave them alone!" A shouting voice boomed from outside, and a powerful blast wind sent the assassin flying.

"Who dares interfere!?" The assassin asked, losing her cool.

"I do!" Shouted a purple unicorn, reared on only her back hooves, and wielding a long, heavy, rod with an orb at the end. "Why are you being so mean?" She asked, with displeasure. "What did they ever do to you?"

"Mean!?" The old changeling said, laughing riotously. "This is my job, and these -- " She said, waving her hoof at the four other ponies in the room. "Are traitors, and deserve this!"

"Who says?" The unicorn said, waving the wand again. Causing the floor to shake violently, and creak like it was going to collapse. After a short time, she began to wave the large rod again. "Please can't we all talk it out like friends?

The assassin simply remained unfazed. "I say!" The changeling said, her orb glowing again. "And let me show you what comes of having friends!"

"Cheerilee!" Screamed a small pink filly, staring in horror from just outside the room.

********

Cheerilee fluttered her eyes. Wasn't she just in a hospital somewhere? Why was she back in Unicornia? Next to her were Brights Brightly and Whistle Wishes. In front of her, the Crystal Carriage was being cleaned by three unicorns, each one holding a soapy cloth and was standing next to a bucket of soapy water.

Cheerilee stood there puzzled, staring ahead blankly. Didn't she live through this already? No she couldn't have! So why did she feel like she did? She was certain, that she never did this before! Right?

"It's so beautiful and pink! Everything is so pretty!" Whistle Wishes said, remarking on the splendid job that had been done to decorate for the Rainbow Princess Ceremony, breaking Cheerilee's concentration. After a short period of time, Whistle Wishes started to canter over to the Crystal Carriage.

"You ok Cheerilee?" Brights Brightly asked, with a smile, to her friend who was standing there, utterly befuddled. "You seem confused! Remember: we have to get Rarity." She said, with a chuckle. "The First Rainbow of the Season is happening any day now! And we need to have Rarity ready and under the Crystal Dome before the fourth shooting star shoots over the horizon!"

Cheerilee shook her head. Yes! This seemed familiar, this must have been what she was doing! "Oh! Of course!" She said, blushing slightly. "Thanks Brights Brightly! I don't know what came over me!" She said, with a smile, wondering where her head had been at.

"Don't worry about it!" The yellow unicorn said, as she and Cheerilee trotted off to join their blue friend by the carriage. "We all get confused sometimes! You must have been deep in thought!"

Cheerilee simply nodded. "Excuse me?" Cheerilee asked, trotting over to the three unicorns standing over at the carriage, with a smile. "Have you seen Rarity?" She asked, as the three unicorns stopped their work and put their cloths down for a second to think, before shaking their heads violently.

"Come on! Let's go look for her in the castle!" Cheerilee said, on auto pilot. Didn't she say that before? Somewhere at some point? And if she did then... Oh No!!!!!

"Come on! She's back in the ballroom! (not to be confused with the ball-room, where the unicorns kept all their giant, colorful, rubber balls!)" Cheerilee said, her eyes glazed in horror.

"Are you sure Cheerilee?" Brights Brightly said with a concerned frown. "I mean, how can you be so sure she's in the ballroom?"

"I've never been more certain of anything!" Cheerilee responded -- panic showing on her face -- racing out ahead of her two friends, who simply looked at each other in confusion.

"What's up with Cheerilee?" They said to each other shaking their heads.

"I've never seen her like this before!" Brights Brightly said to her friend.

"Neither have I! I wonder what has her so concerned? Rarity's probably only hiding again!" Whistle Wishes said, responding to her friend, as Cheerilee galloped off into the distance.

"I have to hurry!" Cheerilee said to herself, in horror. "She's playing with the wand!" She said to herself, as if remembering what happened next.

"Rarity stop!" She shouted, slamming the door open, only to see her young mentee disappear, along with the wand into a puff of smoke. "I'm too late!" She said to herself, staring at the ground.

"Where's Rarity?" The other two unicorns asked, as they slowly caught up.

"Gone!" Cheerilee said, still looking down -- this time sobbing quietly. "I was still too late!"

"Still?" The other two unicorns asked, looking at each other with perplexed expressions. "What do you mean still, Cheerilee?"

Cheerilee didn't answer, opting to put her head between her hooves instead.

After a short time, search parties were organized, and every unicorn was enlisted to search for the missing princess. However, neither hide nor hair of her was found anywhere in Unicornia.

Cheerilee, upon hearing the news, simply excused herself to her room; where she was eventually found, by her friends, sitting on the floor, shaking violently.

"You ok Cheerilee?" Whistle Wishes asked. "You look upset! Could I get you something? Maybe a smoothie, or some juice?"

Cheerilee just shook her head, sadly. "Can you keep a secret Whistle Wishes?" Cheerilee asked, looking around. "I have something I think I need to tell you!" She said, frowning.

Whistle Wishes simply nodded, her face still having a befuddled expression.

"I had a horrible day dream just before Rarity disappeared! Or maybe it was a vision! I imagined that someone attacked Unicornia, and that Rarity and I got separated! And then to make matter worse..." Cheerilee said, starting to sob. "She was almost gone forever and it was all my fault!"

"Well no need to worry about that!" Whistle Wishes said, confidently. "She's probably still here in Unicornia somewhere, and even if she isn't we'll find her! She's probably out playing somewhere."

"I hope so!" Cheerilee said, cheering up slightly. "I'm just so, very, worried!"

A short while later, after it had became obvious that the filly was not in Unicornia, a council of the senior unicorns was called. The topic of discussion was their little runaway princess.

"Time is running out!" Cheerilee lamented, as the first shooting star passed the sky. "We've looked everywhere in Unicornia! She's not hiding this time! She's gone!" She said, with a sigh. Wait a minute! This discussion sounds familiar! As the discussion went on, it became more obvious that she was reliving something. A fact that, Surprisingly, actually helped a little, but not very much. Why did she feel such dread? Was this what Rarity was feeling when she was having her nightmares?

"We have to search outside of Unicornia!" Cheerilee said, on auto pilot.

Whistle Wishes, and Brights Brightly immediately, and enthusiastically, volunteered to join the search for the lost filly as well. Cheerilee was always glad to have their help, especially when she was troubled.

"The three of us will go out and look for her then! We must move quickly!" Cheerilee said. "I would worry for her safety otherwise!" She thought, with a frown. Why was she so sure this would work out with only a near failure, and yet on the other hand was convinced that this would turn out bad?

After an afternoon of searching, it began to became painfully obvious, that the little pink unicorn was not going to be easy to find. At this point, Cheerilee began to become more and more frantic.

"She has to be nearby! She's in this woods somewhere!" She said to herself, almost not making camp for the night. "We have to find her!"

"You ok Cheerilee?" Whistle Wishes asked. "You've been off all day! You have got to be tired! You have to sleep!"

"I'm sorry, Whistle Wishes!" Cheerilee said. "I swore I've done all this before! And though I'm sure it turns out ok, I keep getting the, sinking, feeling that something very bad is about to happen!" She said, frowning, anxiety beginning to show on her face.

"Do you want me to stay up with you?" Brights Brightly asked.

"No I'm good!" Cheerilee said. "You need your rest!" She started saying, before finding the other two unicorns already fast asleep.

She tried to smile, but found anxiety was too heavy on her heart to do so; so she decided to lay down for a while, but was still unable to sleep. After a short time, she began to sing a song: "I'm low..." She started, hesitating a second for a response that never came. "To go!.." She sang again, with the same response. "We're far apart! " But her song felt somehow wrong. Like Rarity should be singing it with her, but wasn't. "Shouldn't Rarity be singing this song too?" She asked herself. "Something is very wrong!" She said, galloping over to a bush, that she suddenly recalled as being important -- for some reason. She had to find Rarity before it was too late!

Behind the bush were some three hornless unicorns, and a tiny dragon. All four were laying in their sleeping bags, in various levels of listless sleeping. Weren't they supposed to come out from behind that bush and surprise her after the third shooting star, but just before the fourth?

"Where's Rarity?" Cheerilee asked herself, beginning to panic. "Shouldn't she be with them?" She said, almost at a shout. She didn't know why, but she was sure Rarity was supposed to be with them.

"Oh Darling!" The rainbow one said, waking up for her listless sleep, with a start. After looking at the unicorn for a second, her face contorted into a very sorry expression. And finally she, hesitantly, opened her mouth. "You must be one of little Rarity's friends!"

Cheerilee looked up, her eyes drenched with tears. "Rarity? Have you seen her? She another unicorn like me, but smaller and pink!"

"Oh darling!" Rainbow Dash said, looking away. "I'm so very sorry, darling! But you see!" She said, choking on each individual word. "I have some very bad news, darling. Please sit down! This won't be a very dashing story!"

A Pink pony walked alongside her friend, who was quietly joining the purple unicorn in sobbing. "Yeah, you see --" The pink pony started, waiting for the unicorn's name, while holding back tears herself.

"Cheerilee." Cheerilee said.

"Cheerilee, there was an accident!" Pinkie said, now holding back sobs. "Rarity was distracted by a butterfly, and fell into a river! Rainbow, Minty and I tried to rescue her, but fell in ourselves! The Breezies tries to rescue us but --"

Cheerilee's face turned dark. "Oh no!" She said to herself. "She can't be!" She shouted, as the third shooting star streaked across the sky. "She's ok! You saved her!" She shouted, her head aching.

"No I'm sorry to say!" A small dragon joined in. "But Rarity... Well she... went over the falls, and well... Didn't come back up!"

"NO!!!!!" Cheerilee shrieked, as the fourth shooting star streaked across the sky. "I've failed just like before." She shrieked as all color began to disappear around them.

In her head, she could hear a male voice laughing manically. "Oh I'm kind of getting rid of this world and all its inhabitants! But don't worry I'm going to replant it elsewhere! And all you G3 phonies can live there! Course I'm going to need new vessels for you and a nice scenic location!" He laughed, wearing an artist's smock. "But first I have to finish tearing this world down! And that means that little pink nuisance, and the other stragglers need to go!" He smirked, disappearing into an empty smile. "I like this world! It'll be the perfect setting for my new theme park: Discordtopia!"

********

Cheerilee stood there, on two hooves motionless, ranting and pleading incoherently for little Rarity's safety.

"Well, the filly and the nurse will act as my witnesses." She said, cackling to herself -- yeah she was bending the rules slightly, and she was sure that Vladímir would be none too happy (she was banking on him getting over it -- though that was far from a bi-gone conclusion); and someone had to be made an example of! No one tries to make a fool of the her and live! "Maybe I'll take a little something from this meddler myself." The old witch chuckled, raising the orb to the purple unicorn. The orb glowed a purple color. "Interesting! That's new. I can't absorb her youth! Maybe a change in vessel would be useful." She said, with a chuckle. "Perhaps this new magic might be a fun change." She grinned. "I should give this vessel a try!"

The orb began to change its glow to a neon black color. As the witch chuckled.

But she wasn't chuckling long. Practically as soon as she lifted the orb, a miniature pink horn poked her right in the plot.

"Ouch!" She screamed, losing hold of the orb for a second. "You unruly brat! How dare you attack the assassin of the west: Mandragora!"

"I won't fail Cheerilee again! And I won't fail anyone again!" The small pink unicorn hissed, her eyes filled with tears, as she hobbled between the changeling and her mentor. "I don't know what you were going... going to do! But I can't let you do it! Not again!"

"Oh how sad!" The old changeling said, pretending to show alligator tears. "Maybe I should help you join her!" She said, bucking the little unicorn into her mentor, causing the little pink unicorn's wand to fall out of her mentor's pack.

Little Rarity stood up dazed, much to the surprise of the changeling assassin.

"That should have floored you permanently!" Mandragora hissed. "Maybe this body grows old and frail. One final spell should do it and then -- " She said, looking over at the Rarity's mentor. "I'll switch to something newer."

"No! I won't let you!" Rarity screeched, grabbing a hold of her wand, and spinning it wildly.

"Heh! Captain Raphanus warned me of that toy!" Mandragora chuckled. "I'm not going to let you use it!" She said calmly walking over, and picking her orb from the floor. "Now maybe a demonstration of my powers would help? Maybe I take something from you --." She started right before the little unicorn, who let out a screech of pain right before the wand would be tossed, and crumpled to the floor -- the wand dropping at her hooves.

"Rarity!" Cheerilee screamed in terror, seeing her nightmares in one eye, and her nightmares playing out before her in the other. "Rarity! Please don't go!"

"Looks like she's falling to pieces!" She said, as the little pink unicorn changed to monochrome colors, and started to disappear. "I would say you were lucky to even partially break free of the spell I put you under, but apparently you awoke only to see your nightmares made reality!" She said, laughing riotously.

The unicorn started vanishing, until even her horn disappeared into nothingness.

The assassin watched the last bits of the tiny unicorn disappear into nothingness , laughing riotously, before turning back to Cheerilee. "Heh! Well so much for that distraction." She said, laughing manically. "Shall I take my new vessel!" She said, lifting the orb to the purple unicorn's head.

Cheerilee could feel her soul being forced out of her body.

********

She tried to use the spell, that Cheerilee said she shouldn't use. She knew she shouldn't, but she had to use the spell! Cheerilee needed her! But from the moment she started, she knew it was a mistake.

After the first wave, it felt like every muscle in her body begging her to stop. The second wave caused waves of darkness. The third wave just caused unimaginable pain.

She screamed out; knowing for sure that, that horrible meanie, would do something dreadful to Cheerilee. She was going to hurt Cheerilee! She had to do something! But she couldn't even feel her horn anymore! She wanted to throw her wand, but she wasn't even sure her hooves were even there anymore! Then everything seemed to fade into light...

She was no longer in the hospital anymore, was she even in Unicornia? or Ponyland for that matter? As she wandered around, she bumped into a small wingless, hornless pony, with a light orange coat, and a golden blond mane. Her symbol was a golden apple.

"Hello there! I'm princess Rarity!" She said, with a friendly smile to the new pony. "I've never met someone my age before! What's your name?" She asked with a glowing smile.

"Hello Rarity!" The little earth pony said, with a smile. "I'm princess Golden Apple! I'm so glad to finally meet you!" She said, doing a little dance.

"Give the dear a minute!" Said a smiling majestic pink unicorn, with a red mane and tail, and a heart symbol; followed closely behind by a red unicorn stallion with a rainbow mane and tail, and a rainbow symbol. "I bet she's confused!"

"So glad to meet you again Rarity!" Said the male of the pair. "I don't know if you remember us!"

The pink unicorn stood there for a second, remembering something from so long ago it was ridiculous. "Mama? Papa?" But she didn't remember a mama Rarity, or a papa Rarity, yet she was sure that's who these strange ponies were.

"Oh you do remember! Splendid!" Said the father. "I apologize dear, if we had just been there for you."

"I know dear!" Said the mother. "But we failed to protect you from my brother, who desired a position as the pink unicorn lord, and spared no trouble to get it!" She frowned. "The spell was supposed to vaporize you." She said, frowning slightly. "But somepony must have had special plans for you, because instead you ended up in that other Unicornia." She said, smiling a smile mixed with guilt. "I wish we had been able to join you." She said, frowning again. "But in the end, those unicorns were so kind with you! Raising you as one of them." She stood there for a moment, stewing on her own thoughts, before sighing. "And then when that horrible Discord attacked, we were again unable to protect you. We watched from here as he stuffed you and everyone else in that horrible egg of his to repeat the last thirteen years of your lives endlessly -- until he had absorbed enough entropy from your world to continue his insane plans!"

"I forgive you mama and papa!" The little pink ball said, with a smile. "But who's this?" She asked.

"This is Princess Golden Apple." Rarity's father said, sternly. "Discord stole her vessel to use as your body when he planted his universe egg in Equestria! What we don't know is if it was because your uncle left you with none, or if all of the ponies from your world needed a new vessel, after he destroyed your world the first time!"

"Am I... gone... papa?" Rarity asked with a frown.

Her father just frowned.

Her mother looked at her father, with hurt in her eyes. She just nodded. After a few seconds, her face picked back up. "But don't worry! We will all have such fun together, as a family again!" She said, with a mixed smile.

Rarity just shook her head. "I'm sorry mama! Papa! But Cheerilee is in trouble, and needs me! Unicornia needs me!"

Her parents smiled. "How badly do you want to help dear?"

Rarity looked perplexed.

Somewhere a soft voice asked her. "Do you wish to return? We need guardians for your world, and you would be perfect to be one." The voice turned sad. "You would however not be able to return for some time if you accepted. Is this something you would be ok with?"

Rarity turned to her parents, and frowned. "I'm sorry mama! I'm sorry papa! But I feel I need to do this! Cheerilee needs me! And Lily Lightly, and Brights Brightly and Whistle Wishes, and Unicornia itself! I have to go! I won't let everyone down like I did before -- a long time ago!"

Her parents smiled bitter, but proud smiles. "We know dear! We are proud of you! Do your parent's proud!"

"I'm sorry we just met, and I have to go already!" Rarity said, frowning at the little orange earth pony.

"It's ok! I'm just glad to have met you!" She said, with a friendly smile. "And I'm sure we'll meet again someday! I'm sure of it!"

A voice boomed. "Then Rarity of Unicornia, you leave at once! I'll grant you powerful magic, but it must be used to heal, or to purge evil and must be used for no other purposes!"

"I promise!" Rarity said, frowning. "Will you help me?"

"I will!" The voice said.

********

"Heh! Well so much for that distraction." Mandragora said, laughing manically. "Shall I take my new vessel!" She said, lifting the orb to the purple unicorn's head.

Cheerilee could feel her soul being forced out of her body.

Then suddenly, a blinding light shone out of somewhere. And all of the pain that Cheerilee was feeling, suddenly just went away. "What's going on? Where is that light coming from?" Cheerilee asked, closing her eyes at the blinding light. But it didn't feel dangerous, in fact, it felt friendly.

Meanwhile, it looked like the old changeling wasn't as fortunate, as she convulsed in pain, and foamed at the mouth. "GAHHH!!!! Alright! Who is it now! Who dares interrupt me!" She screamed at the top of her lungs shaking violently. "Who's... Who's there? How dare you attack me! And how dare you think, that you can hurt the Assassin of The West!"

Cheerilee shocked at horror, at first. But then her horror started to turn to delight. Inside the light, a small horn appeared. Then a pony started to materialize. "Rarity!" Cheerilee shouted with delight, her nightmares starting to disperse. The pony before her started to regain her regal pink and rainbow colors, then her symbol. Finally, her new wings began to materialize, attached at a circular point between her shoulder and withers (she didn't look any taller though, sorry.) She couldn't believe her eyes, did her young mentee have wings now? What happened to her? Was her mane waving around uncontrollable -- even more so then normal?

The filly began to speak, but another voice boomed. "Sonambra!"

"Quiet!" The old changeling demanded. "No one is allowed to use my full name!"

"For six sins even seven I would forgive!" The voice boomed, from between the filly's lips.

"How dare you stand in judgment of me! I am one of the hive's top assassin's I've brought down pony princesses and griffon kings!" She protested charging her orb.

"The souls of those who's youth and vigor you have stolen cry out for justice! And those whose lives, you have taken, cry out for justice for their shed blood!"

"You don't have the power! I've taken down whole nations! I was one of the seven that ended pony civilization at the end of the first age!" She said, her orb and eyes both glowing a wicked light.

The filly stood there unfazed. "You, still, do not repent of the evil you have committed! Even after more time has been given, to you, then whole nations and peoples!"

"Silence!" She said, screaming violently and pounding the floor. "I will not be mocked by a foal!"

Twilight shook her head. What was going on? Was that other Rarity the strange alicorn standing before her? What happened to her, and why was Cheerilee frozen there. The assassin! What's happening to her!

Mandragora stood there shaking. "You... You... You can't judge me you are just a little, worthless, pink fuzz ball, and I'm the hive's number two assassin!"

"Enough!" The voice boomed, as the little filly's horn charged a bright white light.

"Oh I get it!" Mandragora scoffed, regaining her confidence. "Your power is a night light! What are you going to do you little! -- "

And in a second there was only a hole in the floor where the changeling stood, and singe marks. Rarity crumpled down to the ground, unmoving.

At that minute, fourteen royal guards, fifteen policeponies, and a colt scout troop busted into the room.

"Hey guys I brought help!" Sweetie Belle squeaked. "I thought you would need help and... Where'd the bad pony go?"

"Actually Sweetie!" Twilight responded with bemusement. "You just missed her!"

"Dang it!" Sweetie cried. "Me and the other girls were hoping for our cutie marks as CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS: EPIC ACTION HEROS!"

"That's ok. Let me check on little Rarity over here." Twilight said, with a smile.

"Rarity's here?" Sweetie squeaked, hoping her sister would be impressed. "Oh that's right." She blushed, feeling embarrassed. "Other Rarity." She sighed, scuffing her hoof, with agitation. "I was hoping it was my sister!"

"Rarity!" Twilight said, impressed. "That was some really impressive magic!" Twilight said, with enthusiasm. "I didn't know you had it in you." She said, poking the filly, who suddenly popped back to life.

"Wow! That was unicorn fun! Let's do it again!" She said, with a smile. "I was all like gone! And then whoosh I was going towards the light! Then my parent's talked to me! And then someone offered to help me 'become a guardian or something'. And then here I am!" She said, bouncing up and down.

Twilight stood there perplexed. "Do you even remember the spell you just cast?"

Rarity shook her head. "Sorry Twilight. Someone said they would help, but I guess I kind of got distracted!" She said, blushing a little.

"What just happened here!" Doctor Stable came barging in, filled with chagrin. "I swore, for a minute, I could run a marathon without my legs hurting, and I wake up to find myself standing in the hallway full of all kinds of pain!" He said, scowling at everypony.

"Ummm..." Twilight said, with a blush, I'll explain everything. "But you might want to sit down! This will be a long one!"

********

"So basically! I was under changeling voodoo mind magic then!?" The doctor snarled. "That explains a lot!" He said, griping again. "That kind of stuff seems to follow you around princess!" He said, looking a the purple princess of friendship.

"Great! So I'll be on my way!" Twilight responded. "I need to check in with princess Celestia about Equestria's newest princess!" She said, pointing at the young pink alicorn, asleep on the floor from exertion. "And I don't think I'm need here so I'll be on my --"

"And no! You won't!" The doctor stamped. "You won't go anywhere! Not until I've had a chance to check all three of you out! As well as every other doctor, nurse, and patient in this Celestia forsaken Bushwoolies nest!"

"Fine!" Twilight said, impatiently. "But I believe I am ok!"

"Why so impatient princess?" The old doctor asked his newest patient.

"I have to report this back to Celestia!" Twilight stated eagerly. "Not just did another alicorn suddenly materialize out of nowhere (luckily it was pink and not red and black, because Faust knows what would happen if Equestria got any more red and black alicorns!) But a princess of Equestria was attacked by a changeling assassin! This could count as an act of war by the hive! And Celestia needs to ---"

"Shove it princess!" The doctor chided. "I'll take a look at you first." He said, pulling out some equipment.

After a dozen or two dozen different tests, psyche tests, and magical examinations Doctor Stable sighed, as he once again was defeated. "It looks like you are right again princess!" He sighed. "But I'm none too happy! I'm sure that assassin did something to you! But I don't see any symptoms."

Twilight smiled. "I'm glad you are so thorough doctor!" She said, looking at the other ponies in the room. "But the others need you."

Twilight looked back. "So how is everypony?" She asked.

"Well it looks like Rarity's little 'ascension' has fixed her magic problems -- at least for now! I'll want her in here for another week to be sure she doesn't have another magic failure."

"And Cheerilee?" Twilight asked.

"A week as well." He replied. "I want to know if there are any remnants of the assassin's magic, and I want to make sure her psychological health is stable before she and the filly start gallivanting off to Celestia knows where."

"And physically?" Twilight asked.

"Their all fine, except for Minty, and Rainbow Dash, of course. Their conditions precede our little attack."

"And how long will they be in for?" Twilight asked, calculating arrival and travel times.

"A couple of days to a week, at least! I still don't know what's wrong with Dash, and I can't, in good conscious, let Minty go until we are certain everything has finished setting." He replied.

"Excellent!" Twilight exclaimed. "Enough time for me to go to Canterlot and back."

"Princess! There is no way I'm letting you --" The doctor started, before the princess sped into the sunset. "Never mind!" He said to himself, with an exasperated sigh.

********

"Thank you for taking the time to fly up here to Canterlot princess Twilight." Celestia said with a smile. "So tell me what happened after I left."

"Well basically an assassin came, and tried to attack that other Pinkie and Rainbow and myself." Twilight said, with a sigh. "And up until now Ponyville has been so safe." She said to herself, lamenting where her neighborhood had gone to.

"I see." Celestia said, looking on into the distance. "And you think you were the target?"

"Actually..." Twilight said, looking away from her teacher. "I think Minty, Pinkie, and Rainbow were. I was just a lucky hit. Though I can't figure out why somepony would want to get rid of three wacky ponies like them: a klutz, a pony obsessed with pink and parties, and a fashion pony obsessed with rainbows."

"Do you have any guesses why they want you four gone?" Celestia asked. "And who would want them gone for that matter?"

"I'm not sure." Twilight said, looking away again. "I think they want me gone because I'm a princess of Equestria. But the other three wouldn't seem to be a threat to Chrysalis, in the least."

"I see! I'm sorry I wasn't there to help." Celestia said, looking like she was feeling guilty again. "Worry not, though, my fellow princess! I shall be assigning more guards to Ponyville to make sure this doesn't happen again!" Celestia said, smiling. "But I'm assuming this was not why you were here in person."

"No actually it's what happened during the attack." Twilight lectured. "One of those odd ponies ascended." She said, with a frown.

"But that's impossible! Luna, Cadence, Twilight and I are supposed to be the only ali -- " Celestia said under her breath. "That is interesting. And other then the political ramifications. Why not just send me a letter."

"Well I was kind of hoping you could help mentor her, as she's young yet to be an alicorn."

"Who ascended?" Celestia asked, her face going dark.

"Rarity." Twlight responded.

Celestia stood there both ready to burst into laughter, and filled with utter astonishment. "I thought for sure it would be someone else: Cheerilee, or maybe..." Celestia started under her breath. "Actually Twilight, I think it would be best if you mentored her. I have full faith in you my faithful ex-student, and fellow princess of Equestria. "

"Are you sure, Celestia, wouldn't you or Luna be a better teacher?" Twilight asked, unsure how to put this question.

"I know what you are saying, my faithful student, but there will come a day when you will want to train another pony, and you need to start sometime!"

"I know, but she exhibited magic I've never seen before, it was a brilliant white, and after she cast it she had no memory of doing so. Maybe it was a magic burst?"

"Magic burst..." Celestia said with a sarcastic smile. "That sounds familiar!" She said, looking at Twilight, and smirking. "Then who better to teach her then the element of magic?"

"Yes, but I've never heard of blinding white magic before, how did she get her hooves on it?" Twilight asked, ever curious. "White magic could be borrowed magic, but this as way to powerful to be borrowed from anypony in the room, or even any combination of ponies."

"How a little unicorn got her hooves on that kind of magic I don't know. Can she use regular unicorn magic?" Celestia asked with a smile, dropping a hint.

"No. Not without a wand." Twilight responded, with a sigh. "I'm not sure how to teach a unicorn with no idea what a horn even is, let alone how to use it."

"I have full faith you'll figure out a way!" Celestia said, with a reassuring smile. "And you'll know just where to start." Celestia said, winking at her former student. "Trust yourself, I think you are the only pony that can take the job. But maybe have her mentor join in! I'm sure they'd work better together! And maybe it would make it easier to help little Rarity learn!"

********

"Ahhh!" Rarity whined, being pulled away from the three crusaders, by Twilights's magic. "But I was having fun being a -- "

"CUTIE MARK CRUSADER: TAXY DRIVER!!! YAY!!! " All three crusaders shouted, joined in by the little pink alicorn.

Only to be obsconded by Twilight's magic. "But that was unicorn fun!" Rarity complained, as Twilight dragged the fledgling alicorn away, scowling slightly. "It's not my fault! The hospital was boring and they made me lay in bed for a week, even after I got these super fun wings." Rarity said, flapping her wings as hard as she could, before shooting off, out of Twilight's magical grasp, like a bullet, and almost crashing into the library -- before being captured in Twilight's magic again. Rarity really wanted to know how the older alicorn did it so easily, she could just imagine how fun it would be to light up her horn like that, and sling spells like a regular Merlin! But, alas, she could only cast spells with a wand -- or at the appointed time during the rainbow ceremony.

"Oh Rarity!" Cheerilee said, shaking her head, all the while holding a playful smile. "Don't you want to learn to control your new magic?" Cheerilee said, cheerfully. "I mean I never even knew before today that I could use my horn for magic! Let alone how to do so!" She said, hoping the child would catch her enthusiasm.

"I suppose." Rarity said, with a smile to her mentor. "But then we'd have to learn about boring stuff like where the first rainbow of the season comes from, or how to do the Princess Twirl." She said, pouting, despite the smile on her face.

"Oh come on! It'll be fun! Twilight even decided to have me join in!" Cheerilee said, with enthusiastically.

"Ok!" Rarity said, giggling. "But I want to see you try too!"

After a few minutes Twilight had finished dragging her new protégé to the library. "Ok! To start with. Let's talk about the basics of unicorn magic." Twilight said, starting to drone on, much to the fascination of Rarity's mentor. However the little one seemed a little distracted (That silly Rarity. She just loves to play with caterpillars! Click on Rarity to make her blow… air to keep the caterpillar floating. See how many times you can float a caterpillar before the… time runs out. -- oh wait, sorry!)

Twilight looked at the rainbow colored caterpillar with horror. "Ew! Ew! Ew! Ew! Ew!" She said, doing a little dance. "Quick Spike! Get the net! We need to get this bug out of here!"

"Aw!!!" Rarity exclaimed. "You're no fun at all!" She grumbled.

"Sorry about that!" Cheerilee said, to Twilight, with a blush. "She's more of a hands on learner."

"Ok!" Twilight said, looking through her notes -- throwing half of them over her shoulder. "Maybe we can try tailoring the lecture slightly? Maybe a song or..."

"A rap!!!" Twilight's Pinkie said, materializing suddenly out of a clock, wearing a comically oversized pair of sunglasses and a crudely bedazzled giant novelty "S" attached to her neck by a oversized chain with torus shaped links. "It totally didn't work on Rainbow Dash but it's totally going to work this time and --!"

Twilight just looked at her friend in confusion. "Pinkie? Why are you dressed like that? Where'd you even find that outfit?"

"I have no idea!" She said innocently. "But it seemed to be the perfect outfit to do 'The Unicorn Magic Rap' in!" Pinkie responded, with enthusiasm.

"Um Pinkie... Ok!" Twilight said, apprehensively.

"Well, back in ancient times, there were Wonderbolts of old --" Pinkie started, bringing in a beat box, and a turntable.

"Hold it Pinkie! We're talking about unicorn magic, not the Wonderbolts!" Twilight responded, starting to feel a migraine coming on.

"Oh! I don't have a rap for that!" Pinkie said, innocently. "Would you like me to rap about them instead?" She said, with fully caffeinated enthusiasm. "No wait! What do the Wonderbolts have to do with Unicorn magic? You've got to learn to concentrate Twilight!" Pinkie said, at a mile per minute.

Twilight just about exploded into flames, only to hear cheering from the small alicorn in the room.

"Yeah! That's unicorn fun!" Rarity responded. "That was fun! Let's do that again!"

"Ok!" Twilight responded, her face contorted in horror. "She's like a mini alicorn pinkie -- Celestia help us all!" Twilight thought to herself, using her hoof for a second to think. "Maybe we need a different tact!" She thought to herself, a mischievous smile forming below her twitching ear.

Twilight gestured for the pink alicorn's mentor to come over. "Cheerilee, why don't we have you perform a basic levitation spell for Rarity. Once she learns that we can try more advanced unicorn spells, and then segue into her alicorn magic!"

"Ok! Sure!" Cheerilee responded, with a smile, pulling her rod out of her saddlebag.

"Actually Cheerilee, I was talking about with your horn, not your wand." Twilight responded, feeling the migraine again.

"Twilight! I know what you're saying, but I only know how to use my horn to call the first rainbow of the season. But can only do so under the crystal dome, and only after the four shooting stars have fallen -- on the day of the first rainbow of the season." Cheerilee responded, blushing slightly. "It's involuntary."

Twilight looked puzzled back. "Just levitate an object over using your magic."

"Ok!" Cheerilee responded. "But how can I do that without my wand?"

Twilight stood there befuddled. "A unicorn of her age doesn't know how to use her horn? Do Brights Brightly, Whistle Wishes, and Lily Lightly also not know how to use their magic?"

"Ok!" Twilight thought to herself. "Maybe we need to have her and Cheerilee join the crusaders for Twilight time. Maybe a unicorn her age will be more instructive!" She thought, a sneaky smile reappearing on her face.

********

"Ah you sure we's sup'post to do it like this?" Apple Bloom asked, desperately trying to keep reared up while wearing roller skates on only her back hooves. Eventually falling down on her plot.

"Yeah! It's unicorn fun!" She started effortlessly rearing into an unnatural angle, with her barrel sitting at a 180 degree angle to her legs.

"Hah! You guys are lightweights!" Scootaloo lied, not wanting to be out shown by the young (girly) pink alicorn. "Easy peeeaassssyyyy!!!!!" She said, skating violently, her wings buzzing like a bumble bee to keep her steady. "One... WOAH!! Two.... WHOA!!!! Threesiee.... AHH!!!!!" She said, skating down a hill and into a building. "I'm ok!"

"Wow! This is easy!" Sweetie said, roller skating on her back two legs, like a natural. "I think this could work! We'll finally get our cutie marks in --" She said, right before Scootaloo slammed into her, and sent both of them careening into a building.

"Wow! Let's do that again!" Rarity said, with glee, splashing around in a mud puddle she had falling into a moment before, while the other crusaders were busy dating the dirt, or the sides of buildings.

"Rarity." Cheerilee said, trying to get the young alicorn's attention as she walked up. "We're supposed to be joining the girls today for Twilight Time, and we still need to catch up on your lessons before the Princess Rainbow Ceremony, and the first rainbow of the season!"

"Ok!" The pink child responded, with an innocent smile.

"Ok! Let all go together." Cheerilee said to the crusaders, picking Apple Bloom off the ground. "Maybe if Rarity's been paying attention she can do the princess twirl and summon the Crystal Carriage!" Cheerilee said with a smile. "Our Crystal Carriage is nice and wide! If you were here we all could wide!" She started singing a strangely familiar ditty, smiling to the crusaders, before turning to Rarity. "Rarity, do you remember yesterday's lesson?" She said, enthusiastically.

"Nope!" She said, innocently, with a smile. "Don't remember a thing!" She said, with an innocent smile.

"Ok..." Cheerilee said to herself, her smile dropping faster than a rock. "I'll need to go back over that again, and we still need to get into the crystal dome and the shooting stars." She said to herself, with a sigh. She almost forgot she was behind this year, and time was growing ever shorter.

********

"Ok girls!" Twilight said, with a smile. "Let's see what you learned this week." She said, glancing at the newest member of Twilight Time, with Celestia's smirk. "But first, do you have any questions?"

Sweetie shot up her hoof. "Why's Rarity here? She's already got her cutie mark, and she's a princess!" Sweetie asked. "Shouldn't she be in her own kingdom making laws or something?"

"Well I'm glad you asked that question Sweetie Belle. You see even princesses need to learn a thing or two. Rarity's just here to learn magic, like you are, Sweetie Belle!" Twilight said, with a smile, hoping that her speech inspired the pink alicorn to join in with the other three students.

She was, sadly mistaken. Rarity was instead crawling on the ground, her bones bent at a funny angle, crawling on the ground like a baby bi-ped, mimicking the motions of a rainbow worm with a hat on its head.

"AAAHHHH!!!!" Twilight screamed. "It's back again! Spike! Get the net!" After a few minutes, and half of a library destroyed (and spike captured twice or thrice.) They managed to round up the tiny critter.

"AW!" Rarity whined, frowning slightly. But only for a second or two.

"Ok!" Twilight thought. "Avoid lectures at all cost!" Twilight's face dropped. "This is going to be a LONG Twilight Time!"

"Ok Sweetie! Maybe you can start by showing off some of the magic I've taught you!"

"Ok!" The small white unicorn beamed. "I've been really practicing, and I think I can lift something a little heavier now!" Sweetie said. "Like this book!" She said, hoping to impress the other ponies in the room. She took a few seconds to look at one of Twilight's heavier resource materials, with apprehension, before trying to lift it.

The filly struggled for a minute, her horn glowing a dull green aura. And for a second the book did rise, only to fall down with a crash.

"Ahhh!" She whined.

Twilight smirked, apparently the crash got the attention of a certain distractible unicorn, who was previously sitting in the corner watching a leaf fall from a nearby tree.

"Don't worry about it Sweetie, try again!" Twilight said, trying to encourage Sweetie.

"Ok!" She squeaked, smiling ear to ear. "Here we go again."

"Remember Sweetie, concentrate on the book. Magic responds to intent!"

The book once again started to lift again, as the young white filly struggled to keep it aloft. Until a shout could be heard coming from the other side of the room, causing the book to crash against the floor again.

"Wa hey! That looks like fun!" Rarity shouted, smiling ear to ear. "Let me try!" She said, pulling the wand back out again.

"Where did you get that!" Cheerilee chastised. "You aren't allowed to touch it until I've -- " She started, before being interrupted by Twilight, who was ready for the little alicorn -- this time.

"That's ok Rarity, but how about we try without a wand, like Sweetie, ok?" Twilight said, stealing her Cheerilee's signature smile, for a second.

"But how can I do magic without a wand?" Rarity asked, sitting down confused, the bones in her front hoof bent at odd angles allowing her to firmly plant her hoof against her chin.

"Well, maybe I can give you a few pointers, if Sweetie won't mind." Twilight said, looking over at the small white unicorn.

"I don't mind." The sweet white unicorn said, stumbling around, with her eyes bouncing around like a pair of joke glasses . "I need a break anyway!"

"Ok Rarity! Try concentrating on the broom! Remember focus! Determination!"

Rarity nodded, and began to put all of her concentration into... "Isn't something supposed to happen Twilight?"

"You sure you ready to give up already Rarity? Your horn hasn't even lighted up yet!" Twilight said, with a reassuring smile.

"Lighting up. You mean like Lily?" Rarity said, breaking out into the giggles. "Sometimes I just get the giggles!" She said, remembering something funny from seemingly forever ago.

Twilight stared at Cheerilee, who motioned back, shaking her head, apparently answering that question would take a longer explanation. "Similar, but different." Twilight said, dodging the question. "Here, maybe let's try something different." She said, looking at the wand, idea's popping into her head.

"Are you sure this is safe Twilight?" Cheerilee asked, with apprehension, getting an uneasy idea what Twilight was thinking.

"Yeah. Don't worry." Twilight said into the purple unicorn's eyes with conviction. "I think I know what I'm doing." Twilight said, smiling reassuringly at Rarity's mentor.

"Ok Rarity! Let's try out something new!" Twilight said with a pleasant smile. "The wand draws magic out of its user and directs it... Maybe I can..." Twilight thought to herself, the plan beginning to come together.

"Ok!" Rarity said, with a smile. "That sounds like fun!" Rarity said, at the thought of 'something new'.

Twilight looked at the wand, and grabbed some tape, that spike had carelessly left out in the open -- she would have to talk to him later about that; but for now she was thankful he left it out.

"That tickles!" The young alicorn in the room said, filled with the giggles. "But Cheerilee said I shouldn't use the wand until I've learned the princess twist." She said, with apprehension.

"Well then. Go ahead and try the twist for me!" Twilight said with a smile. "Why don't you show it to me then!"

"Ok!" Rarity said, waving the wand in the strange and mysterious motions of the infamous ritual. First in figure eights, then finally circles before pointing the wand (currently duct-taped to her horn) into the air.

Cheerilee just frowned. "I couldn't teach it to her without nearly ending all rainbows for a year!" She thought, remembering something long forgotten. "And Twilight teaches it to her in an afternoon!." She thought to herself, with a frown. "What good am I at all?"

Meanwhile across town.

It had been a bad year for Suri "Buttonbelle" Polomare. First, 'her' best line ever had been resoundingly undressed by "hotel chic", and then her assistant had abandoned her -- leaving her all alone, and without even a trophy to show for it. From there her career had circled the tanks. Apparently ponies were now more interested in her assistant then her. And, on top of it all, nopony worth talking to wanted to give her the time of day calling her a "petty thief" and a "fraud". She had even been forced to return to a hick town like Ponyville, and take a demeaning job selling insurance

But not to worry. She just needed a little capital to kick start her business again, maybe, with some sweet talking and a sob story, she could "borrow" some more fabric from Rarity; she considered that idea with a luxurious smile.

Ok, first pony on the list: "Rich, Filthy." Great! She'd rob him blind! Then she'd have enough money to buy the Carousel Boutique, or maybe she could just retire stinking rich.

Ringing the doorbell, she expected one of the hired help to answer, but instead the stallion himself did. "Excellent!" She thought to herself, rubbing her hooves together mischievously. "This must be an off day for him! Why else would he answer himself?" She had to hit while the iron was hot. "Why hello Mr. Rich! My name is Suri Polomare!"

"Why hello Suri! I remember you from my wife's sowing circle." Filthy said, with a pleasant smile that quickly dissipated upon the mentioning of his wife.

"Why yes, I believe I did!" Suri responded. "How is the dear?" She asked, hoping that his earlier response would be doubled.

"She left us a few years back. Poor Diamond never really recovered." He frowned. "And has become a little bit of a troubled foal." He said, looking like he was racked with guilt.

"Why that's horrible." Suri said, crying crocodile tears. "Then it's good I dropped by! You see I'm with Flim-Flam insurance! And as you can see you never know what's ahead! And that is why --"

Rich's face dropped like a stone, and he looked like he was about to throw her off his property personally. "Look dear, I understand what you're trying to do and I don't need insurance!" He fumed. "I know you need to eat, but I don't need that junk. Almost nothing ever--"

Out of nowhere, a white and diamond coated monstrosity came flying out of the sky, and landed right on Suri, before traveling on towards the library.

"Was it just me or was that carriage driven by two ducks? Weird!" He said, looking at the carriage pass by. "How did they even move it, their feet don't even touch the ground!" He said, looking confused. "Maybe you have a point dear! You never do know what kind of horrors await us! Suri? Suri?" He asked the former fashion champion, now KOed on the ground (Don't worry, she was back to her normal horrible self -- to quote Willy Wonka -- in time for lunch.)

Meanwhile back at the library..

"Good! So that's what a 'crystal carriage' looks like!" Twilight said, with a half-hearted smile, as the carriage drove up, and through a wall. "Now Rarity? Did you feel something in your horn when you did the princess twirl?"

"Sure did!" Rarity said, enthusiastically. "It made me want to giggle!"

"Ok!" Twilight said, so can you try to make your horn feel the same way?"

"I can try!" Rarity said, concentrating on her horn. Which, after a few minutes of trying slowly started to glow a light pink aura (but not before burning out a couple of times first.)

"Great!" Twilight said. "Now try to hold that feeling for a couple minutes. Then I'll show you something... fun... you can do with your magic!"

"Cheerilee, would you or Sweetie like to try again?" Twilight asked, looking to the two unicorns in the room.

"Nah! Let Cheerilee try first." Sweetie said, messaging her head. "I'm still a little dizzy from earlier." She said, her pupils being on opposite sides of her eyes, giving her a very odd -- muffin loving pegasus like -- expression.

Twilight blushed. "Sorry about that Sweetie, sometimes I get a little eager." She said, with a smile, putting a reassuring hoof on the filly's shoulder.

"Ok Cheerilee, try concentrating." Twilight said, to the adult unicorn. "Remember unicorn magic is brought out by concentration and dedication! You need to visualize what you want!"

"But Twilight, I don't know how to cast unicorn magic without a wand, except when under the Crystal Dome, and only after the fourth shooting star!" Cheerilee rebuffed, feeling unsure of herself.

"Maybe, or maybe you have it in you! See Rarity and I can use our horns just fine, and the first rainbow of the season isn't for another three or four months!" Twilight said, levitating an object over to Cheerilee to demonstrate.

Cheerilee stood there befuddled.

"Yeah, I've been studying the books you brought with you." Twilight said, holding a book Rarity had managed to bring with her when Rarity cast the teleportation spell the first time. "And I've learned a lot about your customs in Unicornia, and your job Cheerilee."

Cheerilee just frowned. Could Twilight have already learned as much about the job of Crystal Rainbow Princess as her? What was she needed for?

Twilight's countenance dropped. "Oh Cheerilee, cheer up! I didn't mean to upset you! You should be proud of the work you've done!" She put on a reassuring smile. "Just give it a try! Concentrate, and imagine that the object in front of you is moving! Concentrate your magic through your horn!"

Cheerilee stood for a few minutes, motionless, before just frowning.

"Let's try the same trick that worked on Rarity!" Twilight said with a smile, watching Rarity amuse herself by causing her horn to spark on demand.

Taping the wand to the mentor's fully grown horn was a lot easier then the young filly's undeveloped horn. And after a couple of minutes she smiled. "Ok! Do the princess twirl!"

Cheerilee nodded, attempting to smile. She started to do the odd motions of the ritual, tapping the wand against a table to abort the spell at the end.

"Interesting!" Twilight said, smiling. "That's very interesting. Now did you feel something in your horn?"

"Not really!" Cheerilee frowned. "Let me try again though."

Cheerilee changed her stance, and furled her brow. After a few minutes, it looked like she was going to have an aneurysm, before she frowned, and just started walking away.

"Come on Cheerilee! You can do it!" Rarity said, smiling at her mentor. "Just concentrate, just let your magic flow!" She said, getting more and more eager. Her horn started to change its glow color from pink to white. "You can do it Cheerilee! You just have to!" She said, before freezing, unable to control the terrifying beam of white magic, that was being emitted from her horn.

"Girls stay behind me!" Twilight cautioned, as she ripped all three crusaders from their corners of the room, placing them behind her. "Let's hope this works!" She said, her own horn glowing. After a few minutes, the dust started clearing.

"Good thing! That was a dud huh Twi'!" Apple Bloom said, with a smile.

"Actually." Twilight said, blushing. "It wasn't a dud."

"So you blocked it with one of your radical shield spells then!?" Scootaloo asked, getting eager. Making an explosion noise.

Twilight shook her head no. "I didn't block it with a shield either."

Sweetie just frowned contemplatively. "If it wasn't a dud, and you didn't block Then what happened to it then?" Sweetie Belle asked, starting to feel anxious.

"It was too powerful to block so I simply sent it somewhere else. Doing so took a heck of a lot of magic though." She said, looking away. "I'll be ok though! It's a good thing alicorns have so much magic to work with!"

"Sorry Twilight!" Rarity said. "I don't know what happened, I just wanted to cheer Cheerilee up!" She said, frowning slightly.

"No worries Rarity!" Twilight said, with an honest smile. "I'm here to teach you, and it proves that your alicorn magic is still working. We just need to learn how to use and control your natural unicorn magic first, then we can try controlling the strong stuff!" Twilight said, encouraging the filly to keep going.

"Why did her horn go all wonky like that then?" Sweetie Belle asked, worried it would happen again.

"It's her alicorn magic, it reacts to emotions, and is extremely strong!" Twilight said, her smiling remaining. "Sometimes, even I have trouble controlling it. And it doesn't help that I'm not 100% sure what her connection is yet." Twilight said, blushing. "Celestia speculates that all of us alicorns represent and control a primal force of Equestria."

"Sorry about that Cheerilee!" Rarity said, with a frown. "Cheerilee?" She asked looking around. Where had her mentor gone?

********

What happened to that burst of white magic? Well let me give you a hint!

The other Rainbow Dash fluttered her eyes. That must have been some party Pinkie had thrown. The last thing she remembered was eating one of her pastries. Oh that's right! It had been laced with something, and then Pinkie had hit with a frying pan!

Ok no problemo all she had to do was... Loosen the ropes that tied her to this blasted slab... Ok! This was not going to be a good day!

Walking in from upstairs, not Pinkie gazed on with a sadistic smile, and empty eyes. "I'm just missing a few pieces for my new wardrobe." She said, her ear twitching. "Maybe you'd like to donate!" She said, taking out a scalpel. "It'll be fun!" She said, her voice almost turning demonic.

"Ummm.... Pinkie, maybe I should go! You know practice and all that!" Rainbow said nervously, trying fruitlessly to struggle out of something. She looked around nervously! She needed a distraction, or it was about to get very, very painful! "Hey Pinkie! Did you hear that? The cakes must be back! So I'd better be on my way, so if you'll just LET ME GO!" She shrieked, hoping Pinkie's usual brand of stupidity would take over.

However, not Pinkie, was not impressed. "And end this fun party?" She asked, walking to the center of the basement and turning away from the Rainbow color pony to grab something sharp, and probably quite painful.

Rainbow looked on, sadly. Was this the end of the cool? Was this the end of Rainbow Dash? She asked herself, starting to hear a loud whining sound from somewhere. "Hey Pinkie what's that sound?" She asked, once again hoping for a miracle.

Pinkie just smiled, turning back to the rainbow pony, trotting closer and closer, before raising her scalpel and then...

She was gone! In a flash of white light, replaced by a crater, sitting at the bottom of a hole that extended all the way through Sugar Cube Corner.

"So..." Rainbow said, talking to the crater, trying to check her watch (it's tough to check your watch when you're tied to a slab!) "How much longer before the cakes return?" She asked herself, with a frown. "I hope it's a short delivery!" She said, with a sigh. "Maybe I could start shouting? Yeah, but that would make me sound like a dweeb!" She sighed to herself.

Now back to the story!

********

"It's best, if I leave." Said Cheerilee to herself, sobbing violently. "She's better off with Princess Twilight, then with me. Twilight will teach her how to use her new magic, and will keep her safe -- all I would do would be to hold her back." She said, leaving the library behind.

"Going somewhere?" Asked a cerulean pegasus, with a very long rainbow mane, and a pair of oversized rainbow wings."

"I'm sorry, ..." Cheerilee asked the strange hornless, winged, unicorn.

"Rainbow Dash!" The pegasus responded back, looking very agitated.

"But I should be leaving." Said, Cheerilee, trying to get away before anyone noticed she was missing.

"Yeah... Not going to happen!" Said a cheesed Rainbow Dash. "I have no idea what this is about, but it seems my rainbow powers are acting up today, and apparently they want somepony to speak with you!" She said, taking a fighting pose. "So, seeing as it's a loyalty issue. I feel obliged to do what they ask!"

"Well, tell them I'm terribly sorry, but I really should be going and..." Cheerilee started, trying to hurry past the colorful pegasus (feeling extra colorful at that moment.)

"Darling! Since when did the Cheerilee we all know, and love become a coward?" Asked Rainbow Dash, her voice suddenly changing. "Didn't you promise her you would be there for her? Didn't you promise her you would protect her? Or were you just lying to her, darling?" Asked Rainbow Dash?

"R... Rainbow...?" The purple unicorn said, shaking violently. But Rainbow is still in the hospital. Who's this pony who's talking to her?

"Shush... I'm speaking, darling!" Said Dash, not speaking for herself. "The, darling child needs you, and you are just going to walk away? You should be ashamed of yourself!"

"I'm the reason our world ended in the first place! I remember it from the nightmare that assassin showed me! She would be much safer without me!"

"Pishaw, darling, are you listening to yourself? You sound daft!" Cheerilee's Rainbow said, through the other pony. "And, I believe, she met her end separately of you, despite your noble sacrifice. Wouldn't she prefer it if you met it together?"

"But she has Twilight now, she's a true princess! And she can teach her to use her magic. And I can't!"

"And didn't you teach her the Princess Twirl? Just in time to get the first rainbow of the season out -- despite her running away? And you think that a princess, no matter how regal can replace you, darling?"

"Maybe not..." Said Cheerilee, looking down. "But it'll be better for her! And she'll..."

"Hate you for it for as long as she lives! I'm certain of this, darling!" The other pony proclaimed. "Have you considered what would happen to her, if she were still just a regular unicorn, darling?"

"I don't know..." Cheerilee said, thinking for a second. "They'd give her a place to live?"

"No Darling, she'd be adopted, probably by someone far away from Ponyville -- either one! Certainly far away from Unicornia!"

"But that'll be fine right?" Cheerilee said, still steeped in self doubt.

"Hard to say, darling. I certainly know who'd she'd prefer. Maybe I can adopt her to keep her here in Ponyville." Rainbow said, for the other voice. "Hey! Don't speak for me!" Rainbow said, for herself, chastising the voice. "Oh you'd love her, darling. You're both firebrands, and you've been looking to adopt -- 'the squirt', I think." Said the voice arguing with the one speaking for it. "Hey! That's my secret! Don't go spilling it to her! It's supposed to be a surprise for the Squirt! You know for her birthday or something!"

"I suppose, she's right." Rainbow said, making a point. "I bet I'd know who she'd prefer be her mother." The other Rainbow resumed. "Maybe someone that already thinks of her as a daughter?" She said, pointing her words at Cheerilee. "And do you know what she's doing right now, darling?" The voice asked, inquisitively. "Let me show you." The voice said, levitating Dash, and the purple unicorn up to a window.

As they approached, they heard sobbing. "Cheerilee, you going to leave me again? Did I mess up again, just like back at the Princess Festival? Did the darkness take you away again?" She said, as she began to sing a strange song about from the unicorn.

"I'm lost,... Nowhere,... It hurts.." The new alicorn sang to herself, as if expecting someone to join in.

"To know, We're so apart!" Cheerilee responded, speaking to herself. "That song..." Said Cheerilee, remembering something long forgotten. "I remember that song..."

"As do we all, darling." Not Rainbow said. "Do you think I could sleep through her singing it?" Not Rainbow said, looking at Cheerilee with rebuke in her eyes. "Do you want to know the Cheerilee I remember, darling?" Not Dash said, using Dash's mouth.

"The darling that went all the way down a dangerous mountain, in the middle of the night; and slept on pine needles and rocks!" Not Dash continued. "She went outside, and helped her young ward, and friend with her case of 'the giggles', even though she preferred to be inside planning for the night's festivities."

Cheerilee began to cry, she remembered all this, and yet she wasn't sure why. And even other memories came seeping back, born from parts of her memory long gone.

"Ahh yes, darling, you do remember!" Not Rainbow said, with a smile. "Now I guess, by the looks of things, my time is up. But Darling, you've been given a second chance, and I want you to think about what you are going to do with it?" She said, looking serious. "Are you going to run away, afraid of how things ended, or are you going to make things as good as they were, and better, then in the good old days?" She said, Dash's transformation slowly wearing off.

"So Cheerilee, apparently whoever it is had a mouthful for you. So you going to do the right thing, or are you going to run away again?" Rainbow asked, deciding to keep pressing her not selves questions.

********

"I'll be good I swear!" Rarity said, sitting on the floor sobbing. "It's just like my dreams! Except this time she just walked away!"

"What makes you think that?" Twilight said, reassuringly. "She just probably walked out for a minute." She said, looking into the small alicorn's eyes. "She'll be right back! I'm sure of it!"

"You are?" Rarity said, looking up, a faint smile on her face.

"See!" Twilight said, with a smile, as the door started to rattle. "I knew she'd be right back!" She said, trying to hide any uncertainty that she, herself, had.

A familiar purple unicorn, slowly walked through the doorway; looking very apologetic.

Rarity just looked up, tears still flowing. "Where'd you go? I was so worried!" She said, rushing up for a hug from her mentor.

"Sorry about that Rarity." Cheerilee said, with an apologetic smile. "I just had to go out and think a few things through." She said, looking down towards the floor. "Say, how would you feel if we made our mentoring relationship into something a little more long term?"

"What do you mean?" The ADHD alicorn asked.

"Well! I was thinking: since we can't find your mother. How would you feel if I became more than just your mentor? Of course, we would need some help from the princess over here -- if she wouldn't mind." Cheerilee asked with a smile. "We want to make it official after all!"

********

Solanaceae cowered. It would not be, at all, easy to explain what happened to the changeling monarch. That the second best, if not the best, assassin in the hive just got taken out by a unicorn, barely more than a foal. And worse still, not just the lady, but princess Larva, and even princess Amaryllis just slipped through his hooves.

The changeling monarch still sat at their thrown. The room remained dark, except for the line of torches that led up to the throne. A large light, resembling a sun sat above the throne, illuminating the throne.

"Explain something to me Solanaceae: how is it, that I am not just missing an assassin, but that the lady and that traitor Amaryllis still live?" The older changeling hissed.

"I apologize, your majesty --" The young changeling started, quaking violently.

"And, did we not have a plan for Amaryllis to be, finally, removed from my hair? Was not the spell supposed to finish her?" The monarch stated, with dissatisfaction. "And yet she lives! Not just through it, but also despite the valiant efforts of my second best assassin!"

"There were... complications... Amaryllis' ascension we expected, but we didn't expect a nascent alicorn to be present." Solanaceae stammered. "Certainly not that a hyperactive pink foal was one!"

"This sounds like excuses!! You know how I feel about excuses!!! 'Nascent alicorn'... I don't care if the child was Celestia herself! How could my assassin easily stop Celestia's prized pupil only to be defeated by a worthless foal?" The changeling at the throne hissed. "Maybe the problem wasn't the foal, or my assassin but you Solanaceae! You think I've forgotten how you were trained by the lady, before her leave of the hive! But, sadly for you, I have not!"

"I apologize, your majesty. I have utilized all of my resources to find the lady and her spawn! They will not last long!"

"For your sake, I would hope so! Otherwise I will find somepony who can! My plans are in motion, and my failed hunt for the lady has uncovered some objects that reek of Discord." The changeling lord hissed, starting to smile. "This will allow me to consolidate my hold over the hive, and perhaps Equestria as well! And you had best hope you are on the right side when that happens."

"Of course your majesty! I will do anything it takes to h--" The young assassin started.

"You'd better! apparently not just anypony can use these objects. Therefore I must find, and enlist, those who can! Let us hope that you can find those ponies that can wield these artifacts, before my agents find them all, or you are finished Solanaceae!" The changeling lord said, waving their hand. "Be gone with you!"

"Things just got more difficult! I have not just a lady and two princess to depose! But I also need to locate ponies who's inner magic will resonate with Discord's! And worse still I have to convince them to join our cause!" Solanaceae sighed. He was finished!